Study On The Great Families Of Liao Dynasty

In the history of Liao Dynasty, the great families not only played an important role in the political arena ,but were also the major owners of socail wealth in e~nomy,therefore, they had very important social status and social influence. This paper discusses the development and political and economic status of the great families in Liao Dynasty according to the divisions of major nationalities.The Chi-tan great families were closely related with the families?polarization of the tribe union period. The emperor family, queen family and Yao-lien family were all traditional nobles, which were the core of the great families in Liao Dynasty. Those great families that still held the position of chief of a tribe generation after generation after the country was founded and those that rose from the basic level were important components of the Chi-tan great f~es,but their status cotild not be compared in general with the former. The Hsi great families mostly also evolved from the celebrated and noble families of the tribe union times. The Po-hai great families consisted mainly of the King family and other famous families of the former Po-hai State, though they developed differently under the government of the new dynasty. The Han great families were represented by Han, Liu, Ma, Zhao families ,which evolved in the early stage from the having surrendered-and-submitted bureaucrat families of the Central-Plains area depending on their military accomplishments and civil administration ability, in and after the middle stage, a large number of families which ascended to the rank of the middle and upper ruling class depending on their cultural advantage and economic power also developed into rising great families.The great families were officials from generation to generation according to a series of systems such as hereditary selection, hereditary vacancy suppliance, civil service examrnation,by-promotion due to military accomplis~ents,some of the major great families made a feature of being military commanders generation after generation, so that they retained relatively steady political status. By means of various economic income, the great families collected a great deal of social wealth,and by means of exploitation on the basis of slavery or serfdom, they controlled the slaves and serfs so that they retained solid economic power They maintained their social status also by means of achievements, imperial favour, marriage relationship ,education, domestic discipline construction, etc. But the social system cf Liao Dynasty couldn?t guarantee that the position of the great families were not affected, where it was different from pure hereditary societies.