Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 2, 2024

The Ming Transformation of Clan Society and Associated Conceptual Changes

(Abstract)

Chen Zhiping

The Song was a crucial period for the development of the clan system and clan society in China. Song Confucians designed a scheme that built a clan system and clan society that suited the realities of Song society and was passed down to later generations. The unceasing social and economic change under the Ming meant that the construction of the clan system and clan society evolved, becoming more closely related to social reality. From then on, ordinary people’s lineage-based clans allowed flexible and fictitious blood relationships that had little to do with the lineage concepts devised by the Song Confucians, which were based purely on blood ties. Under the Ming, clans were no longer limited to their internal matters, but plunged into the local community’s competitive and collaborative affairs. Following one or two hundred years of social adjustment, Ming clans had formed a pluralistic structure in which multiple contradictions coexisted and combined. During the Ming, changes in the clan system and clan organization adapted to the trend of social change. From the Qing to the Republic of China, the operation of the clan system and clan society was basically influenced by the Ming dynasty.