LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS MONOGRAPHS ON SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY MgingEdorAnthony Forge of an Editorial
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS MONOGRAPHS ON SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY No.33 CHINESE LINEAGE AND SOCIETY: FUKIEN AND KWANGTUNG BY MAURICE FREEDMAN UNIVERSITY OF LONDON THE ATHLONE PRESS NEW YORK:HUMANITIES PRESS INC 1966 PnAn
First published by D地nec I published Toronto was an att subject,ma Maurice Freedman,1966 unilineal de anthropolo ended,for sources in exercise in be improy than I and bilities for My conf placed;sev Library of Congress Catalog Card No.66-11164 New terri one among begun in conclusive I can write myself exp evidence g earlier fear tion.Yet t story.The Kwangtun during wh laid up by Japanese a cxploited time,altho It will be Printed in Great Britain by WESTERN卫RINTING S担VICES LTD 1 London S BRISTOL (reprinted wi
PREFACE PREFACE vii all the defects of the first,but since 1957,when Lineage Organtiza- In February 1963 I began a period of field study in the New tiou went to the printer,my view of Chinese social organization Territories.It was cut short after three months by my falling sick has been enlarged by several expericnces.First,I have read in the new Western work on the sociology and social history of China to e In recent years this literature has greatly increased,and,coming under the auspiccs of the then newly created London-Cornell mainly from the United States itplaces us deeper in debt to Project for the study of Chinese and South-East Asian socictics,an American scholarship.Second,during the years 1962 to 1964 I was lucky enough to take part in a series of seminars on the sociol- ogy and anthropology of China organized by the cumbersomely named but very agrceably conducted Sub-committee on Chinese Society of the loint Committee on Contemporary China of the several ways assisted by the New Territories Administration.I Council of Learned Societics and the Social Science this aid with my appreci Research Council'.In these seminars,as well as in other,less tion of the help and advice given me in Hong Kong by Mr J.B formal,settings,I was privileged to have access to the learning Aserappa,District Commissioner New Territories,and his and expricnce of specialists whom, along with the people res officers and staff,especially Mr G.C.M.Lupton (District Officer ponsible for organizing the seminars (especially Mr Bryce Wood Tai Po)and Mr Tsang For Piu;by Mr K.M.A.Barnett;by of the Social Science Research Council,New York),I should like Mr J.W.Hayes;by Mr C.T.Leung;by Mr K.W.J.Topley; very warmly to thank.Third,I have done more reading in the writing older literature on China-and re-read much of it,finding(the these name I acknow dge only some of my debts to the people pleasure must surely be common)that it comes alive all over who made it possible for me to move freely and profitably in the again as new questions are put to it.Finally,I was given the oppor New Territories. tunity in 1963 to make a short field trip to the New Territories; In the course of carrying out thesurvey I was able to confirm my it tied my carlier speculations to a living reality and gave me the earlier opinion that some of the guesses made in Lineage Organiza chance to look more deeply into the past of the oue tesed by both historica esearch and Kwangtung county of Hsin-an from which the New Territorics field work in the New Territories Truc,the historical materials were created in 1808. are thinner than I had expected.There appcarsto be ony a small book draws on the newer literature n older writings amount of Chinese documentation bearing directly on the New which I had not previously used,and on my field work in 1963 Territories.But there is more than has yet been collected in the I have resisted the temptation to set out the results of this field way of land deeds,genealogics,and engraved inscriptions.In an research in great detail becaus e t cy will be berr r presented inde ideal world of historical and sho some pendently of a work intended to be about southeastern China in body would be paid to gather in o copy nat remains.(It is not general But I think it will be clear that many of the changes that only paper that perishes;inscribed stones and boards are removed have tak cn p ace in my view of society in Fukien and Kwang ung and lost.It is more than an antiquarian and nostalgic cri de are attributable to my expcricnce in the New Territories.It is tor that appeals for the rescue of the what,in the chat reason that I must stress its importance. present state of the world,is a privileged part of China.)When the information to be culled fro m these Chinese bined with sources is com Hong Kong the data from British documents and the memorics ety is riven in my fdn,there will be an oppritytosay somethinglm ating about a corner of southeastern China in the last years s of the Ch'ng dynasty.An impressive example of what can be achieved
viii PREFACE PREFACE ix by using these varied sources of information on the past is given Chinese local grouping,r locagrouping to be the chief topic naseris of papers by Mr J.W.Hayes,a Hong Kong civil servan in Chinese society for anthropologists to study.As some of the who was at one time a District Officer in the New Territories. remarks I have made elsewhere will perhaps have shown,'I am As for anthropological field research,there are abundant aware of the need for anthropologists to take a larger view of opportunities for work on lincage organization and topics ger Chinese to raise their eyes(orat any rate streth thei mane to it.The groundwork for the study of New Territories imagination)to wider limits than those of the village.For the rural society has already been laid by Miss Barbara E.Ward moment,however,I am concerned primarily with the local Miss Jean A.Pratt,Professor Jack Potter,Mr H.D.R.Baker and scene.I propose to reconsider the problem of how corporate Mr R.G.Groves.Other anthropologists will certainly follow descent groups in China fitted into a complex socicty,looking at them,and I should like to help dispel the notion that the New that the point of view of the ocagroup. Territories have been so far affected by British rule and modern Finally,I have seve al debts to acknowledge in connexion changes in population and economic ife that they are no longer with the writing of this book.Dr Cheng Te-k'un made a number ing useful to anthropologists interested in the study of traditional Chinese institutions.Of course the New Territorie that book have been profoundly changed since they were brought into the I have tried to profit from them in this one.On several sinological Colony of Hong Kong.Of course they are not a mere fossil points I have been lucky enough to be able to consult Mrs H.M. of the nineteenth century.Of course they sho w many‘moder Wrightand.Lucy Mairdid problem worth investigating (especially as they arse trom the me the great service of reading a draft of the book;she helped me agricultu al revolutions of the last decade and a But to remedy many faults in argument and style.For his encourage half),and we should be very foolish to ignore them old ment (it was a remark he made two years ago that gave me the line lmeages still exist;power is exercised within them;land is stil idea of returning to the theme of Lineage Organization),intel- stral trusts;rites of worship continue to be held in lectual help,and penetrating criticism of both carlier and later ancestral halls.We may see something of what went on under drafts I am deeply in debt to Professor G. William Skinner,my the Chinese Empire,but,just as important,we have the chance transatlantic colleague in the London-Cornell Project.My thanks of understanding how lincages adapt themselves to the modern tohim are accompanicd by an expression of regret that in this world. second attempt at the subject I am still very far below the standard A further preliminary point needs tobe made on this sequelto of scholarship he has himself set for sinological anthropology The new book gets its focus from the one it is designed to supplement.It takes up an interest in the Chines With Profesor Skinner's name I mus coupe those of his o leagucs in Chinese studies at Cornell University who many times lineage which I developed many years ago.From this it does not since 196o have offered me hospitality,intellectual and other. follow that I think the lineage to be the paramount form of Among these colleagues I should like to single out Professor Arthur P.Wolf with whom I have had the privilege of discussing The of life in the New at length problems in the analysis of Chinese society,and who 62:”Chc Chau 18so-1898:Informatio criticized an early draft of this book.From the correspondence 5 oublished Multiple-Cn SeAChinese Phase in Social Anchropologyher of heo gtst's plac 一8二Wt socal and sYafCcomptemeatarycomtnbation