Study On The System Of The Family Of T'u-si Li

The family of T'u-si Li was the most influential one of T'u-si families during Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties in the Yellow River and Huang River valley. Since the academic community showing its interests to the family of T'u-si Li, more attention has been paid to the race source, the historical and military activities, but less to the family itself, especially, little to the system of the family. In fact, all kinds of internal systems of the family had played a crucial role in consolidating the power during the long history of the family. Therefore, this article chooses its family systems as the object of study in order to make a supplement to the study of the family of T'u-si Li.This article makes a quite comprehensive macroscopic description and gives a microscopic demonstration of the family systems, from five aspects, the marriage and family system, the management system of the patriarchal clan and the succession system of T'u-si, the military and economic system, the system of the funeral and the sacrificial rites, and, the culture and the faith.The marriage was the important society behavior of the T'u-si family of Li, and was also the direct impetus and internal factor to keep the Li's family continuous. The monogyny and the polygamy were the mainstream, and there were also other types of marriages. The marital relationships of Li family were mainly the marriages between the upper nobles of the internal of the nation (between the T'u-si of T'u), next were the ones with the Han officials, which were to great extent politics marriages between the distinguished families. To Li family, the selection of the successor was also a crucial thing. "The selection of the successor" must meet a certain requirements. After having been selected as successor, the successor immediately obtained the corresponding rights, and also the corresponding responsibilities. The status of women was higher, which was mainly shown in the life of politics.Of the family management systems, the official supervision systems and the official management system had come into being. Though they were the relationship between the superior and the subordinates, T'u-si and "Tushe" also had the relationships of mutual supervision and restrained rights. There were also the householder, the head of a family and the governor and so on, in the internal of "Tushe". They had responsibilities of their own, and they coordinated with each other and also restrained mutually. The succession system of T'u-si included the family succession system, the succession system of the same blood and the succession system of the officers, "Sengguan" of the patriarchal clan. To keep the domination from generation to generation, the successors must be males of the descents of T'u-si, no matter they were the first sons of the legal wives or the second sons, or the brothers of the T'u-si, or the nephews, or the grandsons or the grand grandsons.According to the T'u-si system of our country, it divided into official system and officer system, and T'u-si Li was a position which belonged to the system of commanders. His subordinates, including the Qianzong of troops, the Qianzong of Chop-protecting, the military governor and the householder and so on, formed the strict administration system of the stratocracy with T"u-si. The army of T'u-si Li played a great role during the domination. The army was under control of T'u-si, whether in the life or in military affairs and it also affiliated to T'u-si tightly. There was one kind of compulsory patriarchal and feudal relationship between T'u-si and the army, which was non-blooded, but compulsory. As soon as its economic system was concerned, the producer goods including fields in the domain of T'u-si, belonged to T'u-si, "Tushe" and monasteries. The ruling in the economy was also found in the tenancy relationship and tax relationship between T'u-si and his subjects."Xiao", the basic culture idea of the feudal patriarchal clan system was shown during the funeral and the sacrifice. The choice of the location of the family tombs manifested comparatively strong Taoism ideas. The sacrificial fields, which were specially chosen to sacrifice the ancestors, were rented to the peasants, and the rent was used during the sacrifice. The sacrificial system of the ancestral temples was deeply affected by the traditional rituals of Han cultural, but a little different from that of the common family.As soon as the culture of thought is concerned, the family had a high level of Han culture, because it had absorbed the Confucian thought and the culture of Han since it was subjected at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. In religious aspect, it had absorbed more Tibetan Buddhism ideas, and the Taoism also occupied a crucial place in the religious thoughts.This article penetrates in T'u-si Li family, analyses all kinds of its systems deeply, and draws conclusions that, the domination of patriarchal clan system played a leading role in the family, and its culture was also greatly strong compatible and stable in the fundamental society.