There are questions as to why, as a main character, "The Tale of Genji" set the Genji clan, which was once made to have fallen from power by the Fujiwara clan in the Anna no Hen Conspiracy (after the reign of Emperor Suzaku there was no empress from the Genji clan but always from the Norther House of the Fujiwara clan, during the height of the Fujiwara clan (the author Murasaki Shikibu was also of the Fujiwara clan, and the commentary of "Japanese Various Families' Trees" says 'A court lady Murasaki Shikibu,... mistress of Michinaga,'), why Genji won the romance and why it described Genji's succession to the Imperial Throne (including the question of why, in all the dynasty tales, the Genji clan always wins (for example, Sagoromo Chujo in "The Tale of Sagoromo").
『源氏物語』は、なぜ藤原氏全盛の時代（作者の紫式部も藤原氏で、その上『尊卑分脈』注に「紫式部是也（中略）御堂関白道長妾」とあるなど藤原道長の愛人とされる）に、かつて藤原一族が安和の変で失脚させた源氏（朱雀天皇以降、皇后に源氏がなったことはなく、常に藤原北家からの皇后である）を主人公にし、源氏が恋愛に常に勝ち、源氏の帝位継承をテーマとして描いた（王朝物語の全てが源氏が勝利する（例えば『狭衣物語』の狭衣中将）ことを含む）のか。