Jin And Southern Patriarch Nobles Extravagant Consumption And Its Impact

The Two Jin and South Dynasties are the West Jin, East Jin, and Song, Qi, Liang, Chen Dynasties during the ancient history in our country. In that periods, with the establishment and high development of clique system, the aristocrats' power and influence hoiked and reached the top. In the politics, they acted as high-rank officers for generations, and formed the monopolistic situation that "the top-grade have no humble man, the low-grade have no nobleman". In the economy, they had the privilege of exempting from every service, moreover possessed numerous land and farmers relied on them. This kind of privilege not only made the aristocrats amass a great deal of material wealth, but also stimulated their avaricious desire for luxurious living. Accordingly, their extravagant consumption appeared very extraordinary at that time. This thesis aims at the extravagant consumption's appearances, its social source, and its influence to the social economy and political life of that time .The thesis has five sections:1. The appearances of aristocrats' extravagant consumption.2. The social source of aristocrats' extravagant consumption.3. The influence of aristocrats' extravagant consumption to the social production.4. The influence of aristocrats' extravagant consumption to the handicraft industry and commerce.5. The influence of aristocrats' extravagant consumption to the political life.By the analyses of the points above, we know that the scope of extravagant consumption was extensive, included various aspects, such as eating, dressing, dwelling, and using etc. This kind of consumption was not based on the foundation of highly developed social productivity level, but depended on the cruel exploitation toward laborers. The aristocrats' extravagant consumption deeply influenced the feudal economy and politics of that time. In the economy, it made vast social wealth wasted, large numbers of laborers divorced from manufacture, and the money investment towards the agriculture reduced continuously. As a result , it not only made the social production stagnate and shrink, but also made the handicraft industry and commerce develop abnormally. In the politics, the prevalence of extravagant consumption contaminated the social vogue and made the money worshippervade the government and the public. As well as it badly affected the administration efficiency and exacerbated the corruption. More seriously, it aggravated the class struggle in social wealth distribution, intensified the class conflict, consequently indirectly caused the perdition of that feudal rule.