The Study Of Adopted Son In Tang And Five Dynasties

Since the ancient times, the purpose of people adopted sons was no more than to continue their clan or to find someone to rely on when they get old. Adopted son was the only way to make up the pain of having no children, but in the ancient time, the consanguinity concept of patriarchal ideology and the filial piety concept of Confucianism were the mainstream trend of social thought, people choose adopted son from the person of the same clan who have genetic relationship and blood relationship with them. Adopted son with different surnames was not only go against the bloods requirement of patriarchal system but also violate the morality requirement of Confucianism, it was also forbidden by the law and the number of adopted son is limited. But in the Tang and Five dynasties,people adopt a large number of sons, both of the number and influence is unprecedented and most of them are different surnames sons.The law of Tang dynasties provide people couldn’t adopt sons with different surnames,according to the legal document of Tang and Song dynasties, there is no difference between common people adopt and before, but in the upper class of society, including the Royal aristocrats、Official bureaucratic minister、The queen and Imperial concubine,there was different degree phenomenon which is adopted sons with different surnames in them,they flattered the top officers and took advantage of each other by adopting. They cultivate brave soldiers by adopted sons in order to get victory in the war, dozens at least, hundreds and thousands at most. The purpose of making a profit made the nature of the adopted son put on a veil with strong political color.The adopt phenomenon had always been in the ancient society, not just appeared in Tang dynasty, just some factors lead to the adopt relationship was used as a tool which served for political, such as the eunuch authoritarian,social unrest,the military regulation changing and etiquette collapsing. This relationship between father and sun was very unstable, many foster father and adopted sons, sons and adopted sons were become enemies with each other just because there were interests conflict between them.They even started a war and killed each other, so it not only had a influence on themselves,but also had a deep influence on the whole society.