From Clan Relief Agencies To Clan Societies:the Change Of Clan Organizations In Shanghai

After Song Dynasty,Clan relief agency became the economic base of maintaining clan organization.Fan Zhongyan was the first to set up the relief agency of Fan clan in Suzhou during the reign of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty,and the system of administration of this clan relief agency was also a model for later generation.According to the information available,Tao Xuanyi of the Southern Song Dynasty was the first to set up the clan relief agency in Shanghai.In Yuan Dynasty,there were still five clan relief agencies in Shanghai.In the Ming Dynasty,most of clan relief agency came into being after the middle of the Ming Dynasty in Shanghai,during this period,the number of clan relief agency in Shanghai did not develop significantly compared with the past,and the builders were still mainly bureaucrats.Besides,in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties,due to the heavy corvee,clan fields were given a new connotation because they helped to share the corvee.In the Qing Dynasty,the development of clan relief agency in Shanghai was unprecedented,and after the failure of the Taiping Rebellion,the development of clan relief agency was more prominent.In the Qing Dynasty,the great development of clan relief agency in Shanghai was not only reflected in the number,but also in the identity of the builders.The great development of clan relief agency in Shanghai in the Qing Dynasty was closely related to the rulers’ encouragement and protection of clan relief agency,and the reason why clan relief agency developed more rapidly after the Taiping rebellion was suppressed was that more clans saw the function of protecting clans because of the war and participated in the wave of building clan relief agencies.Although the clan relief agency of Qian’s branch in Jinshan came into being in the reign of Guangxu,it still adopted the management,running and distribution methods of the traditional clan relief agencies,which were effective in the management of Fan’s clan relief agency.The functions of clan relief agency of Shanghai represented by the clan relief agency of Qian’s branch in Jinshan are to help the disadvantaged,narrow the gap between the rich and the poor,help the people to become talents,and maintain the local social order,etc.,yet,it also had some disadvantages,such as easy to raise lazy people,easy to breed autocracy in management methods and so on.However,after entering modern times,clan relief agencies of Shanghai in Qing Dynasty also carried out a certain self-renewal,which had the tendency of breaking the blood restriction and changing to relief organizations.After the Song Dynasty,the clan was attached to the political power,thus,with the development of the times and the change of political system,the management of clans will be adjusted accordingly.A person with breadth of vision in the Chu and Cao clans of Shanghai had a clear understanding of the advanced nature of Western system and culture at the end of Qing Dynasty.Because the development of the clan was hindered by the management of the clan public property,they planned to change the clan system.They thought of following the trend of the local autonomy movement in Shanghai and the rising call for constitutionalism,abandoning the traditional clan management system and patriarchal ethics,and making the clan management,especially the management and operation mode of clan public property,bid farewell to autocracy and selfishness by imitating the western democratic political system and engaging in clan Constitutionalism.Moreover,they hoped to arouse clansmen’s concern and sense of responsibility for the development of the clan through the participation of the clan members in the affairs of the clan society,the clansmen could further unite together because of the overall development plan of the clan,and learn to become qualified citizens with a sense of responsibility to the country and society by participating in the clan society.In addition,the clan society of the Yu clan in Shanghai adopted both patriarchal and democratic management methods,although the dunqiu guild of the Ge clan in Shanghai did not take the name of "clan society",it also adopted democratic management methods.After entering the Republic of China,the number of modern clan society in Shanghai increased greatly compared with that in the late Qing Dynasty,during this period,not only local clans but also immigrants formed clan societies in Shanghai.The rapid development of clan society of Shanghai in the Republic of China was closely related to the gradual improvement of the relevant legal system,including the legal person system,the relatives’ meeting system,and the property inheritance system,etc.The progresses of clan society of Shanghai in the Republic of China were to accept the idea of gregariousness,to enhance the positioning of the clan organization,the function of clan societies,and the management system and so on.The women in the clan finally had the qualification to participate in the management of clan affairs,which was the greatest progress of Shanghai’s clan society in the Republic of China.Compared with the traditional clan organization,modern clan society in Shanghai had some fundamental differences.The characteristics of modern clan society in Shanghai were as follows: the management method was democratic to a certain extent;the clan members had autonomy in the clan associations;and the social function was obviously evolved.Although the number of clan society in Shanghai was small,and there were some shortcomings itself,it opened a new chapter in the democratization of clan management and helped to cultivate qualified citizens.The change of clan organizations in Shanghai from clan relief agencies to clan societies conformed to the trend of modernization,which was not only beneficial to the development of the times,but also brought new life to the clan organizations,that was,to the direction of modern social groups.The valuable thoughts of the change of clan organizations in Shanghai,such as keeping pace with the times,pursuing equality and stressing democracy,were also worth learning in today’s family life.