北魏公主稱姓考

An Investigation into the Appellations of Princesses in Northern Wei Dynasty

While Princesses (Gong Zhu) in Early Medieval China were always named after their fiefs, some of them were called by their surnames. This periodical phenomenon is examined in this article based on the information recorded in extant materials and unearthed epitaphs. Furthermore, the cultural implications of the appellations of Princesses in Northern Wei are discussed in the article. It appears that calling Princesses by their husbands' surnames was a social convention which had been influenced by the concept of Confucianism in that time, which indicated that women should be seen as one component of their husbands' families rather than their natal ones. The understanding of this phenomenon is critical to identifying key contents in the epitaphs, and evaluating the social status of women in the period of time.