This article explores the crises and debates surrounding the management of imperial family matters, especially succession, under the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) as an approach to understanding the limits of imperial power and the nature of literati discourse on the imperium. Ming officials and members of the literati community became passionately engaged in the debates on imperial family decisions, regarding the moral order of the imperial family as a key feature of their prerogatives over imperial power. This prerogative was based upon claims to Neo-Confucian moral authority. Over the course of the dynasty, these claims grew increasingly widespread and increasingly vociferous.
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