Between Family And Country

Compared with previous generations, a prominent phenomenon in the Song Dynasty is the appearance and rapid development of the Family motto, the Free estate and the Rural convention. The author tried to observe how the scholar-officials in the Song Dynasty transform their role in state and society by analysis the Family motto, the Free estate and the Rural convention, and thus to grasp their spiritual world in profound social changes .This article is divided into four parts.The first part analysised the Family motto, the Free estate and the Rural convention of the Song Dynasty. The development of the Family motto in the Song Dynasty was prominent, while there appeared newborn Free estate and Rural convention, all of which are clues that we concern about social transformation in rural during social change.The second part discussed the scholar-officials'interaction between family and country in the Song Dynasty. Scholar-officials not only concerned on the governance of their own families, but also extended to the concept of governing home into their family and hometown, to realize their responsibility on country and society. Scholar-officials thought about the interest carefully for their country, family and home . They hoped anxiously to find a forces can rely on, while the most stable source of the force is their family and home where his blood came from. The fact that Fan Zhongyan created"Free estate"and Lv Dajun brothers establish"Rural convention"was an outstanding example of scholar-officials'desire to establish the ideal social order. They wanted to put these measures to all around the world, but there were much difficulty in developing process.The third part discussed the scholar-officials in the Song Dynasty and the country. In the circumstance of social instability gradually increased in the Song Dynasty, the scholar-officials were also deeply felt their precarious position, let alone in maintaining the balance between the interests of family and country. Although the Song Dynasty emperors claimed to govern with the scholar-officials, but in the relationship between monarch and officials they still thought"emperor is honorable than courtiers". They enslaved scholar-officials in spirit to make scholar-officials work for their Song Dynasty consciously. Once scholar-officials left the imperial court, they also become leader of his own home, family, hometown.The fourth part researched the spiritual world of the scholar-officials in the Song Dynasty. Their spiritual world was the wandering and lonely. They were very eager to have a force allied with them as spiritual sustenance. They had lofty ideals but ideals were constrainted by the secular societyThe spirit world of the Song Dynasty scholar-officials were complex. The loneliness drifted over the edge of power, the contradiction between reality and the ideal, all sorts of intertwined mind, forming their character in that time and affecting China's Modern scholar-officials.