First the country and then private, Zhao Ta, with the assistance of everyone, even climbed to stabilize the state affairs, and family affairs were put on the agenda. Now is not the time for him to be the prince, he only needs to take care of the affairs of the house, but has to worry about the affairs of the entire royal family, the old and the young, the four or five generations, in addition to eating, drinking, living and traveling, he has to take care of their birth, old age, sickness and death, and even the matter of choosing a name has to be taken care of by him.

But this matter can't be escaped, no matter how difficult it is, it has to be dealt with, no matter what, everyone is a relative, breaking bones and connecting tendons. In any case, people have clans, and there are close branches, and after the founding of the Song Dynasty, the affairs of the clan were put on the agenda, sharing the glory and wealth at the same time, but also adding a lot of troubles to each emperor, because the imperial family still has his particularity...

The emperors and ministers of the Song Dynasty had a keen eye to review the lessons of their predecessors in dealing with the clans, and the Zhou, Han, and Tang dynasties were recognized as three great dynasties, and it is especially important to note that the time span of these three dynasties was enough to make the clan a problem.

During the Zhou Dynasty, the royal family played a central role in the political order. After the destruction of the Shang dynasty, Zhou suddenly went from a small state in the Weishui Valley to a vast empire that spanned the northern plains of China. In order to rule the empire, Zhou invented the so-called "garrison system", in which a large number of princes, clansmen, and allies outside the royal family were divided into feudal lords, allowing them to rule all regions of the country, and the Zhou king directly ruled only the areas around the western capital of the empire.

Through mechanisms such as the ritual of sealing the father's death and the succession of the son, and waging wars against the rebellious lords, Zhou managed to maintain its rule for a considerable period of time. This political structure, which resulted from the patriarchal system of enclosure at various levels, runs through the entire history of the Zhou Dynasty.

It is a linear system of inheritance, according to the patriarchal system. The relative political status of family members depends on the eldest and youngest. The eldest son line enjoyed a high position in terms of both religious status and political power. The eldest sons of each generation form the backbone of the lineage and political authority, while the secondary sons set up separate doors. Establish a new sub-authority. The farther away from the trunk, the weaker the political authority.

to the Han Dynasty. The members of the clan were given titles and titles, which formed the central feature of the Han dynasty. According to the decree of the Han Dynasty: only the son of the Son of Heaven is worthy of the clan and can be crowned king; The son of the king, one of the sons-in-law inherits the throne, and the rest of the concubines are all marquis; One of Hou's sons succeeded as Hou, and the rest of the sons had no titles. After a few generations, everyone will become like ordinary people, and if they can't gain power, they will inevitably have to work to survive. Liu Bei, whom we are well known, is one of the famous ones.

For the Han clan, this meant a culmination of isolation, and as a rule, they could not hold any meaningful political role. Although there is no shortage of examples of clan officials in both the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, their number is very limited. Even though Emperor Guangwu of the Zhongxing Han Dynasty felt that his relatives had contributed a lot to him, he generously granted them various official titles, but he did not appoint them in the government.

Since the Han dynasty clan did not live in the capital, they had few opportunities to participate in the politics of the "inner court". In Chinese history, the inner court group had the most direct connection to the emperor himself, and was the power that the emperor used to contend with the formal bureaucracy. Thus, in the history of the Han Dynasty several bloody struggles for the throne. Although there were also members of the clan involved, their role was insignificant, far less than that of the two most active inner court groups of the Han Dynasty, the relatives and eunuchs.

By the Tang Dynasty, their clan was different from the Han dynasty in many important ways. Although the Tang Dynasty initially divided the princes into different places like the Han Dynasty, by the middle of the period the kings and their descendants were moved to the capital. It was placed in ten royal houses and a hundred grandchildren's houses. However, the Tang dynasty's practice of placing clans in the capital set an important example for future generations.

But the Tang Dynasty was different from the Han Dynasty. Not only was he willing to use the clan widely in the government, but the Tang Dynasty emperor could go out of town. Moreover, many clans have also been appointed as high-ranking officials, and more than 10 people have served as prime ministers, which is unique in the history of China.

In this context, the Song Dynasty began to manage the clan. The two dynasties of Taizu and Taizong, at this time, there was no clan, some were only the close relatives of the two emperors and their younger brother King Wei. Taejo believed that the clan should include the descendants of the three brothers, a broad clan, and set the boundaries of the future clan.

The first hundred years of the Song Dynasty can be said to be more like a transaction between the emperor and his clansmen, the imperial power granted them privileges and funding, the state set up decrees to administer them, and all the clans lived a prosperous life in the capital, but could not have any political power, which was the most important and fundamental transaction. In addition to worshipping ancestors, the national ceremony is to develop personal hobbies.

Although some of them were potential heirs to the throne, they all lived basically similar lives, especially when they were involved in politics, and the unprecedented wealth of the Song dynasty allowed the clan to remain like this for four or five generations. The scale of the clan is getting bigger and bigger, which has brought great pressure on the economy, housing, education, and official feudalism.

At the same time, the clan outside the five suits appeared, according to the precedent of the Tang Dynasty, these distant branches of the Shu clan should not have been counted as clan members for a long time, so their clan status was disputed, and the royal control of the clan members became very difficult, how to treat these distant branch Shu clans is quite a headache. The imperial court also stopped giving names and conferring officials to unserved clan relatives for a time, allowing them to obtain official positions through the imperial examination to earn their own livelihood, intending to streamline these distant clan relatives and completely cut off the clan treatment for those distant relatives who could not be beaten.

But soon the problem arose, and after losing the clan treatment, they soon degenerated, and became poor people with no food and clothing, and no fixed place to live. This was too damaging to the royal family's face, and the imperial court had no choice but to retract the order, establish a subsidy system for the unserved clansmen, and re-record their names on the jade. This practice actually undermined the practice of identifying clans according to discipline and preferred the establishment of a clan structure with marginal genealogy.

The problem is that the number of the fifth and sixth generations of clans is now in the tens of thousands, not counting their wives, sisters, daughters, and sons-in-law. Adding up these subsidies becomes a big burden for the government. And this fee comes from the household department rather than the inner treasury, and of course the cost is the people's taxes, which has caused a great burden on the country's finances and has become an important item in the redundant expenses...

By the time Zhao Ji succeeded to the throne, due to population growth, redundant expenses, and increasingly distant blood clan ties, the clan was undergoing a radical repositioning, and the clan problem had reached the point where it had to be resolved.

So Zhao Ji ordered Cai Jing and them to find a way to solve the problem, and the courtiers formulated a plan, the center was to terminate the conferral of names and officials, but did not remove these people from the royal jade, and still recognized their clan status and could enter the sect. As a transitional step, the Shu Southern Class Officers were no longer awarded to them, but were replaced by the Third Class Officers with a slightly lower status. His descendants can take the imperial examination to gain fame, find another place to live in the capital, and buy land. Officials can also buy houses and land in accordance with the relevant regulations of ordinary officials.

In terms of marriage, the dowry of the fifth and sixth generation of clan daughters was halved, and the husbands of the sixth generation of clan daughters were no longer awarded to the Nanban officials, but these clan daughters were still not allowed to marry the "non-scholar families". Land was given to the fifth and sixth generations of the impoverished and unofficial clans, and orphans and those who were particularly poor were given special treatment as appropriate, regardless of their seniority. In Luoyang, Xijing, and Yingtianfu, Nanjing, new residences were built for the unobedied clan relatives respectively to facilitate relocation.

However, there are also restrictions on the number of officials, and no more than one clan may hold a high-ranking civil and military position in a state; Clan officials may serve in the same place at the same time, and no more than three in a prefecture and no more than two in a county. This edict is not like a remedy, but rather a precautionary measure, so the clan can only serve as some inconspicuous petty officials, and they are unable to respond if they want to rebel.

All this has been carried out for more than ten years, and although there are constant criticisms, it is barely coping. After the Jurchen invasion, the situation changed greatly, Zhao Ta rescued in every possible way, but he only cared about his own brothers and sisters, the royal clan was almost even the pot, more than 3,000 close branches in the capital were captured, many died on the way north, and only a few who followed Zhao Huan all the way north were able to escape. Now that Zhao Ta is on the throne, this trouble has also been transferred to him...

Zhao Ta looked at the great grandfather's "Great Training" with a sad face, and repeatedly reiterated in it that no matter how distant the blood relationship of future generations becomes, it is very important to maintain the unity of the clan. This old man may also have the ability to predict the future, and he knew that the social component of the clan in the future might become quite complicated, so he set the rules early.

It is required that no matter how far the water flows, people should respect the 'jade'; no matter whether they are officials or businessmen, no matter where they meet, they should recognize each other and make friends according to their seniority; they should not dislike the poor and love the rich, and they should not exalt the rich and suppress the lowly. If a poor person or a family without a subsistence befalls a disaster, the wealthy people should help them from displacement and disgrace their ancestors!

"It's a good word, but now it's embarrassing for me!" Zhao Ta lamented, the Jurchen 'helped' him a lot, and wiped out most of his relatives, and the deceased could not pose a threat to him. But some people who have escaped the catastrophe have also had crooked thoughts, the clans that have been passed down for generations have been deprived of everything, and their power has been infinitely limited, and now these clans suddenly find that the restrictions on them in the past are gone, and they can obtain things that were previously unattainable only by virtue of their clan status... (To be continued......)