Study On The Gentry's Family Domestic In Ming And Qing Dynasty (1368-1840)

Gentries are those who get scholarly or official rank by imperial examination, It inclue the officials both those who are on the job and those who have retired,it include both those who are in higher scholarly honour and those who are in lower scholarly honour. they are different from common people after getting scholarly or official rank, they are literatures that have being admitted by the government. Having learned scriptures of the Confucianists, They are different from the common people in knowledge and quality. We can say, gentries are talent men who have an advantage in moral and intellect. This advantage makes them be to be official or being official or have being official, this advantage makes they get much privilege , they can finish the planning easier than common people ,the planning is to cultivate one's moral character and to manage a household and to run a country that have been made by the Confucianists. And to achieve this planning can connect flourishing oneself and protecting one's homes and running a country.The gentry's family domestic shows different expection for man and woman. They wish man work outside, but hope woman work domestic, to be good wife and good mother, for one thing the gentry's family domestics show that they are based on scriptures of the Confucianists , for another they show the gentry's character. Only these who come from the gentry, that the men can cultivate one's moral character and women can help their husbands and teach their children best.Except for one's basic quality, the basic factor to realize one's value is education.Family education is the beginning in all education, and become replenish of other education. The gentries in Ming and Qing dynasty are those who success through education, they know the importance of education, and want to tell their children. This thesis is to expound their thought of family education through their family admonish document. And study the effect through individual case. As a special class, their family education thought both have time feature and class feature.Their thought of managing a household includes human relations and getting wealth. The most basic relation includes the relations of husband and wife, father and sons and brothers. Because of the strengthen of patriarch and clansman, the norm is more severe in the old and young, the right of man and woman, husband and father and brother is prior and have no excuse, but the duties of wife and son and young brother is more severe, their right is in border. Because the class of gentry increase sharply, but their chance to be an official doesn't increase in the mean time. The gentries in lower social grade and adherents of a former dynasty are facing severe living difficulty, and because of the development in trade, and the new realization in appearance of privation, all these show that the thought of getting wealth get mature.The thought of cultivating one's moral character is the Confucianists' changeless opinion, which has been pay attention by all the scholar of past ages, when it comes into Ming and Qing dynasty, because the Confucian school of idealist gets more and more important, especially the philosophy of the mind rise, the gentries emphasize the importance of cultivating one's moral character. It's main way and content are stressed again and again, they do want their children finish the blueprint of managing the country though cultivating one's moral character. Both the family domestic of times in family status and imperial examination talk about cultivating one's moral character, but the officials talk about cultivating one's moral character means to raise their children's official capital, but the gentries' talking about cultivating one's moral character want their children to finish their blueprint of managing the country . And with the imperial examination getting more and more fair, it can't show the gentry's superiority, only through imperial examination. Perhaps by imperial examination one can be famous quickly, but one can't get perfect words and deeds quickly. They are just what the gentry's superiority. So in order to keep the gentry's superiority, the gentry talk about cultivating their moral character.The gentry as culture supporter, they get privilege through imperial examination, they become officials by studying, which can unite the benefit of oneself,family and country in close. so they talk about how to study commonly in their family domestic. Because of the official rule of imperial examination system, they treat The Four Books and The Five Classics as learning content, and because of the sharp conflict of imperial examination, they emphasize the way and the technique of study, which shows a trend of teaching earlier and getting success quickly. But compared with normal people, they don't treat imperial examination as the only outlet, They emphasize the directive function of conducting oneself through studying.There is difficult rule for man and woman in traditional society, if men are wanted to develop outside, they are wanted to work outside through cultivating one's moral character, then women are wanted to live and develop inside, which show that man is extropism and woman is domestic. The fourth chapter will tell us the gentries' thought of advising women. The gentries' expecting isn't alike in women's different living. Their expecting for wife and mother is more total, they wish them to be a clever wife and wise mother: to help their husbands and to teach their children.Their chastity is also consolidated on their family domestic, the girls keeping chastity can both be capital that they wait for the right price to sell, when they chose husband for their girls., which also shows the class superiority. in order to take on important office of helping their husbands and teaching their children, most gentries think it's important for women to study. And they wish women possess some culture, because verses, ditties, odes and songs - the four forms of poetry make women widely known, impede women's be in domestic, they are opposed widely, in a word all the thought that emphasize the importance of mothers' teaching their children ,the chaste and undefiled, the importance of women's study, show gentries' classic feature. after all, money, time and wide space can realize gentries wish of living domestic, keeping chaste, study and teach their children.How about the practice effect of the family domestic is? The Zhang clan's success proved the success of family domestic in Tong Cheng of Anhui province , The Zhang clan has got so many scholarly honor ,with so many high officials, their officials have worked in so wide place, all these have influenced much then and after then. Although there are many reasons, The Zhang clan treasure family education should be one of the most important reason. The children of Zhang clan have their characteristic in reading , being official, associating with others, just because of these characteristic that make The Zhang clan achieve.The charctar of Ming and Qing Dynasty and the official standard of imperial examination showed that cultivating one's moral character and pursuing one's studies were the heart of the gentries' family domestic, the increasing of population and other reality made the lower gentry talk about how to get and keep wealth. the Confucian thinking being the core, and the family domestic showed patriarchal,it also showed the gentry's stratum ,only those who come from gentry, the men will do their best to cultivate their moral character and pursue their studies,and the women will follow "the three obediences and the four virtues",and help their husband and teach their children. The gentry's privilege also made them both urge their children to keep forging ahead so as to not to tenesmus the lower, and by cultivating one's moral character, the women being asked to live inside, parting the men and the women clear the gentry's superiority.To tap and card the family domestics of Ming and Qing gentry, reveal the collection between them and traditional culture, explore the social problem from them and explore the gentries' expection from their children in such emergency, will help us deepen our knowledge of the history prceeding, in the mean time, draw the useful nutrient from the family domestic.and give a salutary lesson for morden cultre construction.