The Effect Of Housing Variation On The Evolution Of Social Mode During The Middle And Late Period Of Ming Dynasty

Clothing, food, housing and transportation are the four essential requirements of people. The housing culture, endowed with peculiar charm, has played an important role in the history of Chinese culture. During the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the development of economy has allowed the wide existence of quantities of wealthy businessmen who tended to improve their housing conditions, enlarge their houses and even build lots of extravagant villas. The tendency of these businessmen has greatly affected the housing style of scholar's stratum and common people who preferred enlarged housing and ornate decoration. This thesis focuses upon the variation of housing style, its developing process and the response of scholar's stratum to the housing variation, which provides a new angle to the research on variations of social lives and corresponding social mode during the Ming Dynasty.This thesis attempts to uncover the underneath social reason behind the variation of housing style during the Ming Dynasty by resorting to a large number of documents. This thesis consists of five parts. The first part, the introduction, presents a concise statement and analysis of literature review which involves the defining of the research area and relevant concepts. The following four parts constitute the main body of the thesis. The second part gives a concise introduction of the housing regulations and the social mode during the early Ming Dynasty and the period before the Ming Dynasty. The third part is concerned about the variation of housing style during the middle and late period of the Mind Dynasty. The fourth part mainly concerns the influence brought by the housing variation, including the improvement of housing, inside furniture and social living style concerning clothing, food, housing and transportation, etc. The last part focuses upon the response of scholar's stratum to the housing variation.