Research On Social Thought Of Shi Stratum In The Eastern Jin Dynasty

At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, having undergone"8 king's rebellion"and"Yongjia's rebellion", under the double suppression of civil strike and invasion outside, the family of Sima had been weakened greatly. In the social violent turbulence, Shi stratum (a social stratum in ancient China, between senior officials and the common people) suffered heavy losses, so, in order to survive, they moved south to the midstream and downstream of Yangtze River on a large scale. After moving, by their strong Strength, Shi stratum had seized the power of social control in an all-round way, such as politics, economy, military, culture etc. and with time going on, they further strengthen the control, which demonstrates its most vigorous side as a special stratum.In South, northern and southern Shi stratum, united with Sima, set up the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Thus, the Shi stratum became the main force of the regime, and its representative, Langya Wang, opened the composite political model of"Wang and Ma govern the country together", which accompanied the Eastern Jin Dynasty from the beginning to the end. During this time, the family of Yu in Ying Chuan, the family of Huan in Qiao Guo, and the family of Xie in Chen Jun were some other representatives of the Shi stratum, maintaining the operation of the Composite political model in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. However, the real monarch's power was actually in the hand of the advanced Shi stratum. Moreover, the Shi stratum was gradually to have the awareness of the type of Composite monarch too. While keeping and suppressing the Sima's symbolic monarch, the Shi stratum also contended for the changing real"king"according to their strength, because the family of Sima is only a symbol of Eastern Jin regime, being only the reason why Jin Dynasty was called Jin Dynasty, but the real power was actually held by the Shi stratum, and who enjoyed the power was always settled inside Shi stratum. The family of Wang is a symbol too, for the newly rising Shu stratum would challenge them and even replace them, without any political or ethical constraint. The mold of composite monarch promoted and influenced the operation of the Eastern Jin regime, making Eastern Jin Dynasty have a strong Shi stratum's mark.In Eastern Jin Dynasty, Shi stratum firmly controlled the whole society and formed peculiar role awareness as a whole. What the role they acted politically was in fact that of monarch together with Sima family. Inside the stratum, there was awareness of mutual flaunt, demonstrating oneself, and ranging political grade order. Besides, the Shi stratum had a colorful self-role performance, for example, various attitudes towards monarch, different cognition of internal grades, well-matched marriage in social and economic status, tendency of opinionated disposition, presumption, profligate daily life, and so on, which made the Shi stratum's role more plump, more true. The role's consciousness of Shi stratum was changing with development of society, especially when Shu stratum emerged; they began to compromise with the new stratum in politics.In the Western Jin Dynasty, the Shi stratum had a large amount of economic wealth, and formed the vulgar outlook of wealth. They all pursued luxury, and made wealth as the distinguishing standard of the people among the Shi stratum. As a result, the social vogue was ruined. Although the Shi stratum in Eastern Jin Dynasty hold a great wealth after a short time of accumulation of economic materials, wealth was not suitable for the distinguishing standard any more. Nevertheless, this standard was substituted by cultural criterion, which was advocated by the Shi stratum, and the contesting of cultural knowledge emerged again. The reviving of this contest was the specific exhibition of culture consciousness of the Shi stratum in that time. In the culture consciousness, the degree of the mastery of the culture, was the effective judging criterion of the Shi stratum's personalities; it was the important means to promote one's own family's position and the significant insurance to maintain the family's position among the Shi stratum; only by paying attention to the cultivation and instruction of the cultural attainment of the family could the positions of those Shi stratums have a continuity in the cultural field. With this influence of culture consciousness, the Shi stratum of the Eastern Jin Dynasty made another culture achievement that was worth applaud.Social being determines social consciousness, and social consciousness reacts social being. In the setting of great social change, as a most vital stratum, the Shi stratum of Eastern Jin Dynasty had three major characteristics, that is, the uniqueness of the monarch's awareness, the richness of the role's awareness, and the inheritance of the culture awareness in the social ideology.