The Ming And Qing Dynasties Linyi Family And Society At The Grass-roots Level

That People such as scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants lived in Linyi andthe social organizations such as the public schools, militia organizations and templeslocated in Linyi came together to form the local society of Linyi in Ming and Qingdynasties. Influenced by the local natural environment and humanistic tradition,people in Linyi presented several characteristics that they lived a moral andoutstanding-achievements political life, an agriculture-based-on economic life and arespecting Confucianism’s cultural life. At the same time, the way how the materialbase (such as land, grain, silver) accumulate that support the social organizationsexistent and develop also reflected the main characteristics of how people in Linyilived their political, economic and cultural life. In short, in order to live a ruly life,common people in Linyi were filial, friendly, generous to each other and they tookmeasures to reduce the damage caused by natural disasters and wars during Ming andQing Dynasties.There were quite a few respected and influential clan in Linyi during Ming andQing Dynasties,such as Mengyin Li and Tancheng Li, who were prosperous in theMing Dynasty; Junan Zhuang, Mengyin Gong, Lanshan Wang, Feixian Wang, YishuiLiu, Cangshan Yang and Cangshan Song, who were prosperous during Ming and QingDynasties and Junan Guan, Lanshan Zhao and Tancheng Hou, who were prosperousin the Qing Dynasty. Although the population and duration of these clans weredifferent from one another, yet they had several common points. Economically, theyactively engaged in agriculture, or purchased the land in order to ensure thesustainable development of family economy and establish the economic basis.Politically, they took an active part in the imperial examinations to calculate the meritand fame. When they became officials, they could heart the people safety, be loyal tothe court so that they formed a positive political pursuit. Culture, they often studiedfrom generation to generation, were keen to teach students and write books and articles so that they had formed the cultural tradition that they were interested inreading, which were handed down from ancient times.In fact, the distinguished families and the local societies of Linyi influenced andcomplemented each other. On one hand, the economic, political and culturalcharacteristics of the distinguished families were influenced by the naturalenvironment and cultural traditions of Linyi. It was the natural environment whichwas suitable for agriculture, the policy that Ming and Qing government encouragedpeople to engage in agriculture and the economic life tradition that made thedistinguished families attach importance to agricultural produce and graduallyestablished the agriculturally economic basis. It was the strong desire in politics whichwas established by the pre-Qin scholars and the distinguished families during Wei, Jin,Sui and Tang Dynasties living in Linyi, the moral and outstanding-achievementspolitical life situation of common people in Linyi and the preferential policy whichthe Ming and Qing governments provided to the officials that made distinguishedfamilies of Linyi during Ming and Qing Dynasties addicted to the imperialexaminations and the merit and fame. It was humanistic tradition that peoplerespected Confucius, the eight-legged essay which the Ming and Qing governmentscarried out that stimulated the distinguished families to pay attention to traditionalclassic education. Thus the distinguished families formed the cultural tradition. On theother hand, when participating in the local administrative affairs, establishing the localinterpersonal networks, organizing local cultural activities, perfecting families’internal affairs and engaging in the local welfare activities, the respected andinfluential clans of Linyi during Ming and Qing Dynasties made local socialorganizations better, the life of common people improved. We could say that theymade contributions to the local societies.