Abstract
Chinese imperial authority selected women to serve in the inner palace since the unified Qin-Han empires. Thousands of women were regularly put into the harem to serve as potential wives and concubines of the emperor. Before the Tang dynasty when categorical hierarchy of these women was more institutionalized, a majority of them became main workforce while awaiting imperial favor. Though anonymous most of the time, they sometimes encountered politics and left visible marks in historical records in this period of famous women rulers and constant dynastic changes. Palace women constituted a big compartment in life of the imperial house but were often overlooked because the scantiness of sources. This research deals with these women in early imperial China, utilizing standard histories, official documents, encyclopedia compilations as well as archeological excavations. It first investigates the selection, duties and average life of palace women in the Han-Wei-Jin-Nanbeichao, and proceeds to examine their personal connections, including companionship among peers, relations with superiors and interactions with family members in and out of the palace. These connections either enabled their advancement or led to their destructive fate. These together with other final stories of the women will be studied both to portray the diverse outcomes of palace women and to demonstrate the use of images of palace women in historical writings.