Study On The Problems Of The Rural Clan In Ancient China

The ancient China was a typical society of clan. Clan was an organization that existed longest and spread widest in this society. It not only has played an important role in people's lives in ancient China, but also has an important influence on the politics, economy and social activities in current village society. This research, through discussion and objective evaluation, not only displays fully the background of clan in ancient rural communities, but also tries to provide a historical angle of view and the basis to solve the current problems of rural clan.Basing on the development process of the clan organization and brief review of the basic appearance and typical characteristic of clan in various historical periods, this research finally reaches the basic law that the clan tended to in decline and outlines the historical development of the clan contours.The main part of this research selects several closely related aspects with people's lives of the clan organization in ancient society as the object of dissertation, and analysis clan's important functions in detail, such as supervising in rural country, salvation in society, cultivation, and so on. Overall, clan organizations played the following roles in the community of ancient China. First, the clan played the function of national grass-roots political powers in part, and undertook part management responsibilities which should be undertaken by the national grassroots organization, such as imposing taxes, maintaining the social order, registering the rural residence, and so on. But, as a blood and geopolitical nature of the small group, clan also has the potential to become the arm of ordinary people against the forces of state power. Second, the clansmen organization has a kind of natural tendency which took pity on salvage clansmen relatives. In ancient Chinese society, the work for relief was relatively underdeveloped. So, the clan organization offset it, and took the functions of relief for poverty, famine and education. To some extent, these functions made for preventing the separation of the clan, cutting down the social unrest and maintaining social stability. Finally, clan organizations also played a role in social cultivation and promoted the harmony in the whole society.Through the above analysis, the research made an objective assessment on the current...