Surnames have a very important meaning for Chinese. From a single surname, you can distinguish between people's high and low, noble and low, and their identities are clear. Especially when the surname is included in the official genealogy and becomes a famous surname, it means that the family has obtained the status of a scholar and enjoys many privileges.
This is because the "Genealogy" is a book dedicated to recording the lineage of clans in ancient China, which brings political and economic privileges to these clans by stipulating the rank of the landlords of these clans.
However, the "Clan Chronicle" promulgated during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang broke the previous door hierarchy on the basis of inheriting the previous system; and then the "Family Name Record" promulgated during the reign of Wu Zetian completely negated the previous door valve system.
Why was the Tang Dynasty able to make such a huge change in the cultivation of the spectrum? What kind of portal views do these two books reveal about the Tang Dynasty?
The origin of the Clan Chronicle
In fact, the revision of the spectrum is mainly derived from the ancient Chinese door valve system, since the Cao Wei regime proposed the Nine Pin Zhongzheng system, the door valve system has become more and more intense, reaching its peak during the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties. There are overseas Chinese surnames in Jiangnan, Wu surnames in the southeast, and county surnames in Guanzhong, and these local surnames have become the exclusive surnames of local clan landlords. again
Coupled with the implementation of the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system, a gap was drawn directly between the scholars, who were born as clan landlords, enjoyed glory and wealth, and thousands of acres of fertile land, while those who were born to be inferior.
So there was a popular saying during this period
"There is no cold door in the upper product, and no scholar in the lower product."
In just 10 words, it clearly points out the shortcomings of the door valve system, and at the same time forms a special historical phenomenon of "officials have nobles, and genealogies have worldly officials". Even in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the door valve system still existed, especially the founding monarchs of the Tang Dynasty, who were born in the Gaomen clan everywhere, Taizu Li Yuan, the prime minister Chen Shuda, Changsun Wuji, Chai Shao and others, all after being nobles, although with the formation of the imperial examination system, the door valve system has gradually weakened, but due to the existence of the former dynasty genealogy, it still ensures their political and economic characteristics.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin was very unhappy with this system, so the compilation and adjustment of the spectrum was something that would happen sooner or later. For example, in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the Shandong Shi clan had a high social reputation, they had high requirements for the door and marriage, and the Tang Dynasty ministers hoped to be able to marry shandong surnames.
In order to correct this social atmosphere of blindly pursuing the Mendy shi clan, in the 12th year of Zhenguan, Tang Taizong promulgated the standards for the formulation of the "Clan Chronicle":
"Refer to the historical biography, check the truth and falsity; enter the loyal and the virtuous, retreat from the evil; first the clan room, then the foreign relatives; retreat from the new door, enter the old hope; right."
Paste beam
, Zuo Hanyi"
Later generations commented on the "Clan Chronicle", and its appearance shook the previous door valve system.
Characteristics of the Clan Chronicle
Of course, Tang Taizong did not completely abandon the door valve system, he just wanted to establish a door valve group headed by the imperial family that could consolidate the imperial power, so the "Clan History" still did not completely break the concept of the door
。 Especially when the "Clan Chronicle" was first presented to Tang Taizong, Emperor Taizong found that these courtiers who compiled the genealogy still ranked the Shandong surname Cui Mingan first, which made the emperor extremely annoyed, and he said to the courtiers that he did not have any prejudices against the Shandong surname, but in recent years, the Shandong clan had already weakened for generations, and they used their in-laws to set off the status of their noble family and preserve their glory and wealth, which was actually a shameless act.
Subsequently, Emperor Taizong used his imperial power to intervene in the "Clan Chronicle" for the second time, and after several twists and turns, the "Clan Chronicle" was finally finalized, of which the imperial surname was the first, followed by foreign relatives, and the Shandong surname Cui was still ranked 3rd. At that time, there were a total of 293 surnames compiled into the Clan Chronicle, with a total of 1651.
Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, this door valve system, which has been formed for hundreds of years, has finally undergone a relatively large reform in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, which to a certain extent weakened the power of the old clan landlords and strengthened the power of the Shu clan landlords, and its purpose was actually to maintain the nobility of the Tang Dynasty royal family.
Although Tang Taizong said in his first compilation of the Clan Chronicle that the genealogy he compiled was also different from the noble origins of the previous generation, and now only looks at official qualities and talents to evaluate the rank, but this is not the case. The motivation for the formulation of this genealogy is actually caused by the result of the dissipation of the shishu forces, in this large social background, the former high-ranking clan has long been broken, and there are new court upstarts appearing, Emperor Taizong must choose the court upstarts who can maintain the imperial power, in order to ensure the stability of the imperial power, but the original clan landlord ownership system has not fundamentally changed.
Appearance of "Last Name"
With the advent of the imperial examination system and the abolition of the Nine-Pin Zhongzheng system, a large number of cold disciples have the opportunity to enter the official field, and they have become a social trend to improve their political status through their own efforts and break through the original concept of disciples. In this case, the original "Clan Chronicle" has long been abandoned by the entire official society, in order to ensure that political and economic power tends to be balanced, "Family Name Record" has finally appeared on the historical stage.
The original album, because it was restricted by the clan, could not include the Shou people whose political status was gradually improving, which naturally caused dissatisfaction among the Shou people. Therefore, during the reign of Wu Zetian, in the name of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, she revised an official genealogy, "Records of Surnames".
A total of 12 people participated in the revision of the "Family Name Record", and tang Gaozong personally formulated the style, and after the finalization, a total of 235 surnames and 2287 families were included, covering nearly double the scope of the "Clan History". In this way, in addition to the clan and the scholar, the cold door of the Shu clan can finally be recorded in the official room genealogy, although the prejudice and resistance of the high-gate nobles to the Shu clan have not been eliminated, but this is a fact that they cannot change.
The reason why such a great change occurred during the tang gaozong period was actually related to the social environment at that time, with the rapid development of the commodity economy, the social prestige and political status of the Shu people were increasing day by day, and the situation that the original gaomen nobles controlled the government had long gone, so the construction of this genealogy of the Shu Tonglu was the general trend.
Not only that, after Wu Zetian came to power, she also carried out a series of measures specifically to crack down on the clan landlords, she took back and burned all the original "Clan Records" issued by Emperor Taizong, and also dealt a serious blow to those officials who insisted on comparing identity, which could be more thorough than during the Taizong period.
At that time, the chancellor Li Jingxuan took three Shandong shi clan women to enter, and Wu Zetian directly expelled him from Beijing.
For those Shu people born in the cold gate, Wu Zetian even promulgated some support policies, through the strict examination of the imperial examination, selected a group of Shu people born in the cold door.
It can be seen from this that the Tang Dynasty's view of the gateway began to appear in an inevitable gap during the Tang Taizong period, denying the privileges of these Gaomen clans; by the time of Tang Gaozong, the Shu clan had completely replaced the Gaomen nobles.
Resources:
Comparison of Tang Dynasty Clan Records and Surname Records
The Contradiction between Tang Taizong's New and Old Ideas and Concepts
"From Zhenguan (Clan Chronicles) to Xianqing (Surnames)"