Research On Relief Institute Of Nanjing Of The Republic Of China

Nanjing National Government issued the first statute on social relief in 1928, namely "rules of local poorhouse", which brought social relief under the state’s standardized management in the form of law, poorhouse became a new type of relief organization and began to emerge all over the country. After reorganizing Pu Yu Tang, originated from the Qing Dynasty, Nanjing established its first public charity agency of relief——the Relief Institute of Nanjing. The establishment of the poorhouse was the product of certain circumstance, from a microscopic view, after the foundation of Nanjing National Government, as capital, Nanjing became the focus of attention of home and abroad. In order to build a new Nanjing, social renewal was urgently needed for the capital. The existence of various social problems forced the government to play an effective role in the process of reorganizing and improving the traditional social relief organizations in the city. From a macroscopic view, traditional social relief ideas didn’t fit the development of modern society, the rising of new types of social relief ideas and formation of state social relief administration provided an opportunity for the establishment of the poorhouse.The Relief Institute of Nanjing originated from Pu Yu Tang of Qing Dynasty, which was reorganized on the basis of integrating all separate relief institutes in Nanjing, and it was affiliated to the Society Agency of Nanjing. There used to be great difficulties in the early times of the foundation of the Relief Institute of Nanjing, later, under the leadership of Luomian, Wang xianfen and Fuyan, the Institute was greatly improved and formed a relatively complete system, which successfully completed the transformation from Pu Yu Tang to the poorhouse. Later, because of the fall of Nanjing, the Relief Institute was taken over by the puppet administration and it didn’t recover until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, but it was quickly involved in the civil war. In 1949, it was taken over by Nanjing Military Control Commission and the city government.Before the war, it included the Pension, the Disability, Baby-looking Room, Women Penitentiary, Homeless Workhouse, the Loan, Water Sanctuary, the Orphans(1933),and formed three major branches in 1937. After the war, the Nursery, the Disabled, and beggar shelter were added. It can be said that the relief object of it not only included the traditional disadvantaged groups, namely the elderly, the young, the disabled and women; some new social classes were also included, such as prostitutes, the homeless, refugees, and some troublemakers, the unemployed. The scope of relief was enlarged gradually. Diverse methods of relief, namely positive relief and negative relief, coexisted and efforts were made to lead it to the positive relief, hoping to realize the school-based and factory-based of the relief institute. For the management part, through continuous development and fulfillment of organization, personnel and rules, the Relief Institute of Nanjing advanced with the times and constructed a relatively complete system.The Relief Institute of Nanjing was the major actor in the number of holding the disadvantaged groups in the whole city, it fully completed the functions of a relief institute. To some extent, it realized the purpose of assisting the society with the power of politics, making it the goodness of the poor in Nanjing. The Relief Institute of Nanjing erected the idea of modern welfare, and it used the method of social investigation. It also played an effective in protecting the disadvantaged groups in the bottom of the society, securing the fairness of the society and in solving the social problems of Nanjing. Expenditure was always the key factor in the development of the Relief Institute of Nanjing, a lack of money forced the organization of the institute varied from time to time, and it constrained the improvement of the institute. The unstable circumstance before and after war interrupted the work of the institute now and then, the governmental relief of the Relief Institute of Nanjing during the Republican period couldn’t achieve a high level development.Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China, the political image of which was very important. From the developing process of the Relief Institute of Nanjing, we can clearly find out the tendency of highlighting politics and despising society. It also reflected the lack of modernity in the development of traditional organizations supported by the government. The lack of modernity led to the deficiency of the development of the Relief Institute of Nanjing, the most obvious manifestation was that relief activities were closely connected with politics. The implementation of prohibiting prostitutions, military management, New Life Movement and neighbour-hood administrative system made the Relief Institute of Nanjing expressed certain characters of punishment and regulation while relieving.