| In the field of social history,the development of anything can not be separated from human cognition and practice.Just as a family is made up of relatively independent individuals,the decisions made by the family and the results formed are essentially the choices made by people within the family by comprehensively considering the external environment and their own needs.On the basis of the universal effect of external conditions,the choice of the Chang family has both the inevitability given by the times and the particularity of the family choice,and jointly forged the Chang family,which has both the characteristics of Jin merchants and Confucian merchants.This paper uses text interpretation,historical analysis,statistics and other research methods,combined with the knowledge of sociology,psychology,anthropology,economics and other related disciplines,and on the basis of a brief summary of the history of the Chang family,according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory,analyzes the family selection and family activities of the Chang family under the historical conditions at that time to meet the five basic needs for the development of the family and its people.Maslow pointed out in the theory of hierarchy of needs that human beings are born with five basic needs: survival needs,security needs,belonging and love needs,respect needs and self realization needs.Among them,the survival demand is the basic demand for family development.The goal of becoming rich based on the survival demand occupies the most important position in the early family selection of Chang’s development,and is also the basis for meeting other needs.Taking into account the advantageous conditions of commercial prosperity in Shanxi since the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the unfavorable factors of agricultural production in Shanxi,the vulnerability of agricultural production,the difficulty of entering the imperial examination and the uncertainty of the income from entering the imperial examination,Chang’s family took survival as the goal,completed the early capital accumulation through the first seven generations,made the family choice of concentrating on commercial trade in the eighth generation,and on the basis of certain achievements,At the same time,the new path of family development,supplemented by farming and reading,has laid a solid foundation for family development.If the choice based on survival needs is driven by Chang’s rise from mediocrity,it is an inevitable choice for family development to strengthen external security and internal stability to consolidate the economic achievements.Although the Chang family has made considerable achievements in the economic field,it still faces external exploitation from the ruling class and competition from other business groups.Through marriage,teachers and students,fellow villagers,old friends and other contacts,it is a powerful means to solve the external threat of the family to form a stable relationship with the ruling class and local business families,reach a stable alliance,and obtain political or economic support.At the same time,the stability within the family is the basis for the external development of the family.Only effective and reasonable family management can promote the family to work together,form a joint force,maintain the family’s coordinated and stable operation and promote common development.As a relatively loose family that lives together and takes care of its own property,the family,on the one hand,achieves family stability by maintaining the harmony and stability of the family under its jurisdiction,on the other hand,deepens family feelings through common family activities,strengthens family ties through common family interests,and strengthens family centripetal force and cohesion through common mission education,so as to realize the emotion and interest attachment of independent families and clansmen to the family,and realize family management over clansmen,Maintain the stable operation of the family.The stability and maturity of the material foundation provide the basis for the Chang family to pursue spiritual needs.This spiritual demand also affects both internal and external aspects,namely,respect from the outside and satisfaction from within.Chang’s family started with commercial trade,but at the same time,they also faced the traditional society’s condemnation and exclusion of commercial trade.The strong demand for social recognition makes Chang family try to approach the mainstream values of society from the spirit and action on the basis of not giving up the main business of the family.By creating a good family image,Chang family can obtain social recognition and reputation,and meet its spiritual needs of external respect and the actual interests of the family.On the other hand,the self satisfaction within the family functions on the basis of the universal values and common goals of the family and its people,reflecting the family’s attempts to shift the focus of family development and transform the development on the basis of its previous attempts to explore new paths of development,that is,to take culture and politics as the main line,to actively promote the class and cultivate diversified talents,thereby realizing the long-term development and inheritance of the family to a certain extent.As Maslow said,it is human nature for people to require the realization of internal value and potential,and human behavior is dominated by consciousness.It was precisely because of the role of historical conditions at that time that the Changshi people,driven by their intrinsic value and potential,acted together under the guidance of relatively consistent goals,and completed the subjective family choice,which just complied with the development of history,thus realizing the rise,development and inheritance of the family.It can be said that the development of the Chang family is the result of the promotion of the times and the correct choice of the family. |
