Japanese scholar Toru Inoue called the rapid development trend of clans in the Ming Dynasty "clan formation movement", that is, there has always been a movement to organize patrilineal relatives of the same ancestor in central and southern China, especially after the 16th century, the clan formation movement was carried out on a large scale in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places, and the clan organization in various regions tended to be stable.
Mr. Feng Erkang observed that in the context of this large-scale formation of clans, the clan system in the Ming and Qing dynasties showed the characteristics of "popularization", "structural expansion and organization of groups", "politicization and interaction with the regime". The role of clan indoctrination and exhortation is also gradually increasing, and Feng believes that the change in the genealogical style of the Ming Dynasty is one of the manifestations of this feature: the Ming Dynasty genealogy has added a section of clan rules and family discipline compared with the previous generation, and the content of ethical teaching and reward and punishment measures in it has strengthened the exhortation role of the clan.
Chang Jianhua also emphasized the trend of strengthening the "indoctrination color" of the clan, pointing out that "the organization of the clan in the Jia Longwan period of the Ming Dynasty was closely related to the township covenant of the clan", and the family norms before the Ming Dynasty were mostly named after the "family discipline", mainly "persuasive precepts", and with the implementation of the township covenant by the government in the late Ming Dynasty, the newly emerged family rules showed "strong township covenants and indoctrination political colors". Fei Chengkang believes that "in the Ming Dynasty, the number of families and families that formulated family laws and family rules gradually increased, and their content and form gradually matured."
Whether it is the prosperity of persuasive family training or the rise of family rules of the nature of township covenants, the emphasis of the Ming Dynasty family on the persuasion and indoctrination of the children of the clan is undoubtedly its prominent feature, and official moral education is one of the important contents. Mr. Feng'erkan's "interaction" between clans and regimes refers to the government's desire for clans to maintain social order with Confucian ethics, "Qi family", as grassroots organizations.
However, from the perspective of official moral education in the Ming Dynasty, this "interactive effect" is likely to be underestimated: in fact, the "interaction" is not limited to the government-led "Qi family" to maintain grassroots order - the clan sends outstanding official moral governance talents to the government through official moral education, and the government in turn acts as an official and encourages local families and townships to continue to carry out official ethics education activities, thus forming a reciprocating "interaction" relationship.
This section discusses the concept of official moral education of Ming families, the content and form of official moral education, and explains the "interaction" process between clans and political power in the Ming Dynasty by taking official moral education as the starting point in the rest of the discussion.
The official moral education concept of the Ming dynasty family as seen in family training and family rules literature
Although the children of the clan will bring political, economic, and cultural capital to the family, in the writing of family mottos and family rules documents in the Ming Dynasty, the family does not force the children to become officials, but pays more attention to whether their conduct is correct.
Xu Xiangqing (1479-1557), an official at the time of Jiajing, said in his family motto "The Four Rules of Xu's Yimou": "Children are clumsy and dull, do not take on the burden of business for a long time, and order them to practice public and private affairs as early as possible, and most of them teach their sons to seek to be endians, not to seek to be beautiful officials." Nongsang's main affairs, merchants and jia die, calligraphy and painting medical fortunes, can all feed themselves. Xu believes that the qualifications of descendants are different, and it is obviously unreasonable to blindly force them to engage in business, as long as they can engage in legitimate careers and grow into "end people". Tang Wenwen (1549-1605), the right attendant of the Wanli Ceremonial Division, also taught the children of the clan: "The first thing is to think about being a good person, and as for reading and composing, Dengke Dengdi falls into the second righteousness." ”
However, the prosperity and decline of the family is closely related to whether the clan is eunuch or not, and in this case, many families in the middle and late Ming Dynasty gradually focused on raising their careers and neglecting the official moral education of their children, Xie Zhaoxuan wrote in "Five Miscellaneous Tricks":
The godson of this man reads, but takes the Cordy, and he does not ask for it. The children of the deceased often have dengshi, and the greedy ones. His heart thinks that he is suffering when he is young, and his politics is today's ear, and he is satisfied, and he is unhappy with his desires. Oh, not only Jinye, but also the Korean public and Taoist people, the poems of Xunzi, there are the sentences "one is the public and the phase, and the middle residence of the Tantan Mansion", and the persuasive of the common poetry, there are words such as "there is a golden house in the book", the more slang the language, the uglier it is.
He Jingming (1483-1521), a scholar in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, said: "The world's eunuch is rich and detrimental, and the world's eunuch is righteous and perpetual." Huo Tao (1487-1540) also lamented in his "Wei Jia Xun": "Xun Rufang and Du, loyal as Liu, Li, and Han, the descendants are not overwhelmed, let alone the common people?" It can be seen that Ming Ren deeply realized that the "hairpin family" that has been eunuchs for generations will eventually decline, and the family that always puts virtue first can continue endlessly.
Therefore, many family mottos in the Ming Dynasty repeatedly emphasized that if the children of the family want to enter the career path, official morality is the first thing that should be considered. Yang Jisheng (1516-1555), a famous minister at the time of Jiajing, was imprisoned for impeaching the powerful minister Yan Song, and in his prison he wrote a posthumous admonition to his son: "If you study, if you are a middle-ranking scholar, a middle-aged scholar, think about my suffering, and do not become an official."
If you are an official, you must be honest and loyal, and serve the country with your heart, and you must not follow my foolishness, nor suffer misfortune because of my loyalty, so it is easy to change your heart, slack your will to be good, and make people laugh at "fathers and virtuous sons". Yang was worried that his son would change his integrity to an official because he was "suffering for loyalty", so he specially told his son to be honest and loyal as an official, and serve the country with all his heart.
The late Ming literary scholar Chen Jiru (1558-1639) also believed: "It is better to produce a warrior who loses his vitality than to produce a commoner who accumulates Yin virtue." "It is better for the children of the family to be commoners who "do many good deeds" than to be "virtuous" scholars. Yao Shunmu (1543-?) He emphasized that even if the descendants embark on the path of service, their integrity cannot be changed: "The first righteousness of my people is to think of being a good people."
Qualified, able to learn, can be a good showman. And if you are creative, you can be enterprising, but you can be a good official. However, he always does it as a secretary, but he still thinks that he is a show talent, a common man, and can be passed on to the future. He urged his descendants to "never forget their original intention" when they are in high positions, and start from the moral cultivation of a good people and a good talent. The Ming scholar Loren (1431-1478) made an analysis of the "good sons" and "evil children" among the Shi Gong people:
The so-called good children are not good fields, good clothes, and good names who boast about Luli for a while. It is said that there are good name festivals, competing with the sun and the moon, competing with the mountains, and competing with the sky for a long time, such as Ouyang Xiu of Song, and Wen Cheng of Nandu. If you seek to be full and snobbish as before, then the so-called evil children are not good children. Such children are not enough to humiliate their ancestors, harm their descendants, and harm their wealth; If you come out, it will be enough to pollute the imperial court, bring disaster to the world, and lose future generations. Even the descendants dare not recognize it, such as Cai Jing of Song and Qin Jing. Is this what my father and brother wanted?
Only those who have a good reputation and good official virtues like Ouyang Xiu and Wen Tianxiang can be called "good children", while those who have a brocade and a field house, high-ranking officials and boast about the countryside are "evil children". Huo Tao even believed that "a big official is evil, and a big official is a big disaster", and expressed concern about the possibility that the children of the clan would have poor official morality but held high positions. The official moral education of the Ming family was carried out under this educational concept of emphasizing virtue and neglecting merit.
The content of official moral education in the Ming Dynasty
The content of official ethics education for families and clans in the Ming Dynasty was based on traditional Confucian official ethics as the core, and the content was very extensive, involving loyalty, honesty, benevolence, purity, prudence, diligence, and sincerity.
Be faithful and dutiful
"Loyalty" is the core content of ancient official morality, and its connotation is not only the political quality of firmness and integrity, but also the ability to speak out to the monarch and not to deceive him. The famous thinker Yuan Yifan (1533-1606) of the late Ming Dynasty explained this in the "Sayings of Xun'er":
The righteousness of kings and courtiers has nothing to escape between heaven and earth. Whether it is a secret or a hidden, it is necessary to honor the king and serve the country. Whoever is fed and warmed today, and who is in the field, is the gift of my emperor, how can I not be grateful! He rises in the sun and needs to be based on not deceiving him. Don't be deceived, the so-called loyalty. Shangshu said that the so-called morality of the world, but it must be beneficial to the people of the society. If Zhaojun passes, in the name of Bo, he must not make such mistakes. Confucius Zining from the irony, its meaning is the deepest.
Yuan Huang believed that "not deceiving the monarch" was "loyalty", which was the "foundation" of being an official. However, communication with the monarch should also be strategic, and should not be engulfed by the atmosphere of the courtiers at that time who bluntly said that the monarch was too famous to gain a false name, and proposed that the true integrity should be in the social welfare and people's livelihood, and the monarch should be satirized with euphemistic words, so as to be in line with the righteousness of the monarch.
During Jiajing's reign, the official Fang Hongjing (1517-1611) also admonished his descendants in his "Fang Ding Family Training": "The first Confucian saying: 'The establishment of the dynasty is based on integrity and loyalty. 'Si Yan also, in the state at home, can do it for life. If you are not upright, you will tend to be dirty; Unfaithfulness will flow into ferocity. The disciples of Shun and Shun are divided here, but they are not careful! In the family training, "loyalty" is listed as the foundation of the palace. In addition, Yang Jue (1493-1549), who was imprisoned for his loyalty to resisting Xiangrui in the twentieth year of Jiajing (1541), used his example in his family letter to teach his son to be "loyal": "The good man of ancient times has the virtue of a benevolent gentleman, the heart of a loyal minister and a righteous man, and the talent of a hero and hero."
In this way, children should encourage themselves and look forward to themselves, and they can stand between heaven and earth: I have done so with devotion to my duties and for the country and the people, with arrogance in my heart and no regrets. If the Ru generation complains about my deeds, then Chief Pu Dao, Mr. Zhou Zheng 2 will die because of my deeds, and who else will too! What a heart! If you are a courtier, you are a courtier, and if you do not take the prince as your heart, you wear a contemptible husband, rot with the grass and trees, and there is no place for heaven and earth. You should be at ease. In a letter to his second son's family, he attributed his imprisonment to "dedicating himself to his duties, serving the country and the people," and specifically told his son not to complain about it, and that a courtier should be of the same heart as the people, so there is no regret for any misfortune.
"Due diligence" in daily administration is also an important part of "treating the king with loyalty". Ge Shouli (1502-1578), an official who became famous during the Lijia, Long, and Wan dynasties, attached great importance to the official moral education of his children, and wrote the Ge Family Discipline (later known as Ge Duansu Gongjia Training) after his posthumous service, leaving many lessons for future generations to serve as officials and engage in politics.