Gentry's Hereditary Learning Under The T'ang

Basing on Jingzhao WEI, Zhaojun LI and Wujun LU, this dissertation is to investigate the development and characters of gentry's hereditary learning under the Tang.During the middle of Western Han Dynasty, the hereditary learning of Jingzhao WEI took SHI(《诗》)(in LU district) as its core, which emphasized ancient maxims or precepts, whose style of study is extremely serious. The essential of the character of their hereditary learning was "confucianism", which had transformed to the external Confucianism and the internal military from Western Jin Dynasty to Sui Dynasty. In the early of the Tang, the center of the hereditary learning of Jingzhao WEI is the systematic learning about LI(《礼》), but turned to the study of literature in the late of the Tang.From Western Jin to Northern Dynasty, when Zhaojun LI attached importance to the inheritance of the classic of poetry, they stressed equitation, toxophily, and military merits. The character of their hereditary learning is the external military and the internal Confucianism. When it went to the Tang, Zhaojun LI abandoned military and set store by literature. In the early time of the Tang, Zhaojun LI had outstanding performance in the practise on the rituals of Confucianism, and the literary became the primary content of their hereditary learning system in the late of this time.In the period of Wei and Jin Dynasty, Confucianism and literature formed the tradition of the hereditary learning of Wujun LU. In the aspect of Confucianism, both YI(《易》)and LI(《礼》) had same roles in the study, but their style was conservative, and tended toward metaphysic in Southern Dynasty. In the aspect of literature, sound, rhythm, and rhetoric made their characters. When it went to the Tang, the systematic learning about CHUN QIU(《春秋》)was included in their hereditary learning system as the new content, whose style was also inclined to connotation. However, in the late of the T'ang, systematic learning about literature and rhetoric took the place of Confucianism as the principal content in the system of hereditary learning of Wujun LU. In conclusion, gentry's hereditary learning under the T'ang experienced important changes, in which the role of the confucian elements descended, and the one of literature and rhetoric ascended. This change can be intituled as "literary-tending", which not only reflects the change of characters of Gentry's Hereditary culture, but also embodies the dying out of "Gentry".