Integration And Differentiation - Ming Yongle The Hebei Plain Village Form And Its Evolution

This paper mainly probes into the process of space distribution and the development of individual village after Yongle period of Ming Dynasty. The research proves that the villages then experienced restoration and revival. From Yongle to Qianlong period, the number of villages increased promptly , with the completion of space distribution. After the eighteenth year in Qianlong period, the development of villages gradually turned from the increase of number to the expanding of the scale of villages. During the process, the immigrants played a dominant role in the development of villages, for they not only formed new villages but also changed the structure of the original native villages. As a matter of fact, the characteristic of immigrants' scattered living could be regarded as the process of space distribution, which had a direct influence on the process of concentration of villages. That is one of the main reasons of the structural fission and regional differentiation. Aside from the influence of immigrants, factors such as environment and administration affected the concentration of villages greatly.Another discovery of this research is that the fundamental reason of the concentration of villages lies in the development of villages themselves. Each village experienced the process from sparse settlement to saturation settlement in the scale and from the attachment to large villages to independence of itself in the management. The symbol of the independent village is the building of the Earth Temple, village formation is different in different period of development in the scale and temple system of village. Therefore, according to the scale and temple system, this paper divides the village formation into four stages:Pre-village period, village formingperiod, village mature period and village saturation Period and mainly discusses the differentiation of society of the village mature period. We may draw a conclusion that with the development of villages, the trend of regional differentiation appeared and each regional group built up their own temples and set up their own organizations, which led to dependent villages , and the village fission began; on the other hand, differentiation of society due to this reason formed the early shape of cities and towns.