Social Network of Elites During the Han Dynasty

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Social Network of Elites During the Han Dynasty

Authors:

Yunxin Li

Formats

csv, tsv

Nodes

1187

Edges

1441

Years

-202–220

Access:

Added:

2025-12-02

Social Network of Elites During the Han Dynasty

"Social networks were heavily intertwined with elites’ social status and political power throughout the Han dynasty. This article introduces the Han Elites’ Social Network Dataset, an open-access dataset that the author collected primarily through…

Construction

“Records of marriages in Shi ji, Han shu, and Hou Han shu are focused on the upper elite, especially members of the imperial lineage and consort families. As a result, the imperial lineage has the highest number of connections with other families and plays a central role in the structure of this marriage network.”

“My analysis of the teacher-disciple networks during the Han is based on a close reading of ‘The Biographies of Ru Scholars’ in Shi ji, Han shu, Hou Han shu; the early Tang scholar Lu Deming’s Jing dian shi wen… and the ‘Treatise of Literature’ in Sui shu… I identified 325 scholars and 329 pairs of teacher–disciple relationships from these sources.”

“Because the Western Han scholarly lineages are more completely recorded in the sources and Western Han scholars mostly specialized in only one classic, the schools of the Western Han are much better represented in the graph than those of the Eastern Han. This does not mean these classics were less studied in the Eastern Han… the names of most Eastern Han scholars are not recorded in the sources and thus not visualized in the graph.”

“Whether Han sources refer to the relationship between two individuals as ‘was friends with,’ ‘was on good terms with,’ ‘wandered with,’ or ‘colluded with,’ it can be interpreted as friendship… I do not intend to probe into the essence of these relationships. Instead, the connection… only indicates that these two individuals were considered as in a close relationship by contemporary observers and that this relationship is distinguishable from other types of relationships in this study.”

“It is difficult and unnecessary to visualize the patronage network between the patrons and their ke, given that the number of clients that a patron had is unclear, not to mention that most of the clients’ names are not recorded in historical texts.”

Sources

Wei, Zheng 魏徵, et al. (Punctuated and collated by the Zhong hua shu ju editorial team.)

(1973). Sui shu 隋書. Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju. (Original work published ca. 656 C.E.)

Source Types

archival

•

publication

Cai, Liang. (2014). Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire. State University of

New York Press.

Source Types

publication

Li, Yunxin, 2023, "Han Elites' Social Network Dataset", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/V9CIJ5, Harvard Dataverse, V4, UNF:6:Bwj9vEMy+Ip3nGphwvq6qg== [fileUNF]

Source Types

dataset

Cai, Liang. (2019). ―Ru Scholars, Social Networks, and Bureaucracy: Donghai 東海 Men and

Models for Success in Western Han China (206 b.c.e.-9 c.e.).‖ Early China, 237-271.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2019.8

Source Types

publication

Liu, Z. 劉增貴. (1980). Han dai hun yin zhi du 漢代婚姻制度. Taipei: hua shi chu ban she.

Source Types

publication

Ban, Gu 班固. Han shu 漢書 (punctuated and collated by the Zhong hua shu ju editorial team.)

(1962). Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju. (Original work published ca. 54-80 C.E.)

Source Types

ancient_archive

•

publication

Chen, Suzhen 陳蘇鎮. ―Lun dong han wai qi zheng zhi‖ 論東漢外戚政治 (2013). In Chen

Suzhen, Liang han wei jin nan bei chao shi tan you 兩漢魏晉南北朝史探幽 (pp.73-110).

Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2013.

Source Types

publication

Ebrey, Patricia. (1983). Patron Client Relations in the Later Han. Journal of the American

Oriental Society, 103(3), 533-542. https://doi.org/10.2307/602034

Source Types

publication

Fan, Ye 范曄. Hou han shu 後漢書 (punctuated and collated by the Zhong hua shu ju editorial

team.) (1965). Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju. (Original work published ca. 424-445 C.E.)

Source Types

ancient_archive

•

publication

Lewis, Mark Edward (2021). Honor and Shame in Early China. Cambridge University Press.

Source Types

publication

Liu, Zenggui 劉增貴. (1980). Han dai hun yin zhi du 漢代婚姻制度. Taipei: hua shi chu ban

she.

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publication

Masubuchi, Tatsuo 増淵龍夫. (1960.) Chūgoku kodai no shakai to kokka: Shin Kan teikoku

seiritsu katei no shakaishiteki kenkyū 中国古代の社会と国家: 秦漢帝国成立過程の社

会史的研究. Tōkyō: Kōbundō.

Source Types

publication

Sima, Qian 司馬遷 (Punctuated and collated by the Zhong hua shu ju editorial team.) (1982). Shi

ji 史記. Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju, 1982. (Original work published ca. 91 B.C.E.)

Source Types

ancient_archive

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publication

Wang, Xianshen 王先慎. (Punctuated and collated by Zhong, Zhe 鍾哲.) (1998). Han Fei zi ji jie

韓非子集解. Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju. (Original work published 1896 C.E.)

Source Types

ancient_archive

•

publication

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