The rise of the civil class is inseparable from the economic recovery and development in the early Ming Dynasty. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, due to more than 20 years of war, the social economy was seriously damaged. Especially in Shandong and Henan, it was most seriously damaged by the war, "most of it is no man's land".
(1) In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, Gui Yanliang, the governor of the State of Jin, played: "The Central Plains is the heart of the world and fertile soil. Due to lack of manpower, it has long been abandoned. "
(2) Facing the grim situation, the main task in the early Ming Dynasty was to resume production. Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Among the four people, they don't work hard in agriculture. Seeing that they finally work hard, they get less rest. When the years are abundant, a few people in a family can still eat enough. Unfortunately, when there is a flood and drought, the whole family is hungry and sleepy. ..... after the rich, people, after the security, people. No one is poor, and the country is rich. "
(3) Ming Taizu realized the importance of solidarity with the people and paid attention to maintaining the strength of the people in power. August of the first year of Hongwu was the third year. "Floods and droughts in all directions ... disasters are heard by facts. Exempt from Zhenjiang tax. " Free from chaos, the people will return to work and the land will be reclaimed for three years. "
(4) In the nineteenth year of Hongwu, "Chen Shen was proclaimed in summer and April to redeem the children of the hungry people in Henan."
(5) In the tenth year of Hongwu (1377), Zhang Zhizhong of the Ministry of Industry wrote three things. "... third, the northern counties are open for wasteland, which is vast at the age of 20, but the land is vast and sparsely populated, and the reclamation is limited."
(6) Because of the war in the north, the land is barren and the manpower is insufficient, while there are many people in the south. It can be understood that the immigration policy in the early Ming Dynasty was necessary. In the Ming Dynasty, * * * carried out land reclamation by immigrants, and the county gave farmers the money for plowing cattle seeds, which effectively ensured the implementation of the immigration policy.
In addition to measures to restore the economy, Ming * * * also pays special attention to the cultivation of cash crops. In June of the eleventh year of Longfeng, which Zhu Yuanzhang had not officially proclaimed himself emperor, he ordered all farmers with five to ten acres of land to plant half an acre of Sang Ma, double the amount of ten acres or more, and increase the proportion of fields. If you don't plant mulberries, you get a silk horse, and if you don't plant numb cotton, you get a hemp or cotton horse. This combination of agriculture and weaving is beneficial to the development of rural cottage industry. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, this system was popularized throughout the country and the number of subjects was stipulated. Vigorously promote the planting policy in the early Ming Dynasty. In the 28th year of Hu Guang Report, "84.39 million fruit trees have been planted in counties, and it is estimated that there are more than one billion in China" (7). The extensive cultivation of cash crops such as cotton in Sang Ma provides raw materials for the development of handicraft industry, which effectively promotes silk production and silk weaving in these areas.
The emergence of citizen class is due to the expansion of urban handicraft industry and the development of urban commerce. Immigrants and planting cash crops created conditions for economic recovery and commodity economy development in the early Ming Dynasty. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, on the basis of economic recovery, handicraft industry developed rapidly, commerce flourished unprecedentedly, and commodity economy expanded rapidly in breadth and depth. Leaving agricultural production to engage in "industry and commerce" presents a very active situation. Lv Kun's "Qu Fei Zhai Ji" illustrates the social situation in Wanli period at two points. "Or, go to the post and say that you are a dentist, or go to the valley to be a broker. They are all involved in the market, seeking the benefits of promotion and marriage every day, and supporting their wives. There are millions of such civilians in the world. " (8) Why so many people engaged in "industry and commerce" in the Ming Dynasty was closely related to the social and economic conditions at that time. First of all, Ming * * * adopted heavy fu in Jiangnan. "Qiu Jun made up for Yan Yi, a great scholar" said:' Han Yu won the world, with 19 places in the south of the Yangtze River. From today's perspective, Zhejiang's east and west are all in the south of the 19th century, while Jiangsu's five provinces, Song, Changzhou and Jiahu, are all in ...................................................................................................................... in the south of 19th century. "It is a land of San Francisco, whose land rent is more important than the world, and its grain is more than the world." (9) Some farmers were forced to leave the land, resulting in a group of proletarians who flowed into cities. They are an important part of urban economy and citizen class. "I said that since Zheng De, there have been 1 1 people in the government and 19 people in other places. Gaigu four people have their own jobs, and the people are content with farmland and have no other ambitions. The government also gave them peace of mind to farm. ...... Since forty or fifty years, taxes have been increasing, corvee has become very heavy, and people's lives are unbearable, so they all moved to other industries. ..... Only a few people were wiped out before, and now there are three times as many people who go to agriculture and switch to industry and commerce. " (10) Secondly, the craftsman registration system in the late Ming Dynasty greatly increased the population engaged in "industry and commerce". In the early Ming Dynasty, the management of craftsmen still followed the craftsman system of the Yuan Dynasty, that is, craftsmen were incorporated into special craftsmen's books, and they were not allowed to leave the craftsmen's books and change jobs at will. In the nineteenth year of Hongwu, the craftsman shift system was implemented, which stipulated that craftsmen from all over the country took turns to work in Beijing. During the reign of Chenghua and Hong Qing, the court forced the craftsmen in shifts to personally serve at the designated places, and gradually changed to serve in Yin Na. At the end of Jiajing, all shift craftsmen had to collect silver, and the court hired silver, so the personal bondage of craftsmen gradually relaxed, which provided conditions for them to engage in "industry and commerce". Finally, the tax reform after the middle of the Ming Dynasty relaxed the personal attachment of most farmers and made it possible for them to switch to industry and commerce. When Jiajing was ten years old, there was a whipping method, which was later applied to Zhang nationwide. A flogging law stipulates: "Take the total tax of a county, measure the size of the land, collect all the silver, decompose the officials and hire servants to handle it." (1 1) This includes two aspects: First, both land tax and forced labor were collected in silver, that is to say, forced labor was cancelled and * * * hired people to make up for it. Secondly, forced labor was levied in the land tax, and the government strengthened its control over the land and relaxed its control over Dinghu Lake. Gu Jieyuan said in Volume II of Hakka Extravagant Words: "Today's tax law is more important than land and ignores household registration, so there is no tax in the native land, and books are not the most important." ( 12)
A large number of proletarians with free status make the ranks of citizens grow continuously. On this basis, the handicraft industry has sprouted large-scale production based on employment relationship, and the silk weaving industry centered on Suzhou is the most typical. According to Volume 38 of Wujiang County Records, "During the Xuannian period, the citizens of this city began to learn to weave silks, and they often hired county people to weave silks. After the flood, scholars were also good at this industry and followed suit. ..... The rich (at the beginning) hire people to weave, and the poor (at the end) weave ". In the late Ming Dynasty, there were at least 30,000 such machinists, and an even larger number of them were employed. The two have become an indispensable whole. At that time, Suzhou "had the most teeth, little permanent production, and the family was organized by households, with the contribution of mechanical households and technicians, and lived together for a long time" (13). Another example is Guangdong, which boasts the largest mining and metallurgy industry, and the scale of this handicraft workshop is quite large. "There are 300 people living in a stove." There are 200 firefighters, more than 300 diggers, more than 200 diggers burning charcoal, 200 cattle carrying goods and more than 50 boats. (14) Handicraft workshops, with the budding nature of capitalism, absorbed a large number of urban and rural bankrupts and made them the main part of the citizen class. These employees are completely divorced from the means of production and become laborers with nothing. Their relationship with workshops and workshop owners is purely monetary. During the Wanli period, Suzhou artisans "counted the value of the day, each with its own eternal master and impermanence, and built a bridge at dawn to wait for the call." Among them are weavers, weavers and forgers, often in groups of hundreds. If there is no job opportunity, they will disperse on their own. This kind of free employment and "free" selling of labor force is a major feature of the civil class in the late Ming Dynasty, which determines the anti-feudal nature of the civil class.
After the mid-Ming Dynasty, with the expansion of handicraft production scale and the growth of employees, commerce became increasingly prosperous, and chasing unprofitable profits became a trend. The period from Jiajing to Wanli in Ming Dynasty, that is, the middle of 16th century, was a remarkable growth stage. "Disease Records of Counties in the World" said that "Zheng De was discovered before Jiajing, which is slightly different from Qin Long. There are many homes, but the soil is not heavy. Capital is relatively agile and does not rise and fall frequently. People with ability succeed, but people with low ability are destroyed ... If you compete, you will lose your balance, and you will compete with each other. Competing with each other and struggling with each other. As a result, deception and falsehood germinated, disputes arose, and powder China was defeated. ..... At the end of Jiajing and Qin Long, it was especially different. " Most people are not rich, but only a few people are. "(15) The activities of merchants, especially the North-South trade between Hong Kong merchants, greatly promoted the exchange of materials." Goods from Zhao Yan, Qin Jin, Qiliang and Jianghuai are sold to the south day and night, while goods from Fujian, Guangdong, Henan, Nanchu and Xin 'an are sold to the north day and night. "(16) 1598, Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary in the west, accompanied by Wang Honghai, an official of the South (Beijing), went to Beijing along the north. On his journey from Nanjing to Beijing Canal, he saw the prosperous economy of the Ming Canal and its ports along the way. He vividly recorded: "Countless ships full of tributes are heading for Beijing, and many ships have not reached full tonnage, so businessmen took the opportunity to rent empty cabins at extremely low rents. This can provide Beijing with many things that are not produced locally, which is mutually beneficial. "(17) So nothing is produced and nothing is lacking in the Gyeonggi area." Goods from all directions are not produced in Yan State, but gathered in Yan State. "From the perspective of private businessmen using water-borne tribute boats, driven by commercial capital, the canal economy has begun to be alienated by the increasingly active commodity economy.
The development of handicrafts and commerce in Ming Dynasty promoted the rise of industrial and commercial towns. Such towns are found all over the country, but there are the largest number in Jiangnan, where commodity agriculture and handicrafts are developed. Zhujing Town, Fengjing Town, Qibao Town, nanxiang town Town and Waigang Town in Songjiang Prefecture are famous cotton textile towns. Shengze town, Zhenze Town, Nanxun Town, Wuqin Town and Jiaxing Town are all famous silk weaving towns. Take Songjiang as an example. Before Jiajing, it used to be "a city full of wild trees and wild hazelnuts", but in the Wanli period of Qin Long, it was "a sea of people, densely populated ... with more than 200,000 men and women". Look at Wuqin Town again. "(Hong) Cloud has been revived, but it will never happen again. During the Hongzhi period in Chenghua, the annual valley climbed repeatedly, the residents were rich and sharp, and ... houses were row upon row. (18) The prosperity of towns in the south of the Yangtze River shows the process of rural urbanization and is the inevitable product of the development of commodity economy. The residents of these towns are mainly businessmen. Wuxian "most residents are skilled, and the trade in Jinchang area exceeds the number of households, but the country is defeated." Guazhou residents know their hardships, and they are poor and burdened. Hire a straight man to feed his mouth and serve farmers. "(19) At the same time, large-scale and prosperous industrial and commercial cities have gradually formed, and the number and population of cities have expanded rapidly. During the first hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, there were more than 30 metropolises in China, including Nanjing, Beiping, Suzhou and Songjiang, with a population of one million. With the development of big towns, the class of citizens concentrated in cities and towns is growing, and new political forces are gradually formed, which will inevitably have a greater impact on China society.
Social influence After the mid-Ming Dynasty, due to the growth of new economic factors, the commodity economy developed day by day, and the citizen class with businessmen and workers as the main body grew gradually, with increasing social influence. The conflict between the commercial social principles required by the civil class and the feudal traditional system not only stems from the contradiction of the economic base, but also manifests itself in the superstructure, thus affecting the overall style of the late Ming society.
First of all, in politics, the civil class's struggle for a political position suited to its economic status made China's political activities in the late Ming Dynasty show a diversified trend. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, with the penetration of commercial capital, private real estate developed rapidly in China. Feudal landlords were attacked in the process of land commercialization and replaced by emerging commercial landlords. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, private ownership of land reached its peak. "A family with a heart took the opportunity to collect a lot of land, even tens of thousands of acres, and then three, four, 50,000 to 10,000, and changed a piece of land." (20) Lenin analyzed the decline of Russian serfdom. "The foundation of feudal politics is the gradual decline of power marked by land, while the power of money is increasing day by day, and land is increasingly involved in commercial circulation." (265,438+0) Only this change is much slower and more subtle in China. These extravagant groups of citizens demand political and economic rights to protect the economic benefits they have already obtained. However, in the feudal society of China, the monarch had absolute power and basically did not protect the civil rights of private property. In contrast, Mesopotamian civilization is characterized by "universal recognition of private property and emphasis on' individual rights in the relationship with society and the universe'". (22) To be sure, the absolute monarchical centralization in China's traditional society is opposite to the fundamental principle of commercial society, which is reflected in the anti-"mining tax" movement of the civil class in Wanli period. In the 24th year of Wanli (1596), Ming Shenzong sent eunuchs to collect taxes in various places to ensure its profligacy. "By the middle of Wanli, mine out. For a long time, the treasures of the inner government have never been crowned and taken for themselves ... But at that time, prisons of all sizes wandered around their posts, sucking bone marrow and drinking blood to worship. (23) Among them, the "mine supervisors" sent to mines set up checkpoints to collect taxes in towns or traffic arteries, went to the "pearl supervisor" in Guangdong to search for pearls and precious stones, and went to the "salt supervisor" in Huaibei to search for salt taxes. These mine managers and tax collectors set up another office to become their own system. Under the banner of the imperial court, they ignored the imperial court and exploited businessmen at will. There are even cases where "there is no need for mines and no need for taxes". Some "mine managers" arbitrarily believe that there are mines to dig in the homestead of rich people, and take the opportunity to extort money, so that they "kill the people or abandon their wives. (24) Without any guarantee of economic rights, various groups of the civil class started their own interests, opposed feudal privileges in different forms, and put forward different political opinions.
Different from the peasant riots in the past, the class struggle among the people does not directly aim at changing the dynasty, but has a strong political tendency, trying to safeguard the interests of the class through improvement. Among them, the most determined struggle is the civilian class. At first, it was only against internal supervision and "mining tax", but the large-scale civic movement was after Jiajing, especially the resistance movement of urban businessmen and craftsmen in Wanli era. In April of the 27th year of Wanli (1599), more than ten thousand people in Linqing attacked Matang, a tax collector, killing 37 of his minions. "Thirty years of Wanli, Yang Rong, the tax supervisor, wantonly destroyed the people, and the people were furious. He set fire to his kitchen and killed Commissioner Zhang Anmin. " (25) Since then, struggles against mineral taxes have taken place in Huguang, Yunnan, Fujian and Guangdong.
The landmark event of the urban middle class opposition movement was the Lindong political party movement centered on Wuxi in the Yangtze River valley during the apocalypse. On behalf of the reformists of the urban middle class, Lin Dong advocates free speech and free association. The political system of feudal society in China was the product of the combination of absolute monarchy and bureaucracy. Lindong Party realized that it was necessary to clarify that the official administration should be strictly inspected and the privileges of the most reactionary upper-level bureaucrats and eunuchs should be restricted. "If the bribery in Chang 'an (referring to the capital) is not suppressed, it will be difficult to put an end to the theft of foreign officials. The investigation of Dinghai in the fifteenth year of Wanli was an attempt to pacify Lindong Party. Although the Beijing inspection failed in the twenty-first year of Wanli, the influence of Lindong Party began here. Zhao Yi said: "Zhao Nanxing's reputation has increased with the dismissal of Gao Gonglang. With (Zou) Yuan Biao and (Gu) Xian Cheng, the third monarch of China, his fame and deeds are enough to keep pace with the world and integrate with the incorruptible people in the world, so his general purpose is.
Lindong represents the political demands of the middle class, while Yen represents the most decadent monarchy. When there is a fierce conflict between the new productive forces and the old relations of production, the backward things will not disappear automatically, but will be the last struggle. Due to the establishment of Lindong Party, this struggle turned into political persecution. "All academies have been demolished and officials have been changed", and the Yen Party concocted such remarks as "Lin Dongpeng Danglu" to denigrate the Lindong Party. The difference between Lindong Party and small groups in past dynasties is that Lindong Party has won the support and sympathy of the general public, especially the citizen class. He is no longer a feudal political group, but an alliance between small and medium-sized landlords in the south of the Yangtze River and the urban anti-feudal middle class. (26) Therefore, it is not surprising that the Six Gentlemen Prison in Lindong triggered the resistance movement of "gentry". If Yang Lian is arrested, "there will be tens of thousands of city scholars who will climb the ranks, break the ranks and seize the masses". (27) Another example is Zhou Shunchang's arrest, protesting that "the gentry were in the way", "the gentry in the county sent tens of thousands of people", and "the people bowed down and burned incense, and the cry was like thunder and diarrhea". Even those who violently resisted the law, after Huang Zunsu was arrested, one of the Royal Guards, a citizen of Ling Shuo, shouted,' What's the point?' Those who hit the target at once gathered together, so they sank the boat and burned their clothes. The trench they dug was called the river they threw. "These protests took place in the Suzhou-Changzhou area, where handicrafts are developed and the civil class is the most concentrated area. A synopsis can be found in the inscription of Zhang Pu's Tomb of Five in the Ming Dynasty: "Five people were arrested by the Duke of Liao, and the dead were killed in anger. "(* Duke Zhou of Liao is Zhou Shunchang, whose word is Chang Wen, whose name is Liao Zhou, and Wanli Jinshi, who served as a magistrate and official position, and was later imprisoned by eunuchs. ) "Remember the arrest of Duke Zhou. I hope Ding Mao will be in March. The moral conduct of our society can be used as a model for readers, to uphold justice for him, to raise money to send him away, and to shout for heaven and earth. " (28)(* Our society is the complex society. Zhang Pu and others merged some literary societies in the south of the Yangtze River during the Chongzhen period, so they called it the complex society with the call of inheriting Lindong Party). The sharp political differences between the ruling party and the opposition party show that the growth of new local economic factors is incompatible with the central political system. Huang Renyu said in his book "Broaden the Horizon of History" that "China's central system is based on backward areas". (29) The Ming Dynasty ruled China for 276 years, with a time span from14th century to17th century, which marked the formation of modern society and the development of capitalism in western European countries. China * * * consolidated centralization during this period. As a result of centralization, the economic policy of * * * is not based on the situation of highly developed areas, but on the situation of underdeveloped areas. Lindong Party not only comments on current politics, but also directly participates in political innovation. As a loose and politically inclined political force, it has an action mechanism similar to that of modern political parties, and it has left a deep impression on China society after the rise of the citizen class.
After the rise of the civil class, it not only put forward its own political demands, but also exerted a subtle influence on social customs and cultural orientation. In the past, the status of despised businessmen was unprecedentedly improved, and in the end, profit became a trend. Businessmen's luxurious lifestyle attracts the emerging citizen class, and the ideological and cultural fields are full of old and new contradictions. On the one hand, the nature of feudal society remains unchanged, and the feudal economic base and absolute monarchy still dominate; On the other hand, handicrafts and commerce developed rapidly during this period, and the commodity economy was unprecedentedly active. Citizens' pursuit of money and pleasure has influenced all levels of social life. Li Zhi, a progressive thinker, openly advocates selfishness and profit, regards "good goods and lust" as the natural demand of life, and bravely challenges the theory of Neo-Confucianism that "justice is preserved and human desires are destroyed".
The role of the citizen class at the ideological level is first manifested in the literati atmosphere. In feudal society, "learning to be excellent is the only way out for scholars", and "learning to be excellent is the official" has become the creed advertised by scholars. In the next season, businessmen who abandon Confucianism when their careers are uncertain abound. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Feng Menglong wrote a novel "A Word of Warning to the World" and a 49-volume article "The Demon of Tieshu Town in Jingyang Palace", which recorded that "Jinling people were familiar with classics since childhood, but they did not want to become famous, so they could not be scholars. Now he is a guest of business between North and South. " Civic consciousness depends on a strong commodity economy. With the expansion of commercial capital, the feudal traditional concept has been shaken, and intellectuals have been divided under this impact: one is feudal orthodoxy that is still suppressed in agricultural society; The other is influenced by business concepts, and began to identify with and integrate into the business society. In feudal society, being an official was the ideal pursued by scholars, but those who were born in real families were rare after all. In the Ming Dynasty, Confucianism was established in the health centers of all counties. There are more than 4 100 instructors and students, and all students must accept this job before entering the school. They will try to compete every three years, but only employ 200 or 300 people at a time, sometimes even worse. In February of the tenth year of Yongle, I tried to raise the world. Yang Shiqi, the examiner of the imperial examination, said: "There are many scholars in several subjects, so it is inevitable to mix jade. Today, it does not exceed 100 people. " "In December of the fifth year of orthodoxy, the number of people taking the pilot test increased to One Happy and Fifty, and Tianfu Township took the test 100." (30) There is another way for scholars to become officials, and that is Gong Ke officials. Ling Mengchu's "Two Instances of Surprise", Volume 26, "The instructor loves his daughter but doesn't report it, and the poor man helps the teacher to make the final order" wrote: "There was once a scholar named Zanqing in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, who was repeatedly asked to be a China native and went to Beijing to listen to lectures and select." He was elected as the chief teacher of a rural school in Guangdong. "However, the position of Gong Ke officials is not only incomparable with that of officers, but also the chances of promotion are extremely slim. Some of them can even be promoted to senior officers, and even a few are often promoted to officers. Volume 17 of the Records of the Day of the District Office also talked about this matter: "The law of recommendation in the early Ming Dynasty was abolished, but the imperial examination still emphasized scholars. "Since Zongshen, there has been a decree. States and counties are short of Jinshi, juren and Gong Sheng. Although it is not a tribute official in Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou do not take this as a place. " (3 1) The difficulties of Gong Ke officials are mentioned in the article "Old Students repay their kindness for the third time" in Volume 18 of "A General Statement of Warning to the World". "Gong Keguan, one point is not as good as ten points. People who have regrets are powerful and have nowhere to start. You can be honest and virtuous, and you must rely on him to help Jinshi. " Gong Ke follows convention, and most scholars are unemployed for a long time. Since it has become a common practice to talk about interests in private, it is logical to engage in business under the pressure of life. Gu recorded in "Records of the Day" that "reading the books of Confucius and Mencius, but learning the techniques of management and business, the scholar-officials refused to do it forty years ago, and now they borrow it". (32)
Secondly, the influence of the rise of the civil class on the late Ming Dynasty was manifested in the liberation of human nature by the Enlightenment. If the philosophy and literature of the European Renaissance were the products of the civil class, then the new trend of thought in the late Ming Dynasty can be regarded as the result of the exchange and integration between the intellectual class and the civil class. In the agricultural society, feudal monarchs promoted official schools in order to restrain people's consciousness ideologically. At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu's theory of "harmony between man and nature" advocated exclusion and respect for Confucianism. The study of divination in Wei and Jin Dynasties and the confluence of Confucianism and Buddhism in Tang and Song Dynasties finally formed Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. The development of Neo-Confucianism is the culmination of the feudal unified empire and absolutism, and Neo-Confucianism is adapting to the needs of autocratic monarchy. Zhu: "All tangible images and devices are also there, so the reason for being a device is Tao." Regard reason as the insurmountable necessity of everything and think that reason precedes things. "Q: When Heaven and Earth are not tried, do many of the following things exist? Yue: It's just that everything has its reasons. Everything in the world, for thousands of years, ancient and modern things, just a lot. " (33) Zhu added, "Before this happens, this happens first. If there is no monarch or minister, there will be one first. " If there is no father and son, there should be father and son first. "(34) One sentence reveals that the so-called Neo-Confucianism is to safeguard the principle of monarch and father, and the ultimate goal is to demonstrate the rationality of monarchical power. Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties also promoted Confucius' "self-denial and rationalism" to the height of preserving natural principles and destroying human desires, which violated the academic starting point for better promoting human nature. "Just like Hegel's so-called general will, the principle of" observing justice and destroying human desires "observed by the people of China is only obedience, and there is no introspection or introspection." (35) Dai Zhen hates the theory of "preserving righteousness and destroying human desires". He said: "The sage's way makes all kinds of feelings in the world, and the world governs. The ignorance of post-Confucianism is called reason, and its so-called reason is the same as the so-called law of cruel officials. The cruel officials killed people by law, and later Confucianism killed people by reason. " (36)
China's enlightenment thinkers He, Li Zhi, Wang Fuzhi, Huang Zongxi and Gu all expounded the reform requirements of superstructure and ideology under the new economic conditions from their own perspectives. At the same time, they linked academics with politics and put forward the idea of "applying what they have learned", which is consistent with the social ideological trend that citizens demand to participate in and discuss state affairs. Li Yong said in the Preface to Thoughts that "academics are the foundation of talents, talents are the foundation of politics, and politicians are the foundation of people's livelihood", (37) academics are no longer empty talk, but should care about "people's livelihood and current affairs". Enlightenment scholars opposed the ideological imprisonment of Neo-Confucianism in their theories, advocated the spirit of freedom and widely spread the idea of land equality. Enlightenment scholars, as early as Lindong Party's idea of free association and giving lectures, reflected the natural liberal tendency of the civil class, and they called for "eat drink man woman, people's great desires are balanced".
Enlightenment scholars reflected the basic requirements of the civil class in their economic thoughts, and put forward the idea of "free private property" in them. Li Zhi once said: "Private people have hearts. A person must have a private life before his heart can see it. ..... If those who serve the fields have private gains in autumn, they will rule the fields; Those who stay at home privately accumulate the benefits of the valley, and then they will manage the family; ..... This natural principle is the symbol of the heart. " (38) Commodity economy requires the legal protection of private property and the fulfillment of commercial contracts. In Capitalism and 2 1 Century, Huang Renyu talked about the importance of private property rights and credit to the commercial economy, which was lacking in China at that time. Traditionally, private property has no fundamental legal protection, and it is not uncommon to deprive private property without trial or not pay attention to protecting private property during trial. "China's laws are mainly criminal law, which is manifested in the fact that, for example, the handling of civil acts is either not stipulated (such as contractual acts) or adjusted by criminal law (such as property rights, inheritance, marriage). Protecting the interests of individuals or groups, especially economic interests, from other individuals or groups is not the main task of the law, and the interests of individuals or groups harmed by the state are not protected by law at all. " (39) The main components of the citizen class are businessmen, craftsmen and the urban poor, belonging to "industry and commerce". In the traditional feudal society of "emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce", its position is difficult to be guaranteed, and the professional value of craftsmen and businessmen, especially the latter, has not been generally accepted by society. Traditional ideas and their corresponding behaviors and greed are always seeking and infringing on the interests of businessmen. The extortion of officials and the looting of tax inspectors make businessmen afraid to keep their wealth, which is exactly the case. When feudal privileges expanded, businessmen became vulnerable. When the new economic factors are not dominant and the old ruling order is still strong, the enlightenment scholars advocate the recognition of private property, which can be regarded as an academic reflection of the demand for economic rights after the rise of the civil class.
Finally, the rise of the civil class promoted the development of popular literature. Doctors and literati have been wandering around the metropolis for a long time, mixing with all beings in the city. After listening for a long time, their lifestyle, attitude towards life, values and aesthetic taste are gradually moving closer to the citizen class. The creation of popular literature reached its peak in this period, which showed that intellectuals paid more attention to the citizen class, understood the living conditions and tastes of ordinary people, and became familiar with the people's language and even the commercial market. Their literary achievements are mainly in novels, such as Sanyan and Erpai in this period, which all try their best to show the street customs, bustling urban landscape and merchant trade activities in the north and south. At that time, the production situation of society was vividly shaped by pen and ink, which constituted a portrait of the social world in the late Ming Dynasty. In the name of Song Dynasty, the novels express true feelings and denounce current affairs, and all kinds of characters are displayed one by one, reflecting the reality of the conflict between the feudal traditional agricultural economy and the emerging commodity economy in the late Ming Dynasty. In these novels, the characters are more flamboyant, and the pursuit of human desires is no longer secretive. In literary works, the theme of opposing asceticism and obscurantism and advocating secular interests and worldly pleasures has merged into the torrent of literary enlightenment in this period.
The emergence of modern citizen class is the product of the simultaneous development of various ownership economies in the primary stage of socialism in China, and they are also the builders of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
At present, the citizen class in China can be broadly summarized into three groups: one is the self-employed class, which mainly depends on its own business to get paid; Second, private entrepreneurs, who get higher income through investment management and employment; Third, professional technology and management, including entrepreneurs and technicians of private scientific and technological enterprises, Chinese managers and technicians employed by foreign-funded enterprises, managers and technicians of state-owned monopoly enterprises, employees of intermediary organizations and freelancers, all of whom rely on their own knowledge and technical expertise to obtain higher income.
At present, China's citizen class includes the following aspects: 1, with the rapid development of private scientific and technological enterprises, entrepreneurs and technicians active in these enterprises; 2. Management and technical personnel employed by foreign-invested enterprises formed with the emergence of foreign-invested enterprises; 3. With the expansion of economic activities and the increase of participants, employees of various intermediary organizations came into being; 4. Freelancers, such as freelance writers, painters, private medical personnel, faculty and staff of private schools, etc., rely on personal knowledge, skills and expertise to directly sell labor products, especially spiritual labor products, as a means to make a living with the breaking of market monopoly. 5, individual industrial and commercial households, is a family unit, with a certain amount of funds, operating alone, self-financing, its members are more complex, the main body is the original farmers, workers and unemployed people, mostly engaged in retail, catering, services and other projects; 6. Private entrepreneurs, including private enterprises, private cooperative enterprises and private limited liability companies (private enterprises refer to enterprises with privately owned means of production and a certain starting point for capital and employees). 7. Migrant workers 8. Laid-off workers
The emergence of modern citizen class is the product of the simultaneous development of various ownership economies in the primary stage of socialism in China, and they are also builders of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.