The Jinshi Marriage And Make Friends

The Tang Dynasty was the peak of China's feudal society, with highly developed politics, economics, culture, etc, and it was inseparable from the relatively liberal political environment and open and tolerant society .The development of a society was inseparable from the leadership of a liberal and outstanding group , and the officials who had an imperial scholars origin were the main component of the ruling class in Tang Dynasty. In Tang Dynasty the implementation of imperial examination system elected a large number of outstanding talents, who formed a liberal progressive scholars group. During the history of almost 300 years in Tang dynasty , scholars were the most dynamic class in the social arena, who had an profound impact on the development of the Tang Dynasty.To study the history of the Tang Dynasty community, we must pay attention to scholars . Marriage and friendship were an important part of people's social life, so to study the scholars' social life in Tang Dynasty their marriage and friendship must be put in a prominent position.Marriage and friendship of scholars in Tang Dynasty were with obvious utilitarian purpose , and they served for the scholars' official life. Scholars used marriage and friendship as an advancing way, attaching themselves to Gentry in order to get a smooth career. In a sense, people who scholars' married and made friends with directly determine whether they could get a promotion in their official life and realize their political ideals. By studying scholars' marriage and friendship in Tang Dynasty this paper attempts to learn about the scholars' marriage and friendship in Tang Dynasty ,discuss the main values and psychological orientation of scholars' marriage and friendship, and also to get a general understanding of the impact brought about by scholars' marriage and friendships on scholars' social life.Based on a wide range of collection of relevant historical data, this paper makes a systematic analysis and synthesis of scholars' marriage and friendship, and describes the important political function of marriage and friendship on the scholars' social life. The paper is divided into five parts, mainly discussing the following points:Scholars' marriage in Tang Dynasty was mainly "The Gate section marriage", and scholars were particularly proud of marrying a Gentry woman. In Tang Dynasty although the Gentry system had declined since Han and Wei Dynasties, but Gentry still had great social prestige and was still the best candidates of marriage , and officials with a scholar origin undoubtedly looked upon Gentry as a suitor goal. Marriage with Gentry could help the scholars use his wife's families' noble status to improve social status and won wide reputation as a step before an improvement.Marriage with officials with great power and influence was another major objective of Scholars. In Tang Dynasty with feudal power highly centralized, officials with great power and influence in high class manipulated the political situation, having the absolute power to officials in the middle and lower classes, as a lower class the newly-awarded scholars was inseparable from recommendation and help from officials with great power and influence if they wanted to do things in their career and realize their political aspirations. Marriage with powerful officials had become the "fastest and easiest way" of a rapid promotion of scholars, and paved the way for his career making use of his wife family's power. At the same time, the prosper of the imperial examination and the glory of scholars also made scholar-bureaucrats more willing to select sons-in-law from the scholars.In Tang Dynasty the scholars made lots of friends, but making friends with scholar-bureaucrats was the most important part. If scholars wanted to have a smooth imperial examination and a rapid promotion, they must first get hold of leading of scholar-bureaucrats. In Tang Dynasty visiting is prevailing, and scholars mostly needed recommendations of prestigious officials before they were awarded. In order to have a smooth career it was necessary for the scholars to use the relations of students, old officials and others to get the recommendation of prestigious officials. Scholars made friends with scholar-bureaucrats with obvious political intentions, and it was an indispensable content in scholars' political activities.To meet the political needs or escape from the suffering from officialdom, scholars made lots of friends with hermits, monks and Taoists. Rulers of Tang Dynasty respected the hermit very much and Buddhism and Daoism prevailed, which made there being many noble people with rich knowledge in the mountains and they were often inextricably linked to prestigious officials that time, and the scholars can make their promotions by making friends with them. Under the circumstances of being frustrated in his attempts or tired of officialdom, some scholars went through the mountains far to make friends with noble men and monks ,exploring Buddhism , Daoism, poems, etc and learning from others in order to get a spiritual solace.In Tang Dynasty the scholars were respected very much. After the results were announced, the court specifically held feast for the newly-awarded scholars, and after the feast the scholars had a trip on Qu River, Xing Garden with beautiful prostitutions and good wine, suffering relatively less shackles. The Tang Dynasty was a period with a very open social environment, and it was particularly obvious that the social status of women and the degree of sexual liberation and freedom were relatively high, and women Taoist priests and singing girls were very popular with the scholars because of the freedom of their identity. Scholars made fiends with them mainly in the pursuit of physical and mental indulgence, and to satisfy sexual needs.The scholars' marriage and friendship had apparent political functions, and had a profound impact on the scholars' official life, and to a certain extent it was the epitome of society activities of ruling class in Tang Dynasty.