Jun Hong Farming Family In Literary Studies

Many prominent and influential families emerged in the Eastern Han dynasty. Deeply influenced by gaining high-rank positions through studying Confucian classics and carrying on family businesses, many families have studied the Confucian classics for generations and thus have enjoyed being officials for generations. Meanwhile, these families have also laid the cornerstone of thriving family literature in Wei-Jin-South-North period like the famous Yang family in the Hongnong County, Ma family in the Fufeng County, Dou family, Ban family, Heng family in the Pei County, Ying family in the Ru’nan County, Yuan family, Cui family in the Boling County, Huang family in the Jiangxia County and so on.As a representative of prominent families in the central plain, the Yang family in the Hongnong County has not only valiant military generals and powerful ministers, but also knowledge bachelors as well as talented scholars who exerted a deep influence on the Han-Wei period. It was recorded in ((Yang Zhen Biographies of the Later Han)) like this,"From Yang Zhen to Yang Biao, they’ve been supreme government officials for four successive generations and have inherited and carried forward their family virtues and accomplishments. Together with the Yuan family, they both were the influential and privileged families in the Capital." It also complimented as that "The Yang family members have been high-rank officials for generations while always holding high good virtues and noble moral. Yang Zhen was well-known of his integrity and uprightness. Yang Bing rooted out three vices."This paper centers on studying the family culture and family literature of the Yang family in the Hongnong County by analyzing the influences of social background, geographical environment and cultural atmosphere on the family literature, and sums up the general style of the Yang family literature thus to further explore the trend of family literature.The main body is composed of four parts. The first part is introduction which clarifies the background and value of the selected topic and combs the current research. The second part is about the Yang family’s background as well as the social and geographical background. On the basis of historical materials, this part firstly introduces the origin and the development of the Yang family in Han-Wei period and illustrates the characteristics of the family. Then analyzes the social background and lays a foundation for latter analysis of the family literature by analyzing the reasons which formed the Yang family tradition. Following introduces the geographic region and historical evolution of the Hongnong County, and the cultural atmosphere of this region along with the impact of the central plain’s culture on the spiritual and cultural aspect of the Yang family. The third part digs the literary works of the Yang family. After collecting and analyzing the literary works of the Yang family members based on the ancient books and materials, a conclusion of the characteristics of social background, connotation and aesthetic style of the Yang family literature is made. The forth part studies the general style and its evolution of the Yang family literature. This last part analyzes the changes of the Yang family literature during the Wei-Han period, the reasons behind and explores the development trend of Chinese literature.