Cui clan of Qinghe

{{Short description|Chinese aristocratic family}}

The Cui clan of Qinghe ({{zh|c=清河崔氏}}){{Cite book|title=Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader|url=https://archive.org/details/tangdynastytales00nien|url-access=limited|last=Nienhauser|first=William H|publisher=World Scientific|year=2010|isbn=9789814287289|pages=[https://archive.org/details/tangdynastytales00nien/page/n104 78]}}{{Cite book|title=Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol.I): A Reference Guide, Part One|last=Knechtges|first=David R|publisher=BRILL|year=2010|isbn=9789004191273|pages=167}}{{cite book|first=Richard D.|last=McBride|title=Domesticating the Dharma: Buddhist Cults and the Hwaŏm Synthesis in Silla Korea|url=https://archive.org/details/domesticatingdha00dric|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-3087-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/domesticatingdha00dric/page/n202 188]}} was an eminent Chinese family of high-ranking government officials and Confucian scholars. The clan's ancestral home was in Qinghe Commandery, which covered parts of present-day Shandong and Hebei provinces.

The Cui clans of Boling and Qinghe both traced their ancestry to a common ancestor, Cui Ming, an official who lived in the Spring and Autumn period.{{cite book |last=Milburn |first=Olivia |title=The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan |date=21 December 2015 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-30966-1 |page=91}}

The first notable member of this clan, according to the New Book of Tang, was Cui Ye (崔業), who held the peerage of Marquis of Donglai (東萊候) during the Han dynasty.Xin Tang Shu vol. 72.

Cui Lin, a high-ranking official of the Cao Wei state during the Three Kingdoms period, was from the Cui family of Qinghe,{{cite book|last=de Crespigny|first=Rafe|author-link=Rafe de Crespigny|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD)|date=28 December 2006|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-474-1184-0|page=100}} as was his relative Cui Yan, a notable official who served in the administration of the Grand Chancellor Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty.{{cite book|first1=Guanzhong|last1= Luo|author-link1=Luo Guanzhong|translator=Roberts, Moss|title=San Guo Yan Yi|year=1994|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22478-0|page=254}} Cui Yan's niece, Lady Cui, married Cao Zhi, a famous poet and prince of the Cao Wei state. Another member of the clan married Liu Kun, a general and poet of the Jin dynasty.{{cite book|last1=Chang|first1=Kang-i Sun|last2=Owen|first2=Stephen|title=The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85558-7|page=195}}

The Liu clan of Zhongshan, the Lu clan of Luyang and the Cui clan of Qinghe formed a network.{{cite book|title=Chinese Literature, Essays, Articles, Reviews|year=2006|publisher=Coda Press|page=43}}

The Cui clan of Qinghe expanded its power over many official positions in the Northern Wei dynasty through political marriages, and became one of the four main clans of Northern China at the time.Zhenguan Zhengyao (貞觀政要) vol. 7. Cui Hao's family, a cadet branch of the Cui clan of Qinghe, was exterminated during the Northern Wei, but other branches of the clan survived.{{cite book|first1=David R.|last1=Knechtges|first2=Taiping|last2=Chang|title=Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. I): A Reference Guide, Part One|date=10 September 2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-19127-3|page=167}}

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Cui clan of Qinghe was able to maintain its prosperity by producing a total of 12 statesmen from various branches who served as grand chancellors in the imperial government. Among them was Cui Qun. Around the time of the Sui dynasty, Lady Cui, a daughter of Cui Biao, married a son of Yang Su.{{cite book |last=Ebrey |first=Patricia |url=https://archive.org/details/womenfamilychine00ebre_324 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |date=2 September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-44293-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/womenfamilychine00ebre_324/page/n75 65] |url-access=limited}}

During the Tang dynasty, the Li clan of Zhao Commandery (趙郡李氏), the Cui clan of Boling, the Cui clan of Qinghe, the Lu clan of Fanyang, the Zheng clan of Xingyang (滎陽鄭氏), the Wang clan of Taiyuan (太原王氏) and the Li clan of Longxi (隴西李氏) were seven families who were legally banned from intermarriages.{{citation|title=The Transformation of Medieval Chinese Elites (850-1000 C.E.)|first=Nicolas Olivier|last=Tackett|year=2006|url=http://history.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/slides/Dissertation.pdf|page=67|access-date=2016-06-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304220551/http://history.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/slides/Dissertation.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|first=William H.|last=Nienhauser|title=Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader|url=https://archive.org/details/tangdynastytales00nien|url-access=limited|year=2010|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-4287-28-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/tangdynastytales00nien/page/n104 78]}} It is known that the Cui clan of Qinghe intermarried with the Ming clan of Ge County.{{cite book|first=Timothy M.|last=Davis|title=Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture in Early Medieval China: A Brief History of Early Muzhiming|date=16 November 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-30642-4|page=57}}

The Cui clan of Qinghe lost their political privilege by the end of the Tang dynasty and dissolved into different social classes.