The Seignior And The Local Society In Shandong Area In Ming Dynasty

The subinfeudation system that has the same long history as the Ming Dynasty is an important political system and is very important for studying the history of the politics, the economy and the social life of the Ming Dynasty. This thesis is written to analyze the characteristic of the subinfeudation system of the Ming Dynasty, to emphasize the seigniors' influence on the local society and to get deeper understanding of the system by probing into the seigniors in Shandong province and the relation between them and the local society. The thesis pays more attention to the economic situation, the political system and the social life and culture of the local to illustrate the relation between the Shandong seigniors and the local society.The dissertation consists of the following eight parts.Part one is the preface, which summarizes the significance of the selected topic and the status and achievements made by the Academia and introduces briefly the train of thought of the thesis and the main references.Part two discourses the systems of subinfeudation and establishing kingdoms, mainly including the systems of etiquette , voiture and clothing, asking for names and subinfeudation and marriage, and officials and administrations of the seigniors' mansions as well the officials' salaries and ranks, which are the foundation of studying the seigniors in Shandong .Part three states briefly the distribution of the seigniors in Shandong, the derivation of the seigniors' clan population and seniority in the family pedigree, to reflect regionality and particularity of the seigniors in Shandong province.Part four discourses the state of the economy of the seigniors in Shandong province detailedly, including mainly two aspects, that is, the estates as well as supply and service of the mansions of the seigniors. It shows that the seigniors had a negative impact to the economy of Shandong by pillaging the fields and money, asking for more supply and service. The analysis tells us that the income from the fields became the first financial resources of the seigniors and their salary was less important gradually.Part five is about the relation between the seigniors and the order of the local rule in Shandong. It explores the influence that the seigniors had on the local rule in different periods of the history and how the influence was by analyzing the rebellion of Zhu Gaoxu, the case of Zhu Danghu and the relation between the seigniors and the local officials.Part six about the relation between the seigniors in Shandong and the local social lives. There are three aspects: first, the luxury living and frequent crimes of the seigniors had bad influence on the local folkway; second, the conflict and contradiction among the seigniors influenced the folk living; third, the marriage status is also an important part of the social life of the seigniors' clans, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the mansions of the seigniors and the local social life became much closer.Part seven discourses the seigniors' contribution and good influence on culture. It analyses detailedly the background of the culture of the seigniors' clans and it's four achievements, and explores the influence that the culture of the seigniors' clans had on the secular culture of Shandong, which should gain our objective appraise.Part eight is the epilogue. It summaries further the relation between the seigniors in Shandong and the local society and gets a conclusion.In a word, part four, five, six and seven are emphases of the thesis. These parts review the economic status, political actions, internal contradiction, cultural influence of the Shandong seigniors, and reveal that the seigniors, as a class having privileges, didn't defend the Zhu Ming Dynasty, to the contrary, they had negative influence on the local society and became a heavy burden and encumbrance of the Ming Dynasty, which is an important reason for the ruination of the Ming Dynasty.