Rural China Villages,Markets,and Towns 17 16 ustrate the same point:the decisive influence of geographical and n part of the city of Canton trict of Nan-ah The amount of la nd under cultivation naturally varied with the size of the0apui函 e ew local cazetteers which supplied rele- he1875edition of the Cheng-fn hsien c but ordinarily ranges betwecr ting wa the amount of eneral though not exact edition of the land and the e gazetteer of Ting Chou the 321 vi and towns of this district.The size o :the largest of them had over Households thes the smallest less than 100.The for ut g per cent of the total,and the latter a The 6 east-side 4,57 25318 22 5 per cent.had a 19334 16 west-sid 2,10 11,466 them,some 9 north-side 7,033 36,461 Total 40 17,175 92,579 parable data to show was about 2.300 4200.Moreover,the co zetteer indicated that among sideration,the largest contai ea ove while the smallest had forty.s sons in each housebold was bot of one of the been well over 5,000. Such oversized rural communiti Do means the prevailing type in South Chi s tiny hamlets in the south as in the north,and t e ma of southern villages were much sm or For instance,L ed that a cing membres de ouang-fou est d'environ I per famille,forment Cette population est were common hundred 1 with a population of 10 ifcant because they showed ecially n Na ahle circumstances rural communi me so pros- pot they were desig- nated as such. uld not obecure the diiferen es within each of these general onceashpea2enihicantpoint1sthattheaiHegof scts of the villages-whether
-ch 55583746 cho-ying-tsun 10话600514000223574460 99926827121 111111241111212131 12412423211424321 TOTAL 317 3417 ，70 136 90 47 y to the district city or and no PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF TABLE 4 aHH-Hmanudd Average Number of: Population Average Land village Village village Over 1,000 4,807.86 29.00 3.46 7.25 Usually 100-199 715.48 8,84 1.51 2,73 Below 100 444,99 5,11 1.36 2.13 absent
品 Rural China Villages,Markets,and Towns RURAL MARKETS AND TOWNS eeof commoditiesdnd het人 The g出a of the e villages a2 kets and the district city varied,since the markets were cittheot theoofviages they iveae of tme.omt served.Rural markets were usually located af some distance from seems to thec,tchoaYettieanarte The number ot entchoands from a er aeer done i thetent cthe wide as"Oneix,"meaning the market which nge of variation,due undoubtedly to the different de din the ocrco Numhey of Markets under differ Cheng-ting Hsien (Chihli) 17(1875) (187 of imper chi (gather 1904 called and those in West China (oran】 218921 28(1894) the same. It may be useful to zet- as inthe rura品tas markets and villages with "business streets"which were embryonic markcets.The following description of two such villages will give us TABLE 5 a glimpse into the conditions of North China i RURAL MARKETS IN LU-LUNG HSIEN some British Market (chi) Market Days Main Commodity s,"with a street"500 to 600 yards 1*.11.21:6,16,26 Grain,livestock 4.14.24:9,19,29 Grain.livestock road from Tientsin to Te Chou,had almost attained the com Heng-ho-chen 5,15,25;10,20,30 intensity of a small town.The observer reported,concerning the lat ter: when visited 1323:8.18.28 1,11,21:6,1626 Unspecified *Refers to first day of the Chinese month. or mal tMajor market (ta-chi). Minor market (hsiao-chi) villa eets had fairly larg ulations This situation was typical of North China,although markets in other and an apparentiyhger degree ofrrityhrge
22 Rural China Villages,Markets,and Towns 23 These seemed to represent a transitional stage between ordinary vil- outstanding instance was afforded by Chiu-chiang Ju-lin Hsiang, one lages and the regular markets (which,as we are already aware,had of the major subdivisions of Nan-hai Hsien.The 1883 edition of the their sites also in villages).They differed from the markets not so gazetteer of this locality gave brief descriptions of its various rural much in the size of population as in the fact that they were not,like markets,among which Ta-hsii(Great Market)was the most remarka- the latter, formally constituted as trading centers and that they served ble.Its regular market-day schedule followed the familiar 3-6-9 pat- more restricted areas than the latter.It should be admitted,however, tern,but it differed from most other markets in being of immense that occasionally it is somewhat difficult to draw the line of demarca- size.It had twenty-six streets and lanes and contained seven sub- tion markets,where silk,cloth,silkworm eggs,poultry,fish,and so Conditions in South China were broadly similar to those in the north; forth were exchanged.The total number of stores was over 1,500,in there were differences in no omenclature though not in substance.In thousandsorts of goods were collected and storedThis southern provinces,particularly in Kwangtung and Kwangsi,rural was in reality a miniature town rather than a rural market;at any markets were usually known as,while in western provin rate it was a highly exceptional rural market made possible,in all chwan, Kweichow,and Yunnan)they were normally calledc probabity bythhtyofcoannfo- referred to asshik,which simply means lowing the de ent of commerce after the Opium War. In some localities they wer "market."For instance,the 1877 edition of the gazetteer of Ch'u Chou The last of the natural divisions of the rural areas was the chen (Chekang)stated that theof the various districts under thejuris- the town.The towns in the various provinces were, of course, of different sizes.The smallest were hardly distingulshable from the co theer diction of this rural markets,such as Ming-yueh-chen and Tung-t'ing-chen of Ting where the name ch'ang generally prevailed,rural markets were some- Chou (Chihli).The former ha only two streets, whereas Tzu-wei- times called shil,as in the district of Nan-ning. mn Kiangsi,accord- ts'un-chi,a rural market in the same locality,had three;the latter ing to the 1901 edition of Ch'ang-ning hsien chil,"village markets contained twenty-two stores,only seven more than Wu-ni-ts'un-chi were customaily called,all of which had gatherings once every another rural mark et there.The larger towns such as Fu-shan-chen of Kwangtung and Ching-te-chen of Kiangsi were highly prosperous three davs. The number of rural markets varied from province to province,al- and densely populated communities.According to William C.Milne, though in the south the varlation was somewhat less: writing in the mid-nineteenth century: Number of Markets shan Chen]was perhaps the most remarkable for the exh of unive aal en in business of every form.It may be named Hsiang-shan Hsien (Kwangtung) 26 (1873) Birmingh m of aIt les twelve miles w.by S.of Canton city; Hua Hsien (Kwangtung) 26 (1890 is a large tov walls: reputed to contain 1,000,000 inhabitants Hsing-i Hsien (Kwangtung) 22 (1889 Both the cana and rive h the town were crammed with boats; Ch'ing-yuan Hsien (Kwangtung) 40(1880) each side of the river Po-pai Hsien (Kwangsi) (1889) Shops:godewns:factories and hongses and oant up with dwelings, Lu Chou (Szechwan) 86 (1882 afforded a different example of the over- Chiar 32 1882 Ching-te-chen,however, 10(1882 sized town.According to the author quoted above,this large market- Mei-t'an Hsien (Kweichow) town was"one of the four famous interlor markets of the empire, and was Ch'ang-ning Hsien(Kiangsi) 24(1901) famed for being the chief manufactury of porcelain.It is The commodities exchanged in the markets were mostly local pro- described by those who have place as an immense village, duce.In markets of less populous and prosperous localities especially, r three miles along a beautiful the exchange was limited to a few items,as for example in Ch'u Chou river,and flanked by a semicircle of fine nountains.from which If rumor (Chekiang),where"there was nothing beyond rice,grain,salt,fish, is to be relied on,there are at least five hu onstantly cotton cloth,and thread.In some of the wealthiest districts,how ever,especially in southern Kwangtung,the goods supplied by rural at work. markets went far beyond the simpie needs of ordinary peasants.An
24 Rural China ouby the"At KingthChing-te]they Chapter 2 daily consume 10,0u0 piculs of rice and 1,000 pigs. Towns of this dimension and type ceased to be genuine rural communi ● ties,although formally they still remained a part of the countryside and were not incorporated as cities. ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS: PAO-CHIA AND LI-CHIA For the purpose of controlling the rural areas the Ch'ing government following the general policy of the preceding dynasty and adopting in large measure its methods,instituted two systems of subadministrative divisions,which were superimposed upon but did not replace the natura divisio ed in chapter 1.On the one hand,there was a system of pao-chia divisions to facilitate what may be described as police con- trol,and on the other hand,a system of li-chia divisions originally intended as a help in the collection of the land and corvee i mposts Owing partly to the lack of uniformity in the application of the of- ficial schemes and partly to the vicissitudes which these systems un- derwent during their existence,a good deal of confusion arose in their actual practice as well as in their nomenclature.In fact,this confu- sion led some writers to believe that the pao-chia and the li-chia were one and the same system with divergent names.One writer was aware of this confusion but did not succeed in freeing himself from it.1 Like many others he failed to discern that the police control and revenue collection systems separate ones with distinct struc- tures and functions. To show how bad this confusion was,two instances may be cited hi8aeorgh nieson,an informed student of Chinese law,wrote .the chia in many places is lost sight of,and the Li or Pao,for sometimes the one term and sometimes the other is used,is the only group between the family on the one hand and the Hsien or territorial district on the other.Other terms are used besides the above in dif- ferent Provinces,but the thing indicated is the same,2 Hsiao I-shan,a well-known contemporary Chinese historian,wrote in1945: The Ch'ing court put in force the pao-chia system in all parts of the empire.This originated in the reign of Shun-chih.At first it was the (sung-chia system;then it became the li-chia system.In both ten he constituted a chia,and ten chia a tsung.It was called fang in the city, "Hsiig"in areas near the city,and li in the countryside.In the forty-