Studies On The Rise And Fall Of Langya Wang Family In Middle Period China

From Mediaeval times of China, collusion between rich and powerful family and the governing class lasted hundreds of years, which was a typical social and political phenomenon during the mediaeval times. Among the many rich and powerful families, the Wang family from Lang-ya were representational. Although their power fluctuated in various historical periods, as a general, the extent and the interval of their influence was incommensurable.According to historical records, the Wang family from Lang-ya originated from Jin, the prince of King Ling of the Zhou dynasty. In the Cao Wei of Xi-jin dynasty, Wang Xiang, Wang Lan and Wang Xiong all gained high positions in the government. Quite a lot of their offspring also held significance positions at that time. The Wang family hence became one of the first-level members of rich and powerful families as a family from Lang-ya. After Si-ma Rui moved to the South, the whole family moved to the East of the Yangtse River. Since Wang Dao and Wang Dun helped establishing the government of the Dong-jin, and their offspring all held influential positions in the government, there was balladry saying that "Wang and Ma share the nation". The Wang family from Lang-ya remained powerful during Song, Qi, Liang and Chen Dynasties. Both the Xie family and the Wang family were the head of the rich and powerful families from Qiao family. There influence declined from the Chen dynasty to the end of the Tang dynasty.The Wang family held a very significant martial and political position for a long time during the two Jin dynasties, and hence established its social status as a rich and powerful family. This is mainly due to its integration with imperial power. However, it . is worth noting that not only male member but also female member contributed heavily to the family development. The cultural factor also helped to maintain the social status of the Wang family from Lang-ya. Its family member excelled in various aspects such as Confucianism, poetry, calligraphy and religion. Similar to other rich and powerful families, the Wang family, ailing with the Wu family and the Qiao family, also actively implemented the policy of "strengthening the hierarchical difference between the rich and the poor" and suppressed the poor families in order to vindicate the interest of the family as well as to maintain their sublime social status. The principal reasons for the declining of the Wang family from Lang-ya include: the weakening of kinship ties among the family; the discordant of political status among the family; the change of economical situation leading to the change of political status; the alteration of officials selecting institution resulting in the disaggregating of hierarchical order of rich and powerful families; the threat to their power due to centralization of authority from the governing class; and the rise of primarily poor and secondary families taking their place. The change of political situation, which was closely related to the reasons mentioned earlier, was also important in resulting in the decline of those rich and powerful families including the Wang family from Lang-ya.