Already under Wu Ti there had been signs of a development which now appeared constantly in Chinese history.  Among the new gentry, families entered into alliances with each other, sealed their mutual allegiance by matrimonial unions, and so formed large cliques.  Each clique made it its concern to get the most important government positions into its hands, so that it should itself control the government.  Under Wu Ti, for example, almost all the important generals had belonged to a certain clique, which remained dominant under his two successors.  Two of the chief means of attaining power were for such a clique to give the emperor a girl from its ranks as wife, and to see to it that all the eunuchs around the emperor should be persons dependent on the clique.  Eunuchs came generally from the poorer classes; they were launched at court by members of the great cliques, or quite openly presented to the emperor.

The chief influence of the cliques lay, however, in the selection of officials.  It is not surprising that the officials recommended only sons of people in their own clique—­their family or its closest associates.  On top of all this, the examiners were in most cases themselves members of the same families to which the provincial officials belonged.  Thus it was made doubly certain that only those candidates who were to the liking of the dominant group among the gentry should pass.

Surrounded by these cliques, the emperors became in most cases powerless figureheads.  At times energetic rulers were able to play off various cliques against each other, and so to acquire personal power; but the weaker emperors found themselves entirely in the hands of cliques.  Not a few emperors in China were removed by cliques which they had attempted to resist; and various dynasties were brought to their end by the cliques; this was the fate of the Han dynasty.

The beginning of its fall came with the activities of the widow of the emperor Yuean Ti.  She virtually ruled in the name of her eighteen-year-old son, the emperor Ch’eng Ti (32-7 B.C.), and placed all her brothers, and also her nephew, Wang Mang, in the principal government posts.  They succeeded at first in either removing the strongest of the other cliques or bringing them into dependence.  Within the Wang family the nephew Wang Mang steadily advanced, securing direct supporters even in some branches of the imperial family; these personages declared their readiness to join him in removing the existing line of the imperial house.  When Ch’eng Ti died without issue, a young nephew of his (Ai Ti, 6-1 B.C.) was placed on the throne by Wang Mang, and during this period the power of the Wangs and their allies grew further, until all their opponents had been removed and the influence of the imperial family very greatly reduced.  When Ai Ti died, Wang Mang placed an eight-year-old boy on the throne, himself acting as regent; four years later the boy fell ill and died, probably with Wang Mang’s aid.  Wang Mang