Study Of The Tang Family Ethics

The Tang dynasty is a period of great prosperity in the historical development of feudal society, achieving greater achievements than any other dynasty in political, economical and cultural aspects. On the other hand, the tang dynasty was in the period of transition and heyday of the feudal society, brewing reforming factors. Therefore, it can be said that the Tang dynasty is the outline of the previous stage of feudal society and the commencement of the latter period, in a very important phase of the inheriting the past and ushering the future in the development of the feudal society. Family ethics and morality, as an important part of social cultures, also embodied the characteristics of the times.This dissertation is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the phenomenon "Hu Hua" in the family ethics and morality at the earlier stage of the Tang dynasty. In the earlier stage of the Tang dynasty, with prosperous economy and active ideology, the traditional Confucianist family ethics and moral concepts was weakened; the restraint of feudal ethical code was greatly lessened; the fetter of family ethics was relatively loose. Many phenomena have arisen which did not accord with traditional family ethics and moral code, such as divorce, relatively free remarriage, the flagging ideology of chastity, wives of higher status and men of lower status, few taboos between men and wives. Wu Ze Tian changed Tang into Zhou dynasty and became the first empress of China, which conflicted traditional ethics and morality to the greatest point.The second part generalizes the tendency of Confucianist ethics and morality after mid-term of the Tang dynasty. Insurrection of An Lu Shan and Shi Si Ming interrupted the advancement of the Tang dynasty. Successive years of chaos caused by revolts made the domination of the Tang dynasty go from bad to worse. In order to defend their waning domination, the rulers gradually tightened up the control of Confucianist ethics and moral code over societies and families. Ethics and morality needed coming back to tradition. With the increase of ideology of women's chastity and the reduction of divorce and remarriage, the fetter of Confucianist ethics was reinforcing.The third part expounds the tendency of counter- Confucianism in the later stage of the Tang dynasty. In the last years of the Tang dynasty, the separatist rule of vassal states and tangled ware fare formed different cultural regions under the superficially unitary reign of the Tang dynasty. Influenced by the social customs of the minor nationalities living in the north. The phenomenon of counter- Confucianism that ran counter to tradition human relationship of the feudal society appeared in the regions of vassal states. That is the tendency of adopted sons was prevailing. The fact that a great number of adopted sons changed their family names confusion the obstinately patriarchal concepts, making the patriarchal concepts fade. On the other hand, the adopted sons were also important forces of the wars between vassal states and thus aggravated social upheaval. At the initial stage of the Song dynasty, the rulers learned a lesion from the separatist rule of vassal states and weakened the power of the military officers, promoted and put civil officials important positions, exploring the way that civil officials tried to ran the country.The fourth part concludes the course of development and changing of the family ethics and morality in the Tang dynasty, and the characteristics of inheriting the past and ushering in the future in the historical development of the ethics and morality in the whole feudal society.On the basis of concluding the research achievements of the predecessors, from the point of view of the development of ethic ideology, this dissertation studies the family ethics and morality of the Tang dynasty at the point of penetration of the phenomena such as women's status, marriage and ethics, and adopted sons. It places the development of ethics and morality in the social background of the Tang dynasty so as to reveal the tendency of family ethics and morality and analyze the causes of this tendency and the influences to politics and ideology of the Tang dynasty and following societies. Thus the position of the family ethics and morality of the Tang dynasty can be understood better in our country's traditional family ethic ideology.