Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2015

The Song and Ming Dynasties’ Restriction on and the Relaxation with the Big Families

(Abstract)

Li Huarui

In Mencius’ day, the “big families” (ju shi 巨室) had two meanings: pillars of the country, or those of high rank (officials and gentry), the very rich, and wealthy merchants. In the Song and Ming dynasties the term mainly referred to the latter categories. A comparison between the official households in the Song Dynasty and the officials, gentry and landlords in the Ming Dynasty; between the wealthy in the countryside in the Song Dynasty and the commoner landlords in the Ming Dynasty; and between the salt merchants of the Song and Ming dynasties, shows that the Song Dynasty was more rigorous in guarding against and curbing the big families, while the Ming Dynasty was more accommodating and relaxed. This is closely related to the different political structure of the two dynasties. The government’s approach to restraining the big families in the Song Dynasty reflected mainly the political proposals of the scholar-bureaucrats. Under the power structure formed in the early Ming, in which the imperial power and the eunuchs kept civil officials down, the scholar-bureaucrat group which represented the standpoint of the imperial house and the state could not play the political role of restraining the big families as they had in the Song; the privileged stratum which curbed their power had to bear in mind that the imperial house of Zhu ruled the world.