Study Of The Rich Class In The Song Dynasty

The Rich Class in the Song dynasty is refered to the wealthy civilian, mainly involving the first three grades of the Landlord Class in rural areas and the affluent households living in Fang and Guo engaged in commerce, handicraft and other industries, excluding the Royals, officers, minor officials, monk households of the Landlord Class.Su Zhe said: “The rich are widespread among the counties, no matter big or small.” Amply documented in the literature about “the Rich Class” indicates that, during Tang and Song Dynasties, the Rich Class has already emerged and attracted worldwide attention. The Rich Class make up of the backbone of the society in the Song Dynasty, acting as the middle rank, the atabilised layer and the source of vitality to the society. Therefore the conception of “the Wealthy Conservation” is generated, which confirms the significant status of the Rich Class. As we target the economic, political and social life of the Song Dynasty, the Rich Class during this period can be percieved as an inevitable medium.The paper is oriented to the living conditions of the Rich Class in the northern areas of Song Dynasty, aimed at exploring systematically the material and spiritual life of the Rich Class in Song Dynasty, and transformation of the identity, occupation and social status of the Rich Class is also involved, through generally combing the material of the tombs of the Rich Class in Song Dynasty, combined with the literature, and the theory of Mr. Wang Guowei’s “Double Evidence Methodology” as well as the Marx’s historical materialism. While based on the research of the tombs, the paper also probes into the issues such as the social economy, cultural customs and faith of the Song Dynasty, expecting furthuer ackownlege of the overall appearance of the Song Dynasty.By integrating the archaeological data with historical documents, the paper make a difference from the past research method which purely relyed on historical documents, thus providing a brand research method and data for examing the Rich Class in Song Dynasty. The research content mainly includes the following aspects in this paper:First, combining with the historical documents and the related research, we analyze the shape and structure of tombs prevailed in the northern areas of Song Dynasty, and find that under the ritual and economic constraint, all class’ s tombs present a distinct difference on the specifications, internal ornament and funerary objects. Under the influence of conception of "Death as Life", the small imitation wood brick tombs which are luxurily decorated are the typical tomb shape of the Rich Class. Additionaly, tomb structure and decoration style obviously present a "mansion" trend in Song Dynasty. Affected by the view of funeral "Buried at a Race", many Family cemetery emerged. These phenomena not only reflects that the affluence in assets and descendants among the Rich Class in Song Dynasty, but also the reality that their social status has changed in a certain extent.Second, analysis on the adornment themes of the Rich Class’ s tombs. The themes concerning the home life reflect the vast diversty of the diet, the colorfulness of women’s clothing and the enternmait activities, priority with music and drama, including the easy and comfortable life and the psychological state of material comforts in Song Dynasty, the conception of women have played a leading role in the internal household life; Themes concerning the work inform us that the household labor is also stressed besides the traditional Cultivation and Reading Pattern among the Rich Class in Song Dynasty. Under the influence of the emergence of the Civil Class, their survival way becomes more diversified, trade, handicraft industry, perform and other ways also be choosed to accumulate wealth. Religious adornment theme let us realize that Buddhism, Taoism and the traditional Confucian filial piety culture are also prevalent among the Rich Class in Song Dynasty, which is the product of the openning religious policies of the Song Dynasty, reflecting the joint of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. And funeral kind adornment theme reflects the fact that the funeral customs such as entertainment funeral, entertainment resin, chanting and sacrificing tombs become popular and the aesthetic pursuit in funeral.Third, in accordance with unearthed epitaph, combing with the burial adornment and burial objects, we find that the identities of Rich Class in the Song dynasty vary from the landlords, businessmen, actors, miners to doctors and so on. The Rich Class in Song Dynasty pay attention to their reputation, therefore their active involvement in handling the affairs in countryside is the reflection of the enhancement of their social status; Generational changes between father and son in economy, identity, occupation and social status reflect a positive trend, which is closely related to the factors such as the development of the economy in the Song Dynasty, the reform of Imperial Examination and transformation of the marriage view in Song Dynasty...