On The Decline And Fall Of The Chinese The Mediaeval Liangjian System

The Chinese mediaeval liangjian system (system of classifying people as the good and the humble) is an important issue in the study of Chinese mediaeval history. The mediaeval liangjian system began to form in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, tended to systematism and codification in the North-South Dynasties, came to maturation in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Then it walked up to decline and extinction. On the basis of the study of the grand old scholars, this thesis contends anddisusses, aiming at one of the academic front edge problems——the contabescence of theliangjian system, especially at several viewpoints which were mentioned by Dai Jianguo in the article of "The Status of Masters and Servants and the Legal Position of Male and Female Servants in the Song Dynasty:A Study of Changing Class Structure during the Tang and Song Dynasties" published in Historyical Research. Then this thesis proposes its own viewpoints as follows:First, "the distinction between the good and the humble" is not the same as "the system of liangjian" in the mediaeval period. During the Chinese feudal society, "the distinction between the good and the humble" in a broad sense was in existence all the time; while as an exact legal term, the systemic and comprehensive hierachical system of liangjian status was only in existenc in the mediaeval period.Second, "the system of servants" is not the same as "the system of liangjian". The system of servants, especially the system of official servants is only a part of the hierachical system of liangjian status. The system of servants was in existence during the Chinese feudal society all the time. The existence of the system of servants did not indicate the existence of hierachical system of liangjian status.Third, the Chinese mediaeval liangjian system was extinct approximately in the Northern Song Dynasty. The estate of the humble such as "tribe" (buqu), "official households"(guanhu), and "miscellaneous households" (zahu) etc. had been extinct in the Northern Song Dynasty. The only existent estate of servants could not sustain a systemic and comprehensive hierachical system of liangjian status, besides the main body of the estate of servants had become hired servants differing from slave servants in quality.Fourth, servants in the Song Dynasty was not certain to be affected by the status of masters and servants. Bring hired servants into the category of familial cohabitation and affected by the status of masters and servants, the Song Dynasty experienced a process of gestation and debugging.Fifth, the legal position of servants in the Song Dynasty presented a degressive trend, which didn't present a fluctuant change, and didn't resume the level of the early Song Dynasty till the Southern Song Dynasty as the allegation of Dai Jianguo.Sixth, the legal position of servants descended from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, but on the whole the legal position of servants in the Song Dynasty was much higher than that of servants in the Tang Dynasty.