Joint guarantee and mutual assistance, this word is very popular as soon as you hear it. There is no doubt that it was precisely because Gao Pragmatic had the experience of working as a grassroots cadre in the Red Dynasty in his previous life that he suddenly thought of this method of handling it. But what is really worth mentioning is that this method itself is particularly suitable for Chinese society - even Chinese society during the Ming Dynasty.
Chinese society has always been a clan society and a human society, and "imperial power does not extend to counties" has a long history. This leads to the fact that any ruler or ruling class has to consider the characteristics of this clan society when formulating policies, and cannot do the opposite. As a self-proclaimed "reformer", Gao Pragmatism will obviously adapt to this objective social nature.
However, what kind of society is called a "clan society", and what are the unique features of a clan society that Gao pragmatism must adapt to?
One thing is very clear, but may be overlooked by many modern people: Chinese clans are the product of ancestor worship, and the core of ancestor worship is ancestor worship. Therefore, the original meaning of clan is the people who gather around the ancestral temple to perform sacrifices, thus forming a clan organization.
The clans in the pre-Qin period can be divided into three stages: Shang, Western Zhou to Spring and Autumn Period, and late Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period.
The clans of the Shang Dynasty manifested themselves as a blood clan organization with "many sons". That is to say, the princes and grandchildren of the Shang King who did not succeed to the throne established separate gates and temples to worship their ancestral spirits, forming a blood group.
According to Zhou people, the clan members of Shang Yi were Zong, Xiaozi and Lian Chou. The Zong family is a small family with the eldest son and his wife as the core, the eldest son is a family of concubines who do not have the right to preside over the priests in the clan, and Leichou is a dependent citizen within the clan. The Zong family can grant the boy the right to worship his biological parents independently. Once the boy leaves the clan, owns a clan town, and has his own new cemetery, he can become independent. If he has a clan name to flaunt his family, he becomes a brand new clan. Relative to the mother clan from which they come, they are a sub-race, that is, a branch clan.
The Western Zhou Dynasty adopted the feudal system of granting people, land and surnames. The newly emerged "surname clan" changed Zhou people's understanding of the scope of blood relatives and highlighted the importance of family unity. The spontaneous instinctive impulse to separate families and clans was suppressed, so the clan structure changed. The social structure under the feudal system, as recorded in "Zuo Zhuan" in the second year of Duke Huan, includes surnames, clans, sub-clan and individual families, starting from the emperor of Zhou, princes, officials, scholars, and even common people, with blood ties as the link, layer by layer. Belongs to all.
In the late Spring and Autumn Period, great changes took place in the social structure. "Zuo Zhuan" records that in the third year of Zhao Gong's reign, Shu Xiang and Yan Zi lamented "Ji Shi", and the society underwent drastic changes. "High banks are valleys, and deep valleys are mausoleums." That is, the feudal system collapsed and the clan could no longer maintain itself. Common people refer to each other by their surnames, and their surnames lose their function of "differentiating between noble and humble".
Gu Yanwu's "Rizhilu·Weekend Customs" summarized the social changes in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period: "In the Spring and Autumn Period, clans and clans were still discussed, but none of them were mentioned in the Seven Kingdoms." That is to say, during the Warring States Period, the clan organization collapsed, and there was no need to Use surnames to determine blood ties. The era of "registering households to unite the people" has since arrived.
The clans of the Qin and Han dynasties generally had the following characteristics: succession, change in form, downward movement of clan lineage, transformation of functions, and far-reaching influence. The development of the clan's own clan rights mainly lies in the clan chief's management of the clan members, the clan's mutual assistance and self-defense. As for the activities of ancestor worship and genealogy compilation, because they are related to family status, official selection and marriage, it is determined that the clan activities of the gentry must still be restricted by the official to a certain extent, and the downward movement of clan power is relative.
Qin and Han society was an era of alternation and important changes between the old and the new in terms of clan form, organizational structure and clan system. The characteristics of this period were most obvious. The families of the Han Dynasty had the characteristics of being dominated by the paternal line, supplemented by the maternal line, and dual in clan system. Some clan elements in ancient times were retained in the Qin and Han clan organizations. In short, the clans of Qin and Han Dynasties have the characteristics of "post-clan era".
The clan structure during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties generally consisted of three generations of kinship relationships below the common ancestor, that is, father, brothers, and sons with oneself as the core, as well as all the subordinate fathers, all the subordinate brothers, and all the subordinate sons. Each patrilineal family is a clan unit. A clan is a kinship network composed of several clan units. Clan exists as a "relationship", not an entity. Each clan unit is an entity, more like a family. The existence of a clan is completed by genealogy, which shows the importance of genealogy in maintaining clan relationships at that time.
At this time, the most prominent aspect of the clan was its geographical location, and the foundation for the growth and development of the clan was the "township". The clans in the township form an important local control network through the township party and neighbors. Clan members serving as officials in various places formed a clan unit with bureaucrat members as the core. The gentry clan was an important historical phenomenon at that time.
By the Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties, clan, kinship, kinship, and family in literature could all express the meaning of clan on certain occasions. As a concept, clan refers to a family union formed by blood relations as a bond. At this time, the basic organizational structure of the clan includes family temples, genealogies, ancestral tombs, clan assets, their sources and management.
The types of clans in the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties can be divided into royal clans, Shandong gentry clans, Guanzhong clans, Xianbei clans, clans with outstanding regional characteristics in Lingnan and central Sichuan, and Xun clans after the Anshi Rebellion. The interaction and game between clans and state power affect national governance, and cultural traditions such as family rituals, family laws and family studies of gentry clans influence the development of social history. The development of clans has shown different stages such as inheritance, revitalization, reconstruction, great mobility and great integration. Clan organizations have extensive and profound influence on social and cultural life.
In short, the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods had transitional characteristics in ancient Chinese history, but at this time the main representatives and core values of clans still came from gentry-type clans.
There were obvious regional differences in the evolution of clan forms from Liao, Song, Xixia, Jin and Yuan. The clans in the areas ruled by the Xia and Jin Dynasties in Western Liao Dynasty largely inherited the concepts and organizational methods of the clan system of the powerful gentry. The clans in the areas ruled by the Song Dynasty, especially the Southern Song Dynasty, transformed along the direction of the clan system of respecting the clan and collecting clans.
The upper class of Xia and Jin society in western Liaoning was dominated by aristocratic families, and clans played a role in politics, economy, culture and social life. Due to the differences in production and lifestyle and the evolution of social forms between nomadic and farming peoples, the organizational methods of clans also showed differences. Significant differences.
The organizational structure of nomadic clans is very complex. The clan leaders not only maintain the order within the clan, but also actively participate in the affairs of social organizations at all levels such as tribes. There is obviously a strong personal dependence relationship between members of the clan organizations of farming clans.
In the areas ruled by the Song Dynasty, the transition from the clan system of the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties to the clan system of the Song Dynasty was the product of the changes in social and economic relations between the Tang and Song Dynasties, and was also the result of the efforts of scholar-bureaucrats to maintain their own status; the adaptation of the clan system in the Song Dynasty It improved the social conditions in the later period of traditional Chinese society and played an important role in mediating class relations and maintaining social stability.
During the reign of the Yuan Dynasty, the development of the clan system of respecting ancestors and collecting clans gradually improved, showing the regional differences between the south and the north. The unification of the Yuan Dynasty brought about a relatively stable social environment, and the movements and interactions of various ethnic groups in the north became increasingly frequent. The clan organization of the northern ethnic groups who migrated south was influenced by the Han; the clan organization in the south further developed on the original basis of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the clan group consciousness was enhanced and the cohesion became more obvious.
Then came the Ming Dynasty, which was an active period of clan building practices. If scholars in the Song Dynasty proposed various plans for clan construction, then in the Ming Dynasty, new clan forms were formed through large-scale practice.
In the Ming Dynasty, various ancestor worship practices among clans were extremely developed, and clans were simplified into rural areas. It was also a period when the form of genealogy was perfected. The partial legalization of building ancestral halls to worship distant ancestors and compiling genealogies to remember distant ancestors led to the formation of Ming Dynasty clans based on the model of establishing distant ancestors and constructing clans.
The expansion of the clan size and the organization of the clan have strengthened the centripetal force of the clan, changed the daily life of the clan, formed a new clan community, and shaped the social structure.
The practice of clan building by scholar-bureaucrats in the Ming Dynasty resulted in the formation of a large number of aristocratic families. They were the backbone of society, changing customs and changing customs, and influenced the world. Clan activities in the Ming Dynasty showed relatively obvious stage changes, which can be roughly divided into three stages: initial, middle and late, between Chenghua and Jiajing.
The social attributes of clans in the Ming Dynasty were generally based on orthodox traditional ideology. They carried out social construction to change customs. They were social groups and social organizations that maintained the good social order of the Ming Dynasty. They also adapted to the development and changes of society to a certain extent. The so-called "modern Chinese clan form" was completed in the Ming Dynasty, when clans became a social force that cannot be ignored.
To give a simple example: Today's Jinghua has a strong clan influence to some extent. One of the manifestations is that the Gao family clan will consider themselves to be naturally a part of Jinghua. In other words, Jinghua is of course highly pragmatic, but it is also of the "Xinzheng Gao family".
This leads to two results: First, Gao Jingshi and his legitimate son Gao Yuan are clearly the families of the "Jinghua Dazong", while the other families are small sects. Although the small sect has no leading power, it is definitely not an outsider. Assuming that the large sect is extinct, a certain small sect will obtain the right to inherit, or each small sect will inherit separately.
Of course, now that the highly pragmatic descendants are flourishing and there is no risk of losing the heirs, that is another story.
Secondly, because the small sects of the Gao family consider themselves a branch of Jinghua, there is no doubt about their loyalty to Jinghua. In a clan society, this kind of loyalty can almost be seen as "brought in the mother's womb". Generally speaking, as long as there are no extreme circumstances, it is impossible for a clan member to betray the clan.
It is precisely because of this that Gao Pragmatic can confidently and boldly grant officials to his brothers and cousins in southern Xinjiang, Nanyang and other places. It's just that he is not a complete Ming Dynasty person, so while boldly appointing officials, he will still restrict their power and nip the possibility of accidents in the cradle.
Let’s talk about “joint guarantee and mutual assistance”. The key reason why this system is related to clan society lies in the source of tenants in Huangzhuang.
Zhu Yijun inherited many imperial estates near Gyeonggi in his early years, but he had almost given up on them under Gao Pingshi's persuasion. Most of the original tenants of the imperial estates redeemed their "deeds of sale" and became free citizens. Therefore, the current Nanyang Huangzhuang tenant farmers basically come from the resettlement of refugees.
Needless to say, there were nine disasters in ten years of the Ming Dynasty during the Little Ice Age, and many prefectures and counties were affected by disasters. In the past few years, Gao Pragmatic had always relied on this situation to continuously immigrate from the Ming Dynasty to southern Xinjiang, and cooperated with the "household registration and naturalization system" to promote Chineseization in southern Xinjiang and Nanyang.
Now that Nanyang Imperial Village needs tenant farmers, it is natural that they will not let go of such a method that has been proven to be effective. It also transfers refugees within the Ming Dynasty to Nanyang Imperial Village for resettlement. The resettlement standards were very simple. The emperor was responsible for the food, clothing, and clothing of these people, and at the same time ensured that they would be allocated land according to their numbers after arriving in Nanyang. Those who went to Nanyang would automatically become tenant farmers of the imperial village and farm for the emperor for generations.
However, Gao pragmatic felt that "farming for generations" was unreasonable, so he persuaded the emperor and made two openings in the policy: first, the tenant farmers themselves and their children were allowed to participate in the imperial examination. It was taken back by the emperor; secondly, the tenant farmers agreed to prepare money to redeem themselves, and the redemption price was three times the market price of the total land allocated to them in that year.
Since the Huangzhuang tenant farmers come from refugees, and the refugees often come from disaster victims in the same county or neighboring counties, in order to facilitate management after resettlement, the refugees from a certain area are usually placed together, which forms a small-scale rural settlement. The group can also be called the township party.
There are good and bad things about township parties. The bad thing is that township parties are infinitely divisible - township parties in the same province are one group in front of people from other provinces, and township parties in the same prefecture are divided again in front of people in other prefectures. They are different in the same prefecture. Counties can continue to be divided...
This will definitely lead to township parties at different levels, large and small. When times are peaceful, it will be difficult to handle if there is chaos.
"You bastards from East County dare to bully my people from West County? See if my men from West County don't show you some color today!"
"What, the turtle from West County dares to jump in front of our East County men? Brothers, go to hell!"
However, if guided properly, the township party also has the characteristics of a certain period of clan society, and then forms a quasi-clan system.
"There are 300 fewer households in East County than ours, but they produced 20,000 jin more than us this year, which has greatly disgraced our West County men. Listen up, everyone, we must earn back this face next year! "
"What a shame, Xi County was hit more severely than us, but they rebuilt half a month faster than us! This is really embarrassing. The father-in-law who came from above even praised them today... Our man Are you so shameless? Next time during the post-disaster reconstruction, who the hell dares to work without putting in the effort, everyone will find him and show him!"
Look, these are the pros and cons. The key is how to guide them. Joint guarantee and mutual assistance is also based on the objective reality of this clan, township and party society. By correctly guiding and organizing these people to help each other, a harmonious and friendly whole is formed to jointly ensure the healthy development of Nanyang Imperial Village.
Gao pragmatically explained and analyzed Zhu Yijun. Zhu Yijun's eyes lit up and he nodded his praises repeatedly. Finally, he said with emotion: "Rixin is a talented person who governs the world. Now he is making suggestions for the emperor's village. It is my fault."
Seeing that his words were sincere and not hypocritical, Gao Pragmatic said to himself that today he had finally stopped prevaricating again. He couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "Why did the emperor say this? If the system in Huangzhuang is feasible, it can be widely used in the world. I'll give it to you." The plan is not buried."
After a pause, he added: "However, I also thought of what Han Feizi said: 'The prime minister must be born in the state, and the strong generals must be sent to the army." If I had not experienced Guangxi at that time, I am afraid that I would not have been able to implement policies in power. The trouble is superficial... so I always have an idea recently."
Zhu Yijun subconsciously asked: "What do you think?"
"My cabinet ministers must start from the Hanlin, and the Hanlin often does not go through the state department, and there are many among them who are ignorant of the sufferings of the people..."
Zhu Yijun was startled, rolled his eyes, and asked, "You mean?"
"Yes." Gao Pragmatic nodded and said: "I believe that although the Hanlin can still be the main candidate for cabinet promotion in the future, the Hanlin can no longer just study for the nobles, but should be sent to prefectures and counties for experience earlier... even if it is just After three to five years, I can always understand a little more."
Zhu Yijun suddenly hesitated, even a little nervous, rubbed his hands and said: "You are trying to subvert the ancestral system again! This is a big matter, let me think twice... However, after you go back today, you can write a detailed statement, But don’t make any noise about it, let Chen Ju go get it in person when the time comes, and I’ll discuss it with you in detail after I read it, okay?”
"I obey the decree."
——
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(End of chapter)
