Song Gentry Association Study

The communities incorporated by the gentry of Song Dynasty played an important role in the society. This dissertation focuses on such communities and the social functions of the gentry as civilians. The "gentry" in this dissertation are defined as the intellectual class of certain influential statues, and the "communities" here are defined as the institutions spontaneously incorporated by the civilians. The gentry communities of Song Dynasty established the structure of the communities incorporated by the Chinese ancient intellectual class, which had an inheriting and enlightening position in the history of the incorporation of the communities, which are of typical value for research program.The Song gentry communities can be classified as Xiangyue, economic corporation communities, civilian's corporate almsgiving institutions, military communities, literature communities, and Qilaohui, each of which had a certain influence in different fields. Xiangyue, a kind of institutions originated by the neo-confucians of Song Dynasty for the purpose of civilizing the local society, represented the institutions of one of the schools of the social moral practice of the neo-confucians, which are the resources and models of those in Ming and Qing Dynasty though they were advocated finitely in Song Dynasty. The economic corporate institutions, the most ancient kind of communities, which were innovated and developed in Song Dynasty, can be classified as traditional private communities, Yiyi, Yiyue. They are important means for the civilians to give mutual help to each other and establish almsgiving institutions. The civilians almsgiving institutions were also innovated in Song Dynasty, including the institutions of Shecang, XiangquYizhuang, Zhouju and Yiyue. These institutions were greatly influenced by the neoconfucians. They made great contributions to the almsgiving among civilians in Song Dynasty. The military communities, civilian's spontaneous military communities, made great contributions to the defense of the territory of Song Dynasty and influenced the country military system of Song. The literature communities, including poetry communities, academic communities, and Lianshe, were important ways for web communication of the intellectual class, having an important effect on the social culture, education, and politics. Qilaohui, chiefly consisted of the retired officials, became the communication centre for the local elites because of their membership, which influenced both the government of the countryside and the policy of the royal court. These six kinds of communities established in Song Dynasty were inherited and developed by the dynasties of Yuan, Ming, and Qing.In the sense of the social functions, these communities can be classified as the following types: resources controlling, accidents response, and feelings entertaining. They played some role in making up the blank of the governmental power, integrating resources from the civilians, and establishing communicating web, which showed the dynamic ability in leadership among the civilian class. These communities were established and distributed in the Southern Song Dynasty, the phenomenon of which reflected the fact that the gentry class became the self-organized body among the civilians when they grew powerful. The types of the formation of the gentry institutions were not totally similar to those of the royal government. However, in the practical management, the power of the gentry and royal were mutually interrelated, the connection of which formed the structure of the gentry communities in Song Dynasty.