Research On Maxi’s Yao Clan In Tongcheng And The Rise And Fall Of The Tongcheng School

Maxi’s Yao clan moved from Yuyao at Zhejiang to Dayou village at Tongchengin the Yuan Dynasty,who said Maxi’s Yao clan.The first ancestor who moved toTongcheng was Yao Shengsan,and generated to Yao Xu who was the fifth generationand acquired fame in the Imperial Examination. The clan transformed gradually fromthe farming and reading clan to the official clan,culture clan.In Qing Dynasty, Maxi’sYao clan was famous worldwide for deep connection with the TongchengSchool.From Yao Fan of the fifteenth generation,Yao Nai of the sixteenth generationto Yao Yongpu,Yao Yonggai brothers of the twentyth generation,spanning sixgeneration,which played a very important role in the development, prosperity, declinestage of the Tongcheng School.In the history of literature, it’s very rare that like Yaoclan associated deeply and combined long with literary schools. This paper withMaxi’s Yao clan in Tongcheng as a starting point, would view the role and influence ofMaxi’s Yao in the process of the rise and fall of the Tongcheng School,and I hope itwill provide a feasible reference for the study of the relationship between theTongcheng School and cultural clan.During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were large prominent clans inTongcheng.Most of them were the descendants of immigrants in the late Yuan dynastyand the early Ming dynasty, and passed through the hard efforts of several generations,becamed finally great imperial and culture clan from the ordinary farming clanthrough the imperial examination.Guilin Fang clan, Zhang clan, Yao clan,and so on,which were typical representative of all major clans.These clans with mutualexchange and influence,through inheritance,marriage and other relationships,played avery important role in the district culture construction of Tongcheng.Thus, Tongchengwhich became the Imperial County, Neo-Confucianism Town, literary hotbed, wasnationally renowned cultural highland during Ming and Qing dynasties.Maxi’s Yao clan of literature exsited formation,development,prosperity,continuity,transformation in different stages.From Yao Shengsan who moved toTongcheng to the tenth generation, it was a literary clan formation and developmentperiod.From the eleventh generation to the sixteenth generation, it was a literary clanprosperous period, Maxi’s Yao clan were on the upgrade literature and presenting asplendid sight.From the seventeenth generation to the twentyth generation,was literaryclan low continuation.From the twenty-first generation, Maxi’s Yao clan graduallytransformated to modern clan, eventually the halo of literary clan vanish.Uniting to marriage of Maxi’s Yao clan had an important influence ondevelopment and expansion of Tongcheng’s native force in the Tongcheng School.Maxi’s Yao clan mainly united to marrige with domestic Fang clan, Zhang clan, Maclan, Zuo clan and so on.Most of them were generations of intermarriage, evenserial marriages. They created a jointly symbiosis and cross mentorship literary fieldthrough the uniting marriages, which not only promoted the development ofTongcheng culture ecology, but also created multicolored development trend of theTongcheng School. The tradition that Maxi’s Yao clan attached importance to education promoted thespread and development of the Tongcheng School. Maxi’s Yao clan always attachedimportance to children education,and had a fine education tradition, which effectivelyprotected success in the imperial official, literary and artistic.Not only that, Maxi’sYao clan’s members also participated actively in education practice.They founded thecolleges or teached in the colleges, or founded the new schools, or teached in the newschools, which cultivated a large number of the Tongcheng School’s members whoimitated Yao Nai, to a certain extently, promoted the spread and development of theTongcheng School.Especially,it’s the most representative that Yao Nai teachedCollege Zijin Mountain.Yao Nai teached College Zijin Mountain twice,more thantwenty years, have cultivated a large number of students who were obeyed him,andboosted the formation of literati group as the center of Yao Nai in the TongchengSchool,meanwhile,affected change of academic atmosphere in College ZijinMountain and the area south of Yangtze River.The tradition that Maxi’s Yao clan collected, edited and published bookspromoted the academic and cultural heritage of the Tongcheng School.Thecollection,edition and publishion were important activities in clan culturalconstruction, which in favor of clan culture accumulation and inheritance.YaoFan,Yao Ying,Yao Junchang and so on as the typical representative of the clanmembers made important contributions on collecting and publishing books, which notonly created a rich atmosphere of the book for the clan’s own cultural development,but also provided the necessary conditions for the academic culture accumulation andinheritance of the Tongcheng School.Maxi’s Yao clan had excellences in succeeding generations, which played a veryimportant role in the transmutation process of the Tongcheng School in differentperiods.Yao Fan of the fifteenth generation not only teached Yao Nai by precept andexample,but also was the forerunner of the formation of the Tongcheng PoeticSchool.Yao Nai of the sixteenth generation was a founder and master of theTongcheng School,but also a literary master of the later Maxi’s Yao clan.He createdThe “Xibao clan law”which he created have become important cultural resources ofMaxi’s Yao clan and the Tongcheng school. Yao Jingheng of the seventeenthgeneration uphold clan knowledge,inherited what his father said, and occupied aspace for one person in the camp of the Tongcheng school.Yao Ying, Yao Jianzhi, YaoYuan Zhi of the eighteenth generation acknowledged Yao Nai as their teacher,andcontinued to support Maxi’s Yao clan of good reputation with their political andliterary achievement, but also made an important contribution to the development ofthe Tongcheng School in Jiaqing and Daoguang period.Yao Junchang of thenineteenth generation got into Zeng Guofan’s Mu-Fu in youth,and was guided andincentived in poetry by Zeng Guofan, Mo Youzhi and other teachers,and played animportant role in revitalization of Tongcheng poetry during TongZhi andGuangXu.Yao Yongpu, Yao Yonggai brothers of the twentyth generation facedTongcheng School that has been showing signs of decline,and feel worry, intended tocounter declining.They put a lot of the vigorous efforts in their theory, literarycreation, school education, and tried hard for the continuation of Tongcheng School life.They were not only the defenders of the Tongcheng School, but also the witnessof the Tongcheng School’s decay.