The Research On The Wu Family In Jimei Hall,Yixing In The Middle Of Ming Dynasty

Wu Family in Jimei Hall,Yixing was a famous imperial examination family in the south of the Yangtze River in Ming and Qing Dynasties,which had produced 29 Jinshi and 55 Juren successively.They always possessed a lot of complimentary reputations like:"An imperial examination family,well-known around the left of the Yangtze River","Though there are dozens of noble families in Yixing area,no one can catch up with the Wu family."The family moved to Yixing during the war in the late Yuan Dynasty.Wu Yu,the third generation’s descendant,was promoted from Niangong to Nanjing Imperial Academy during the years of Zhengtong and then served in the Household Department.Wu Yu’s success had become an important turning point of the family’s rise.Wu Yan and Wu Shi of the fifth.generation successively became Jinshi in Chenghua and Zhengde years,and both served as important official positions in the Imperial Court.Wu Shi of Yixing rose higher and higher from there,and laid a solid foundation for the later development.Since then,Wu’s imperial examination had entered its summit with a tendency out of control,and it had become a renowned imperial examination family in the south of the Yangtze River.After five generations,Wu family had made great efforts for more than one hundred years so as to become a distinguished family in the south of the Yangtze River from a immigrated bottom family,so its rising track was representative in Yixing.Exploring the reasons,it was not only the contribution of talents cultivation of the imperial examination policy in Ming Dynasty,but also had a great relationship with the family’s own characteristics.The accumulation of family wealth,the family’s emphasis on education,the improvement of the clan organization and the construction of interpersonal network are all important factors accounting for this family,rising and the long-time prosperity.In addition,their cultural activities and contributions were even more impressive.Wu family was an important member of Jiangnan tea business in the middle of Ming Dynasty,whose fourth generation,Wu Lun,was one of the leading figures of tea art innovation at that time,which had a great influence.Wu Lun and Wu’s father and son were probably the inventors or important participants of Yixing purple clay tea ware.They were also one of the heroes of the rejuvenation of Jiang nan mountain water gardens in the middle of Ming Dynasty,and one of the advocates and important participants of Jiangnan officials’ landscape leisure lifestyle and cultural activities.In addition,the Wu family was also a prosperous collection clan in Jiangnan.A family once lived in a remote and small county in the south of the Yangtze river,why could it achieve such high achievements in the core cultural fields in the south of the Yangtze river at that time,which is a very significant issue worthyof attention.