On the development history and characteristics of charitable organizations in ancient China?

Philanthropists in Ancient ChinaSince ancient times, many folk philanthropists have emerged in China. They carried out charitable deeds in their personal names, either as big merchants or local officials, and financed the poor and the orphaned with their own capital. In the history of Spring and Autumn and Warring States, there is a famous philanthropist Fan Li, he is the late Spring and Autumn period of the great statesman of Yue, he once helped King Goujian to restore the country to the shame, and then took a flatboat to go down the river to do business, but also changed his name to Tao Zhu Gong, quite a set of successful experience in business operations. But people rich ambition is higher, several times will operate the huge amount of money, to help the poor. The Records of the Grand Historian says that he "received a thousand dollars three times in nineteen years, and then dispersed the money to the poor and the poor". That is to say, in nineteen years, he gained the wealth of a thousand gold three times, but three times he gave this money to help his poor friends and difficult brothers around him. History praised him as a great benefactor and philanthropist who was "rich in good deeds and virtues". There were many philanthropists and charitable people in the Han Dynasty. Eastern Han Dynasty Emperor Guangwu's grandfather Fan Chong, can be called a great philanthropist, according to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" records, he once lent millions to the poor, when these people's loan documents and deeds are one by one, cut and burned, so that the lenders are very touched. His family has a lot of "pool fish and livestock", where there is a request for fish and livestock, there is a response. Eastern and Western Han Dynasty, there are many as local officials and at the same time is a local philanthropist, such as Western Han Dynasty Emperor Xuan Di Huang Ba, in Yangzhou Assassin, often encourage the township Pavilion officials to raise chickens and pigs, when the time to give alms to the widows and widowers of the poor households. He served as governor of Quanzhou, but also from time to time, "to raise the widowers and widows, support the poor", the great charity, and then the social order was good, to achieve the "field to let the side of the road, the road is not a" state. The Western Han Dynasty minister called Xinchen, in the county of water conservancy, "advised farming and agriculture", the great deeds of charity, so that the county rich, he was honored by the people as "call the father". Ministers and magistrates of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are also many philanthropists, such as Emperor Guangwu when the famous minister Xuan Bing, his official to the three public officials and nine ministers, the emperor honored as "three sitting alone", a lot of power, but his life of saving, never spend, "clothes", "vegetables, food and jade". "Vegetables and food jade", but his salary over the years, as much as possible to the poor relatives and widows and orphans, so that when he died, "since no stone storage". Guangwu another minister ****, although the "family tired of thousands of dollars", but all his wealth charity to the poor people, won the "good Shi Zhou anxious" reputation. The most interesting, is whenever the busy season, he brought wine and food to the field, specifically reward those who are diligent in farming, as a reward. North and South Dynasties, the folk are often philanthropists, in the local charity, the Northern Wei Dynasty, there are "good officials" Lu Yong, Wei Taishou, every day from the home from the corn and grain, go to the relief of the poor people, another good official Yan Qingyin, served as Eastern Taizhou Shixing City Taishou, is in the drought, Qingyin more than 1,000 stones of corn from their own home, "relief of the poor! "so that a number of difficult families saved. The most commendable is the sui dynasty, "the official" Gongsun Jingmao, sui emperor wendi, there is a campaign to conquer Chen, there are many soldiers in the journey do not accept the soil and water and sick, Jingmao begged with his own salary for these sick soldiers to seek medical treatment porridge boiling medicine, from his hands because of the survival of more than a thousand people. Later, when he was the governor of Daozhou, he used his salary and family property to buy a large number of chickens, pigs and calves to "spread the benefits to those who are weak and do not survive". Another famous official of the Sui Dynasty, Xin Gongyi, was even more touching in his charitable behavior. History records that when he served as assassin of Minzhou, Sichuan, the local disaster and disease, and the people are afraid of disease, "a person has a disease, that is, the family to avoid", so that "fathers and sons, husband and wife, do not see each other to raise". Xin Gongyi decided to use their own exemplary behavior to inspire the people, when the summer months when the epidemic is serious, he let his subordinates will be within the territory of all the disease patients are carried to their own homes with hemp boards, the patient reaches hundreds of halls and corridors are full, he personally set up a couch and the patient to live together, all day and night and the patient relative to the inquiry. During this period, all his salary was used to buy medicines for the patients, and he also took care of the patients' food and living in person. As a result, all the patients were cured, and the local custom was changed from then on. After the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming folk philanthropists, the history of many records, in the history of charity, the big famous charity can be pushed to the Northern Song Dynasty, the monk Dafeng. He lived in the Northern Song Dynasty Emperor Huizong Xuanhe years, deeds have been recorded in our country and Southeast Asian countries in the history of the main charity to repair bridges for the benefit of the people. In the sixth year of Emperor Huizong's reign (1116), this Buddhist master came from Fujian to Chao Yang, Guangdong Province, and raised funds for the construction of the Peace Bridge, which took twelve years of painstaking work and was completed at the end of the Xuanhe period in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. The local residents were so grateful that they built the "Hall of Repayment of Virtue" next to the bridge to honor him. From then on, charities and charitable organizations in the Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province have flourished, all originating from this great Buddhist benefactor. From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the Shantou Cunxin Charity Hall, which was established under the influence of Venerable Dafeng, became the most prestigious charity organization in the south, and the Ancestor Record Tablet written by the local people in 1929 recorded in detail the life and good deeds of this charitable person about one thousand years ago: "Ancestor Song Dafeng, a native of Fujian, was a senior monk at the time of the Xuanhe...The Ancestor Song Dafeng, a native of Fujian, was a senior monk at the time of the Xuanhe...The Ancestor Song Dafeng is a Buddhist priest of the Xuanhe... ... persuade the Chao people to build bridges, roads, coffins, funerals, saving lives, medicine, disaster relief, and other good deeds, a lifetime of tireless, enlightened the Chao people a lot of ...... counties then rise in the clouds, the ancestor statue, and strive to perform good deeds". Dafeng charity ideas also spread overseas, in Bangkok, Thailand, also established Dafeng Ancestor Temple, the establishment of the relevant private charitable organizations, based on the 90s of the last century in the establishment of the Thai Overseas Chinese Chong Sheng University. It can be said that Dafeng is an international philanthropist. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the folk philanthropy in the Jiangnan area of China formed a climax. At that time, many intellectuals with progressive ideas have set up local charitable organizations, on the one hand, to contact each other, against the dark rule of eunuchs, rallies to attack corrupt politics, on the other hand, the implementation of effective relief of the community, the cold to the clothing, the hungry to the food, medicine for the sick, the dead to the casket, and some also raise funds for the poor children to run a school. With the famous Donglin school general Gao Panlong, Qian Bian, Chen Youxue, Ye Maocai and other organizations of the Tongshenhui, is such a civil charity groups. Initially in the Wanli years of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, Yang Dongming, a native of Henan, started in Yucheng, Henan Province, and later moved the center to Wujin, Jiangsu Province, expanding the area to Wuxi, Jiashan and many other counties in the south of the Yangtze River. The main content of the charitable work of the Tongshanshui is to promote good morals and customs to the society, adopt the poor filial son of the destitute, the festival woman and the poor, old and sick, and the funds are collectively raised by the members of the Tongshanshui. The charitable activities of the Society of the same good, attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad, Japanese scholars Fuma Jin specializing in a booklet "with the Society of the same good small history". On the basis of the same good will, the Qing Dynasty Jiangnan folk charity on a larger scale, according to relevant historical statistics, only Suzhou, that is, there are a variety of names of social charities more than one hundred and twenty, Shanghai area also has more than eighty charitable organizations. Some of these charitable organizations to build a nursery, specializing in the collection of abandoned babies to raise, some run the so-called Renji Hall, Tongren Hall, to the poor free supply of medicine. Due to the intervention of some local officials, some charitable organizations are well-funded, history shows that in the Qianlong period, a nursery in Wuhu County has more than 13,000 acres of land, once that is to get the government to help more than twelve thousand silver two. The Ming and Qing dynasties by the scholarly organization of charity, but also regularly to the general public lectures, propaganda, their charitable ideas. Japanese scholars Sakai Tadao specializes in a "study of China's good book", specializing in the late Ming dynasty Donglin philanthropist Gao Panlong and other charitable culture and charitable scholarship. There are two other philanthropists of the Qing Dynasty that should be mentioned, one is Tao Shu, the other is the famous Lin Zexu. Tao Shu is the Qing dynasty during the Daoguang period of feudal officials, he served as a high official to the Governor of the two rivers, in the charitable work to preside over the abundant preparation of charity warehouse and well-known. During the third to fifth year of the Daoguang period (1823-1825), Tao Shu was the governor of Anhui Province, and when a big fire broke out, he began to consider establishing a private warehouse to prepare for disasters, which was named "Fengpi Yicang", meaning "to prepare for the shortage of a famine year with the surplus of the year of abundance". ". To the Daoguang fifteen years (1835), Tao Shu has served two terms as governor, finally and the ministry of Jiangsu governor Lin Zexu to FengBeiYi warehouse completed, the address selected in Jiangning, Suzhou area. At the beginning of this year, Lin Zexu in suzhou city built ten large and small warehouses, from wuxi to buy grain storage. Because of the land in today's jiangsu province changzhou, yuan and wu three counties, the history of this civil service disaster relief warehouse named "long yuan wu feng ready warehouse", from 1835 to 1860 more than twenty years, this warehouse effectively play the role of disaster relief in years of famine. After the Opium War, Lin Zexu was exiled to Xinjiang. He in the border area of Ili once again their own donations to build the Longkou canal, for the welfare of the people of Xinjiang, completed the last time in his life for the country for the people's philanthropy. In the late Qing Dynasty, long Yuan Wu Fengpi barn completely by the government and the people together to change hands for the local gentry, charity scale is getting bigger and bigger, not only the disaster relief food, but also prepare to build a "porridge factory", and later partly in charge of the relief of the unemployed machine households. The end of the Qing dynasty Guangxu twenty-second year (1896), also founded a special acceptance of poor families of orphaned children of the "Confucian orphan school". Finally, it also expanded a solution to the exile population and the employment of the children of the poor, "the poor people to learn the arts", equivalent to the current technical school. In this way, the Jangwon Wufengpyeong Warehouse became a comprehensive charitable organization. Up to the 1890s, the new Western ideas continue to spread to our country, some Western charitable ideas have also been circulated to our country's academic circles, China's traditional philanthropy has been impacted. Late Qing thinker Zheng Guanying in an article entitled "good deeds", listed the charitable organizations in Western countries, advocating that China should also be through the combined efforts of the government and the gentry, all over the Western style of the Goodwill Hall. China's traditional philanthropy has also gradually transformed into modern public welfare. China's traditional philanthropy and the Western world charity thought has *** with the same place, that is, China's ancient philanthropy originated from the ancient Confucianism of the people-oriented thinking, which and the Western Renaissance since the humanism advocated is the same. But the two are also different, that is, modern charity public welfare activities, not only limited to the widowers and orphans, the poor, sick and disabled relief, more focused on the community at large, so that philanthropy is not only passive but also proactive. Today, China's philanthropy and charitable policies are being transformed in this direction, as described in a recent article in the Beijing Youth Daily, to be "not only in line with the fine virtues of the Chinese nation and the needs of today's Chinese society, but also consistent with the advanced culture of the world". This is also the new conditions in our country in the new conditions of philanthropy, a new atmosphere!