Studies In Family Instructions Of Tang Dynasty

Family instructions are the instructions that the elders taught their descendents the ways to conduct themselves in society.On the ground of the research achievements of the predecessors in this field , this dissertation makes a study of the family instructions of Tang Dynasty, with methods of documenting, individual case analysis and comparison. This dissertation thinks: the family instructions of emperors in Tang Dynasty, which adopted some education methods that we can make use of, has surpassed their predecessors in system and some complete works on them appeared; based on the previous achievements, the instructions of mothers in Tang Dynasty, with a further development, has made progress with the conceptions on women education, which reflects the comparative improvement of the social status of women in Tang Dynasty. And at the same time, the dissertation points out that it's theoretical foundation is the Confucian value on human relations and its ultimate goal is that mothers' social ranks improve as result of giving birth to sons. Moreover, the dissertation refracts and reproduces the basic situations of the views on fealty, the ways of being an officer, the principles of handling affairs, the methods of managing a family, the attitude towards life and so forth in the society of Tang Dynasty, through the studies in all sorts of other family instructions in Tang Dynasty. On these basis, the dissertation concludes that the family instructions in Tang Dynasty has two social functions: consolidating the federal rule and accelerating the socialization of Confucian; meanwhile there exist some limitations such as conservatism, the notion that regards agriculture as superior to commerce, the utilitarianism and so on. The dissertation also points out that making a full study in the functions of the family instructions culture of Tang Dynasty on educating the descendents , spreading the cultural knowledge and maintaining the social stability, has its realistic importance to the establishment of new family instructions culture with the new spirit of the time, and to the exertion of its functions on moral educating ,cultural transmitting, social stability maintaining and so on.