A Study On The Culture And Literature Of The Shen’s Clan Of Wuxing In The Six Dynasties

It has been an academic direction of classic literature research to view clan and clan literature in literature respective. This thesis takes a case study of Wuxing Shen clan, and it will help us to have a deep understanding of the connection of ancient femily with religion, society and region culture and will help to conclude the rise and fall of ancient family politics.Wuxing Shen clan becomes famous for Kong Fu in the beginning of JinSong Dynasty, its family was well-known for its braveness in war times and it has underwent ups and downs to be prestigious. In Qiliang dynasty, the descendants of the family were influenced by Confucianism, they went to take part in politics by their Kong Fu or won their fame in literature circles, and therefore, this family was transformed to a literature clan. In Chen Dynasty, the Shen Clan has many talents who were famous for their literature ability. Under the upheavals of the Weijin Dynasty, the Shen family has show its unique characteristics from those of royal families. From the end of Han Dynasty and the beginning of Wei Dynasty to Chen Dynasty, the Shen family showed its unique Splendor and has deep influence to the later generations.In this paper, the author shall firstly do some research on the origin of the Shen family and to have a full understanding of the Shen Clan. By analyzing the branches of the Shen family and focusing on the migration of the Shen family to Wuxing WUkang, to generalize the history process of the Shen family’s transformation from a migration family to a prestigious family and finally to a literature clan. What’s more, the paper tries to analyze the rise and decline reason of the Shen Family by the guiding of clan integrity and the traces of some important historical figures.The rise and decline reason of the Shen Family has close connections to its family trait and tradition. Its tradition of admiring Kong Fu has indispensable effect on the rise of the Shen Family. When we analyze the reason and inheritance of its Kong Fu Tradition, we can find that this tradition has disappeared in the late LiuSong Dynasty and at the same time, the political and ecomomy status of the Shen Family was declined too. The reason is that when it comes to WeiJin Dynasty, Kong Fu was dispersed while literature was honered, so the Shen Family changed its Kong Fu tradition to meet the society preferences. It is the combined effects of social preference and the choice of the clan. On the other side, the flexible minds of the Shen Family has great links to its strong awareness of pursuing fame and enterprising Confucianism spirits. The spiritual reason promotes the change of the cultural mind while the transformation of cultural mind shows change in its clan’s religion belief.Is the Shen Family a family who believes in Heavenly Teacher Sect? Getting the answer of the question helps us to clarify the relationship between the flexible cultural minds and religion faith.The literature of the Shen Family begins in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and has went through Western Jin and Eastern Jin Dynasties, and in Liu Song period, a lot of literary figures emerges, when it comes to QiLiang Dynasty, the literature achievements of the Shen Family has reached its peak, a literary circle represented by Shen Kuo was formed. The developing process of the Shen Family’s clan literature has close relation to the transformation of its family trait and tradition. The cultural minds of honoring literature and despise Kong Fu lead to emperor-oriented and mass-benefit lecture spirits. The admire for Kong Fu and strong fame-pursing awareness lead to the literary figures of Shen’s civil and military virtues and broad vision and specialize in one field. The enterprising life of the clan descendant Shen Kuo and passive life of descent Shen Jiong shows the result of different choice on flexible cultural minds of the Shen literary figures.