This dissertation investigates the imperial court during the Western Han dynasty, the first period of sustained, unified rule in imperial China. It asks the following questions: What was the court? How was it conceived? How did these conceptions of the court change over the two centuries of the Western Han? As in many European languages, the word for "court" in classical Chinese, chao 朝, could refer equally to a space, a ritual action, or a group of people. The dissertation investigates changes in these three meanings of the word in order to answer the above questions. In the process, it shows that key changes in Western Han political culture were rooted in the transformation of the imperial court, which grew significantly in size, population, and wealth over the course of the dynasty. Participants in court life and political began to fashion their own definitions of court institutions, articulating new ideals about courtly status and life at court and fashioning new conventions in administrative and literary writing. This capacity of the imperial court to absorb more people and afford them a personal interest in the court ultimately contributed to the longevity of the dynasty. The dissertation thus argues that the imperial court was just as much a product of courtier writings and political struggles as it was a tool for the exertion of centralized political power.

In making this argument, the dissertation emphasizes that almost all of our extant received sources from the Western Han period, particularly the Shiji and Hanshu, were produced at the imperial court. It highlights the problems of culling these court sources in order to outline institutions of power and court social groups. As an alternative approach, the dissertation instead emphasizes critical readings of these same sources in order to understand how members of the court during the Western Han characterized and understood the world that they inhabited. In doing so, it draws connections between studies of court culture and literature on the one hand and court institutions and political power on the other.