Rural China7Villages, Markets, and Towns6Ch'ing emperors took over the system as it existed in the Ming dy-mented into units of ten and multiples of ten, regardless of villagenasty; they modified it in some significant details and made use ofor other natural boundaries.any additional local organizations that appeared to be helpful in sub-The idea of local self-government was alien to the system of ruraladministrative control.The resulting system,viewed in historicalcontrol.Anylocal initiative or community lifethat was displayed incontext, was remarkably comprehensive and ingenious.thevillageswastoleratedbythegovernmenteithertofacilitatecon-Some of the basic principles that underlay this system and its chieftrol or because interference was deemed unnecessary. Villages andproblems should be examined brieflybefore weventureintodescrip-clans andother rural groupswere,in the eyes of thegovernment, sotion and analysis of its component parts.In the first place, realizingmany convenient points throughwhich subadministrative control mightthat it was impractical to extend the regular administrative arm fur-be extended into the countryside.ther down than the district magistrate and his subordinates, the Ch'ingIt is worth while to note that even in employing suppressive meas-emperors drafted local inhabitants to assist in rural control as theirures, the government drew upon the assistance of local inhabitantspredecessors had done.Thus, the headmen of the pao-chia (police)as far as was consistent with expediency or safety.The pao-chia sys-and li-chia (revenue collection) divisions and the managers of the ru-tem and to some extent the clan organizations, as we shall see later,ral granaries were selected from the inhabitants of the villages orwere made to help in keeping records of the inhabitants, watchingneighborhoods where these institutions were to operate.The clanstheir daily doings, reporting suspicious characters and offensive(groups held together by kinship bonds), which prospered especially indeeds,andapprehendingcriminalswantedbythegovernment.Whenprovinces south of the YellowRiver,weresometimes madeto servelocalpeopleweremadeto supplytheir own spies and sheriffs,theyas supplementary instruments of surveillance and indoctrinationThemightbepersuaded toactprudently even if nogovernment officialsadvantages of such arrangements are obvious,On the one hand, thewerepresent;the possibility of criminals finding shelter in the neigh-local inhabitants weremorelikelythan governmentofficialstoknowborhoodsorwould-berebels brewing seditious schemesin remotethe conditions and personalities of their own homeplaces and werevillages might thus be reduced.therefore in a better position to cope with local problems that mightTheimperial rulers,however,wereastuteenough notto maintainarise or at least to furnish information that thegovernment might de-control exclusivelybymeans ofsuppressive measuresAttention wassire.On theother hand,by drawing assistancefrom local inhabitantsalso paid to matters that tended to render the inhabitants less inclinedtoimplementcontrol-byimposinguponsomeofthemtheresponsibil-to break laws or to defy the authorities. Steps were taken, on the oneityto informthegovernmentof misdeedsand wrongdoers-villagershand, to provide the minimum conditions for rural inhabitants to gainmightbedeterred frombreakingthelaws evenwheretheywerenota livelihood and to provide against natural or man-made disasters.directly under the watchful eyes of officials.Theimperial government undertook, among other things, to reclaimTopreventthe developmentof unduepower or influencein the ruralland,to promote or encourageirrigation and flood prevention,and togroups or divisions,anumber of restraining deviceswereemployedconductfaminereliefwork.Ontheotherhandmethodsofpopularin-Every local agency ororganization,whether sponsored bythe govern-doctrination were applied to various segments of the population, withment or of local origin,wasplaced under the control or supervisiona viewto upholdinga system of valuesthatwould prove advantageousof the magistrate,The government always reserved the right to sup-to the imperial regime.Following broadly the tradition established inpress any group or activitywhich it deemedpernicious.The hand ofthe preceding dynasty,the Ch'ing rulers lent official support to thethe government, acting through the magistrate, was ever ready toaccepted socialand moral preceptsof the"orthodox"school of Neo-strike; and when circumstances demanded, the troops stationed inConfucianism. Through the"examination and school' system theymany strategic points of the empire could be called into action.More-sought to instill the state ideology in the minds of scholars and offi-over,the selection of villageheadmen and rural managers was usuallycials:byrelvingupontheinfluence of thesemenand bymeans of asubject to the review of the magistrate, if indeed the appointmentsvariety of institutions, including the rural schools,popular religion,were not actually madebythe magistrate himself,Whilehistorically-and the clan organization, they undertook to extend this ideology toevolved rural groups and divisions were normally allowed to existthe untutored millions in the countryside.artificial divisions were created by the governmentand were juxta-It is difficult to evaluate precisely the efficacy of this system ofposed beside or superimposed upon them, so that the former mightrural control.It must have contributed, to an undetermined extent,not growinto integral centers of local power.Thus,in the pao-chiato the stability of the Ch'ing regime-one of the relatively long-livedand li-chia divisions the households of the countryside were regi-dynasties in Chinese history, but evidence indicates that it never
Rural China9Villages, Markets, and Townsoperated in a manner fully satisfactory to the imperial rulers,whosive,Their attention and energy were devoted to eking out a meagerperhaps had never expected it to produce perfect results.livelihood,Driven by desperation and lured by promises of a change forIndeed, it is quite ciear that the rural control system of the Ch'ingthe better, villagers had helped to topple dymasties on more than onedynasty was not without some grave shortcomings,In fact, the veryoccasion; but under normal conditions and when left to themselves, theymerits that persuaded the emperors to adopt it proved in the long runwere comparatively unambitious and politically ineffectual, According-to be the source of its weaknesses. As an inseparable part of the im-ly,the problemof controlling the peasantmasses may appearto haveperial structure, it shared the essential qualities of the total systembeea a relatively simple matter.But the characteristic'passivity"ofthe rural population imposed definite limitations on the effectiveness ofand therefore had to stand or fall withit.The first major difficulty of rural control was that Its effective oper-control. The method of employing local inhabitants to implement subad-ation presupposed an administrative condition which the Imperial gov-ministrative control, though theoretically sound, failed in practice be-ernment couid not provide,As already noted, in an autocracy in whichcause of the reluctance of the inhabitants to serve, their incapacity tothe interests of the rulers and subjects were assumed to be separate ifdo the tasks expected of them, and in many instances the readiness ofnot incompatible, the entire administrative system was built on thethose employed to use the machinery of rural control to further theirbasis of suspicion. Imperial security was the primary concern of theprivate interests instead of to serve the imperial cause.rulers and their first axiom of security was to hold all power in theirMoreover, official supervision, indispensable to keeping the con-own hands,to keep the subjects habitually in awe of that power, and attrol system in operation, precluded local pride or esprit de corps,the same time to discourage anyone-scholars and officials as wellequally indispensable to the continued elffective operation of the vari-as common peoplefrom developing independence and self-reliance.ous agencies or organizations. The magistrate, bound by rigid regu-Applying thisaxiomto the practical conductofadministration,thelations (issued from Peking with little regard for divergent conditionsemperors found it prudent not to give to any official opportunities forin difierent parts of the empire) and given practically no discretionaryexercising the initiative, independent judgment, or unhampered au-seldom took the troubie to adapt imperlal policies to the re-powera,thority necessary for proper pertormance of his prescribed duties.quireiffents of local circumstances,As a result the inhabitants oftenPolitical safety was deliberately stressed at the expense of adminis-Came to regard anything that involved the government with indiffer-trative efficiency.Consistent and long application of this policy even-ence, suspicion, or fear.One cannot deny that the mere presence oftually demoralized theofticialdom,Few public functionaries,fromthe subadministrative instruments of control in the countryside mustthe highest ranking mandarins in Peking to the humble magistrateshave exerted a deterrent influence on many a would-be troublemaker.of remote districts, made efforts to do things that might bring trueOne cannot suppose, however,that rural control as maintained by theadvantages to their sovereigns or give material benefits to the people;Ch'ing rulers ever instilled in the minds of the villagers any sentimentmost merely sought to keep out of trouble and to look out for theirof positive loyalty toward their sovereigns or toward their immediatepersonal advantage and profit, By the beginning of the nineteenth cen-community.The people of imperial China, to borrow a well-knowntury loyalty to the dynasty had become a rare official virtue, and ad-phrase, were like"a dishof loose sand."ministrative indifference and ineptitude a common vice, A decayedPopular indoctrination apparently brought some resuits, but hereofficialdom not only lowered the prestige of the imperial regime butagain they wereessentially negative in character.Villagers wereaffected adversely every other aspect of the administrative apparatus.taught an ideology calculated to bolster up thelr"conservatism,"toIn particular, the degeneration of the administration at the districtcondition them mentally to obey authority without question rather thanlevel rendered the proper operation of the various institutions of ru-to prepare them to copewith the concrete problemsof lifebyimprov-ral control practically impossible.For without the effectiveofficialing their personal capacities, Rural China was thus kept virtuallyprompting and supervision on which the whole system of rural controlstagnant, intellectually and economically unable to meet the challengehinged, the pao-chia, l-chia, and other institutions inevitably de-of changed circumstances; the inhabitants became helpless againstteriorated into empty routines or in the worst cases turned into stand-grave disasters wrought by nature or against oppressions inflicted bying opportunities for subadministrative corruption.local bullies and yamen underlings. The foundations of the empire,A further crucial difficulty of rural control was that it created condi-ironically,wereweakened by the veryprocess of control.tions tending to weaken the rural foundations of the empire,The ruralSo long as conditions remained broadly favorable to the regimeinhabitants of imperial China, mostly peasants and practically all illit-things appeared tolerably quiet. But as soon as serlous crises struck,erate, since ancient times had never been generally active or aggresas in the nineteenth century, the mortal flaws of the imperial struc-
Rural China Villages,Markets,and Towns 11 10 ture began to sbow.Famines occurred frequently and over wide areas of a"community. life,as tme whable than berore to deal it these p The village,however,was not economically self-contained.The this e eand authority and played havoc with the material needs of villagers might be quite simple and few,but they tve ec pecially in places where Western cor were likely to go beyond the limited resources of their own communi mmerce anc m的流点，The in mc网 ty.Some of the larger vill t part or tne e need by having "bus- d the restr of imperial control,broke out into vi e dis tartoto nntothe hold on ural China:now the nomic needs. ratus they had used to maintain that hold proved vir Rural markets varied in size and structure.They often developed tually useless.It would be inaccurate to say that the atrophy of the Irom the streets of prosperous villages;some were dis- system of rural control brought about this st ate of affa rS. ary villages mainly by the is that in the closing decade of the nineteenth ce cialize a and with it the Chinese dy- function introduced certain changes into the village.A new name was was in fact rapidly drawing to an end. sometimes given to a village which had become a market;a number of nonfarming inhabitants invariably moved into it.Rural THE CONFIGURATION OF RURAL CHINA mmunities,and Rural China was not closely organized twasn The vast countryside( of a rural area nded.the market the d of rural life.Some of these, became a center of increasingly extensive trading activities.A point sball call administrative divisions were set up more or was eventually reached when this community lost much of its purely less arbltrarily by the imperial government for the purpos se of con ergea as a to The augmented trading uced villagers from trol.Others were results of natural growt area ment action,although the wth of native industri -t where the official recognitton al families Hved in scattered finest porcelain was made,was an outstanding There were therefore two types of towns trading and manufactur. oarts of Szechwan,and some places Towns were no longer r od was extremely meager,as the hilly land of some communities pure and simple;in the sperou walls and other the inhabitants of rural China distributed the mselves in zes and forms,namely,villages fts' owing to 1 or,rural their anpear- Local eco also have bean at work. signed to assist the magistrate of the district concerned,or it might of a river or stream near arable land,fur. be made a garrison point where regular troops were stationed and held e water for irrigation and other purposes, y to m TgD与于 dshing ade con y be a city except by its name n and develo of a villa The number of villages in a gi in individual stituted the size of the district chief aspeets of the rural configuration.It will be necessary to de- mc conditions of the locality. seribe them in fuller details in the subsequent pages,but for the mo- la rosperous villages often displayed qualities ment we must pause to explain briefly the Hsiang,a rural division of
12 Rural China Villages,Markets,and Towns a different nature.(The word Hsiang is capitalized to distinguish it The first settler built his dwelling where he thought best:another fol- from hsiang,"countryside.") lowed his example.It was necessary to have a path to et to the The Hsias division,as it existed in the nineteenth century and and soon another path. f the throughout Ch'ing times,was a segment of the countryside lying out- it may be, at sharp side a city and containing a number of villages,rural markets,and but no system about them perhaps one or more towns.The number of such segments varied, but in a large number of districts there were four Hsiang in each, The formal arrangement of the village was after all not so important as its content-its size and material conditions.The influence of geo- one outside each of the four gates of the walled city. A typical example graphical and economic circumstances on this aspect of the village was too obvious to escape the attention of even casual observers M.Huc though not always accurate in his descriptions,was broadly correct in pointing out the difference in distribution and general ap- villages pearance of villages in certain central and western provinces.He Tung(East)Hsiang 174 wrote in the mid-nineteenth century Hsi (West)Hsiang .70 Nan (South)Hsiang 153 Pei (North)Hsiang 89 It is easy to form perfectly opposite ideas of the population of China, according to the route by which you traverse it.If,for example,in The Hsiang division does not appear to have been the product of the central provinces you travel along the roads, rou would be led to believe the country much lessp us than it really s.The vil- ot times and8o6o0re29o四nn natura growth, riginally an administrative %amttenndarbeeei2ea considerable that urself in the c erts of division made by the government. In Ch'ing time s it ceased to be an official administrative division but was allowed to stand and fre- rS, quently made use of in rural control.In fact,the Hsiang became in countr hange ha or th llio a number of instances a unit of intervillage cooperation or organiza- ants ndataeosoowachoherinaho t uninterrupted succes- tion;it had semiofficial recognition and occupied a definite place in the pattern of rural life. THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE VILLAGE His comparison of the villages in Hupeh and Szechwan provinces is also illustrative of this point: Villages in different parts of the Chinese empire varied considerably in their physical structure.Indeed,the fact that villages were natu- The province of Hou-pe [Hupeh]is in all respects very inferior to that of Sse-tchouen (Szechwan).The land,which is not very fertile ral growths accounted for their lack of uniformity.The situation was is covered with a multitude of ponds and marshes,of which the Chi clearly described by a Western writer: nese,industrious and patient as they are ake but little use The villages have in general a If,in certain respects,Chinese cities appear to be "laid out"with The inhabitants ha and wr unh ealth rather wi an attempt at uniformity,as much cannot be said of the villages. freque ntly affected b aspe It is sai that in the These are developed just as circumstances happen to make them. oth u-p harvest of a year is seldom sufficient for a s con ption.The great populations of the towns are supplied from the neighbouring provinces,and especially Sse-tchouen,which hc8aoa6ase cannot in ten years consume the produce of one. both written in Chinese as It would seem as if the richness and beauty of Sse-tchouen had ex- oth "Hsiang"(in quotation marks here ercised a great influence on its inhabitants;for the manners are much er and suburban division made by the gov- superior to those of the Chinese of the other provinces.The great towns are,at least relatively,clean and neat.The asp ct of the vil- ernment to facilitate revenue collection(see chapters 2 and 4 on the ii-chia system). cumstances of to the oo lages,and even of the farms, table cir-
Rural China Villages,Markets,and Towns 16 14 The author may have exaggerated the e opulence of Szechwan'or un- Tsz-tsun;10 houses,where there is a small pond of brackish water de estimated the productivity of the soll of Hupeh 19 But he was not Very scant cuitivation near the village. e truth in noticing the differences between the villages of 12 1/2 miles.-A village of three houses 1/4 mile to the north far from the these provinces and in attributing the cause of these differences to 13 1/2 miles.-Ma-ying;a village of 25 houses. At Ma-ying the appearance of the country Improves,and some geographicinot more pronounced differences were found between vil- nroperity were visible in the shape of some cowa,calves lages of northe rn and southern provinces,where the geographical characteristics form such a clear c contrast as to lead a modern author- ity to regard these general regions as "two Chinas.Geographi- Naturally,wherever conditions were better,villages were larger and cal envi onment together with historical background seemed to have more prosperous in appearance.Further west on the same road: shaped the rural c munities of these regions into two distinguishable varieties.According to a mo rn Chinese writer,villages in the Yel- 22 miles.-San-chi-hu;a village of 100 houses,with a pond and low River Valley were generally form by compact clusters of farm- wells. steads,whereas in the Yangtze Valley the pes asant households were 381/4 miles.-Hsin-chuang;a village of 300 houses.This village is more prosperous in appearance often more loosely ar ranged."Close-dwelling"villages were typical ny to the ast.The houses of North China;"loose-dwelling"villages,of South China. Northern are better built,the people better clad,and many of them apparently well-to-do. and southern villages were marked off a lso by a perceptible difference in their organization:the influence of the clan organization was more lm的7oe noticeable in ma any southern villages and was comparatively unimpor tant in the north. wndaeadeaa8aicanaoabfaoeo6eoL82e The influence of economic conditions on rural life is most clearly evident in the differences in distribution and size of the villages.A survey made of north ast rn China in the 1870's and 1880's by some aled the fact that villages were situated Other factors,of course,influenced the physical aspects of the vil- British military officers revea farther apart or closer together in proportion to the fertility of the lage.A convenent location that blessed it with immunity from floods soil.One of these officers reported: or a government depot that lent it economic affluence,often enabled it to grov eyond the average size.About sixteen miles west on the road omu from Chi-k'ou to Tsang-chou, as Wang-hsu-tzu,"a village of 400 houses or 4,000 inhabitants,built on a mound ra about tricts. above the surrounding country.apparently to protect it from floods." The above remarks apply equally well to all the fertile parts of Pay-tsang located o n the road leading from Peking to Tientsin,was north-east China. a large village on the Pei-h "Ther rous brick buildings here in which rice is stored This is one of the for the In areas where the soil was very poor,the villages were not only storage of the rice tribute.While various factors were decisive farther apart but also smaller.Another reported: in particular instances,the quality of the soll remained in general the most important single factor in determining the physical makeup None of the villages in this country have any depth;they consist of the villages. than a row of houses on each side of the stre There Since the soil of some southern provinces was more fertile than would ly betr that of most northern provinces,the opulation of villages there was often larger.Some villages in Kwangtung,where favorable agricul- tural conditions were reinforced by other economic advantages,were In many other places the villages were even smaller.According to said to have contained huge populations.For example,S.W.Williams another report concerning an area which showed"signs of occasional described the villages in Nan-hai Hsien in the 1880's: flooding,diminutive hamlets were encountered on the road leading from Chi-k'ou to Tsang-chou (Chihli): The people are grouped into hamlets and villages.In the dis-