The Family Type Of Dual-home In Period Of Pre-centralization

As a comprehensive concept, the great clans in medieval China comprise multilayered connotation and dynamic process. In 1980s, based on the observation of the phenomenon that the great clans emigrated from provinces to the two capitals, Changan and Luoyang, in Tang Dynasty, Dr. Han-Kuang Mao presented the theory of "centralization". Nevertheless, the family type of dual-home, which means normally having a country-seat and at the same time a city-home, was commonly preferred by the great clans to balance their central and local power. The main research subjects are Hong-nong (弘农) Yang family and Zhao-jun (赵郡) Li family, and both of them occupied important position in political history but with specific substance. Through interrelating the materials of epigraphs and official documentaries during the period from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Northern Qi Dynasty and Northern Zhou Dynasty, this thesis manages to analyse the different attitudes of these two families to burying at family graveyard, and explore their individual reasons and characters in consideration of the political background. Furthermore, how the distinguishable status of dual-home deeply influenced the later centralization process of the great clans in medieval China is also an important focus for this thesis.