However, the dynasty in any european state can change freely. In Eastern Asia it cannot. Ming will only remain Ming as long as Zhu are ruling.My point is that due to cadet branches do not change family name, a royal family naturally becomes huge enough that most of the members become virtually random peasants, but somehow still retains some legitimacy of claiming the throne.
Liu Bei in late Han dynasty is such an example.
On the other hand, if you see cadet branches as part of the original royal families, then most of European royal families do not die out either... even if Europeans didn't have harems.
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