Research On The Lineage History Of Wei, Jin, Southern And Northern Dynasties

The personal compilations of history were prosperous in the period of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, among which Lineage history appeared heavily in the old and great family. Compiling family biography and genealogy which were the typical representative of lineage history was a specific social phenomenon at that time. Lineage history has important value in the Chinese academic history. The paper intends to specifically analyze family biography and genealogy in that period. Main text includes three parts.The first part is the illustration of compiling lineage history. Above all, the article clears the connotation of lineage history and points out lineage history including two parts——family biography and genealogy. Then the article analyzes the compilation, content, characteristics of family biography and genealogy during the period of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.The second part elaborates the reasons and conditions about the prosperity of lineage history. Firstly, the special surroundings influenced the compilations of lineage history. Because of the chaos caused by war, the old and great family needed to pay attention to the familial perceptions, so as to strengthen family's unity and cohesive force. Also compiling lineage history also has relation with the sense that the large and influential family celebrated their predecessors for raising their social class. The developed clan culture of that time fostered a large number of outstanding historians. Secondly, this part explains the influence of the ancestry system on the compilation of lineage history. The ancestry system is the root cause. The establishment and development of the Nine-grade System led to the mandarin's selecting paying attention to family status. The scholar-nobleman needed to clear and consolidate their privilege and status. People valued well-matched in social and economic status, so people needed to confirm and distinguish the status of the large and influential family by lineage history. Thirdly, Confucianism and Metaphysics infiltrated the content of lineage history. Metaphysics was fashionable in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. It had great influence on the large and influential family. It made people pay attention to writing their predecessor's image and morality when people compiled lineage history. Confucianism also had strong impression. The idea of filial piety which constantly influenced people's words and deeds was the material of lineage history.The third part explains the influence and the value in historiography of lineage history. The quality of family biography had been changed since Wei, Jin Dynasties. The category of history in the bibliography has no family biography after Sui, Tang Dynasty. But, genealogy has come down. It becomes more and more perfect and also belongs to history. The later period compilation of lineage history consults and draws lessons from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties'. In addition, the article analyzes the value of lineage history from the influence on the complication and commentary of history and the bibliography.In a word, this article beginning from family biography and genealogy analyzes the special connotation and meaning of lineage history in the period of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.