During the Ming and Qing dynasties, many powerful lineages appeared in the Jiangnan area. In this thesis, I take the Hua lineage of Wuxi county as an example, to study the emergence and transformation of these institutions, as well as the change of local society in the period. / In the Hua lineage, the word "lineage" includes two kinds of meanings: one is continued by blood, the other is constructed by special means. The former is implied in the the Hua Zhengu story in early Ming dynasty, which described when the family arrived at the bank of Lake E, reclaimed land, and, in time, became a lineage having many descendants. The latter was performed in ceremonies by many people surnamed Hua who lived in Wuxi county, including Hua Zhengu's descendants, who, through the ceremonies, designated themselves members of a large lineage. The ceremonies were supported by the building of ancestral halls, by compiling genealogies, and recalling stories of their connections to the ancestors. In the middle of the Ming dynasty, people of the Hua surname at Dangkou, where Hua Zhengu had settled, came to be known as a great lineage in Wuxi County. / My focus is not on building a "lineage society" . In the Jiangnan area, lineages were actively built only by a small number of people, while most of their members kept only a loose connection with their lineage. So the lineage exerted little authority on its members. In fact, the importance of the lineage lies in its economic function. Under the process of economic development, by building a charitable estate, lineage became a corporation, which in turn further accelerated the economic development of local society. Through the study of the impact the lineage and the town it settled had on each other, this thesis describes the specificity of the Jiangnan lineage in the Ming and Qing dynasties. / 余艶. / Adviser: David Faure. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-148). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Yu Yan.