純粹閱讀明遺民的文集，將他們分成每個獨立個體來看，出與處一般非常簡單。可是，將他們以家族為單位，集團為系統來分析，往往就會出現非常複雜的情況。 本文以魏禧的出處為中心，再論及其兄長及其佳兒等家庭成員的出，以見其整個家族在明亡清興時的出處安排，實非如一般人所想那麼簡單。另外，文中指出過往不少人只將魏禧的處，獨立來看，盡情表揚他能堅處到底，不出清朝的氣節，事實是將複雜的問題簡單化，也對那些為了成就某些人而犧牲的人不公平。 總括而言，本文認為獨立個體來看明遺民的出處，往往是看不到那個時代的複雜面，也看不到當時遺民要堅處到底的困難，更加看不到出與處之間的微妙關係，看不到那些出者以成就處者的深沉心事。

Relying solely on their works and viewing their choices as individual cases, one might think that the attitude of Ming yimin 遺民 toward the problem of taking office or withdrawing from public life under Qing rule was a simple matter. However, if we analyze these cases with reference to factors of kinship and group-relationship, they become much more complicated . This paper concentrates on Wei Xi’s 魏禧 political choice and those of family members such as his brothers and nephews, in order to illustrate that the decisions made by Wei’s clan as to serving the Qing during the Ming-Qing transition were not as simple as many people tend to think. Moreover, it is also argued that previous studies, which treat Wei’s eremitism as an individual case and praise his uncompromising loyalty to the Ming, not only over-simplify the issue but are also unfair to those who sacrificed themselves for the yimin’s insistence on their loyalty to Ming. On the whole, this paper advances the view that treating the yimin’s political choices as individual cases prevents us from realizing the complexity of the time, the difficulties of the yimin in preserving their moral integrity, the subtle relationship between taking office or withdrawing from public life during a period of dynastic change, and the sacrifice of those who took office for those who withdrew from the public.