The Lineages And The Local Society Of North China:a Study On Ming And Qing Dynasty

The lineage of North China had been hugely affected by the geographical environment, historical changes, economic development and cultural environment at that time of Ming and Qing dynasty, which had resulted in its specific development model and geographical feature. As a basic social element of grass-roots society, the lineage of North China had played an important role in local civilization, management,society construction and control, of national,regional and local societies. In addition, it affected the structure of local society and the changes of history. Therefore, it is considered necessary and critical to study and investigate the relationship between lineage of North China and its local society at the time of Ming and Qing dynasty, in order to further understand the local society of North China of nowadays. The main content of each chapter and its conclusion has been summarized as follow:The “introduction” section outlines the purposes of the study, research existing status in academia,methodology, innovative outputs and reserrch difficulties, and provides definition and clarification of main concepts used in this research which were different from other academics. This section has laid down the scope of this study.The first chapter mainly discussed the background of lineage development in North China. The lineage of North China had started at early Ming dynasty, as a result of the reconstruction of local society in the area of North China of that time, therefore it was unavoidable for the lineage development to suffer from the combined impact of environment factors such as local geographical history, economy and culture, etc. To a certain extent, the external environment of North China had determined theII appearance and characteristics of its lineage, which as a result took on different characteristics from southern lineages.The second chapter describes the study of ancestral graves in North China.Ancestral graves were the landmark of the lineage in North China, and played an importand role in the lineage life. The ancestral graves have been deemed an soul house of ancestors. Due to the ancestor worship and filial piety mindset, the North China lineages took the historical heritage and spatial layout of ancestral graves seriously,and adopted a variety of ways to protect them, and they had even developed the standard for family members’ burial to ancestral graves. According to the customs,regular memorial ceremony for ancestral graves was the major lineage activity for lineage of North China. Generally ceremony was in charged in turns by each branches of lineage and presided over by lineage elders. All men in lineages(some lineages just requested adult male) must take part in the ceremony. The ceremony followed rigorous cult, with rich oblations, and offerings. It was the occasion to discuss and solve lineage public affairs. Their standing position in the ceremony was based on their generational and ranking in the lineage, and it is not related to their identity,which embodies the principle of equality of the lineages of north China. In addition,the auspicious ancestor worship and new couples visiting the grave was also held in ancestral graves. The inheritance,construction,maintenance,and regular sacrifice of ancestral graves, played a very important role for the construction of a lineage of north China, including the establishment of the common identity, unity and cohesion of the lineage enhancement. In addition, handling lineage affairs at the time of sacrifice made ancestral graves multi-functional, which accelerated its systematization process. A few important factors, including pursuit of ancestor respect and practical needs, had made ancestral graves become the irreplaceable and important characteristics of North China lineages.The third chapter presents the study of ancestral temple of North China. North ancestral temples are not common in North China, except among those scholar-bureaucrat families who were affected by the book of “Jia Li”, whilst the majority of ordinary people follow the custom " sacrifices at grave” and “sacrifices atIII home”. For lineages who had built the ancestral temples, their temples could become a decoration if it was not well maintained and used within the lineage. Because of the backward economy of North China, most ancestral temples were lack of financial support, and many of them went to collapses. Ancestral graves of North China play the similar role to ancestral temples, which made the temples unnecessary for the lineage. On the other hand, people who built ancestral temple were the gentry in Early Qing dynasty, and the construction of their ancestral temple comply with national standards and regulations, which is a good indication of North China being located nearby the capital and following government policy well. In the late Qing dynasty,people with different identities such as merchant joined in the trend of temple building,which reflected the need of people to expand their families in order to protect themselves in front of social unrest, but also reflected the loose control power of the government.The fourth chapter presents the research regarding lineage’s propertyof land of North China.The total amount of North China lineage’s field was less, and the percentage of lineages who purchase and own its field was also low. However, some lineages established its own field by various means, including donation from lineage members, purchase by raised funding, contribution from common property when it is divided up among family members, withdrawn of land from those who did not have offspring and royal granted, of which were mainly used as sacrifice field. There are three ways of management, including management by various lineage member in turns, management through ancestral temple and management by authorized person,of which management in turn was the most common way. The lineage field was mainly managed through rent. Income was mainly used for sacrifice, and part of income was used for financial support to poor families, education and taxes. However,due to poor management and some objective reasons, North China lineage field was lost seriously. It is found that there are a few main reasons for this, such as poor economic of North China lineage and lack of reality impetus for upper gentry, while lack of lineage field in turns affected development and growth of lineage and hence,lineage’s influence on local society, which resulted in further solidify of familyIV branch for the lineage’s structure.The fifth chapter mainly discusses how the lineage organization manage, educate and protect their people. Lineages formulated their own regulation and rules to facilitate their management, and presented the regulation and rule to lineage members on a regular basis. The presentation mainly focused on the maintenance of lineage regulation, pinpointing lineage organization principle, maintaining feudal ethics,discipline and transforming social traditions. Penalties was not clearly stated though,which resulted in lack of coercive force on lineage management, and weakening the control of their people. The support and education to people in lineage mainly dependedon the powerful families in lineage, and there was no systematic management and institutional construction in terms of financial support and education to poor families, which results in low sustainability and low effectiveness. The lack of control to its people and lack of financial support resulted in the loose tend of lineage.The lineage protected people from tort and persecution of outside lineage and solved the problem of all lineage persons, and such protection is an effective way to enhance the sense of common identity and ethnic lineages centripetal force.The sixth chapter presents the study of lineages’ participation and control in local society construction, and its interaction with the local government. For the love of native place and sense of responsibility, some power lineages took part in local education, social traditions transforming and improvement, city building and revision,bridge paving, environment improvement. At the same time, they were also part of an important power force for social control. In daily life, they were in charge of the mediation of disputes to reduce litigation; cooperating with the government,advocating the agricultural tax in time; jointing control the local affair through competition and cooperation with other lineages. In turbulent times and natural disasters, the lineage assisted the government disaster relief, self-preservation by alliance, developed local military to protect country and people. All these activities embodied the social responsibility of lineage. As lineages could help local governments to complete their own task of education, management, construction,control, so they were commended by the government. In turn, local governmentconsulted some powerful lineage’s opinions and took their advice for local affairs,protected the lineage’s property field through various ways, and admitted their judicial power in the civil dispute and minor criminal cases. All of these was to consolidate and strengthen the authority of the lineage. Due to the geographic position of North China, close to the capital, the government always kept alert on lineage private authority, especially in late Qing dynasty. The lineages which were developed to have own local military had been powerful enough against government, as a result, the government had to adopt a lot of measures to limit the lineage power while supporting their development.The last conclusion section provides a comprehensive summary of the manifestation, management pattern and the relationship with the local society of North China lineage.