INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 9 generally subscribed to.Its conclusion is that after a number of The weight of the latter factors as contributing causes to the situ- peaceful years the population grew,but the resources,namely, ation must not be minimized. land and technology,remained more or less constant.When over Seen from this angle,the rise and fall of ordinary families in population reached an unbearable point,a period of chaos fol- a small community,of those of officials in high places,and of those lowed,precipitated by famine,flood,diseases,civil wars,and of rulers of the empire appear to meet on a common ground.The widespread brigandage.This caused the loss of a large part of the rising family groups are usually associated with individuals hav population,which enabled the country to return,once again,to ing one series of personality characteristics,while the declining a number of peaceful years under a new dynasty.10 One writer family groups are usually associated with those having a different observed that the more he examined Chinese society,the more he series of personality characteristics. was convinced of the operation of the famous Malthusian popu- Why is it that weak personalities usually compose declining lation law.11 families,while strength characterizes the members of rising fami- The truth in both lines of thought is undeniable,but following lies?Early exposure of heirs apparent and of other young princes my own trend of thinking I came upon a new factor.I scruti- to harems and eunuchs seems to be at least partially responsible nized the conditions of the ruling house and its bureaucracy and for weakness in the case of the aristocracy.There is,however,no found that the founders of dynasties or their immediate prede- such ready answer in the case of other families.The problem puz- cessors usually exhibited signs of wisdom and understanding zled me for a number of years.Some time ago I came to appreciate concerning their problems and worked very hard at their govern- a difference in social behavior between the wealthier ho seholds mental tasks;but the losers of dynasties or their immediate prede- and the poorer ones in some parts of China.The wealthier and cessors apparently often lacked good judgment and understand- more scholarly tended to adhere much more than the poor to the ing concerning their problems.Some were either licentious and socially upheld big-family ideal;this apparently explains the callous or hopelessly weak.As a rule the former had a number of larger households among the rich as a whole as contrasted with able military and ministerial assistants;the latter received their the poor as a whole.1 chief support from eunuchs and members of their harem,and Using this difference as a springboard,I proceeded to analyze generally turned a deaf ear to,or even killed,any minister who the culture of West Town.It is here that an answer may be found dared to give them unwanted advice.Under such regimes,in spite to the long-puzzling problem-based not so much upon a differ- of general poverty and hardship among the populace,the cost of ence in social behavior between the rich and the poor as upon dif the imperial household and the bureaucracy which it fostered ferent consequences of the same social behavior because of eco- would steadily increase rather than decrease;the ruler and his nomic and status differences.The social behavior here referred to favored assistants would either fail to realize the seriousness of centers around "The Ancestors'Shadow."13 the situation or deliberately ignore it. Seen in the culture of West Town,the most important factors Thus,while bureaucratic interference with the land tax and overpopulation could be observed near the fall of dynasties, weaknesses of the rulers and their assistants were equally obvious. ,the ndivid p服sc时 nd id be said toxunder the shadow of his ancetor. 小m
10 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION under the ancestors'shadow which bear on the personality of the These differences are expressed most clearly through the sec individual are two:authority and competition. The first factor ond factor which bears on the personality of the individual. consists of the father-son identification and the big-family ideal. Competition as defined by such a culture merely dovetails into The second factor involves a struggle for one or all of three and amplifies the factor of authority. things:(a)the glory of common ancestors,(b)the glory of a Among both the rich and the poor West Towners competition particular lineage within the clan,or (c)the position of most illustrious or favorite descendant of the ancestors. is very active.But while the poor compete merely for their exist- ence,the rich have gone far beyond that and compete for power The father-son identification and the big-family ideal support and prestige.Here two points of differentiation ocu.The poor, each other.Together they are responsible for a social system being hard pressed by the tasks of making a living,have little time which deprives the younger generation of any feeling of inde- and energy left for anything else and are,therefore,much less pendence,while at the same time it enables them to sbare what- ancestor conscious.At any rate,they are not proud to tell their ever wealth or glory is due to their immediate or remote ancestors forebears about their present condition.The rich,being com- These factors also lay the foundation for an education which is fortably situated,have ample opportunities for leading any kind dependent on the past and is intended to shape the young ex of life they want to lead.They will enjoy themselves,and one clusively in the image of the old.This education encourages the of their main sources of enjoyment will be to polish up the glory young to participate in the adult world much earlier than do the of their ancestors or work toward the position of the most illus- young in Europe and in America. trious descendants of the kinship group or both. This identification of the generations and this educational A second point of differentiation has already been suggested process have the inevitable result that the sons of the rich are as by the first.There is not only rivalry for ancestral favors but also rich as their fathers,and those of the poor are as poor as their fa- rivalry within the household.The younger members of a poor thers.The sons of the rich not only share their fathers'wealth family not only are little concerned about their remote ancestors but also enjoy their fathers'power and prestige.The sons of the but also have less incentive to compete for paternal approval.The poor not only share their fathers'poverty but also partake of older men,being poor,have little material wealth to give them, their fathers'humility or lack of position.Like their fathers,the whereas wealthy fathers can express their pleasure or displeasure p”gm in very material ways. Therefore,while the same father-son identification exists sons of the rich find themselves differently situated.Unlike their among the rich and the poor,the difference in their economic fathers,who probably have had to labor to reach their present conditions has caused the young of the rich and the young of the status,they cannot work for what they receive for fear their par- poor to develop two different types of personality:the former, ents will lose face.It is an integral part of the latter's social posi- a higher degree of dependence upon the old and upon traditional tion that their sons shall not work.Under such conditions the authority,the latter,a higher degree of independence from the younger men have no productive way of expressing themselves. old and from traditional authority.For throughout life children Like their fathers now,they have only to ask for what they want. of the poor have to give for what they take,while those of the In fact,wealth,power,and prestige are showered on them rich have to rely upon what is given to them. whether they want them or not. This can be seen to apply not only to people living in small
12 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 13 communities but also toinhabitants of large centersnot onlyto those who come of humble circumstances but also to those promi- sally valid and meaningful.Kretschmer,Nietzche,Jung,Eduard nent in the social scale. Spranger,and Freud have,among others,each made valuable con tributions.But when I tried to apply some of these systems to A POINT OF METHODOLOGY the culture under consideration,I found that either many of the facts had to be left out or the categories suggested were without In the following chapters an attempt will be made to describe significance to the problem in hand. and to analyze the cultural settings of these and other types of I have little doubt that the chief reasons for my failure were personality in West Town.Before proceeding any further,a few my meager knowledge of the sciences of the mind and the fact words on methodology are in order.The term"personality"will that I had no psychologist or analyst to collaborate with manapgwi2ia-2Rcd the field. Recognizing my limitations,I then adopted a diff. that which is unique in the individual.On the other hand,the cedure.Instead of approaching the culture with a fixe. ho- characteristics of such aggregates may be shared by a number of logical scheme and fixed contents for the scheme,I let the overt individuals.In such acase there emerges a type of"ersnlty behavior of the people be my guide.Instead of employing psycho- configuration."If the elements of a personality configuration are ina,we shall call it the"asic per- analytic terminology,I resorted to common-sense denominators. In this way my categories and terms may not be too exact,but sonality configuration."If a personality configuration is shared by the majority of individuas occupyinga particular position in they are more meaingful for the culture n question.My analyses and conclusions may not penetrate the deepest layers of the mind, the society,we shall call it the "status personality configura but they at least provide all relevant facts of the culture with a tion."Status personality configurations are modifications of proper perspective. basic personality configurations in one way or another,but are The procedure is similar to that of Dr.Abram Kardiner in not opposed to them. that it allows great flexibility in the characterization of the types However,it is very difficult to ascertain and to systematize the and their interpretation.But it differs from that of the latter in contents of different types of personality configurations in differ- several respects.First,Kardiner's works are couched in Freudian ent cultures and to work them into some taxonomical order.In- terms,while the present study is not.Secondly,while realizing stead of obtaining a clear picture,we find very little general that religion and folklore are not all of any culture,Kardiner agreement.It is difficult to establish categories which are univer nevertheless consistently refers to them whenever he speaks of culture.In one connection he says: The terms asic personality According as the experiences varied,so did the products of the pro- ly di ferent terms for jective systems in folklore and religion.This gave us our first clue,and the cGrsdipsychoiogicalpotentinlitic:andtheirbit5 same procedure was used on more and more phenomena. ekapiarmoamsrnamhinnmwoi of terms havef N York,an The Pocbologleal Froe
14 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION If therefore we again look at the correlation in the previous paragraph, Two things would have enabled the analys toavoid osillting we find that if childhood disciplines constitute one order of institutions between"a hopeless task"and"some clues."He could have taken onand fok another.W the sounder theoretical position of seeing the relation between culture and personality as a spiral as Ralph Linton would have it. projective systems subsequently used to create folklore and religion.'s According to this view,culture and personality never completely Although admiring Dr.Kardiner's contribution,I must observe meet at the same points,but follow each other closely.Or,in- that the development of culture is a complex thing and cannot be stead of trying to explain at the same time the influences of cul- fitted into any one simplified formula.Such a simplified formula ture on personality and of personality on culture,he could have is least likely to apply to West Town,which has been under the obtained better results by concentrating on one side of the picture influence of a literary heritage of long standing and of a central first.Ifitis argued that sucha procedure artificially breaks up the government that rigorously and continuously enforced certain integral whole of culture and personality,the usual answer is that nationwide rules of conduct all scientific efforts create more or less artificial boundary lines However,Dr.Kardiner is not entirely unaware of the weak- between phenomena of the universe,which are essentially one ness of his argument,namely,of trying to explain the basic per- integrated whole.The present work is an attempt to determine sonality type by the culture and also the culture by the basic the effects of a Chinese culture on the personality-not the effects personality type.To quote him again: of the personality on the culture. Thirdly,in still another respect the present work differs from e,cnoecilg0stionthenbecoes:agiCgminesthcParentalatimde dces to which the child is that of Dr.Kardiner.As a good Freudian,Dr.Kardiner takes the mined by the social organization and the subsistence techniques. the mm peve yetch Whereas this statement is,strictly speaking,true,we are likely to get importance implies that early training means everything.But many surprises unless we qualify it with several conditions.And these personality and culture are both continua.The influence of cul- ture on personality throughout life cannot be lost sight of.As tho nditions which qualify the Linton has pointed out: terminants of parental attitudes,apparently we immediately run into the problem of social origins.This is a hopeless fask,and theories While the culture of any society determines the deeper levels of its mem at this point are no substitute for demonstrable evidence[italics mine]. particular tech 1-rearing to Dr.Kardiner winds up his exposition by the following: shape the res nce does not end with this.It goes on to personalities by providing models for their specific What we have been saying is that the operational value of the concept of responses as well.This latter process continues throughout life.2 basic prnalyisoothefactor which the per- In the present work the cultural influences on the individual sonality but also to furuisb some clntes about why these influences are what they are [italics mine]. will be traced not only during his infancy but also in his adult- hood and old age.Personality will not be regarded merely as the end result of early training,instead,it will be seen in the light of Linton. 41b,p.12 Century Co
Dragon Marhet 16 INTRODUCTION 8 its continued development in and articulation with the culture and its institutions. THE FIELD West Town is within aday's journeyon footor horseback from 命☆ the Burma Road.It is bordered by a lake on one side and a moun- 向 ☆ Dog Mark tain rising to about 14,ooo feet above sea level on the other.The CA general evation s abou6,feet above sea level.The general occupation of the entire area is agriculture,rice being the staple crop.However,trading in various forms is also very common and is the backbone of West Town economy.Trading in this com- munity includes both local exchanges in periodic markets and ☆ large-scale commercial adventures into the outer world. West Town is a rural market town.Its first appearance in Chi nese history was in the Tang Dynasty,about a thousand years ago.Today it is under the jurisdiction of a district (hsien)gov- ernment south of it.The local administrative head is a chen chang (the headman of a rural town).Theoretically the cben chang is elected by the people and then appointed by the magistrate.In fact,he is usually selected by the magistrate with the implicit ap- proval of the people. The population consists of about 1,ooo households and about TC 8,ooo persons.The former are grouped into ten pao of about Ioo households each.Each pao has a headman.Each pao is subdivided ☆ School Library School in ten cbid,of about ro households each.Each cbia has a headman. ☆☆ Both the pao headman and the cbia headman are truer electees of the people than the chen headman. West Town proper is not walled.Its outer appearance is very irregular.There is only one continuous thoroughfare,which leads from the north to the south.The other streets run in east-west Hospital LEGEND direction into it at irregular intervals.Some years ago four gates were erected,one at each end of the main thoroughfare,one at 可 Village the end of a street which runs into it from the east,and one at the ☆ Temple end of a street from the west.In this way a large section of the town is shut from the outlying areasa night,when a town-hired 卜-Toun Gate Place where WEST TOWN ○Periodic market