璿 Xuán

Xuan, Prince of Liang: his mother was a daughter of Chonggui, Prince of Gaoping, known in the palace as the Lesser Consort Wu. Xuan died in the time of Daizong. His son Le was Prince of Luyang Commandery. Edit

Jing, Prince Ai of Bian, was the youngest of the sons. When first enfeoffed he was only a few years old, with fine, clear looks and the bearing of a grown man, and the Emperor loved him. In the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan he was appointed Grand General of the Right Thousand Ox Guard. The next year he died. Edit

Under the Tang system, an imperial prince's fief was eight hundred households, raised to a thousand; a princess's three hundred, and a senior princess's no more than six hundred. In the time of Gaozong, the three Princes of Pei, Ying and Yu and the Taiping Princess, being born of Empress Wu, were the first to have households beyond the rule, and in the Chuigong years the Taiping Princess reached twelve hundred households. At the start of Shengli the Prince of Xiang and the Taiping Princess each had three thousand, and the five princes of Shouchun and the others three hundred each. At the start of Shenlong the Prince of Xiang and the Taiping Princess reached five thousand, the Prince of Wei three thousand, the Prince of Wen two thousand, the Prince of Shouchun and the others seven hundred each, the Prince of Yong by Succession and the Princes of Hengyang, Linzi, Baling and Zhongshan five hundred, the Anle Princess two thousand, the Changning Princess fifteen hundred, the Xuancheng, Yicheng and Xuan'an Princesses a thousand each, and the daughters of the Prince of Xiang, as County Princesses, three hundred each. The Prince of Xiang was then raised to seven thousand, the Anle Princess to three thousand, the Changning Princess to twenty-five hundred, and the Yicheng Princess and those below her to two thousand. For the Prince of Xiang, the Taiping Princess, the Changning Princess and the Anle Princess, each household was reckoned at seven adult males; their revenue was not remitted even in flood or drought, and was made up in full from the state's land tax and labor tax. By Zhongzong's testamentary edict, the Prince of Yong and the Prince of Shouchun were raised to imperial princes with a thousand households. From Kaiyuan on, the Emperor was warmly devoted to his brothers, so the Prince of Ning's fief reached fifty-five hundred households, those of the Princes of Qi and Xue five thousand, and that of the Prince of Shen, because his mother's family was humble, four thousand; the Prince of Bin had eighteen hundred, the Emperor's sisters a thousand each, and Zhongzong's daughters the same, each household now reckoned at three adult males. When the Emperor's sons were made princes, they had two thousand households, and princesses five hundred. The Xianyi Princess, for the sake of her mother the Gracious Consort, was given as many as a thousand, and from then on a thousand households became the usual limit for princesses. In the past, when Empress Wende died, the Prince of Jin was the youngest, and Taizong, pitying him, did not let him leave the inner palace. The Prince of Yu too, as Empress Wu's youngest son, did not leave the inner palace; at the start of Sisheng he took the imperial throne, and only when he was reduced to Prince of Xiang did he leave it. In the time of Zhongzong, the Prince of Qiao lost favor and was moved out to a fief, while the Prince of Wen, at seventeen, still lived in the palace, and so he was set up as Emperor. From Kaiyuan on, the young imperial sons mostly lived inside the palace, and when they grew up an edict had a great palace built against the wall of the park, where they lived in separate courtyards; it was called the "Residence of the Ten Princes". These were the Princes of Qing, Zhong, Di, E, Rong, Guang, Yi, Ying, Yong, Yan, Sheng, Ji and the others; "ten" is a round number. Eunuchs supervised them, and they went along the walled passage to pay their respects to the Emperor. The Household Provisioners brought their meals each day. Scholars of letters were brought in to teach them, and were called Readers-in-waiting. The seven Princes of Shou, Xin, Yi, Chen, Feng, Heng and Liang, after receiving their fiefs, also lived in the Ten Residences. After the Princes of E and Guang were deposed and died, the Prince of Zhong was made Heir Apparent, and the Princes of Qing and Di died one after the other, only fourteen princes, the Princes of Rong, Yi and the rest, lived in the courtyards, while the staffs of their households were placed in outer wards and sent in their names to inquire after them at the proper seasons. Later, as the grandsons grew many, a "Courtyard of the Hundred Grandsons" was set up outside the residence. Since the Emperor went every year to the Huaqing Palace, courtyards for the ten princes and the hundred grandsons were also set up beside that palace. Each courtyard had more than four hundred palace women, and the Courtyard of the Hundred Grandsons thirty or forty as well. A Weicheng Treasury was set up within the palace to pay the princes their monthly stipends. When the grandsons took consorts or married off daughters, it was done at the Residence of the Ten Princes. The Heir Apparent did not live in the Eastern Palace but in a detached courtyard wherever the Emperor was staying. For the weddings of the Heir Apparent, the imperial princes and the princesses, the curtains and furnishings were all provided at the Office of Rites in Chongren Ward. Such were the arrangements of those peaceful times. Edit