科舉、政治和婚姻對一個家族興衰之影響，為多數研究家族者所注意。其中婚姻關係對於士人家族地位之維持，的確有其正面之意義，除了基於門當戶對、實際利益的考量外，是否也可從其它面相來探討家族的婚姻？莆田方氏家族的婚姻正提供了這樣的一個思考。方氏與其它家族交遊往來，形成了地方上的學術群體。而同屬於一文化圈，基本上在思想觀念上是較為接近的，也由於此，家族之間的情誼又從文化圈擴展及於婚姻圈，故影響家族婚姻締結的因素並非多以利益為考量，尤其是士人家族的婚姻，可說是一種文化現象，因具有相同的行為模式，因此婚姻對象的選擇亦屬於同一生活圈。此外，方氏婚姻關係的地域分佈是和家族的發展密切相關，一個家族若是以地方為活動中心，且遠離政治中心之所在，那麼婚姻的對象很自然地會以家族的活動區域為主。

In most studies of family development, emphasis is usually placed on the examination system, bureaucracy and marriage. Among those dimensions, marriage had a positive effect on the establishment of elite families' status. Is the families' marriage to be discussed from other angles besides the perpetuation of elite status and strategic benefit? The Fang family of Pu-tian providest a new angle for analying the families' marriage. A scholarly group was shaped by the Fang's charitable, literary and educational activities with other families. In this culture circle, the members' ideologies were close one another. Because of the familiarization, the friendship between these families gradually developed from culture circle to marriage circle. Therefore, strategic benefit was not the main consideration in marriage, especially for the internal marriages of elite families. It was a cultural phenomenon. They shared the same mode of life, so they arranged marriages within the same culture circle. Besides, the regional distribution of the Fang's marriages was related to the Fang's development. If a family like the Fongs devoted more of their time to local community, far away from the political capital, marriages were naturally arranged with local gentry.

家族；婚姻；文化圈；生活圈

Family；Marriage；Culture circle