In the Great Ming Dynasty, there were two categories of nobility. The first comprised titles for the Imperial clan, including Prince of the First Rank, Prince of the Second Rank, General Who Guards the State, General Who Assists the State, General Who Upholds the State, and various middle-ranking officers of the state. The second category consisted of titles for meritorious officials and imperial relatives. At the beginning of the Great Ming, five ranks of nobility were established for these subjects, but later, the ranks of Viscount and Baron were abolished, leaving only Duke, Marquis, and Earl.
Titles for meritorious officials and relatives also came in two forms: those that could be inherited (supported by an hereditary certificate) and those that could not. Most meritorious titles were hereditary, while those granted to imperial relatives generally were not. Hereditary status depended on the scale of one’s military achievements, and such titles could only be passed down to able-bodied heirs; they could not be inherited by those with physical disabilities. Imperial relatives eligible for titles included the Emperor's sons-in-law, as well as the fathers and brothers of the Empress, the Empress Dowager, and the Grand Empress Dowager. Additionally, descendants of the Duke Yansheng were also entitled to receive nobility.
Emperor Chongzhen truly intended to grant a title to Qin Liangyu, so when Wang Jiayan, the Senior Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, put forward the sugg…
Chapter 599