Construction And Societal Changes Of Official-building In Southern Jiang Xi During The Ming And Qing Dynasties

This paper attempts to analyze the construction way, their sources of funds and changes in the construction of the main body to explore the adjustments and changes of official functions in the construction of official-building in Southern Jiang-Xi, And then discuss the reasons for the changes, thus the internal relations between construction of official building and social change can be outlined.Overall, the development of official-building in Ming and Qing dynasties is the process of transforming from constructing by the government to constructing by the public.In the early and middle Ming dynasty, before the liturgical reform of the fiscal system, magistrate's office and the palace of learning were mainly constructed by the government and a few were constructed by the cooperation of office and civilians or by civilians themselves. The basic construction form of official building was to take official financing, and levy people to build them. Under the protection of liturgical system, official-building in Gannan areas has been effectively constructed,.From late Ming dynasty to Qing dynasty, “Single-Whip” Fiscal Reforms reduced the financial flexibility of the local government. Based on this situation, the construction of magistrate's office and the palace of learning were converted along two different modes. Specifically, government's function of official-building construction was fulfilled through internal restructuring; while the construction of the palace of learning, continuing the cooperation of officials and the public since the middle Ming dynasty, has transformed its construction funds and subject from the government to the public.By analyzing different understandings of government officials and the public towards two types of official buildings, and the impact of such attitudes on the construction of official buildings, we can find that: Construction of official-building purely belonged to official functions so that the public was not earnest. However, what made the public earnest was the construction of public buildings such as the palace of learning, which was built by the cooperation of officials and the public. What's more, the public actively participated in the construction of the palace of learning due to their own benefits, not just because of local government's lack of funds. Local fiscal change was a decisive factor to influence the construction of office building, but another essential factor was that the public was more likely to participate in the issues that mattered them a lot.