The Cui clan of Qinghe[1][2] (清河崔氏[3]) was an eminent Chinese family of high-ranking government officials and Confucian scholars. The clan's ancestral home was in Qinghe Commandery (清河郡), which covered parts of present-day Shandong and Hebei provinces.
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.[4]
The Liu clan of Zhongshan, Lu clan of Luyang and Cui family of Qinghe formed a network.[9] The Cui clan expanded its power over many official positions during the Northern Wei dynasty through political marriages, and became one of the four clans of northern China at the time.[10]Cui Hao was also from the Cui clan of Qinghe.[11] Cui Hao's family, a cadet branch of the Cui clan of Qinghe, was exterminated during the Northern Wei dynasty but the other branches of the Cui clan of Qinghe survived.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Cui clan of Qinghe was able to maintain its prosperity by producing a total of 12 statesmen who served as chancellors in the imperial government. Among the 12 chancellors, five were from the southern branch, two were from the elder branch, two were from the junior branch, and the remaining three each came from the Xuzhou Yanling, Qingzhou and Zhengzhou branches. The Cui family lost their political privilege by the end of the Tang dynasty[12] and dissolved into different social classes. Cui Qun was a member of this family.
^Knechtges, David R.; Chang, Taiping (10 September 2010). Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. I): A Reference Guide, Part One. BRILL. p. 167. ISBN978-90-04-19127-3.
^Davis, Timothy M. (16 November 2015). Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture in Early Medieval China: A Brief History of Early Muzhiming. BRILL. p. 57. ISBN978-90-04-30642-4.
