Imperial Examinations-Government Official Clan And Moral Authority: A Study On Ding Clan In Rizhao

Ding Clan in Rizhao was a famous imperial examinations- government official clan in Ming and Qing dynasties in Shandong. From the end of Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China, Ding Clan had a brilliant prosperous for 300 years and made a lot of important contribution in the realm of politics, economy and local construction and exerted an enormous influence. Therefore, it established the moral authority in the locality.The article is divided into six parts. The first part introduces the development course of Ding Clan. Through introducing the historical origin, the development course and the brilliance of imperial examinations- government official, we can make the conclusion: Ding Clan was qualified for an imperial examinations- government official clan.The second part introduces the moral exhibition of Ding Clan. Ding Clan always observed the traditional ethical criterion, for instance, fathers'kind and sons'filial piety, brothers'harmony, mutual help in the clan, industrious and thrifty in managing household. Every people no matter man or woman acted the role under the ethical criterion in the clan. The officers were just and incorruptible and benefited for the people. In Rizhao, Ding Clan presented the petition for the people, developed local education, and resisted the Nian army to protect the town to be stable, all of which produced a loud influence among local people.The third part introduces the clan education and cultural achievement of Ding Clan. The education of Ding Clan was divided into moral education and cultural education, and even it did not forget moral education in cultural education, which fully reflected the combination of morals and article. Ding Clan also made enormous cultural achievement, including academy, literature and arts, science and technology and so on.The fourth part introduces the clan organization of Ding Clan. Ding Clan attached great importance to the clan organization construction. They wrote the clan tree, built the ancestral hall, set up the clan field, and made clan rules, totally according to the standard construction of the ideal clan. Their activities had established the model for local clan organization construction.The fifth part writes the establishment of Ding Clan's moral authority in the locality. Ding Clan represented its own noble morals in the above"collective questions", and was appreciated by the official and the folk. The men numbers of the Clan participated in the gift of drinking of township and were offered sacrifices in the shrine for the famous officers and the virtuous of township. The women received the commendation from the government and were commemorated by building monuments. Ding Clan had become the local ethical arbitrator, organizer and leader of the local religious belief by the way of advocating celebrated scholars, chaste and undefiled women, making the township regulations and writing local chronicle. Their moral behaviors became local cultural resources and were used to enlighten the descendant. Thus, Ding Clan participated in the public affairs and regarded it as a broad stage for representing its ethic, and combined the interests of the clan and the interests of the whole place together to finish the construction of local common interests, and then established the moral authority in the locality.The sixth part writes the lost of Ding Clan's moral authority and the modern meaning of clan activities in new period. The lost of Ding Clan's moral authority is because of the following respects: first, the abolition of imperial examination system made official clan lose the foundation on which the clan depended for existence by breaking off the road to be officers. Second, the outbreak of the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement struck the traditional ethical criterion fiercely, and people did not observe them. Third, in the Republic of China, the government officers began getting involved to the local authority and the difference of local interests and national benefit became more and more fuzzy. This resulted the lost of Ding Clan's moral authority which put local interests first. Fourth, Ding Clan split up. A lot of people accepted the new revolutionary thought and participated in the revolutionary tide. At last, they became the strength of objecting to moral authority.Ding Zhaozhong's returning to hometown, the construction of Ding Zhaozhong's former residence and the eighth writing of Ding Clan Tree made the clan activities more active, and demonstrated the trend of"clan rebuilding". But"clan rebuilding"in new period is totally different from traditional clan construction, because its structure and function have changed greatly. Obviously, the ancient clan factors weak gradually and the modern factors are increasing gradually. It reflects peoples'sense of ownership to the history and ethic. It also inherits and develops the traditional culture. Now, the clan organization has already transformed into a legal organization for contacting emotion, promoting culture and education and advancing the construction of modernization.