The Study Of The Ming Dynasty Chongqing Jian’s Family

The Jian Family is one of the rare well-known and prominent families in Chongqing history, especially in the Ming Dynasty. The Jian Family is a family of talents and they had close relationship with the Ming government. The Family has been settling and thriving gradually in Chongqing since the Yuan Dynasty. During Early Ming, Jian Yi as a commoner passed the imperial examination and began his career as an official. He was progressively promoted and finally became an important political figure in the Ming government. Jian Yi had been serving his country for several decade. As one of the most influential officials during the flourishing period of the Ming Dynasty, he was highly respected by the emperors of Ming and the Juan Family became a prominent became of Jian Yi’s achievement. From then on, many people from the family had entered political stratum through the imperial examination and in other ways. Many of them were in high positions and they made such significant impact on political development of the Ming Dynasty. During Early Ming, the environment of economy, culture and education in Chongqing region was relatively backward compared with other regions in the whole country. The prosperity and rise of the Jian Family became the impetus and demonstrate of the development of Chongqing, which has left a significant mark in Chongqing history. The rise and fall of the Jian family and the Ming Dynasty are closely linked, thus the Jian family is also considered as a microcosm of the history of the Ming Dynasty.However, the academia currently lacks the study about the Jian Family in Chongqing. Therefore, this paper chooses the Jian Family as the research topic of this master thesis has certain significance. To investigate the basic rule that influence the development of the Jian Family by reviewing and analyzing the stories of the important figures in the Family, exploring the relationship between the developments and changes of the Family and the relevant social environment, political changes and geographic factors. In addition, this topic also presents as an additional significance to studies related to the entire family and political history of the Ming Dynasty.The body of this paper is divided into four main parts. The first part mainly focuses on the life story of Jian Yi, the most representative figure in the Jian Family, to investigate the reason how did Jian Yi gain a huge success on political arena in Early Ming, to analyze the relationship between Jian Yi and the Ming Emperors and other political figures, in order to define Jian Yi’s influence and political status in Early Ming and his decisive impact to the rise of the Jian Family.The second part mainly focuses on investigating the Jian Family’s development vein, historical influence and the impact of the development of Chongqing, by discussing the common practice, connection with the imperial examination, desire of power and other conditions of the Jian Family.The third part takes Jian Da and Jian Zongyi as two typical cases. The first is to clarify the main story of Jian Da, the relationship between the social, political environment during Wanli Ming dynasty and him and the major role that he has played during the major historical events in Late Ming, in order to evaluate his historical status and his impact to the change of the Jian Family in Late Ming; followed by clarifying the main story of Jian Zong Yi, to investigate the relationship between the social reality of Late Ming society and his behavior. Also explores the relationship between the decadence of the Jian Family in Late Ming and the whole political, social environment during Late Ming.The fourth part is the summary that sums up the main factors in the development of the Jian Family, the organic connection between the social change in the Ming Dynasty and the Family, also the differences and similarities between the development of the other famous families in Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty and the Jian Family. Moreover, this part also explores the effect of regional influence and social impact in the development of the families in the Ming Dynasty.