The Study Of The Confucian Household Register In Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty was the first dynasty of big unification established by the nationalminority in the border area. Because of the profound nationality of its political dominion,the Yuan dynasty took a way different from the former dynasties to rule the Confucianclass in the former political dominion of the Han nationality in the central plains area, andestablish the special Confucian household register to uniformly manage and govern theclass. The paper focuses on the Confucian household register in the Mongolian YuanDynasty, and try to analysis and state from the background, rights and obligations of theestablishment of the register, as well as its social identity, status and influence. The authoralso makes a primary analysis of the the particularity of the system of the Confucianhousehold register and the variation and influence of this class.1.The analysis of the background of the establishment of the Confucian householdregister. In the period of the Song and Jin, the scholar-bureaucrat class was the socialcentrality. Both the government and the society provided excellent conditions to the class,which was embodied most vividly in the Northern and Southern Song dynasties.However, the dominion of the Mongolian led to the collapse of this status. Later, underthe efforts of the Confucian ministers like Yelv Chucai, the Mongol Empire carried outthe Screening Test of the Wu Hsu Year, which made it possible for the chosen Confuciansto enjoy some of the former policies of good treatment. That was an event of greatimportance for the Confucians in the transition of Jin and Meng to change their identitiesand status. The Screening Test of the Wu Hsu Year laid the important foundation for thecontinuance of the Confucian culture and the establishment of the Confucian Householdregister in the2ndyear of Emperor Yuanxian Zong.2.The establishment of the Confucian household register and its development and change. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Confucians in the Han areas stepped into a relativelystable period after the wars in the initial stage of the Mongol Empire, especially after theefforts of the Screening Test of the Wu Hsu Year by Yelv Chucai etc., they gained theright of avoiding taxation which had been enjoyed by the Taoists and the shamans. Thestatus of the Confucians elevated. After that, the whole Confucian household registerreached its real stable state in the28thyear of Yuan after the repeatedly screening andexpansion. With the change of the household register, the Confucian household register’srights changed many times, which led to a damage to the Confucians to some extent asthe policies of the Mongolian dominion changed. In general, the Confucian householdregister enjoyed the right of avoiding taxation.3．The analysis of the Confucian household register’s social status and their influenceto the later generations. The Confucian household register had an unusual social status inthe Mongol Empire. They connected the upper class and the middle and lower class ofthe Empire, and enjoyed a relatively good status compared with the other householdregisters in the same grade. But their status glided relatively because of the relativelynarrow way of becoming court officials provided by the Empire. Although theConfucians could become court officials, they could only share the title of common orlow-down beadles, or take the position of drill masters. This situation didn’t get bettereven after the imperial examinations.This situation led to the decline of the social status of the Confucians group led bythe Confucian household register. It even influenced the social structure of the MongolEmpire, which formed the Double Elite Group. Meanwhile, the loss of the householdregisters for services in the middle class of the society was severe that led to the fault inthe double aspects of the dominion system and the social system in the inner parts of theEmpire, which hid the foreshadowing to the collapse of the Empire.