The Establishment Of XiaoyiZhuan And The Reconstruction Of Social And Political Order From Han To Tang Dynasty

The collapse of the Eastern Han Empire caused the collapse of the social and political order,which the rule was relied on.Alfter the separations of Three Kingdoms,and short-lived unity in Western Jin Dynasty,China was flung into division during the Northern and Southern Dynasties for a long time.So that it was imperative for the ruling class in the Northern and Southern Dynasties to reconstruct the social and political order.And the establishment of "Xiaoyi zhuan"(孝义传)provides us a good perspective for observing the reconstruction of social and political order.The reorganization of the social and political order,referring to the monarch as the representative of the court,use political power to regulate control and guidance for"filial piety" and "justice" as the core of Confucian ethics,so that form the system constraints which the genteel and commoner(士庶)practice.The establishment of Xiaoyi zhuan,can be traced back to Youxia zhuan in SHIJI and HANSHU and Yongxia zhuan in WEILUE,connecting You(Yong)xia to Xiaoyi reflect the evolution of Youxia’s core "righteousness" to "justice" and "filial piety".Specifically,we can see the transformation from "private righteousness" based on the private combination out of system,to "public righteousness" that guide the genteel and commoner’s practice which was encouraged by the country.There are 6 points of the main characteristic of Youxia’s righteousness;I,Despise for life;2,Outside the system of anti-institutional public opinion,prestige;3,Outside the system or anti-institutional organization;4,Philanthropy;5,Revenge;6,Extensive connection.Through the analysis of "filial piety",the second,the third and the sixth points in the"Xiaoyi zhuan",which reflect the righteousness of Youxia,all completely disappeared.The first point "despise for life" was replaced by striving to die between father and son.Salvation in county set up in place of "philanthropy",’"Revenge" was restrained in the blood relationship category.Other points in Xiaoyi zhuan were Leishitongju and subordinate officials mourned for their officers.There were conflicts between subordinate officials mourning for their officers and elimination of two levels of the Ruler-minister relationship.The changes in content of righteousness by epitaxial restrain reflect a returning trend to Confucian ethics and the control by court.Under these circumstances,the power explaining righteousness was also changed from folk to state.The historians in the Northern and Southern Dynasties often sighed that folk customs became bad and scholars did not do well in filial piety,so there were more commoners recorded in the Xiaoyi zhuan.The reasons are two:firstly to encourage the genteel to do better,secondly to praise the remarkable practice of commoners in“filial piety&justice",and guide more people to practice it.The outstanding examples would be reported from the village to the county,and then to the state.Finally,state issued an imperial edict to commend these outstanding people.In the Northern and Southern Dynasties,this procedure had become institutionalized measures.The core of the system operation was political power’s return from the bottom to the top,and infiltration from top to the folk society.Those outstanding people who did well in "filial piety&justice",through the commendation by country,were more deeply absorbed into the standard social and political order.In the Southern Dynasties history books,"Song Shu" for the first time set up Xiaoyi zhuan,accordingly,single book "the biography of dutiful sons" became popular in the Southern Dynasties.There are deep relations between them,although one was in the history biography,and the other is a single book.Based on them,the filial images drawn in tombs,screens,palaces and chariot also gradually increased.The establishment of the Xiaoyi zhuan in the history books,single book "the biography of dutiful sons" and the large number of dutiful sons show that the core values of filial piety in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.They widely spread all over the country.This phenomenon is closely related with "Filial piety" entered the official ideology as one of Confucian ethics which was promoted among various classes in the scholar and common people by country,and then every class were guided into the standard social and political order.The practice of filial piety is also considered as one of the behavioral norms among the genteel and commoners.The writing of Xiaoyi zhuan and the drawing of the filial images reflect the social customs,the concept and the institutional factors.And the filial images had a strong political symbol meaning because they were drawn in palace and the chariot.The modeling of writing Xiaoyi zhuan and images painted in the palace and chariot,both reflect rthat court want to promote filial piety as a means,and then want to reconstruct social and political order.We can consider that writing of Xiaoyi zhuan and a mass of stories about duties sons,are important means to the reconstruction movement,and also representative achievements of this movement.