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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN L161— O-1096 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2021 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://archive.org/details/countrylifeinsou01 kulp on i if » | : 7: : ‘i ey: ¥ i , | hn x a 7a ger ; op. _ ; _s a oe = 7 J 7 oT rn don : Ae va) pp Ui U y as ie. 4 @ , a ad bs <= i ST —_ v, 66 ere 7 is = a _ 7 ead , _ a 7 aa $ — 7 - 6 - s- = ln ne ne aves pee - S ' - _ ¥ - _ : : =¢ _ ea =f @ - af +s = ’ ! > off LIBRARY Bole) OF THE > OBNIFERSITY GF ILLINCIS ) + noes - & d b« at, s 7 i : — - / a 7 - = a a a : _ -_ _ PY — = THE MYSTIC SYMBOL OF FAMILISM COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA THE SOCIOLOGY OF FAMILISM VOLUME [ PHENIX VILLAGE, KWANTUNG, CHINA BY DANIEL HARRISON KULP II, Px.D. Assistant Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University Sometime Head of the Department and Professor of Sociology Shanghai College; Founder of the Yangtsepoo Social Center Shanghai; Author of Civics, An Inductive Study of the Elements of Community Welfare in China BUREAU OF PUBLICATIONS Teachers College, Columbia Gnibersitp NEW YORK CITY 1925 COPYRIGHT, 1925 BY DANIEL HARRISON KULP II TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ALL RIGHTS OF TRANSLATION RESERVED INCLUDING THOSE OF CHINA AND JAPAN PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA er ee ean Dea? LET Ae { osm ease | it a " a To the Farmers or Forty CEnrturRIES a 1082019 a ee : hh yi Py tee Aa eid ih Lae WENO isi Hae { Ae ites + Ny ‘ i y i nt 4 Ay } K i" i ¥ ay ee Tt fi AX ail eet} ) af . Fy 1 i : f ‘ 4 ' i j : ; : j ; 5 : ‘ . b t {i 4 1 J / i h ‘ i f f u } a if : i | hibeo he . ’ of ii ' nat; y, > , /, ‘ ‘ ay { i i } y , i” hey 4 PREFACE The contents of these chapters are offered to students of things Chinese in order to supplement the scanty mate- rials extant on village life. They offer a detailed analy- sis of one particular village, in the northern part of the Province of Kwantung, located in a geographical and social drainage basin of which Swatow is the gateway. There are three well-known treatments of village life in China: Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese; Smith, Village Life in China; Leang and Tao, Village and Town Life in China. The first deals only with the region generally south of the great Yangtse River; the second treats of life in North China; the third attempts to suggest characteristics applicable to the whole of the Chinese Empire. The first two, written by men who were not natives and who used the socio- logical tools of Herbert Spencer’s Descriptive Sociology, are very enlightening but unsatisfactory for present- day needs of social organization. The last, possessing the advantage of composition by Chinese trained in modern social science, comes much closer to sociological contribution, but is also defective in the use of socio- logical tools of analysis. All three attempt by generali- zations to cover large areas in which the facts vary so greatly that only differential treatment can disclose the truth. The danger of generalizing about wide areas of life in China has to-day become well recognized so that it is a by-word among leading thinkers and writers, both Chinese and foreign. The older materials on village life have lost prestige and credibility for two reasons: one, because of the vi PREFACE generality of treatment; the other, because of changing conditions of life. But the need for facts and interpreta- tions on village life was never greater. To-day the strategic importance of the village in national life is coming to be recognized. Educators, missionaries, politicians and statesmen realize that the village is the backbone of China. It contains most of the popula- tion of the country and comprises those engaged in agriculture, which, under modern conditions of trade interpenetration and communication, is of international significance. The statesmen and politicians who are interested in improving the products from agriculture, and thus the income of the farmers, need the facts of village life analyzed to discover trends and tendencies in rural conditions that have a bearing upon the development of the kind of rural life that can furnish the proper foun- dation for the new national growth. Educators need a reliable rural sociology upon which to determine the objectives of rural educational organization and practice. Missionaries, now largely engaged in socializing their religious ideals by applying them in town and village, are hampered by the lack of analytical and interpretative material on the village. The number of leaders who are taking up the problems of rural life in China is con- stantly increasing and the value of their efforts depends directly upon the development of a sociology of rural life that employs the latest methods of study and analysis. A rural sociology in China worthy of being utilized by politics, education, religion and social work, can be achieved only by a large number of differential, organic case studies of particular village communities all over China. Those interested in national development either for patriotic or religious reasons would do well PREFACE vil to codperate in establishing research centers wherever possible to set up a program of study that aims at even- tual analysis of the social soils of every district through- out China. The character of the variety of social soils to be found will determine the kind of citizens that will grow up in the new social order. That this new social order will necessarily be better is not at all certain. Many places will be found where the soils are defective; there the social engineers,—the politicians, religious leaders, educators, social workers, will have to add the limes of counteracting influences and the fertilizers of attractive activities of a wholesome kind. This study suggests a method practicable for immediate initiation in parts of China other than the one herein selected. But it contributes to the extant knowledge of communities anywhere in that it shows what insti- tutions and folkways have developed under conditions relatively static. It provides materials for comparison with rural village communities in India, Europe, and America. It indicates the rapid derangement of tradi- tional social relationships, attitudes and values, which arises from the increased contact of China with the rest of the world. Under the circumstances, I hesitate to make the personal acknowledgments I would like, to those who have rendered in various ways valuable codperation in this investigation. The opportunity to study the physical characteristics of the people was offered me through the kindness of Professor S. M. Shirokogoroff, formerly curator in the Academy of Sciences, Petrograd, anthropologist and ethnologist. He loaned me his anthropometric instruments and familiarized me with the methods of measurement and calculation used by the latest and best researchers into racial types. Only Vill PREFACE by collaborating on the basis of identical method could the village folk be located ethnically. I desire to express my indebtedness to the many missionary friends in Swatow and Chaochow who, through their unstinted hospitality, advice and assistance, made my own field work more pleasant and profitable. Finally, it is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance ren- dered me by the Catholic Fathers at Siccawei, Shanghai. They put at my disposal the splendid resources of their meteorological library. Dobe Chapter if II. AMil. IV. V. VI. YII. VIII. IX. x. XI. XII. Number if ie III. CONTENTS Page MmISeCIOUALituatione he ee a ive I PpOemttO AN Lede tel ote tae eG nee: 29 PPC MICCLAUIONSHIDS Wk Vo ee ei a, ay leblechr aha ata ke 62 nea ETACTICES 00.1 ct ital eauie lade. 3 84 STS EL) RAI OA Me Ei a AN I 106 Perera and) the, SID ali s ke aes od 135 ULES ee ol Qtr en Cre weg take i 189 moiucduon and the schools... 1 Sy 8. 216 PrP CCrea OM ert arta eo fois es) ed ute 261 Religion and the Spiritual Community. . . .. 284 Mee A TIONG Mele ba Pa ates Ce ie els 315 The Village as a Neighborhood and as a BRESTLATAL Vico aE Ales eerie Maina Tair ge ehh § Reh ayy Wes 8 Memeebibiosraph yume ees 6 iu vale 347 CUM Sint s Veh EG Fate Aya) ea re ee tigre Go | a ec ARTA he tas Pas Geigy 7 ILLUSTRATIONS The Mystic Symbol (Plate I) Frontispiece Facing Page Chaochow Terminus of the Ferry from Phenix UCSC Gad ad Ge he 6 Local Ferry to Tan Tou an dWatering Place ORY ehh, Jab ue ewe MY ilu ACS Ce he 6 x CONTENTS Number Page IV. Market Street and Gate to Tan Village (Plate III) 14 V. “Main Street”? in Phenix Village—Residences (Plate TID) VI. Phenix Village: Type A, Profile (PlateIV) .. 75 VII. Phenix Village: Type A, Full View (Plate IV) . 75 VIII. Phenix Village: Type B, Full View (Plate IV) . 75 TX. Orchards and Gardens (Plate.V) . 2 o2eeh eaves xX. Spinning and Weaving (Plate V)-3" > 7 ae XI} Hulling Rice (Plate V) 00). XII. The Finest Home in Phenix Village (Plate VI). 155 XIII. The Almanac: The Guide of Familist Life (Plate VID) 62) 20 er XIV. Village School “A” in Ancestral Hall “E” (Plate VITD) oi... 4 3 0 rr XV. The Original Ancestral Hall of Phenix Village (Plate VITD) oko oe io cr XVI. Entrance to the Village Temple Guarded by Military Heroes (Plate 1X) .° .) 2 05a XVII. A Religious Image from the Village ene | (Plate tum ie edi) 4 . 2049 TABLES Number I. Birth-Rate for Phenix Village, July I917 to July 1918 Pe es II. Death-Rate for Phenix avi oe I917 to July 1918 : : III. Population: Age Distribution . Number IV. V. VI. VII. MOLLY: IX. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVIT. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. CONTENTS Xi Page PM Clon ex MISH bULION 2 er A een at. 36 BACON CS ANCA CE ty UR tia un Ns EAM Mae LG Romilaviony Waritalotatus ja ey i tek oO Bomuiations: Marital Groups) i we aie so ti 30 Population: Defectives and Lepers ..... 54 enineseouinenix Village a es, Eye yL . Comparison between Phenix Village and Other PREIATICLCSTOUDS iyi sion akes tes Or DAMON Cle a ar ee eae Ora DISET UOT cue dle ce ee ee oul ly OO Age at Marriage of Nine Mothers and Four Li Sinai y Catuteh MEWT p Od, AN ae Aa CRU hi 9 Operation of the Mutual Aid Club... .. I92 Relative Strengths of Attitudes in Voluntary RECTAL ION Get er La ty iy citi etyy ate an) eee Comparison of Schools in the Transition Period 222 Distribution of Pupils by Schools, 1919 . . . 228 Relation of School Population to Total Children POMOC LACE. TOLO MS hei Nadia hanes eau Ute Meee Annual Teachers’ Incomes and Tuition Fees . 230 Meu LIOULS Of CHOC! Av iiss) ailauieis i eeao (a) Curriculum Schedule of School B . . . . 239 Sae@nrricultim tiours of School’B 2) ach) 240 School Population by Ages, Sex, and Schools, Rea Meme sn shoe Wiha. Ue VR RON DL SRS SAS Xi CONTENTS MAPS Number Page I. Relation of Phenix Village to China and the South MICAS aie Weel GRREe te ROU es Weer Vs ee 2 2. Regional Map of Phenix Village... 2.3 9 3.: Local Map of Phenix Village”... 7)\..)) 4. The Expansion of the “Chinese”? Culture Complex. 64 5. The Business Section of Phenix Village ...... £94 FIGURES Number 1. Scheme. for Socioanalysis '. >.....). | Sa ee 2. Meteorological Chart for Phenix Village Region . 24 2, Age! Classes ol aso AQ a ee RS es 4.) Sex and Age:Classes' (0... 4)... & 0) 2 5. Floor Plan of Ancestral Home’ . . .) 2 2 eee 6. Typical Familist Groups) 2 ."°., 7. 2 7, Preferential: Mating)... s 1... 0) 8. The Floor Plan of the Village Temple “B” .. . 290 9. The Arrangement of Sacrifices to Ancestors in Home Worship. so. 2 Qsiee Sloe) bia rr to.: The Floor Plan of Ancestral Hail“ E°” "9 ae INTRODUCTION I. METHODOLOGICAL NOTE American agricultural science in a splendid burst of prevision has entered upon plans for complete soil surveys for the entire country with analyses to indicate what particular soils need for particular crops and what crops could best be grown in what soils. American social science has not yet had the courage to attempt a program of community analysis for the whole country, similar in adequacy and completeness to the agricultural studies. This is due to the youth of social science and to the lack of governmental subsidy for such effort. Can it be said that apples are more important than girls, or wheat than boys? Or can it be maintained that because it has not been done in the west, China must wait for a scientific culture of her youth? For many reasons, economic, political, historical, religious, it will take a long period before even fairly wide and reliable knowledge can be had of communities throughout the country. The initiation of such research is, therefore, all the more urgent. How far the practices and conditions found in the village subjected to analysis herein are duplicated else- where can be determined only after similar studies have been made in all the other principal sections of the country. To begin with, it would be most valuable to select one village in each great section of China. Then it would be possible to break up each section into smaller areas, and so on successively until social studies were complete. The selection of areas of initiation follow XIV INTRODUCTION characteristics of distinct culture areas—determined by occupation, implements, social organization, attitudes and ideals and so on—and facilities for research. Further principles of selection are suggested later on in the description of the method of selection for study of this particular village. ORGANIC METHOD OF STUDY The concrete data as detailed herein apply only to this one village and are to be so interpreted. Later this same village should be studied together with all the other villages around it in order to have complete knowledge and understanding of it. The circles of rela- tionship would inevitably extend not only to those village communities immediately surrounding it, but to others far removed geographically. And yet a com- munity in East China, or in the Straits Settlements, or even in America may influence this village more than one geographically contiguous. The limitations of in- vestigational resources confine this study to one village only. As resources enlarge, the expanding relationships should be followed through. This would be increasingly facilitated by the completion of similar studies in other parts of China. And so, what is needed to-day for a real understanding of the social life of the Chinese people is not a gathering of abstracted materials, loosely classified about a series of topics of more or less popular interest, but intensive studies of selected groups, villages or regions, analyzed in detail and presented in an organic way so that the relationships and correlations of the facts discovered will disclose functions, processes and trends. In this study the scientific control is far from satis- factory. It inheres primarily in the unit of study, the INTRODUCTION XV collection of data, the crude discovery of correlations —crude because of the impossibility of getting at certain facts—the analysis and the classification of phenomena. The study aimed at no immediate practical ends and was therefore unbiased by prejudice for a theory of social reform. As a study of the village it would technically be classified as pure sociology. In establishing control in scientific research, isolation of phenomena is the first step. In sociology this is secured in a very partial way when studying communi- ties. Thus one might subject to observation and analy- sis a village near a treaty port which is under many new influences, a section of a rapidly growing industrial- ized town or city, a rapidly expanding town, or a village where outside influences are felt but in a limited way. The selection of this last type of community is most fruitful in the initiatory stages of research into the social life of China. The unit of study should not be unduly complicated by selecting one too complex, too large, or one that exhibits characteristics easily seen to be different from the recurrent type. The hypothesis upon which the present selection was made is that the recurrent type is the static type of village community. Pukow, a community developed around a transportation terminal, Wusih, a community undergoing rapid industrialization, villages within the city limits of Shanghai under commercial and industrial influences, would be illustrations of dynamic communities where change is rapid. These will all need to be studied as soon as possible but it is better to develop technic with simpler units, modifying the technic so far as necessary when applied to the complex dynamic communities. _ That the hypothesis is reasonably safe can be estab- ished by the most superficial observation of the communi- Xv1 INTRODUCTION ties named. In them are to be found houses, streets, organizations, groups, attitudes and values not found in the static community such as is treated in this study. Phenix Village was chosen because its size is not too great to encompass with limited resources for research; its organization is not too complex; it is located in an area characterized by culture elements of a sort distinc- tive although traditional, and yet an area subjected at present to powerful world forces; and finally, one of its members was available as an investigator equipped with experience in sociological observation and analysis and a valid body of sociological principles. This was a fortunate phase of the resources for research. By using an investigator to get facts impossible for a for- eigner to discover and yet one who was a student of modern sociological science—with a technic of observing life objectively—and at the same time able to obtain en- trance into the situation without arousing suspicion because of his kinship with the group and his past ex- perience in it, it was possible to do field work of an unusual sort. Data as to schools, housing, customs, social organiza- tion, geographical conditions, in short, the apparent aspects of village life, were relatively easily secured and checked. Ordinary information is obtainable because the villagers exhibit a naive readiness to impart it. But questions of income, wealth, the manner of con- ducting business, evil practices or immorality of the people could only be discovered by the use of indirect methods. Without using one who has intimate knowl- edge of the community to be studied, the latter kinds of information cannot be secured. The danger lies, of course, in choosing a field investi- gator who may not be honest and reliable, who is not INTRODUCTION XVii trained to see the facts needed, or who has not achieved the scientific attitude of objectivity, of separation from life, sufficiently to see it in terms of facts rather than feelings. | Having found an investigator that fulfilled the re- quirements for scientific work and a unit of investiga- tion suited to the resources available, a plan of study was drawn with explanation and detailed questions appended. The field investigator took these questions and went into the village two summers, I918 and Ig19, to find the answers. The questions were arranged around topics as follows: A SOCIOLOGICAL METHOD FOR THE STUDY OF VILLAGE LIFE IN CHINA I. The geographical situation . Location of village Regional characteristics Area of village, of buildings and fields . Communications Climate Map showing details of a, 0, c, d, e AP AA SS II. Economic phenomena a. Sources of income b. Types of occupations c. Distribution of families by income III. Ethnic relationships a. Origin of the village and of the sib 6b. Language and folklore c. Customs that maintain clan unity IV. Biological data a. Population distribution on basis of sex, age, marital status XVili VI. VII. VIII. | He So INTRODUCTION b. Movements of population c. Sanitation d. Mortality . Political organization a. Residence of sovereignty b. Types of leadership c. Incidence of control d. Forms of social opinion Social organization a. The family b. The kinship group—the sib c. Associations Cultural aspects of village life a. Education I. Buildings 2. Teachers 3. Pupils 4. Curricula Art . Music . Books . Recreation 1. Children 2. Adults Social pathology a. Crimes b. Punishments c. Kinds of immorality d. Charities xo Qa & Religions a. Animism b. Ancestor worship | : INTRODUCTION X1X c. Village gods d. Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Chris- tianity This organic method of study was used because of its superiority to the particularist method. Instead of following the latter method, wherein one aspect of social life is studied quite widely—a sterile pursuit as long ago demonstrated by the unreliable work of Tylor, Morgan, Elliot Smith—I pursued the former plan, wherein all the details of a delimited culture group are studied in their natural conjunctions, relationships and inter-dependencies. Following are a few typical detailed questions which occurred under political organization: Is a woman ever the head of a family? Under what conditions? Is she ever a member of the council of leaders? Does she ever become a leader not socially recognized as such but of powerful influence? What is the number of scholars in the village? In the council? What is the make-up of the council? To what specific uses is the income from public property put? What safeguards are pro- vided against the misuse of public funds? What are the functions of the council of leaders? On what matters must the villager consult the leaders? Separately or as a council? What is the degree and form of the legal responsibility of the council of leaders? As the answers to the questions came in, they were first checked over for probable accuracy by my knowl- edge of village conditions obtained by first-hand study in and around Shanghai and Ningpo and Hangchow, —all in East China. They were also checked against such authorities as Doolittle, Gray, Morrison, Ball, Jamieson and others. Some questions were then elim- XX INTRODUCTION inated, changes in the arrangements were made, addi- tional questions suggested by the first results were inserted and the whole work in the field was gone over a second time during the summer of 1919. The results of these first field investigations were later checked over and supplemented by my own field-study in the spring of 1923. I used the methods of direct observation, photographic record of cultural and racial characteristics, and interview of those who, by social status and age, were best able to supply the information sought. Data secured through interviews were promptly recorded so as to reduce the possibility of error to a minimum. That my informants respected my queries to the extent of telling the truth is shown in three ways: they told me facts which were unfavorable to themselves; their statements checked against those recorded by my assistant in the first investigations; his statements checked against theirs as obtained by myself. All of these checks were further supplemented by the check of my own knowledge of practices and attitudes in Chinese life acquired during ten years of residence and of continuous investigation in the field, discussion of these matters in sociology classes in a Chinese college, and by library research both in China and in the United States. Three of my informants have had considerable out- side contact and familiarity with conditions and practices elsewhere. For this reason, and also because they were all unusually well educated, they exhibited quite a marked objective attitude toward their own village. Often while describing village practices quite faithfully, they would hasten to add that they themselves did not subscribe to superstitious practices. And yet one of INTRODUCTION XX them admitted the necessity of participation in ancestral ceremonies as a social gesture in the interests of family harmony and continuity. The objectivity of two of my informants arose from their membership in the Christian church. While they were still regarded as members of the village, practically they possessed quite an untraditional status that the villagers themselves had not exactly defined. They did not, because of their Christian beliefs, participate in ancestral worship, which implied a break in the historical community so far as they were concerned. Having broken with this much of the community tradition because they first intellectu- ally disapproved of it, they were able to observe the community with a minimum of emotional reaction. At times it was necessary to check against the appearance of emotional reaction not in support of, but too strongly opposed to,community mores. It was quite as possible to get unreliable data because of strong emotional attitudes of opposition as of support and defense. ‘The personal status of these two informants lay entirely outside of the village community, so that they only incidentally were concerned with the reactions of the villagers toward themselves. They were members of Christian churches in other communities and were working to achieve status in communities where their village status was of little or no assistance. For these reasons their informa- tion could be set down as sufficiently valid and objective. Another informant, in spite of her status as a woman, quite readily and proudly maintained her credulous attitude toward village practices. She related without hesitation and quite naively village betrothal and Marriage customs, even commenting upon those most closely concerned with her own status. When she had finished her accounts of village family customs, she asked XXli INTRODUCTION that she be told of similar customs in America. I agreed to reciprocate during the evening hours when the lights were too dim to work. I had an audience of ten people, old men and women, wives, aunts, concubines, and children, to listen to the story of the betrothal and marriage customs in my own country. After describing these, I spoke of the modern feminist movement in England and America, of women in industry, in trade, in the professions, in public life, of the changed relation- ships between the sexes, of changes in the home life of Americans. These subjects aroused so much interest and elicited from both men and women such a rapid fire of detailed questions that hours were consumed in this way. This incident is of value in indicating the character of the situation under which I was able per- sonally to secure my own data and check up on that of my assistant in field investigation. The materials are subjected to only limited formal comparison with other villages in China. This was necessary for two reasons: to avoid making the treatise too bulky; to avoid making statements of other villages that were not checked up directly and personally. In such cases, the writer could vouch for only one half the comparison. Manifestly that would not be worth while. These chapters are a direct presentation of conditions, problems, and trends in one village, a social sounding in onespot in Asia. For this reason, quotations from other authors have been studiously avoided. A few references are made only to necessary materials as sources of information to this village study. While such treatment narrows greatly the range of the data, it does not equally limit their application but affords greater intimacy with the facts and increases the relia- bility of their implications. | INTRODUCTION XXiil II. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS The significant facts and inferences concerning Phenix Village are as follows: 1. Floods and droughts recur with sufficient frequency to keep the people living under deficit economy. 2. The sub-tropical climate favors fruit-growing, which is the main industry. 3. The daily ferry between the village and Chaochow enlarges the area of social participation and contact, which injects new stimuli into the village life. 4. Emigration results from these contacts and the condition of deficit economy. 5. Half the people in the village live under poor eco- nomic conditions and depend upon familist organization for maintenance. 6. Extremes of poverty and wealth exist because of the importation of wealth from the areas of emigration. 7. The village maintains its own economic life in production and distribution with the exception of a limited number of special articles secured from Chao- chow or elsewhere. 8. Almost as many people are engaged in service functions as in production functions. 9. Racially, the people exhibit connections with the types of Chekiang and Shantung and differences from both. 10. The sib was founded by an ancestor who was an official and who migrated into northern Kwantung from Shansi. 11. Founded in Chaochow in the Sung dynasty, ' 1000-1280 A. D., the sib was moved to its present site towards the end of the sixteenth century. XXIV INTRODUCTION 12. The village has always had a reputation for learning and scholarship. 13. Village polity is shifting in its traditional bases from age and scholarship to youth, wealth, and qualities of natural leadership. 14. The village is practically independent of state government except in the matter of taxes and the major crimes and the necessity of registering marriage. 15. The authority of the village lodges in the hands of the two members of the council of leaders, who rest their control on the support of the heads of the sub-groups. 16. Both public and private matters of all kinds within the village are subject to the control and supervision of the leaders backed by social opinion. 17. Authority is integrated through the heads of the various groups in the village for effective control of each member. 18. Customary classification of persons on a kinship basis defines the status and functions of all members of the village. 19. The village is occupied by one sib, a uni-lateral kinship group, exogamous, monogamous but polygy- nous, composed of a plurality of kin alignments into four families: the natural-family, the economic-family, the religious-family, the sib. 20. Membership in these familist groups varies ac- cording to the function the group performs at the moment. 21. Filial duties to elders and ancestral worship are. the central attitudes of sib members. | 22. Mating is not a personal but a conventional matter of familist perpetuity and ancestral worship. 23. Sons are preferred to daughters because of their potential functions as contributors to familist income and performers of ceremonial rites for departed ancestors. INTRODUCTION xxV 24. Marriage by purchase exists only among the poor people. 25. Betrothal is effected when the children are between eight and ten years of age; marriage, when between sixteen to eighteen years. 26. Previously, marriage was purely a matter of family concern but now the law requires the securing of a marriage license and registration of the ceremony. 27. Marriage is never dissolved by divorce, only by separation, which is temporary dissolution, and by death. 28. Blood relationship and lineal status determine the organization of the familist groupings, which, in relation to the spiritual community, are the criteria of all aspects of village life. 29. In addition to these natural groupings there are six kinds of intentional or voluntary groups: Mutual Aid Club, Parent Burial Association, Society for the Manufacture of Sugar, Irrigation Club, Boxing Club, and Music Club. 30. These groups form to meet specific needs in village life and last until the need is met. They supple- ment the regular familist groups and provide satis- faction of wishes that otherwise would be obstructed. 31. The wishes satisfied in order of predominance in these associations are: the wish for security, dominance, new experience, and personal recognition. The groups are first of all economic, then for personal rivalry, rec- reation, and finally, friendship. 32. The greatest changes in the village in the last twenty years have occurred in places, policies and meth- ods of education. 33. Education of the formal type carried on in schools is mainly for boys only and is for participation in na- tional not village culture. It is ‘‘face-education.”’ XXVIi INTRODUCTION 34. The education of girls is informal, under parental guidance and by imitation, and is directly participational and vocational. 35. Instruction in schools is mass, inflexible, and of the conflict type. 36. Learning is rote memorization; not by group cooperation in projects. 37. The teachers are in a position to develop the schools into real village centers. 38. The schools should be consolidated at the earliest possible moment. 39. The curriculum should be based on village ac- tivities. 4o. The people show everywhere marks of artistic appreciation of a high order. | AI. Village beauty is marred by carelessness in stor- ing and handling farm products, raw materials and implements. 42. The finest art products are created to the glory of ancestors. 43. All art from calligraphy to architecture exhibits balance, antithesis and conventionalization. It is storied and familistic. 44. Art objects form a quantitative basis for social. classification within the conventionalized village classes based on kinship. 45. Story-telling is the popular form of literary con- | sumption. | 46. Recreation is beginning to lose its taboo but children are not taught to play; it is unsupervised free | play. | 47. The recreational life of women is confined to | gossip and occasional trips to Chaochow. The installa- | INTRODUCTION XXVII tion of radio reception would transform life in the country for women. 48. Religion comprises various technics of achieving satisfactory memberships in a plurality of communities. 4g. In addition to the living community there are: the natural community, the spirits residing in natural objects; the spiritual or ancestral community; and the spiritual or historical community, folk heroes and saints. 50. The spirits and gods are conceived as made favor- able to man’s fortunes by magical devices and ceremonies. 51. All worship, either collective as in ancestor wor- ship, or individual as in the Village Temple, is familistic in that the objectives of worship are family, not personal fortunes. 52. The annual religious procession in honor of the gods provides recreational catharsis from the tensions of rural monotonies and a means of demonstrating the superiority of Phenix Village over surrounding villages. It is an important device for remobilizing village unity and solidarity. 53. The fortunes of the ancestors are the chief con- cerns of familist effort; the past has hung a millstone around the neck of the present. 54. Village institutions,—farming, gardening, fruit- growing, trade, transportation, family organizations and practices, voluntary associations, polity, education, art and religion, all function for control of individuals, the regulation of their wishes into conformity to traditional norms of familist continuity for the sake of the fortunes of the departed ancestors who are deemed able to control the fortunes of the living, and are very effective. _ 55. Individualization of conduct is increasing through emigrant experience, the developed contacts with the _ outside world through travel, newspapers, gossip, letters XXVIil INTRODUCTION from emigrants, and an inability to satisfy all the personal wishes in the village. 56. Some people in the village are not judged strictly by traditional norms. 57. By the time the person has attained maturity his habits conform to custom quite largely and his behavior schemes approximate closely those approved by the village community. 58. Occasionally personality breaks through con- ventionality and the community subjects the offender of the mores to severe punishment. 59. All offenses except the failure to pay taxes are against the family of one type or another and are sub- ject to judgment in the first place by the family and its leaders. 60. The state is increasingly interfering with familist autonomy and is forcing more and more cases of mis- demeanor into the courts. 61. The courts in Chaochow are not criminal but civil; all cases are tried in civil courts as distinguished from military tribunals. 62. The forms of punishment are elimination from the community by death or exile, corporal disfigurement and confiscation of property and of rights and privileges. 63. Judgment is direct application of social opinion backed by traditional stereotypes and administered through the heads of varying village groups. Each head is responsible for those under him and therefore has large powers allowed him by the community. Excess is checked by social opinion. ; 64. The bad social practices comprise drinking wine with a high alcoholic content, gambling, cheating, adulteration of foods, sex irregularity. Only this last is uncommon. INTRODUCTION XX1X 65. Phenix Village contains a social system that can only be described as familism. 66. Familism is a social system wherein all behavior, all standards, ideals, attitudes and values arise from, center in, or aim at the welfare of those bound together by the blood nexus fundamentally. The family is therein the basis of reference, the criterion for all judgments. Whatever is good for the family, however that good is conceived, is approved and developed; whatever is inimical to the interests of the family, however they are formulated, is taboo and prohibited. 67. Phenix Village is a neighborhood in that its members are effectively controlled through primary contacts and gossip. 68. For the majority of its members it is also a com- munity in that its services and opportunities are so nearly adequate to meet the needs or satisfy the wishes of most of them without going beyond the confines of the village. 69. The introduction of new values through world con- tact of a secondary nature has resulted in the expansion of the community beyond the confines of the village for upwards of one-sixth of the population. These no longer can satisfy their wishes in the living community of the geographical village and so have gone as far afield as necessary in order to attain their personal objectives. The village community in its maximum adequacy now reaches, for such people, as far as the South Sea Islands, and at the present moment, the United States. Closer areas of adequacy include Swatow; still closer areas, Chaochow; and finally, ‘‘Tan’’ Village. The closer the area the larger the number of village and _sib members contained in it and the greater the adequacy of it. XXX INTRODUCTION 70. The ‘‘neighborhood”’ and the ‘“‘community”’ have been given a wrong emphasis when defined in terms of geography. They are socio-psychological categories defining areas of interaction. The neighborhood defines interaction in terms of the control and regulation of the person’s wishes primarily. The community defines interaction in terms of adequacy of services and opportu- nities to satisfy or express the person’s wishes. While geography in one form or another fundamentally condi- tions both, they are areas of discourse founded upon various types of communication. Thus the neighborhood is an area of intimate discourse growing out of face-to- face relationships; the community is an area of impersonal discourse growing out of secondary contacts. 71. Socioanalysis involves the following categories and relationships: a. The unit of investigation may be either an attitude, a value, or the interaction between them. b. Processes are attitudes and interactions; products are values,—implements, oranges, rites, economic family, and so on. c. Attitudes and interactions are conditioned by a variety of factors: (1) Geography and climate. (2) Biology,—heredity, physiological growth and functioning, which includes health. (3) Tech- nology,—everything not natural, language, plows, images, beliefs, prejudices, etc. (4) Society,— contact with people under the above conditions. ) DULL LY. The crowd and THO public, 77A55, SQ PP0r1, fe70velnernss, e/7c. 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THE REGIONAL SITUATION Sixty miles away from where the Han River receives the waters of Phenix River tower the heights of the celebrated Phenix Mountain. There Phenix River takes its rise and, approximately a mile from its junction with the Han River, flows peacefully by a hamlet upon which it bestows the picturesque name of Phenix Village. A two-hour trip by boat lands the inhabitants of this village outside the walls of the nearest large city, Chao- chow,! where the countryside goes from time to time to sell, buy and play. A railway now links this ancient center of officialdom and learning with the new city of Swatow. Since 1858, when as a village on the sands, Swatow was opened by the British as a treaty port, it has grown rapidly until to-day it stands as one of the great port cities of the China coast. It forms the gate- way for the world into this northern section of the rich province of Kwantung. Through it, by means of the railroad, opened in 1906, there pour into the region drained by the great Han River stocks of goods and ideas that promise to transform the life of the people. Swatow is a bustling business port with its steamship lines, not only to Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai, and Can- ton but also direct to Seattle and to European ports. Built recently, it possesses many marks of influence imported from these other cities of the China coast, 1Chaochow, Kwantung. N. 23° 50’, E. 116° 36’. Dates from the Tang Dynasty, 618-907 A. D. | I Is iS 1% CY ler, SS MAP NO. I. RELATION. OF, PHENIX , VILLAGE TO CHINA AND THE SOUTH SEAS THE REGIONAL SITUATION 3 where foreign business enterprises have set the lines of modern development in commerce, industry, architec- ture, and city administration. The railway from the port city to Chaochow is not a model for perfection, but it does run trains on regular schedule. The station is located about a mile out of the city limits and is inconvenient to reach. In spite of this fact, crowds of people are constantly moving back and forth from Swatow to Chaochow carrying new impressions into the quiet old center of the district. Such influences are quite manifest in Chaochow. The station is a large modern building, properly arranged for the comforts of both sexes. From it leads a broad motor road into the city proper. This road is about twenty-five feet wide, crowned and paved with cement concrete. It runs through the main part of Chaochow until it meets one of the old business streets where it ends. A turn one way leads to the great bridge across the Han River and the country beyond. A turn to the left leads through a long line of shops and residences, out into the country, and along the river bank to a spot where the boats from up the river cast their anchors or tie their ropes to a wharf. This new street, wide and clean, has broken the bonds of ancient custom. It stands as a monument to an official who tried honestly to improve his city by material changes favorable to business, health and public com- fort but who finally had to bow and make way for a military régime that supplanted him. Both sides of the street are to-day lined with shops of modern fashion. Their goods are displayed behind glass fronts as in -Swatow, Canton or Shanghai. Here are found not only _ goods of local production but also imported articles from Europe and America, such as toothpaste, perfume, 4 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA raisins, sewing machines, and so on. The people are showing these signs of new life. The railway does not end at the station but proceeds beyond the city walls to the bank of the Han. This it follows for some distance upstream only to terminate in the open country. Trains run, however, over the whole route so that it is possible for people coming down the Han by boat, to entrain more conveniently than if they had to go into the city and by devious routes reach the station. It is maintained for military purposes primarily but the passenger-traffic is far from light. Inland village, market city, seaboard metropolis,— these mark the gradient by which the villager from the upper courses of the Han climbs to his distant vantage and brings within his vision the wonders of modern change and Western civilization. UP THE HAN RIVER Outside of the walls of Chaochow about two miles up the river is the landing-place for the boats that daily ply between the villages and the market city. Carried along by current, sail, and scull, the boats usually arrive at this landing place about ten o’clock every morning with their products for the market. Many of the city people who trade with these folk come out to this wharf and begin higgling for bargains on vegetables, eggs, chickens, brooms, and fruit, the moment a boat touches shore. (See Plate II, facing p. 6.) The village boats are of a type shown in Illustration II. They are commodious and strongly built, capable of carrying with a fair degree of comfort about fifty persons, including the crew. They have been known to carry as many as a hundred at a time, when there has been a rush for passage. The passengers do not THE REGIONAL SITUATION s all belong to the village whose members own the boat. In fact, nearly every village along the river, of any size at all, owns its own ferry but carries anyone who applies for passage. The Phenix Village ferry carries many people on its return trip who stop at villages along the Han. Every day about two o'clock the Phenix Village ferry leaves the Chaochow landing place. The people, men, women, children and infants, make themselves as com- fortable as they can on the floor of the boat. They pile their purchases on the deck and under the deck boards: hats from city markets, iron bars, wire, cloth, candy and nicnacs are some of the articles frequently transported. The ferry is run by eight men who collectively own it. The captain is a tall, gaunt man with head and features of Cro-Magnon type. For hours they battle against the wind and current. They set the sail and let it fall dozens of times in the course of the journey, according to the whim of the winds. Where the river is deep and wide they tack with splendid skill. Meanwhile, some pole the boat by walking along the running boards on each side of the gunwale, Others scull in a manner common to the China coast. Finally when they come to the rapids in the parts of the river shut in by high preci- pices, the crew jump on the shore and pull the boat for miles. The Han River at this time of day is full of cargo and passenger boats. They vary greatly in form and design according to the place from which they come. These villagers who operate the ferries come to know each type and the place to which it belongs. The fixed outlines for the boats become, then, culture ele- ‘Ments of a different sort with which those who travel 6 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA on the ferries become familiar, The most striking kind are the Hakka boats from far up the Han River. They contrast strongly both in outline and manner of operation. They have no running boards on the side for poling, which is done along the front and rear exten- sions. More distinctive than the lines of construction is the arrangement of the sails. The central sail is made by merely raising the mat roofing of the boat into an upright position and fastening it to the poles set up on the side for the purpose. HOURS ON THE FERRY As the Phenix Village ferry plies back and forth, registering the pulse of rural and urban contact, other forms of contact among the villages and peoples of widely separated districts occur. Thus greetings pass between the boatmen of the ferries on the river and the Hakka boats from inner Kwantung. Thus, also, while travelling back and forth the passengers gossip, pass on news of different villages, discuss and argue. Upon returning to their village both the boatmen and the passengers become ardent dispensers of information and criticism. The ferry provides contacts of a kind that form public opinion for the villages of the region of the Han basin. It is not only a link between the village and the cities of Chaochow and Swatow but also a creator of social opinion. The hours spent in close contact on the ferry provide circumstances very favorable to seeing and understand- ing new things. The women, decked out in jewels and often rouged and with eyebrows picked, kept up a con- stant flow of gossip. Relatives, new houses, marriages and deaths, fighting and the dangers of soldiers in the region, and the weather were the topics that came up, BLA TE VII II. CHAOCHOW TERMINUS OF THE FERRY FROM PHENIX VILLAGE. PATRONS ARE WAITING TO SET SAIL UPSTREAM Ill, LOCAL FERRY TO TAN TOU AND WATERING PLACE FOR THE VILLAGE POOR WHO LACK PRIVATE WELLS. * THE VILLAGE TERMINUS OF THE FERRY TO CHAOCHOW LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS -% ~ I a ad » ha Ps - So ae 4 a THE REGIONAL SITUATION Z among many others, for conversation. On one occasion a young man, who clearly portrayed in his features his Malayan blood, was reading The Short Story Magazine published by the Commercial Press, Shanghai. Every little while, when the lad stopped reading, his fellow passengers questioned him about his life and family. He was not loath to tell them about his people and his experiences when he still lived in the Straits Settle- ments. He recounted to them all a number of the stories he had read in the magazine. So does the ferry provide contacts that are richer and “‘thicker’”’ than is ordinarily common or possible between members of different villages. The personal experiences of the writer, upon the occa- sion of his own field investigations in this study, further show the significance of the ferry in producing contacts of an unusual kind. No sooner was he introduced by his companion, a member of Phenix Village, to the captain of the boat, an uncle and also a member of Phenix Village, than questions were put in an effort to learn about the visitor and stranger. To a very genuine and warm welcome was added not only a strong curiosity in the foreigner but also an attempt to be sure that no danger, personal or collective, was involved in the contact. After the companion had provided the captain with the information which it was his duty to discover and his right to know, the latter proceeded to answer the questions of the passengers. Then my companion was himself questioned: Where was he now living? Were there any new babies in the family? How was his father? When did he come to Chaochow? Why is the foreigner going to Phenix Village? and so on until the boatmen felt quite content to turn to other topics of conversation. 8 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA These contacts on the ferry are particularly significant for the women. Ordinarily hemmed in by household duties and routine relationships of a regular and monot- onous kind in the village, they are on the boat able to secure contacts with new people and contacts that last long enough to establish acquaintanceship. After hours of travelling, the boat arrives just about dusk at the mouth of Phenix River. Its placid green waters push out into the turgid and muddy Han, but the stream is almost hidden from view by the rich foliage of the bamboo trees that overhang its banks. The captain blows his horn—a conch shell—and proceeds slowly northward to Phenix Village. THE ENVIRONS OF PHENIX VILLAGE A glance at Map 2, sketched approximately to scale but designed primarily to indicate the relationships of the village to the main features of the local area, will show the geographical points that underlie the lines of significant contact for the Phenix Village folk. When the water in Phenix River is too shallow to allow the ferry to cross the sand bars north of the flood bed area, the ferry must then stop in the mouth of a small creek on whose banks is located a village herein referred to as “‘Tan’’ Village. At this point there are always many boats tied up. Itisa transportation junc- tion point for all the smaller boats that operate east- ward of Phenix River, carrying cargo and passengers from that region down to the large ferries for connection with Chaochow and Swatow, or intermediate places. For this reason, ‘‘Tan”’ Village is a busy little village. Its shops show signs of prosperity; people come and go all the time through the main business street to the wharf or the country beyond; here they stop to drink THE REGIONAL SITUATION 9 -—_—-—. nN if Orchards ee é Orchards\ is) & Fields and Groves Fields cs To Chaochow Scale: 1 inch = 117.2 feet MAP NO. 2. REGIONAL MAP OF PHENIX VILLAGE tea, buy goods brought from down the Han, wait for the ferry, and most important of all, learn the news. The people of Phenix Village during the dry period are compelled, then, to go through this village to and from their own ferry. A road leads from ‘‘Tan’’ Village 10 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA about a third of a mile to the market center of Phenix Village. While this is quite displeasing to the people of Phenix Village, it does bring them into contact with more people than would otherwise be possible. During the rainy season, when Phenix River is not blocked by sand bars, the ferry goes directly to the landing place marked ‘“‘Ferry”’ on the map. Here a local small boat plies from one bank to the other, to carry the people of Phenix Village to Tan Tou, across the river. (See Plate IT, Illustration III, facing p. 6.) Phenix Village is located on the east bank of this river, extending along the edge about a quarter of a mile. Eastward, behind the village spread hundreds of mow! of fine tillable land owned by various families and dotted here and there with small picturesque villages that look quite similar from a distance; beyond, to the east and north, rise successive ranges of hills until the loftier ranges form the pedestal for the grand peaks of Phenix Mountain. Westward the ranges continue, practically encompassing the region with scenes of unusual beauty and charm. On the west bank of Phenix River lie farm lands, skirted with groves of luxuriant bamboo and covered with wild climbing roses, and bound by the broad waters of the Han. The banks of the rivers and especially the highlands in the distance are covered with underbrush or ever- greens. The heights are uninhabited except by wild beasts such as wolves, tigers and wild dogs, and provide for the countryside cheap fuel. No sooner is the long monsoon season over than the villagers fare forth along the banks and up the hills to cut their winter supply of fuel: ferns, wire grass and evergreen saplings. This 1A Chinese mow equals one-sixth of an English acre. THE REGIONAL SITUATION II annual stripping of the hills makes the growth of up- land forests impossible and causes the general flooding of the region. The mountains provide good hunting for those who live nearby, but Phenix Village lies too far off to supply any enthusiasts of the sport. The surrounding villages are all small. No single one has ever maintained a population of more than 2000 people. This is due to the proximity of the entire region to the facilities for emigration to parts of the world more favorable to fortune. But the native white-haired fathers are always ready to explain this fact in terms of feng-shut.} PHENIX VILLAGE The area of the village proper, that portion of the land occupied by the houses, is very small,—about seven hundred feet wide and two thousand feet long. Not all the land within this area is built up; it is simply the extent of land within which village buildings occur. To this must be added two other areas: one plot lies mainly to the east and north of the village, lying on the bank of Phenix River above the village; the other is located across Phenix River on the west side of the village, extending to the bank of the Han River. These extensive plots of land comprise farming interests, pasture and fruit orchards. The fields contiguous to the village are now cut into strips that belong to the inhabitants of Phenix Village. What was once large fields, through divisions arising out of the customs of inheritance, is now parcelled into small areas of intensive 1 Feng-shui is a system of beliefs in the powers of the spirits of wind and water to control human affairs toward good or evil. AOVITIA XINAHd AO dVW TVOOT ‘*f ‘ON dVW Dunep TWH Ives PNY GF cpsey2i9 [se ZA TVH SUVIOWIG FY IWOH IwHis72Ny (G} Y * — — ww wou V/A 7 Pe oe Sey sie Swe Sey 1234 40 21~)9S Prats 27ts T IOV THA XINGHd JO IVW VW I - [a] 0 a0 [a] oo vo | 7 fo wires if 005 Win 4 vbnc peuopurgy 909° [ove aa la S77 PNOlD Ve nol vey THE REGIONAL SITUATION 13 cultivation. A few private fields are in the possession of neighboring folk who purchased them from Phenix Village people; land trading is even now going on. It happens, therefore, that several areas belonging to Phenix Village families lie some distance away from the village. The fields across the river are rather large. The whole area indicated on Map 2 by the dotted lines east of the village is referred to as Tan Tou; it is the largest single area that belongs to the village people. Some of the fields that lie too far off to be cultivated conveniently by the farmers of Phenix Village are farmed by their former owners. In return for the labor of cultivation the crops are divided proportionately between the cultivators and the present owners. There is a total of one hundred and ten buildings, large and small, in the entire village, of which thirty shops make up the business section. Twenty-four of these (see Map 5, p. 94) are exactly the same size,—twenty-four feet by fifteen feet. By referring to Map 2 on page 9 one can see how this business section lies between the residential part of Phenix Village and ‘‘Tan’’ Village. It is a market center that was deliberately created by the leaders of Phenix Village in 1904 in order to compete with “‘Tan’”’ Village, which contained a numerically stronger population and through which the people of Phenix Village had to pass when going to Choachow during dry weather. In the old days people did their marketing either in Chaochow or in a trade center three miles east of Phenix Village. In time, as a transportation point, ‘‘“Tan’’ Village developed a market street and carried on a thriving business. The patronage the latter enjoyed from Phenix Village rankled the leaders and in defense they built their own market. (See Plate III, facing p. 14.) 14 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA The residences are congested in the northern portion of the village, as will be seen by a glance at Map 3. Around the edges of this congested section are numerous houses more or less isolated and of different grades of construction. The larger and finer houses of the wealthy families are situated where there was room enough for impressive construction. However, there are a number of very small houses of poor families either joined to- gether in twos or threes or built separately between the main residential section and the market. Then there are two more houses unusually isolated. They are found across Phenix River in the heart of the village lands at Tan Tou. One is a residence of modern construction; the other is a frame watch-house, where farmers take turns in guarding their crops from the inroads of thieves. There are two buildings that belong only to Phenix Village, of a strictly public nature. They are the village Temple and the Scholars Hall (Marked B and A respect- ively on Map 3). There are four buildings of a semi- public nature: the chief ancestral hall of the entire village but now occupied by a poor family (D on the map); the ancestral halls and schools belonging to. two different branches of the village group (E and F); and the small temple (C) south of the market center and visited by people from other villages as well. Several schools that existed in 1919 have since then been closed, so, while indicated on the map, they cannot now be included among the public buildings. It is quite apparent that there is no formal design or plan upon which a village develops. The distribution of the houses, even the location of the business street, is determined by such factors as competition with out- side people, with relatives, by inheritance of land upon which to build, and by social organization as found in PLATE III IV. MARKET STREET AND GATE TO TAN VILLAGE, DURING THE MID-AFTERNOON LULL Vv. “MAIN STREET’ IN PHENIX VILLAGE —RESIDENCES OF THE LIBRARY ap) ed = poet | = LS Sie >= ed CA [8 eos lid = Son ae THE REGIONAL SITUATION 15 the family attitudes and values. The contour of the land plays no significant part because through the length and breadth of the village the land lies about twenty feet above Phenix River and is quite level, as it is in fact a flood plain. Here as elsewhere the ecology of this rural community rests primarily upon forces of competition and secondarily upon attitudes. Thus when a new family has arisen and funds are available, a new section is built from the old and in contact with it, so that residences string along for quite a distance, as seen in Illustration V, usually containing the more closely related members of the village. PATHS AND STREETS The different parts of the village are connected by roads and paths. With but two exceptions the roads are very primitive; they are generally of poor con- struction, and in constant need of repair. The business street is the latest and best in the village. It is reason- ably wide—there are no vehicles in the village—for the uses to which it is put. It is formed with a crown and paved with cobblestones. The edges slant into gutters formed with granite curbing along which extends about two feet of paved space for walking. (Illustration IV.) The shop-keepers have encroached upon the street by erecting posts as supports of sun shades; but the people prefer the cool shade to unobstructed streets. From the business section southward runs a dirt path to ‘‘Tan”’ Village; from it northward runs a dirt road, wide because constantly travelled and distinctly delimited by low fences of interwoven reeds to keep pedestrians from walking on the vegetable plots. The path goes along several isolated buildings but before it reaches the ancestral hall marked F, it is crossed with 16 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA a small reed fence to prevent geese and pigs from wander- ing too far afield. The pedestrian must patiently make his way over this obstruction about two feet high— no one seems to resent it—in order to get to the village proper. Beyond the ancestral hall F the road turns several times and then goes westward to the bank of Phenix River where steps lead down to the water level. Eastward the road is intersected at several points connecting up different streets at the northern end of the village. Thus from the river as a line of communi- cation, the main road runs eastward, branching south- ward to the business section and “Tan” Village and northward to the congested houses in that area. The road from the wharf eastward is paved with cobblestones for six hundred feet. The streets that lie between the houses in the congested part are in some cases paved with a form of lime concrete, crowned and curbed as seen in [Illustration V. Such paving does not weather well and soon forms holes into which the water gathers in pools. Elsewhere the paths are paved with flagstones or are simply of dirt. Between the fields and the villages in the vicinity run crooked trails, cattle tracks, and footpaths. In rainy weather the people wade through mud and water with their heavy oiled overshoes and the swine wallow in the pools, grunting with delight. The modern pavement construction as found in Illustrations IV and V is a significant indication of the strength of the influence resulting from contact with Chaochow and Swatow. The type of road shown herein is not the native and traditional form which can be seen quite clearly in Illustration XV, facing page 261. It is similar to the main street from the station at Chao- chow to the heart of the city, and to the principal streets in Swatow. With respect to this culture trait a line THE REGIONAL SITUATION 17 of transmission can be definitely traced. Roads of this kind were first built in Shanghai and Hongkong, later other coast cities like Canton, Hangchow, Foochow, Amoy and Swatow adopted them. Still later cities in the interior like Chaochow adopted the new method of road-building. So when recent improvements in road construction in Phenix Village were made, the leaders, having seen modern roads in Chaochow, followed the pattern. That it comes from the Occident is shown by the fact that native roads are not crowned and do not have curbing but are made of flagstones generally laid with a slant toward the center under which the drain is built. The old method is insanitary and is being dis- placed in modern reconstruction in just such ways as have been indicated with reference to Phenix Village. Such an adoption of road-building methods is seen to be still more significant when it is realized that roads are not characteristic of the South China culture complex. Paths predominate, for the wheel is not used as in North China. Even the width of the street in the Phenix Village business section is taken from streets built for the accommodation of ricksha traffic. None exist in Phenix Village; the street is used only by pedestrians carrying their loads on poles over their shoulders. Never- theless the street is as wide as the pattern in Chaochow. Throughout the rural districts surrounding Phenix Village there are no vehicles for transporting man or thing; the absence of the wheel is a prime characteristic of the complex of culture in these parts as its presence is a distinctive feature of the North. Goods are carried on a pole over the shoulder. There has therefore been no practical need for good roads. The well-to-do folk use the sedan-chair regularly; the carriers go barefoot Or wear grass sandals, so that mud and water make 18 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA little difference. The common people also use the chair on occasions of importance; otherwise they always walk. Furthermore, the lack of good roads is accounted for by the convenience of the waterways. The water route to Chaochow has been described in detail. But when villagers wish to go elsewhere, eastward up the small creek or northward up the Han or the Phenix, they engage small craft similar to the village ferry to Tan Tou or even footboats operated by a single person. For a boat with two sailors, the usual rate of payment is one dollar a day. Such, then, are the geographical relations of Phenix Village to its immediate surroundings, the characteris- tics of the region, the distribution of the buildings and their uses, the streets and paths, the lines and methods of transportation in which villagers secure contacts that influence Phenix Village. The points of significant contact within the village are the market center, the watering place at the wharf, and the streets and the wells. Without the village they are ‘Tan’ Village, the ferry boat and Chaochow city. CONTACTS OF VILLAGE FOLK The degree of contact, or conversely the amount of isolation, which exists in any rural community determines the quantity of interaction between communities and toa limited extent within a single community. Thus the visit of the writer was possible because of available lines of communication; his presence in the village stimulated talk. There was at least that much mort than usual because the subject of discussion and con) versation was additional to the regular life of the com munity. So also with any item of news carried into thy THE REGIONAL SITUATION 19 village in any way. Reports of events happening elsewhere added to events within the village increase the quantity of stimuli to which the people react, thus adding to the normal quantity of interaction within the village, interactions with other villages, and with other persons. A quantification of contact between Phenix Village and the outside world should properly be broken up into types of contact. At present they may be classified in four groups: business contacts secured either in “Tan” Village or in Chaochow; transportation contacts secured incidentally to movement back and forth be- tween population centers; newspaper contacts; and letters from emigrés. These are all secondary contacts for most of the village people, except for the boatmen or the occasional person who travels to Chaochow. The village wife who delegates the captain of the ferry to buy cloth in Chaochow secures an impersonal contact with the seller of cloth in Chaochow. Even when the captain relates the news or the conversation with people incidental to the purchase of the cloth, the contact is for the wife entirely impersonal and secondary. Yet without leaving the village, through the services of the boatmen on the ferry, the village has important and constant contact, mainly impersonal and secondary, but sufficient to introduce new stimuli constantly into the village community. A CONTACT INDEX A measurement of contact was not possible in this instance. In studies such as this measurements ought to be made so that when a number of villages in a region were compared, it would be possible to rate them on a basis of quantity of contact. The only concrete measure- 20 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA ments for Phenix Village could be derived by taking the eight boatmen who make the trip daily to Chaochow in relation to the total population. Thus the eight boatmen would have in a month a total of 240 units of contact, counting the whole day asa unit. Excluding those under fourteen as ineligible for such outside contact, there would be a possible total of 1338 units for the same period for the whole village. Dividing the latter into the former and multiplying by 1oo, the index of contact would be 17.9. The index would remain the same for a year period if the population did not increase. It will be seen later on that the population is actually static. Two corrections of this contact index should be made, both of which would raise it considerably. To the number of boatmen who each day go out of the village to carry on their services should be added the number of others in Phenix Village who go out to ‘‘Tan”’ Village or elsewhere. Also should be added the number of people who read the daily newspapers to be found in one of the village schools. These three totals taken together in relation to the whole population, say of fourteen years or above, would then give a more accurate index of contact for Phenix Village. But the figures for types of contact are not available so that there practically remains as a reliable index, taken roughly, the figure 18. This method of estimation for purposes of com- parison with other villages takes no account of the variability in importance of contact. The measurement of the quality of contacts can be achieved only by concrete tests of attitudes. Thus, for example, if a set of definite statements involving ideas, attitudes and values characteristic of the village and also coming into THE REGIONAL SITUATION 21 prominence elsewhere as in Chaochow or Swatow could be presented to villagers, even students and teachers and scholars, if no one else, so as to get from them definite reactions, then these reactions could be studied statis- tically. The distribution of village attitudes toward these statements could then reveal modalities and correlations. Thus a person who reacted negatively to worship of village idols would also react negatively to old types of hats. Complexes of attitudes and values would thus emerge and it would then be possible to discover what the amounts of contact were worth to Phenix Village in changing complexes of attitudes from the traditional to the newer kinds. Such tests were not made because of the peculiar obstacles existing, but as time goes by there is every reason to believe that they will become possible. In this study the effects of the contacts described will be noted in a differential analysis of the changes and re- adjustments in the life of Phenix Village community. But to all such tests of quality of contact or measure- ments of quantity of contact there must be added for complete study analyses of life histories of the people of the village. In spite of repeated attempts to get certain ones at least, nothing reliable was secured. By analysis of life histories, letters, etc., the effects of the influences introduced into village life by all these contacts would be made significantly clear. Contact thus determines the static or dynamic quality of the rural community. No matter how unchanged the general social and cultural situation, new com- binations of people, events and cultural arrangements constantly arise and introduce new stimuli into more or less static village life. When, however, the new concepts, events, fashions, and practices of all kinds become very 22 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA numerous, then the quantity of contact has a definite bearing upon the rapidity of change in attitudes and practices. The changes will vary according to the relation between the new suggestions brought in through contacts and the fundamental maintenance of the people. Thus many new ideas are introduced into Phenix Village by the emigration of many villagers to foreign parts. CONDITIONS OF CONTACT Contact in turn is determined fundamentally if not immediately by the geographical conditions. Thus the position of Phenix Village taken together with the direction of the current of Phenix River, the Han River and ‘“Tan’’ Village makes it inevitable that the contact between ‘‘Tan’’ Village and Phenix Village is more than between Phenix Village and other villages to the east of it. The path to ‘*Tan”’ Village and the other villages, the ferry across the Phenix River, the ferry to Chaochow down the Han River are the lines of communication through which books, newspapers, letters and gossip flow into Phenix Village,—lines set by geography. At one time, this geographic factor became so prominent in social opinion in Phenix Village that the leaders tried to overcome it by building their own market street. But the sand bars sometimes prevent the ferry from landing at Phenix Village; then social devices cannot completely set aside in such cases direct geographic influence. CLIMATE In addition to topography which sets the lines along which communication naturally develops in this region, is the factor of climate. The village lies almost under THE REGIONAL SITUATION 23 the Tropic of Cancer and enjoys a genial, sub-tropical climate. The mean annual temperature of Chaochow, ‘kept by the French Catholic Fathers through a period of years,' is 20° C. or 68° F.; that of Swatow is 19° C. imee.7 F. For New Orleans, U. S. A., it is 21° C. or 69.4° F. The mean monthly temperature for Chaochow varies from 13° C. or 55.3° F. in January and February by a steady rise through March, April, May, June and July to 30° C. or 86° F. in August. Through the fall months, the temperature declines steadily from 27° C. for 80.3° F. in September to 16° C. or 60.4° F. in ‘December. The mean temperature variability is, therefore, not great. According to the records for Swatow, only occasionally does the thermometer climb to 100° F. ‘There is but one instance of freezing recorded in that city, on January 18, 1893. The winter season is mild, dry and generally pleasant, the mean number of rainy days not exceeding ten in any month. The ridges that environ Phenix Village are regularly capped with snow during the winter season and form a pleasing contrast to the flourishing foliage below. _ Owing to the slight variations in temperature, the people are in the habit of determining seasons more upon conditions of humidity and precipitation than upon monthly divisions as in the north temperate zones. For this reason both actually and in popular thought the summer season contrasts strongly with the winter. As early as April the winds shift from the northeast to east and southeast and the rains begin. Steadily these monsoons bear in from the South Sea Islands, Jaden with moisture, from April until the end of August, 1Gauthier, H., S.J. La Temperature en Chine. Vols. I-III. Shanghai: Siccawei, 1918. ) 3 ‘e = ON Bm z Eve: Od Ei, ee S (Mean Annual Variation Monthly Isotherm (Chao Chow Fu) aS ee S 10 1920 35 3 Pifk Frujt DECEMBER a a A a a | ee S 10 15 20 25 c : a : ae a aa a eee & x a ile eee ea oo ee 2 oo. a oo a 1°38 cea EE ge ae in 1” 5 Ea be” a te ae ee oo 7 oe | 10 15 20 28 SEPTEMBER ee = cL ee cose ye: ee caiaitieel Se : SS a 2 H Pe ae tt ee ae a me st a Hint 3 2 ag fae eo 3 : 2 See oe see st iy ACR fe eS Ascent ae. SIRE See fee ee care et We see ae oe pee = % p oegleee ee a eee 3 eee see He oN 5 10 192025 JUNE an _ oe ee es gt Gage. : peseaueees fe ‘ nay 2S fo 2. fae oo a a i (40, i itis cases Pa ae oe oe = eo ‘6, ee a ee Ge a eA Si ne She aad Soe em ge ae 2 se Ei nae mute iestlltelata 43 Heit Jo 2 sD eS a s : oe ee ed. § 3 oe a ae = Ae o ee aa o Beeid ot | ae shunt ee Babee oe eee une a Mice a eas ieEAe eee mia SSS ee aA i oe Soles soe eres cele eg oS eae end 5 10 15 20 25 FEBRUARY EE oe qe He age as ieeg oceans a ae a 2 eo mane s 10 is 20 25 SEO YERY Te ae Heenan ers HR Mote Ue He os Ne AA eS a ne ce SE = So Monsoon and Flood Period THE REGIONAL SITUATION 25 a condition common throughout the extent of the South China coastal region. The mean monthly total rainfall! rises rapidly in April, remains almost the same during May, but advances again until it reaches the maximum in June, 9.44 inches, falls below the April mark in July, decreases slightly through August and September and declines rapidly during October. From April to August it rains nearly half the time. For Swatow, during the warm half of the year, the mean total rainfall is 1093.3 mm., while in the cold half, it amounts to only 416.2 mm. The two seasons instead of being warm and cold are really better designated as wet and dry. A glance at Figure 2, the meteorological chart, will show clearly the relation between the winds, the temperature and the rainfall. When the writer visited Phenix Village, his trip had been delayed several days by heavy rains characteristic of that period. From April to August, the monsoon period, is the flood season. It is interesting in this connection to note that the whole region in which Phenix Village is located is called commonly ‘‘Gwei Ho” or the Source of Floods. While the district is generally moderate and the June rainfall averaged for a period of years is well-nigh ten inches, it must be remembered that the extremes of precipitation at any one time would be great to create such an average. It is a char- acteristic of the region that rains and floods alternate with excessive droughts. FLOODS It happens that the upper part of the Han River and also of the Phenix are rather narrow. Several miles 1Froc, Louis, S.J. La Pluie en Chine, r900-1910. Part I. Shanghai: Siccawei, 1912. 26 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA just below the spot where the Phenix flows into the Han, mountains jut into the river. When the heavy rains fall on the denuded hills the water rushes into the upper course and, backed up by the narrow cliffs below Phenix Village, flood the whole region. Ordinarily the water level is about twenty feet below the level of the houses and yet one can readily detect the yellow lines in the rooms of village houses and on the walls of the exteriors that indicate the high water marks of floods. These floods may last from a few hours to a week depending upon whether they come from the Phenix or the Han. Sometimes the overflow reaches only into the fields when it is a boon to the farmers, for its silt enriches the soil. But entirely too often the Spirit of the Waters steps over the threshold, intrudes unbidden into the guest-hall, rises over tables, chairs and beds. He has been known even to follow the occupants up to the second floor and to lap his waves freely over the roofs of the houses. At such a time the people were forced to move out and live on the crest of the nearest hill to the north or to hire boats as temporary homes. Any close observer is sure to notice the yellow mud that tints the beautiful blackwood carved furniture. The most earnest efforts of a careful housewife cannot dig it out of the fine carvings. The fury of the great floods destroys many crops of grain or fruits, tears out the plants and rips up trees, sweeps away furniture and even houses and domestic animals, not infrequently taking its toll of human life. A common saying that is of the nature of a proverb in the village illustrates the cost of the ravages of nature: ‘To be free from flood for three successive years would be to adorn our hogs with shining rings of gold.”’ THE REGIONAL SITUATION 27 The geography, climate, and practice of denudation in fuel-gathering combine to produce a condition which to the villagers is ‘‘Fate’’ and must be endured with forbearance. There is no hope of improvement. Every year they gamble with nature. They sow their seed and risk their labor without hesitation, each time hoping that the scourge of blind Nature may not fall upon them. But rarely indeed are they spared the anguish of fruitless effort. Little do they realize what a few facts of forestry could do for them. The usual bounty that Nature bestows upon tropical and sub-tropical regions is thus torn away from the industrious farmers. The soil is fertile and grows crops with ease. It isa fine loam of a broad river bottom. The temperature, the moisture, the rain are all such that abundant crops are possible. Tantalus-like, Nature hangs the horn of plenty just beyond their reach. After all, the people and not Nature are to blame, but the village folk do not understand this. Again and again in their ignorance they have tried to stem the destructive flood, to keep it within the channels as it sweeps from the hills with its burden of soil. They need to realize that their own constant denudation of grass, sprouts, underbrush and saplings is the real cause of their losses by floods. They need to be taught reforestation as a method of effective flood control. The problem is not simple, however, because the folk of Phenix Village are not alone to blame. The provincial government should institute education on these matters in all the village schools of the region. The adaptation to all the other features of the natural environment, which the people of Phenix Village have achieved, has been effective except on the one point of preventing floods. Their failure here has caused much 28 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA discouragement and has provided the basis for a favorable response to the appeals of the emigration agencies. For this one reason—the uncontrolled floods—the village community is still under the direct sway of nature and suffers from a deficit economy. Such are the fundamental conditions that create the stage upon which the folk of Phenix Village play their parts. Without trying to explain human behavior or social practices by mere reference to geographical and climatic factors, it is nevertheless important that every student of rural communities survey carefully the ways in which such factors condition the material achievements and the social processes and organizations. CUA TOR e UL POPULATION AND HEALTH The population of Phenix Village in 1919 amounted to six hundred and fifty. There are no statistical rec- ords running back to past generations. The statements of the villagers concerning changes in population are ‘trustworthy only in a general way. The count given here ‘was secured by an actual census. The field investi- gator has since then been keeping records of memberships for each small family group in the village. After ten or fifteen years of such record-keeping he will have data of great value for village leadership. KINSHIP AND POPULATION Village leaders claim some increase in population during the last twenty years. In proof of this, they point to a number of new buildings, particularly those added to the south of the old residential section. What growth has occurred has been very slow and in some years does not occur at all. Opinion has it that the birth rate increases very slightly while the death rate remains from year to year about the same. The fact is that emigration has been sufficient to offset any natural increase of the population of Phenix Village. A rural village community which is identical with a kin-group and located away from important transportation or communication points grows only indigenously by the ordinary operation of biological functions. A blood- bond group of this kind, isolated as it is, lacks the accre- tions to population that occur where trade adds to 30 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA kinship in the enlargement of a group that sooner or later loses its kin nexus and takes on civic character, Such changes in population and in the relations between the groups within a population have occurred in towns and cities like Chaochow and are found now occurring in ‘‘Tan’’ Village, due to its location. This has also occurred in Phenix Village but to an exceedingly limited degree. Thus in the market street, as will appear by a glance at Map 5, on page 94, fifteen of the shop- keepers are not members of the kin group occupying Phenix Village. Only five of all the shops are run by those whose names belong to the kin-group of the village. Between the people who have rented shops from mem- bers of the Phenix Village clan and the clanspeople themselves, there has arisen a civic relationship. The bond is no longer one of blood but of economic interest. Members of Phenix Village in sufficient numbers did not occupy the shops built and opened by the leaders of the village, so the latter rented them to applicants who came from outside Phenix Village. The only advantage the leaders secured over ‘‘Tan’”’ Village by building this market street lies in a greater convenience for purchasing and in the proceeds from the rent. The move created a new epoch in the history of Phents Village; it established civic relations in addition t those of kinship. The chief difference that exists ir the fundamental relationships of the people of Pheni Village and the people of Chaochow is one of degre arising out of the differences in amounts of population ORIGIN OF CIVISM Although these outsiders who trade in Phenix Villagi shops do not participate in any village control or polity yet their very presence makes them a factor in th POPULATION AND HEALTH 31 village community through the functioning of social opinion in which they can join. Here is a genuine illustration of the earliest stages in the evolution of cities. There is no reason to believe that Phenix Village is ever likely to become a town or to enter a period of srowth by further migration. The fact that three of the shops are unrented would indicate that already the village has reached a saturation point for the absorption of outsiders. Economic competition seems to have reached a stage of equilibrium; there is insufficient demand for new goods or more goods placed conveniently for the villagers, to bring in more tradesmen. The opportunities for gain are insufficient to attract any new members of Phenix Village to open shops. Further- more, the isolation of Phenix Village would offer little hope that it will grow much more by immigration. There is a possibility that some day ‘‘Tan’’ Village might grow and expand to the point where it would reach and possibly include Phenix Village. The in- creasing trade down the river and the prosperity of the ‘*Tan’”’ Village market at a junction point both suggest such a prognosis. If that ever happened, the civifying process already begun in Phenix Village would simply be increased and speeded up. BIRTH AND DEATH RATES At present the village population is static. From 1917 to 1918, the only period for which there are accurate data by record, the birth rate and the death rate were equal. Table I shows the actual figures for births in this period analyzed by sex (column 2) and corrected to the total population (column 3) as suggested by Whipple in his discussion of rates of birth and death as corrected 32 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA to significant totals... Column 4 gives the rates of birth for males and females as corrected to the total number of married people in Phenix Village. Mani- festly such a rate is more significant for interpretation of fecundity than gross rates to the total population. In this case such correction almost doubles the rates in column 3. TABLE I TABLE II BIRTH RATE FOR PHENIX DEATH RATE FOR VILLAGE, JULY 1917 TO PHENIX VILLAGE, JULY JULY 1918 1917 TO JULY 1918 Corrected Corrected) to Num- Corrected Sex Number | to Popu- | ber Mar- Sex Number] to Gross Group | (Actual) jlation per} ried Per- Group | (Actual)| Death- 1000 sons per Rate per 1000 1000 (1) (2) (3) (4) (1) (2) (3) Males io 18 33 Males 14 22 Females 10 15 28 Females 8 1 Total 22 34 63 Total 22 34 EOP NC Aba PARA A SIE S180) USN oS Table II gives the data on the death rate during the same period. Column 2 gives the actual number of deaths by sex; column 3 corrects these to a gross rate for the total population of the village per 1000 persons. Such a correction on the basis of I000 persons makes comparisons of these rates with those of other places easier,? but it should be remembered that the total population of Phenix Village does not equal even 1000. 1 Vital Statistics, Boston. : 2 New York had in 1918 a death rate, per 1000 of total population, of 17.88; England of 19.8 (see Thirty-seventh General Annual Report by the Board of Trade, London, 1920, Vol. X, Table 6, p. CXV); Peking, of 25.8 (see Gamble, S., Peking. A Social Survey, p. 31, New York, 1921). POPULATION AND HEALTH 33 The two tables afe placed together for ready compar- ison, for they are presented to show that in the one year under study the population of the village merely maintained itself. That this condition of similarity between the birth and death rates occurs regularly is possible only under one condition: that the numbers emigrating from year to year are equalled by the number returning. This cannot always be so for some emigrés die abroad. Phenix Village lies within the sphere of emigration influences, as will be shown in detail further on. The movements of village folk are more centrifugal than centripetal. The conclusion is, therefore, that the rates for 1917-1918 are not typical. In order that Phenix Village maintain its population under conditions of emigration, natality must be in sufficient excess of mortality to compensate for the loss of emigrants who do not return. Through a period of years the average of those who go out would be slightly higher than those who return, by years, because of the factor of deaths abroad. If this analysis be correct, Phenix Village can be said to illustrate high fecundity. The rural villages illustrate this condition throughout China,—a fact long claimed by writers both Chinese and foreign. (Adequate sta- tistics are lacking to prove the matter very much one way or the other.) Some people claim that there is high infant mortality which offsets the high fecundity. A study of the groups in Figure 6, on page 157, shows that in this village and among these mother-children groups there are three cases with five children, six cases with three children, one case with two children, and four cases with one child. Among these thirty-seven chil- dren, three died before marriage. The modal size of group, counting the father, would be five. 34 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION Analysis of the composition of the population with reference to age and sex distribution and the marital status reveals some interesting and significant facts. In Table III, which has been put into graphic form in Figure 3, the population is divided into eight ranges TABLE III POPULATION: AGE DISTRIBUTION Per Cent of Total Population (2) (3) 50 8 Age Group Number of Cases 24 13 6 25744 ae 45-64 65-85 Unknown Total adapted rather to Chinese practices than to the United States Census. The first range in column I covers infancy; the second, the school age, the period during which betrothment usually occurs; the third, appren- ticeship and marriage; the fourth, the first years of freedom and responsibility; the fifth, 25-44, the years of greatest physical strength and productiveness in agri- POPULATION AND HEALTH 35 culture; the sixth, 45-64, the period of middle age; and the last, old age. It was not possible to get the accurate age of every person so that a column for the ‘‘ Unknown” had to be entered. It will thus be seen in column 3 that twenty-four per cent of the total population are children of school age. The period 20-24 covers only six per cent of the people. FIG. 3. GRAPHIC PRESENTATION OF TABLE III This is to be accounted for by the fact that at this age migration occurs most among the men. Forty-one per cent of the people fall between the ages of 15 and 44, while twenty-eight per cent are from 45 to 85 years of age. The reader must not fail to note that the second division covers two ranges; and the last three, exclusive of ‘‘Unknown,”’ cover four ranges each. The modal 36 TABLE, IV POPULATION: SEX DISTRIBUTION Per Cent of Total Population (3) Number Sex Group Ay ae! (1) (2) 52 48 TABLE V POPULATION: SEX AND AGE Per Cent of Number Total Sex Group | of Cases ; Population (1) (2) (3) Males 20 and over 168 26 Males 19 and under 170 26 Females 20 and over 187 28 Females 19 and under 125 20 Total 650 100 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA TABLE VI POPULATION: MARITAL STATUS Per Cent Group of Total Popu- lation (1) (3) Unmarriageables 30 Marriageables 70 Total TABLE VII POPULATION: MARITAL GROUPS Per Cent Marital | Number | of Total of Group of Cases | Marriage- able Age eee CSUN eS (3) Married Persons 364 82 Widows 69 15 Widowers 4 I Unmarried Persons 9 2 Total 446 100 POPULATION AND HEALTH Distribution According to Sex Marital Status: GB Widowers 2 ~ XN & y 8 | a Be i Marital Status 1&IP rls males 8 x (28 fi a8 Ny | FIG. 4. GRAPHIC PRESENTATION OF TABLES IV, V, AND VII ae age-range for the entire village would be from 15-19 years, or thirteen per cent of the population. Forty-six per cent of the population are nineteen or under. Gener- ally speaking the adults are only slightly more numerous than the children. 38 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA If the period of economic productivity in farm life be taken from 20 to 44 years, it is clear that only twenty- nine per cent, or slightly more than one-fourth of the population, produces the necessary income for main- tenance. However, some of these included in the twenty-nine per cent are ineffective on account of health; others in the range from 45-64 would still be effective producers as women engaged in home industry or as men in trade. Taking all the age-groups in relation to probable productiveness, it is safe to say that practically one-half of the population depends for support upon the other half. This harmonizes with the facts discovered in the analysis of the economic status of the various family units in the village, discussed under Maintenance. Tables IV and V show the distribution according to sex and age. The males exceed by four per cent. Adult females exceed adult males by two per cent. The excess of total males over total females derives from the fact that there are many more “‘males nineteen years of age and under” than females. There is no explanation for this difference. Many writers would suggest infanticide - but no proof of such a practice in this village was secured. On the contrary, there were many evidences of parental love and affection for the girls as well as the boys. How far the preference for boys results in greater care of boys as against girls in the earliest years, resulting in lower mortality of boys, it is not possible to say. Roughly the population of Phenix Village divides into four equal parts on the basis of sex distinctions above and below twenty years of age. (Table V, column 3.) MARITAL STATUS As regards marital status, Table VI divides the popula- tion into groups: marriageables and unmarriageables. | POPULATION AND HEALTH 39 The first group includes all persons fifteen years and over; the second, all persons fourteen years and under. This division conforms to marriage practices in the village. Table VII analyzes further the group of marriage- ables on the basis of age. Only eighty-two per cent of all these had husbands living in 1918. There were 182 cases of married couples. In addition there were sixty- nine widows and four widowers. When fifteen per cent of the total of marriageables are widows, it is essential to remember that the social opinion of the village dis- approves of widows marrying/a second time but offers no condemnation if widowers re-marry. Strictly, from the sociological point of view, the widows should not be listed as ‘‘marriageables.’’ However, in spite of public condemnation of re-marriage, several widows have entered into a conjugal status for a second time. Practi- cally, therefore, all widows are marriageable for no one knows when they might re-marry. The presence of so many widows in a small village like this one, indicates that the ordinary taboos upon re-marriage common throughout China are quite effective in Phenix Village. Marriage between widows and young persons is con- demned; the number of marriageable widowers is quite small, so that these women would have difficulty finding husbands even if they wanted to marry again. Espe- cially would this be true if conditions in surrounding villages resembled those in Phenix Village. It is interesting to note that two per cent of all per- sons old enough to be married had never entered into matrimony. It would be of sociological significance to know how many of these are women, but the data are inadequate at this point. The presumption would be that they are men because of the social pressure exerted upon women to be married and cared for. 40 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Having considered the details of the composition of the population of Phenix Village, it will be of value next to describe the movements of population. MOBILITY OF POPULATION Five distinct areas of movements are to be found in connection with Phenix Village. The first is delimited by the boundaries of the village and its surrounding lands. Within this area the people move back and forth daily on their routine tasks. The second area includes the villages of the immediate region which are connected by marriage or other bonds of trade or fellowship. Such would be ‘‘Tan”’ Village and the others lying to the north and east of Phenix Village. The third would be the circle of movement by ferry down the river to Chaochow and intermediate points. Within this area one finds the first instance of definite migration or more or less permanent residence outside of Phenix Village. A number of small blood-groups of the same surname as that belonging to Phenix Village now live in Chaochow or vicinity. The fourth region would reach to Swatow, where certain members of the village now live. The fifth area includes foreign lands. In this instance two widely separated portions of the earth are involved: the United States and the coastal regions south of Kwantung and the South Sea Islands. Inasmuch as there has been only one instance of migration to the United States, terminated within three years, and concerning which no information is available as to influences exerted from it upon the village, attention in this study will be concentrated upon areas of chief significance. POPULATION AND HEALTH 41 An examination of Map 1 will show which those areas are. Into those portions of the world indicated by the shading, there is a steady stream of people pouring from the south coastal region of China. The character- istics of emigration vary with the different places, so that the phenomena should be studied differentially. It is so extensive and takes away from these regions such large numbers of people that it becomes a subject worthy of detailed investigation. From certain ports the men move alone; from others they move with their wives and children. According to the consular reports for Swatow, the emigration agencies reported for the year IQII a total of 3,000,000 emigrants from the sur- rounding district. In 1902, fifty per cent of the emi- grants from Swatow went to the Straits Settlements. In IQII, the majority of them went to Bangkok. While these figures are the most recent available in authori- tative sources, they are not up-to-date. There is no reason to believe that emigration has in any way de- creased. The various steamship companies drive a sharp competition for business and in every way stimulate emigration. In fact, some of the steamers stop at certain of the coast cities of the South China district simply to pick up the hordes of passengers for distant ports in the Straits. When, as around Amoy, the men themselves not only go but take their whole families with them the passenger business is quite lucrative. This migration of the entire natural-family is indica- tive of a new phase of the whole phenomena of emigra- tion. In the earlier stages the men predominantly went alone. To-day, however, the fare is much cheaper on the steamers so that larger numbers leave their homes. The people observed were not departing for permanent 42 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA residence abroad. They were moving with their hus- bands who were engaged to work for some months on plantations. MIGRATION OF CHINESE In North China, family migration has been going on for some time. There the people migrate from Shantung into Manchuria and Mongolia with the fixed intention of permanent residence. They aim to take up farming, which binds them to the new country. For this purpose the members of the family are Valuable assistants. At the present time, the social leadership in the north is urging the Shantung farmer, who is hard pressed for food and money on account of floods, to go into the fertile fields of the Manchurian plains. ‘This relieves congestion in Shantung. Colonization is one of the planks of the program of the International Famine Relief Commission.!. There is thus going on a great cultural invasion of the region generally north of the provinces of Shantung and Chihli. China exhibits, then, two great areas of emigration: the one in the north, into Mongolia and Manchuria; the one in the south, into the Islands and the Straits Settlements. Into the former, emigration has been always by families; into the south, it has in the past been by individuals but is now changing to migration in family groups. Previously, the emigrants in the south have gone alone with the intention of returning when fortunes were made. Now they move by families, for longer or shorter periods, to swell by family effort the family fortunes. They work as coolies in the ports to the south or enter business. Both conduce to temporary 1 The writer was himself a member of the Committee on Economic Improve- ment and Rural Credits under the Commission during the year 1923. POPULATION AND HEALTH 43 residence whereas in the north agricultural pursuits have encouraged permanent settlement. Chinese colonies are to be found throughout the areas shaded onthe map. They have become centers of great economic influence and during the recent period of struggle of the south against the Peking militarism, the Chinese emigrants of great wealth have practically financed the Canton Government. Most support of modern progressive movements in the south really comes from those successful emigrants in the South Seas. The earlier ones went into various forms of busi- ness until to-day some of the biggest and wealthiest concerns are Chinese. _ These colonies in the southern portions of Asia are not made up of many people permanently established. A few remain and establish households; but the core of these colonies comprises those who individually or by families move in and out. The majority when they emigrate do so with the intention of returning to their native places sooner or later. But even if they do return to China, for a time they have carried on services in distant communities and have reénforced the influence and prestige of those members of their race who have settled into permanent residence by creating families abroad. No one who has travelled in the Philippines or through the Straits Settlements has failed to note the presence of the Chinese immigrants, their apparent superiority over the native in business acumen, and the high position of regard and respect that some of them attain. Both the character and the manner of assim- ilation in these parts deserve detailed study by sociol- ogists and ethnographers, because the contacts of these cultures are occurring under circumstances peculiarly significant. by A4 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA EMIGRATION FROM PHENIX VILLAGE Phenix Village by its location falls within the sphere of influence of economic opportunity in the areas of immigration to the south of Kwantung. As has already been noted, the lines of communication between the village and the transportation points of Chaochow and Swatow are convenient. It is an easy day’s travel to embark on the steamer that carries the villager to Manila, Saigon, Bangkok or Singapore. When he arrives there, he finds himself among his own countrymen. The migrants from Phenix Village have been men who have departed generally alone to make their fortunes. In 1918 fifty-five members of the Phenix Village kin group lived abroad in the regions described. None of them have been known to intend to leave the village permanently, but some of them have failed to return. Equipped with courage, hope and their neatly bound bundle of bedding, they set forth with regret upon leaving their kin. A few, however, forget their in- tentions of returning to Phenix Village and when success- ful become citizens of their adopted country. Some fail through disease and death. Some give up, unable to cope with conditions. They pack up their simple baggage and, broken in spirit and homesick, seek their native haunts. Others, feeling that they have accumulated enough to satisfy their wives and parents, return to end their days in retired repose and receive the admira- tion of their kin. As age creeps upon these men, they are quite content to depend increasingly upon their sons for support. The causes of emigration are many. Persons do not: leave the village to go to distant cities for a single reason. | Their motives are complex. Some assume striking. 7 fi t POPULATION AND HEALTH 45 importance and are consciously recognized while others operate unconsciously. Human behavior is complex and any generalizations about it must be based upon comprehension of its pluralistic composition. The explanation of individual behavior, therefore, requires specific differential analysis of the components of a complex back of any instance of behavior. WISHES OF VILLAGE FOLK It is definitely maintained in this analysis that no one goes abroad from Phenix Village because of the operation of any single instinct. Children do not emigrate. Watson! has experimentally discovered so far only three instincts in the very young child. These through social experience soon change into habits or become the foundations for wishes, by combination with cultural materials. In the growth of the self the bio- logical equipment, or instincts, capacities, and the like, are conditioned and modified by social pressure and the ‘elements of culture that act as stimuli at the particular ‘moments in personal history. Conditioned and changed, the fundamental instincts found to exist at birth become wishes. According to Thomas? they may be classified into four distinct groups, mutually exclusive. They are: ‘I. The desire for new experience. 2. The desire for security. 3. The desire for response. 4. The desire for recognition.’ 1 Jennings, Watson, Meyer, Thomas. Suggestions of Modern Science Con- cerning Education, p.63. New York: 1921. 2Thomas, W. I. The Unadjusted Girl; with Cases and Standpoint for ‘Behavior Analysis. pp. 1-40. Boston: 1923. \ee® Ibsd., p.. 4. 46 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Because of the possibility of confusion between the wish for response and the wish for recognition, it is better to call the former the wish for preferential per- sonal response and the latter the wish for dominance or public recognition. The former has to do with behavior arising out of small-group and intimate re- lationships, such as love or friendship behavior; the latter, with status and the avoidance of the feeling of inferiority either by compensatory effort or by psychic compensation.! Wishes underlie behavior as complexes wherein the components possess relative and varying significance. Thus ‘‘going to Chaochow’’ would be explained by analysis of a wish-complex in which at a particular time the wish for dominance might be strongest with the wish for new experience (incidental play) or the wish for personal response (meeting a son) or security (selling vegetables for money) present in combination. The wishes seldom combine in the same way twice in the same person. Much less are they likely to combine identically in different persons. It is now clear that any explanation of the motives for emigration can be achieved only by analysis of each case. This could be arrived at practically if one had complete personal histories of each emigrant. If it were possible to secure all the letters that passed between emigrants and the village relatives, much light would be thrown on these wish combinations. The fundamental statement that can be made about the formation of a wish complex is: while differing in each instance in the relative strengths of the compo- nent wishes, according to variations in individual heredity and personal experience, it always reflects in the values— 1 Adler, A. The Neurotic Constitution. pp. 1-50. New York: 1917. POPULATION AND HEALTH 47 the things wished for—involved, the ethnotic! situation under which the complex takes form. Emigration in North China can hardly be explained in terms of the emigration in South China, for the ethnotic characteristics vary greatly. Universality resides only in the occurrence of the wishes; the values or objects of wishes are ethnotic in character—results of past social experience in definite regional situations; the manner of combination of wishes in a particular instance of behavior varies according to the person and the moment of decision and the situation. Data for such differential and personal analysis are lacking in this study. The attitudes generally expressed in inter- views and the wishes implied can only be reconstructed in probable combinations. If sufficient life-histories of these emigrants, or series of letters, were available it would be possible to separate out definite complexes, analyze them and discover the modalities of recurrence. The most ostensible reason, and the one generally stressed by the village folk, is the achievement of security _by the improvement of the family fortunes economically. The pressure of living conditions is the natural spur to these outward movements to foreign lands. The failures 1Ethnotic—pertaining to the culture complex as a variable function of the interaction between a group of people, exhibiting biological and social aspects and regional characteristics. It is meant to include both the processes and | products of such interaction. The term employed herein is based upon the use of the term ‘‘ethnos’’ as contained in Ethnos: An Investigation of the Fundamental Principles of Change in Ethnical and Ethnographical Phenomena,”’ S, M. Shirokogoroff. Shanghai, 1923. (In Russian.) The superiority of the term over the word ‘‘cultural”’ lies in its inclusiveness. It stresses the biological and regional as well as the _ social elements as conditioning factors of interaction; it covers the processes | as well as the products. ‘‘Cultural’’ refers primarily to the products. / The word “‘ethnological’’ could not be accurately used for such a meaning, - because it refers to the science or study, rather than to the object of the study. sé 48 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA of the crops through the floods, the loss of poultry and animals through disease, the additional mouths that claim shares in the rice-pot, already divided too much, constitute the natural circumstances that condition peoples’ attitudes and help to break the bonds of village association. The wish for security would, then, seem to be fundamental motivation of emigration. That it is not the sole wish, however, is easily dis- cernible. For example, when a former emigrant re- turns to Phenix Village he relates in glowing words his experiences and good fortunes. The wealthier the returned emigrant may be, the more eagerly he is listened to. He tells what good times he has had, the ease with which one can make a living, and how cheaply a wife can be bought. He describes the unusual abilities of the foreign women, how they help the husband in busi- ness and stimulate his interest. He expands upon the modern port cities with their street cars, their auto- mobiles, their telephones, their fine houses, streets, parks and amusements. Here are wishes for new experience, personal response (the foreign wife), and possibly dominance (the idea of returning to the village able to build a fine house better than his cousin’s). All are clearly involved. For the young man, the wish for new experience might easily be more dominant than the wish for security. So, as the young farmer, disappointed and discouraged in his efforts, listens to these tales and thinks of his uncles and perhaps brothers, who are enjoying life under such wonderful conditions, it is small wonder he grows restless or decides to join their ranks at the first oppor- tunity. If he goes where they are, he knows he can depend upon them to help him to start in business or other work; if he fails, he can return to Phenix Village. | POPULATION AND HEALTH 49 If he succeeds he will return the object of envy and emulation, and in every respect will enjoy superiority over the ‘‘rice-pot-keeping-turtles’’ who lacked the courage to break away. Sometimes the young farmer, himself unaffected by the stories, becomes a victim of filial piety. The aged parents, lacking the comforts they see others enjoy, urge or sometimes compel him to seek their support where it is more sure. The ideals of forty centuries are the very core of his being; he cannot refuse. He leaves to take up the struggle; and the parents watch for the captain of the ferry to bring them news and money from their son. There is still another factor that conditions deter- mination to go abroad. This is neither geographical, racial, nor technological, but social. Crime is sometimes punished by banishment from the village community. People cut off from status in China because their com- munities repudiate them, suffer personal recrimination and public aspersion. It is really a kindness then that the village folk bestow upon their criminals when they banish them to foreign lands. There they can start anew and achieve status in a new community, if they so desire. The bad characters of the village, the thieves, the adulterers, when their offenses have been discovered and the misdemeanors have been pardoned by those who were wronged, are forced to agree to leave the village for a certain length of time;—ten years, twenty years, or even for life. The severity of the punishment varies according to the violations of the village standards and the values and attitudes of the aggrieved persons. Most of the emigrants from Phenix Village go to Indo-China, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula, especially 50 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Singapore. In 1918, of the fifty-five living in those places, two were women. The emigrant men thus constituted as many as one-third of the total men in the village population. Of the two women, one went to join her husband; the other departed in company with her son. EFFECTS OF EMIGRATION But if any approximate idea of the influence that emigration has had on Phenix Village is to be conceived, it would be necessary to add to the above all those who from time to time have gone away and returned. The annual rate of departure ranges from four to ten per- sons; the rate of return is somewhat less, according to one of the village leaders. What are the effects of the ‘‘galloping guests,’’ as the ‘‘rice-pot-keeping-turtles’’ call them? Most funda- mental is the effect upon the family. The authority of the father over the emigrant son is weakened. In his absence the son can do many things that his father would prohibit. The family control of sex is absent for the emigré; prostitution is common in port cities. Many of these cities add to the municipal income by licensing brothels on the pretext of health regulation. Shanghai only recently eliminated such governmental | collusion in vice. More important than sex irregularities is the viola- tion of marriage mores. Bigamy in China is rare; in all her history there are only a few cases. Social opinion | in Phenix Village as elsewhere condemns the taking of more than one ‘‘first-wife”’ or tsth. But not a few of the ‘galloping guests’”’ disregard old conventions and marry | a second time. Men might purchase as many concu- | bines as they can afford to secure and support and still ie POPULATION AND HEALTH 51 conform thoroughly to traditional practice. But to take a second legal wife by a proper marriage ceremony is bad. Invariably the wife married abroad is a legal one and considered to be of equal rank in the family organization with the wife at home. The emigrant brings her back when he returns; then she claims all her rights and many prerogatives besides. In fact, the “foreign’’ wife exerts frequently a greater influence within and without the family than the native wife. The former knows more about her husband’s business, has money at her disposal, is more clever because more experienced, and constantly assumes a status and re- ceives respect and honor above the latter. Although residence abroad develops personal inde- pendence which is not readily set aside upon return to the village, it must not be supposed that the funda- mental virtue of filial piety is destroyed. On the con- trary, most of the returned emigrés revert in time to traditional village attitudes and practices. Furthermore, at no time during their absence, unless they are criminals, are they free from certain forms of control, namely, duties to parents and elder kin. As already noted, filial piety is a valuable social concomitant of economic deficit. In fact, it is a sort of old-age insurance, for the parent can depend upon the filial son to maintain him in his decrepitude. In this case, filial piety operates to insure remittances home, securing the family against loss by sickness or the ravages of floods. However, attitudes acquired abroad do crop out and introduce new elements into the life of the village group. Occasional family quarrels and disturbances base squarely on this fact. Traditional ideals regarding the home, parents, kin, and so on, while preserved, are touched up with foreign tints. Furthermore, the LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA -CHAMPAIGN 52 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA tendency to sex looseness when abroad has led returned emigrants to break sex taboos and enter into illicit relations with some of the widows, of whom the majority belong to families of emigrants. It is openly admitted that sex morality is much less strictly observed now than it was formerly. On the other hand, these experiences in foreign lands, with the proper leadership and guidance of the people, will furnish resources for the development of a new type of village. Just now, lacking proper leadership, the impetus gained in emigrant experience is lost upon return to the village and the net effect is reversion to type behavior. The ideological horizon of the emigrant has been widened, his knowledge has been increased, he has experienced varieties of contacts with peoples and cultures. The general open-mindedness and pro- gressive tendencies found in South China! are due to just this recognition of something different which these returned emigrés exhibit in rural communities like Phenix Village. With adequate and trained leader- ship exerted mainly through schools, social advance in this part of China could be particularly rapid. Because the psychological effects of residence abroad tend to become buried in local customs and traditions, the more apparent consequences of emigration are 1 This is one of the facts that produces the psychological basis for the politi- cal divisions and civil wars between North and South China ever since the failure and death of Yuan Shih Kai, when Wu Ting Fang carried the seals of state to Canton and there set up a progressive constitutional parliament. opposed to the non-parliamentary conservative and militaristic cliques govern- ing North China from Peking and Tientsin. The line of political division can| roughly be drawn along the line of the Yangtse River. : Other factors, social, biological and technological, are differences between the north and south in degree of contacts with other people, in racial types, and in culture fundaments. These, too, have entered into the conditioning’ of contrasts and conflicts of recent political history in China as they have from earliest time according to Chinese history. | POPULATION AND HEALTH 53 economic in character. Not only does this additional source of income tend to compensate for the deficits arising out of their inability to control or prevent floods and other natural disasters, but actually provides the wealth for the expansion of village property and the residential quarter. New acres are bought and the means of maintenance fortified; new houses are built and the village appearance beautified. These are some of the effects of success but not more than one-tenth of the emigrants return successful. Many of them, while in foreign lands, are barely able to send back enough money to keep their families alive. Not a few persons are forced to live from hand to mouth, finally returning broken in productive efficiency, a charge upon their families, or dying miserable deaths away from home with none to burn the candles. In such cases, the women are forced to take up the work of the men and, for the support of the families, to work out-of-doors. The effects of emigration upon Phenix Village cannot be considered clear gain. On the credit side would be placed increased wealth of some and additional modes ‘of maintenance, lessening of some superstitions and ‘acquaintance with things new and different, open- mindedness and a tendency toward progressiveness; on the debit side would be placed the introduction of dysgenic elements into family practices and organiza- tion, lessening of respect for traditional ideals, weaken- ‘ing of moral controls, increased sex immorality, increase of dependency, increase of trust in the adventure of fortune-hunting rather than in persistent labor under the home conditions, a failure to struggle to improve _those conditions because only the less energetic and capable tend to spend their lives under the home condi- 54 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA tions; in short, a decadence of familism and a forsaken struggle against environment constitute the main dis- advantageous tendencies arising from emigration. That they are increasingly costly can readily be admitted; that they can be offset through trained village leader- ship wisely exerted is without question. With such leadership, emigration could be turned from a curse into a blessing. HEALTH AND SANITATION One of the first avenues for improvement in village life could be created by making more sanitary all parts of the village. But before discussing health and village TABLE VIII POPULATION: DEFECTIVES AND LEPERS Types Number Types Number Lepers 7 Deaf 2 Insane 5 Harelip zm Feebleminded 2 Dumb I Cripples 4 Otherwise Physi- TALE STITT WATER ANE LTT TRAE RPE Ck hath oe 2 Blind S Total Per Cent Total Population sanitation—or lack of it—it will be of interest to note types and distribution of infirmities recognized by the villagers to exist in their midst. Nearly five per cent of the total population are defec- | tive and leprous. The most important consideration | ; | POPULATION AND HEALTH 55 with reference to these people is that, in addition to the dependence they suffer because of the degree of their inadequacy, they suffer feelings of inferiority that develop in them abnormal psychic traits. Especially is this true of the marginal cases such as cripples, people with harelip, and the otherwise physically abnormal. They are set off from the rest of the community by their physical peculiarities and marked for special attention.! The application of scientific intelligence tests such as have recently been developed under the auspices of the Chinese National Association for the Advancement of Education and called the ‘‘Luh Revision of the Binet- Simon Intelligence Scale, Form 1: For ages three to adult,’’? would surely show further defectiveness in mental capacity. It was found impossible in the investigations to secure data that would enable the writer to generalize with regard to the heredity of these defects and abnormalities. Careful records for several generations kept in con- nection with the records of ancestral temples would prove quite useful. _ The diseases most frequent are malaria and dysentery, ‘smallpox and tuberculosis. The floods and rains leave in their wake pools of stagnant water which soon breed mosquitoes. Many of the houses have large kangs filled with water. Some of these grow water-lilies that beautify the courts but also breed mosquitoes. No sooner does darkness fall than the air hums with the wings of swarms of these pests. Either one develops a callousness to them, constantly fans the exposed portions of his 1Adler, A. A Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation. | Translated by S. E. Jelliffe. New York: 1917. 2McCall, W. A. Scientific Measurement and Related Studies in Chinese Education. Chinese National Association for the Advancement of Education. _ Peking, China. Vol. II, Bulletin No. 7, p. 8, 1923. 56 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA body, or takes refuge behind the bed net. Under the circumstances, it is small wonder that malaria is common. The worst of it is that when people are worn out with fighting malaria they are ready victims of any virulent contagious diseases that happen along. Dysentery, like malaria, is a constant menace. All food must be cooked and water boiled to prevent it; but people are frequently caught. Traditional practice enjoins purifying water and food by heat, even when the people do not understand the germ theory of disease. They achieved this knowledge through practical experience. Epidemics of smallpox sweep through the region in spite of a sort of vaccination that Chinese medicine prescribes. The fact is that parents are frequently negligent and fail to exercise preventive caution before it is too late. Rheumatism and tuberculosis also threaten the com- fort and life of the villagers. The walls of the better houses are built of pounded lime and sand, which hold the dampness after floods and rains. (See Illustration XVI, facing p. 269.) This condition is very unfavor- able to those rheumatic or tubercular. Many of the homes of the poorer families have no floors except the damp mud. The poor people go shoeless much of the time. (See Illustration X, facing p. 88.) Shoes are soled with cloth and paper and are damp or wet much of the time. To offset this, some of the people of Phenix Village are beginning to adopt the new practice of wear- ing shoes with leather soles. In Chaochow and Swatow, shoe-shops are now offering for sale rubber shoes. These are good for wet weather but people are wearing them constantly. This is bad for the feet, for so clad in hot weather they perspire excessively. POPULATION AND HEALTH 57 Accidents are not numerous. After floods, when the stairs or floors are covered with sediment, bad falls have occurred. Occasionally some people are drowned in floods. Occupational accidents occur mainly during the fruit-picking season; then falls from high ladders have resulted in bad accidents. In sugar-making, some inexperienced employees have had their arms caught between the millstones and badly crushed. These two occupations are the only ones considered dangerous by the village people. The number of accidents each year is very low. SUPERSTITIONS AFFECTING HEALTH Knowledge of sanitation is very limited and is based on tradition and superstition rather than fact. The villagers little realize that the seven lepers in their midst are horrible condemnations of their lack of sanita- tion. Leprosy is a disease of filth. Even in the better houses one can find piles of rotted refuse, pools of stagnant water, uncovered buckets of night soil, geese covering the courts and walks with their excreta; other houses may shelter animals such as water buffalo used in plowing, -or pigs. The odor of animal manure pervades the courts -and the surrounding rooms in such homes. Frequently | the square floor of the court in the ancestral hall is full of filth;——rotten straw and chaff, water and mud, ordure of poultry and animals. _ From the courts of each great house are built drains to carry off the rain water as it falls from the inner roofs. But they are practically useless. They are constructed according to the demands of necromancy; they are run in crooked and zig-zag courses. They -cannot be cleaned and so soon choke up and keep the ‘drainage in the courts. Around all the houses, partic- 58 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA ularly in the old and more congested part of the village, there are piles of refuse in the streets and alleys. These are attacked by the wandering pigs and rooted into the mud and water of adjacent pools. During the rainy season these places breed flies and vermin and seldom dry up. There are no street drains except the gutters built in the newer sections of the streets, described and illustrated above. Not only does necromancy make the construction of drains invaluable but traditional attitudes further make them useless: ‘‘Water is the symbol of money,’’ says the believer in feng-shui, ‘‘therefore you must not let the water in your home flow out freely.’’ The water does not flow out of the home nor away from the village streets, but disease collects the savings. The windows of the houses are small, for people pay little attention to the need of light and air in the homes. In the smaller houses, the homes of the poor families, the one room is used for every domestic need: as kitchen, dining-room, bedroom, ancestral hall and stable. This results in very unhygienic conditions. One can hardly expect good sanitary conditions in homes such as are found in the illustrations facing pages 14 and 261. Spitting is a common practice. One can see almost everywhere the expectorated material on the flagstones and pavements. Mothers will sometimes hold their children at arm’s length outside their doors and let them befoul the path. There are cesspools and public comfort stations in the village; the principal ones are shown in Map 3 as located near the watering place on Phenix Creek. Every day from these wells of night soil, the farmers dip out the liquid, carry buckets of it on each shoulder through the village to the fields and spread | it over the ground to fertilize the crops. These wells POPULATION AND HEALTH 59 are uncovered but are surrounded by mud walls about three feet high so that a fair degree of privacy is secured. The open top of the well is not, however, equal to the size of the well itself. The top construction is drawn together to a small opening just large enough to admit buckets for extracting the night soil. This device, which has not been seen by the writer anywhere else in China, is more for protection to children than for sanitary purposes. There are several water wells in the village. The one located in front of the ancestral hall marked D on Map 3, is surrounded by filthy mud holes. This surface water drains into the well and pollutes the water. Some of the finer and better houses have their private wells. But even though these are capped with stone, they are not lined to prevent the seepage into them of befouled surface drainage. Some of the village women draw their water from Phenix River just where others may be washing clothes or the toilet buckets. Inasmuch as every drop of water that is consumed by people is first boiled, such practices are not dangerous to health. Although the health conditions in the village are thus ‘seen to be bad, they are really typical of rural villages throughout China. In fact, Phenix Village would not compare unfavorably with some rural slum villages in America. And yet, the open country life with its sun- shine and fresh air is far superior to urban life. There may not be so much mud, but filth is found in every nook and corner of the city without the sunshine and air to offset the effects of insanitary conditions. The lack of sanitation in Phenix Village comes first from ignorance of the value of public sanitation and ‘second, from carelessness. Health education should be an important part of the child’s training in the schools. 60 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA PERSONAL HYGIENE Personal hygiene correlates directly with economic status. The people in the better homes are cleaner in every way; the dirtiest person is the caretaker of the village temple, an opium addict. And yet in the one-room homes there are unmistakable signs of some appreciation of cleanliness. There are brooms and the floors are swept clean of loose refuse, but the refuse is thrown out before the entrance. There is a higher sense of private sanitation than of public. Otherwise the people who live in the better homes where the surroundings are clean and attractive would exert every effort to clean up the bad spots of the village. The attitude of the people to public sanitation is one of indifference. There are no public bath-houses such as are found in every town and city in China. The people when they bathe do so at home by using small tubs about two feet in diameter and six inches deep. The boys in the summer season bathe by swimming in the river. That the lads do not bathe frequently enough is shown by the ulcers they carry on their legs. Many of the adults have the scars of ulcerous sores now healed. The boys who have such sores show no knowledge about caring for them. They have been observed to rub these spots with their hands and then to handle food. There is one man who has the reputation of being a doctor. Most curative effort is exercised by the house- wives themselves. Whenever the opportunity offers, the women go out into the fields and on the hills to collect medicinal herbs with which they manufacture salves and medicines. Under such conditions do the folk of Phenix Village live. They are quite unaware of the many simple ways ee POPULATION AND HEALTH 61 in which the sanitation of their homes and their village could be improved at no expense of money but just of effort. The open life of the children who spend many hours playing in the groves and the fields builds up their vigor, which is their only protection against filth and disease. The gods of wind and water are hardly efficient health officers. They were not so conceived. The other gods ‘of the village are not doctors or leaders in sanitation ‘but heroes of famous battles. The village culture ‘simply does not include concepts of health preservation or disease prevention. And yet health is a. recognized value but not in itself. The people pray to be free from disease so that they may have long life. The latter is ‘the real value. Deaths and sickness are judgments of the gods, punishments of evil spirits, or matters of fate. In the minds of the people, such disasters are to be avoided only by boiling water and food, taking medi- cine, and by placating evil spirits through faithful wor- ship and ceremonial observance. CHAPTER III ETHNIC REEATIONSHIPS For the study of clan or village origins there is always a mine of information in the little wez or ancestral tab- lets which are found in every ancestral hall. Through these and the brief records contained on them, it is possible to trace kin relationships from the time the family began its own distinctive existence. On the basis of the tablets in the ancestral halls in Phenix Village and the traditional method of naming each generation, it was quite clear that, at the time of the investigations in I9I19, there were, counting from the most recently born back to the remotest ancestor who first settled in Phenix Village, altogether nineteen generations. All the records in books and on monuments agree that the remote ancestor of the present people in Phenix Village came from the province of Kiangsi in the latter period of the Sung dynasty (1000-1280 A. D.). He had been made the magistrate of the Hai-yang District, to which the village belongs, and his family and his de- scendants first lived within the city walls of Chaochow.! EXPANSION OF ‘CHINESE’? CULTURE This simple fact illustrates in a concrete way the method by which the Chinese rulers extended their 1 Chaochow is an ancient governmental and literary center. It first appears on the maps of the Tang dynasty which immediately preceded the Sung dy- nasty. It was during the Tang dynasty that the sway of the central government ot the Chinese Empire was extended farthest south. It was a period of glorious prestige and military expansion. For this reason the people of the south call themselves the ‘‘Sons of Tang.”’ ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS 63 powers and established control over the aboriginal peoples of East Asia. Military conquest was followed up with the appointment of officials who left their homes to reside and rule among the aboriginals. There they married native women, first as concubines and later as legal wives, and established families wherein culture elements, recognized as distinctive from the aboriginal culture and now known as ‘‘Chinese,’’ prevailed. The officials thus became the founders of centers of culture radiation among the conquered peoples. Vv That such was the general nature of the cultural ~ expansion of the “‘Chinese’’ complex is attested by the following facts: 1. Chinese historical accounts and Western scholars of Chinese history all agree that the people called “Chinese”’ first appeared in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, generally west of longitude 110° E. and just south of 40° latitude.! 2. These ‘‘Chinese’’ had a distinctive culture complex when they first arrived, probably about the beginnings of the New Stone Age, which, as an economic fundament, was identical with the original economic fundament of the European culture complex.’ _ The chief economic elements of their culture were ‘the plow, the wheel, cultivation of wheat and millet, some flocks and herds, intermittent pastoral and agricul- tural activities with a marked development of the latter under favorable conditions in the Shensi region of early settlement. : 1Li Ung Bing: Outlines of Chinese History, p. 1, Shanghai; Parker, E. H.: Ancient China Simplified, London, 1908; Hirth, F.: The Ancient History of China, New York, 1908; Terrien de la Couperie: The Early History of Chinese Civilization, London, 1890. 2Laufer, B.: ‘““Some Fundamental Ideas of Chinese Culture,’’ Journal of Race Development, 5, 160-174; Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran, Chicago: 1919. COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA 64 OF THE CULTURE COMPLEX? +B] SHOWING THE EXPANSION CHINESE “6 MAP NO. 4. The long arrow indicates the course of migration of the official who founded the family of Phenix Village when he moved from Kiangsi to Chaochow. Note the position of Phenix Village. ge pas fe) a ome) a5 Bee ae e O Oe 69) LY a. are Cis Sp foe 35 =p} os a OP xs Oo YL Rs See ao om bY o a a O55 = 1 1C. ing techn d a fight B. Chinese Clay Figures. ire whom they acqu Prolegomena on the History Part I. 1 Laufer, of Defensive Armor. 1 : Chicago: 1914. op. cit. 2HRrom Parker, ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS | 65 (4: This technic they then utilized to conquer the Tungus peoples to the east and south,! thereby pushing the latter northward into Siberia.’ 5. Eastward and southward movements were accom- panied by colonization, cultural infiltration, and amal- -gamation. ‘These processes are attested by the results of cultural and anthropological researches and by Chinese history. 6. By 221 B. c. the whole of North China was brought -under one rule. Through conquest and the official infiltration incident to the collection of tribute the area of domination of “‘Chinese’’ culture extended from latitude 40° on the north to approximately 30° or just below the Yangtse River on the south; it extended from the Pacific coast to 105° E. longitude on the -west.! 7. By 221 A. D., or the end of the Han dynasty, the great territory south of the Yangtse River had been brought under ‘‘Chinese’’ control. The aboriginal tribes, not Tungusic in this region, were conquered and made to submit and render tribute first to Tsin -and then to the Han emperors. During the Han period official occupation was thoroughly established.° 8. The whole coastal region from the mouth of the ~Yangtse to Cochin China was inhabited by peoples of ancient Yueh (the aboriginal tribes) who were only partially brought under the control of the central government and only slowly assimilated to the ‘‘ Chinese’”’ culture. (See Map 4.) 1Li Ung Bing. Op. cit. 2 Shirokogoroff, S. M. Anthropology of North China. pp.109 ff. Shanghai: 95023. 8[bid., p. 110. 4Parker. Op. cit. 5 Ibid, 66 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA 9g. The coastal area and certain islands of less assim- ilated tribes even to-day bear witness in their language and cultural divergence to their aboriginal ancestry. In this area there are a number of dialects: Shanghai, Ningpo, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, Hakka, all of which are so different that the people either cannot talk together at all or only with great difficulty. Over all the dialects is the official mandarin language. This language of the officials of the central government is fairly uniform throughout China and belongs to most people who live away from the coastal region. The dialects are to be considered the result of assimilation between the language of the mandarins and the aborig- inal speech. SOUTH CHINA CULTURE-COMPLEX The fundamental differences in culture elements between the north and the south have already been indicated (see page 2, Map 1). The South China culture-complex comprises the hoe, the buffalo, the carry- ing stick, the chair, the path, rice and fruit, the pig, as its economic elements. Yet at least two plows were discovered in Phenix Village, showing assimilation of the North China culture trait. Other cultural differences and similarities between Phenix Village, the South China region and the North China region will appear as this analysis proceeds. RACIAL RELATIONS The main problem for immediate consideration, — however,’ is of the anthropological relationships of the people, of, the, China coastal region in the south and especially of the folk of Phenix Village. Did the ‘‘Chi- nese’ generally push into this coastal region so that by ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS 67 the time the ancestor of this familist group established himself in Chaochow, the people generally were Chinese? Or were the city people, the literati and officials, ‘‘ Chi- nese,’ while the farmers and artisans were aboriginals? Or were the ‘‘ Chinese’’ who immigrated into the region, as did the ancestors of this group, amalgamated out of existence so that the people to-day really represent descendants of the aboriginals? This problem is greatly complicated by the fact that no one ,knows just what were the physical character- istics of the invading culture bearers whom we have called the ‘‘Chinese.’”’ Our hypothesis is that the present population of the coastal region of South China is primarily different from that of the north; that they show, however, marks of amalgamation with the racial types of the north; that the Phenix Village folk are more closely allied in physical characteristics with the people of the northern end of the southern coastal region than with those of the Kwantung coastal region. If this is correct, then the anthropological evidence would support the historical and archeological evidence that the founders ‘of Phenix Village trace their ancestry to people of east ‘Central China. But it must always be remembered that ‘the problem of race is separate from the problem of culture. Having acquired the ‘“‘Chinese’’ culture, the learning and language of the central government in the north, that famous ancestor might still have been a direct descendant of aboriginals in the Central China district. Or, he might have belonged to racial types north of the Yangtse who with imperial expansion migrated southward in successive and expansive waves of official occupation. Whatever the racial connection of the immigrating ancestor, the fact remains that successive generations 68 COUNTRY: LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA of the men of the group married women of the local region. Unless we are to assume that all these women were themselves immigrating Chinese from the north, a constant stream of blood of a different type was poured into this familist group. The linguistic and cultural data point to the hypothesis that these local women were descendants of aboriginal types, or at least types different from those occupying the north of the Yangtse regions. There only remains to present anthropological evidence upon the racial types of the coastal region and of the people of Phenix Village. ESTABLISHMENT OF PHENIX VILLAGE Now it was not until the end of the sixteenth century, or the latter part of the Ming dynasty, that the present site—namely, Phenix Village—was chosen as a good place for habitation. At that time the whole kinship group was moved and established in its present location. For a period of approximately three hundred years, then, the descendants of the founder of the group, and the ancestors of the present group lived in Chaochow. The average number of generations a century in this case is 3.27, so that there were about ten generations of people in this familist group before removal to their present location. This leaves about nine generations since their occupation of Phenix Village. It is interesting to note, in passing, that the time of the removal to the present site was a period of general move- ment in Chinese history. Then occurred the noted con- flict with the Japanese; then also began the intercourse with Europeans—the Portuguese and Spanish and the Jesuit missionaries who settled first in Kwantung Prov- ince. The region in which Phenix Village is located is one characterized by the earliest outside contacts. ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS 69 There are some places in the village that bear names of people other than those now occupying the hamlet. They are proof that there were people living here prior to the settlement of the place by the ancestors of the present group. Probably the two groups lived together until finally the members of the older group passed away. At present, with the exception of the few shop- keepers, all the inhabitants have the same surname and worship a common ancestor. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS In an attempt to solve the problem of racial relation- ships of the people of Phenix Village and at the same time secure further evidence as to the origin of the group, physical measurements of fifteen of the men of the village were taken. They all had the surname of the village familist group, and as men traced their lineage in direct line to the ancestor. While the actual number of persons measured is small, the proportion to the total male adult population is large: one to eleven. For purposes of comparison seventy-seven additional per- sons in Swatow, Chaochow and other places were meas- ured. These people came from all parts of the northern coastal region of the province of Kwantung and include a number of Hakka people. Also there were measured in East China, Shanghai and Ningpo, one hundred and thirty-one cases. They were people who came from various parts of the province of Chekiang. — Altogether twenty-three different measurements of the body were taken in the field and recorded on cards. (See Appendix, Note 1.) From these were derived nine other absolute measurements and fifteen relative measurements, making a total of forty series of meas- urements for the determination of characteristics 70 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA of significance in the discovery of racial types. (See Appendix, Note 2.) The body measurements were taken with three instru- ments, the anthropometer and two calipers, made by P. Hermann, Zurich, according to the list of measure- ments designated by the International Commission of Geneva in 1912.! In addition the color of the skin was taken on the basis of the color-scale of Von Luschen, Zurich. The point of comparison was always under the armpit where the sun could not strike the skin even if the person exposed his upper body, as is so common in summer, especially among coolies and artisans. Also were noted age, hair color and form, and the form of the nose, eye, ear and chin. The form of the skull, whether pentagonal or not, was recorded after careful examination in each case. The custom of shaving the head made it relatively easy to determine this important characteristic. The whole investigation was set up according to the plan and methods used by Professor S. M. Shirokogoroff in his anthropometrical studies in Shantung, Chihli, Manchuria, Korea, and Siberia, so that reliable com- parisons could be made and valid conclusions drawn as to racial types in the principal sections of China. His results have since been published under the title, Anthropology of North China.2 He is now supplement- ing his own studies in the north, these studies in the south, with further studies in Central China. Because of the close collaboration between these two sets of studies the results when completely set forth will con- stitute the first comprehensive anthropological inves- tigation in China. 1 Revue Anthropologique, Nos. 7-8. Juillet-Aout, 1913. pp. 281 ff. 2 Royal Asiatic Society (North China Branch), Extra Vol. II. Shanghai: 1923. ‘Sul ‘wim ELZ SEM YT + ‘dOUISIOAIP 9UIdI}Xa JO OSNeI9q Pd}}IUIO SEM PUY 9Y} JO YIU] 9} JO Sed BUD, LLL Lv: Ig’e os'os £9° ge-os 99° 06°67 00°07 gs°ss SI xopul Ie_nouny 62°6 bz'1 Voor oo’eII gI°z oo‘orl VL'I S1°gor IL°Sg gv'gzI SI XOPUT [BSN v6°s 6V gore 00°L9 Lg° Sz°L9o 69° 96°99 00°09 Sv’vL SI xopul [eTUOs) zoe gc- cle oS"gZ 6s" L1°6L Lv’ VL‘OL Se°sl Z3°SB SI XOPU! [ee] [VoMOyeuy zgv sv 8° os’sZ og’ SL°SL v9" Iv'9L oo'rs £0°98 SI XOPUI [eIOey [eommMOUsOIsSAYg ZQ°O1 Lo’ LoL 0o0°oL TL"r SL°oL Q£°I vo'zl ve-ss ZI°88 SI xXOpuUl [eyo Iv'v 6c Ooze os'Il 69° os'zl She LL°63 vQ'6L 14°96 SI yipeeiq Aq pesy 2y} JO WYSIIOF ze°S Sas 69°V os"16 zovl 0S*06 Ig° IS°zZ 9g1°L9 Of°LL SI yysus] Aq pesy 94} Jo Ys ZO" ev Se 00°fg QL’ LEZ I9° Bz°1g ESL g0°6g ST xopul xijeyded £6°1 go° 99° ove ors ove ait 61've Le-ee Ssv-se SI yUnNI} 94} JO yyWueT 6e°z ors oo errs Le L£g°0S Iz Sg°oS 19° Lv gees SI 32] 97 JO yysueT £6°z 60° 89° oOS'€z gI° grec i VEEz% ot St ob-bz 4VI puey 94} Jo yWUeT vg°s bz LOI SL’VE ev Ig‘ve ve: vO've IL°0f SSt6e SI WIesIOj 9Y} JO YWueT 9z°9 a oa 9S°z SL°IV gs 89° vv St: S60 Lf" og’ eV SI wire1sddn 3y} jo yysuaT vo'v ae OL’I LE-ev 6e° Lg°ev Te. vivy g6°Iv Sz°gv SI wre oy} jo yWuUuIT SUIMLAANSDAYY 204019 Stv’9 gz vez ose 6V: o6'vEe 6£° L've of 6£ a Ied dy} JO YIpeeig o0S°6 zg" $9°9 S°69 Sv'°I o£°69 Ort ool 19 Sg SI rea 94} JO yysueT £6°g 6z° £L°z O'8z za. oS" Lz ov’ 8°9z S°2z of SI YWuUI] Ie[NIO 63°9 of sv-z ERS cae L9°9£ ev Sse I€ ov SI Y}peeiq Te[N9019yWUI [euro] gs°z gz If S06 og ££°06 ov S06 L8 v6 ST Y}peeiq Ie[NIOII}UI [eUII}X| vI'9 of Iv-z o°ge Ss 00°6£ cv: £°6£ Le ev SI asou 9Y} JO YIpeelg Ig’k ov at o-sv OL: oo'ev os Scv gf LV SI asou oy} JO 4SsUuNT Ig°Ol 96° zg°k S°69 oL’l LUZ ey LeL LS 638 SI pesyeioj 94} JO JYUSIOFT 66°1 Bz Laz o°eir ov’ SL°C11 oc I°VII gol £z1 SI DCJ 9Y} JO YASUI] [eoTMIOyeUY cov L6° I6°L o°6gI ZLt SL°LgI Lev L°Lgt zLI 10Z SI D0eJ VY} JO Y WSU] [eoMMOUsOISAY v’9 gL: SI°9 S°L6 ver $z°96 vor! 0°96 vg Lol SI Jo}JOWIeIp [eos £o°z Le 61°e ori oL° Sz°zv1 9s I'ev1 Ler gvI SI Yypesiq I1}yeUIOsAZIOzWUY] Sg°e 6r" v6"e o°ror 93° €f°101 69° Z°zor L6 zit SI JOJWIIP [eWOIY ger L9° ges S°cSI LEST Sz°zSI v6" z°zSI bri Lol SI peoy oy} Jo ypeeg og’e L3° Tred zOl SS°t 0O'gsgI bei S°-LgI VLI voz SI peoy 24} jo yyusT zs’ ova z6°61 S°L4SS bev Sz-z9S ove 9°99S 62S 96s at yunI} 94} Jo yWwueT £6°E Qz'z Sg’91 Sev £9°f Sz'ozV 66°2 Q°fcv Sge £sv SI quIOfseuy sy} Jo WYySII 00°9 S175 Sg°1v S*Lzev ors 00'SzV LEV £°O1v €9e LSv SI YsIy} ay} JO yyWwuUsT 960 STs Sg1v ovg z1°6 SL°6£3 Lol I°evg gvl O16 SI 32] OY} JO YWusT So'g SL°I OL’e1 SOI ore oo°Lol Ss-z £991 VSI £61 4VI puey 974} jo yyWwusT vors 6S°I Lg°zi LSZ Ig’z SL°vSz vzz z°SSz vez £6z SI wiIes10j OY} JO yWBUueT 6S°9 ena £L°61 S°Lo€ If'v Io€ eve 9°66z £9z gee SI ureisddn oy} jo yysueT zLs S1°s Sg°Iv of z1°6 of Lal S°Iel S99 vig SI We 9y} JO yWuUsT gly 69° vo's er €z°I ver go" g°Ser gzI LVI Sr peey oy} Jo WY4sIOFL £62 v6°s LI°gv g£QI IS°OI SvoI Leg 6°gSor VLSI vVLI SI aInqeyS (1) (11) (01) (6) (8) (4) (9) ($) (?) (€) (Z) (1) uonDiaDA | FA ‘dd | uouvmaqd | apopw FA ‘d | “owpayy | - ug uDayy “Ut “xD s9sDD $49j9U 112 fo pappunjis 91QDQOAI fo "ON Ut SJuamadnsDayy ajnjosqy quargyfaoD LT A LO TE A TE A Ey ar ee. oo & a: a a a pro — fe COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA At present, therefore, it is impossible to draw any valid conclusions on the basis of the data secured in Phenix Village. It is only possible to set forth here the figures for Phenix Village with certain comparisons with the figures for the whole group for Kwantung and for Chekiang. These are also set off against the figure or North China as supplied by Shirokogoroff. The Chekiang and Kwantung groups need further analysis than is possible here. The figures and conclusions for the northern groups are presented in terms of means, which lack reliability when taken alone without the original data. The anthropometrics for the Chinese of Phenix Village are given in Table IX. The other characteristics which help to determine the racial relations are as follows: The hair is black and, with but one exception, straight. The nose: straight, 8 cases; concave, 4 cases; aquiline, 3 cases. The eye form is quiteimportant. Four types were distinguished. An eye with a heavy fold of skin running down along the inside of the eye and the nose (the Mongolian fold) was designated ‘‘o’’; with no such fold and with the inner part of the eye open as among Western peoples, the form was designated ‘‘3,”’ or ‘“Japanese.’’ Between these two extremes were two degrees, designated “1” aANCeo22 The distribution of cases and forms is as follows: Form Cases re) 2 (Both 29 years old) I 2 (25 and 35 years old) 2 O 3 II (One case 27 years; others 51-66 years) There seems to be a correlation between age and eye form. The young persons invariably have the Mongolian ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS 73 fold and the old persons invariably lack it. All of those measured in Phenix Village who had the open eye, except one, were fifty-one years of age or more. Only one case showed the marks of the Mongolian fold up to the age of thirty-five. (See Illustration VII, facing page 75.) The age data of all the cases are as follows: Years Cases ASE Sy, Se oh ee 2 ht) Ne 2 Ta TE ate helo I PEM le dig «sls I IML Ga areas Teves te 48.9 ey PS err I (Weaxirnliiiie ite 66 Ap 3 Minimum 12 ote ee 25 BEE AN whys ss I WIDE OG eet. a), Oa a 51 OO) Ga aa 2 RIOT unre ca tee ag: 51 “Fh 2) aa I MRE sae 6 5 [5) 6 I Total 15 There were no peculiarities of the ear in any cases. The chin was noted as being prominent, straight or receding. On this basis the distribution is as follows: Form Cases CEs | abs TNS. hy Oa Te Lee ee 8 ee nn cee eS le Pil i) ohio vid a a akin eh 4 MM TEM it Ne ita!) e Sine! 5 ship asaya eae 3 The prevalence of the prominent chin is striking. It gives to the face an appearance of length and strength. In this connection it is interesting to note that Buddhist art portrays most of the famous eighteen Lo Han, or disciples, with prominent chins, such as were common in Phenix Village. This seems to be a trait of the ab- originals of these regions, but definite conclusions must await further investigations. 74 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA The distribution as to skin color is as follows: Color Index Cases ee MS Hap ade gky ie I Meéan.’ , .4%%. so) Sune 15.3 17 RG A cas 6 Maximum... ys00ne 22 LRG ra cy een 2 Minimum (20). eee II os MN eA EASE SA fi I Modes? si). ayia 17 TOG Milena whiny a Median sc. see 16 } Wyre cacete eel I Total 14 The figure 22 stands for a medium brown, 17 for a light brown, It for very slight pigmentation. The numbers 8 to 10 on this scale correspond to the skin color of North Europeans. These data conform to the findings of Dr. Shorokogoroff in North China, where he found that the so-called ‘‘Yellow Race’’ did not exist, certainly not on the basis of color, for the data in his studies and my own show variations similar to those among Central Europeans. One of the most important features is the configuration of the skull. Generally more or less round in North China, it takes on, as one goes farther south a definite angular form. The peak at the top and the distinct angles at the side form three angles. If a horizontal line is drawn across the base of the skull, a pentagonal configuration is quite clearly discerned. Among the fifteen cases of Phenix Village, twelve, or 80 per cent, had pentagonal skulls; three, or 20 per cent, had round skulls. The figures for South China as a whole are: Form Kwantung Chekiang Per Cent of Total Cases Fentavonals yon. nta eau a ee 75 36 Not. Petitagonals, wns oe aoe 25 64 as LIBRARY - | ce ae OF BES ae UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS * . . , : v . — . -— * - ~ re - , " ¢ . . : r oe a te i ‘A quourlmoid :ulyD [euso0u :1eqy (PjOJ UBTTOSUOP ON) (vsouedef) € :9Aq WysIe1Is :ssON ZI :10[O9 UTYS yYsIe1}s pue Yor[q :1epyy S°9z z Y}pes1q SIVeWIOSAZ puke Te[NIO [CUIIIXY 8°97 S°Sz% yysue] 12[NIO Gone 6e Y}peeiq 1e[Noo [eussyUyT Levi svi YIpesqd IIyeUIOSAZIOW]T 00°6V 99°9V XOpUT Te[NoOLNy SI°gol o£’ Oo! XOPUT [SEN bg°z yess XOPUT [eJUOIY gz°1g Cote L, xo9pul oITeydad 6°3S9'I VVL‘I 91N}IS Og es o3V soseg ae ISETIIA 10 uol}e14SsN vie J enpraipuy IITA Voryerysnyyy] MGIA TINA ‘Ad AdAL “IIIA MAIA TINA * yysrerys uly jewiou :1eq (plOJ ueI[OSUOTY ON) (esouedef) © :3Aq JYSICIIS :9SON LI :10]09 UTYS WYysIeI4s pue Yori :1repyy AL Weld S92 S-vz Y}peeiq J1VeUIOSAZ pue Ie[NIO [eUuINIX| 8°92 $°6z Y4suyg[ Ie[NIO Sess ve Yipesiq 1e[nso [eur9zUyT Rev zb1 Yipeeiq O1}VeUIOSAZIO JU] 06° 6 Lies XO9pUT Ie[NANny SI°gol Vv'LO XOPUl [eSeN to°zl Z1°88 XOPUl [eo 8z'1g Lr°oL xopul o1peyda7) 6°gS9'I Gy Aen 9IN}e1S 6'3v re IsV Sosed eed ISeI[IA 10 IIA pue JA suolzerjsn este j [enplaAIpu] I VUudAL IITA AMA0Ud ‘V AMAL: AOVTIIA XINAHd ‘IA ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS | 75 It is thus seen that Phenix Village conforms closely to the characteristic as found in the region of its location, showing biological relations to. the local population. Such are, in general, the physical characters of the people of Phenix Village. Further significant relations between them and other groups can be worked out only when the results of anthropometric investigations in Chekiang and Kwantung provinces have been completely analyzed.! In order to make more concrete the statistics presented above, it is well to incorporate here two illustrations of men of Phenix Village. A glance at the front view of Illustration VII will show the significant features: the long eye, the absence of the Mongolian fold, the prominent cheek bone (zygomatic) ; the broad nose, heavy lips, slight hair on the face, the drawing in at the temples, straight stiff hair. The side view shows the chin, nose outline, the forehead, the heavy superorbital ridges, the large ear, and the bump on the back of the skull. The case shown in Illustration VIII, shows a different combination of characters: the short eye, the great distance (comparatively, of course) between the outside of the eye and the cheek bone, the long and narrow nose, the prominent chin, huge ear and pentagonal configuration of the head. The frontal index of this man is markedly lower than in the former instance,—55.34 as against 88.12. The cephalic index of the latter is also very low, only 73.53. Longheadedness, small eyes, broad cheek bones, large ears, long and narrow nose, heavy jaw and prominent chin, and pentagonal skull sum up the significant characters that would point to a racial type different from that in Illustration VII. The 1Kulp, D. H. Racial Types in South China. In preparation. 76 COUNTRY LIVEOING SOU DHE Gr hae: stature of both these cases is much above the mode for the village, namely, 1636 mm. In order to see how far these illustrations are represen- tative of the Phenix Village group of men as compared with other Asiatic groups, a list of data covering these is here presented (Table X). All these groups are also compared with the figures indicated by Shirokogoroff as comprising the racial types he discovered in North China and Siberia by applying the method of interserial differences... These he calls Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. The Alpha type is considered by him to be the ‘‘Chinese’’ type, fundamental for the Chinese. A comparison of the means of the Phenix Village group with those of the other groups shows, on the basis of proximity, the following results: Stature—South China and Delta Type Cephalic index—South China and Beta Type Frontal index—South China and Alpha Type Nasal index—East China and Alpha Type Auricular index—Dahurs Interzygomatic—Koreans Internal interocular breadth—South China Ocular length—South China. The closest connection seems to be with the South China group. Such aconclusion rests upon a comparison of means only and can therefore be but tentative. The constant intermarriage between the Phenix Village men and the women of the region would further support such a conclusion. The question that remains, then, is this: Is there any evidence to point toward racial affinities with the northern Chinese? First of all, in a small group of this sort, where the curve of distribution cannot be smoothed 1Op. cit., pp. 38 ff. and pp. 99 ff. *} IzI ‘dd ‘7219 ‘Go ‘yOIOBOYOAYS ¢ “A[UO SSC QZI IO z *sdnois 19430 Y}IAM UOSTIedUIOD UI UVTI 9Y} JSUTESE JJO YDOYO OF d19Y UIAIS SI 9poOuU 9 7 SI Ig 06e 96 £11 OgI IviI =e pee es 2 Lg‘0f |gg°6z = |6L°0€ baie ZOOL =| GVO 6E°Lz2 |v6"9z -— 9°92 oe a 5 27 VO Cem | Oly eee aiey es IQ‘'€e 6z've |6z2°re Crys sicr2Se ov += sse es a a oe QLEVI igzovr |6o'1vr | VI'zvI |ErovI |LL°LVI | vr'ivI |€S°1vr | 69° =F oI'ehI ae ie, ti a O2°9V.. |ce-cS— |:26:6S boris VE-0OS. 20 TSS iZLV-SS 109 tS 99° = 06°67 SL LL 68 oor 6r'z6 =|zo'eg SV'63 g6°L8 z0'06 =: 19868 zo°601 |LE°90I | VL°I F SI'gol z9O S9 zg 0g LgzL |go°Lg |z2g:0L gl°69 LOIL |LLOL vg'1L |go°eL Of'1I + Porzl Sg LL £g SL 69°£3 zS°€gSs| LI°0g vg'fg z6'6L IS‘gZ £3°08 $*1g IQ’ = 92°18 0691} OSSI | O0gI} OSLI 8°8Z91| Gofor| L°SogI| WV OSOI] 6'glor|] S'SogI| S°S€gI} zI991| PEg=-= 6 gSgI (91) | ($1) | (hx) | (£1) (mr) | (or) | ©) | @) (4) | (9) (€) oneq| | nag \oyaiy mil scw | ‘Ww ‘W Ww | Ww ‘Ad pun ua yy Bacio eSUDa gSNYI | gDULYD | eDIANYI | etjytyD| SUN} aBDI}t A X1UuaYy -40y | -upyy | ‘Nn fo | -uppy fo -UuDYS gSagk I 1DIIDY asauty | asausy) 1210 T at sase_ Bz YjSuy] IE[NIO DER Ypeeiq Ie[NIO "uy IVI | ypeaiq dyeWIOZAzI0zUT os'os xoOpul Ivpnouny cri XOpUl [eSeNy oL XOpuUr [eWWOIY £g Xopul o1yeydag 9fgI 3IN}EIS (z) (1) LIPOPT | 2248149JIDADYD [DIISKY TI aaDI]1 A x1UaY J SdNOUD OILVISV YAHLO GNV HOVTTIA XINHHd NAYMLYA NOSIYVdNOO A TA VAL 78 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA out, one would expect rather wide variations. Yet the coefficient of variation for stature is only 2.93. This is rather low in comparison with the coefficients of some of the other physical measurements. In height the South China group (and Phenix Village) comes closest to the Shantung group. This may be taken as a feature of similarity with the north. The high nasal index of Phenix Village and the medium frontal index point also to North China. But the pentagonal skull, the low ocular length, the high internal interocular breadth, the low auricular index, the broad zygoma, and the open eye all point to connections with peoples south of the Yangtse. The nasal index is closer to that of East China than to that of South China. According to the principles of Mendel, characters are inherited singly and separately. The variations in small groups would therefore be of great significance. If one analyzes the extremes of any of the characters and compares with types of other groups, it is possible to find clues as to probable connection. The tallness of the two cases in the illustrations points definitely to the North China characters; while the pentagonal skull of even the tall man indicates southern affinities. The conclusions that are possible at this point in the investigations are: 1. The East China and the South China groups show features distinctive of any of the northern groups. 2. The Phenix Village group shows affinities to both the East and South China groups and to some of the North China groups. 3. The Phenix Village group correlates in the greatest number of characters with the South China group. 4. The last fact would indicate a slight infusion of northern blood into the kinship group of Phenix Village. ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS 70 5. The biological data support the historical and archeological data that the ancestral line of heredity runs into the more northern groups of Chinese. LANGUAGE RELATIONS Philological evidences, generally unreliable as proof of anthropological relations or racial types, in thisinstance throw some light upon the problem. There are two types of spoken language in the district: the Hakka tongue and the Holo dialect. Phenix Village people use the latter almost exclusively. When exoga- mous marriages with Hakka girls bring these new brides into the village, they are faced with the necessity of learning a new language. Tradition has it that the Hakka—guest families— migrated into northern Kwantung and the region north of Phenix Village from the north. What place in the north is not specified, but they talk a language that possesses high affinity with the mandarin or universal dialect of China. To-day there are some groups not Hakka by blood that speak the Hakka dialect. In the ‘Chaochow region there is a whole shizen or township populated by persons not Hakka but speaking that dialect. In seven shiens round about Phenix Village, Hakka is spoken. The shien in which the village is located is the only one in which no Hakka is spoken. When the Hakka people immigrated they were poor. The natives were prosperous and were called by the Hakka people, haklow, ‘‘rich.’”’ That word has now ‘become Holo and is the name given to the dialect spoken by the natives of the region. _ The common use of the Holo dialect indicates that though the ancestor of the group came from the north, 80 COUNTRY (LIFEVIN SOUTH Chin the assimilation of the descendants with the indigenous aboriginals is complete. In reading books the villagers use a language which by them is considered to be the original spoken language of their own ancestors. Itis neither a standard mandarin nor the native tongue, but a corruption of the official language,—which could easily have been started by the original ancestor—mingled with the accent of the latter. The villagers look upon the Hakka somewhat as they do upon foreigners because, coming into the region later than the ancestor of the Phenix Village group, the Hakka did not accept the local civilization and particularly did not adopt the native language. The Hakka have preserved their own tongue with such persistence and purity that even now, after centuries of residence in the south, they betray their northern lineage by speaking a language readily understood by northern Chinese. How far the characters of the Phenix Village group correlate with the Hakka people, due to intermarriage with them, it is not now possible to state. Through the kindness of the officials of a labor union in Chaochow, it was possible to get the measurements of a number of Hakka men, but these measurements and correlations will be published in a later study now in preparation. These relationships, recognized in tradition and em-| bedded in customary attitudes, have become the foundation for clan unity in Phenix Village. They are the set of village practices which hark back to ancestral lore. In the first place, the members of the group are bound together by a common worship of a common ancestor. There are at present two principal ancestral temples in the village but in front of the pond there is another ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS ? 81 which formerly was the only temple for the whole village. Since a split occurred and the two temples for the branches were erected, worship in this original ancestral hall occurs only when the whole village unites in remem- brance of the original village ancestor. (See Illustration XV, facing page 261.) | | VILLAGE UNITY Thus at the time of the great seasonal festivals and on the days sanctified to the memory of ancestors, ‘whether male or female, all the descendants who are able are expected to participate in the ceremonies at least by their presence. The worship at the tombs in the village graveyard across Phenix Village river and other ceremonial gatherings held specifically for members of the village kinship group, constantly remind the people that they are closely related to one another. Besides the common observances and codperations growing out of ancestral worship and blood relationship, this clan maintains its unity and differentiation from other clans in the rural district by the fact that one of the two public temples in the village (marked B on Map 3) is reserved exclusively for the worship of Phenix Village folk, while the other temple (marked C on Map 3) is shared with two other villages in the immediate vicinity. There are also the annual processions for the local village gods, taken from the temples just mentioned, in which the villagers alone take part with respect and enthusiasm. Certain taboos also reénforce clan distinctions and familist unity. For example, Phenix Village prohibits the marriage of two persons with the same surname, a common taboo throughout China. But, in addition, it strictly prohibits a girl to marry any man who is 82 COUNTRY LIFE VIN SOUTH CHINE willing to come to live in her parents’ home in Phenix Village. The people do not like sons adopted in this way by marriage. They also taboo marriage between a widow and a man outside the village who might be brought into it. Both these prohibitions aim to keep out men who do not belong by blood to the Phenix Village group and who might tend to break up the strict androcentric unity of the group. Because these taboos are not practiced by surrounding village groups, they serve to set off Phenix Village, especially in the eyes of the people of Phenix Village. They create village pride and solidarity. For example, a neighboring village family may be unwilling to lose its daughter by marriage, as is the custom in China, so they invite the betrothed husband to live with them. Such invitation usually occurs when there are no sons in the family and consequently no one to perform the rites of ancestral worship for that family, to inherit property and care for it, or to carry on the ancestral line. If the betrothed husband accepts the invitation and lives with his wife’s parents after marriage instead of with his own, he is expected to adopt the wife’s family name and forsake his own. Sometimes two family names appear on the lanterns before the main entrance. This simply means that the adopted son has refused to change his name for the family one. Practically, however, few men care to lose their own family names and so they frequently conspire to elope with their wives who by that time are quite ready to live wherever their husbands decide. Otherwise, the adopted sons frankly set up their families in their wives’ villages but under their own surnames. Such practice breaks into clan unity and so Phenix Village condemns it. ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS 83 It is also a common practice in villages that do not adhere strictly to the preservation of the clan unity, upon the death of a married son, to adopt, with the consent of the widow, someone from outside the kin- ship group to act as the son of the bereaved family and become the husband of the widow. This too is strictly taboo in Phenix Village. So do the people of the village preserve their conscious unity of blood relationship, maintain their line of inherit- ance intact, establish a feeling of superiority over sur- rounding villages and strengthen their own solidarity. CHARTER IV MAINTENANCE PRACTICES Farming is the basic industry of the region. It is not the extensive type found north of the Yangtse > River, but intensive gardening, with the hoe as the chief implement. Orchards and gardens surround the village; they are particularly large on the north, and east across the Phenix River. On the south and west there are mainly gardens with a few groves of trees producing fruit and nuts. The floods always threaten the farmer. Many times the waters will sweep the yams and peanuts from his gardens, but do not harm the trees. For this reason, | the people have turned primarily to the development of orchards, thus saving themselves from starvation and ruin. There is not a single farmer in ‘‘Gwei Ho” dependent solely upon gardening for his subsistence. The principal product of the district is oranges. Other products of major importance are, exclusive of rice and grains of other kinds, olives, bananas, persimmons, guava, plums, bamboo. These all grow above ground and are staple products. Cultivated to a less degree are sugar cane, pears, longan, loquat, walnuts, pomelo, lichi, pibaws, yams, peanuts, potatoes, peas, beans of various kinds, and berries of different types. (See Illustration IX, facing p. 88.) During the seasons of harvest of the various fruits, especially of plums, pears, pibaws and berries—the perishables—the Chaochow and Swatow markets are glutted and the price drops very low. Codperative MAINTENANCE PRACTICES 85 ‘canneries should be opened throughout the region. Then the products could be marketed gradually and the people could secure better incomes from their labors without increased effort. VILLAGE WEALTH In general, it can be said that the economic life of the people is one of ‘“‘deficit.’’! The frequent floods keep them from wealth, as has already been noted. The men depend upon their orchards, which develops in the far- mers a tendency to “‘wait.’”’ They get what they can from gardening but count it as extra to their income from fruits. Though they have little to spare, yet they are far from starvation. There is no doubt that scientific cultivation would raise the income of these people. They do not under- stand how to improve their crops. Their bananas are small and thin; their plums are bitter; their peanuts are dwarfed. Only the persimmons approach perfection. They should, through farm-demonstration work, learn to select seeds, graft, spray and cleanse the trees. They have ample time to cultivate in these ways. Only ignorance keeps them from producing fine crops, for the soil is deep and fertile alluvial deposit. An occasional member of Phenix Village has amassed enough wealth to set up in a business venture but few have been successful. The dream of fortune has led many a young man to seek it in foreign lands. Those who are successful there send home regularly of their incomes. For the region as a whole, according to the consular reports for Swatow, during the year I91I some three million emigrants in foreign parts remitted to their homes twenty-one million dollars. 1Cf. Patten, S.N. The New Basis of Civilization. New York, Macmillan. 86 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Once in a while a fortunate villager returns home with wealth and foreign wife, trailing a flock of queerly- dressed children. It is thus quite natural that a father blesses a departing son. In his emigrant kin he finds an additional source of income. But the sons of luck are few. The majority of the emigrants from Phenix Village come back with empty hands, but richer through sad experience, or else in distant lands complete their journey to ‘‘ West Heaven.”’ Some of the Phenix Village men have only migrated as far as Chaochow or Swatow where they are engaged in business. The young men are clerks in stores or banks and the older ones are partners in stores or banks. That one of the heads of the families is contemplating industrial enterprise is shown by his request to the writer for information on the cost of a machine to manufacture shoe nails. From these persons money is sent to their closest kin in Phenix Village. In addition to their products and their emigrated kin, the third source of income for the families of Phenix Village is the ancestral property. This is established in the following manner: a man of wealth sets aside a part of his property which is not to be divided among nis children after his death. This provision guarantees that his descendants, no matter how poor they may become, will have the means of offering sacrifice to his own departed spirit, supplying him with food, money and other things that mean happiness in the other world as they do in this. Such property is considered — as belonging to the ancestor even though dead and not as owned by the group. It must be clearly distinguished from other property which may be owned by a familist- group. The income from it is known as the “ancestral fund.’’ Since it is usually more than what is needed to MAINTENANCE PRACTICES 87 carry on ancestral worship, the living descendants take turns in providing the things required according to custom for the sacrificial ceremonies and the feast that follows for the representative descendants of the ancestor worship. Whatever surplus exists, goes to that person who managed the ancestral property during the year in order to carry on ancestral worship. Inasmuch as some incomes from these ancestral properties are very large, the surpluses are objects of interest. In fact, they may be the only hope for some of the poverty-stricken fami- lies. But they further increase the incomes of the wealthy, for the rich are not therefore deprived of their privilege in administering the ancestral estate, providing for ancestral worship, and sharing in the surplus, according to the customary principles of rota- tion of responsibility. OCCUPATIONS The types of occupations by which the people maintain themselves are not numerous. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to determine the exact number of people who follow each type. Most of them pursue several different occupations at different times, according to their needs and opportunities. Except for agriculture and some handicrafts, there is no special training for the work they do. They try one thing one day and leave it the next without any real loss to anyone. Sometimes they engage in pursuits not at all for commercial purposes, simply out of con- venience or for their own needs. Such might be making bamboo-ware,—baskets, etc.,—cutting wood, fishing, raising geese and ducks, gathering fruit. They sell the products of such efforts when they need money or when | there is a surplus over the home necessities. 88 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA A general division of labor between men and women is to be found in Phenix Village. The men attend to business matters and do most of the field work; the women carry on the home industries. Practically all the village wives, rich or poor, engage in the spinning and weaving of flax into cloth for their own use. The whirr of the spinning wheel (see Illustration X) and the click of the loom are heard in every part of the village. The servants and slave girls may to-day sew, sweep, cook, cut wood, or spin, but to-morrow they may be hulling rice or drying it in the courtyard. (See Illus- tration XI.) It is thus impossible to classify the people according to occupations. Moreover, there are codperative industrial undertak- ings, such as sugar-manufacture or boat-sailing of a temporary or irregular nature. For example, a student who had been studying in Swatow owned a piece of land which was being cultivated by one of his neighbors. It happened that one year he grew sugar cane on it. At the same time the fields all round stood deep with cane. When it was ripe for harvest all the farmers interested in the making of sugar gathered together and formed a co6éperative society. It was not necessary for all to join so long as a number of people sufficient to launch the scheme was secured. In this case the stu- dent, through his ownership of the land, joined the corporation. Hands were hired to assist the farmers who knew most about sugar-making; implements and tools, such as mill-stones, knives, pans, and so on were purchased and rented. An office was built and the ovens constructed near the village temple by the side of the river. | This codperative society lasted for several years and then went out of existence. Later another similar x . SPINNIN G AND W EAV ING ELA LEY IX. ORCHARDS AND GARDENS XI HULLING RICE 7 —_ _ = ik” ; = 7 ; LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS MAINTENANCE PRACTICES 89 undertaking was organized but most of those engaged in the first enterprise refused to join the new movement. They gave as their reasons for refusing that the soil of their farms was not suited to sugar-cane or that they found it more profitable to dispose of their crop of cane as stalk cane. The broken mill-stones and the oven holes are still clearly visible; they are the remains of a codperative enterprise that disappeared the moment the trend of practical interest was against it. A list of the various occupations is presented in Table XI, but only where there were definite numbers of people following primarily certain occupations have figures been inserted. It really amounts to a list of maintenance functions. The occupations are arranged in four distinct groups: agricultural, industrial, professional, and mis- cellaneous. The activities of the “‘emigrants’’ were unknown. The principal occupations are starred (*). Some explanation of these occupations may serve to illuminate the manner in which the people carry on their economic activities. Of the two occupations listed under “‘agricultural,’’ gardening is predominant. By ‘‘farmer’’ is meant all those whose greatest income derives from farming grains and cereals; by ‘“‘gardener’’ is meant those who depend upon the cultivation of fruits and vegetables for their income. The farmer is, in most cases, somewhat of a gardener too, but the latter occupation is for him incidental. Among the industrial and professional occupations butchering, fishing, woodcutting, sugar-making, hunting, landholding, and serving as a middleman are those which are carried on incidentally and intermittently by men. Similarly the women, in addition to their routine duties of the household, cooking, caring for the children, sewing, cleaning and so on, engage in broom-making, gO COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA TABLE XI OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION AGRICULTURAL . Farmer Gardener INDUSTRIAL Weaver: flax, cotton . Woodcutter . Carpenter . Fisherman . Dyer . Varnisher Cook Butcher Broom-maker Boatman Silversmith . Bamboo-worker . Beancurd maker (now stopped) Fowl, pig, cattle raiser Herb-gatherer Sugar-maker Mason Painter of pottery Tailor Hunter pena PROFESSIONAL 13 *t, Merchant 44 *2. Fruit dealer 3. Teacher 4. Official 5. Preacher (Christian (now left) I 6. Doctor 7. Priest 2 8. Amah or servant 4 *1o. Clerk or salesman 6 I1. Tax-collector 12. Fortune-teller 13. Gambler 9 14. Landholder I 15. Middleman MISCELLANEOUS I. Emigrant 2. Beggar 3. Nibbler 4. Parasitic idler | Number of Cases II Io s 3 I 55 the manufacture of hemp twine, basketry, spinning, weaving cloth, raising geese, gathering herbs, and so on. The prevalence of broom-making rests upon the practical needs of the housewives. They gather the wire grass from the hills, make up thirty to forty brooms in a day, take them to Chaochow where they sell them for an average of one cent apiece and so add to the family income. This extra day needed for marketing their MAINTENANCE PRACTICES QI products deters them from constant pursuit of the industry. The village leaders would do well to establish ‘an agency for the codperative marketing and mer- chandising of all home products. Such a facility would relieve the housewife of the trouble and yet put into her hands the income of her labors. It would make possible improvements in products, an increase in the number and kinds of products and the expansion of the markets. Bamboo is very common and is used in a great variety of ways. The shoots of the young trees of certain species are dug up as soon as they break through the ground and are sold for food. One kind, known as the “incense frame’’ bamboo, is not edible and is allowed to grow to maturity. This is cut down and sold in bulk for the manufacture of incense frames. One hundred catties, about one hundred and thirty pounds, sell for thirty to fifty cents, local currency. This type of bamboo is used in the manufacture of baskets, furniture, drying frames, sun shades, beams and pillars in huts, string, rope, fishing tackle, and so on almost ad infinitum. The gathering of medicinal herbs is also an occupation based upon the needs of the home. People regularly scour the nooks and crannies of the hills and mountains in search of the wild plants reputed to possess curative properties. Surplus quantities are disposed of at some- thing of a profit. The dangers of the wild beasts, the toil of climbing the hills in the scorching sun, discourage the hunting for ‘‘ green grass’’ as a permanent occupation. There are practically as many wholesale fruit dealers as general merchants. The former buy the fruits before the harvest is even ripe; sometimes, when the trees are only in bloom. On the basis of the quality and abundance of the blossoms, the dealers estimate the probable 92 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA quantity and quality of the crop and higgle with the gardener until a price per picul of harvested fruit is agreed upon. After the bargain has been struck the original owner is no longer responsible for the crop. Cultivation and care of the trees is then turned over to the fruit speculators, usually a joint stock concern because of the labor and finance involved—who then are burdened with the warnings of sun and rain. The realization of the profits is undertaken with all serious- ness, for not infrequently the speculators have borrowed their capital at a heavy rate of interest—ten to twenty per cent. Some have in this way become rich in ten years. Others on account of bad weather conditions, sluggish markets, or poor judgments in striking prices, lose their money and their property. These unfortunate ones then help to swell the stream of emigration. | On the other hand, the fruit dealers may, when the fruit is ripe or nearly ripe for harvest, dispose of the fruit on the tree by selling out to traders who have greater capital. Thus the orchards may be bought up by a few dealers who then are in a position to maintain monopoly control of the local products. When the weather is favorable and the competition between these “big stomach’”’ speculators is not so keen that they lose their heads and gamble blindly, they are quite successful. But the weather is a very uncertain factor: floods, typhoons, heavy fogs injure the plums; frost is fatal to the orange and the banana crops. Under unfortunate weather conditions, in the case of a single transfer of rights in crops, the original owner would have to take a discount upon the stipulated price. But_ when the crop is sold a second time or becomes the basis of “wildcat’’ speculation, the gardener is absolved from any such obligation. | | MAINTENANCE PRACTICES 93 The gamblers listed refer to those who keep houses especially for gambling and opium smoking and make a living thereby. Their shops are located just on the ‘northern end of the business section of the village. Being responsible for the good conduct of their patrons, they are men of physical strength, members of strong “branches”’ of the familist group. They always stand ready, with the assistance of men who have specialized in boxing, to quell disorder or prevent outside inter- ference. Among these the village parasites are found. They pander to everyone in the gambling house and beg gifts from the winners. THE VILLAGE MARKET Those who carry on single and clearly distinguishable occupations are the shopkeepers and clerks. Of the twenty-one open shops in the business section only five are run by merchants who are members of the Phenix Village familist-group. The others are rented by people from outside who have come in to do business with Phenix Village. These shops serve not only the people of Phenix Vil- lage but also those of nearby villages who need business service. An inspection of Map 5 reveals the general types of goods handled. What the people do not supply for themselves they purchase. To meet these needs the shops provide the distributive service. They procure the goods and offer them for sale. It is significant that competition works out here as everywhere. The more important shops have competitors. There are four food shops, two meat shops, two medicine shops, three bean curd shops, two rice shops under one mer- chant. Over half the shops are devoted to the sale of food of some kind or other. Adding to the above the froad fo i A \Prenix Village DOVE SHOP | BEAN CURD SHOP MAP NO. 5. CLOSED | Wo / eRe 3 NS DRY GOODS Foon +| & OW Ofna SHO? am NSS 3 MEDICINE |x 8 | fe SS SOG ane FOOD FOOD «SX SHOP SHOP we MEDICINE 8TREET PORA es SHOP SHOP | ~& GEAN CURD FOOD * g SHOP SHOP Us : aS CANOY PORK Ory SHOP SHOP . ay BEAN CURD coFFIN | &% SHOP SHOP e* PAPER CAKE » % SHOP SHOP SG . v OPIUM v) RICE SHoP +] 25 control. SCHOLARS Titled scholars constitute the second type of leaders ' f if in the village. They belong to that primary division VIECAGE POLLEY III of leaders who have attained their position through natural capacity and achievement. They are tradition- ally looked up to because scholarship and official prefer- ment by the hierarchy of the national government are social values long correlated. Political advance has always rested upon scholastic achievement since early times in China. Even during the Djou dynasty this was an acknowledged basis for official appointment and promotion. But with the establishment of the public examination system in the Sung dynasty, early customary practice crystallized into fixed procedure, so that entrance into official circles depended upon the winning of degrees. These were won by a series of examinations, district, provincial and national, in which success was awarded by the degrees Sui Tsai (B.A.), Dju Ren (M.A.), and Dzing S (Ph.D.), respectively. The examinations have always been open to anyone. The successful candidate is the boast and pride of the village. Scholastic tradition has from early times been strong in the sib of Phenix Village. Its founder was an official, and therefore by rank and occupation a scholar. The Scholars Hall (marked A on Map 3), now falling into ruins, has the marks of former use. The ancestral homesteads provided rooms in which the family scholars could pursue their classical studies or tutors train the children. With the passing of the competitive examination system and the establishment of modern schools and universities, the graduates of these newer institutions of middle school and college grade are recognized frankly as men of learning. Even to-day this village boasts with pride of their modern scholar who has studied with distinction in foreign universities. No other village in the region can make such a boast. So do the younger 112 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA generations conserve the ancient ideals of the village and fill the places of the old-time scholars. There is, in fact, quite a rivalry among village groups in the production of recognized scholars. Each family tries to produce winners in the examinations for the highest possible degrees. No village fails to give the proper reception to a successful candidate upon his return home. He is received with public demonstration, féted and congratulated, particularly if such achieve- ments establish superiority over neighboring villages. It is recognized that these men of ability reflect credit upon their villages by virtue of their intellectual attain- ments, for they move among the official classes, are able to speak the official language, and thus form a working nexus between the village and the political world outside with which the ordinary villager seldom comes into contact. The scholar is not only the village library, the village teacher, the political adviser to the head men, but also the village representative in relation to the state and the state’s representative and interpreter to the village. He is always honored, however poor he may become, and, as a bearer of classical learning too deep for the average person to acquire for lack of ability or resources of time or money, has been a bulwark to the established state. The plain folk have been quite content to enjoy vicariously political emoluments. Government of the state has in the past been based upon precedent rather than law. Precedent harks back to practice and theory | embodied in classical formulas and dogmas thousands of years old and accessible only to the scholar. The village scholar has thus served as the interpreter of customary law, and, as such, may be thought of as the village lawyer, pleader and defender. VILLAGE POLITY 113 The scholar may also be thought of as the embodiment of village ideals and hopes. His status has been so fixed, so hemmed in by conventions and taboos that he becomes a form of collective representation or group projection of a definite value complex of the village. His political status in the village rests, then, upon his capac- ities primarily but upon conventionalities secondarily. Both conspire to fix his position in the group and to determine his réle in the rural village community. Inevitably, then, these titled scholars, holders of diplomas and degrees, are called upon to settle disputes and are quoted as final authorities by the unlettered. When their influence and prestige are backed by member- ship in a moiety numerically strong, they become power- ful indeed. Both of the present leaders of Phenix Village are well-known scholars. But, as in the case of age, scholarship as a group value is weakening. When a scholar belongs to a weak moiety, or branch-family, even though a capable man, he has a hard time to exercise the control his abilities should guarantee to him. Members of the large moieties do not hesitate to question his decisions or refuse to carry out his orders if their own superiority over some other moiety is thereby threatened. Force of numbers and threat of physical action seem to be able to destroy at times the power of the scholar. In case of such opposi- tion only superior tact and persuasiveness enable him to retain his position of leader and secure obedience to his commands. Not infrequently he appeals to the aged men to support his decision. By the alliance of two significant group values, age and learning, he may then succeed in maintaining leadership that is very valuable to the community if based upon a real interest in public welfare. 114 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA NATURAL LEADERS The second division of the leaders who occupy impor- tant places in village life on a basis of personal achieve- ment, comprises those who have won their influence by sheer force of personality and cleverness. They have no historical social values to reénforce their status. But they possess unusual insight into human nature and the manner of its operation. They exercise foresight, eloquence and cunning. They are able to stir up or quiet a mob by suggestion and example. They suffer no responsibility to the local officials through the opera- tion of customary law as do the scholars and the elders, for these natural leaders are not formally recognized as leaders. They may be thought of as practical politicians. These men may be good or bad for village welfare. If the formal and conventional leaders are wise, they utilize these men of talent as aids in the preservation of order and unity in the sib. But when the elders become mere figureheads, or the scholars belong to small branch-families and lack wisdom and tact enough to secure their codperation, they become dissatisfied, discontented and strive constantly to demonstrate the inefficiency of village leadership by stirring up trouble for the ‘‘old uncles”? and the ‘book-worms.” When ill-feeling arises between branch-families, they are inclined to add fuel to the flames. Their behavior then threatens village unity and solidarity and CO ae a problem of importance in village polity. j Sometimes these same natural leaders take advantage of disputes with members of neighboring villages and strengthen hostile attitudes by effecting open quarrels with neighboring groups. Such action arouses dis- cussion within each group involved; it thus stimulat 5 VILLAGE POLITY 115 opinion in Phenix Village and also furthers unity and solidarity when the village members draw together in the defense of their kin and their village pride. Never- theless, behavior of this kind worries the recognized leaders because of the complications that might arise with the officials of the district. The possibility of such inter-village altercations and conflicts increases in proportion to the outreach for personal aid to people of other groups rather than to the leaders of Phenix Village. Where the interest of the person who has thus sought external aid lies with the other group, the whole situation becomes greatly com- plicated. Then the person may invoke the aid of his own moiety to support him and his neighbors against other sections of Phenix Village. In such cases, which fortunately tend to be rare, the natural leader disrupts village unity and codperation. The personal ascendancy of the natural leaders is constantly growing. With the shift of group values from the traditional forms of custom, age, family status and scholarship toward practical success, youth, prowess and capacity, individualism is entering into definite conflict with familism. This shift is due to emigrant experiences as well as to the general ferment of new ideas and attitudes that drain in from the port city. The socially approved leaders are losing ground while youth and wits are discovering the possible extension of their influence and power. These shifts may be regarded as the beginnings of a readjustment in the village control elements under conditions of kinship and, perhaps, the sources of a limited type of civism. As a matter of fact, control in Phenix Village is more widespread than one would think at the first glance into the local situation. A\l- 116 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA though there are at present two scholars who are recog- nized as the leaders of the village, yet on some matters they may have to consult as many as twenty-five other men. The extent of consultation and approval varies with different matters. Sometimes mere assentis enough; again it may be necessary to establish consensus through formal vote. The principle that determines the area of consensus is a simple one: consult all those whose interests are involved. Thus, to sell public lands the leaders must get the consent of all the chza-chang, or heads of the sub-groups of the sib. It is impossible to prognosticate what future forms of control may be evolved under this very interesting social situation: the shift of traditional leadership based upon recognized group values to the natural leadership of achievement, irrespective of group values of age, kin status and scholarship, within a distinct group whose members are united fundamentally by the blood bond. It will be of value to know if eventually without the development of a multi-sib village, where relations would exist between kin groups, a real civism could be evolved in just such places and groups as represented by Phenix Village. In other words, in a strictly blood- bond group, can there be a complete shift from tradi- tional to natural leadership? By virtue of the position of influence that the scholars have built up for themselves through thousands of years, it would seem that in time, with the continued development of present tendencies, there might grow up a type of leadership based upon popular suffrage as well as upon social opinion. In the new complex of social values, learning will doubtless remain, but age is sure to disappear as a criterion satisfactory in itself. In Phenix Village already the age of the effective leader- VILLAGE) POLITY 1 ip ship has been greatly lowered. Those who have control of the public fund and property and the business aspects of the village schools are not over forty-five years of age. Certainly, in the freedom that the members of the village are exercising in choosing their natural leaders and in questioning the authority and control of the traditional leaders, there is found a shift in the incidence of sov- ereignty. As this shift occurs, the ordinary people who traditionally enjoyed no sovereignty for themselves are taking the control more and more in their own hands. The natural leader must be responsive to his followership. This tends toward what has been called “‘mob rule.’’ But this type of control is a phase of democratic arrangements. In such an event, the mob will have displaced the family as the political unity. Familism will have given way to individualism. GROWTH OF CIVISM What complicates the problems of village polity for the leaders at present is the fact that there are now a number of people who live and operate in Phenix Village but who are not members of the sib. They are not real members of the village, because in social opinion mem- bership bases on blood. But they have rented shops and do business in the village with the village folk and are responsible in their conduct to the village leaders, so far as Phenix Village is concerned. Between this group of people—merchants and clerks—and the mem- bers of the village sib there is a relationship that can be called civic. The present case constitutes an example of the way civic relations grow up. The rural community under the operation of human wishes has created economic arrangements that form the basis of non-kin relationships 118 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA of more than incidental importance. When an in- sufficient number of people from Phenix Village under- took to render services to the community by doing business in the village shops, others moved in and have been providing the economic services that the demand would support. Apparently the economic saturation point has been reached, for three shops are not rented by villagers or outsiders. What are the fundamental bases of such continued contact and relationship as exist between the business folk, not members of Phenix Village sib, and the members? First, there is the fact of geographic contiguity. The shops are within the confines of the village. Second, the contacts are primary and thick as compared with contacts between villagers and others. Rapport between these groups is founded in the economic relationship. The shops are rented by villagers to these outsiders. There is recognition of common interests.! The success of the shopkeepers is the success of Phenix Village, at least in a limited sense. Business means profits for the merchant and wages for the clerk. Profits means rent for the landlords, who are members of the village sib. The original hope was that all the shops would be taken 1 Because of the vague connotation of this phrase ‘‘common interest”’ as used generally, it is best to indicate the meaning as used here. Interests may be either the objects of attention or the run of attention. It is confusing thus to employ the same term for a process and the result of a process. It seems wise to use “‘interest’’ as a general term to denote objects of human activity. The ‘‘interest’’ would correspond to ‘‘value”’ (cf. p. 46). The value is an interest because people are “‘interested in’’ it. They are interested in a value because the value—any object or idea or relationship—is conceived to satisfy wishes in some wish-complex. The wish for dominance was paramount in the wish-complex that established the market (cf. p. 13) in the first place. That was a wish to get the advantage over ‘“‘Tan’’ Village. The wish for security is discernible from two angles: the strictly local market keeps the villagers at home more than would be other- wise possible, preventing an extension of range of contacts with people not related by blood and lacking any other bond for coéperation; family wealth is kept within the family, thus making it more strong and stable. VILLAGE: POLITY 119 by sib members. In that case, family money would remain in the familist community. The project has not worked out according to plan, but even the present arrangement is better than the old one. The familist community may buy of merchants not members of their sib, but the interest in rent depends upon an interest in profits. Otherwise the economic relation between the tenant and the village landlords would cease. The villagers recognize that some of their money for purchases remains in the village as rent. They are therefore interested in the success of the shopkeepers and offer their patronage. Rent is a village value; profits, a merchant’s value. The two concepts should be in this situation fundamentally descriptive of competition. But they are not strictly so for the social interaction here described is a service relationship that operates in two directions, resulting in codperation between the buyers and sellers, where the buyers are landlords and the sellers are tenants. In urban situations such a relation would occur very seldom. Now on account of the rapport arising out of the economic aspects of the relationship between the two groups—owner-and-tenant group and service-and-served group—communication readily arises. Village gossip carries on in these shops. The shopkeepers become familiar with village folklore and tradition and schemes of village values,—types of ceremonies, scholarship, and the like. Between the villagers and the shopkeepers there grows up one universe of discourse. The sib members and the non-sib members have acquired sufficiently similar meanings for the words and the gestures they use that they can understand one another ‘readily. The merchants are not participants in sib ‘ceremonies but they are spectators and commentators. 120 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA While not eligible for leadership in village polity, they are important elements of that polity. They enter it in at least two ways: they help form social opinion, especially in those aspects least technical with reference to familist procedure; they are sources of familist income. One characteristic of great significance emerges from an analysis of this rural community. It is this—residence in a rural community does not necessarily correlate with membership in it. In this rural community membership implies definite rights, privileges and duties. These base upon kinship status and fortune. Sib members far away from Phenix Village participate in a real way in village community life, whereas residents not related by blood participate only indirectly in community life. Residence involves certain rights and duties but they are very limited. Genuine participation of the non-kin members of a familist village is very low. The merchants may sell goods and live in the village shops; they may watch ceremonies. They must pay rent and refrain from violating local taboos and from breaking village customs so far as they come in contact with them. Beyond that their rights and duties do not extend. They are thus in the community but not real parts of it. This high limitation of participation is characteristic of fam- ilistic as contrasted to civistic social organization. LIMITS OF VILLAGE SOVEREIGNTY Taking the village polity as it exists to-day in relation to the district and provincial governments, sovereignty! 1 Sovereignty as here conceived is nota separate entity. It is not something that exists apart from persons. It is collective ascendancy over persons and can be distinguished into various degrees of control assuming various degrees of organization for the imposition of control over persons taken individually or as subordinate groups. It can be studied best by describing and analyzing forms of coercion, violent or non-violent. Much clearness in political discussion would be gained by a substitution of this conception for the metaphysical one even yet too current. D etatet sae: VILLAGE POLITY 121 seems to reside, first, in the traditional leadership of the scholars and elders, and second, in a limited and often indirect way, in the leaders whom the people choose for themselves more or less deliberately. But since the last type of leadership has no official recogni- tion and the others exercise power only partially, in deference to social opinion, sovereignty can hardly be said to rest with individuals at all. Where then does it reside? As just indicated, practi- cally and immediately it is exercised by the elders and scholars, so far as the organized state is concerned. But these persons possess their political status not merely by virtue of personal qualifications,—always partially true, for the scholar must be successful and the elder exhibit capabilities—so much as by the rep- resentative character of the functions they perform. In Phenix Village somebody is responsible for some- body else who may be younger, until the gamut of living descendants is run. Phenix Village is not at all a single group. Funda- mentally, as already shown, there are two groups: the kin group and the non-kin business or service group. The latter breaks up into smaller groups of a merchant and his assistants or apprentices. The former breaks up into four distinguishable group arrangements. They are the sex-group, the economic-group, the ancestral- group, and the sib-group. The sizes and memberships of these groups are constantly varying. But each group has a head or a number of head persons who are respon- sible to that group conventionally conceived to be next higher within the village. The limit of group extent is reached in the sib-group which is coterminous with the village. The heads of the entire group are likewise responsible to other groups ine COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA or relations outside of the village, mounting ever higher and spreading ever wider until the largest extent of government is reached. It is here contended that the ultimate sovereign ele- ment in the general region in which Phenix Village is located is the sib, as such. Where the sib boundary and the village limits are identical, the practical political unit of district and provincial government can be found. The relations of the familist village group to organized central government is expressed by Mencius in the following way: ‘‘In governing do not injure the feelings of the noble houses.’’ Historically ‘‘noble houses”’ has come to refer not only to the realms of noble lords but also to the areas and affairs of kin groups wherever they exist. The local magistrate and provincial rulers think not in terms of individuals but of sibs. So both the elder and the scholar are recognized by the officials of the region or the province because the for- mer are held to be responsible representatives of their sib village community. The members of the village taken separately have no political status. The village as a whole has political status in relation to other villages through its representatives, who are recognized by the villagers and by the official hierarchy above it. This residence of sovereignty in the sib as a whole is distinctive of rural village familist communities. To operate govern- ment on the basis of such a unit greatly simplifies the manner and cost of it. How all this works out in village polity will appear as description and analysis proceeds. First, it is of value to note the fields and forms of control which the various leaders may separately or collectively exercise within Phenix Village. From the point of view of the ordinary person in the village, matters of internal polity are alone of importance. VILLAGE POLITY 123 The polity of the smallest and most intimate type of group, the sex-group—father, mother and children —will be set forth in the next chapter. Where the line of descendants has been somewhat fractured, the sex- group may be also the economic-group. The composi- tion of this group will also be taken up more fully later on. The ancestral-group represents whatever fracturing has occurred within the sib as a whole and is usually made up of a number of economic-groups. The sex- group has been referred to earlier as the natural-family or the marriage-group; the economic-group is what is usually referred to by writers on these matters as the family; the ancestral-group heretofore in this study has been mentioned as the branch-family; the sib-group has been the village community exclusive of the shop- keepers who do not possess the same surname as the kin group of the village. The latter in ethnology has been called the clan. The term is one commonly used by most writers, but it is very unsatisfactory. This group will also be further elaborated in the following chapter. The significance and delimitations of the ancestral-group will be made clear in the chapters on The Family and The Sib, and Religion and the Spiritual Community. Throughout these various groups the principles of control hold true to form but vary in degree of applicabil- ity. What holds good for the sib-group is valid for the ancestral-group, the economic-group, and the sex- group with limitations that correlate with the size and resources and conventionality functions of these several groups. VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION Mention has already been made of public properties owned collectively by the sib-group. These are entrusted 124 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA to the care and administration of the village leaders. It is their business to see that the income from them increases from year to year and accumulates funds from which the following needs may be met: 1. Underwiting the expenses involved when the whole village is engaged in a lawsuit with a neighboring group. In case only a part of the village is entangled, an eco- nomic-group or an ancestral-group, that part may borrow money from the public funds for the prosecution of the litigation. 2. Loans to the poor people for burials and loans to students. 3. Rewards to scholars who have succeeded in the official competitive examinations or who have graduated from modern middle schools or colleges.! 4. Rewards in money or honors to unmarried widows. 5. Repairs on public buildings, ancestral graves, bridges and streets. Still other uses may be made of these funds when the leaders agree that the interests of the whole village justify such action. Generally, the uses of these funds from public property are not ceremonial but practical, in that they contribute to the maintenance of the village and its growth in material equipment and in prestige. The quasi-public or ancestral properties that rotate among the ancestral-groups or branch-families provide the funds for the village expressive, recreational, and ceremonial functions. It is important to understand the economy and polity of Phenix Village in terms of this distinction between practical and expressive activities. 1 The present rate of grant that obtains in Phenix Village is eight bushels of rice a year to each person. This is niggardly compared to the grants made to their learned men by neighboring villages, especially in view of the scholastic tradition of Phenix Village. | | | VIEEAGE POLTTY 125 In addition to the financial control of public property, the leaders are responsible for the conduct of all affairs that are deemed to affect the village as a whole. What- ever is not limited to the smaller group alignments falls exclusively under their supervision and jurisdiction. They constitute the school-board of the village. They determine the village educational matters,—the care of the school buildings, the provision and selection of instructors, the maintenance of school equipment, the policies and aims in instruction. In a general way they decide what goes into the curriculum. Members of the village who go away to school and who desire help beyond what the ancestral-group or the economic-group can provide, must submit complete information to the leaders as to cost, purposes, and the like. Not infre- quently, these men voice their sanction or disapproval to the heads of the smaller groups, of students who may be studying in higher schools even when no aid is sought. They exercise a supervisory control over all such matters and through the expression or crystallization of social opinion in the village, enforce their attitudes upon the students through the heads of the smaller group. Under the system of public subsidies to scholars, it is natural that the authorities exhibit a keen interest in the types and manner of their education. In fact, once the student has left the village to study elsewhere, the whole village becomes interested in his success and, in every way possible, reénforces his efforts. His success is their boast; his failure, their disappoint- ment; his letters, topics for village gossip and discussion. The student is quite aware of this interest in his behalf and realizes that he represents his village in whatever he does and whatever he achieves. This corporate community interest, with the addition of modern nation- 126 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA alistic attitudes, acts as a powerful stimulus to zeal and ambition in school life as found to-day in the higher institutions of learning throughout China. The leaders also act as a sort of state department or ‘‘foreign-relations’’ committee. They have charge of all the relations between Phenix Village and other villages in the rural community. Quarrels, litigations, lawsuits and sales that involve people of other groups and, therefore, potential conflicts are regarded because of the possibilities of conflict as familistic and not personal. Consequently they fall under the jurisdiction of the village authorities. It is their business to maintain in the district, the pride and ‘‘face’” of their kinship community. When ‘‘Tan’’ Village established a market and began to draw patrons from Phenix Village, by them it was decided that a market was needed in Phenix Village. The market street may be regarded as a collective represen- tation of a feeling of inferiority and the method by which this group had attempted to avoid the feeling of inferi- ority and secure satisfaction of the wish for dominance.! 1 Owing to a common misuse of such terms as “group,” “group mind,” ““social consciousness,’’ ‘‘crowd behavior,’’ and so on, it is necessary here to make clear the meaning of such sociological categories as used in this study. The term ‘‘group feeling’’ implies no separate metaphysical entity apart from persons. The only difference between ‘‘personal feeling,’’ ‘‘ personal wishes,’’ ‘‘ personal values’’ and ‘‘group feeling’’ or ‘‘attitudes’’ or ‘‘values”’ or “‘consciousness”’ is the difference between one and many. True it is that when one person finds himself among many, he may behave somewhat differ- ently, but that is because of the increase in the number of suggestions arising from other people. Manifestly more suggestions can arise to stimulate a person when he is with two hundred people than when he is with two other people. More suggestions are likely to arise in the former situation; this is really what is involved in the “heightened suggestibility’’ of crowds, as Le Bon and his followers have named the phenomenon. But with them it receives no explana- tion of its real character. | ‘‘Group feeling” would mean, then, that a number of persons are reacting to the same or similar stimuli in sufficiently similar ways that the similarity can be recognized, and in some cases even quantified, or graphed. Under similarities , VILLAGE POLITY 127 Furthermore, the leaders act as the village court. In every sex-group the husband and father is responsible for the behavior of his wife, his concubines, children and servants. In the past he has had absolute authority—the power of life and death—over these persons. Actually, however, this power was quite definitely limited by social opinion which specified under what conditions the head of the sex-group might punish by death the members of his group. Thus, according to the old law, a husband might kill his wife if he caught her in adultery and execute his wrath upon her at once on the spot. But if he waited until later and then disposed of her, social opinion would punish him for murder. Under the new codes promulgated since I9II, definite statutory limitations upon the father’s exercise of his power have been established. Punishment by the head of the sex-group for the misconduct of any of the members of his group was meted out by the officials or by the community not upon the subordinate person, but upon the head. In him were vested familistic rights and privileges so far as such existed for the sex-group. Most of these rights and most of his duties were founded upon his status as the one to continue the ancestral line and perform the ancestral ceremonies. He stood as mediator and rep- resentative of the other members of his group in the living as well as the spirit communities. of reaction when such similarities can be practically recognized by a number of people, consensus arises and may receive practical expression as in voting in a meeting, general assent, ceremonial or other customary forms of codpera- tion, organization, or collective representation,—the village temple, the ancestral tablets, the lanterns with the same surname inscribed in the same way, dialectic or other peculiarities of speech, folklore andsoon. The collectivity represented may vary from that of sex-groups to a number of people who operate under a continental culture-complex. So the written language in Phenix Village rep- resents collective similarity with Peking and Chengtu; the tablet of a grand- father represents collective similarity with only the immediate kin. 128 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Among the sex-groups and the fragments of what were once sex-groups—widows, orphans, and so on— which made up an economic-group, or among a number of economic-groups that made up an ancestral-group, the recognized head of each has been responsible for the members of his group. Above the heads of the economic-groups or ancestral-groups stood the leaders of the sib community. Thus was authority integrated through the council of leaders, the heads of the ancestral- groups or branch-families, the economic-groups or families, and the husband in the sex-group or natural- family. Such integration of authority, arising out of social tradition and creating the theory of responsibility for crime, illustrates the intimate relation that exists between polity, kinship and religion. It must not be supposed, however, that in Phenix Village the husband was free to exercise much practical control even over the members of his own sex-group. The head of the economic-group or the head of the ancestral- or even the sib-group did that. The husbands had control of their wives and concubines in most mat- ters relating only to very personal relations and services of the latter to the former. But the children, especially the sons, were looked upon as wards of the sib. There- fore matters concerning sons, of some importance to the father, would be decided upon not by the father but by the heads of the economic- or the ancestral-group. The position of the latter in such instances of control was reénforced by ancient attitudes of filial piety or respect for elders. Rarely would a father be fractious enough to run counter to the force of such attitudes. During familist councils, when economic-groups would gather for decision on some matter or when ancestral- VILLAGE POLITY 120 groups or branch-families deliberated on matters of concern to a number of economic-groups, such as the sale of some of the ancestral lands in connection with one of the ancestral halls, the husbands had opportunity to express their views, but only by courtesy of the head. Inefficient fathers and husbands suffered a large amount of interference by the leaders while capable ones enjoyed unusual prerogatives. Widowed mothers were recog- nized as legitimate members of such familist councils and through discussion and criticism made their influence potent. In the event of no division of inheritance, a widow is practically recognized as a chia-chang, or head of an economic-group. But she never becomes a head of an ancestral-group or of the sib-group. A female chia-chang may sell land if she has children. Otherwise she lacks this right. The theory involved here is that she must have access to the inherited resources in order to support the children. A concubine can never be a chia-chang, but she sometimes practically achieves that position by sheer force of capacity. The law which the leaders are charged with preserving is customary and necessarily familistic. They must see that no one breaks the customs, disregards village standards of action, violates taboos, ideals or traditions. They are jealous defenders of the faith, guardians of the village peace, conservators of ancient precedents and practices, supervisors of village ceremonies. In this connection they investigate rumors of mis- conduct, follow the clues of gossip, hear open charges, pass judgment and effect punishment of miscreants, mis- demeanants and criminals. In such cases they act as both judge and jury with the other villagers involved _ standing as plaintiffs, defendants and special pleaders. There is no special place as a court room; nor is there 130 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA any specialization of status or function as in the modern courts with their various officials. The trial situation is rather informal trial at the bar of public opinion, certainly not statutory law. In such matters the jurisdiction of the leaders extends down to the last member of the sib and as far as sib members can be brought under the influence of the community judgments. When any heads of the sub- groups fail in their duties, then the sib leaders must step into any situation in the interests of village peace and harmony and assume control. Generally, however, the leaders attempt to integrate this authority and function through the heads of the sub-groups, reserving only the most flagrant cases of misconduct for direct treatment. COMMON LAW There are no written village regulations that would correspond to formal law as it is known in occidental countries. There are, however, a historical register containing the names of persons, relationships, etc.,— which is the basis for the determination of status espe- cially in village ceremonial procedure—and a record of lands, land transfers, and the like. It is the duty of the leaders to see that these entries are promptly and cor- rectly made and that traditional observances passed down from generation to generation in oral and unwritten form are properly kept. The council thus serves as the village legislative body. In their hands, too, is lodged the responsibility of supervising the religious ceremonies of the village. They see that the ancestral-group administers the ancestral property and fund in the interests of those concerned and that the feasts and proper worship to ancestors are provided for out of the fund. VILLAGE POLITY 131 Corrupt leaders have at times been guilty of collusion with crafty heads of ancestral-groups in the administra- tion of the ancestral funds, but social opinion sooner or later makes itself felt for correction and punishment of such malpractice. When religious processions are held the chances for ‘‘squeeze’’ are particularly favorable. Men and paraphernalia are employed from outside the village so that overcharges can easily be later collected from the persons supplying these things for the proces- sion by corrupt and conscienceless leaders. Upon their honesty depends to a very large extent the welfare of the village. When they discharge their duties wisely and well, they succeed in maintaining a high degree of prosperity and solidarity in the village. As regards their responsibilities for the ceremonies, their function may be thought of as saviors of the village ‘“‘face’’ both with their ancestors and their gods and their neighbors. In addition to the duties of the conduct of public affairs in internal village polity, the leaders, as already indicated, are the representatives of the village in rela- tion to the government above the village community. First of all, the leaders must see that the local official has a proper record of each family and each person accord- ing to their definite status in the village community. On this basis in earlier times the tax levy and the military apportionment of soldiers for the defense of the general ° government were made. The former still holds, but the latter has largely passed away. Whenever a member of the village has in any way become involved with people outside the village, the regional police or court authorities hold the leaders responsible. Thus in a lawsuit with another village, or in case of a crime against a member of another village, 132 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA misconduct in the city when there on a visit, the officials of the nearest yamen or governmental office deal with the village council of leaders who attempt to make good the defect and if possible take the punishment of the offender in their own hands. That is often hard to do because the police exploit the fear which the village leaders have for them and thereby line their own pockets. Unpromising cases are readily handed over to the leaders for treatment. In cases of serious crimes against outsiders, the government controls the judgment and punishment of the case but holds the leaders responsible. When the regional court requires, the leaders must hand over promptly any criminal or suspect who may be a member of the village sib, or outsider who has sought asylum in the village. They are supposed to keep a register of all the people and to know those who come and go. A stranger who sojourns with them is subject to their scrutiny and supervision; they may refuse the hospitality of the village if he seems to be a suspicious or criminal character. It is also their duty to assist the local tax-gatherers in every way possible: to give information as to amounts of land held, transfers of property, ownership of buildings, nature and abundance of crops. Leadership, then, includes a complex of village control functions: educational administration—this involves not alone schools and the inculcation of knowledge and new ideas but ceremonies and the transmission of the village \ culture complex in the extra-scholastic activities; per- formance of public works; management of village finance; the provision of legal aid and philanthropy; the adjudication and formulation of customary law; the maintenance of census records; supervision of morals and familist religion; the promotion of inter-village | ; ’ | | | VIGUAGE POLITY 133 comity; and the provision of assistance to governmental functions. Before individuals are allowed to undertake any activities of marked importance, they must first consult with one or more of the village leaders. This requirement does not hold for the cunning members of the larger and more powerful sub-groups. People are supposed to consult the leaders on such matters as these: the purchase or sale of lands when another village is involved in the matter; individual lawsuits against anyone within or without the village; the entertainment or lodging of strangers, or even outside friends or relatives; the conduct of worship or the preparation for feasts; the organization of associations; the departure for school; and so on. If trouble arises out of any such activities undertaken under individual responsibility, without sanctions first being secured, the leaders withhold any assistance. This acts as a powerful restraint upon individual initiative and innovation in village folkways. VILLAGE DEMOCRACY Inasmuch as these leaders have little to say about the governmental régime above the village unit, they can hardly be regarded as citizens in the national polity. They are delegated, so to speak, by the government as assistants to the government because of their position within the village polity. That position has grown up in the past partly because of the recognition of the leaders by the government. The interaction between prestige within the village and without has produced the status that the leaders hold at present. But no authority of the central government has arisen from these village leaders. It was formerly imposed upon the situation from Peking, integrated through provincial, 134 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA county and district administration by appointment of officials from the higher authorities on the basis of scholarship and influence. That appointing power now lodges in the provincial military authorities and operates in peace times through the soldier-police. Just now, in Kwantung, the difficulties of the Canton government in maintaining an independent existence from Peking and North China leave little time for concern for small rural villages. Consequently Phenix Village lies practically untroubled by military squabbles and parliamentary struggles. It enjoys local autonomy so long as it pays its taxes and commits no crime. OTA r Pie Roy | Poe AVI Y AND THE’ SIB BASES OF KINSHIP The bases of familist alignments in Phenix Village are blood, land, and law. As emphasized again and again, both historically and at present, blood is the fundamental determiner of relationships, obligations, rights, attitudes and values. It is the term of reference for all matters in village life. It is the chief category in the village universe of dis- course. It sets the limits of the theoretical community; it fixes the physical characteristics of the village commu- nity in all its artificial aspects and is embodied in all significant forms of collective representation. It is the solidary unit of the village. According to blood the person is assigned position and status. In the blood-group he achieves recognition and fixes his standards of personal behavior. In that group his wishes secure satisfaction, and according to its norms he organizes his wishes into his dominant life-scheme. Blood sets the limits beyond which the person does not wander in his efforts or objectives. Blood is to familism what credit is to capitalism. FILIAL PIETY The predominant attitude of village life is filial piety. The notion of filial piety is very complex and includes really a number of attitudes. It involves specific attitudes toward specific blood relatives under 136 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA specific situations with reference to specific types of status. These elements combine in a variety of ways, producing the socially sanctioned types of behavior characteristic of kinship. Thus respect for all those older than oneself is embodied in definite prescribed attitudes and behavior forms toward an older brother, an uncle, one’s father, grandfather, elder sister, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, ancestors, male and female, of several and distinctive ranks and ages. The mores denoted by the term filial piety fix the obligations, duties, and responsibilities toward others in the blood- group. Conversely it also determines the range and nature of obligations of others toward oneself. It is the guarantor of one’s own rights as fixed by one’s own status in the blood-group. So all those younger than oneself must in turn show respect and act toward one according to sanctions connected with one’s own status. These rights and duties are not fixed once for all, not even in relation to the departed ancestral spirits. They are constantly changing with one’s status in the blood-group. Status changes with the shifts and changes in age and member- ship—hence function—of the other members of the blood-group. The boy who is meticulously trained to observe the prescribed behavior toward all the members of the community, immediate and remote, himself grows up, enters fatherhood, ages and assumes responsi- bility for his dependents, sees his obligations transfuse into rights, even the right to be worshipped by his descendants when he is dead, which is the greatest right of all. Filial piety is the attitude that correlates with the all-important practice of ancestral worship. The one is the concomitant of the other; each reénforces the THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 137 other. The logical conclusion of filial piety is ancestral worship. The principal distinction between filial piety and ancestral worship is that the former is primarily concerned with one’s relation to the living and only secondarily to the dead, while the latter is primarily concerned with one’s relation to the dead and only secondarily to the living. This will be illustrated under the discus- sion of ancestral worship as a phase of familist religious practices. ANCESTRAL WORSHIP Ancestral worship links the living with the spiritual community. In this dual community blood determines membership, status, obligations, rights and practices just as it does in the living community when considered separately. And yet Phenix Village community apart from the spirits of the departed ancestors does not exist. The living community derives its very esprit de corps as well as its external expressions in ordinary conduct or in collective representations, such as art or ceremonies, from a vital connection with the spiritual and historical community. The past lives and moves and has its being in the present, and likewise the present in the past. The two are one, theoretically and practi- cally, and can only be understood and appreciated as a unity. But, practically, the membership of this dual com- munity is constantly changing as generations move up and displace previous generations. The villager counts in his blood-group, for ordinary purposes, five generations. He limits his consideration to those immediate blood relatives up or down which can be designated by the adjective ‘“‘grand.’’ If the grandfather or grand- 138 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA mother is dead, then he worships principally this ancestor but adds a formula which by a gesture includes all the ancestors preceding. Thus he burns incense and prays for the happiness of this ancestor and mentions also the name of the remotest ancestor, thereby implying the inclusion of the intermediate ancestral spirits who may be too numerous to mention separately. Even when on other special days he chooses some particular ancestor of a certain generation higher than that desig- nated by ‘‘grand’’ he may include all the generations previous to the one selected for worship by this same simple device of naming the first ancestor. Ancestral worship thus takes account not only of the more imme- diate blood relations but, in the way just described, also of the more remote kin, and extends the range of the village community. THE LAND BASIS OF KINSHIP Out of the relations fundamentally determined by blood, there has gradually arisen another basis of famil- ism, namely, land. This term includes really more than just the soil upon which the blood-group may depend for maintenance. By it is meant soil, products of the soil or other economic resources, such as buildings, cur- rency, and so on. But all these are merely outgrowths from the cultivation and ownership of land which in turn exist in major part by virtue of the needs of an- cestral worship and the exercise of filial piety in its mu- tual aid aspects. So the range of group membership as well as the obligations thereof link up with land and economic resources. ‘These are first dedicated to the dead; of the surplus of them the living may enjoy the usufruct. Divi- sion of land and other resources breaks up the larger THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 139 blood-groups into smaller and so fixes the range and nature of certain types of behavior and attitudes. THE LAW BASIS OF KINSHIP Traditionally, these two bases, blood and land, were all that existed. More recently they have been supple- mented by statutory law. The precipitation into law of familist custom with regard to land and blood aspects of familist relations has not increased their effective- ness in the least. Customary law has been operating in Phenix Village quite satisfactorily and is effective because it is enforced by local authorities who know best the facts about the people of the village through their primary contacts with them. When the legislators of the Manchu dynasty wished to codify laws controlling family life, they took over the universal phases of the prevalent familist customs among the Chinese and made only the necessary changes for the sake of the prestige of the ruling powers. Inasmuch as Jamieson! has translated with comments all the important sections relating to the family, of the Ta Ching Lu Li, General Code of Laws of the Chinese Empire, it is not necessary to treat here of these legal aspects of familist organization. Customary law, backed by social opinion, has been changed to statutory regulation partly because of the weakening of the control of personal behavior by commu- nity opinion. This weakening arose out of the introduc- tion of new norms and standards into modern Chinese life. The statutory regulation of familist practices, theoretically backed by the provincial police power, is felt at only a few points,—land transfers, inheritance, taxes, marriage, and soon. Generally the people adhere 1Op. cit., pp. 13-108, 140 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA to custom as custom and are unaware of laws. However, the legal basis of familist organization and practices must be recognized as an important trend toward modernization of societal life. FAMILIST GROUPINGS Phenix Village is made up of a plurality of groups. Apart from the remnants of fractured groups, such as widows, orphans, widowers, or persons unmarried because of physical defect, there are four distinct types of groups, ranging in size from one person to tens or even hundreds of persons. The determiner of each group varies. Some of the groups exist more potentially than actually. They come into being, that is, are consciously recognized as groups, when they have special functions to perform, after which they break up again into the ordinary groups. Herein these groups are designated as the sex-group, the economic-group, the ancestral-group, and the sib-group. THE SOCIOLOGY OF A GROUP Before proceeding with the detailed description and analysis of these groups, it may be well to set forth briefly the main sociological facts about groups. The group is the unit of investigation for sociology but, as such, throws sociological emphasis upon structure rather than process. From this point of view Small! defines a group as any number of persons among whom exist relations of sufficient importance to attract attention. But if the group is defined as a number of people inter- acting or reciprocally influencing one another, thereby producing definite relationships among one another, the unit of investigation becomes the process rather than the result of the process, namely, interaction. Inasmuch 1Small, A. W. General Sociology. p. 495. PHE PAMILY AND THE SIB 141 as some of these village groupings exist only at moments of village experience, it is better to use the functional rather than the structural unit of investigation. The relations of people, their classifications, their super- ordinations and subordinations are of only incidental interest in socioanalysis. The real areas of investigation are the attitudes of persons, the conditioning of these attitudes and the forms of objective expression of attitudes in behavior. There are many ways to classify groups, for the characteristics are numerous. Groups are amorphous or organized, natural or intentional, primary or second- ary, ephemeral or continuous. Herein the classifications for the groups of Phenix Village, as regards kinship, base primarily on the function that a number of people perform, during which time they recognize themselves as forming a definite group for the performance of that function. . The people who at any moment make up a particular kind of group are in the group because participation in group activities satisfies their complexes of wishes. Otherwise, they would leave the group. The exception to this is the very young person who is born into the group and has not yet achieved discretion. The em- igrants are just those persons who find themselves members of continuous groups into which they were born but in which they can no longer satisfy their wishes, so they leave. The fundamental characteristic of all of these groups in Phenix Village is that they are natural. The members are born into the groups. An intentional character exists for these kinship groups, then, only in so far as the members have not broken taboos or conventions of familist practices and remain moral members. Whether 142 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA a member remains in any of these groups by intention will depend upon the range of personal experience. Those who know nothing else can do nothing else. Those who see ways of breaking out from these groups and do not, have in fact chosen to remain. For them, the natural group then changes to an intentional group. This distinction has increasing significance. With the growth of contacts, mediated by letters, newspapers, and the like, or immediate in Chaochow and elsewhere while travelling, the pressure to break away from natural groupings is greater than ever before. At present the general characteristics of familist life in Phenix Village rest on just this natural aspect of the group. If the present familist organization persists at all it will more and more do so because of a recognition by its members of its superiority to other types with which it is now coming into competition. It is not inconceivable that eventually through education and wise social opinion the natural character of the familist group may change entirely for adults to an intentional one. With the present trends away from traditionalism, either this must happen or familist organization will break altogether. Two of these groups are easily distinguished and delimited. They are the sex-groups and the sib. THE NATURAL-FAMILY The sex-group corresponds to the family of Western society. It includes the father, mother (wife or con- cubines), and children. It is founded on the sex relations incident to parenthood. It is a biological group, not conventional. Merely a part of another group, it in itself serves a subsidiary function. It provides biological continuity of the sib and other groups and feeds members THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 143 into the other groups. Actually it is fundamental in: the village, but from the point of view of theory embodied in tradition and convention, little account is taken of it for itself. It may be called the natural-family or the marriage-group. The sex-group or natural-family is created by marriage, which is performed under the complete control of the economic-group and in relation to the ancestral-group. Under circumstances, it may become identical with both the economic-group and the ancestral-group. THE SIB—-THE CONVENTIONAL-FAMILY The sib is a unilateral kinship-group. Exclusive of the people in Phenix Village engaged in business and with other names, every member of the village is a member of the sib. Once a man is a sib member he is always a sib member. Phenix Village is, then, a patri- lineal sib for it traces descent through the male line only and is thus unilateral. A man is born into a sib and can never get out of it no matter how far away from Phenix Village he may migrate. Birth establishes membership in a sib. Therefore adoption is a form of fictitious birth. Two types of people are adopted: brides and sons. Both are inducted into the sib by very simple ceremonies in relation to the ancestral tablets. The ceremonies are not identical because the status of brides and sons is not the same, but they identify themselves as sib members before the ancestors of the sib. Brides attain their status as sib members by virtue of their potential motherhood of sons whose duty it will be to carry on the line, inherit property, and conduct the worship of the ancestors. Sons are adopted when no male issue exists to perform these same functions. 144 COUNTRY, LIFE IN SOUTH GHINA The status of these fictitiously born into the village community, actual and spiritual, arises entirely out of their relations to the ancestors of the sib. Persons when adopted are thought of as having broken with their own previous sib. That is why when sons- in-law are adopted as sons they consider that they ‘“‘lose face”’ if they take the name of their wives, so they break away, sometimes by eloping. The bride is no longer under the jurisdiction of her father’s group. What is commonly thought of as the purchase price is thus seen to be not so much purchase as recompense to a group for the keep of the person adopted. A recom- pense in money accompanies marriage and adoption of sons, for the boys are generally secured from poor families who have too many boys and need money. In the minds of the parents they are getting back what they have spent in bringing up the boys. If the boys did not leave the fathers’ groups to become members of other sibs they would themselves recompense their parents for their cost by the contributions of their own productive efforts to the family exchequer when they grew up. Both girls and boys are thought of as economic producers to the general funds for maintenance. The money involved in their transfer from one sib to another in marriage or adoption is compensation for this loss of economic producers. The sib is, then, the all-inclusive group of Phenix Village. All male persons who hold the same surname and trace their descent from the common ancestor are members of it with status according to their birth, age, and ceremonial relations to ancestors. Females are members really by proxy. Deceased mothers are real members and as such are worshipped by descendants. Girls of Phenix Village marry outside and so lose their THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 145 original sib membership and acquire a new one. This complete break with their own sib is the reason why girls are considered of less importance than boys. And yet actually the break is never completed until the girl has died as a member of another sib, for in case of divorce for unjust reasons the girl returns to her own sib for protection and support. Furthermore, between sibs connected by marriage there is always a sense of responsi- bility to the girl’s sib for fair treatment of the bride. It is a responsibility enjoined by social opinion and status relations prescribed by custom, To sum up, the sib 1s: patrilineal, patronymic and exogamous, inclusive of the entire village, the area of effective social opinion, the determiner of status in the community and made up of a plurality of sub-groups, sex, economic and ancestral alignments. THE RELIGIOUS -FAMILY The ancestral-group is made up of a number of sex- and economic-groups. In fact there are cases where the sex- and economic- and ancestral-groups are identical. The ancestral-groups vary in size. They may stand mid- way between the sib and the economic-group, or between the sib and smaller ancestral-groups. As the sib increased in size, it has split into moieties or parts. Each part was then better able to preserve its unity and solidarity than was the sib as a whole. Functioning units were thus substituted for divisive cliques. The ancestral-group is called generally by writers the “branch-family.’’ The best functional name for it would be the “‘religious-family.”’ It is the practical unit of ancestral worship. It becomes a conscious unit only during the ceremonies of ancestral worship and varies according to the ancestor worshipped at any one 146 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA time. It thus includes all those persons who ordinarily come together for ancestor worship, whether of the moieties just beneath the sib in rank and size, or just above or identical with the economic-groups. A glance at the Map of Phenix Village will reveal the nature of these divisions by noting the various ancestral halls. There is first and foremost the ancient ancestral hall (D) of the entire sib. At present worship in this hall occurs rarely if at all, except by the members of the economic-family who live in it. Then there are two large and newly constructed ancestral halls (E and F) wherein the two great religious-families regularly come to worship their ancestors. Besides there are a number of smaller ancestral halls where still smaller groups assemble to worship some common ancestor not so far removed as in the case of the two great ancestral halls. Finally, there are the small halls built into each homestead in which the tablets of the immediate ances- tors of the living economic- and natural-families are worshipped. [Fig. 5, (1), p. 153.] These ancestral halls, large or small, should be viewed as collective representations of the various functional groupings in the village. Were it not for the main ancestral halls the larger ranges of kinship would grow weak. The regular ceremonies in worship of the more remote ancestors constantly remind the villagers of their fundamental connection through the remote and com- mon ancestors. This maintains village unity and solidarity. But on the other hand, worship of the remote ancestors is not the real experience that worship of immediate ancestors is, for the recent departures burn within the memories of the living. The worship of the remote ancestors keeps strong the blood bond in the village as THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 147 a whole, while that of the recent ancestors puts reality into the experience and binds the present with the past community into a genuine unity and harmony. The words, precepts, conduct, and ideals of the immediate ancestors keep fresh and vital the values of the religious- groups. The religious-family has great significance in village life not only because it is the chief preserver of village values and practices, and so maintains the continuity of the village community, but also because it conditions village polity as shown in the previous chapter. It is thus the practical unit of social control in the village. Membership in the religious-family varies according to sex and age and corporeality. All males, living or dead, are regarded as members in good standing in the religious-family. They may be actual members as in the case of adults who participate in the ceremonies of ancestral worship, or potential, as in the case of boys who are mere learners and future worshippers. Females, on the contrary, are not members of the religious-family except by proxy. They are allowed to participate in the ceremonies of worship merely as spectators, but as such they play an important rédle. There is one excep- tion to the above, namely, when a mother dies she becomes a member of the religious-family and so of the historical community by virtue of her motherhood of sons who are worshippers. She is worshipped equally with her husband by her sons or other male descendants. This is shown by the fact that the beautiful paintings of ancestors kept in the Scholars Hall (A) were of both male and female ancestors rendered in similar artistic representation and displayed together at the time of ancestral worship in the main halls. Through honorable motherhood a woman, sometimes even a concubine, 148 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA may achieve high status in the spiritual community and an enviable position among the departed spirits that belong to the dead section of the refigious-family. But while alive no such status is possible t6 any female. She simply does not belong to the religious-family of her husband’s sib nor of her father’s sib. THE ECONOMIC-FAMILY Finally, the economic-group is what is commonly referred to by the Chinese as the family. Herein it is called the economic-family to distinguish it clearly from the other familist groupings. It isa group of people who on the basis of blood or marriage connection live together as an economic unit. It may be a natural- family or a number of natural-families which have not divided the ancestral inheritance. Occasionally it may coincide with the branch-family or religious-familye Members of the economic-family may all live under one roof, under several roofs joining one another, in houses somewhat separated in the village, or far apart as in Chaochow, Swatow, or the South Seas. So long as there is no distinction between the income and outgo of funds and so long as the whole group is administered by a certain head or chia-chang, the per- sons living under these arrangements belong to an economic-family. On the other hand, when they are economically independent they belong to different economic-families. | Ordinarily an economic-family is composed of father, mother or mothers, grandparents—frequently a grand- mother—the children of the father, and the wives of the children with their young children. This covers four generations. In such cases the groups tend to be large. The number of persons may vary from a single person THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 149 to more than twenty in Phenix Village. In some villages nearby such groups contain more than one hundred persons: Thé small groups are created by the division of property and the declaration of separate finances. Brothers, uncles, nephews, father and son, sometimes even husband and wife may so effect division of economic resources and live independently, although they may re- side under the same roof and compose the same religious- family. Even one person may form what is thought of as an economic-family if living economically independ- ent. There are five such cases in Phenix Village. Many economic-families consist of widows with one or more small children. However, these are not modal cases but exceptions. The economic-family is really the working unit of the village community. While the religious-family functions primarily for the stability of the com- munity, the economic-family provides ‘its maintenance. Within this unit there is in general resources a limited form of communism. The administration of these re- sources lies in the hands of the chia-chang or head under the supervision of the chia-chang of the religious-families or the village leaders. When the natural-family coincides with the economic- family then the father is head and assumes full responsi- bility to the higher chia-chang or village leaders for the conduct of the members of his group. When a number of natural-families compose an economic-family—some of these natural-families may be complete but frequently some of them are remnants of fractured groups, old persons, widows or orphans—then the oldest effective male person is the chia-chang. His duty includes the careful administration of his inheritance, the improve- ment of the financial resources, wise expenditure of 150 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA funds upon members of his group in harmony with tradi- tional sib values, the supervision and direction of the conduct of the members of his group. He is a sort of patriarch although he does not possess the patria potestas common among the Romans. To him all others are subordinate in authority. If there are aged and decrepit male members he must show them respect and deference under the rules of filial piety. STATUS OF WOMEN Contrary to the religious-family, the economic-family both practically and theoretically affords status to women. Herein they function as producers and con- tributors to the income of the poorer families and are considered important members. Even the girls become important producers and as such are objects of recom- pense when removed through marriage. The wife of the chia-chang rules the interior affairs of the home and directs the behavior and work of all the other women except those who may be older than herself. The wives of younger men than her husband, her husband’s concubines, her sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters are all supposed to obey her and show filial piety toward her. A good objective method of studying the status of women is to determine the manner and degree of owner- ship of property allowed the female members of the familist group. The wife does not own anything ab- solutely while the husband is living. She has her own personal effects, but under duress the husband could sell these if he wanted to. He would be checked only by gossip. The wife can own property when the husband is dead, provided she has sons. In case either the mother THE FAMILY AND THE SIB I51 or the sons should wish to sell the property, each would have to secure the consent of the other. The wife can own anything, land, chattels, etc.,—if the husband is dead and she has no sons—until she should marry again, in which case she would lose all the rights in the husband’s property. Under this situation she would also have the right of sale. The loss of these rights upon remarriage is a powerful in- centive to retain widowhood. The concubine has the same rights of ownership as the wife. She can never own anything in her own right while the husband is alive. If she has a son she gets a share of the husband’s property after his death. If there is no son, she receives a portion of the estate for the support of herself. She may, however, adopt a son and through him get a share of the husband’s inheritance. The status of concubine in the home, however, differs | radically from that of the wife. She is subordinate to © the wife and superior to the servants and slaves. She is purchased by the husband from her father. Usually the concubine is pretty and is secured from poor families. Wealthy families do not like to have their daughters leave as concubines. She may be treated well or ill by the wife or the husband and she has no redress. The husband may sell her at any time. She may come to his home in the wedding chair and dress in marriage robes, if the husband so desires, but there are no formal ceremonies of acceptance or induction into the sib as in the case of the wife. She joins the natural-family but not the religious-family. But if she becomes a mother of a son, her status is raised. If the wife is childless the status of the con- cubine may be raised above that of the wife. If both the 152 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA wife and concubine have children, her status remains always below that of the wife. Boys are considered in the economic-family of greater importance than girls because a girl will leave the group and carry to some other group all her productive powers. The boys are therefore showered with attention and care, are educated and trained, so that when they arrive at adulthood they may be capable members of the village community and effective producers in the economic-family. This complete emphasis upon the boys to the neglect of girls is changing, as is shown by the fact that several girls are now being sent to schools to study with the boys. The treatment of girls is not necessarily harsh, for parents become fond of their girls as of their boys. The boys have status because of their future functions in the community. The girls have only what status is offered them because of the affection for them on the part of the parents. No cases of infanticide in Phenix Village are known. The economic-family is developed through the rise of natural-families within it and the birth of children to the marriage-pairs. It changes from time to time according to the circumstances: harmony or dissimilarity among its members, the death of the head and the divi- sion of the inheritance, the growth of the natural-families. It is a social unit of mutual aid that breaks up only when economic competency of the new parts seems assured. AN ANCESTRAL HOMESTEAD By an examination of the floor plan of one of the ancestral homesteads of the village, it is possible to secure an idea of the physical setting of an economic- family of the larger kind. Figure 5 sets forth the de- THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 153 Feear Court Bed Foom ' (2 floors) Open Court Bed Fioom (2floors) | (2 floors) Flower Shelf Flower Shelf Front Court (Sor drying &winnowing rice) 0. Kulp I FIG. 5. FLOOR PLAN OF ANCESTRAL HOME tailed relations of the various parts built for the accom- modation of several natural-families composing the economic-family or the religious-family bound together 154 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA by the worship of the immediate ancestors of this kin- group. There are four suites of rooms in each corner of the homestead, including kitchen, storage and bedroom. All of these suites are two floors. If natural-families were to occupy the bedrooms, then the second floors of the kitchen and storage would be used by servants or slaves. The guest rooms and the study rooms are located in an intermediate position for the convenient and common use of all. Two doors lead into the front court from which a large double door gives access into the interior of the house. Surrounding the open court is a passageway that leads to all parts. Opposite the main door is the ancestral hall, facing east. In the center is the cabinet containing the small wez or ancestral tablets [Fig. 5, (2)]. There is one for each of the departed spirits that are sup- posed after death to reside in the tablets. They are ar- ranged according to rank in an ascending series of small steps; the most recent at the bottom, the most remote at the top. The oldestand most famous ancestor hasa special tablet of greater size and more elaborate decoration. The tablets of husbands and wives are placed together. The cabinet is closed with two doors that are opened at the time of worship. Over the cabinet and under the roof is hung a large wooden board inscribed with characters. In front of the cabinet is a long table [Fig. 5, (3)] on which are placed the offerings of food and incense at the time of worship. In the corner a square table holds a little household image before which the women burn incense on the days in- dicated by the calendar as days of good fortune, the first and the fifteenth of each month. This whole por- tion, known as the ancestral hall of the kin living together . 1M. “ie Pe . at * AS iat Se — J i = wry ° 3 = =*.. ‘ a> ~~ at s On, j a » > 14+. © e 2, LIBRARY . SITY OF ILLINOIS MIVER HOVTIWA XINHHd NI HNWOH LSHYNIA AGNV IA HLV Id LSHUMAUN HHL “ITX THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 155 under one roof or most closely connected by blood, is the “holy of holies’’ for them. The people living in such a house might constitute one economic-family or four economic-families or any number of intermediate economic-groups depending upon their financial interdependence and mutuality, or their independence. At the time of the investiga- tion there lived in this house two economic-families using two sets of stoves or feng-lo' [Fig. 5, (4)]. Thus in the two passageways near the west court were the cooking arrangements of the two economic-families. The one on the right, looking west, was composed of a mother and child (Fig. 6, I1I-43, IV-12, p. 157). The one on the left, a concubine (Idem, I-60) and a slave girl who is not indicated on the figure. The two kitch- ens at the east end were not being used at all. The plan of the house was clearly designed to meet the needs of familist organization and relations and provides for the functioning of three possible groupings: the natural-family, with the privacy needed therefor, the economic-family, and the religious-family. The floor plan affords a splendid graph of the mutuality aspects of the last two types of groupings. This was the only house in the village that was so large as to include the two outside rows of rooms. The other ancestral homesteads both old and new corre- sponded to this one in all the general features. Illustra- tion XII shows what such a home looks like without the two rows of outside rooms and the front court. The house in Figure 5 is surrounded by walls that en- close both outside courts and hide the main entrance 1A good method for the determination of the number of persons in each economic family is to discover the number who eat from one set of stoves. See Note 3, Appendix. 156 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA from the outside world, which is not the case in Illustra- tion XV. The front wall of the terrace of the latter house runs along the side of the main road which extends from the congested part of the village to the market street. The ancestral homesteads of the village that are still smaller than that shown in Illustration XII lack the side entrances and passageways. Otherwise they conform quite closely to this type. They are indicated on the Map of Phenix Village by the representation of the inner court, a recurring characteristic of the architecture of all ancestral homesteads. The poor families in the congested quarters (Illustra- tions V and XI) have homes with one large room below and a small room for a kitchen in the rear and a room on the second floor. Some families live in only one room. TYPICAL FAMILIST GROUPINGS An analysis of a typical evolution of an economic- family that illustrates all the main points heretofore set forth is put into graphic form in Figure 6. It rep- resents the present descendants of a recent common ancestor, namely, the husband of the concubine (I-60) now living in the home depicted in Figure 5. It should be noted that all descendants, male and female, are here traced out and graphed. Daughters always marry out of the sib and are no longer parts of Phenix Village. In the ordinary reckoning of descent the villager would take no count of all those included in the unclosed dot-and-dash lines. These female descendants take the names of their husbands and belong to other sibs. And yet in practice these people are recognized as relatives, and the information about the female descend- ants and their children was quite as available as con- A ie pit \" I MO4?ORYD 2) . P22. 6 . ‘ ? ° > Se EE SE eroeoeoereereeeeeerer eaeeee 2, ~ol wey «e) eae . . eee SdNOUD LSITINVA TVOIMAL °9 ‘Old ‘ydei3 94} Ul pozyeseidar suosied jo sose IO} sIQere 9} ‘SUOI}eISMIS IO} PUL IS S[eIoMINU UeWOY IJeW O *Sd}21S Po}UL) oY} Ul JUApN}s e Joy}ej pue pueqsnyy 4 geulay O pueqsny auiqnou0y FX} ainynj Joy jo Apres oy} YM SUTAT] 3NG eat oy poytoed ssuidnoi3 Juapisay : *JDVIVUOD JY} WOT] MIIPYPIM JOY}eJ auesuy I Jay Os ueu 8uNOA 0} pazoof[qo ynq pey}01}Eq SEA « : AI t ' moyrowry) g | Pos 4 i-@® Pe mk : € | | A ===- ' a as ew : se movenc ee glat Moyrory > « f _—+— - —— = ot eho 200g MASHTSOMURGHAD GETS peamsHegooRS von SG re es | amy 3 “et hicks osome A ; ue on ene (ee? (Gb): aoe, Ones xP EO) Ps os @APFOYO AG (9%) @yn See ey oe A OP ‘a 3 fe sot : eae PS 5 td \ ! O EA 6) ‘a Nac Se 0,0,0% 158 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA cerning the male descendants. There is a consciousness of a bond between the people of Phenix Village and the natural-families of the female descendants that is cer- tainly stronger than between other ordinary outsiders. Conventionally, however, these women might just as well be dead once they are married out, for they play no further réle in the Phenix Village community. It will be seen that none of these female descendants have become concubines. That is sure evidence of the high economic and social status of this ancestral-family. Furthermore, they have all gone as wives to sibs in Chaochow, which indicates the prestige of the family in that city. There are several interesting facts about these groups as cases that may be noted in passing. III-40 was married to a widower. Her step-daughter, [V—20, was married to a man who is insane. She does not live with him but is going to a mission school in Swatow. She is a Christian. III-40 is now a widow with two sons. She cannot marry again without losing prestige in her community. Re-marriage of widows in respectable families is a negative value throughout the region. III-44 is also a widow. A widower may re-marry with- out losing social approval, as in the case of III—(40) d. Three types of familist groupings may be illustrated by Figure 6. A, B, C—heavy-dash lines—are natural- families or sex-groups. They include the father, mother (wife and concubine), and children. These groups are at present also three economic-families, for they admin- ister their finances independently of one another. Two other combinations for the formation of economic- families may have been possible in this case. At one time, before the death of II-d, his natural-family may have lived with IIJ-A-39 without having divided the THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 159 inheritance of I-d, in which case they would together have constituted an economic-family that included a number of natural-families, namely B and C._ II-39 would have a status beneath II-d for two reasons: he was younger and a son of a concubine. On account of the latter fact, he would not fare so well as II-d in a division of I-d’s property. In case II-d and II-39 had not separated before the death of II-d, then A, B, and C might continue to live codperatively for some time, as one economic-family. If they determined upon divi- ion, III-36 and III-45 would get equal shares, each of which would probably be more than II-39, because they were sons of a wife. Or, a second combination: before the death of I[I-d, he may have divided the inheritance of I-d with II-39. Then just before his death he, with the unmarried daughters and the natural-families of III-36 and III-45, constituted an economic-family. Up to the time of his death, in such a case, II-d would be the chia-chang. After his death but before division of II-d’s property, III-45 would be the chia-chang of the economic-family BC. As such he would be responsible for the conduct of the members of B as well as of C. At present he is both the head of his economic-group and also one of the village leaders, a scholar and a man of great influence in the village. A, B, C taken together constitute the religious-family which worships in the ancestral hall shown in Figure 6. III-45 because of his superior age is chia-chang of the religious-family and conductor of the ceremonies of ancestral worship of I-d or II-d. A, B, C taken together with similar groups of descendants of the brothers of I-d, and so on, would make up a larger religious-family, or even a sib moiety that would worship in one of the 160 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA ancestral halls marked on Map 3, page 12, as F and E. In such a case III-45 would also be a chia-chang because of his position as village leader. He would be one of the masters of ceremonies. The fact is that the people represented in Figure 6 relate themselves to the religious- family that worships in ancestral hall E. But occasion- ally they may join with those who worship in ancestral hall F, or with those who worship in the original ances- tral hall D. The religious-family A, B, C has, however, been fractured by the infiltration of Western culture elements. B no longer joins the religious-family because the head of the family,—in this case both natural and economic— III-36, is a Christian and therefore does not worship his ancestors. Practically, then, AC constitute the religious-family of this ancestral group. That B, through III-36, could break away from the religious-family and still not be ostracized from the village community testifies to the loosening of village attitudes and values. At present he holds the respect of the community by virtue of his high scholastic achievement in modern science and thought and by his sterling character. He still derives income from his inheritance in Phenix Village. The influence of Phenix Village values over A, B, and C is weakening all the time. A is in Chaochow. The daughter, IJI-18, was at one time betrothed but because she objected to the young man the father withdrew the marriage contract. III-16 is now betrothed. III-21 is an emigrant to Canton. Group B is now living in Swatow where, during the absence of the husband and father, III-36, the mother, III-37, acts as chia-chang of B. In matters of sufficient importance concerning her husband’s property in the village, she might, if THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 161 necessary, consult III-45 before acting for her husband. Otherwise this group B constitutes a family operating under the separate-home principle common in Western culture and now being advocated by many Chinese reformers of familist society. Group C exhibits the characters of the polygynous natural- and economic-family. IJI-45 was married and had one child, a daughter who was married to a man in Chaochow. He married a second time to III-43 by whom he had two sons and a daughter. The latter has married a man also from Chaochow. This natural- family, I1]—45-43, I1V—21-20-12, had lived in the ances- tral home (Figure 5) in Phenix Village. At present only the mother and one son, IV-12, live there. The oldest son, [V—20, has emigrated to Siam. III-45 then took a concubine, III-35, by whom he has had five children, two girls, 1V—6-9, and three boys, IV-—3-11-14. This family he located in a house in Tan Tou, across the river from Phenix Village. They live alone except when the father visits them. IV-6 has been betrothed and has gone to the home of her future husband to live. The betrothed boy’s family takes the betrothed girl for two reasons: they get another person who will work and they can train her in the attitudes and practices of her new family. The device is an excel- lent one to prevent disharmony that might otherwise be introduced when an adult woman is brought in as a wife. This method insures complete assimilation into familist arrangements. Finally, II1I-45 took a second concubine, I]I—27, with whom he is now living in Chao- chow and by whom he has had one daughter, IV-—10, and two sons, IV—5-3. All those included within the dotted lines in Figure 6, C, are living together economically but eating from 162 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA separate stoves. This one natural-family thus is broken up, so far as residence is concerned, into three distinct groups, one living in the ancestral home in Phenix Vil- lage, one in Jan Tou, and one in Chaochow. Over III- 43, [V-12 in the ancestral home, the concubine, I-60, has authority in small matters except when the chza- chang, III-45, is present in the ancestral home. So when the writer visited the village and was entertained in the home depicted in Figure 5, this woman, I-60, was the person to give permission to the request of his com- panion, [V—17, that he be allowed to remain as a guest in that home. In that home, the concubine was practi- cally chia-chang over all within its walls during the absence of III-45. She was treated with the greatest respect by all and was the object of strict obedience and courtesy. The financial affairs and other matters of all those included in C—the heavy-dash lines—lie in the hands of III-45, the chia-chang. They depend upon him for sup- port and he controls their conduct. Although he reg- ularly lives with his youngest concubine, II1—27, he visits his wife and the other concubine whenever his private affairs or ancestral worship takes him to Phenix Village. All the extant combinations of familist organization and groupings are here illustrated in this case analysis. The three families represent all stages of evolution from the traditional polygynous and conventionally administered type, C, through the case of partial modification of attitudes (III-18) in A, to a completely modernized monogamous family in B. Here also are two instances of emigration, one to Canton and one to Siam. The patrilineal character of the religious-family is clearly discerned, for under exogamy the women are disregarded when married out. THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 163 IV-17 was asked to write down all the relatives whom he thought of as most closely connected to himself and his family and to indicate their ages. Following is the list, Romanized according to the dialectic equivalents: 1. Lao Po—57—grandmother 2. Ah M—45—paternal aunt 3. Lao Sim—42—paternal great aunt 4. Tsai Yuen Lao Dzaik—61—paternal great uncle 5. Tseng Yao Lao Dzaik—56—paternal great uncle 6. Sung Leng Lao Dzaik—55—paternal great uncle 7. Keng Heng Dzaik—25—paternal uncle 8. Tso Dzaik—22—paternal uncle _ 9. Yung Siang Dzaik—22—paternal uncle 10. Men Siang—14—paternal cousin 11. Tian Hao—17—paternal cousin 12. O Ma Dzaik—16—paternal uncle* (‘‘ black hair’’) 13. Tsiah Ma Dzaik—14—paternal uncle* (‘‘brown hair’’) 14. Ong Ma Dzaik—12—paternal uncle* (‘‘red hair’’) 15. Ah Sang—14—paternal cousin 16. Keng Heng Sim—24—paternal aunt 17. Yiong Sian Sim—20—paternal aunt 18. Dzu Sian Lao Sim—4o0—old paternal aunt 19. Tseng Yao Lao Sim—45—paternal great aunt 20. Dzu Sung—14—paternal cousin (by concubine) 21. Ah Tsang—1o0—paternal cousin (by concubine) The various degrees and ranks of relationships are designated by fixed categories of kinship as dzatk or sim with adjectives added to distinguish members of the same generation. These distinctions may be purely conventional, as in the case of the three brothers who all had coal-black hair. The names were given to the boys by their parents and the whole community accepted the nicknames and added the kin appellative. ‘ Pater- nal’’ does not mean ‘‘father’s’’ but ‘‘on the father’s side.’’ Whenever IV-17 meets any of these people he *Three brothers. 164 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA addresses them by the names indicated above. The use of this kinship nomenclature is an effective device to maintain consciousness of kin relationship among the village folk. This helps to maintain village solidarity. SLAVES Mention has been made of slaves. They are maid- slaves, young girls bought into the homes of the richer economic familist groups for several tens of dollars. Poor families need money and have too many daughters. The daughters consume rice and need clothes; when they are grown up they leave the home and furnish additional service to the productivity of the economic family of the group into which the girl is married. The parents in poor families consider it better therefore to get rid of the girl at the first opportunity and thus free them- selves of her expenses and at the same time get some cash. Even some of the families classified as fair may have a slave-girl to assist in the hard work about the home, if opportunity should arise. The treatment of the slaves or house-maids differs with the various families, depending upon the disposi- tions and ethical standards of the masters and mistresses. They are primarily under the control of the wife and ultimately under the authority of the head of the economic family. He has complete control of and may sell the slaves or marry them off whenever he wishes. Although they come close to chattel property, they are still human beings and this fact is not lost sight of by the community. Unfair or harsh treatment would be subjected to the criticism of gossip. Under the circumstances the life of the slaves is hard. They are brought in as workers or servants to do the difficult and toilsome tasks about the home. They must THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 165 draw water, cut wood, pound rice, wash clothes, cook, clean, care for the children, and so on. They are the first up in the morning and the last to retire. When they attain maturity they are either sold off as con- cubines to rich persons or married to men of poor families. A son of the family may take a slave-girl as a concubine, though this is rare. If the relations between the slave and the mistress have been amicable, the two would continue to communicate with each other in terms of blood relationship, with gifts and other courtesies. Other- wise, the relation ends when the slave leaves the home. There are no male slaves known in Phenix Village. This is due to the fact that no families would sell their sons into servitude. Sons have higher status than girls because of their potential position in an economic family as producer and in the religious family as wor- shipper. A boy may be bought from a poor family but he is never made nor considered a slave. He is adopted and given the status of a son. Not all of the girls brought into the homes are slaves. As in the case of IV-6 (Figure 6), mentioned above, baby girls are bought into the poor families to be the future wives of their baby sons. This is known as adopting a baby daughter-in-law. The reasons for this practice are: (a) it is more economical; the baby costs less than an adult girl and the wedding ceremonies may be simplified or even omitted; (6) an additional worker is secured for the home; (c) the child is trained into the habits of the family. Sometimes instead of purchase there is an exchange of girl babies between families in which there are infant sons and infant daugh- ters. There are no more mouths to feed under this arrangement and everything put into the prospective wife will be returned to the economic family later on 166 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA when she has become a dutiful wife and an economic producer. Better to train, clothe and feed a permanent member of the economic family than a temporary one, especially when the temporary one will be lost just at the age of greatest economic productivity. Daughters are regarded as the eventual property of others; while daughters-in-law are looked upon as permanent property of the husband’s economic family. The practice does not always work out successfully, however, for the familiarity between the betrothed persons leads to disrespect. They do not love each other in many cases, murmur and quarrel, and even break out in open fights. Moreover, the treatment of the girl by the mother-in-law is sometimes of such a character as to create estrangement within the village groupings and with the girl’s own family. It also en- courages early marriage, which is bad when the persons have not attained biological maturity. It does, however, displace effectively infanticide. MATING AND MARRIAGE In describing and analyzing the mores of mating, it is well first to note the forms of preferential mating that exist in Phenix Village. The preferences can be made clear by the use of the following simplified and idealized relationship chart, Figure 7, although all the combinations can be discerned in Figure 6. All those marked C or C’ are siblings, have the same surname, and under the incest rule are not preferred as mates. They are parallel cousins, father’s brother’s children,! and marriage among them is taboo. C5, C6, C’7, C’8 are not preferred mates. It is on this basis that the sib is called exogamous. So strictly 1 Lowie, R. H., Primitive Society, p. 26. THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 167 is this rule observed that even though people from distant parts of China should move into a region they could not intermarry with people of the same surname, because they are regarded as siblings. When one realizes that the total number of family names in China is limited—theoretically to a hundred, but practically there are more—then the difficulty of finding suitable mates becomes quite great. This difficulty has been overcome by the acceptance of the following social 4M 44 th © [eho wil @) 3] €) ler] © [ey] © FIG. 7. PREFERENTIAL MATING device: people of the same surname but five generations removed, may intermarry provided they have a name which may readily be changed and provided a slight change is made. There are some classic examples of this: ing is changed to muh by dropping one-half the character; wang is changed to wi by adding a dot. Mates with no blood connection at all may be, and theoretically are, preferred. But suitable mates of this kind may not be available because of the surname limitation of the range ofselection. It isnot uncommon, therefore, that first cousins by blood through the father’s sister may intermarry but only under certain circum- 168 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA stances. There is in fact a limited sort of cross-cousin marriage. Thus C6 can marry B3, 1.e., a girl may marry her father’s sister’s son; but C5 may not marry B4,i.e.,a boy may not marry his father’s sister’s daugh- ter. The latter marriage is taboo because of the tra- ditional attitude that the boy has only his father’s blood and the girl has only her mother’s blood. B3 is considered to have the blood of B, the fathér; while B4 is thought to have the blood of B, the mother. But the mother has the blood of C5 because C5, being a son, has the blood of his father C, who is brother to the. mother B. In other words B4 and her mother are con- ventionalized, so far as mating is concerned, into siblings, but they are not practical members of the paternal sib. At, A2, B3 and B4 can intermarry because they are not siblings and so possess different surnames, even though they are closely united by blood. These ranges of preferential matings indicate that the taboos are quite conventional, although originally there was a notion of the undesirability of too close connection by blood as is shown in the prohibited type of cross- cousin mating. The incest rule applies on a conventional but not ona biological basis. Exogamy was previously a customary value but recently it has been incorporated into law.! Legally cross-cousin marriage is prohibited by law, but custom and not law still rules in Phenix Village in these matters. The most superficial study of the Manchu laws, followed by a comparison of them with customs all over China, reveals a multitude of such discrepancies. There is no levirate in Phenix Village but there have been some cases of sororate. There is no fixed attitude on this matter; it is not enjoined by social opinion, but 1 Jamieson, op. cit., pp. 38 f. THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 169 it has happened. These cases could hardly, therefore, be called true sororate, for a man can only marry one woman; in which case the sisters would have subordinate positions as concubines. The reason given for taking the younger sister or sisters of the wife as concubines, is that familist harmony would be assured. Rules for the selection of secondary mates as con- cubines are not so definitely formulated and promulgated. In general they follow those concerning the selection of the wife. There is this difference: in selecting a primary mate the economic-family head, acting for the group asa whole, determines the matter; while in selecting a concubine, the man himself is the judge. In the former case, the arrangement is a familist one; in the second, a personal one. Primary mating is conventional; secondary, is based on sex-love. The exception to this is when a husband selects a secondary mate instead of a servant or slave. Other values must be taken into consideration in the selection of mates that cause certain girls to be preferred above others even when the surnames differ. For example, the wealth, scholarship, prestige of a family from which a girl is selected must be either better or equal to the boy’s family. This rule does not apply in the selection of the secondary mate. In fact it could not, for secondary mates are cases of clear purchase and well-to-do families consider it a disgrace to marry their daughters as concubines. Only poor families that need the purchase price would submit to such practice. A man may then secure by purchase any poor but desir- able mate as a concubine with limitations set only by his own taste and judgment. Preferential mating prac- tices in the case of the first wife are mores; those in con- nection with the concubine are folkways. 170 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Under these limitations and according to the foregoing values, the mating mores must be carried out. Inasmuch as the only conventions of effecting a selection of a concubine are personal judgment, purchase and delivery, no more attention at present will be given to practices of secondary mating. In the case of the first wife, the betrothal practices are fixed, highly conventionalized, have a long history, and are scrupulously followed. Children are betrothed quite young, usually between eight and ten years of age. Betrothal is always con- summated through the office of a go-between or match- maker. This person may be a relative or an outsider; he may be amateur or professional. It is the business of the match-maker to negotiate the pre-marriage arrangements in a way satisfactory to both parties, in which case his own fortunes are likely to be improved through gifts or a commission. The initial steps may be taken in three different ways: a match-maker may suggest to either a boy’s family or a girl’s family that the time has come to select a mate, whereupon the authorities may give him right to pro- ceed; a boy’s chia-chang may himself call in a match- maker to proceed to the selection of a mate; or, as is usually the case, the father of a girl will write the girl’s eight characters, the hour, day, month and the year of her birth, then go to a match-maker and ask that person to find a desirable family. He may specify which family he considers most satisfactory. Once the match-maker is given the right to proceed with negotiations, he then visits around until he finds two families who agree in a preliminary way to test out a betrothal. This is followed by an exchange between the two families of the red cards on which are inscribed the eight characters and the name of the chia-chang of THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 171 the child involved. This information is necessary for the determination of the acceptability of the boy and girl as marriage-mates. The cards are then taken by either the father of the boy or the match-maker to a fortune-teller to divine the horoscopes of the two children. If, according to the astrological charts of harmonious and antipathetic qualities that are deemed to be associated with definite hours, days, months and years of birth, the birth times of the two people supplement or complement or har- monize with each other, then they are deemed suitable marriage-mates. The potential marriage-mates never see each other during the betrothal negotiations and their own personal consent is not essential. Usually they behold each other for the first time on the day of marriage. Selection of mates is thus made on a highly conventionalized basis. Not only do the persons themselves have nothing to do with the selection of primary mates, but even the heads of the economic families play only a secondary and initiatory rdle. They may agree on an alliance satisfactory to them but if the horoscopes are not favor- ably divined, the betrothal may not be consummated. Thus is the matter finally taken out of the hands of people entirely and put into the realm of spirit. Fate decides all things. Fate determined the time of birth and it will determine the hour of death, the manner of death, and the experiences between birth and death. It is useless to strive against fate. All one can do is to learn the will of fate and conform in the best possible way. One may try to outwit fate but sooner or later one is doomed to defeat. Such are the attitudes that people hold regarding the great events and experiences of life. As children they are taught 172 COUNTRY \LIRECINGSOU THC Riis these things; they are told stories that illustrate how people refuse to conform to fate in marriage matters only to discover finally that fate rules all. Children adopt these attitudes and come to believe that only by divina- tion can they discover the mate that fate intended for them. When the horoscope is favorable they regard the decision as the revelation of fate and are quite willing and ready to abide by it. Sociologically this spiritual sanction of the marriage is considered in some mysterious way to represent the will of ancestors. No one knows exactly what fate is, but the belief is that somehow the spirits of departed ancestors play an important réle in the destiny of the living. The children are trained to believe that these matters are quite beyond their control and understand- ing; all they can do is to acquiesce and exhibit filial piety by being obedient. These attitudes hold firmly the individual who would otherwise vary and revolt from this type of social control. It is doubtful whether without this spiritual sanction, back of which is the social opinion of the village community, young persons could be made to abide by betrothal arrangements when they grow to maturity. When spiritual sanctions are added to social sanctions the controls become doubly effective. Only by understanding these attitudes toward fate can a Westerner appreciate why so many of the marriages are successful. In truth, Phenix Village marriages ‘‘are made in heaven.”’ When the red card is first sent to the girl’s family, the boy’s family sends with it cakes or sweets. This step in the negotiations is called popularly ‘‘asking the name’”’ and ‘‘eating sweets.’’ Once the red cards are exchanged, the details of the negotiations accepted, the betrothal is concluded and is tantamount to a legal contract. If THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 173 neglected or disregarded the offended party may sue in court. Upon the conclusion of these arrangements the girl’s family distributes the sweets throughout the neighborhood and announces the betrothal of the daugh- ter to “‘so-and-so.’’ Thus is created an area of gossip about the matter, which provides the basis for social opinion that makes for the consummation of the agreements. | Usually there is money involved in betrothal nego- tiations, either as definite purchase, as among the poor, or as gifts, among the rich. It is the chief business of the match-maker to relieve the contracting parties of possible embarrassment by conducting all the nego- tiations between them relative to the details of obligations. With the red card that is sent to the girl’s family, after a satisfactory report upon the eligibility of the children as mates by the diviner, must be sent money and possibly gifts. Usually the boy’s family will at that time send about one hundred dollars. Among the poor, the boy’s family may send four dollars, twenty- four dollars or forty dollars, according to their resources and the agreement reached through the match-maker. Sometimes, in addition to sweets and money, silk cloth is sent to the girl’s family. Theoretically at this time the money involved is simply a gift and is supposedly not fixed by the match-maker and the parties involved . and, therefore, is not to be taken as a purchase price. The match-maker is supposed to arrange for the details of further moneys and gifts. Practically, however, the match-maker does have a part in the determination of these preliminary evidences of goodwill through his conversations with the parties about the status and wealth of the families concerned. 174 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Among the poorer families this money is taken as a guarantee that the bride will have the necessary articles for her comfort when she joins her husband’s family. So in the negotiations the practice has arisen for the boy’s family to specify the articles that the bride will bring with her, presumably purchased by the money sent from the boy’s family. Certain poor families try to purchase much less furniture than the amount would warrant so as to keep the remainder. Such tactics sometimes cause the monetary aspects to become pure purchase of a bride. Cases have been known where purchase was effected as coldly as that of any chattel in the market place. Generally the poorer families ask more money and less furnishings. Among the rich, however, money is kept in the bade ground. They negotiate more about furnishings and property inheritance than about money. So the boy’s family stipulates what the girl’s family shall send with the bride. Such things might be a table, two long benches, a bureau, a chest of drawers, a bathtub, toilet bucket, bed covers, wine cups and wine pot, tea cups and tea pot, ivory chopsticks, two clothes boxes, wash basin, and a pewter bowl with a plate cover on which olives are placed, which accompany the bride when she goes to her husband’s home, and are put in the guest room for exhibit the first few days of the marriage ceremony. Where there is such definite specification of what the girl’s family shall send in exchange for the gifts of money sent by the boy’s family the practice can hardly be called marriage by purchase. Apparently, marriage by purchase is deemed a negative value in Phenix Village. Beyond what the girl’s family can provide or does furnish the bride, they are expected to supply her with THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 175 clothes, There is no stipulation as to quantity or quality. They are determined by the pleasure and the resources of the girl’s family. In brief, the custom is to expect the girl’s family to send with the bride what- ever she will need for her own room and her own personal use in the home of her husband. Sometimes, however, when the family of the girl is very rich it will accept no gifts from the boy’s family but will provide the girl upon her departure from home with money ranging in amount from several hundred to several thousands of dollars, perhaps a few acres of land and even two maidservants. In such a case there is no hint of purchase in any form. If the girl’s father gives the title deed for the land to the girl herself, upon her death the land is inherited by her posterity only; otherwise, it reverts to the family of her father. While she is alive the husband has practical authority and control over her possessions and enjoys the usufruct of them. He may even sell her lands if necessary for the support of their common descendants. Such prac- tices among the rich are instances of conspicuous display that enhance the prestige and status of the family. About ten years after betrothal the date for the marriage ceremonies is fixed. Table XII (page 176) throws some light on the age of marriage. In the cases given, the age for girls is approximately eighteen years and for boys, from one year to a year and a half younger. These ages are arrived at by an analysis of the data con- tained in Figure 6 where the ages of the mothers and fathers and children are inscribed within the circles and squares. By subtracting the age of the oldest child and making the necessary corrections, the exact age can be secured. Girls are commonly older than boys at mar- riage, contrary to what one might expect. 176 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA TABLE XII AGE AT MARRIAGE OF NINE MOTHERS AND FOUR FATHERS Age of Age of Age of Mother Mother Oldest Child at First Birth (1) (2) (3) 60 39 2I 39 21 18 40 18 22 2I 3 18 a7 17 20 43 21 22 ‘oi hy 21 27 II 16 27 10 17 Average 19 Years, 8 Months Correction 18 Years, 11 Months Correction for Chinese Count 17 Years, 11 Months Age of Age of Age of Father Father Oldest Child at First Birth 39 2I 18 21 3 18 36 17 19 45 27 18 Average 18 Years, 3 Months Correction 17 Years, 6 Months Correction for Chinese Count 16 Years, 6 Months NoTE: The first correction is made to take account of the probable period of pregnancy; the second is made because the Chinese state their age as includ- ing the first birthday. They count birthdays instead of years so that one birth- day must be subtracted to change the figure into a unit of years. Formerly marriages were entirely familist arrange- ments and the government took no part in them. Now, however, the law requires that all marriages be registered THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 177 through the securing of a license for marriage. People nowadays who are married without licenses are punished by the local government. People of Phenix Village secure their licenses and register their marriages with the mayor of Chaochow. But first the marriage date must be fixed. The pro- cedure is as follows: The boy’s family selects a good day for the marriage through the assistance of the necro- mancers or diviners who, on the basis of the eight char- acters, manipulate sixty characters to discover whether the date desired by the boy’s family harmonizes with fate as embodied in the birth characters. When a satisfactory date is recommended by the diviners, the families are notified. The interval between the fixation of the date and the actual marriage is not a predeter- mined one. At the same time the diviners discover the date when, according to the old custom, the boy’s hair should be plaited and the girl’s hair put up in a knot. With the introduction of the new fashion, the boys of Phenix Village cut their hair and wearnocue. Formerly, the boy’s hair was braided by some old man who was the father of many sons and the girl’s hair was knotted by an old woman who had been the mother of many children. At this same time, the diviners also indicate the date on which the boy’s family must send the re- mainder of the money agreed upon at the time of betrothal negotiations in order to fulfill that contract. THE WEDDING _ Within a month after the fixing of the hair the mar- Tiage ceremonies are held. On the day of the marriage the girl rises before five o’clock. The exact time is determined from a calendar that tells what is the best Moment to arise on that particular day. She then takes 178 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA a bath, puts on the special wedding undergarments, and passes the time as usual, waiting until the hour determined from the almanac as the proper moment to eat breakfast with her brothers and sisters. Then she partakes of special food: chicken, pig’s heart, fish, crabs and noodles. The last must be eaten from a dragon bowl. Afterwards she puts on her wedding gown of red satin elaborately embroidered with gold thread, and without her veil goes to the ancestral hall of her own family and bows twice to her mother and father. This is her farewell. Then an escort—a man chosen by her father, who has had many sons, not necessarily a relative of the bride— leads her out of the home to the wedding chair, in which she is carried. to. her husband’s “home. If the parties to the marriage are rich, the wedding chair will be accompanied by a procession: band, banners inscribed with felicitous characters expressing wishes for happi-/ ness, long life, many sons, and so on, and the presents from the girl’s father that had not previously been sent to the boy’s home. Sometimes a relative will walk before the chair with red pillows. The presents that precede the chair are such as earrings, bracelets, rings, hair) ornaments, clothes, bedcovers, and furniture for the\ bride’s own room. There may also be food for the wedding feast to be carried before or after the chair. ; When the procession arrives at the bridegroom’s house, an escort—a man selected by the boy’s father on the basis of ‘‘age and many sons’’—goes out to meet — the bride. The person who has acted as match-maker lifts up the curtain of the bridal chair while the escort leads out the bride and conducts her to the bridal cham- ber. She sits down anywhere in this room and awaits the bridegroom. THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 179 _ ~The bridegroom arises at any time on the morning : of his wedding day, lives as usual until the time for the approach of the chair. Then he puts on a wedding gown of blue silk. He waits around in his home until the chair arrives, when his relatives call him out to carry in the two red pillows. These he places in the bridal chamber. Then he joins the wedding feast provided by the girl’s family for the invited guests and drinks wine with them. The bride does not leave the bridal chamber to partake _ of the wedding feast with the guests. She eats in her - own room the things that she ate at home. Nor does she pour wine for the guests as is the custom in many places in China. She does not drink wine from the same pot with her husband. She simply waits in the room, and when any of the guests wish, they come to her door and view her, whereupon out of respect, she arises and stands with head bowed. Sometimes, the guests crack jokes at her expense but she is not supposed to notice their remarks. At this time, she does not worship in the ancestral hall. After the wedding day, the bride remains in her room living with her husband. After three days she goes out before breakfast and burns incense before S Ming Gung, a small shrine in the ancestral hall of the husband’s home. (See Figure 5. The shrine is located on the table designated 1 in this chart.) Then she waits upon her new parents and bows to them. This act announces to her parents-in-law that she recognizes them as her parents from now on. The wife is supposed to transfer complete allegiance to her new parents. The act of worship announces to the household gods that she has come among them and now belongs to their dominion. Thereafter she will worship at the shrine 180 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA regularly on the first and fifteenth of each month by burning incense and bowing. Then she returns to her own room. Later she goes to the kitchen that she is to use, cleans the table, places on it four dishes with oil, and cooks rice. This concludes the prescribed behavior connected with marriage and marks her ini- tiation into the household duties of her new home. After one month she visits her former parents and returns to her husband’s home immediately after eating with her own parents. Again after four months she repeats the visit. With these two visits her new husband could not interfere. They are the conclusion of all ceremonies for both families. Thereafter the wife may visit her parents according to the will of her husband, whois now her master. The ceremonies by which a new natural-family is set up are simple. They are constituted mainly to inform the community of the new relationship estab- lished. They induct the new member into the economic- family with felicitations for the husband. The formalism is practically all of such a character that it is clearly established for the sake of social opinion. The wishes or attitudes of the marriage mates play little or no part in the proceedings. It is entirely a familist practice for familistic objectives. The chief familist objective is male offspring. Sons and many of them is the principal familist value. To produce sons who shall mature and become active and productive members of the economic-family is the function of the natural-family. It has no other end in itself. It is purely a means to the attainment of the ends of the economic and religious units. The sons inherit, carry on the line of descent, worship ancestors, and so are necessary to familist and village continuity. en THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 181 The marriage-group is set up conventionally to conform to the necessities of biological functionings in socially approved ways. That is why it is always subordinate to the economic or religious familist groupings except where it is identical with them. Identity seldom, if ever, exists at the time of formation of a natural-family or sex-group. FORMS OF MATING Monogamy is prevalent in Phenix Village. There are two reasons for this: polygyny or concubinage is expensive and most of the families can not afford concubines; polygyny at best must be limited by the fact that nature divides the sexes about equally, so that where marriage is expected of all men and women, unless there are single men or a surplus of women, it would be impossible for many men to have more than one wife. A few cases are monogamous on the basis of religious principle: Christian converts do not believe in concubinage. But concubinage in Phenix Village is looked upon as a symbol of wealth and honor. Out of one hundred and eighty-two marriages there are fourteen cases of polygyny. Monogamy and polygyny are here seen together. A man is married only once unless he becomes a widower. He does not marry his concubines. He has a principal wife and subsidiary wives, but still he participates in ceremonies of marriage only in the case of the principal wife. There is one striking exception to all this which has held true through many centuries during the existence of this sib. Emigrants marry women abroad in addi- tion to their wives or concubines who were left in Phenix 182 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Village. These wives are considered as concubines and on that ground are accepted by the community. Actu- ally, social opinion has rationalized a situation that the community has been unable to do anything about. They have simply had to make the best of an untraditional practice. This is shown by the fact that the foreign wives hold positions of prestige in familist groups and in the village; sometimes they rank even above the first wives married in the village. They claim proper marriage according to the laws of the country in which they were married, and their children rank in inheritance equally with the children of the first wife. In these cases the relation must be called bigamous or polyg- amous, and in some cases also polygynous. A man may have a wife and one or two concubines, emigrate, properly marry another wife and bring her home. Generally, marriages are monogamous and polygynous. ANAGAMY Anagamy' exists in the sib but is limited almost en- tirely to those persons who are defective enough physi- cally to make marriage impossible, as in the case of the 1A term coined to cover those people who have never mated in marriage sanctioned by the community. It may include phenomena of prostitution but is broader, for all anagamous persons are not necessarily permanent or temporary prostitutes, whether male or female. In Western countries there are many anagamous persons who never enter into heterosexual relations. Persons to be included under this category would, of course, have to be of a marriageable age, biologically or conventionally, or both, depending upon the people under investigation; conventionally, because among some groups marriage of children even before puberty is practiced, so that the criterion of conven- | tionality would then negate results secured solely on a basis of biological matu- rity. Where the latter is found anagamy is likely to be rare indeed. In Phenix Village the marriageable age would be sixteen years and over. Practically, however, social opinion is tolerant of anagamous persons in the earlier years of marriageability. It would be reasonable, then, to take the up- ward limit as approximately twenty-one years. For the statements in the text concerning anagamy in this village the downward limit of twenty-one years is THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 183 leprous. There is neither acceptance nor approval of anagamy in Phenix Village, such as is found in the United States, for example. Community experience places it squarely in the list of negative values for all persons. While instances of people who are not and never have been married do occur, they are the excep- tions that prove the rule. The above is further evidenced by the fact that those responsible frequently smuggle into marriage persons with clearly recognized physical defect, as the case of the girl who, when married, learned for the first time of the insanity of her marriage-mate. (See Fig. 6, p. 157—IV, 20-1). Such atrocities are possible under the system of absentee match-making prevalent in the village. The absence of anagamy is to be accounted for in terms of conventionality—filial piety and ancestor- worship value-complexes. That anagamy will become important as these complexes disintegrate and lose prestige and as the men and particularly the women gain economic and social independence, is quite certain. Although it may take some time for the following to be true in Phenix Village, cases of anagamy, not socially disapproved, are rapidly increasing in the international and industrialized centers of China, such as Shanghai. adopted, because it corresponds to complete maturity biologically and because it appears to be from the limited data at hand (Table XII) the maximum age of social toleration for anagamy. For countries such as the United States, the limit of classification is not so readily set because of the flexibility of attitudes towards anagamy. It might be suggested, however, that for conservative communities in the United States, the age of majority, or twenty-one years, would best demarcate those persons who, still unmarried, would be classified as anagamous. For progressive com- munities, such as large urban areas usually are, perhaps twenty-five or thirty years would be better limits to adopt. Even the latter would vary as between men and women, and men and women in different economic, social, occupational or professional classes. The lower social groups tend to marry early; the higher, late. Generally women are to-day considered to be ‘‘on the shelf’’ if anagamous at thirty or beyond, but men are allowed further consideration. 184 COUNTRY, LIFE SIN SOUTH Giri? Whether the design of the ancestral homes was deliber- ately worked out for the accommodation of polygynous familism or for familist pluralism it is not possible to determine. Certain it is, however, that the plan does fit either case. The four different kitchens with their convenient suites of rooms (Figure 5) could accommodate one husband with three concubines and their children under one economic arrangement but with a degree of separation for each sub-group or a number of distinct natural-families or economic-families, administering their affairs collectively or separately as the case might be. DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE The dissolution of marriage occurs through separa- tion, divorce and death. Husbands emigrate and never return. Divorce is not a problem in the village. No single case of divorce was found nor could one be remem- bered by any of the informants. If a wife should be guilty of adultery, instead of divorcing her the husband will subject her to the condemnation of social opinion and cause her to commit suicide. If the husband does not like his wife, he may take a concubine whom he can like or he may emigrate and in foreign parts find the mate of his own choice. Even in the case of adultery, the husband would prefer to kill his wife himself than to divorce her. The latter would be considered much more disgraceful. Traditionally a man could divorce his wife for any one of seven reasons: disobedience to husband’s parents; sterility; dissolute conduct; jealousy toward other mates or concubines; incurable disease; talkativeness; and thieving. There were three limita- tions to the foregoing: if she has no home to return to; if she has passed with her husband through three years of mourning for his parents; if the husband were poor THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 185 and had become rich. None of these obtain in Phenix Village, for the people do not divorce for any reason. Emigration and death are the two forms of dissolu- tion. The former occurs with increasing frequency but the great dissolver of marriage is death. Where the death of a husband occurs in a natural-family that is a part of an economic-family, the chia-chang looks after the kith and kin. If the wife dies the husband may marry again. At any rate so long as he is not the chia- chang, he and his children remain under the jurisdiction of and live by the support of the chia-chang of the eco- nomic family. Re-marriage for a widow is strictly taboo. The burial practices all show that the departed person has merely transferred residence from the living to the spirit sib-community. The two are joined in one whole by the ceremonies of mourning and ancestral worship. Formerly, the village folk were buried on the hill- sides. Recently, in 1916, they have built a graveyard in Tan Tou in which lie the distinguished ancestors, male and female. It is about twenty-five by thirty feet, built four feet above ground and surrounded by a battle- mented wall. A polished granite slab marks the re- mains of a grandmother whose name before marriage was Jwin. The slab was simply carved: ‘‘The grave of mother . . . ,née Dwan Seh Jwin.’’ Beside this is the unmarked grave of another grandmother. So within a stone’s throw of the village on ancient an- cestral lands are laid to rest the honored ones of the village community. Their graveyard is a collective representation of the spiritual part of the village com- munity and is just as concrete a symbol as the tablet in the ancestral cabinet where the spirits are supposed to dwell among the living. 186 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Before the chia-chang dies he usually divides his property among his descendants. This occurs after his children have all matured, are married and form natural-families. Thereafter all these natural-families administer their affairs independently and so form economic-families. They may all live in the same ancestral home but they live independently. The old parents, and other remnants of fractured groups live with them and take their meals from family to family in turn. There is no primogeniture; each is treated alike. The property is inherited equally. THE ALMANAC All familist ceremonies and observances of red-letter days are held according to the almanac. Illustration XIII shows the format of the calendar. At the top of each column, enclosed by solid lines, is the solar date; beneath that are indicated the birthdays of gods, etc., —the “‘saints days.’’ Next beneath is the lunar calendar with the signs of the zodiac designated according to the I Ching or Book of Change. Finally, at the bottom of the page and occupying most of the space of each section, is a detailed description of each date under the zodiacal influence and what that influence is for cere- monies, religious and social. When people cannot read the instructions and advice, they simply select those days under which most of the text occurs, for they consider the large sections or the sections printed in red ink as particularly felicitous for important occasions. This copy was secured from one of the homes in the village immediately after it had been used to determine the date of a certain ceremony. In it are found other helpful materials to guide the villager through life. The title page with author, place and date of publication is XIII. THE ALMANAC: THE GUIDE OF FAMILIST LIFE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THE FAMILY AND THE SIB 187 properly executed. Then follows an edict of homely instructions. After that is presented the explanation and interpretation of a metaphysical philosophy ac- cording to the meaning of two character Lz, principle, and Chi, breath. The zodiacal diagram, which is the basis of all necromancy, is included. So also is a medical prescription which purports to be a panacea for all ills. Next comes a classified index of dates of good luck ar- ranged according to the plan of the zodiacal diagram. Finally, there is the calendar already described and analyzed, and then a list of seasonal changes for the years. Such is the character of the pattern upon which vil- lage life builds up. Village custom and values are here precipitated and crystallized into printed form which guarantees stability of convention. None can go wrong with this guide of life. It corresponds to the “family Bible”’ of the devout in Western society. By scrupulously following the admonitions and directions of this almanac, the fortunes of the family grow and happiness is won by all. DEFINITION OF FAMILISM Familist arrangements and practices are the core of the village community. All purposes, all proposals, all conduct, all gains, all standards and ideals are referred to and evaluated by comparison with the fortunes of familist groupings, economic, religious and sib. What- ever conduces to the welfare of the members of these familist groups, to the performance of their special functions, maintenance or worship, is good; everything else is bad. All village life centers about these familist groups. Polity, maintenance, education, art, religion, play—all lead out from and contribute to the economic- 188 COUNTRY) CIFE IN SOUTH GHiIna and religious-families. This is the basis of a kind of society distinctive from any other in the world. ° If capitalism may be defined as that kind of social organiza- tion in which all values are determined by reference to profits; if socialism can be defined as one in which all values are referred to common welfare of the larger group; familism must be defined as a form of social organization 1n which all values are determined by refer- ence to the maintenance, continuity and functions of the family groups. As such, the community here called Phenix Village stands out as an illustration of one of the world’s great forms of social organization—familism. What will happen to familism when it comes to grips with capitalism, individualism, socialism, none will be so bold as to prophesy. This much is clear—familism has its own defensive technic and will offer a strong resistance to encroachments from these other great social systems of the world. CHAPTER WIT ASSOCIATIONS In addition to the familist groupings, Phenix Village “contains a number of social groups of an artificial or intentional character. The basis of membership in ‘them is similarity of attitudes with reference to the objectives or values commonly recognized by the mem- bers. People are born into familist groupings but they choose to join these associations. The members con- stantly shift and change so that the composition of the groups is not permanently fixed. _ They are all formed to meet a clearly recognized need, which may be present and temporary or in the “nature of a future contingency. In the latter case the -association develops an organization that provides sufficient continuity to keep it going until its functions -have been completed. In one way or another, the -groups function for protection, economic gain, and -recreation. The means used may be thought of as mutual aid devices. In practically all of them sociability appears quite definitely during their meetings and assemblies. The six different associations in Phenix Village are the Mutual Aid Club, the Parent Burial Association, the Society for the Manufacture of Sugar, the Irrigation Club, the Boxing Club, and the Music Club. In each case the purpose of the association is clearly suggested by the name. ) THE MUTUAL AID CLUB | | _ The Mutual Aid Club is usually of a very temporary | aia It lasts until each member gets his money : 190 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA returned in cash and feasts, when it dissolves auto- matically without ceremony. «It arises out of the needs of the poor people on the one hand and the refusal of the rich families to give loans without sufficient securities, on the other. When a number of poor villagers find themselves in similar circumstances of financial need, they turn to each other for help. The method of providing this aid has been worked out into a practicable mutual aid device. For example, a certain man needs fifty dollars, presumably for some worthy purpose. He goes to those in the village who are most friendly toward him and who are in similar sit- uations of need and asks them to join his “‘club.’’ He explains his need, the amount of money he wishes to raise, suggests the amount each should pay, which in turn determines the number of people who may be allowed to join. In this instance, when he has found ten persons who © are willing to pay him five dollars each, he has the money he needs. Perhaps a few weeks or a month later, he invites them all to a feast, which costs him about five dollars. This is his first repayment on the instalment plan. The organizer does not pay back in cash but in the feasts which he provides at a cost equal to the amount paid to him by each member. Usually about one month intervenes between each festive occasion. In a club of ten persons in addition to the organizer, it takes ten months until the club ceases to exist. The organizer thus secures with interest, for the first month, fifty dollars, after which he has five dollars less each month until the tenth month when the loan is repaid. At the first feast each member casts dice once and the one who throws the highest score is paid five dollars ASSOCIATIONS IgI by every member of the club except the organizer; in this case, the sum amounts to forty-five dollars. The difference between the total he pays into the club during its existence and the amount paid him when he wins his turn is his contribution to the costs of the feasts.4 At the following feasts the procedure is repeated until each has been paid his forty-five dollars. Thus each man pays in fifty dollars, gets out forty-five in cash, which he has the use of as a lump sum, according to his fortunes in winning his turn to receive this amount early in the series of payments. Besides, he does the organizer a favor which may stand him in good stead if he should ever want to organize a club, enjoys the feasts with the food, the companionship and conviviality. Table XIII (page 192) shows how the plan works out in practice. By reckoning the interest on the money each person pays out and what he receives at the rates of two per cent and ten per cent, one can see the probable ranges of gains or losses accruing to each member. These rates are very low, for not infrequently interest rates on loans run as high as twenty per cent per month. While this method is frequently used, the exact details of it may vary from time to time according to the wishes of the members. 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In most cases, the capital investment in such associations ranges for each member from five to fifteen dollars. In appraising a social organization of this kind, it is necessary to remember that people enter into volun- tary associations when they discern some clear gain, when they think by so doing they can satisfy their wishes. The gain does not have to be economic; the fulfillment of a wish or complex of wishes is recognized as gain. The organizer determines upon the institution of such a club because he wishes first of all to add to his security by getting the money he needs. The wishes for personal recognition also secure at least partial satisfaction in the friendships of the club; and new ex- perience is enjoyed in the conviviality and fun of the feasts and meetings, thus adding a very definite recrea- tional feature in a community with few opportunities for escape from monotony. How far the wish for domi- nance is involved depends upon the use to which the organizer may put the money which the members ad- vance to him. The organizer is the leader of the club; without doubt his position as leader affords him some satisfaction for his wish for superiority. In so far as the money he gets helps him successfully to manage or improve his financial affairs he thereby insures his status in the community. He is able to continue to play his role as he conceives that rdle to be, which is the impor- tant aspect of satisfying a wish for dominance or public recognition. But what intentions lead others to choose member- ship in these organizations? All these wishes in various combinations enter into their motivation. The sociabil- ity element for the ordinary members is probably the 194 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA greatest attraction, especially when the club offers feasts. The talk, the banter, the gossip all provide recreation tinged with an overtone of physical satisfaction over the good food and wine. The gambling element in the use of dice or the bids on the slips of paper provides new experience, a thrill, and dominance for the winner. Especially would this be true where a man received his repayment early in the history of the club. Then his social self enjoys a feeling of expansion as he receives from the other members their regular stipulated pay- ments. His personal use of the money may further his interests and enhance his economic fortunes,—his security, which in turn may provide him with an im- proved status in the community. The commonly recog- nized reason for entrance into such a club is not so much the friendliness to the organizer, the feasts with their sociability, the excitement in the gambling—these are all adventitious and additional—but the chance to save or to win money. The fundamental purpose of the club is always mutual aid; each thinks he will be able to meet his own financial needs better by joining the association. This character- istic is persistent. The other functions vary according to the personal differences of the members. Sociability may vary from zero up in any particular case; so also new experience: but personal recognition is a result of every such grouping. Even in the purely financial agree- ments where there are no feasts or teas, the organizer must have the confidence and friendship of the members. While friendship, is. persistent in such associations in Phenix Village, it does not necessarily exist in similar associations in the cities. There the nexus may be purely perceived opportunity for economic gain and the persons joining may be mere acquaintances of the or- ASSOCIATIONS 195 ganizer who are willing to chance their luck. But the familist attitudes in the village and the primary face- to-face relationships which reénforce them, make friend- liness important in the institution of such a voluntary grouping in this rural situation. A further function of this type of association is shown in the organization of the group. Anyone with friends enough can organize a group. As the organizer, he is the leader. When it is remembered that the ordinary person in Phenix Village has no citizenship status in himself, that as a member of the several familist groups, economic, religious or sib, his personal desires are made strictly to conform to tradition and common law, and that his only chance for leadership which is embodied in his social system is likely to be that over the members of his natural-family,—and it is even there highly limited by the rights and duties of his chza-chang—then it can readily be seen that such associations afford quite an opportunity for the expression of a natural tendency to leadership. There are, in fact, few people in the world who do not at some time or other long for a chance to stand out before their fellows and enjoy the feeling of superiority. Desire for leadership is not confined to economic classes nor to specific kinds of human aggregations. It is found among all peoples, in all classes, and in all human situa- tions—villages as well as cities. The leadership in such societies rotates among the various villagers who comprise them. The practice is a societal device of great personal significance. Motivation in membership comprises a complex of attitudes: tendency to enhance the economic status, desire for companionship, gossip, gambling, leadership, and service to one in need who is at the same time a 196 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA relative. The advancement of any one member of the familist group is in a way the advancement of all. Finally, the democratic implications of this type of group functioning and organization can not now be satisfactorily determined for lack of sufficiently objective criteria. The leadership experience gained in organizing such societies is of a very limited character both quan- titatively and qualitatively. It can not be assumed at all that the habits developed in such group leadership would suffice for more complicated needs of civism. It is true, however, that the fundamental notion embodied in this type of voluntary association for mutual aid is identical with democratic social organization. It would seem, then, that any extension or development of civism which would be desired by new leaders in Phenix Village might be built upon these spheres of recognized need and of responsibility because of the feature of inter- dependence amongst the members. New education for civistic arrangements could well found upon the associational attitudes as exemplified in the Mutual Aid Club. THE PARENT BURIAL ASSOCIATION The Parent Burial Association partakes of this same characteristic of economic assistance. Its purpose is fundamentally benevolent. In the past it has flourished among the poorer families. In recent times, however, even the rich families have found it worth while to join these associations. It is difficult for them by ordinary procedure, to find help during the period of mourning. At present there are two of these associations in Phenix Village. What is the need and what is the situation that give rise to this form of voluntary grouping? It has already ASSOCIATIONS 197 been mentioned that over half the people of Phenix Village are dependent upon the other half in varying degrees. Poverty and death are haunting spectres of the poor. They roam through the village and inspire fear that is not physical but social. It is not that the villager fears death; his belief in Fate relieves him of that worry. But to think of his parent drawing near to the time of departure without adequate funds for proper rites and burial,—this is a real fear. To fail in the provision of rites, feasts, coffin, and funeral would be conduct the most unfilial and condemned by social opinion. The family would be disgraced and the prestige of the village lowered in the estimation of the regional community, so far as gossip would extend on the matter. Every one, rich or poor, must die; the son knows that the needs arising out of the parent’s death are inevitable. Foresight is required of the poor that the material means of the social requirements may not be lacking when the time comes. Such are the attitudes of the poor toward a familist crisis created by the death of a parent. That it is not death itself that primarily inspires the fear is further attested to by the fact that the rich families also need such associations. They have money and ordinarily are able to employ what help they need. They can finance the material needs of burial ceremonies. With them, as with the poor, the real fear is a fear of inability to meet the required demands of a parent’s death as prescribed by community tradition. With them, in contrast to the poor, the need is not for finances but for hands to help in the performance of the humble but necessary duties of laying out the corpse, mourning, and so on. The rich suffer but one need; the poor face two. 198 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA The crisis that exists for rich and poor alike arises out of the superstitious attitudes of uneducated people toward touching or handling a dead body. The revulsion against it is deep-seated. The villagers consider a dead body unclean and likely to bring a curse upon those who come into close contact with it. Quite naturally, — few seek and all avoid as much as possible the giving of such assistance. So strong is this attitude of avoid- ance that often not even money can buy for the rich the assistance they need at such times. That is why, in order not to fail in their traditional duties, they too join the burial associations. Not only are people needed to handle the corpse and the coffin, but also to assist in the mourning rites. Wail- ers are needed to exhibit to the countryside the deep grief suffered through the departure of the respected parent. The more wailers, the greater the filial piety and, consequently, the greater the prestige the family achieves. This wailing is not a desirable occupation and villagers avoid it as much as possible. Rich and poor both find it difficult to secure mourners. Here the avoidance attitude is secondary to that regarding the corpse. Some- times the attitude is even transferred to members of the natural-family which has lost someone by death. People simply prefer to stay away from homes where there are dead bodies. Some societal device is clearly necessary in order to guarantee the performance of the death duties, the burial rites and ceremonies. The avoidance attitudes must be either neutralized or supplemented; otherwise the social and religious needs of the death-crisis cannot be met. The Parent Burial Association, by creating voluntary bonds of responsibility prior to the appearance of the specific and undesirable duties, represents familist ASSOCIATIONS 199 technic of adjustment and resolution of the crisis of death. Inasmuch as historically the associations have been found chiefly among the poor, their groups may be re- garded as the types, while the forms that include the rich people are variants. The needs that the poor have to meet through their groups are greater than those of the rich, so one can expect to find more inclusive functions embedded in their organizations. Thus, for example, in order to prepare for the in- evitable, those who have aged parents organize them- selves into a Parent Burial Association with the definite intention of supplying for one another, as needed, money and labor. While the parents of the several members are still alive, the association is rather amorphous and rests simply on a general agreement to codéperate. The members may meet once a year, usually at the Chinese New Year, when they will hold a feast and drink wine to the health and long life of their parents. When one or more parents have died, on this occasion they also conduct religious worship in honor of the deceased. In such a case, the feast is turned into a part of the religious worship. Upon organizing anywhere from ten to thirty people in such an association, the members establish an entrance fee of two dollars per person. This money is then loaned out at the best interest rates available and constitutes the capital funds of this codperative society. When a parent dies, either father or mother, each member will contribute two dollars to the bereaved son. If this money should be inadequate for his needs, he would then secure a loan from the capital funds of the associa- tion. The use of these capital funds, however, is not limited to the needs of the death-crisis; a member may 200 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA secure a loan from these funds whenever he faces a real financial need. At the time of a parent’ s death, in addition to the money contributed toward the burial. expenses, each member will send two persons who are to render assist-_ ance in any capacity, just as if they were performing the last rites for their own parents. This assistance is available until the parent is finally laid to rest in the graveyard. The association continues until the last parent of all the members is properly buried. Then it dissolves automatically for its functions have all been performed. It may last for years, depending upon the vitality of the parents and the filial care of the familist group for the parents. Old age is one of the chief familist values; every attention is showered upon the aged so that their lives may be long among their children. They are con- sidered an honor, not a burden. When it is remembered that often in China “face”’ leads many families to sink into financial sloughs from which they never extricate themselves because of the heavy expenses involved in burials, it will be clear that these codperatives provide a much needed assistance to the poor people. Their first worry is the purchase of the coffin; then there are the candles, the clothes, the priests, the wailers, the feasts, the long watches over the dead, the food and models of things needed by the dead in the spirit world, the determination of the site for the coffin by the diviner who must be paid for his services, the musicians and carriers in the funeral procession, the placing of the coffin, the piling of the earth in a mound over it and into a horse-shoe mound around it, the annual repairs and the worship at the grave during the Tsing Ming festival—all need financing. ASSOCIATIONS 201 Ancestral worship and filial piety hang heavy stones about the necks of the living in Phenix Village as in others parts of China. True, the poor people may bury their dead with less ostentation and thus forego the joys of superiority; but the essential functions must be performed at any cost. The societal needs may be sacrificed to a large extent; the religious needs must be scrupulously fulfilled. Under such circumstances the Parent Burial Association is a very effective form of insurance against the claims of death. The religious complex involved in the basic attitudes of such associations makes analysis very complicated. The beliefs, ideals, standards and practices of ancestral worship in relation to the care and disposal of the dead, particularly the parents, will receive treatment in a later chapter. Here it is necessary to note first, that the simplest needs of the crisis—the care and laying out of the corpse—are primarily natural and are met in this association not by employed assistance but through the mutual aid of the members themselves. Through millennia of social experience and accretionary tradition, religious and community attitudes and values have become stereotyped into minute prescriptions for the disposal of the dead. The more ordinary community values—the elements of display that give ‘“‘face’’?— embodied in burial practices are reénforced powerfully by religious sentiments; the parent, and especially the departed one, is always an object about which much emotional response has been organized, due of course to familist education in filial piety. The residual attitudes are similar to those found in the Mutual Aid Club. The financial benefits are included in the Parent Burial Association: capital funds are used for aid as loans to members, the entrance fee creates a 202 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA sort of mutual savings society, the member because of known advantages can feel more secure as to his economic crises, and the contribution from fellow-mem- bers upon the death of a parent is direct, immediate, and of real assistance when it is needed most. Finally, the intervals between the deaths of the parents of the various members distribute the burden of burial costs over long periods of time; and the instalments in each case are small. Each gets out what he puts in so that the gambling element is lacking in this form of voluntary grouping. In the feasts are to be found embedded recreational and sociability values even though they may be part of the religious worship of the dead parents of members. Wine is always used; it conduces to conviviality. Ability to provide proper burials secures to rich and poor a status in the community unthreatened by the criticism of social opinion and assures them of com- mendation for filial piety pragmatically expressed. Their unity with the living and dead parts of the village commu- nity is strengthened by their ability to conform to the practices of the centuries. Just because the familist attitudes of loyalty to kin have been so effectively inculcated by formal and informal education, the fear of isolation from one’s community is the ‘great fear.”’ To the economic advantages that accrue to members must, therefore, be added a sense of security due to the members’ social and spiritual fitness in the commu- nity. A man can meet the demands of his community tradition and at the same time supply the needs of his nearest and most respected kin in the spirit world. Complete adjustment to two worlds brings a very deep feeling of satisfaction to every villager. ASSOCIATIONS 203 Furthermore, whatever conspicuous elements for public consumption exist in burial practices, that could not be furnished without the aid of the association, bring social approval, attract the attention of the community, and thereby enable each member to enjoy the expansion of his social self-consciousness. The ordinary burial practice avoids public censure; the conspicuous funeral or abundant feast secures bursts of open praise. Then, from every point of view the community considers the task well done. THE SUGAR MANUFACTURING ASSOCIATION Another type of grouping is the Sugar Manufacturing Association. The people form this society to make sugar but even here one finds the religious and social features. When the organization is established they have religious worship in the interests of the success of the undertaking; from time to time they conduct | religious worship so that the good spirits may continue / to favor them; when they dissolve the organization after the completion of the sugar-making, they conduct worship in gratitude for successful enterprising. The social nature of this society is even more prom- inent than the religious. The members work together in a codperative way; the success of one is the success of all. This interdependence forms a nexus of effort and thought that makes for close group unity. When the day’s work is finished, they meet in their common room, built especially for the work of this association, eat, drink, chat and rest. The general relationship among the members is very democratic, for each member feels himself on an equal footing with every other in responsibility and in partici- pation in the benefits of the association. There is also 204. COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA a desire to deal honestly with one another so that the enterprise may not be wrecked nor the investments of time and money lost. Finally, each is supposed to work zealously so that the financial gains from the under- taking may be as large as possible. Products are thus turned out cheaply and with the maximum elimination of waste and duplicate effort. The incapacity of the individual to conduct such manufacture alone because of the capital needed is compensated for by collectivity. The joint investment and conduct of the work brings the members together into a spontaneous voluntary association that offers, in addition to economic gains, opportunities for social and religious activities and gives expression to desires for fellowship, codperation and fair dealing. These are moral habits, and by their exercise in this manner they become generally strength- ened to the good of the community as a whole. The arrangement does not always work out quite as ideally as just described. Difficulties constantly arise; machines break down, men are hard to find, they slack on the job, the weather interferes with harvesting the cane, and so on. In actual practice the members do not equally worry and plan about these matters, which throws greater responsibility upon those who feel that they cannot afford to risk failure of the enterprise and so labor doubly hard. The work tends to be long and hard whether in the field or in the office. All of these experiences develop psychic tensions among the mem- bers, of which nervousness and sensitiveness are the apparent symptoms. Unless these tensions find release, quarrels among the members arise and the enterprise is in danger. Methods of obtaining release, or catharsis, from these work tensions have been developed gradually in the ASSOCIATIONS 205 past until they have become incorporated into the very nature and function of the organization. Thus the religious activities, pursued more or less regularly during the existence of the association, provide some catharsis by entailing unseen powers, gods and spirits, who are supposed to help in return for being worshipped. This transfer of responsibility to higher powers affords at least partial release from tensions arising out of the attitudes of responsibility to one another. The worship in thanksgiving at the close of the life of the association is purely ceremonial and expressive behavior. As such, it has also a catharsis function: it marks the release from all further duties and worries in connection with the association. The religious activities offer catharsis for those ten- sions that arise out of the greater difficulties or crises of the organization as a whole and can thus be met satisfactorily by more occasional religious functioning. Worship occurs at those points in the history of the association which the group readily recognizes as pregnant with meaning for the success of the en- terprise. But in contrast to these characteristics and functions of the religious activities of the group, the social activi- ties are constant and persistent. The daily gathering for dinner at a sort of modified feast, with the drinking and conviviality that go with it, provides in its recrea- tional aspects release from the minor tensions of per- sons developed out of the lesser difficulties incident to the day’s work. Whereas worship offers group release from group tensions developed from the crises of the group, the distinctly social activities, while achieved through group contact, offer catharsis to individual persons for their individual tensions. 206 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Specific technics have thus been worked out to make the required adjustments for specific types of tensions: religious worship for the group tensions of general sig- nificance; social activities for the personal tensions. So do these associations help to maintain the mental health of the people in the rural village community.! THE IRRIGATION COOPERATIVE SOCIETY Another organization of similar type and function is the Irrigation CoGdperative Society. This association arises directly out of maintenance practices and needs due to unfavorable climatic conditions. Successful cultivation of rice becomes impossible when droughts set in, for the paddy fields, instead of being flooded, suffer desiccation. The ordinary practice is to dig small holes at the corner of the fields for the collection of water which is then pumped into the fields as they dry up. But when continued lack of precipitation has forced the farmers to use all of the water from these holes, they are compelled to secure water from Phenix River. Under such unusual and difficult exigencies, the farmer finds himself unable to cope with the crisis. He turns to others for help. Many others in similar situa- tions readily join together and form a codperative society for the irrigation of their rice fields and so save them from turning yellow before the crop is ripe. Each member pledges himself upon joining the association to codperate in every way possible with the others, by contributing labor for the enterprise according to the extent of land to be irrigated. Where lands are too 1 Psychoanalytic explanation of the formation and function of these groups can be applied in a similar way to all the other associations found in Phenix Village. Further explanation need not be applied because the differences would be quantitative not qualitative, ASSOCIATIONS 207 extensive to provide this labor through personal effort, the arrangement involves the employment of hands or the payment in kind or cash to other members of the society who may make up a deficiency in labor. Both men and women are found in these organizations. They divide themselves into shifts to work the irriga- tion pumps and so send a continuous stream of water into the fields. The dominant motive in this group is economic security. The religious and strictly recreational fea- tures are absent, and the sociability element is very weak. The latter is to be found only in the conversa- tion and united physical effort of each shift of laborers as they work on the pumps. There are no feasts or special gatherings of a convivial nature. All of these differences from the other organizations are correlated with loose organization. These groups come closest to the amorphous type previously mentioned. There are no money fees upon entrance; there is only a pledge to contribute labor; there seems to be no definite and clearly distinguishable leadership; all the members are on an equal basis of responsibility and obligation; what integration of authority exists arises entirely out of vague agreements as to the best methods of work, but even these are fixed by custom and call for no delibera- tion; formalities are to be found only in the traditional methods of work designed to meet the crisis, but even they are so slender that they hardly deserve the designa- tion. The function is very simple; a very elementary type of grouping is quite adequate to perform it. THE BOXING CLUB Still another type is the Boxing Club. Some villager who has a slight knowledge of Chinese boxing suggests 208 COUNTRY (LIFE INGSOU PHCGEINY to a number of young men that a fund be raised to secure the services of an instructor and to rent a place for the ‘‘school of self-defense!’ An entrance fee is proposed and, when on that basis enough money is collected to launch the school, an itinerant boxing instructor is employed and a suitable place rented. Usually the classes are held in an old school building or temple where the open paved court serves as an open-air gymnasium. The instruction is given at night when the young men have most leisure. After a few lessons in a series of body movements designed to dispose of an opponent, the pupil is initiated into the mysteries of thrusting, parrying, slashing, and warding with a variety of weapons popular in ancient warfare in China. At first the movements are learned by mass imitation of the instructor; later they are perfected through practice with a sparring partner to develop experience, confidence and precision. When the sparring begins, and especially when the classes convene while the teacher is instructing in a neighboring village, some of the hardier members “‘get rough’’ and troubles arise. Each develops a drive for conquest rather than finesse and precision until the organization comes to a more or less sad ending. In spite of repeated failures to keep alive such asso- ciations, enthusiasts of the sport every once in a while try to revive the club. The need of personal protection is generally recognized so that interest is easily aroused. At the present moment, however, Phenix Village pos- sesses no such club, largely because of the disparate attitudes among the familist groups. While the ostensible aim in organizing such a club is protective education through a coéperative bearing ASSOCIATIONS 209 of the expenses, other objectives and functions readily appear upon analysis of the activities. Skill in boxing is of value for several reasons: it has already been emphasized (Chapter V) that the self-made leaders become particularly effective when they have the backing of a numerous family, but when a large number of their followers are trained in the art of attack and defense, then, indeed, does the leader become formidable and influential in village polity; every man is his own policeman and must be able to protect himself and his property against thieves. The physical exercise is very ‘strenuous and builds up the physiques of the young participants at the same time that it provides fun. The activities are thus both practical and recreational. The protective function meets practical crisis situations as they may arise for individual villagers while the recreative or expressive function offers release from some of the tensions of village monotony. THE MUSIC CLUB Finally, there is the Music Club. It too is an asso- ciation designed to meet a specific need, and dissolves when the need is met. It rests upon a broad basis of community appreciation of music, for the people commonly find recreation and wholesome enjoyment in it; wherever people gather to spend their leisure time music is provided either by professionals as wander- ing minstrels or by themselves. The taste for music is a product of the local theatricals which are presented on the stages set up before the temple doors. Once a year the village turns out for a religious procession, for the success of which there must be at- tractive music. To provide this music, the young people of the village are canvassed, a group is selected to form 210 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA a band for the New Year’s procession. These people are formed into a school similar to that of the Boxing Club. Money is raised by subscription among the villagers who are rich or interested, in order to supply the instruments and employ a teacher in instrumental music and theatrical singing. This instructor may receive a very high salary, and for the two or three weeks he teaches he is treated as a highly honored guest of the village. He must teach the children how to handle the musical instruments, such as the gong, the drum, the cymbals, the trumpet, the flute and the violin and banjo, and to chant and sing the songs popularized by the stage. The pupils are young children of a musical bent, for they can most quickly learn how to handle the instru- ments and sing the theatrical songs. The high falsetto notes of these songs can best be reached by immature voices. For two or three weeks these children receive instruction day and night. Then the instructor moves on to another village but the band goes on practicing until the religious procession is held. When that great annual event is passed, the club disbands, the members return to their major interests, and the children, to school. In this way do the people of Phenix Village receive their education in popular ‘‘jazz.’’ Musical instruction was never undertaken in the old type schools so that the Music Club had to meet the need. To-day, how- ever, regular band instruction is offered in the schools of the village and much rivalry has developed between them to produce the best musicians. The training offered then and now constitutes a course in both production and appreciation. Great skill is required in any group production of music and ASSOCIATIONS 211 the villager is not a stranger to standards of production. The interweaving of the plaintive melody with the intricate rhythms of the brass instruments and the drums and gongs seems a marvel even to foreigners of long residence in China. The harmony secured in such musical production is not one of tone but of rhythm. Many of the pupils do not keep in practice, but when those who never lay aside their instruments for long play the familiar tunes, an appreciative audience is there to listen and encourage. The community function of this association is that of recreation with a tinge of religious significance. Reli- gion furnishes the occasion but does not indicate the real nature of the motivation. There can be no doubt that the desire to make the religious procession a popular success in the region causes the adults to support the club financially; but the ‘‘face’’ of a fine procession enriched with popular music produced by village children, as well as the naive enjoyment of it, is the real attitude that results in the organization and support of this association by the villagers, old and young. From the point of view of the community, the training offered in this club constitutes the only formal type of socialized education in the community, for even in the modern schools the attempts to vitalize the school processes and contents are weak and halting. The benefits to the village are similar to those of the pageants held in America: dramatization, wide participation, historical education, the element of social service in- volved in the production for the appreciation of others. ATTITUDES OF GROUPS On the basis of the foregoing description and analysis of these several types of voluntary associations in Phenix ele COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Village, it only remains to discover the degree of similar- ity between them in order to determine whether or not the regional situation, the complex of social values in the village, and the personal behavior in reaction to these variables have created groupings that possess particularities. Table XIV classifies and compares the relative types and strengths of attitudes that enter into village group- ings and other significant characteristics of voluntary associations. The weighting of the attitudes is done very crudely and somewhat arbitrarily by the use of “pluses” that represent distinct and recognizable motives. The tendency to advance the economic status appears as the predominant attitude among three of the six types of associations; in one other it shares first place and in a fifth, plays a secondary réle; in only one case is this attitude undiscoverable. Next in importance is the attempt to establish per- sonal status or familist superiority and prestige,—the disposition! to dominate, to be superior to, or to control others. This attitude is found in various strengths in all of the societies, although it is predominant in only one; it shares equal rank in one case with the attitude for security and in another with that of personal recogni- tion, but only in a minor way; and among all the groups of the village, it has about the same significance as that which produces friendship behavior. 1This term as here used must not be taken as synonymous ers instinct as commonly employed in psychology. A disposition is far from possessing so natural or elemental a character. Perhaps ‘‘readiness”’ or ‘‘facility’’ would be better terms to use than disposition. It is a product of personal experience —a habit determined by original equipment and the social milieu—influenced by the customs, standards, ideals, organizations and institutions of a com- munity. Its assumed function is similar to that of the so-called ‘‘instinct”’ but its nature is very different. 6 6 ZI QI s[e10 L — | ef | Sees | (WOIsTTOY) syyUOPT MO’T UWOTPEIINIY s01N L a. +++ ++ dISnYL 0} 9UOD (WOI}C91D9yT) MOT uolqa}01g sy WOW + ++ +++ ++ Burxog dUON (oTuI0u007) UOSBIS 10 10qeyT IouMIUINS + — ++++ UOl} eS] MO'T (o1mI0u00q) UOSBIS q3sIH jeydey yoArey ++ + iets ae yes Suryeul-1esns (oTuIOu0n7) sieax ysIH sesusdxy Aue sae te see ae SSE jerng-quereg [ereuny 01 dQ (9Tu10u007F) q3IH AQUOW Teak I —— oes = = ean ee ae Pry [enn (8) (4) (9) (5) (¥) (£) (2) (1) . U0N1U509I0N a9uardagx ay 2IUDULMOG Kyrangas UONDZIUDS AQ PW [Duos dag ma NT : 2 fo 9a480q AUDUAA uouDdAang SU0ND190SS VY poet Sapniny AOVTITIA XINAHd NI SNOILVIDOSSV AYVINNIOA 4O SOILSTYALOVAVHD LNVOIMINSIS GNV SHCNLILLVY FO SHLONAULS AAILLV Tae AIX ATaVL 214. COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA This last—the desire to make and keep friends, to be esteemed or loved for oneself alone, to be personally recognized and taken account of apart from one’s group, voluntary or familist—predominates in none of the groups but is found in all. Although incidental in three types, it plays a secondary rdéle in three others. Would this indicate that the family adequately provides for the satisfaction of the wish for personal recognition, so that voluntary associations for such purposes seem unnecessary ? A consideration of the several functions of the various groups would suggest an affirmative answer. All of these associations arise out of the failure of the familist group to cope with the needs, economic, protective, or recreational. Where the economic-family fails, voluntary alignments of resources and capacities of a codperative nature secure successful adjustment in special crises.! This is further shown in the relative brevity of existence of practically all of these intentional groups. 1It would seem as though when relations founded on likebloodedness break down then the people resort to relations on a basis of what Professor Franklin H. Giddings calls ‘‘likemindedness.’’ As a crude concept describing the socio- psychological situation at the moment of formation of such intentional groups Giddings’ term serves quite well. But it does not indicate any clue as to why or how the likemindedness arises. That similarity of attitude arises, first, from an original ‘‘consciousness of kind’’—a recognition of similar need in the face of similar crisis: water for the fields, or money for some use, such as the disposal of the dead; second, it arises out of group experience which through extended familist continuity has become embedded and formalized into stereotyped devices for the solution of recurrent crises. The use of these stereotyped means of solving problems of life would be more habitistic than conscious. If this is true, then the ‘‘mindedness’’ or conscious- ness would probably exist quite momentarily and in a minor way. So far as these devices, the associations for mutual aid, are habitistically followed they would possess not ‘‘mindedness’’ but mindlessness, which is a quality of habit. People do not need mind when convention has fixed modes of dealing with familiar crises. Such modes are funeral customs and associations, and so on through the long list of village conventions. ASSOCIATIONS 215 Four of these types of groups are designed to meet economic needs. In two, religious values are sought; in two, recreational opportunities. There seems to be a correlation between urgency and severity of the crises to be met in each case and the degree of organization, viz., the exclusiveness of member- ship, definite procedure for the induction and selection of members, definiteness of leadership and integration of authority. Of the groups that function economically, two types are in response to local and regional needs,—the Sugar Manufacture and the Irrigation Associations. This may be true at times of the Mutual Aid Society but it certainly is not true of the other three groups. They represent responses to purely traditional community practices. All these associations are really coéperative societies organized to pay the expenses either by cash, by labor, or by kind, of carrying on the activities of the members. The economic nexus runs like a red thread through a string of beads, binding practically all the groups into a fundamental unity of function and purpose. CHAPTER Viti EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS The general attitude of the village folk toward educa- tion as historically maintained has already been em- phasized in the analysis of village polity. Scholarship has always been a primary social value and therefore an ideal of the village and an object of concerted effort by the village community. Phenix Village folk have considered themselves the fortunate possessors of the favor of the spirits of wind and water—feng shui. Many famous scholars of rec- ognized rank came from Phenix Village. Even rival villages of the region have had to concede the scholastic prominence of Phenix Village and to admit that a favorable feng shui hovered over it. Only so could they explain the high production of successful scholars. That such an attitude was erroneous is of no signifi- cance when explaining scholarship sociologically, as a community value. The belief in feng shuz functioned quite definitely in village opinion; it encouraged the vil- lagers in the production of scholars and substituted a vil- lage policyof strenuous effort and support for Jazssez-faire. Had the spirits been conceived as hostile, effort would have been useless; it were foolish to struggle against Fate. The more scholars that had been produced as generations passed by supplied more certain proof of the favor of feng shuz and so reénforced the popular belief that the village was lucky. The general tone of educational effort was hopeful; every aspirant was considered as having a good chance to win success in EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 217 the competitive examinations and was therefore en- couraged by his fellow villagers. Consequently, when the student entered his exami- nation cell in the provincial capital, he carried with him a belief and confidence in his own powers as well as a sense of responsibility to his sib; he was, in fact, inspired by ‘‘the challenge of a great expectation.”’ With the support and confidence of his sib mates, the people of his district and the spirits of wind and water, failure was impossible. The whole social situation from which he emerged suggested only hope, confidence and success. THE HISTORY OF VILLAGE EDUCATION In view of these attitudes, it is not surprising that the village leaders have always promoted facilities for educational advancement. In time the village found itself thoroughly committed to the policy of providing opportunity for education to every boy of the village, rich or poor, who showed innate capacity for achieve- ment. Historically, there was no discrimination against any of the males who might apply for scholastic honors on an economic basis. Girls were excluded from these privileges because they could not be officials and their learning would be lost to their own sib and probably not desired by the sibs of their future husbands. Boys who were not apt were discouraged. Sex and inability were the only bases of discrimination. A poor boy from any family might fight his way to success and official position and thereby raise his family from the depths of penury. The whole theory of the competitive examinations was democratic. Capacity and achievement in the mastery of the classics according to the standards set up in the Sung dynasty were the 218 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA only requirements for success and honor. The old village educational system was organized for the produc- tion of men who could satisfy these requirements and reflect honor and prestige on Phenix Village. To this end, the village built a special building, the Scholars Hall (marked A on Map No. 3). Here in the old days, up to 1911 at least, successful scholars would meet and teach the boys of the village. The place served also as a sort of rendezvous of learning; scholars of the village and other villages met here to gossip, discuss philosophy, and read their essays and poems. Here were deposited the archives of the sib and the paintings of famous ancestors, done in delicate shades of blue, yellow and red with exquisite precision of line. To-day the Hall is neglected and falling into ruin. But as one sits in the center of the balcony of the second floor and looks down into the court with its old gnarled cedars and stagnant pools, then raises his eyes over the roofs of the village homes to hills across the Han, he can imagine the keen pleasure the scholars used to enjoy while sitting there in meditative reflection on the sayings of their ancient sages. But the situation to-day is different. The power of the feng shui has gone. Ever since the abolition of the competitive examination system and the installation throughout the province of a new educational scheme, the belief in feng shui has wavered and weakened. Scholars of the old type are no longer produced, for men are no longer appointed to official position on a basis of a knowledge of ancient classics. This objective criterion of scholarship has been removed and the popular mind is without concrete methods of determining scholarship. People are confused on the matter, for they have not yet fully learned in what the new kind EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 219 of scholarship consists. As they see it, scholars are no longer coming forth, therefore feng shut has forsaken them. The result of this confusion is a weakening of the concerted demand by the sib for education and a dis- integration of definite policies and methods for the provision of education in accordance with the old standards. The leaders do not understand the new system in theory or practice. Theirown school experience provides them with no points of common appreciation with the modern movement. There is no definite objective in modern education corresponding to official appointment in the old. Consequently effort has slackened as far as the group as a whole is concerned. The general social pressure upon the children to get education is almost non-existent; the ancient com- pulsions of the group are gone. Consequently, only those children are attending school who are sent by their families. The attitude of many, especially the poorer families, has become indifferent toward education. A few parents, however, still recog- nize the need for training in writing business letters, business accounting and in writing and reading simple Wen In... No longer do they dream of their children becoming great scholars and officials. Only the parents in the better families consider education of sufficient importance to underwrite the expenses involved. This is creating a selection of pupils on the basis of wealth— an unhealthy tendency that was checked for a brief period by the mission school in the village but which goes on now with no hindrance whatever. Fortunately for Phenix Village, there have been a number of people who are progressive and intelligent 1 Wen Liis the classical language used by scholars and writers. It is con- trasted with the popular or spoken language. 220 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA enough to press for the establishment in the village of modern education. Ignorant of the details of method, these people have insisted that experts be brought in and schools set up to meet modern needs. The atti- tudes toward this movement have varied. The leaders tend to accept the challenge; most of the people tend to be apathetic or in opposition. As a result, education by 1916 had developed significant trends toward mod- ernization. It was conducted by three types of schools, viz., the old-fashioned school; the school that combined the old and the new; and the reorganized modern type with two forms, the ordinary school, and the mission school that added instruction in the Bible to its curricu- lum. Consistency in method or policy did not exist in this transition period of village education. Such was the educational situation in 1919 and it lasted until 1922, by which time the smaller and old- type schools had completely given way to two schools of the modern kind, which initiated what may be called the modern period of village education. The periods may be summarized as follows: (1) up to IgII,! the period of traditional education; (2) from 1911 until 1922, the transition period, when there occurred side by side old and new methods in education; (3) from 1922 until the present, which may be called the modern period, when strictly new schools, and they alone, pro- vide village education. THE TRANSITION PERIOD The remainder of this chapter will deal with a de- scription, analysis and evaluation, first, of the schools and their administration during the second period, and. 1 The first school with a modified curriculum was opened in the village in | 1905. EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 221 then a presentation of similar data for the modern period. The former is based upon the findings of 1919 and the latter, of 1923. The changes in trends and tendencies can be made clear by a comparison of the two sets of data. In 1919 the investigations resulted in the following findings concerning school education. The buildings used as schools were of various kinds: a house rented and turned into a school, a structure built especially for the purpose from public funds, or an ancestral hall. The Christian mission school was located in an ancestral home; it was rented from one of the village Christians. Four buildings had been specially constructed for school purposes; one soon fell into disuse and another was turned over for different use. Of the three ancestral halls used from time to time as schools, only one was so utilized in 1919. One rented home for the Christian school, one ancestral hall and two specially built struc- tures constituted the facilities for the four schools that gave instruction to 170 boys. None of these buildings were suited to educational needs. They were all poorly or improperly lighted, but there was always plenty of good ventilation. Table XV (page 222) presents a comparison. Each school had one teacher. Of the four teachers one was a scholar of the old system, two were trained in modern schools and one had a mixture of old and new types of curriculum and method. The old type teacher was conservative, knew nothing of modern science or literature and was frequently opposed to all kinds of modern movements for change. He was popular among the villagers, willing to associate _and converse with them in a universe of discourse familiar to them, and ready to render any kind of assistance to 222 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA TABLE XV COMPARISON OF SCHOOLS IN THE TRANSITION PERIOD Type of School Building Auspices Curriculum (1) (2) (3) (4) Private Special Family Old-New Public Special Village New Public Ancestral Hall | Family | Old Private Rented Home Christian Church New (Bible) them within his power. He was boarded around among the parents of his pupils and so received a very small salary. He held his school in the ancestral hall designated D on the map of the village. Such seemed a fitting place for his efforts, reénforced as they were by the traditions of his own class and by the weight of austerity of genera- tions of ancestral spirits looking down upon him and his pupils. He recruited his pupils from the conservative elements in the village. His method of teaching was that of the centuries. He had the pupils memorize the classics and made no effort to elucidate their meaning or interpret them in terms of life’s problems. His classics were not selections adapted and annotated by modern scholars but the pure, unmodified classics, the S Shu and Wu Dying, the Four Books and the Five Classics. His attitude was expressed in his statement: “Their minds will become enlightened by and by. Just now they only need to know the precious classics.’’ It reminds a Westerner of the attitude of many pious parents who helped their children memorize whole books of the Bible, EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 24 firmly believing the magical potency of such knowledge would function in adult life and when needed. The parents were of course satisfied with such methods because they too were taught in the same way and in the same hope that sometime they would know what it all meant. Besides, it had produced in times past famous scholars, and so it was good enough for them. The pupils were expected to be able by the end of a school period to repeat the entire book under study. From day to day they were called upon to recite the lessons assigned and in case of failure were subjected to corporal punishment as an incentive to the next day’s work. Such treatment was also meted out to the mis- chievous pupil; it was in fact the only method of disci- pline employed by the teacher. It was negative and repressive and exploited the child’s fears. The method was never a practical success unless the teacher was excessively severe and harsh, otherwise the schoolroom was in a constant turmoil. The most favorable feature of the old-fashioned method of teaching was the personal attention the teacher put upon each pupil. There was mass super- vision but not mass instruction. A boy might advance as rapidly as possible; he was not held back by his fellow students. Such individuation in instruction is in certain ways thoroughly in harmony with the latest and best educational practices. The new schools would do well to retain this feature of the old school methods.! The new kind of teacher is one who has been taught some of the classics but with explanation and interpreta- tion. He has also learned the elements of modern science, physics, astronomy, geography, botany and history, 1 Compare the Dalton and Winnetka plans in the United States. 224 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA but from textbooks. He bridges the old to the new and is quite proud of his knowledge of modern subjects. After all, however, the difference between him and the old type is not great. He may use adapted classics and ~ add to them modern subjects, yet he uses the same old methods of memorization and his discipline is similar to that imposed upon him when he was a pupil. There is a deliberate attempt at something different; but it is more ‘‘face’’ than real teaching. He is doing the best he knows, and until normal schools and institutes can provide him opportunities for learning improved meth- ods, he must go on as best he can. THE OLD CURRICULUM The curriculum of the old type schools consisted in reading and memorizing the classics, calligraphy, or the practice of writing characters with a brush pen, and some training with the abacus. After depending upon the discretion of the teacher for two or three years, the pupil was called upon to memorize and write a collec- tion of forms of common letters. Still later he took up composition,—of symmetrical sentences, simple verse, and finally, the eight-legged essay. There was no instruction in play nor in music. While there was some training in artistic composition in writing the characters according to models, there was no further instruction in line-combination, representation, or color-fusing. The whole curriculum was very narrow in scope and in method of application. It was cast upon a hard-work level, the theory being that the difficulties developed persist- ence and character and so should not be made easy. The whole curriculum was built to train into a single vocation: the successful pupil was headed for official position in the government. In the use of the abacus EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 225 and in learning letter-forms and reading, the curriculum did provide skills that had practical value in other voca- tions. There was no deliberate training for leisure activ- ities, but scholars and pupils used to pass hours of leisure time writing characters and reading. While education was vocational it was narrowly aimed at one vocation. During the last ten years important changes in the whole cultural situation in China have been brought about by the introduction of what is called the National Language. Leaders trained in ancient classics and modern science and literature have undertaken to raise the popular language into written form for journalistic and book purposes. The government through the depart- ment of education has endorsed this movement to simplify the language and displace the Wen Lz, hoping thereby to facilitate the spread of learning and develop a literate citizenry. In view of this change the practical values noted above tend to disappear, for in this old type school, instruction did not continue long enough for the pupil really to master the intricacies of language forms. The pupils were not trained in the new National Language; what they were learning was being used less and less all the time. This is one of the main reasons for the final bankruptcy of the system and the complete substitution of modern curricula in the new schools established in 1922. The administration of this curriculum followed a very crude schedule, in that writing, reading and recitation were carried on in regular order both morning and after- noon. Once in a while the teacher took a rest for a week or two and the pupils enjoyed a brief respite from their grind. The school usually opened in the middle of the Chinese second month—about the first of April—and closed in the eleventh month—about the middle of 226 | COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA January. During this year there were two vacation periods of a month each, during the harvest seasons of summer and late fall. The length of the school year was approximately eight months. Study was continuous except for the holidays and vacations al- ready noted. It amounted to about 240 to 250 days each year. Even that time was entirely inadequate to master the difficult technic required by the classical régime in education. EDUCATIONAL REORGANIZATION That these insurmountable difficulties drove the leaders to reorganize their educational methods and objectives is open to little doubt. Before the close of the Manchu dynasty in I9II, edicts from Peking had called for readjustments following the elimination of the competi- tive examination system, but actual achievement in effective reorganization had since then been very slow. That village leaders were not ignorant of these demanded changes is shown by the fact that the school under their control was during this period of transition a reorganized school. (See Table XV, p. 222.) The reorganized curriculum in this new type of school in Phenix Village offered the following subjects: National readers, which contained selections from the classics in modified language—what was called easy Wen Li— chiefly historical and ethical materials; penmanship based on modern methods of instruction by the aid of a square with cross and diagonal lines to guide the student in making the strokes; letter-writing—business and ordinary letters, and the composition of simple essays. For the more advanced pupils, there were offered selections from the classics, annotated and ex- plained, history, geography and arithmetic. The last EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 227 was taught according to the notation system of the West and included training in the abacus as well. The parents did not like to give up the abacus because of its prevalent usage. Physical education had not yet been introduced for social opinion still condemned it as a waste of time. The administration of this curriculum followed a defi- nite time schedule for each day of the week with periods of study and of recitation alternating. Mass instruc- tion was introduced, and the whole program was for- malized and made more regular. Students were graded and the teacher promoted pupils ex masse by classes. The annual amount of time was about the same as in the old type of school. On Sundays, however, the program was lightened somewhat; it covered a review of the week and included practice in penmanship. In fact, there were evidences that the new teacher would have made Sunday a holiday but he lacked the courage, for social opinion was still too much opposed to the idea. Probably the new teacher was influenced by the mission school which closed regularly on Sundays so that the pupils could attend the Sunday School and the religious services of the Christian church in the village. The Christian school substituted instruction in the Bible for the classical selections in ethics. To the curriculum described above, this school added simple ethics, singing and handwork, which included elementary drawing, paper-cutting and weaving, clay modeling and simple basketry. It offered the richest curriculum and had therefore the largest attendance. The pupils of the schools in Phenix Village were not limited to children of the village, for neighboring groups sent in their children. Few girls were allowed to study with the boys. (At one time the Christians made an 228 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA attempt to open a special school for girls that would provide a two-year program of instruction, but the effort failed.) The ages of the pupils ranged from five to twenty years. The older ones were found in the old type schools. The new schools, village and mission, were organized into lower and higher primary grades, three and four years, respectively. PUPILS The distribution of the school population in the various schools and its relation to the total children of school age in the village are shown in Tables XVI and XVII. Only 44 per cent of the children of Phenix Village were in school, approximately half of those of school age. (Table XVII, Column 3.) The larger attendance in the schools with new elements in curriculum and method showed a definite shift in village values from old standards to new. TABLE XVI TABLE XVII DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS RELATION OF SCHOOL BY SCHOOLS POPULATION TO TOTAL 1919 CHILDREN OF SCHOOL AGE IN PHENIX VILLAGE, Ig19 Number|Per Cent (1) (2) (3) Private (Old-New) In School 94 44 Public (New) 26 Public (Old) Il Not in School 134 56 Private 36 New (Christian) Total EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 229 FEES AND SALARIES Where the general supervisory control and the criticism of educational authorities are as weak, because of ignorance and lack of appreciation of objectives and proper methods in modern education, as they are in Phenix Village, it is instructive to analyze the tuition fees of the pupils in relation to teachers’ salaries and their probable effectiveness in providing adequate instruction for the village children. Pupils formerly paid their fees in two ways, in cash and in kind. Those pupils for whom ancestors had provided educational insurance in the form of special funds for the purpose, did not have to provide their own fees, for the manager of the ancestral fund invited the teacher and paid his salary from those funds. Others not so fortunate were compelled to pay tuition fees ranging from three to twenty dollars a year, depending upon the financial status of the boy’s family. Besides the money payment, each pupil had to supply the teacher with rice, fuel, vegetables and meat. Each student was responsible for his keep for five days. That duty rotated among all of them. Such payment in kind was a general practice and came down from high antiquity. It had not disappeared even though the modern practice of paying a salary had been introduced in part. Furthermore, at three of the eight great fes- tivals of the year, each pupil was expected to make a gift of food and money to his teacher. The salaries ranged from forty to two hundred dollars a year and the average tuition for each of the four schools ranged from three to eight dollars a year. Table XVIII sets forth in detail the comparative data on salaries and fees for each school. 230 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA TABLE XVIII ANNUAL TEACHERS’ INCOMES AND TUITION FEES! Schools Number of Annual Annual Average Teachers Income Tuition (1) (2) (3) (4) Private New I $200 $8.00 Public New I $160 $6.00 Public Old I $ 40 $3.50 Private New(Christian) 1 All figures are given for Mexican dollars or Chinese currency. To change into United States currency, divide by two. THE MODERN PERIOD At present there are two schools marked on the Map of the Village as School A and School B, located in the two large ancestral halls, indicated as E and F. The old schools were closed in the summer of 1922 and in the fall of that year these two were opened. The schools are held in buildings designed for ancestral worship, informal education in familist convention and religion. As shown in Illustration XIV (facing p. 261) the building is not at all adapted to the needs of formal school educa- tion. The desks are placed on the open space on the left hand side of the ancestral cabinet. (See Fig. 10, p. 303.) The latter is always placed in the center of the large room that opens into a court and faces east. This means that all the light comes from the rear over the backs of the pupils. In the morning the teacher must EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 231 let down a large curtain to keep out the sunlight and then all the light the pupils have seeps through the curtain and is reflected over their right shoulders from the right side of the open hall. On dark or rainy days the light is even more inadequate, but not more so than in the homes of the village. SCHOOL EQUIPMENT The children never suffer for proper ventilation. The arrangement really provides an open-air school. Inas- much as the temperature never falls low, it is warm enough in winter and cool in summer, except when the hot morning sun beats down on the court and heats the stone paving. The equipment is not properly adapted. It is quite clear, however, that the authorities tried to have the latest and best. Both the seats and the desks differ from the old type, which were single chairs and ordinary high flat tables, suited to Chinese writing. In the modern schools the chairs are double benches of plain construction on which two pupils are seated. As is clear from the illustration, they are not adapted to the pupils, for they are all too high. The pupils’ feet do not touch the floor. The double seat is not good, for one boy may be taller than his seat-mate; one’s feet might touch the floor while the other’s might not. The benches are made in different heights; each session the teacher juggles them to fit the pupils as best he can. The desks are made with a slanting front and hinged so that pupils may put their things inside. They too are made in varying heights for pupils of different sizes. A high desk is needed for writing Chinese characters but there are two disadvantages. If it is not the proper size, the pupil writes in an awkward and uncomfortable 232 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA position, with a curvature in his spine; when he sits straight while reading, the book is too near his eyes. In spite of these defects, the improvements over the old system are real advances and show a desire on the part of the leaders to do the right thing. The light in these halls is very much better than in the old schools. The leaders have developed to the limit of village re- sources the facilities for right educational conditions. The next step would be the construction of a small model schoolhouse that could combine both schools into one, including classrooms, workrooms, closets, store rooms, and soon. The two schools are now sepa- rate because the chia-chang controlling the two ancestral temples are not friendly. There is wealth enough in the village to build a proper school with adaptable equipment. The leaders only need to be convinced, for they have done the best they could according to their knowledge and that of the teachers. ‘There is nothing better in any rural village school in the whole region. Each school is maintained by the leaders of that part of the sib that worships in each ancestral temple. They are both public. The students come from those natural- and economic-families that feel most friendly because most closely related to the authorites in charge of each ancestral hall. School B was started by the council of leaders by making a small contribution from public funds, whereupon some other leading men undertook to maintain School Ain competition. The only advantage of this situation is that each teacher is subjected to keen competition in the development of the better school. However, with intelligent supervision and wise control better results could be secured through consolidation and pooling of resources. Besides, the village community EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 233 can ill afford to risk the divisive trends involved in this situation. Incidentally, this condition illustrates well how social divisions evolve. First, there were familist divisions, then a splitting in religious groupings, now one in educa- tional functions and organization. The next division would probably occur in polity. If that should occur the community would no longer be of the traditional familist type, but would take on a civistic character. THE TEACHERS Both are one-teacher schools. In School A the teacher is twenty-eight years old and comes from outside the village. He graduated from the higher primary school— the equivalent of a grammar school—and taught for nine years before coming to Phenix Village. He has had no normal training nor further instruction through teachers’ institutes or summer courses.’ He runs his school in the manner familiar to him from his experience in the Kwantung Provincial Grammar School, which in turn took its copies from the Provincial Normal School. He belongs to no teachers’ association. He has a profes- sional attitude toward his work and takes great pride in the achievements of his pupils. Although he is not a member of the sib, he takes a keen interest in the welfare of the village. In School B the teacher is twenty-three years old and comes from outside the sib. He graduated from the Chaochow District Higher Primary School and had four years’ experience before entering his present posi- tion. He too has had no specialized vocational training and belongs to no professional organization. He in- structs by imitating the methods of the school from which 234 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA he came. His relation to the other teacher is one of respectful distance. This is unfortunate, for closer harmonious relations with mutual help and criticism would greatly aid in the common improvement of both the schools. Both teachers have already so acquired the rivalry attitudes of the leaders who employ them that it is doubtful if it would be possible to get them to codperate. If con- solidation were ever achieved new teachers would prob- ably have to be secured. The methods and objectives of these teachers vary from the old type quantitatively rather than qualita- tively. That is, they do not require the students to consume so much, nor materials quite so difficult, but the emphasis still is on the mastery of the contents of the textbooks. They do try to link these materials more with everyday experience, especially in those selections from the classics that are classed as ethics; but the ethics of convention still displace natural ethics. Spitting on the floor may be disregarded but bowing to the teacher must be done properly. The students study their lessons under the super- vision of the teacher. He divides them into two groups, one for study and one for recitation. He keeps records of attendance and of the quality of the students’ work and makes reports to the students’ parents. He groups them in classes and advances them in grades. In studying literature, he reads over the sentences, asks the class to repeat what he has read and thus teaches them the exact tonal value of each character. As he goes along he explains the meaning of what they read. Afterward the students are expected to be able to read properly and tell the meaning of the materials. Impor- tant selections are committed to memory. EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 235 DISCIPLINE In discipline the modern teachers have made great advance. The prevalence of corporal punishment has disappeared. The teacher works with the pupils on a friendly basis; the old master notion is gone. Probably the most effective change is the habit of spending time with the students after the classes. Both teachers help their students to grow flowers, to learn the use of musical instruments, the modern drum and bugle, and give them drill in marching and simple military exercises. These things used to be beneath the dignity of a scholar. The modern teacher does not stand on such dignity and wins his pupils to codperation in undertakings interesting to them. The pupils take care of the school premises, sweep, arrange the furniture, and generally take pride in keeping the place in order. Squads of students rotate in discharging these duties. When the school opens the pupils form in line and march to their seats in orderly fashion, and when school is over they march out. Discipline to-day is freer and easier and more effective because the responsibility is being shifted to the pupils themselves. The emphasis is still on order rather than growth. So long as village values are or- ganized on a familist basis, the school will be called upon to develop those habits that conform to such values as obedience, order, quiet, loyalty and the like. They are good in themselves until carried to extremes when they become unduly repressive, which they still are in Phenix Village. The criticism must not then be launched so much against the school as the community, except as the school might effect some change in village values or achieve these same ends through the organization of the disciplinary effort on a group self-government 236 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA basis wherein expression for approved ends would underlie the same habits. THE PRESENT CURRICULA Both schools are Tsu Deng or lower primary grades with four years of instruction, consecutive and continu- ous. There is no school offering instruction in the grades of the higher primary. Students when completing these grades go to work with their parents, into commerce, or to a higher primary school in Chaochow or Swatow. There is no good higher primary school nearer than Chaochow. Middle schools or high schools are also to be found in those two cities. The nearest college is in Canton or Amoy. The better institution is in Canton, for the Canton Christian College offers a wide range of courses, including agricultural science and professional training in education. The curriculum for School A includes the following subjects: Subject Basis of. Instruction Writing No text—imitation of teacher Ethics Text published by The Commercial Press Literature ‘1 , rat i a Mandarin (National Language) ¥ is rahe : Dictation From above texts Arithmetic Text Reading Same as dictation Drawing Text with practice Letter Writing Text Singing No book—imitation of teacher Handwork No text. Paper cutting, folding, carving bamboo in imitation of teacher The students also take care of a school garden and practice the use of the modern drum and the bugle. In EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 237 drawing they use both pencil and brush in line and color, following ordinary objects or teacher’s models for representation. There is no geography, nor history, nor civics, except as ethics may include some notions that could be noted as civics. Ethics covers human relations, how to behave in different situations, how to be polite to the teacher and filial toward parents and elders, in short, how to conform to familist convention. It does not lead the pupil into an appreciation of duties and re- sponsibilities beyond the sib, or village community. To administer this curriculum, the teacher. begins school for the upper two classes at 8:30 and dismisses them at 11:30 A. M. The afternoon period for them runs from 2:30 to 4:30. The hours for Grades 1 and 2 are 9 to 12 A. M. and 3 to 5:30 P. M. School is open six days a week, making a total of 30 hours for the upper two grades and 33 for the lower two classes. Within this period the first class has three vacant hours; the second class has six; the third class, four; and the fourth class, five. Each class period lasts sixty minutes, but a class is divided into two parts, one writing or studying and one reciting. Table XIX (page 238) assembles the subjects and indicates the hours each subject is taught to each grade per week. The physical drill is really an elementary sort of military drill. The pupils are taught to stand in line, go through formations, goose-step, and march to a drum. This constitutes their physical education. It is formal and stiff and offers little of the play element. It should be organized into group games and play projects so that it would serve as an antidote to the formalism of the curriculum in other respects. The dramatization of the military, the marching, the drum, the flags all attract 238 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA TABLE XIX CURRICULUM HOURS OF SCHOOL A Hours Per Week Subject Fourth Third Second First Writing 3 5 5 8 Ethics 5 5 6 4 Literature 4 5 6 6 Mandarin 2 2 I (o) Arithmetic 5 3 4 3 Dictation 4 5 ~ 7 Reading e) 2 oO | O Drawing I I I I Singing I I I I Handwork I I I I Letter Writing 2 O O oO Physical Drill 2 2 2 2 the villagers; the pupils get some fun from this part of it. This sort of thing also offers the teacher a chance to display his work publicly and allows him to make his appeal to the people directly, in competition with his rival in School B. It is quite clear that the improvements in this curric- ulum over the old type are numerous and worth while, but there is much still to be done by trained and wise leadership. The teacher is left with entire control of the curriculum and the schedule. He can put in anything EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 239 he wishes; the leaders turn that responsibility entirely over to him. Were he to belong to institutes that suggested curriculum improvements from time to time, he would be in a position to experiment with them without delay. Rural village education is fertile soil; all that is needed is the seed. TABLE XX (a) CURRICULUM SCHEDULE OF SCHOOL B (TRANSLATION OF TEACHER’S PLAN) Grades Three and Four Monday | Tuesday }Wednesday| Thursday Friday Saturday Literature |Ethics Literature |Pronunciation|Ethics Literature Writing |Writing Writing Writing {Essay Composition Arithmetic/Arithmetic]Arithmetic |Arithmetic Arithmetic] Review Literature|Literature |Literature Letter Review Writing Drawing |Physical |Music Hand Work |Physical |Test Drill Grades One and Two Writing |Writing | Writing Writing Writing [Writing Essay Composition Literature |Ethics Literature |Pronunciation|Ethics Letter Literature|Literature |Literature Letter Review Writing Writing Drawing |Arithmetic/Arithmetic |Hand Work Arithmetic|Physical |Music Arithmetic |Physical |Test Drill Drill Arithmetic] Review 240 COUNTRY |EIFE IN SOUTHCHiING School B differs from the foregoing in some details but follows the same general lines of content and or- ganization. The time schedule and the subjects taught by the double-class method are arranged in tabular form and presented below. TABLE XX (b) CURRICULUM HOURS OF SCHOOL B Subject Writing Ethics Literature Pronunciation Arithmetic Essay Composition Drawing Music Hand Work Letter Writing Review Test Physical Drill Hours per Week Fourth Third Second First os 1s) i 6 OO 6 1 =) 5 2 5 I I I I a LS OO i oh) a a ate tv. be th A comparison of Table XIX with Table XX (b) discloses some significant facts. Within a stone’s throw EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 241 are two schools in a village of 650 people, each running independently of the other and each offering its own program distinctive of the other. The wonder is that they are so nearly alike. The curriculum of School A has a more varied offering, showing an attempt to adapt the program to varying needs of the same pupil at different times in his growth; School B varies slightly in its offerings between the first-second and _ third- fourth grades, but is more uniform throughout. Less emphasis is placed on ethics than in the former school. The National Language gets less emphasis also than in School A. But School B attempts to be more practical in offering more hours of letter writing. It is very doubtful, however, whether the offering in School A is not much wiser. Children in the first and second grades can hardly afford to struggle with letter forms when they are just beginning to master character combinations. Drawing, music, handwork and physical drill are about the same in both schools. School B emphasizes reviews and tests. But why are any of these subjects in the curriculum? There are three answers: (1) There are standardized textbooks available for them at low cost; (2) they are advised by the educational authorities of the province; (3) they are the subjects the teachers were taught. That is about the limit of the science of education that finds application in Phenix Village. Not because the teachers would not do better; but because they do not know better. All of the work is hard. That is, the student may not do with a subject as he likes by following his interest. He is supposed to maintain a satisfactory degree of achievement in production. He draws not for the fun of it but to make a good copy of the teacher’s model; he sings for the same reason. Handwork has little 242 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHIR’ motivation in children’s interests. Paper-cutting is tedious and hard on the eyes and has no use except to exhibit to visitors and parents. The pupils do not rebel, however, for they are trained in obedience and respect for the teacher. Whatever he suggests must be right, especially since he is a modern teacher. In other words, with a shift of objective and some improvement in the details of methods of teaching, the present curriculum, especially in School A, could be made quite good. If the subjects in the first and second years could be put mainly on a play level and the tedious work of penmanship and taking dictation could be decreased, if the drawing, singing and handwork could be given an “‘appreciation”’ rather than a ‘‘production”’ objec- tive, and if to the drill some games could be added just for ‘‘fun,’’ much practical improvement could be worked out of this group of subjects. Further changes would come in breaking up the ethics into simple social science, such as the group relations in the school and playground, family relations, the farmer and fruit-grower and the merchant in the market, the boatmen and their function in the village, and so on. Also, literature could be broken up into history, local and provincial, and into lessons on the modern newspaper and magazine. EVALUATION OF SCHOOL EDUCATION But clearly the present curriculum is hardly a program for a school in a rural village. Only occasionally does a pupil go on to the higher primary grades, or middle school and college and yet this curriculum is built on that objective. As already mentioned, most of the pupils go to work on the farm or in the orchards or go into some form of trade. In spite of the fact that these subjects aim primarily at production they are ill selected EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 243 and not adapted to the vocations the pupils are likely to enter. They are not based on the predominant voca- tions of the community and from this test are as con- ventional in their way as the subjects and lessons of the old type school. One might find this same program of studies in village, town or city lower primary school. But the descrip- tion and analysis of Phenix Village has shown thus far many characteristics that suggest rich possibilities if the teachers would link their curricula with the local needs. There are many possible projects about which they might organize their instruction: nature study, orchards and the production and. marketing of fruit; hygiene and village clean-up days; rice and its care and preparation; art and home beautification; poultry-raising, marketing and accounting; arithmetic and family budg- ets; village history and the improvement and care of public buildings and the archives in the Scholars Hall; drill and religious pageantry that would fit into the New Year’s procession; play and competitive games and the evils of gambling; geography, local and _ provincial, the village ferry to Chaochow and communication with Swatow and the outside world; newspapers and reading, with reading to the villagers who are illiterate. Such additions would be practicable, appreciated by the parents, and at the same time education that would not necessarily keep the pupil on the farm in Phenix Village. One may sympathize with the country lad who longs for worlds to conquer, but village education can hardly be built upon his prospects. It should be based first on appreciation of village activities and life, immediate participation so far as possible by children of such ages, production achieved through rural projects, and the acquisition of simple skills in the three ‘‘R’s,’’ adding 244 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA as soon as possible one more ‘‘R’’—recreation. The materials on which the pupils work should be those characteristic of Phenix Village, not those suitable for lads in a large city who are aiming for university training. If this analysis and evaluation is correct, greater and more drastic changes than have been effective since the shift from the old type school are yet needed. Instead of a school garden with a few potted flowers, pretty as they are, each school, or better, both schools together should have a real garden and a real orchard and a real rice field in which the pupils could grow real products to be sold in a real market. Such education and the skills would be ‘‘hard-work”’ level subjects, while all others would be “‘play’’ level studies.! To administer the curriculum presented in Table XX, the teacher of School B begins at 9 A. M. and runs to I2 noon and from 1:30 to 5:30 P.M., a total of seven hours a day. School operates from Monday morning until Saturday evening with Sunday as a holiday, which gives a total of 42 hours a week. The extra hours pro- vided here over those in School A are used for reviews and tests, whose value is as doubtful as the subjects taught. School B has more equipment with which to teach than School A. The latter has rules written on white boards and hung on the walls, and it has one blackboard. The former has a large abacus for the one hour of instruc- tion per week in the use of the abacus, rules on the walls, a picture of Confucius, written characters decorat- ing the walls, three maps, of Kwantung, of China, and of the world, two blackboards, and three drums and 1Compare Bobbitt, F.: The Curriculum; Meriam, J. L.: Child Life and the Curriculum; O’Shea, M. V.: Dynamic Factors in Education; Snedden, D.: Educational Sociology. EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 245 bugles for the pupils’ military band. The blackboards are painted black and varnished, take the chalk very poorly and reflect the light badly from certain angles. SCHOOL CENSUS OF 1923 School A had at the time of the investigation in 1923, 36 boys and 1 girl; School B, 53 boys and 2 girls; a total of 92 pupils in the whole village in attendance at school. School A had three pupils not of the village sib; School B, one pupil from outside. TABLE XXI SCHOOL POPULATION BY AGES, SEX AND SCHOOLS, 1923 School A School B I 2 4 a 10 4 II 4 12 6 13 a 14 4 15 2 16 I 17 I 18 O 19 I 20 I Total 36 I 53 2 Table XXI shows the distribution of the school popu- lation by ages, sex and schools. 246 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA School B has a more homogeneous group of students as regards age, which partly validates the uniformity of its curriculum; their ages range from 8 to 17 years with no bunching. The ages of students in School A run from 6 to 20 years with a bunching between 8 and 14 years. FINANCES The fees of School A total in a year about one hundred and forty dollars; each student is required to pay approxi- mately three dollars, depending upon the financial status of his family. The money is all paid to the scholar who is in administrative charge of the school, and who then pays the teacher’s salary and other expenses of the school. The teacher receives one hundred and forty dollars a year and his lodging; he must board himself. The fees of School B amount to something over two hundred dollars a year, individual fees ranging from three dollars to six dollars according to the resources of the boy’s family and the grade in which he is to study; the higher grades have the higher fees. As in the other case, the teacher does not handle any of the money. It is collected by that man who in rotation has charge of the ancestral temple for the year. He expends the money as necessary. The teacher’s salary is one hundred and seventy dollars and lodging; he must board himself. Both teachers reside in a corner room of the ancestral hall where they teach. Their families are not with them. ADULT EDUCATION School A runs a school for ‘‘adults,’’ in which there are five students. It was opened at the request of the village leaders. Mandarin conversation, letter-writing, abacus, and classics are studied. The ages of the students range from 15 to 20 years and the fees, from three to five dollars. EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 247 They study from 7 to 11 in the morning, and from 2:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon, at tables on the opposite side of the large room shown in Illustration XIV. Ona table in this same part of the hall is placed a Swatow daily newspaper for the use of the students and teacher. School B has developed no special school for adults, but offers a public reading-room for anyone who may wish to drop in. The main road of the village passes the door of this hall so that the facilities are quite con- venient. Tables are placed inside the door and on them are a Swatow newspaper brought daily by the village boatmen, and magazines from Canton and Shanghai. Among these is the New Young Men or Sin Tsing Nien which is famous all over China, for its radical and progressive ideas shock the scholars and delight the younger generation. The costs of subscriptions are paid by the manager of the school. From five to six persons visit the reading-room daily; the students and the teacher also read the news regularly. This reading- room is a valuable type of modern school extension and is increasing the amount of contact between Phenix Village and the outside world. Through these means the patrons of the reading-room, and others indirectly, are informed in news, local, national and international. Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Wilson were as well known to them as 7’sao Kun or Wu Pet Fu. Since the close of the Christian mission school there has been no formal religious instruction of any kind except what may be included in the ceremonies in honor of China’s ancient sage on Confucius’ Birthday. OPPORTUNITIES IN EDUCATION Such then is the present state of formal education in Phenix Village. It is maintained by moieties of the 248 COUNTRY, LIFE IN SOUTH Cah village because their leaders understand the necessity of schools for the transmission of mores and the control of the younger generation. When asked why they have schools at all, they very promptly quote a well-known saying of Mencius: ‘‘If you don’t use a square and compass, you cannot make a square or acircle.’’ With the changing values in modern life, these same leaders hardly know what they want to make out of their children, except that they want them to have modern education, as though that possessed a magical potency all of its own. It is evident that Phenix Village possesses a scheme of formal education far from satisfactory. There is no unity in educational approach to community needs nor diversity in method and determination of objective, such as is required by the varying needs of different pupils from different types of families. The administra- tive control of the schools is not centralized. In view of village objectives—the regulation of personal growth to conform to conventions—the schools are, however, quite efficient. The teachers are allowed broad scope in their control of the details of the curriculum and it would be unwise to minimize the value of the changes they have effected in content and in methods of teaching and in securing discipline; but they are subject only to a section of community opinion. The teacher is quite naturally sensitive and responsive for rice-bowl reasons to his immediate constituency. He consciously does what he thinks his supporting group desires; he rep-. resents them and inculcates their value-schemes in the pupils. If these value-schemes are admitted from personal or national reasons to be satisfactory then it is well. If not, there should be set up in the village some agency EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 240 that might correct subversive or anti-community ten- dencies, paying due attention at all times to the strain that local mores and themistes! can bear without arousing community opposition. Progressive teachers have done much and can do more, for they are looked upon by the villagers as experts, and are generally let alone so long as they seem to be imposing the stereotypes valued by the supporting groups. Wise leadership in these positions could slowly but effectively transform the life of the community. EDUCATION OF GIRLS The village taboo upon education for girls seems no weaker to-day than in 1905 when the first attempts at modernization were made. Regarding girls as negative values, and therefore unworthy of educational expend- iture, is a serious handicap to the intellectual resources of the rural community. That is why village women are more superstitious than men and have a harder time to escape the perils of ennui except through constant toil in home, field and orchard. The worst of this sit- uation is that the people are tied up in a vicious circle. If everyone would begin to educate his daughter, it would be a fair exchange of expenditure, for the girls married into Phenix Village would bring with them _ learning and resourcefulness that would compensate the village for its own loss in the daughters married out. But few like to begin the process, or bear the initial costs, for the chances of return are still too hazardous. Some people are overcoming this difficulty by stipulating at the time of betrothment that the girl’s family is to provide a certain amount of school education. Others are solving the problem by underwriting the expenses 1See Jane Harrison, Themis. 250 COUNTRY?! LIFE, IN*SOUTH GEE of the betrothed girl’s education themselves. The education of girls constitutes a good objective criterion of the growth of civism and a shift away from familicentrism. While the foregoing is true so far as it is applied to the formal education that is assigned by the commu- nity to the schools, it is far from true if applied to the extra-school education of either boys or girls. SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY In fact, so different is the training of the young outside the school, in the home, shop, field, temple and ancestral hall that an analysis of the contrasts justifies the general- ization that formal education functions for participation in national life with which few villagers come into contact rather than in the life of the village community. ‘This may have some value as a projective basis for civism but is far from a completely valid objective. The memorizing of classical selections does put the possessor of such literary, historical, and ethical materials en rapport with those in the village who have gone through the same or a similar educational mill, who have been inducted into the same universe of discourse; but it does not help him to grow bananas that will bring a better price on the market, nor reach new appreciations of art or natural beauty, nor create improvements in human relations. It does not provide him with an adequate technic of life-adjustment except in the tool- subjects—the abacus, calligraphy, letter-writing, reading and simple accounting. The bulk of education for effective participation in that life enjoyed by most of the people of the village is not provided in the schools at all but is attained either by the inculcation of attitudes and values by EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 251 ‘the group members on occasion—harvesting, cooking ‘rice, ancestral worship—or by the sheer unconscious ‘imitation of the experiences encountered by the youth ‘of the village. If the children were educated in the ‘schools without ever having come into contact with their original community life and were later set down in Phenix Village, they would find themselves possessing only the most limited means for effective participation and would be at a great loss in the direct and pressing adjustments necessary from day to day. There is small wonder that the village supports schools -as it does. With the loss of the recognized scholar and his potentialities for official rank and prestige, the ‘practical value of the schools is hardly discernible. _Education as it is seems to be ‘‘face-education.’’ More ‘or less unconsciously, the villagers have by their laissez- fatre attitude indicated an inarticulate demand that the ‘schools directly and immediately contribute to village life. Were they so to contribute, a better support would be possible. The lack of support is incorrectly interpreted and grievously lamented by the present instructors. Inasmuch as this social situation has been practically the same for centuries, one would expect to find social devices for the provision of participation-education as against face-education. In so far as the school as a special agency has failed in its task of providing educa- tion for participation in the fundamental activities of the community, other agencies have had to supplement the work of the school. What educational functions are performed by other community institutions, the ancestral hall, the home, the temple, the field, the market? Do these agencies educate for participation in continuity primarily or for progressive change and readjustment? If the former, does the school have the 252 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA responsibility to educate for participation in change? In what ways? For what specific situations? In the past, while the school was the special agency in the community for face-education, the home was the most effective agency of continuous education for participation in the actual life of the community. Since the girls were generally excluded from face-education they were dependent entirely upon ‘‘hard-level’’ partici- pation-education for their development. To study this extra-school education it is best to investigate the activ- ities of girls and their training for their work. Inci- dentally, the extra-school or participation-education of boys may also be conveniently indicated. The severest arraignment of the face-education program is that the parents did not think it was worth while to spend time and money on it for girls. There was nothing in it to fit a girl for her recognized duties and so she had to be content with the education of an informal kind. ANALYSIS OF GIRLS’ ACTIVITIES Following is a list of the girls’ activities. Those in which boys rarely engage but sometimes carry on are marked thus (*) and those more commonly engaged in by boys are marked thus (f). Sew clothes Spin Weave—girls go where the looms are to learn Help mothers to cultivate gardensf Cook rice,* vegetables, meat Prepare sweets for festivals and ancestral worship Wash clothes by pounding, dishes, etc. Harvest fruitT Sweep floorsT _ Clean furnituref Care for toilet buckets EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 253 Bathe the baby, once a night in summer, in winter once a week* Feed the baby—must not give beef, mutton, or goose to baby but can give pork Carry the babyt Make a fire and clean the stove Market—use of scales in purchasingt Care for poultry—feed ducks or geese and drive them to water; call pigs and feed them three times a day; feed the buffalot Pickle and dry food—vegetables and pork Sell produce at village or in Chaochow—brooms, cloth, geese and vegetablest Watch cropst Pound and grind ricet HOME TRAINING Girls are trained by the mothers and elder women in the proper ways of carrying on the activities listed above. They are also taught the village mores for girls in the following: How to receive guests, to serve tea and things to eat. The details of conduct in marriage ceremonies, duties toward new parents and other members of husband’s fami- list group. How to worship, what shrines and for what purposes: kitchen gods for prosperity in the home; the sky god for a good marriage; on the eighth month, the moon god; Gwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, for those who are sick; visit the graves of ancestors at Tsing Ming, spring festival, and worship with mother by shooting off firecrackers and burning yellow paper as money for the spirits; burn silver paper when the men are performing the ceremonies of ancestral worship in the Ancestral Hall or Temple or in the home at the following times: the fifth month, the middle of the seventh month, autumn festival, and the eleventh month or winter festival. 254 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Quite as important as the things a girl must do are the taboos. Girls must learn that they cannot play, sit or eat with boys; that they cannot talk with strangers; cannot worship ancestors themselves; must not disobey parents; must not quarrel; must not walk on the street alone nor eat things on the street. Thus their entire education is for participation in familist activities in their narrowest spheres. The chief aim in a girl’s education is the inculcation of ancient stereotypes of female conduct. All the older members of her family, natural, economic, or religious, assist in informing her what she may or may not do in all sorts of situations, particularly in relation to her brothers, father, mother, uncles and her future husband and his parents. The possession of familist propriety attitudes is her greatest asset for a desirable marriage contract and for successful adjustment in her new home after marriage. | For the practical achievement of this vocational aim are inculcated the details of household duties as listed above. That this training might be completely practical the girl is early betrothed and inducted into her new home where her education is under the control of those whom she is to serve in adulthood. This effects a maximum assimilation into the husband’s group. By the time her marriage takes place, she has acquired all the niceties of status distinction between herself and the other members of the group. In addition to constant inculcation of the village mores. and the specific variant attitudes of the betrothed hus-. band’s group, the girl acquires much of value to her through imitation. Thus she comes to know the idio-| syncrasies of the behavior and taste of her future husband and is, therefore, ready to render that loyal EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 255 and obedient and efficient service to him that custom demands. The great defect of this mode of education of wives- to-be is that no critical suggestions, such as might be introduced through school education in household arts in well organized schools, are ever brought to bear upon familist practices. The whole direction of social pressure upon her is toward maintenance of past practice and attitude. On the whole, for life at present in Phenix Village, the experience of the group that is imposed upon her is quite adequate, as regards her status as daughter, betrothed-wife, or married-wife, except in the care of children. Here her education is very poor. Village customs in the care of children are bad—feeding the baby whenever it cries rather than at stated intervals; feeding the infant wrong foods and in wrong ways; handling and disciplining children, frequently in a cruel manner which represses the growing personality. Any innovations on the girl’s part would be considered pre- sumptuous and unfilial. The ways of the mother-in- law are the best ways. From the point of view of familist values,—stability, order, harmony, obedience, fidelity, humility and serv- ice—the mode of education can hardly be improved upon. For these ends the technic historically devised seems well-nigh perfect. Although this method of home-education for girls has been applied for generations because it is practical and cheap, slight modifications are now appearing in Phenix Village among the more progressive groups. Such changes are occurring at those points in the sib where imported wives introduce modifications of ancient mores in harmony with their earlier experience in the urban centers of Chinese immigration. In fact, as 256 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA already mentioned, these innovations are the causes of discord and derangement in familist life. They are also being effected, though very slightly indeed, by what the few girls who have been admitted into the schools, learn there. In the latter instance, the change is not so much one of objective modification of practice as shift of personal attitudes. Probably a generation or two will be needed before such changed attitudes will find opportunity of expression in family conditions. For it must be remembered that the girls of Phenix Village who learn new ways or ideas would, upon marry- ing out of their own community, encounter the inertia of custom and the opposition of people in the adopted groups, if those groups are conservative. Conversely, girls from conservative groups marrying into Phenix Village do not bring about changes there. INFORMAL EDUCATION OF BOYS In the case of boys, the practice is not so simple because the variety of occupations open to them is greater than for girls. While for participation in the familist or village life the educative process is partly inculcation of specific skills needed in assisting parents, generally the boy picks up his extra-school skills and information. Year after year he beholds the dramatic procession of village crises and the ways of his elders in dealing with them: birth, betrothal, marriage, death and burial, at feast times and at the rites of ancestral worship. He is always an interested spectator because of the inherent glamor of procession and ceremony. By the time he arrives at the age of active participation he is thoroughly versed in the réle he is expected to play. In the acquirement of occupational skills, imitation plays an important part. When the boys are free from EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 257 school, they see the methods and practices followed in their fathers’ shops or fields and secure a basis for later instruction when they leave the school and take up apprenticeship. Although there is no caste distinction that requires a son to adopt the occupation of his parent, it actually works out that way in many cases. APPRENTICESHIP Apprenticeship is more clearly recognized and possesses more definite modes of procedure in the trades than in agriculture. The shopkeeper, tradesman or artisan who takes a boy as an apprentice has practically the rights of a father as long as the apprenticeship continues. The vocational education may be hard but is untram- melled with social restrictions; instruction may be reénforced with severe disciplinary measures if necessary ; and finally, it is continuous. If a boy is apprenticed to a man, his period of voca- tional training has no fixed limit, except as stipulated in the contract of apprenticeship drawn between the father and the man. Otherwise, maturity, marriage, or ability to set up independently determines the cessation of the relation. When the boy learns from his father or from his father’s assistants, he continues to work and to add income to the familist funds until a division of the property of the father occurs, either upon the decision of the father or upon common consent of the successors after the father’s death. So in the latter case, the period of apprenticeship ceases at no definite time; but as maturity and skill increase, the boy gradually builds up for himself a reputation for ability and a status of journeyman or tradesman. These last categorical distinctions are not clearly recognized in Phenix Village because of the familial character of the training and of 258 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA the productive and ownership features of the work which the boy carries on. PLAY EDUCATION The imitative character of the learning process of boys is further illustrated by their play activities... As already noted, parents generally taboo play as a waste of valuable time. Teachers reflect parents’ attitudes. Consequently, there is no formal instruction in play. The boy learns fortuitously by association in small play groups. The child is corrected and guided by his playmates. : Parents may be seen fondling infants or small children in a play spirit and mothers frequently amuse themselves with the natural playfulness of such, but when the school-age is reached, life is supposed to proceed on a work-level and] play is ruled out. Only occasionally do parents encourage play, in which cases one finds a recurrence of the hiatus between theoretical attitudes 1The term imitation and the phrase imitative learning need explanation so as not to be misunderstood. Imitation is suggestion carried into activity, subjective in thought or attitude or objective in behavior. Imitation would then be tantamount to similarity of behavior arising out of responses to the same or similar stimuli. Jmitative learning does not imply passivity on the part of the learners. Learning is ever and always an active process, an achievement of a technic of readjustment. This results from the discovery of the meaning of suggestions found in an environment in terms of the advance, or maintenance or defense of the status of the self, as a person conceives that status or réle to be in the group in which he is participating. Imitative learning is taken to mean re- sponse to suggestions of sufficient similarity that the resulting behavior of one person is similar to the behavior of another person already responding to the same or similar stimuli. The behavior of one person in response to a recognized stimulus might direct the attention of a second person to the same stimulus which would suggest a response similar to the behavior of the first person. This can justly be called a type of imitation. But to copy behavior directly from a person without reference to a stimulus that is accepted because of a critical handling by the self-complex in terms of a person’s réle in a group, does not exist. That is the traditional meaning of the phrase imitative learning but it is not the idea contained in the term as used in this analysis. EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS 259 and practical behavior, and of the conflict between conventionality and personality. The only formal and approved recreational education beyond the physical drill, is given in the Music Club and in the Boxing Club. The number of boys privileged to enjoy such education for a wholesome use of leisure is relatively limited. For this reason, such education is highly prized by the village lads. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Informal religious education is so bound up with the ordinary familist process of incorporating the growing personality into the fixed societal scheme and of getting the boy to accept the traditional definitions of social sit- uations and to utilize the accepted modes of resolving crises in personal or familist experience, that it cannot be treated separately from what has been described as the method of education for participation in familist life. The content of the boy’s religious experience tends toward the merging of his personality into two groups: the natural and living community and the supernatural community, and only incidentally into the immediate social community. The necromancy that aims at the determination of purpose of the spirits of wind and water toward village fortunes—the burning of candles and of paper as simple rites in honor of the gods of the soil or tree, the magical performances, such as calling to the wind or pasting red paper inscribed with felicitous characters upon door-posts and tools, discharging firecrackers, observing the rites of the kitchen god—a long list of dramatic and striking procedures—all teach the boy or girl how to become a harmonious member of the natural community. 260 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA The worship of ancestors and the worship of the village gods in the local temples indicate how a person can snuggle into a peaceful niche in the supernatural community. That these magical rites bear a clearly recognized relation to the successful control of the supernatural members of the community for the sake of the present good of the living members of the village community, only conduces to increase the concentration of interest of maturing members of the village commu- nity and so makes more effective their education by suggestion. So do religious experiences reénforce familist solidarity and village unity, especially in Phenix Village where sib and village are coterminous. Religious prac- tices help to merge the growing personality into the immediate social community by virtue of the sanctions of the villagers upon all those young people who conform to them. In summary, formal education in Phenix Village is mainly ‘‘face-education,’ aimed at participation in projected experiences in the larger culture area that few will ever enjoy; while the informal education inducts the young into conformity and continuity of the village ethnos. a aie ' iG : 5 2 ? 4 pont 7 as wim st : , 9 — Ah oe * ’ 3 ¢ . Cre, ae | ‘ ty “f i | * Me . > > iba 7 v r : nm 7 i te > ‘ 4 , ; * . . y : | a j = : ; | + 2 | | :. 1 f er: t e . - ; - asl | | ” | ‘ ia 9 f te eae a ; o at 4 Mae 7: pe 7 a ; {», ; > 4 ie ; ve / ats ; : cS > hs 7 4 ; - a . q 7 vy | | tf » = @ . / | y v ‘ , ca } 7p, | | : a ——— i ook > > ul . he i ries Coarck. : ee ee Be au tf) , Ci — z PLATE VIII XIV. VILLAGE SCHOOL “A” IN ANCESTRAL HALL an XV. THE ORIGINAL ANCESTRAL HALL OF PHENIX VILLAGE CHAPTER IX ART AND RECREATION The esthetic interests and the use of leisure time afford in some ways the most reliable data for the analysis of attitudes and values of a group. These phases of life in Phenix Village exhibit, on the one hand, the pressure of physical environment upon the means of subsistence, some of the effects of a deficit economy, the poverty of the esthetic or recreational suggestions found in the community,—and on the other, a fundamental apprecia- tion of beauty of line, color and tone, and of the recrea- tional values of play and fun,—classical taboos upon play notwithstanding. SHARP CONTRASTS There is scarcely anything that impresses the resident of China more than the laughter, apparent good-feeling and enjoyment of fun in the midst of the direst poverty, filth, distress or bereavement. Life is made up in Phenix Village of sharp contrasts of fun and sorrow, of success and loss, of birth and death, of the life here and the life hereafter. Though steeped in severest hardship, a man is never too far gone to laugh at a good joke or to enjoy his accustomed amusement. Stoical and_ practical, the villager accepts life as it is. He makes the most of what comes to him; he drains the cup to the bottom. The quick shifts of emotion follow endlessly in dramatic train. Periods of eating the crudest sort of food are broken into with feasts that provide all the delectables ordinarily omitted for lack of the purchase price. The 262 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA rapid succession of pleasure and pain in village life is paralleled by a dualistic philosophy of life that illumi- nates its esthetic poverty. This dualism characterizes not only their concepts of thought and their experience but also their esthetic appreciation and artistic expression. For example, no matter how poor the family or how drab the house may be there are always signs of the esthetic interest. (See Illustration V, facing p. 14.) The floor may be of mud, the walls unpainted; piles of refuse may block the doorway or fill the corners of a room; dogs and chickens, and even pigs, may share the house; but the most offen- sive ugliness is punctured with objects that indicate an artistic appreciation. FONDNESS FOR ART That such sharp contrasts in beauty and ugliness rest directly upon poverty and ignorance is shown by the fact that the esthetic harmony of a home increases in direct proportion to the wealth. The poorest homes have the fewest art objects; the richest, the most. But even the wealthiest family with the newest and most richly decorated house has allowed the beauty of the house to be marred by refuse, by agricultural imple- ments in the corners of the courts, by seeds hanging un- der the projecting eaves, and by the raw materials used in domestic occupations. In such a case the lack of beauty is caused not by poverty but by ignorance of sanitation, absence of habits of domestic cleanliness, and by the demands of rural occupational practices. Separate houses or barns for the storing of agricultural implements are not found in the village. Unoccupied rooms or unused entrance halls or the space before the ancestral tablets are assigned to storage purposes, and ART AND RECREATION 263 have been so used for generations. This practice leaves plows, winnowing machines, hoes, looms and drying baskets conspicuous from the road. (See Illustration XV, facing p. 261.) This is a distinctive characteristic of the rural home, for wealthy urban homes, while in- sanitary in places, are not cluttered with implements. Urban homes of the middle economic classes are quite similar to rural homes in this respect. Thus the manner and forms of esthetic expression are governed by tradi- tion and by occupational exigencies; the amounts are determined by wealth. There is no doubt that significant improvements in beautifying the home could readily be established through proper consideration of such matters in the schools. Unfortunately, the art that is included in the educational program of the village schools concerns itself generally with infertile attempts at production. Useful as some such instruction is for certain capable students, the more important type of art instruction would emphasize education for consumption: home decoration, removal of unsightly objects when out of use, principles of se- lection of art objects, practical experience in arrange- ment of furniture, methods of cleanliness and the proper control of livestock. Lacking such education, the village folk remain insensitive to esthetic incongruities and consequently offer no specific disapprovals of common practice. It is social habit in a rural situation. The folkways in this regard will not be changed until the schools sensitize the students concerning these in- congruities and train them in practical methods of beautification. The ubiquitous evidences of art appreciation indicate that a ready response would be found to the simplest kind of leadership in this direction. Both of the new 264 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA schools afford splendid illustrations of what the teachers and students can do in general beautification of school surroundings. But there is no definite attempt to make the school experience carry over into the homes. Nor is there any effort to extend the influence of the schools directly to the homes by any form of adult education on such matters. A simple campaign for home beauti- fication would entail no radical changes. The restric- tion of the freedom and the proper placement of the livestock, the disposal of occupational implements and raw materials so as to be out of sight, a regular cleaning of the central court, would make all but the very poor homes really places of charm and beauty. Even the poorest home could be greatly improved by such changes. Similar contrasts appear when looking over the village as a whole. Thus the surroundings of some of the most beautiful buildings are marked by ugliness due either to decay and neglect or thoughtlessness. Mud holes through which the village folk sludge in rainy weather, decayed and broken trees, tumbled-down walls, piles of refuse, bundles of underbrush for fuel, rooting pigs, chickens, ducks and geese, broken fences, clothes hung out to dry,—all detract from the beauty of the better homes and add to the unattractiveness of the poor ones. Many signs, such as portions of well-laid street pave- ments, approaches to some of the public buildings, the flagstones and bunding! on the shore of the pond, the old paint on the buildings of a better character, indicate a period when the general beauty of the village was a matter of public concern. At the present moment currents of energy and thought flow through and out of the village, leaving it with an appearance of decadence. That these conditions are the result of emigration 1Retaining wall. ART AND RECREATION 265 cannot be doubted. Whether they can be improved with the present resources of interest in the village is not at all certain. A white wall glistening in the sunlight, a beautiful new home decorated with drawings of historical scenes, occasional clumps of well-arranged trees in fruit orchards are forms of the abiding interest of those who, having taken up residence abroad, return and build anew. These occasional signs of prosperity and life relieve the general impression of neglect of family and public property. In the poorest as well as in the wealthiest homes, are modern posters and illustrated calendars. Usually they contain either advertising materials in color-print or some scene from Chinese history. Photographs of individuals and groups are becoming increasingly com- mon, though they are not found in many of the poorer homes. ART OF THE INK Chinese education has long emphasized instruction in the use of the brush pen for character writing. Every student old and new, who has worked with the brush, appreciates characters beautifully written. Every writer is more or less of an artist. Everyone, student, scholar, housewife has actually acquired a high artistic appre- ciation of character writing. “That characters possess a mystical power is shown by the care taken of paper with either writing or printing upon it and by the burning of paper with inscribed characters. It is probable that in the case of the unschooled, the prevalence of scrolls is due more to the magic qualities of the characters upon them than to real esthetic interests. But even the illiterate folk openly admire the beauty of the flowing line and the skill of the shading. 266 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA These scrolls are inscribed with felicitous characters, usually excerpts from religious scriptures or classic histories. They vary in width and length, are always oblong,and are hung vertically. The size of the characters depends upon the number inscribed. Those written by famous scholars who possessed unusual ability in callig- raphy are the pride of the village and are really quite valuable. The ordinary ones are of white paper inscribed with black ink. The writing begins at the top and reads downward. Somewhere, usually in the lower left-hand corner or in the upper right-hand corner, the calligrapher inserts the date of inscription and his name. Scrolls are hung in pairs. Upon special occasions, such as weddings, store openings, birthdays and so on, red scrolls are offered as gifts. The writing expresses the wishes of the giver for the happiness and prosperity of the recipient. Red is the color for good fortune and felicity. Red scrolls of the more expensive kind are further embellished with a stippling of gold paint over the entire surface of the scrolls. The prevalence of beautifully written characters is indeed a prominent culture trait. For example, red paper with the characters for happiness, long life, wealth or the surname of the family are pasted on door-posts or on doors or walls. Before many of the entrances of the homes, particularly in the more crowded portions of the village, large lanterns inscribed with the family name are suspended. In the large homes, such as the one represented in Figure 5 (page 153), they are hung in the inner main court before the ancestral tablets. The art of the ink seems, therefore, to have both a utilitarian and an esthetic value. The utilitarian aspects are to be seen most clearly at the New Year festival period. Then generous use is made of red paper inscribed ART AND RECREATION 267 with good luck characters. Their power to bring good fortune or prevent evil is not clearly understood, but their prevalence bases on a belief in a mystical efficacy. The “doubting Thomases’”’ tell you that they are not at all sure that they are any good; but it is better to be on the safe side—‘‘they might help.’”’ The credulous believe in their efficacy quite sincerely and follow the folkways with great care. The forms of these magical practices will be set forth in detail under the analysis of religion. Paintings and drawings are made on silk or paper in the same general form as the scrolls. Most frequently they are executed in two colors only—black and white. Perspective is not secured by the devices common to Western art but by differentiation in the strength or depth of black color. Nearness is portrayed by deep heavy black which varies to very faint gray for the more distant portions of a scene. Two types of drawing are common in the village, the impressionistic drawing, usually highly conventionalized strokes of the brush pen, or realistic reproduction wherein the details are executed with great exactness. The latter commonly deals with animals, flowers, or birds; the former, with scenery. When the two types are combined, a very pleasing effect is secured by the contrast of realistic representation of life in the foreground against an idealistic and conventionalized setting of hills, woods, water and clouds. In the ancient village school, the center of traditional scholastic interest, now decadent and fast going to ruin, there are a number of paintings done in color— reds, blues and yellows predominating—of village ances- tors. They are executed with the greatest care, each detail of personal feature or embroidered robe having 268 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA been painted with patient accuracy. These men and women, famous in village folklore, are thus preserved in life-size representation. They are regularly displayed at occasions of village ancestor worship or other im- portant ceremonies. These paintings are merely rolled up, placed in an open gallery on the second floor of the old school house, uncared for, exposed to the ravages of weather and insect. No one seems to take any special interest in their preservation. Such splendid art objects ought to be preserved in the modern schools or in a small village museum. Their loss is great not only to the village but to the country. MURAL PAINTING Quite as common as the ink drawings to be found in practically all but the very poorest homes, are the rep- resentation of village gods and historic figures that adorn the walls and doors of the more pretentious homes. These are done in combinations of color with the usual detail on the figures against conventionalized suggestions in the background. They make attractive enrichments of otherwise white walls or plain doors and add much to the beauty of the village. The finest example of this mural painting was found on the largest new residence in the village, as shown in Illustration XII. Across the entire front, immediately under the eaves, is a continuous series of paintings beau- tifully rendered. They deal with famous historical incidents and scenes. Two large special paintings embellish the panels on each side of the recess of the main entrance. Sometimes a frieze of paintings will run up both sides of the gable fronts and connect with special paintings analogously set into the gable peaks. THE is TY OF ILLINOIS = RSIT = a PLATE IX XVI. THE ENTRANCE TO THE VILLAGE TEMPLE. MILITARY HEROES GUARD THE HOLY OBJECTS WITHIN FROM EVIL SPIRITS ART AND RECREATION 269 In striking contrast to the minuteness and delicacy of the art panels just described, are the large and conspicu- ous paintings on the gable ends of the most recently built home of the village. They are about three-fourths life-size drawings in colors, also representations of fig- ures famous in village folklore. It was impossible to learn from the villagers just who they were. All en- quiries were met with the common phrase of the un- schooled, ‘‘famous men.”’ That these mural paintings serve to mark off and accentuate the wealth or prestige of the occupants and owners of the houses cannot be doubted. They serve the double social function of satisfying the wishes for new experience and dominance—providing enjoyment of art and classifying the people. The more pretentious the house, the larger and the higher it is, the more mural decoration of this sort is displayed. Naturally, only the houses made of solid walls, plastered with a coat of lime, could be decorated in this fashion. Thus the ornateness and excellence of the mural paintings serve as indices of wealth and social status. The pictures on the doors of homes and on the doors and walls of village temples are of protective gods, fre- quently warriors storied in classical accounts of famous battles. Their fierce demeanor and flashing swords are designed to frighten away evil spirits. In addition to their esthetic value, they also help to satisfy the wish for security,—an ever-present wish where fears of multi- tudes of evil spirits are as common as among the untu- tored villagers of this rural district. In addition to the mural art, conventionalized and symbolic designs and drawings decorate panels beside main entrances, lintels and door-posts, window-frames on all four sides, eave-boards, gable ends, roof beams 270 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA and pillars. Only the houses of the “poor families”’ are not so decorated. The fact that a few of the families at present classified as “‘poor”’ live in dwellings a story and a half high and with artistic embellishments of these kinds indicates a declining prosperity of the occupants. An interesting and significant trait of these decora- tions—one characteristic, in fact, of the art traits of the village culture complex—is that they are always set in symmetrical but contrasting arrangements. The princi- ple of balance is universally applied except where architec- tural design prohibits. For example, the lintel has no corresponding surface available for decoration at the foot of the door. The door-step exists (Illustrations V and XV) to be sure, but decoration would soon be obliterated through use. Consequently, the central portion of the lintel is frequently treated in a special manner. There will be found either a character, painted or chiseled, the mystic symbol of origin and expansion, or the ubiquitous octogram,! either painted in several colors or modelled in clay and then painted—all supposed to bring happiness and good luck. (Illustration V.) LACQUER A third type of painting is that to be found on all lacquer work. In the ancestral hall of each great house, facing into the central and main court, is the cabinet that contains the tablets of each of the family ancestors. The costliness and beauty of the ancestral cabinets vary according to the wealth and prestige of the family. There are the huge cabinets in which are placed the tablets of the great ancestors of the religious families and the sib as a whole; then there are the tablets of the more 1 See Frontispiece. ART AND RECREATION 271 immediate and personal ancestors of the present natural- and economic-families which are contained in the smaller cabinets of the homes, about one or two feet in height. In the homes of the poor families, these small cabinets may not be very high; they are made of ordinary wood and painted red, with some decoration in black lines. But among the wealthier families even the small cabinets may be lacquered and embellished with beautiful scenic painting. Some of the large cabinets that range from four to eight feet in height represent all stages of decay and all degrees of beauty. In the large new house mentioned above (Illustration XII) is to be found an art treasure that could be placed in any of the finest museums of the world and attract wide attention. In this home, immediately opposite the main entrance, and visible from the road when the doors are open, stands one of the most beautiful cabinets of the countryside. It is lacquered throughout and the two huge doors are further enriched with beautiful paintings done in gold paint on a black background. The workmanship is exquisite; for delicacy of touch, breadth of conception, richness in contrast, it is a masterpiece. And yet the villagers pass this door day by day without bestowing any excep- tional notice upon it. Its wonderful beauty has been ‘accepted and enjoyed in the same spirit that the full ‘moon or the hazy mountains are accepted—as a matter of course. | CARVING { | _ Next to the paintings, in point of prevalence, are carvings in stone or modellings in clay. The furniture in all the better homes is highly carved—tables, chairs, ‘beds, bureaus and cabinets. The eaves and ends of 272 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA roof-beams and rafters, whether of wood or of stone, all visible parts that an artist can work upon and a person behold, are carved. The stone lintels and door-posts of the finer houses are carved in great detail. Flowers, scenes from ancient history, groups of classical figures are carved in bas-relief. The general lines of conception for carving around entrances are similar to those found in paintings that are exhibited in similarly important places in the homes. Even in the poorer homes it is possible to find a surprising amount of carved work. Less fine in execution, perhaps, it still resembles the ornateness of the finer houses. Then there are the gods and images of the temples, modelled and carved representations of village lore and myth—concretions of folk wishes. Over the clay models, red paint and gold leaf are spread in pleasing effect. In every religious procession they sit on highly decorated thrones; between times, they inspire fear or hope in the hearts of the troubled villagers as they come to the temple to pray. (See Illustration XVII, facing page 294.) The greater houses, and particularly the ancestral temples of the sib moieties, are adorned with porcelain objects, painted and enamelled. Animals, flowers, the mythical phenix bird and the dragon are combined in ways peculiar and grotesque to the Western eye. (See Illustrations XII and XV.) This enamel work is found on the ridge of the front roof of the ancestral home, panels inserted by the main entrance, the eave tiles, balustrades of porches or terraces (Illustrations V and XIT), on water kangs, flower pots, bowls, dishes and vases. ARCHITECTURE In the architecture of the homes, excepting those of the very poor families, the principle of balance finds ART AND RECREATION 273 perfect expression. For example, in the ancestral home several times referred to (Illustration XII), door matches door, beam matches beam, gable is set off against gable; the lanterns are paired, so also the art insets beside the main entrance (Illustration XV), the scrolls and drawings over and above it. The entrance has two doors, both of which are decorated with red scrolls on which are painted in black, characters that contrast sym- metrically in form and meaning. Across the front of the house, and separating the terrace from the road (Illustration XII), extends a wall. Broken at two points equi-distant from the end and enriched with a porcelain balustrade, it slopes gracefully and gently toward the middle, lending both variety and beauty to the home. This formal and symmetrical arrangement is also carried out in the plan of the larger houses (Figure 5). Door is set against door, pillar opposite pillar, room to room, and the whole is joined throughout making a continuous unity in construction. The architectural form provides a fitting material setting for the social organization of the family, at once varied and unified; varied in membership and temperament but unified through name and blood. The home plan furnishes the separateness needed for the intimacies and privacies of family life and yet joins the members into bonds of common interest and companionships. In fact, the architecture of these large village homes can be under- stood only in terms of familist organization and relation- ship. Conversely, the latter are illumined by envisaging these physical settings. The roofs are tiled alike throughout the village, as is illustrated by any of the photographs of the houses. The lines are straight both on the ridge and along the 274 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA gables. There are no curved roofs. The tiles on the ridge are displaced in the wealthier homes by porcelain decorations already described, or are arranged in an intricate fashion in order to add beauty to utility. No gargoyles are found in the village. The walls are made of a mortar of pounded lime and coarse sand. They are windowless and bare, with the exception of the mural paintings previously described. When covered with a new coat of lime wash, their glowing whiteness contrasts pleasingly with the deep green of the surrounding orchards. The doors are usually set back from the line of the main wall in front, which makes a covered entrance and breaks into the architectural monotony of the solid wall. The construction of the door is very simple: two door-posts of solid stone rest upon a piece at the bottom which forms the threshold, and a solid piece crosses at the top for a lintel. (Illustration XVI.) Inside, two doors swing on wooden pegs as hinges, extending from the top and bottom and fitting into grooves in the lintel and in the doorstep. The screech these doors make when they are opened each morning by the slave girl has been for centuries the substitute for a modern alarm clock. MINOR ART OBJECTS Minor art objects are too numerous to be described. They include jewelry, such as gold rings, silver rings, hair ornaments, silver or jade bracelets, and jade ear- rings with silver or gold settings. The prevalence of jade raises it to an important culture-trait and is ac- counted for by its use in the marriage ceremonies. The poorest looking woman in the village wears beautiful jade ear-rings, if she has been married. In addition, there ART AND RECREATION 275 are the draperies, such as bed curtains embroidered with flower designs, or hangings about the throne of the village god, made of silk and cotton and highly embroidered. Lanterns, candle-sticks, incense burners, chopsticks are all in common use and are generally embellished in some way or another. Finally, there are the artistic aspects of two objects of primary importance to every villager—the wedding chair and the coffin. The wedding chair is made of highly carved wood, painted with red or lacquered red and painted with gold, studded with bits of glass or mirror in order to resemble jewels. Inside the entrance to the chair are red embroidered curtains that conceal the occupant from the over-zealous gaze of the village youths. The wedding clothes, too, are objects of artistic adorn- ment. The skirt of the bride is made of red satin and embroidered with thread of gold. The headdress is quite elaborately made of gold leaf inset with blue feathers, cut to fit into the metal design. These articles of familist ceremony are used generation after genera- tion and are renewed only when they have practically fallen to pieces. CONVENTIONALITY IN ART It only remains to point out that while the variety of art objects and forms is great, the details of execu- tion represent the strictest adherence to custom. What can be seen at the present moment are forms that have predominated for centuries in Phenix Village. The only _new art object to be found in the village to-day is the photograph. The posters and calendars are merely color-prints of older forms of customary art. The general uniformity into which esthetic expression is cast further reénforces uniformity of behavior. The 276 COUNTRY ULIFEVIN SOUTH Ghia limited number of stimuli to which the village folk are exposed determines the range of possible behavior as regards esthetic activity for either production or enjoy- ment. All the artistic forms are so conventional and fixed that they supply no new or divergent forces to conflict with other forms of village behavior. They set limits beyond which the person does not go, and so constitute one type of social control. Thus, they play a role in the village schematization of conduct and conduce to stabilization of personality. The close correlation between the quantity of art objects and wealth is demonstrated by their abundance in the great new homes built by the successful members of the village—men who have made their fortunes in the Straits Settlements. Whenever resources have permitted, art and its exploitation have become, as elsewhere in the world, indices of status, social and economic. There is, however, little art production in the village. The recent artistic creations have been executed by specialists imported from without the village. This is another good reason for shifting the educational objective of art education in the schools from production to appreciation and utilization. However, it must be kept in mind that the exploita- tion of conventional forms of art for the classification of village members and the determination of social status, creates per se disturbing elements in community rela- tions. As already stated, the wealthy people carry art expression to such a relatively high degree that the others cannot afford to follow. By thus distinguishing themselves, the wealthy can achieve a type of superior status, gain prestige and social recognition, but they thereby impose upon other members of the sib feelings of inferiority. ART AND RECREATION 277 The source of their wealth has been primarily the areas of immigration in the Pacific Basin. Because the successful emigrants announce to the village their achievements by a conspicuous display of art, the attention of the villagers is directed to these areas from which the means for art display have come. The young people, meeting for the first time in their lives the stimulations of such unusual degrees of esthetic ex- pression—the decorated doors of ancestral cabinets or the riot of adornment on the exterior of new houses— develop dissatisfaction and desire to achieve similar prestige. They too break away. Quite apart from the tales of opportunity brought back by successful emigrants or recounted in letters, conspicuous artistic display re- sults in the weakening of the social control of tradition and arouses emulatory efforts during which the person is subjected to new and varying norms that lead him to break away from village standards, not in art but in morals. The separation is never complete, however, for the emigrant feels himself a member of the village com- munity even while in distant lands. This is shown by his willingness to return to Phenix Village, his remit- tance of funds, and his desire to improve his status in the village by expending large sums of money in the con- struction of fine houses. But when he does attempt to advance his social status in this way, he does not intro- duce foreign art so much as he increases the quantity of traditional art forms. There is one exception to this characteristic, namely, in dress. Those who return carry with them some marks of foreign influence in their dress. Such indications are not numerous but they exist: the straw hat, sleeves cut in new fashion, leather shoes made according to 278 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Western patterns, clothes made of imported materials decorated with foreign designs, and so on. ARTS OF MUSIC Music is ordinarily of incidental importance and rises into prominence in village life during the periods preced- ing village ceremonies. As described in connection with the Associations, the cultivation of musical interest and ability is brought about by the special training of a group of young persons to perform in the annual religious procession. The boys also learn the songs popularly used on the stage. When the period of preparation arrives, the young people get much fun out of the musical efforts. Generally, however, musical expression upon instrument or in song is individualistic. People enjoy themselves by singing or playing alone. Only in the schools are the children beginning to learn to sing in unison. Group or choral music is unknown in Phenix Village. STORY-TELLING Although the schools of the village have been in- efficient in training for life needs, they have turned out pupils able to read and write. With these tools at their disposal, the men have continued to educate themselves. They read business letters, public notices, popular novels and drama. The scholars read mainly history and the classics of ancient China. There are volumes of stories, popular dramas of a historical nature, popular poetry to be found in the homes, in temples and in the shops of the market. Among all the printed books of the village at the present time, the almanac is the most important. (Compare pages 186f.) This contains, ART AND RECREATION 279 as already noted, details of each day in the year: its date and place in the calendar; its name and significance for religious purposes. In fact, this almanac is the guide of life and village practice is conducted upon the basis of legend, myth and fact that it contains. It is a repos- itory of practical astrology and, as such, is carefully read by all the literate women. In addition to the transmission of traditional practices and attitudes by the imitation of ceremonial forms and ritual, by school training, and by folklore, the almanac represents the formal and recorded aspects of village culture. In that sense, it may be thought of as the village textbook in science. The women lack formal education; only a few can read. It is natural, therefore, that the few! who are fortunate enough to be able to read are in great demand as readers. The women like to gather in a reading circle and listen to one of their number “‘sing’’ ballads. These ballads are in simple and rhythmic popular lan- guage, especially designed for women to read or sing. This form of literature exercises a powerful control over the minds of the women and girls. It is interesting because it is full of popular stories which are frequently dramatized on the village stage. From these stories the women derive their knowledge of the life and customs of the past and of other parts of China. The ballads do not adhere strictly to historical accuracy but are aimed rather, so far as any utility other than recreation is concerned, at stimulating the mind and reénforcing 1 Approximately three to five per cent of all females; 10 to 15 persons out of 312 women and girls. Ross claimed (The Changing Chinese, 1912, p. 145) that ‘“‘not one womanin a thousand’’ can read. For men, he gave the figures: ‘“‘not one in ten’’ can read (p. 342). Gamble, in Peking, a Social Survey, claimed about fifty per cent literacy for men who were Christians and forty per cent for Christian women. 280 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA the moral ideals of the community advocated for women. But the stories are not always of the moral sort. Con- sequently, the mothers try to supervise the reading to which their girls may go. Cases of moral delinquency have occurred where the girls were attempting to identify themselves with heroines of stories. Much of the suicidal tendency on the part of women is considered by village men to come from listening to accounts about famous women who cut their ‘‘Gordian knots’’ by this method. The stories were written by men, who thereby have succeeded in imposing upon women masculine concepts of life for women and masculine norms of behavior for women. The relatively few men of the village who are unable to read join with others quite literate in listening to the wandering ‘‘minstrels’”’ or ‘‘ballad singers.’’ These men drop into public places, such as tea houses or opium shops, and tell their tales in dramatic fashion. The listeners reward the singers with money; they will sit and sip tea and hearken to these tales for hours at a time. Such tales contrast with those common among women in that they cover a wider range of subjects. They are more free and less didactic. They may be classified roughly into three types: news stories about happenings, transmitted orally in this way instead of through news- papers; stories taken from history and embellished with imaginative additions; myths, legends, fairy tales of deviltry and magic. There is no limit set upon them except by the imagination of the singer. Examples of such tales may be found in Giles’ translation of the stories of P’u Sung-ling under the title, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. 1 Kelley and Walsh, Ltd. Shanghai: 1916. ART AND RECREATION 281 Many of these stories are coarse and vulgar. They vary in length from those that can be related in a few moments to those that take hours for the telling. This constant recounting of folklore under conditions where dramatic recital secures increased patronage, support and reward, creates an insistent demand for exciting embellishments without respect for truth, and develops a body of romance that reénforces superstitions based on ignorance. Sometimes these romancers accompany their recitals with the violin. Then they add to the tone of their voices and the expression of their faces the emotional qualities and dramatic contrasts possible on such a musical instrument. Many of these singing romancers have unusual dramatic powers and by the subtle effects of gesture and intonation create an art quite distinctive and thoroughly enjoyed by the people. The wild imaginative creations absorbed by the villagers with intense concentration suggest that these esthetic interests provide a form of release from the otherwise dull monotony of rural village life. FORMS OF RECREATION Besides the recreative values to be found in these various forms of art, there are many kinds of recreation in which young and old engage. Traditionally, play is taboo, but practically, it is allowed for children and engaged in by adults. Not all forms of play are equally good but none are punishable, not even those kinds tacitly disapproved of by the better members of the community because of their bad effects. Following is a list of the forms of recreation engaged in by children (girls’ games are starred”): The more active forms of play are: Swimming, running races, wrestling and boxing, hopping and skipping”, | * 282 COUNTRY “LIFE IN SOUTH#CH Ig rowing boats, frog race, catch the monkey, foot and inch or ‘‘striking the ear,’’ shuttlecock*, throwing a ball*, blind man’s buff*, rolling a coin, flying kites, archery (very rare). The less strenuous forms are: Fishing, fish fighting, ‘cricket fighting, hunting in a minor way, marbles, keeping domestic animals, catching frogs, catching wild bees, wasps and insects, imitating activities of adults or of theatrical performances, practicing music, reading stories or novels, singing dramatic songs, making and using whistles, telling and listening to stories, feasting, watching theatrical performances, gambling, calling to spirits or ghosts (particularly during the Chinese eighth month when spirits are supposed to be subject to call), jacks”. The adult forms of recreation are: Fishing, hunting, boxing, gambling, feasting, attending theatrical_ per- formances, playing musical instruments and singing, reading stories and novels, listening to stories and novels, telling stories, smoking (tobacco and opium), gossip and debate, idling. There is no such thing as a playground in the village, but an open field now used by School B as a drill ground could easily be made into one. Play is endured, not pro- moted, so there is no supervision or training in it. The formal physical drill imported from the West via the provincial normal school lacks play possibilities. It is neither good military tactics nor good physical exer- cise. It furnishes an example of the deterioration of a culture-trait when the incidence of absorption is several times removed from the point of primary contact. The forms of recreation for women are very few. The women watch theatricals, listen to readings, music, watch the religious processions or participate in other ART AND RECREATION - 283 ceremonies that provide a recreative aspect because of their infrequency, such as weddings, funerals, ancestral worship, and the like. They also embroider, occasionally paint, but generally gossip. In the larger homes, some of the women care for flowers, water-lilies and gold- fish. Time hangs heavily on their hands. The greatest single improvement in village recreation that could be introduced would be radio, but broad- casting is not yet established in Swatow. CHAPTER Tro. RELIGION AND THE SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY In order to understand and appreciate the religious practices of the people in Phenix Village, it is necessary to remember that the village community is really a plurality of communities: the spiritual community made up in turn of two communities—the natural community embodying myriads of spirits in natural objects; the human community composed of the spirits of departed ancestors and of ancient folk heroes, deified after death; and finally, the community of persons now living in the village. The members of the spiritual communities are deemed to be able to control the fortunes of the living. The central problem of life is to be solved by merging these several communities into a harmonious whole. The individual person not only has to fit him- self into customs and institutions of the living but must adjust himself to the needs of the members of the spiritual community in order to remain en rapport with them so as to win the happiness he longs for. ANIMISM Animistic ceremonies while simple are universally practiced. Every tree, house, fence, door, field—natural objects of all sorts—are believed to be the dwelling place of a spirit. Inanimate as well as animate objects are so conceived. One is not surprised, therefore, in walking through the fruit orchards to see the farmer burning. paper at the foot of a pomelo tree, or to notice pieces. of half-burned paper hanging from a fence or a door of | i ) RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 285 a house. Whenever, for some reason or other, the per- son thinks a spirit might be offended, he burns red paper on which are written characters expressing a prayer or offering appeasement. The farmer takes no chances on offending the spirits of the trees in his orchards. If the trees do not bear well, then it is because their spirits have been offended; they withhold their aid and the farmer suffers loss. The boatmen believe in a spirit of the river, of the rocks, of the mountains, of the clouds, of the rain, of the wind. When the wind fails to fill their sails, they call to it in a weird plaintive cry to come again. De- structive floods are angry spirits wreaking vengeance because of neglect by humans. At Chinese New Year time, the boatmen have the custom of pasting bits of red paper inscribed with characters on all parts of the boat and on all their implements, their poles, their ropes, and so on, firm in the belief that such magic practices will make the resident spirits favorable to them. All the ordinary folk who in the pursuit of their oc- cupations live close to nature and depend upon its whims and fancies believe thoroughly in these super- stitions and scrupulously observe magical performances. The scholars do not openly scoff at these things, but they rarely are so credulous in these matters though super- stitious in other ways. Out of animism has grown up the complex of atti- tudes and values known as necromancy or the control of the spirits of wind and water—feng shui. The whole of Chinese magic is summed up in these two words. So highly developed are the formulas of operation and the technics of discovery of the will of the spirits that a special profession is essential. The village supports one man whose sole business is to reveal the will of 286 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA spirits toward any particular project or deed that a person may contemplate if it is of unusual importance. There seems to be no differentiation between fate and the will of the spirits. The fortune-teller charges fees for his divining and enjoys a monopoly in the knowledge of necromancy. Thus, if you wish to use a piece of land, you must first discover by the aid of the necromancer whether such an act would offend or please the spirits that dwell there. A grave on the hillsides must be determined by divination; the date for marriage, the opening of a shop, the location of a new house must be approved by the ‘‘medicine-man.”’ Furthermore, when the details of a project are fixed in a favorable manner, the necro- mancer will determine whether or not it is necessary to worship. The people conceive that the multitudes of lesser spirits, spectres, or gnomes are under the hierarchical control of major spirits and gods. By wor- shipping these, the lesser will not be able to interfere. In breaking ground for a building, a grave or a culti- vated field, the ‘“‘doctor’”’ is often called upon to worship these major beings and insure successful outcome of the client. But there is always a fee for the professional service. These doctors sometimes claim unusual authority by asserting their discipleship to some one of the “‘head”’ gods. As they build up the prestige of their “‘chief,”’ their own prestige is increased and they are more in demand because they can guarantee better protection. Also when the gods have been offended, the doctors are better able in the ceremonies of burning ‘‘ paper money,’ inscribed paper, or in sacrificing, to appease them. In addition to necromancy or the determination of the will of spirits with reference to specific objectives, RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 287 there is fortune-telling in a general way. People want to know whether there is happiness or bitterness in store for them. The prophet has his own god to worship. He not only tells people what their future will be but also prays to his god that their evil fortunes may be turned aside from them. To this end he offers sacrifice and performs the ceremony. Inasmuch as he alone can gain the favor of his professional god, the people are quite ready to pay what he asks for this service. He strengthens his position by exploiting the religious faith of the people; in all his statements he includes numerous phrases that, for the people, are fraught with religious faith and authority. He renders both a pre- ventive and an ameliorative service to the community. The exploitative character of these professions is quite apparent and yet they perform a valuable social func- tion. In view of the ignorance of the people of natural phenomena and the modes of explaining natural events, they become enmeshed in psychic tensions which secure release through the services of the necromancer or fortune-teller. That their beliefs are erroneous makes no difference. Their uncertainties disappear and their faith strengthens their hands. Mental conflicts arising out of the doubts of life are resolved by the aid of these ‘“‘doctors’’ who really practice crudely a form of psy- chotherapy. So long as ignorance is prevalent, the com- munity needs these men as preservers of mental health. SPIRITISM Spiritism is also prevalent in the village. The people believe the dead can be induced to communicate with the living by the help of some of the gods they wor- ship. There are two kinds of spiritists; the one is pro- fessional, the other, temporary. 288 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA The professional spiritist may be a man or a woman with an office in a definite place where his gods are on exhibition. People go there whenever they wish to consult their dead kin. They first worship the gods and then pray to those with whom they would like to converse. The expert spiritist discovers the location of the desired spirit and readily induces it to come. All of the talking by the spirit is done through the medium, who charges a fee for his assistance. The temporary spiritist is usually some boy or girl who is thought to possess strange powers. The child must be placed in the midst of the adults. He must close his eyes and sit in a solemn manner. The others, holding burning incense in their hands, chant a song to induce the spirit to come. Sometimes paper with a charm written upon it is burned to hasten the ap- proach of the spirit. The people know when the spirit has arrived by the fact that the child quickly changes his posture and assumes characteristics known to be possessed by the person sought for when he was alive. The child then talks of matters pertaining to the other world and of the affairs left unfinished when death called the person away. Sometimes light is thrown on doubtful matters, but this may be accounted for by coincidence and suggestion. However, the people seek- ing the information are quite credulous and shape their course of action according to the words of the medium. The resemblance between this performance and shamanism as found in Siberia is very interesting.! — 1Czaplicka, M. A. Aboriginal Siberia. Oxford: 1914. pp. 169 ff. Shirokogoroff, S. M. General Theory of Shamanism Among the Tungus. Vladivostock: 1919. (In Russian.) The concluding chapter of this essay has been translated into English by the author and myself and, during the year 1923, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch, Shanghai. RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 289 Information is not at hand to show whether there is any historical connection of this culture-trait with Siberia, nor is it possible to elucidate the causes of the phenomena, beyond the hypothesis that partial or complete hypnosis is produced. The conditions set up in the seance approximate closely those suggested by Sidis for hypnosis.! VILLAGE TEMPLES The strictly religious practices of the village, by which people adjust themselves to that part of the spiritual community composed of the particular gods and spirits that control Phenix Village and the surrounding territory, are performed in the local temples. They are neither Buddhist, nor Taoist, nor Confucian, but a sort of mixture of all of these and of a natural religion—animism and spiritism. There are three such temples, two are marked on the Local, Map. of the Village as B and C. The third is graphed but is “not designated because it has been aban- doned for some time. C is shared with surrounding villages, while B is used exclusively by the people of Phenix Village. Therefore, a description and analysis will be made of only Temple B, within the village and near the bank of the Phenix River. The temple is not large—about twenty by thirty feet in area and about fifteen feet at the eaves and 1Sidis, B. The Psychology of Suggestion. 1921. p. 49. ‘*To make a synopsis of the conditions of hypnosis, or, what is the same, of abnormal suggestibility: I. Fixation of attention. 2. Distraction of attention. . Monotony. . Limitation of voluntary movements. . Limitation of the field of consciousness. . Inhibition. . Immediate execution.”’ ran hw 290 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA twenty-three feet up to the ridge of the roof. There is but one entrance (Illustration XVI) which faces west. In front of this is a stone receptacle about two feet high in which worshippers thrust several sticks of burning incense as they approach. Over the door hangs the name of the temple, Fu Ling Gu Miao, or Ancient Temple of the Blessed Soul. (E, Figure 8.) Thrones ia AN ry oh GUU Bench ee On Kulp Ek VILLAGE * TEMPLE INCENSE Tray I CANOLE FRAME ©) O11 Lame @ ‘Bei’ FIG. 8. FLOOR PLAN OF VILLAGE TEMPLE On the lintel are carved two circular designs which are painted to exemplify a fundamental religious and philosophical notion of beginning and eternal becoming. RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 291 The three colors all emerge from one center and spirally expand to the circumference, from which one’s imag- ination may lead him out to the inclusion of all space. Beside both doorposts hang small bamboo containers. The worshipper inserts burning incense sticks in honor of the two military heroes painted on the doors to guard the temple and the gods within from the attacks of evil demons. (Illustration XVI.) The appearance of the interior of the temple is shown by the floor plan in Figure 8. There are no windows so that the only light comes through the main entrance. As the visitor’s eyes become accustomed to the gloom, he gradually discerns the furniture, the images, and the characters hung up in various places. In the figure the locations of the images and gods are indicated by numbers, while the sayings are given letters for identification. Inside the main entrance and directly over it in horizontal arrangement is the following (D): The myriads of spirits are greatly blessed. Four pillars support the roof. Vertically, on the two forward ones, hang the following dui-dz or ‘‘matched sayings’ (CC): Guard the people with thy blessing, And all will welcome happiness. Thy spirit shine forever, And forever will thy soul be held as pure. _ Each saying has the same number of characters, namely, ten. Each is divided into two parts, the first ‘of four characters and the second of six. The first character of the one on the right, looking in from the -entrance, begins with the first character in the name of the temple, Fuh, happiness or blessing. The cor- 292 COUNTRY’ CIFE IN SOUTH GCEiive: responding word of the opposite saying is Ling, soul or spirit, the second word in the name of the temple. The last or tenth character of each is the same as the first of each. A literal translation may illustrate the balance, parallelism, and contrast: Fortune guard ten thousand persons; Person [by] person will find great fortune. [Thy] spirit shine one thousand generations; Generation [after] generation will name [a] pure spirit. In small characters in the lower corner of the plaque on the right is: ‘‘Established on a lucky day 7 . . in the reign of Tsien Lung, On the left is: aeasebrully dedicated by Wu Chane by, and his son, Yu-kung.”’ The point of historical interest here is that after the present sib had moved to Phenix Village, there may have been still a member of another sib of sufficient wealth and importance to build this temple, for the name of the founder differs from the sib name of the present occupants of the village. The ancestors of the present sib moved into the village in the latter part of the sixteenth century (see page 68) or approximately two hundred years before the temple was dedicated. The Wu sib had disappeared but the members of another sib now use the temple as exclusively their own. Over and around the stage in the rear of the temple, runs a piece of embroidered satin on which are the characters (B): Gan Tien Da Di, or God of Grace. On a large wooden plaque placed above the throne of the principal idol are four large characters: ‘‘May divine grace engulf thee.’’ On each end of this board written vertically are: ‘‘The first year of Hszen Feng, Sep- tember’’ (1851); and on the left end, ‘Respectfully ee es RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 293 dedicated by the members of the community.” This dedication refers only to this plaque (A). Such are the folk wishes that have been crystallized into conventional art forms in this village temple. Immediately inside the main entrance is a long bench in front of a high table. On this table are the two bez or divining instruments. They are made by cutting into halves the curved root of a bamboo tree. They are flat on one side and round on the other and are used in a manner described in detail further on. Behind the table is the wooden altar; at both ends are iron frames on which burning red candles are put; in the rear center is an oblong bronze container filled with the ashes of burned incense sticks, and on both sides of this are two images (8 and 9); on the left front edge are three bowls in which burning incense sticks are placed and to the right of these is an oil-lamp,—nothing more than a bowl filled with oil into which a wick is loosely placed. The lamp is supposed to be kept burning all the time, but the keeper of the temple is not exactly faithful to his duties. Image 8 is the military god, which is an exact transla- tion of the village name for him, Wu Dz Yia. Couling? thus identifies him: KuANn-TI called Kuan Yu and other names, is the Chinese Mars, the god of war. He was born in the modern Shansi and was a hero of the period of the Three Kingdoms. He was a loyal supporter of Lru PEI who became first emperor of the Minor Han dynasty. Being taken prisoner by Hsun Cu’UAN he was executed in 220 A. D., at the age of 58. Posthumous honorific titles were bestowed on him by sev- eral emperors, and WAN-Li of the Ming dynasty deified him. He has sacrifices on the 15th of the 2nd moon and the 13th of the 5th. His temple is called Wu sheng miao, and he is 1 Encyclopaedia Sinica. London: 1917, p. 280. 294 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA to the military what ConFrucius is to the literary classes, and in addition he has somehow come to be regarded as a god of literature. Image 9 is the literary god and corresponds to the Minerva and the Muses of ancient Rome. Couling? locates him thus: WEN TI, the god of literature, also named WEN CH’ANG Ti Coun. One of the canonical deities, worshipped officially throughout China on the 3rd day of the 2nd moon and on an auspicious day of the 8th moon, with sacrifices. He was once probably a living man of the T’ang period named CHANG, who lived in Ssuch’uan. He is supposed to have been re-incarnated many times, and was deified in the Yuan dynasty (1314 A. D.). But he is also the inhabitant of the constellation Ursa Major, and the part of that con- stellation which the Chinese call K’wez is also worshipped as god of literature, and in every state temple to WEN TI there will also be found a representation of the K’uei star (K’uer hsing). . . . These two ideas of the deity are inex- tricably mingled. Immediately back of the altar a fence connects the two rear pillars. This runs up to about five feet in height and has three pales missing in the center to allow the people to look through at the god without hindrance. Behind the fence is a stage that butts on the rear wall of the temple. It is about three feet from the ground and adorned by an embroidered canopy. In the center of the stage sits a life-size idol on a decorated throne. It was impossible to learn from any of the villagers questioned just what the name of the god is. When asked, each person would reply, ‘‘ Holy God.” To the right of the stage and in the corner is a table with small images, 4, 5, 6, and 7. These are called the 1 Encyclopaedia Sinica, pp. 597 f. PLATE X XVII. A RELIGIOUS IMAGE FROM THE VILLAGE TEMPLE. HE REPRESENTS A DEIFIED WARRIOR NOW ASSIGNED TO THE TASK OF GUARDING THE FOLK FROM EVIL SPIRITS . _ ae ~ 7 7 : Pa : Sy 7 ba a = 7 > a —s 7 4 12 ae : ie _ a? ne Ee iv S — LIBRARY | Of THE. Sues UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS a y a _ 2 RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 295 tu dt or gods of the soil or earth or fields. In front of them is an incense tray and an oil-lamp. Before the table are two stools upon which worshippers kneel. In the opposite corner is another table with images 2 and 3. They are male and female images, the god and goddess of horticulture. They correspond to the kitchen gods or Dzao-Lao Ye of which there are none in the homes of Phenix Village. These Hwa Gung Ma are patron gods of the fruit orchards and guarantee the prosperity of the families that depend upon fruit- growing for their living. The ash-tray, oil-lamp and stools are placed similarly to those in the right-hand corner. Along the left wall is placed a throne adapted for carrying the gods in the religious procession. Opposite are three others, one large and two smaller chairs. A large sheet of red paper with many names written on it is pasted on the left wall. The names designate the members of the village who are responsible for carry- ing the images in the religious procession. The paper also serves as a bulletin to inform what people are to worship in this temple and at what times. In the front right corner is located the bed of the keeper or priest. The man can hardly be considered a priest, for he wears no special vestments, and yet his functions are: caring for the temple, keeping the lamps burning, assisting the worshippers, and so on. He is a man addicted to opium smoking. Money offerings are made by the worshippers and those who secure favorable omens in answer to their prayers are generous givers. These offerings belong to the attendant who no sooner gets a cash or a copper than he hurries off to the opium shop. 296 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA WORSHIP In this temple worship is individual. It stands for the method of personal adaptation to the other world; it represents the individual’s efforts to maintain a successful relation with the spiritual community apart from the ancestors. The ceremonies are as follows: the woman who earnestly wishes for something comes to the temple, lights incense and places a. few sticks in each receptacle set up for that purpose. *:;This done, she sees that the lamps are lighted, but first she will make her offering of money. She then goes to the long bench and, kneeling, takes up the bez (10), holds them together in her two hands, lifts them up and down be- fore her, and bows to the god, saying, Chiu Lao Ye, gung wuh loh yii. Ts chi shen bei. (Pray God, let it not rain. Grant favorable omens!) Then she throws the bez on the dirt floor of the temple and notes how they fall. She should throw three times in all. If they fall in favoring combinations she is satisfied and goes out. Otherwise she may continue until luck breaks and the omens favor her. Sometimes she retires in sorrow when no favorable throw comes. The combinations are as follows: I. Smooth and round is shen bez and means the gods are favorable. () 2. Smooth and smooth is siao bet and means the gods laugh at the prayer. @)) 3. Round and round is wen bei and means the gods refuse to speak one way or the other. @) The worshippers always ask for shen bei but shen bei does not always come. That is why they throw three times. The chances for a successful combination are RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 297 greater than in one throw. Gambling with the gods to win the heart’s desire is no mag@fer of fun. In three throws, I-I- eans the prayer will be granted surely. This is most favorable combination of any three throws 3-1 would not count, so the throws would be r ted. The second best omen is the combinatio I-I. I-3-3 means the answer Oo not come favorably the first three throws. : “Keep on throwing.”’ The worshipper addresses her prayer sometimes to the chief god only, sometimes to him and then to the tu dit or the hwa gung ma, according to whether her prayer has to do more with the fruit orchards or the soils of the fields. These were cited by villagers as common forms of prayers: ‘‘Give us rain’’; ‘‘Give us sunshine’’; ‘‘Bless our kin that they may not suffer from disease and give them safety and security’’; ‘‘May this year’s crop be abundant’’; ‘‘Peace to our sons in foreign lands’’; and so on. They never pray that female infants may be born to them; nor do they ever pray for the injury of another. Otherwise their prayers are limited only by their experience. THE RELIGIOUS PROCESSION Mention has been made several times of the annual religious procession, for which the boys train in music and for which the portable thrones and other parapherna- lia are provided in Temple B. A modern scholar from this village once described this procession. The essay 298 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA was printed in a Chinese monthly published in Shanghai in 1918. Following is a translation of the article, with the omission of irrelevant parts: The religious procession is very ancient. In early times the custom was followed by all from the emperor down to the common people. Such sacrificial processions were known as Na Yang, which means paying tribute to God. Animals were killed and offered for sacrifice in the belief that this would drive away disease, famine, war and win blessings from God. The sacrifice was always performed by the Fang Siang Sh, a state official specially charged with this duty. In the Djou Li it says: “‘ Fang Siang Sh, who is protected by bear-skin on which is painted four golden eyes, who wears red and scarlet gowns, who holds spears and guides the people in driving away evil spirits.”’ The custom is surely an old one. Through the changes of dynasties many ancient customs have been lost, but not this one of the annual religious procession. It is held once each spring in my native place. In the evening of the appointed day old and young gather for a feast. Afterwards, everyone takes a lantern and joins the others forming themselves into a ‘‘ding-shaped”’ or a ‘‘ shan-shaped”’ character, which looks very attractive from a distance. The lanterns gleam and the candles shine; their light is reflected from the gorgeously embroidered banners. All add to the glory of this ancient custom. Still more interesting is the pride that the young folks show in carrying the banners in the procession. Some are disguised as clowns, others make up as ladies; still others bare their right arms and imitate the swagger of military heroes; others mask themselves as ghosts, goblins, demons, giants, and so on. With their strange and ugly features they furnish laughter for the stolid country folk but not for a student.|!] Then the folk music: drums, flutes, violins, gongs and so on play in concert as the people proceed to the shrine. RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 299 Finally the old folks, wearing long-sleeved gowns of ancient style, without collars, bring up the procession. They have pipes in their mouths and sticks of incense burning in their hands. The appearance of the god with a red face and white mustache is very beautiful and yet awe-inspiring. He holds a sword and is clothed with heavy armor. He looks like a real person as he sits on his throne. He is carried on the shoulders of four newly married persons. Why they are selected no one knows exactly unless they think that this act will bring prosperity to them. Such is the religious procession in a country community in China. Candles and torches shine in the front; har- monious music follows in the rear; while in the middle are the embroidered banners. Young and old join the pro- cession. Some run on ahead, others keep looking behind. The main streets, the narrow lanes, fields and trenches all are filled with the noise of their approach; their songs and cheers rise into the air. Even the dogs and chickens are made unhappy. And yet the country folks would insist that this is the way to win and gain blessings from the gods of their community. How can one account for the persistence of this ancient custom so faithfully performed from year to year? This serio-comic performance has become thoroughly embedded in this rural village and corresponds to the country fairs and festivals and picnics among the farmers of the United States. It is expressive behavior and affords catharsis for the psychic tensions of village monotony which arises out of the cultural limitations of the people. ANCESTRAL WORSHIP As already noted, there are three ancestral halls in which the worship of early ancestors is carried on. The oldest or main hall in front of the pool (D on the 300 COUNTRY (LIFE IN SOUTH CHinw Local Map of the Village) is more of an ancestral home and is now used as a residence (Illustration XV). All the people in the village owe allegiance to it; the land in connection with it is public land that does not rotate. When the rites of ancestral worship are held in it, the whole sib is joined in one great religious family. Formerly, some sons divided into two groups and built the large ancestral halls marked E and F on the map. ‘These are real ancestral halls and no families reside in them. They now house the schools A and B, respectively, and the teacher of each is allowed to live in a corner room. Otherwise the buildings are reserved for the exclusive performance of ancestral worship by the descendants of the two groups. Finally, in each ancestral home, rites are performed for the more immediate ancestors in the hall of the house. (See Figure 5.) Small houses may have a few tablets of grandparents which they worship on their birthdays. The sib on its religious side is a number of religious- families of different sizes at different times. The mem- bers are always included in a particular religious-group on the basis of lineage from the ancestor to be worshipped. How many people will be included depends upon how far back the people will go to select an ancestor to be worshipped. The more usual groups are now the two great religious-groups that worship in Halls E and F, and the groups in the ancestral homes; about once a year the village leaders hold worship in the Main Hall D, which is for all; but meanwhile individuals may worship at numerous times, just as in the hall of their ancestral homes. Worship is also held at the graves at least once a year. The large, wealthy religious-families choose a favorable RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 301 day in May, when they may spend as much as $200 on such worship. The poor families visit the graves on the Tsing Ming festival and worship simply by burning silver paper, offering a few dishes of food and setting off firecrackers. Among the large families the main feature is the feast that is spread on the hillside before the grave. Thus it is quite a sight to see several hun- dreds of people participating in these performances, which are a sort of religious picnic, but reserved for males only. PRIVATE CEREMONIES Because private ceremonies are more numerous than the public forms, they will be described first. Altogether there are thirteen definite times for worship. They are listed here with the special features of each worship: I. First of the New Year—only vegetables with oil may be sacrificed. 2. Second of the New Year—meat and vegetables cut into small pieces with lard. 3. Fifteenth of first moon—three dishes, large piece of pork, a whole chicken and a whole fish. 4. Tsing Ming Festival, the third moon—anything. 5. Holiday of the fifth moon—a piece of pork, sweets, LC. 6. Fifteenth of the seventh moon—anything. 7. Fifteenth of the eighth moon—pork and ‘‘moon” cakes. 8. Winter holiday of the eleventh moon—pork and sweets. 9g. Last day of the old year—fish, chicken and pork. 10, 11, 12 and 13. Birthdays of father, grandfather, mother and grandmother. 302 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA On these days the ceremonies are performed by the chia-chang, who is assisted by the boys of the small religious-group. Either of the tables 1 or 3 (See Figure 5, page 153) may be used. If table I is used, it is placed in the center of the hall. On it the women put a cup of tea, a cup of wine, a bowl of rice, chopsticks, bowls of food according to the customs listed above, unlighted candles and incense trays. When the men have all [cS] 7aseer assembled, the chia-chang . takes down from the cab- fed Cae inet (2) the ancestral tablet ca Chapstichs Frice of the person to be wor- shipped and places it on a) CD Ca) ) the table as shown in Fig- Food ure 9. The chia-chang then |¢,, wel) pa Dees lights the candles and sticks : r Incense of incense which he puts in the tray, kneels on the FIG. 9. ARRANGEMENT OF floor and bows three times vanmeaiaiy tes) ahs ‘ F badge IN HOME WORSHIP striking his head each time against the floor. If he does not strike his head he must bow four times. Incase the chia-chang should be absent when such rites are performed, any males may do these things. Afterward the food is eaten. At these same times and in the same ways, males may worship in the Main Hall D. PUBLIC CEREMONIES In Halls E and F, worship is held once a year and is rather elaborate. In general, the village leaders admin- ister the rites in Hall F. First come the male chia-chang and his male descendants. When the sacrifices have been set out on the tables, the paintings of the ancestors | t RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 303 Cabinet Open Court FIG. 10. FLOOR PLAN OF ANCESTRAL TEMPLE hung on the rear wall, then firecrackers are set off and the music starts up, after which the master of ceremonies calls out the names of the persons in order of lineage 304 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA and status in the religious-group. First he calls the master of ceremonies who goes forward and bows and then the others who, in turn, go forward. The master of ceremonies worships by taking the cork out of a bottle of wine, pouring it into a cup and offering it, after which he bows three times. When there are many males participating, after the principal people have individually made their bows the master of cere- monies will call out and all the others together will bow toward the cabinet and the sacrifices. Afterward there is a great feast. The materials for the sacrifices and the feast are supplied by the chia-chang who is in charge of the properties connected with the hall. A fine is imposed if the duties are not properly performed. The family on duty has to prepare cakes, fruit and candies as described in the almanac. These are distributed to the various economic-groups according to the number of males, whether boys or men, on an equal basis. All the participants share alike in the enjoyment of the sacrificial food. It would be interesting to study this feature further in order to discover whether or not there is any mystical potency thought to be in the food after it has been offered for sacrifice or whether it is practical parsimony to consume the food. Doubtless both are there, together with the conviviality that attends a feast, provid- ing religious sanction for social and recreational activities. It was possible to make a detailed analysis of the ceremonies carried on traditionally in the small Ancestra_ Hall E. Certain phases of these ceremonies throw some light on the magical characters involved as can be seer by a reading of the following procedures: RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 305 1. The office of master of ceremonies rotates among the head men of the economic and smaller religious families that make up this sib moiety or large religious family. 2. Ceremonies begin by setting off firecrackers to scare away evil spirits. 3. Music. 4. A man is assigned to the task of calling the names. He asks a man to lead the master of ceremonies to wash his face. Then the usher hands a bottle of wine to the master, who pulls the cork, pours out a cupful, and places the cup on the table before the cabinet. 5. The announcer calls the roll for worship. The chairman comes forward first and bows three times and then the others in unison bow three times. 6. At another call from the announcer, the usher hands dishes of food to the master who places them on the table in the proper places. (See Figure 10.) 7. Another call and the usher hands a bowl of pig’s blood mixed with goat’s blood to which is added a mixture of lamb’s hair and pig’s bristles and one blade of grass. This the master pours out on the floor in front of the cabinet. (Tradition has it that in olden times the people drank this blood because they were accustomed to eat things raw.) 8. Another call and two whole pigs and two whole goats are placed before the cabinet in sacrificial offering. g. The announcer calls again: a man then reads in the local dialect, not in literary language, the words of worship written on a long strip of red paper. (These may be any sort of felicitous charac- ters or auspicious words previously prepared by the scholar, or they may be a direct prayer for the health and prosperity of the ones represented), more houses, lands, good crops, long life, and sons. Then he burns the paper. 10. Next they burn paper money in the corner of the open court. 11. All bow toward the tablets, proceeding in order of rank ac- cording to age and kinship. 12. One man represents the ancestors and speaks words of advice to the descendants. 13. The scholars and old men divide the pigs and goats on the basis of the principles already mentioned. The different familist ‘groups then take these portions to their homes where they enjoy feasts. : ' 306 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA The fundamental notions of ancestral worship are these: (a) The immortality of the departed spirit. (6) The spirits live on in the other world as they did in this and so need the things for existence there that they used here. (c) The spirits depend upon living descendants for their necessities. (d) Spirits can control human affairs according to their pleasure. (e) If the descendants do not supply the necessities the spirits become angry and wreak vengeance upon the living by sending misfortune. (f) The living must carefully perform those rites that provide the spirits with their necessities, then happiness and prosperity may be achieved. (g) The honor and respect which is accorded the dead persons before their departure, must be continued. (h) It is only a step for the aged members of the familist group from this life to the next. At any mo- ment they may be powerful spirits. Persons must, therefore, be filial toward them in every way. (t) Worship of the dead involves duties to one’s elders who are alive. (7) The elders enjoy prestige with religious sanction, which gives them favored position and power in the community. From the sociological point of view, all this simply makes clear that in the course of time old men built up the customs and regulations and practices of worship that reénforced their own status. Historically, the village community has been controlled by old men for old men; but their day is passing. RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 307 RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES Sufficient data have been presented to show that religion colors every aspect of life in Phenix Village. The living person must constantly be alert if he would refrain from injuring or offending the hosts of spirits all about him. He consumes much time and money in con- stant effort to maintain a harmonious participation in his plurality of communities: the living, the departed ancestral spirits, and the spirits of nature that work their will through the operation of natural forces. Each of_these communities are equally real. Out of all his religious practices he wins satisfaction for his wish for security and achieves a sense of solidarity with his folk, natural, human, living, departed, present or historical. To break with these communities, to refuse to conform to the customary demands made upon one by the mystical members of the communities was a thing unheard of until the introduction of Christianity and modern science. Thus all matters, projects, plans, behavior of every kind are measured by community norms first founded in favor of the family, its head, and back of all, its spiritual head or departed ancestor. What these norms are and how they grew up can be seen in the ancestral worship and in the filial duties of everyday life. The wise sayings of a powerful and learned chia-chang, after his death, are repeated and transmitted from genera- tion to generation, providing fixed norms and schema- tized behavior patterns for the living. Out of the mystical assumptions of the living, the sanctions of the dead become powerful means of control of the conduct of the living. Attention centers on ancestors and not descendants; the look of the community is backward and not forward in any mundane sense; con- 308 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA tinuity, conservatism, traditionalism, institutionalism, familism are the great societal values. The individual person is of value only as he, while living, enhances and defends these values. Human prosperity is worth while only as it makes possible the happiness of the spirits, who, in turn, can produce human prosperity. There is an interaction between the human and the spiritual that creates a fundamental interdependence of the two and places religion at the center of all familist practice. That these attitudes are based on error makes no difference sociologically. They motivate behavior and illustrate how in human conduct the notions that people hold in their minds about themselves and the rdles they play in various groups are the real and immediate determiners of action. The man participating in an- cestral worship is constantly projecting “himself into the future world; he sees himself in the situations and conditions that he believes his departed ancestors are now in; he also sees himself in relation to the living descendants who later will be called upon to worship him; the guaranteeing of that status in the future life is his central problem. Out of this objective has developed the whole complex of familicentrism. That is why religion is not individual and personal religion so much as it is collective and group religion. Indi- viduals pray not for themselves but for their families. The culture complex of religion in Phenix Village is made up of attitudes, values and practices of all the various religious systems to be found in China. Until Christianity was introduced, there was no sectarianism whatever in the village. The same person followed animistic practices, spiritist seances, Buddhist adherence, © Taoist customs and Confucian standards; but the . important thing to note is that there were no sectarian RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 309 adherents who marked themselves off from other religious- groups and refused to follow certain practices as not belonging to their religion. The essence of sectarianism is the refusal to compromise. Strictly speaking, the sects exist but not in any practical way in Phenix Village. There isno Buddhist, nor Taoist, nor Confucian temple. For the laity, then, religion is a mingling of the practices of all these religions together with the familist religion of ancestral worship. Lacking the knowledge to criticize any of the religions, the ordinary person frankly believes whatever religious faiths he encounters. The scholars of the village are sceptic about Buddhism and Taoism but they do not interfere with the people in following Buddhist or Taoist practices. The scholars are the advocates of Confucianism. They keep quoting Confucius or his disciple Mencius until gradually the norms of conduct that the great sage enunciated seep down to the last man or woman in the village. So it is that the people believe in animism and worship the spirits of objects of nature. They have strong faith in the Buddhas, for they practice Buddhist customs and contribute money to erect Buddhist temples; they follow Taoism, for they call upon the Taoist priest of the region to perform ceremonies for the dead, use Taoist charms for protection against demons, and on certain days observe vegetarian diets. Lastly, they proudly refer to the teachings of Confucius as moral standards for familist practice and close every debate by quotations from his classics as to what is proper. EFFECT OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS Christianity has come into the village and now claims ten converts. It calls upon its adherents to break 310 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA with all these religious practices and even condemns ancestral worship. It is uncompromising and so sec- tarian in the highest degree. It has injected into this rural village community a set of dysgenic forces that have already broken loose several economic-families from religious familist alignments. It does not inter- fere directly with any other phase of life in the village save the religious groupings and practices. But such a contention is factual, for all phases of life in the village are so inextricably bound together that the disjointing of any one aspect throws a heavy strain yu every part of the social organization. There is little wonder, therefore, that the leaders oppose the religion of the “foreign devils.”’ It threatens the destruction of their whole social system and aims to substitute individualism for familism. This fact is clearly recognized by the intelligent leaders of the village who refer to Christianity as the ‘‘ancestor- destruction sect.’’ One leader called upon his sib mates to defend their own system and said, ‘‘Do not let the crow build its nest on the roof of your house.’’ Chris- tianity has nested on the roofs of several of the houses, but the people in them, with but a few exceptions, have simply added another set of religious attitudes and values to those they already have. At the present time the formal and regular activities of the Christian missionaries have ceased in Phenix Village. One of the smaller ancestral homes near the market was rented as a church and in that building were held regular Christian services and classes in religious education on Sunday and a regular school during the week. An inadequate response on the part of the villagers led the missionaries to withdraw. And yet one of their converts is now in training as a religious RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 311 leader in the Christian church. He is steeped in the methods of modern natural and social science and is planning to undertake a leadership in the Swatow region that may eventually effect radical changes not only in the native religions but also in the philosophy and technic of the Christian religion as well. This man has »such unusual intellectual capacity, such deep knowledge ‘of the classics, such training in modern scientific technic _that it would be interesting and exceedingly valuable ‘for modern sociology and missions in China to see what he could do in experimental work with his own village community by way of improvement. The diff- culty will be to get him to work there. VILLAGE PHILOSOPHY Part of the philosophy of the people of Phenix Village has been illustrated by their notions of religion and ancestor worship. Briefly, opinion is shaped and action undertaken according to whether they will please the gods they worship or glorify their ancestors. Fate rules all. The people do not entirely subscribe to a laissez- faire social policy for they think that collective action in worship and ceremony will either control the gods and so their own future well-being or ameliorate their condition by changing the mood of the gods. They con- stantly alternate from fatalistic laissez-faire-ism to a practical magic. They manipulate charms, mutter formulas, spread mystic characters to the winds, wear amulets and in all sorts of ways try to control their environment to meet their wishes, as best they can. But when all their effort, individual and collective, fails, when floods come in spite of prayers and death carries off their kin, worship notwithstanding, then they acquiesce and call it Ming or Fate. 312 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA PHILOSOPHICAL DUALISM All their philosophical notions are fundamentally dualistic. This dualism not only characterizes their philosophy but is seen in the antithesis of literary style, in balance and proportion of architecture, and in the simple contrasts involved in their ideas of the beginnings and evolution of things. All this is summed up in the yang-ying and ba-gwa concepts and geometricized in the ubiquitous Mystic Symbol. (See Frontispiece.) The interior portion of this symbol rises from a single point, the center, spreads and expands into two parts, where the original unity has been split, representing fundamental contrasts of nature, male and female, light and dark, good and bad. The outer lines of these two portions merge into a circumference which represents an unending circle, meaning eternity from beginning. The two portions are distinguished by painting one black with a white dot and one white with a black dot. They both interfold in their spiral expansion in close intimacy. These are taken as symbols of the union of male and female life principles from which comes birth of new beings and which correspond to the philosophical notion of becoming. That is why the symbol is found on the doors of homes where male and female unite in the intimacy of procreation that carries on the stream of life and ever widens the line of descendants. Among the illiterate the loftier concepts of a philosoph- ical or pseudo-scientific nature descend into crude sex symbolism. Around the central portion, representing the dualism of all nature, is placed the ba-gwa or eight diagrams, These are very ancient, being attributed to the mythical hero Fu Hsz (B. C. 2852). The whole of the IJ Ching, RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY 313 or Book of Changes, is devoted to the exposition of the meaning of these combinations of solid and broken lines. The theory is that these represent an early form of language writing which was later taken over by classical philosophy as a medium of representation. The theory of evolution is stated as follows: the form—a dot—is created by the formless. From the form there is then generated two parts, Yang and Ying. ‘The former was represented by a long line and the latter by two short ones. These two are then placed in four combinations, representing the Great Yang and Great Ying and the Small Yang and the Small Yzng. By again combining these, the eight diagrams are secured. They are always placed in the order shown in the figure referred to and mean Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire, Moisture, Wind, Thunder, and Hill. There is thus a close affinity between these geometrical designs and the animistic conceptions previously mentioned. When these eight diagrams are arranged in a circle they form a talisman that brings good fortune to the home on whose door they are placed. They also rep- resent the evolution of nature and the cyclical changes of nature. The diagrams are the basis of all divination practices and are taken to reveal the decrees of fate.! The symbol of good luck is a very common one and is found in Phenix Village in various forms: sometimes simply the eight diagrams without the central dualist symbol; sometimes only this interior part is used; while at other times the interior is modified into expand- ing spirals represented by two or three colors. (See Illustrations V and XVI.) However it may be rep- resented, the people understand what it means and have faith in its efficacy to bring good fortune. 1 Couling, of. cit., p. 420. 314 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA VILLAGE VALUES A study of village religion and philosophy is the best means of understanding village values. Briefly, the recurrent ones may be listed as: sons, ancestral worship, respect for age, happiness of departed spirits, long life, wealth, health, security against accident or other mis- fortunes, learning, harmony, conformity, fun. Negative values are: daughters, Christianity, youth, sorrow, disease, floods, bad crops, poverty, ignorance of books, inability to read, innovation. The former may be summed up as familism; the latter, as bad fate. FUNCTION OF RELIGION Religion is the technic of getting these values, which in turn correspond to various attitudes or complexes of wishes. The bankruptcy of the personal technic of wish-satisfaction throws the individual back upon community technic, built up on past experience, for the fulfilment of the wishes. When the difficulties of satisfying wishes are very great, the means beyond the control of persons as in the case of floods, disease, and so on, the gods and spirits are called upon. Religious technic is then a form of psychic compensation for the inferiority of human beings struggling under deficit economy with adverse forces of nature and a static community with its fixed norms of behavior. The degree to which training and education, formal and informal, have taken the ordinary villager away from himself and merged him into the plurality of communities conceived to exist is shown by the fact that his wishes take for- mulation not in terms of the needs of individual person- alities, but of groups, natural, economic or religious, as the case may be. The village mechanisms of social control in general effectively achieve individual conformity. Char Ur Ret INDIVIDUALIZATION How effective are the village institutions of social control and continuity? How do changes in the envi- ronmental factors affect the degree of control? What forms of behavior are condemned by the village com- munity? How far and in what ways are persons break- ing through conventions in their efforts to satisfy their wishes? How adequate is the rural village community to satisfy all the wishes of its members? What wishes escape and get satisfaction in spite of mechanisms of regulation? In short, what is the degree and what the forms of individualization? The answers to these questions can best be learned through a study of disapproved forms of behavior found in Phenix Village. If crime is defined as breaking statute laws, then only in a limited sense can this disapproved behavior be thought of as criminal. With Sumner’s notion of mores in mind—mass activities whose forms and results are socially sanctioned—it might be better to think of this behavior as immoral. SOCIAL CONTROL A study of immorality and the punishments therefor affords a valid check on the efficiency of the village institutions of control. As such, it is an index of the village social organization. It also furnishes concrete evidence as to the relationships between the village and the state agencies of punishment, especially how far the latter delimit the range of village autonomy. Formal | : 316 COUNTRY LIFECIN SOUTH OGCHIE law with the prominence of police action so common in Western communities, exists in Phenix Village only in cases of behavior especially anti-social. It does not protrude into the common thought and speech of the village folk. What is customary, traditional, or de- termined upon by common consent among the elders, what is prescribed by rule and ritual, are the significant regulators of personal conduct. Laws exist but rarely impinge on village life. There is a sense in which the control of persons in Phenix Village may be thought of as natural. That is, control has been developed within the village group by the group itself and in its own interests. The control mechanism is thus a phase of familist technic of survival under the operation of which the members of the family personally and separately consider the status of their own selves to be enhanced, advanced or defended. This involves processes of assimilation and accommodation whereby the values of the person have been made practically identical and coterminous in range with the values of the village group. A person is socialized in this sense only when his scheme of personal values approximates or is identical with the scheme of group values. In any case, until the group value is made per- sonal, the group value does not function either as a stimulus to behavior or as a control of conduct. In the past this approximation of personal values to community values has been achieved about the time of physiological maturity and has corresponded in general to stabilization of personality. The stabilized personality is the moral type in a place like Phenix Village because the predominant values have been seen to be of a static character. Changes have occurred in the physical environment, in a few INDIVIDUALIZATION 317 technological devices, in some social relations and marks of status, but as yet, not enough of these have accumulated, nor have they been introduced into the village rapidly enough to make the community a dynamic one. By the time the person becomes an adult, he is expected to be perfectly fitted into his plurality of communities. But a study of immoral behavior among adults shows how this conjunction of biological maturation of the person with the period of the stabiliza- tion of personality is breaking down. In large complex and highly dynamic communities, stabilization of per- sonality is coincident with death. Because the emi- grant does not break with his natural, social and spiritual communities, even when abroad, he can hardly be said to hold membership in the highly dynamic communities in the areas of immigration of the Pacific Basin. He enters small Chinese communities within the large cities and encysts himself. Among these emigrants, however, one would expect to find the highest amount of immoral conduct or the greatest individualization, the greatest divergence between biological maturity and personal stabilization. The stabilized personality is the type desired by the village community. Its technic of control on the positive or institutional side, as well as on its negative or correc- tive, holds that type as its objective. The negative technic operates by punishments applied at those points in personal behavior where the group has found, through past experience, that such behavior is dangerous to its solidarity, unity, harmony, or status among other similar sib groups in the region. Wishes that other- wise might break through conventionality more or less frequently are thereby regulated in the interests of conformity to village norms. 318 COUNTRY (LIFE IN) SOUTH Chine The prevalence and recurrence of immoral behavior— conduct that runs counter to local mores or conven- tions—are a measure of the effectiveness of such regula- tion. Statistics on delinquency, crime and immorality are not in existence, except in rough records in the district court, but these cannot be examined. Annual reports containing statistics on the work of the courts is one of the crying needs all over China. TYPES OF CRIME According to the best information available, crimes are not many nor of kinds to be found particularly in Phenix Village, as contrasted with the surrounding region. The people are peace-loving, content to do their work and make the most of their lot, and abide by custom. The greatest negative value in the village is to get out of joint with one’s community. Few persons from the village have ever been put into the jail at Chaochow and rarely do villagers even see the inside of the civil court. A very few ever see the local magis- trate within a lifetime. But crimes do occur, such as: 1. Murder, distinguished as accidental or deliberate. 2. Sex offenses, adultery, rape, fornication. 3. Theft, nibbling, gang robbery, theft within the village, and theft without the village. 4. Injury to another’s body, property, honor, or ancestral graves. 5. Kidnapping boys, girls, others’ wives, or men to be sold as slaves to foreign countries. 6. Unfilial conduct, such as beating one’s parents, starving them or otherwise ill treating them. 7. Neglect of ancestral worship. 8. Insulting the sib leaders by word or deed. 9g. Failure to pay taxes. INDIVIDUALIZATION 319 These delinquencies have been known at some time or another and are here ranked as crimes because they are punished as well as condemned. Customary law has now been made statute law for I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9. These, however, constitute the important types of negative values of Phenix Village, listed in the order of significance in social opinion. That sex offenses are given priority to theft, that unfilial conduct—neglect of ancestral worship and insult to leaders—should be formally recognized as punishable forms of behavior, has great sociological significance. The last form, failure to pay taxes, is a misdemeanor because the sib as a whole is made to suffer when one person fails to discharge this duty—the only duty to the state directly and clearly recognized. PUNISHMENTS There are to-day two bases for the application of punishments: the laws codified during the Manchu dynasty and re-worked as the Provisional Code of the Republic, and the social opinion in the village com- munity that supports the taboos. The area of obli- gation of each person is delimited by the sib and its relations to other sibs. The laws may be thought of as sib laws and the punishments, sib punishments. In the course of village experience the leaders have developed definite forms of penalties and punishments for the violation of the commonly recognized and generally sanctioned ways of doing things, which in turn have been accepted and approved by social opinion so that specific misdemeanors are followed by stereo- typed punishments. These mores of justice are familiar to each person and he knows what to expect in case of misbehavior. 320 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA With the agreement of the wronged party, the offender may be fined, compelled to admit publicly his faults, which means a “‘loss of face,’’ or expelled from the village for a long or short period, depending upon the nature of the crime and the attitude and status of the one who has been offended. In cases of very serious offense, such as murder or robbery, the matter is taken to the civil courts.! Offenses more strictly familistic and not likely to affect the state are dealt with by the familist group. In case of adultery, the village leaders prefer to decide the matter themselves. If the attitude of the wronged party is somewhat flexible, the leaders may appeal to the person’s appreciation of kinship and esprit de corps and so effect a more lenient settlement. The leaders avoid action that results in the loss of a member when- ever that is possible. The punishment by the clan through the leaders is less severe than the justice meted out in the courts. In fact, the severity of the Chinese courts has been so well known that it became the grounds for extra-territoriality when foreign powers made treaties with China. The practice of correction by maximum punishments was one of the reasons for the desire for local administration of justice. - The forms of punishment traditionally imposed were: 1. The death sentence—drowning for adultery and be- ing buried alive for robbery. 2. Corporal punishment—applied in various ways for different kinds of offenses—cutting off the ears, gouging out the eyes (rare), cutting the Achilles tendon, flogging, 1 Civil courts rather than criminal courts because the latter distinguished from the former have been unknown in China. The only other kind of court besides the civil is the military. In this connection see Jamieson, op. cit. INDIVIDUALIZATION 321 being tied up to pillars for hours, starvation, to be bitten by poisonous ants. 3. Fines—the distribution of sweets to all groups in the village as an indication of the offender’s willingness to confess his faults; giving the offended party articles deemed to bring good fortune, such as firecrackers, red satin or silk, wine, gilded or silver flowers, and so on; money in amounts according to the nature of the offense as restitution. 4. Deprivation—for offenses less weighty—loss of a share in the public property; loss of the privilege of living in the village for a limited period or for life. The latter sentence means exile to foreign countries. ADMINISTRATION OF PUNISHMENTS The administration of justice and the enforcement of punishments in Phenix Village are carried on, as referred to before (pages 127 ff.), by the council of leaders. For the special cases that come under the state there are courts and modern legal procedure copied after judicial practice in Europe and America. But for all cases handled by the village authorities, there are no special agencies or functionaries to adjudge or to ad- minister justice. Every case of misconduct is handled in an informal manner. When a person has been wronged, he brings the matter to the attention of the village authorities, constituted as described under village polity, who then call a meeting for the special consideration of the matter. Or, an in- stance of delinquency may be brought to their attention in any number of ways, and they would decide to in- vestigate and adjudge. The parties concerned are brought in and the charges and defenses made. There- upon the council of leaders act as a jury and determine 322 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA a settlement. The controlling principle that operates in all justicial decisions made by the leaders is the following: to treat all parties as though they were members of one’s own natural- or economic-family. In announcing a judgment against an offender they have been known to shed tears of sympathy; and at the same time to try to console the offended party with a show of genuine affection. People much prefer village familist justice to that of the courts because it is more human. It is better for the sib to handle offenses in this way because it prevents the development of prejudices and schisms in familist unity. Cases are carried into court, as a rule, only when the offended party considers that justice has not been meted out to the offender. When the leaders fail to to give satisfaction, then the family, the economic- family, of course, will back up the individual in carrying the matter into the courts. If the leaders are strong in character and wise and intelligent there will be few lawsuits. There have actually been cases of murder that have been successfully adjudicated by the leaders, so that action in the courts was unnecessary. In the economic-family, the father or the elder brother is the judge and jury of all conduct of members in the home. Within the family he dispenses justice among the various members and he strives so to administer punish- ments that the affairs of the group will not become objects of concern for the village leaders. When his control breaks down or his administration is faulty, then offenders appeal their cases to the village leaders. When, in turn, the justice of village leaders is not considered complete, the case is appealed to the courts. From that agency there is no further appeal. So complete is the authority of the chia-chang in the home that he may even declare INDIVIDUALIZATION 323 a death sentence upon his wife, daughter or daughter-in- law for adultery. A father may expel his unfilial sons or grandchildren. Justice is not always rendered in an even-handed manner in Phenix Village. There have been cases where the leaders have been under the influence of large branch- families or sib moieties that have been able to pervert or miscarry justice. If the offended party belongs to a decadent line of the sib, if his immediate relatives are few and his financial resources and his learning limited, he hardly dares to demand absolute justice from the offender who may have the support of a power- ful familist group. Should he insist upon absolute and complete justice, the leaders may grant it, but members of the strong familist group may subject the plaintiff to unending persecution in all sorts of indirect ways. This alternative is not unknown to every villager and enters into the control of his behavior in case of an offense against him. It is the business of each leader of any practical grouping within the village, in any and all circumstances, to see to it that the members behave. He therefore has large powers of control and punishment, except where the interests of the sib are concerned. Then the matter must come before the village or sib leaders. The same principle of responsibility applies to the village as a whole. The leaders are in control of the village in matters of internal polity and justice and control of the conduct of village members until other groups of people outside of Phenix Village are affected. Then the state considers that its duty is to protect the other groups. More and more to-day the state is reaching into village moral control and village political organiza- tion. In a period of weak police control, exploitation of 324 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA the simple village folk by official sharpers is so easy that the local magistrates exploit the naiveté and ignorance by forms of blackmail. From this evil the villagers see little relief until the central provincial government is stabilized and has organized efficient police protection for those who may desire it against the graft and squeeze and exploitation of the officials. The administration of justice is simple, direct, effective and familistic in that the norms and the judgments in harmony with the norms are all cast in terms of family welfare, administered by familist agents for the main- tenance of family unity. Such are the forms of behavior of which the commu- nity disapproves sufficiently vehemently to punish with varying degrees of severity the persons who by their conduct are trying to secure the satisfaction of their wishes by circumventing taboos and the village control or by breaking through conventional behavior with direct challenges. Delinquency is considered by the older villagers to be on the increase, especially since many of the village members travel to Chaochow, Swatow and in foreign lands as emigrants. If the emigrant returns rich and powerful, he and his foreign wife live in accordance with norms somewhat unfamiliar to the ordinary villagers, who make allowances for their relatives. Social opinion seems to have become more lenient in its pressure upon these people, but, of course, not with regard to the major types of offenses. TABOOS There are a number of bad social practices which, according to the standards of other cultures, might be | called immoral or even criminal, but in Phenix Village they are condemned but not punished. They must be INDIVIDUALIZATION 325 judged morally in terms of the local village complex of negative and positive values. Here they are listed under ‘“‘bad social practices’? because sociological analysis reveals their inimical tendencies in village life. The habit of consuming wine is very common. Gen- erally the wine is of local production, what is known as sam-shu or rice-wine. The quantity of alcohol is very high and one cannot drink much at a time. There are many who drink some every day, but others only at feast time. A few consume foreign liquor. The drinking of wine is not only a part of convivial ceremony but is an important feature in religious wor- ship. People drink wine when entertaining friends, at neighborhood gatherings, on great occasions as the birth of a male child, marriage, at funerals on the com- pletion of the grave, on the return of emigrants from foreign countries, and at all festivals and feasts. Wine is consumed at the time of ancestral worship as a part of the rites, and also in honor of the local gods after the religious procession. In spite of much wine drinking, few people get drunk. Gambling is another common practice that theoreti- cally is condemned and yet is winked at by social opin- ion. There are no village taboos on gambling. The more careful members of the community realize the dangers of losing their fortunes through the practice and therefore only indulge, and only allow their children to indulge, at Chinese New Year holidays. Then many groups may sit around all night staking their luck in a variety of gambling games. Once in the game, it is taken quite seriously and each player tries to gain all he can. It is not for purposes of recreation. Gambling gets such a hold on some of the members that they end in complete ruin. One member of the 326 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA village realized the extent to which he was controlled by the habit, so he cut off the fingers of his left hand to keep himself from the allurements of the game. But when the New Year holidays came around again, he was found playing with cards by holding them be- tween the stump of his hand and his knee. Following is a list of the kinds of gambling games found in Phenix Village: . “Four Directions”’ . Cards Poker . Domino—‘‘ Mah Jong”’ SaG Maa raGters Lottery . Rolling Coins . Bamboo Slips ot QU HiaS | C0 ON ANF WN HE While chess and checkers are both very ancient and commonly enjoyed they are not used for gambling purposes. Cards and dominoes are the games generally used in this way. Dishonesty is freely admitted to exist in various forms. Theoretically it is taboo and children are instructed by parents to adhere to certain forms of honesty which they themselves practically deny. The people practice forms of deception upon one another so commonly that it is the expected thing and everyone is gui vive not to get caught. | There are no fixed and absolute standards of measure- ment. There are scales and measuring sticks, but these vary as much as is practically possible. The purchaser carries with him his own means of measurement. When he buys cloth he checks the shopkeeper’s yardstick by INDIVIDUALIZATION 327 using his own. He argues for the correctness and re- liability of his own and the shortness of the merchant’s measure. Each uses the measure that favors himself. There is, of course, a practical limit to variations. But because of these differences in measures of length and quantity and weight, the shopper is obliged to higgle on both price and quantity. The price finally agreed upon is a resultant of the different conceptions of the accuracy of the other person’s measure, the need of the article, and the state of the market as regards the article. The necessity of carrying a foot rule or bucket or scale is very inconvenient, but the people are so habit- uated to it that they do not think of the advantage of standards fixed and enforced by the state. Besides, there is always the possibility of getting the edge of a bargain by applying one’s own measure; that seems to be com- pensation for any inconvenience. Deficit economy! works for parsimony even in minutiae of customary activity. In exchanging money from one unit to another there is no fixed ratio, for the government has not yet achieved the power to enforce standards of relative values of different coins. Besides, coins vary according to the conditions of the money market. The basis of finance is the silver dollar, but the amount of silver in the dollar, the state of the silver market in the banks of the prov- ince, which in turn are determined by the state of the market for silver and its relation to the supply of gold in the world market, therefore varying according to mintage, all determine the exchange rate as fixed from day to day by the native banks in Chaochow. The ‘boatmen inform the villagers of the rate of exchange and even then each person tries to higgle for a favorable : trade between one form of coinage and another. 1 Vide pp. 85 and 1809 ff. 328 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Furthermore, the production of spurious money is great. Counterfeit money is prevalent. No one will accept anything but a cash coin or a copper coin without testing it out by ringing it on the counter or on a stone or by biting it. This is considered no insult because everyone does it; it is the expected thing. But whenever persons get hold of counterfeit money they strive in every way possible to use it. The practice occurs by tacit social approval, although if pressed, anyone will freely admit that it is wrong. The only deterrent is the possibility of discovery if the wrong is too flagrant with the consequent loss of confidence and trust. Cheat- ing is not so much a matter of ethics as of practical business technic. Adulteration of foodstuffs is also commonly practiced. There is no state regulation and local practice is con- trolled by competition, individual watchfulness, and the buyer’s knowledge of such bad practices. Grain is adulterated by adding water, particularly when the farmer pays his farm rent in kind. Quarrels constantly arise between the landlords and the tenants over this practice of cheating. Self-seeking men exploit their opportunities to cheat in handling public funds. By clever devices they squeeze all they can; they render a report to the community in an indirect way. The people generally know about how much is received as income from the sale of products, because in so small a community gossip operates to inform people in small matters as well as large. They also know about the amounts spent on the objects of public care: schools, temples, roads, and so on. When- ever squeeze can be proved, the community mobilizes social opinion for punishment by fine, but these matters are in the hands of the council of leaders who form an INDIVIDUALIZATION 329 inner circle of mutual defence. The ordinary person would be rash to move against the leaders. Only com- petition between the leaders and mutual distrust and suspicion tend to control those handling public funds. SEX DELINQUENCY Sex irregularity is not common in Phenix Village, but it does occur. There is definite recognition of the forms and punishments therefor. Sex irregularity is unusual because the personal wishes for intimate response are not subjected to inhibition or suppression. Early marriage allows sex experience of a normal kind just about the age when physiological maturation stimulates sex desire. The community value of “sons and many of them”’ for the social needs of lineal continuity and familist worship results in making early marriage a positive value, which conforms to the needs of natural growth. This is one instance where societal convention conforms to biological functioning in a natural way. There is no need for sex irregularity for the married husband, for if he does not secure satisfaction of the wishes for personal response, in other words, if he does not fall in love with his wife, he may, provided he has the financial resources, take a soul-mate, a love-wife, or in common terms, a concubine. Because marriage is a matter entirely of the familist group, the wife represents no personal choice. And yet, most husbands either fall in love with their wives or tolerate them out of necessity. The attitudes toward fate greatly facilitate the acceptance of the wife. If sex relations with the wife are not accompanied by affection, then concubinage relieves the husband from sex irregularity that would come under social condemnation. Con- cubinage would seem, then, to be a societal compromise 330 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA with the person for imposing upon him, through its system of group marriage determination, a mate whom he has no part in choosing. As such, it is a better method of solving the problem of unsuccessful marriage than the Western method of prostitution. Certainly, it is more honest and more fair to the husband, but it is based squarely on the inferiority of women. ‘This is the rock on which concubinage will flounder. At any rate, concubines have status in the village community, not as favorable as do the wives, but certainly more acceptable from the point of view of the woman than that of prostitutes in Western countries. ‘Given group selection of a marriage mate, no divorce, and an inferior status of women, and concubinage must be admitted to be (relative to the village ethnos, of course) an efficient social device for adjustment to the needs of sex life. The concubine is not condemned by her community; the prostitute is. The radical feminist might argue that the prostitute has her freedom and is a person and not an instrument of sex pleasure nor a breeding animal. But except when concubines are brought in as sex and economic slaves, they may enjoy even more satisfaction of the wish for personal response in the conjugal relationship than the wife. The village wife would deserve such feminist stricture more than the concubine, because the relationship between the husband and the concubine is personal while that with the wife is social or conventional, more strictly speaking, familist. The comparison here is with the commercial prostitute, not the temporary prostitute who is mistress to one man only as long as the relationship is mutually agreeable. The latter case would correspond closely to the system of concubinage in the village without the social sanction characteristic of concubinage, but with INDIVIDUALIZATION 331 more personality values than in concubinage. Generali- zations are not very reliable in either case, for specific instances vary greatly in both types of culture. Other reasons for the infrequency of sex irregularity are: the community is small and all the members have the same surname, which would make irregularity pun- ishable under the incest rule, and punishment severe for such delinquency. The community is so small that it is practically impossible for a member to do any- thing that is not known by a sib member. Members come into face-to-face relations constantly, which af- ford direct communication of attitudes by gesture, glance, posture, through the visual senses as well as pressure and hearing, and these operate as immediate controls of personal wishes, which might under im- personal and secondary community relationships escape in satisfaction, conventional taboos notwithstanding. Punishment for adultery is as severe as punishment for murder. The offender if caught may be put to death on the spot by the offended party, his ears may be cut off, or he may be maimed for life, or heavily fined. The woman may be secretly drowned in the river, killed with her lover, forced to commit suicide or divorced with public disgrace. The last would be the worst punishment because the ‘‘loss of face’’ that involves so great a break with the community in violating com- munity mores is a negative value of great importance in Phenix Village. In cases where persons are so in- dividualized that they thus violate community mores and break with their community, they can regain mem- bership in it, so runs social opinion, only by a show of courage in suicide. They are reinstated thus in the community by their death which proves their repentance. Only in this way can the insult to the community be 332 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA wiped out. The youths are inculcated with these at- titudes which regulate their wishes and curb their tendency to individualization. | But in spite of the controls, persons do break the conventions. The prohibited relationships within which sex intercourse is taboo are: A man and his sister-in-law (brother’s Wifey A man and his female cousin. A man and his aunt. A man and his niece. A man and his neighbor’s wife or sister, etc. A man and a relative from outside the village. A man and a maid-servant—his own or one be- longing to someone else. ead ne ne ado The causes for sex irregularity, as stated by a member of the sib, are: Delay of marriage. Long absence of the husband from home. Impure literature. Impure theatrical performance. Poverty (rare). Conjugal infelicity coupled with limited finances. Bad companions. Drunkenness. Uncontrollable sex desire (probably mental defect). In spite of the disapproval of sex irregularity, the people make no conscious effort for the prevention of such bad social behavior except by punishment, by edu- cation concerning the punishments inflicted for such offenses, and by segregation of the sexes. These are all negative controls. But they have been far more DS en Bees fe ua, ee INDIVIDUALIZATION 333 effective in socialization than have the controls of indi- vidualistic society. The opinion of villagers is that sex irregularity is on the increase, although no statistics exist to prove the contention. Emigration, travel, residence in Chaochow and Swatow, reading modern magazines and books filled with individualistic atti- tudes, all work for individualization. CHAR TE Rial! THE VILLAGE AS A NEIGHBORHOOD AND AS A COMMUNITY What light do the facts and analyses set forth throw upon the nature and function of a neighborhood and a community? The sociological investigation and dis- cussion of both these types of areas of interaction have increased markedly in the recent past. Community organization has rested upon a number of assumptions that lacked validity when subjected to an empirical test; socioanalysis has been directed upon these con- cepts in order to make them more reliable categories of classification: these two movements have conjoined in an effort to improve both theory and practice. Is Phenix Village a neighborhood? Isitacommunity? Are there any differences that make it possible to dis- tinguish a neighborhood from a community? Is there any advantage in so differentiating the two concepts? Two fundamental notions form a common denominator of both concepts—people and geography. In much discussion, both the neighborhood and the community have been defined in terms of geographical contiguity of persons. The main distinction has been one of geo- graphical area. The secondary distinction has involved the size and organization of the group of people. Owing to the researches of the rural sociologists, Butterfield, Galpin, Sanderson, Kolb, Taylor and Zim- merman, the inaccuracy of these distinctions has been revealed not because of any fundamental error in them, but because of unwarranted assumptions derived from A NEIGHBORHOOD AND A COMMUNITY = 335 them. The emphasis has been shifted from physical concepts to socio-psychological categories. Thus Hieronymous: people living fairly close together in a more or less compact, contiguous territory, coming to act together in the chief concerns of life. And Jackson: A community is an idea whose function is a definite ter- ritorial area, whose superstructure is a set of like interests consciously recognized ascommoninterests. . . . Itis not an act but a process. And Dunn: The community consists of a group of people living to- gether in a single locality and bound together by common interests. They are also subject to common laws. But Butterfield: A neighborhood is simply a group of families living con- veniently near together . . . it is not a community. A true community is a social group that is more or less self- sufficing. And Sanderson: The community, however, is not an area, nor an aggre- gation or association, but rather a corporate state of mind of those living in a local area. Lindeman! makes the following distinction: The community, which is an aggregate of families, is the vital unit of society in which the individual secures his education, receives his standards of health and morality, expresses his recreational tendencies and labors to earn his share of wordly goods. The neighborhood is also an aggre- gate of families but with this distinction: the community 1Lindeman, E. C.. The Community. New York: 1921. pp. 9-13. 336 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA is an organized unit with institutions having specific func- tions, while the neighborhood is merely the group of families living within an acquaintance area. Finally, Sanderson in his latest research sets forth the following: The only principle for the distinction of neighborhood and community which we have been able to recognize, is that more of the interests of the people in a neighborhood are satisfied by the institutions and life of the community than by the neighborhood. Following the splendid lead that Galpin of Wisconsin gave to rural sociological research through his study in the anatomy of rural communities, the present investi- gators make much of the concept of services for the de- termination of neighborhood and community groups. This is a valuable category of analysis and is capable of empirical demonstration, but it alone does not pro- vide a satisfactory distinction between the types of groups, nerghborhood and community. If a combination is made of Cooley’s concept of primary relationships, Galpin’s service area, Thomas’ wishes and used as a tool of analysis of a neighborhood and community, a clearer distinction may be arrived at. DEFINITION OF A NEIGHBORHOOD Theoretically, then, the neighborhood would be an area of interaction characterized by primary relationships of sufficient intimacy to control and regulate effectively the wishes of those engaged in such interaction. The area is primarily a socio-psychological one with ultimate terri- torial or geographic implications in that all life finally bases on geography. t1Sanderson, D. and Thompson, W. S. Social Areas of Otsego County. Bulletin 422, Cornell University, Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, New York: 1923. p. 28. (Italics authors’.) A NEIGHBORHOOD AND A COMMUNITY — 337 DEFINITION OF A COMMUNITY The community is an area of interaction characterized by relationships of sufficient extension as to provide maxi- mum satisfaction of personal wishes according to the norms imposed by the neighborhood. It has arelation to territory but only as geography conditions the location and oppor- tunity for services by which persons satisfy their wishes. It is that area of interaction whose contour and extent is determined by the adequacy within the area to satisfy the wishes of any one person or any number of persons. It is more than a service area. It is a complex of service areas of sufficient number to satisfy all the wish-complexes that arise. When culture is relatively static, the historical stereotypes fix the limits of varia- tion of wish-complexes, except where individuals for one reason or another break through conventionality and so tend to limit the number of agencies and services needed. Furthermore, under these conditions of tradi- tional cuiture-control, a number of people come to recog- nize their common use of similar agencies and services for the satisfaction of their wishes. Out of this grow rapport, esprit de corps, and morale, which are then accompanied by forms of rationalization, such as ancestor worship, filial piety, and so on, and collective representa- tion, such as the lanterns before the entrances inscribed with the sib name, the temples and ancestral halls, the images and tablets in which reside ancestral spirits, and the like. From this it follows that the more static the culture the greater the limitation upon the extent of the com- munity because of this limitation of possible wish-com- plexes. Conversely, as the culture expands, new stimuli arise in new inventions, the injection of new values or attitudes, the variation in quantity and manner of 338 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA contact, all provide for new combinations of the wishes, or the development of new norms of behavior. Signifi- cant changes in any or all of the conditioning factors, biological, geographical, technological, social (see Figure 1) involve new combinations of the four types of wishes. Then people tend to expand their communities in secur- ing satisfaction for their wishes. Cultural expansion and enrichment, with its concomitant division of labor, specialization, and interdependence, necessitate enlargement of the area of wish-satisfaction. METHODS OF DELIMITATION With this in mind, the clearest contrast that can be drawn, at the present stage of research into relationships between the neighborhood and the community, wherever they may be found, would be expressed thus: The neighborhood is a_ series of relationships beyond the kinship group within which the control of personal wishes is most effective; the community 1s that sertes of group relationships through which the expression of personal wishes is most nearly adequate. The former is an area of control; the latter an area of adequacy. Neither are permanent in any absolute way; both shift and change in size, form and significance from day to day. Both vary among persons of the same geographical area, even of the same natural-family, according to age, experience, status, wealth and so on. The nearest it is possible to get to the determination or definition of either of these areas is to superimpose both types of areas of personal participation upon those of other persons until a central core would emerge. The fringe would be ragged and vague, because the marginal instances of personal experience would be fewest and would vary most from the mode. So in the A NEIGHBORHOOD AND A COMMUNITY = 339 definition of the neighborhood, one might graph the areas within which one person after another finds his wishes controlled and regulated by his primary contacts with kin, friend, neighbor, shopkeeper, boatmen, and spirit of some god or ancestor. Manifestly, these areas would not coincide. They would differ as between boys and girls, men and women; they would differ, in a word, according to status, which in Phenix Village so clearly fixes the range of wish-satisfaction. But by such superimposition of personal areas, there would gradually come forth, as in the case of racial types . determined by the superimposition of photographic films, a composite thickest at the center and most indefinite at the fringe, which might then be called the neighborhood. Similarly, one might graph the areas within which one person after another secures satisfaction of all his wishes. This could never be absolutely determined, for imagination frequently takes people into the spiritual or metaphysical world where they secure satisfaction vicariously or by compensation. Such might be a literary or religious or poetical experience. Practically the area would cover the extent of the person’s physical movements and yet note would have to be made of his range of social contacts, through the means of communica- tion—gossip, the press, letters, and so on—at his disposal. By superimposing these one could secure a social nebula similar in appearance to that of the neighborhood. A community might vary from practically complete iden- tity and coincidence with a neighborhood to almost _complete separation. PHENIX VILLAGE AS A NEIGHBORHOOD What, then, can be said about Phenix Village as a neighborhood? Its area can only roughly be determined 340 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA here because the personal data are lacking. In general, the neighborhood may be crudely represented by the regional and local maps. For most people, the village, and the village only, is the neighborhood. The small children, the old people, the wives of the better house- holds, some concubines in the wealthier families rarely move beyond the cluster of houses in the village. Some only rarely sally beyond the walls of their ancestral homes. Here they meet one another, day by day, converse, gossip, codperate, compete, quarrel, hate and love, and in other ways carry on the process of inter- action, which is called life in the village. Within these homes, in the lanes and streets, and in the shops, people see one another. The area of vzszence is generally more limited than the area of audience. The area of visience is, therefore, the area of greatest control. Intimacy is greatest within the confines of the village proper. Here everyone old enough to understand knows much about everyone else. The sense of sight operates constantly in transmitting and catching impres- sions, attitudes. The glance, the frown, the smile of approval, the sneer, the look of commendation all serve to strengthen or repress wishes that in seeking > expression call forth such responses from associates. So limited is this area that one can hardly escape constant surveillance. In other words, to use the figure of a possible graph, the core, or the area of thickest primary contact, would be in the north end of the village (Map 3) where the residents are most thickly congested. If this were rep- resented by a solid black color, then around it would be shades of deep gray to picture the secondary area, which would include the fields belonging to members of the vil- lage, such as that region included in the dotted lines in A NEIGHBORHOOD AND A COMMUNITY 341 Map 3. Running southward and along the road to the market street would be an arm nearly as black as the core to the north, and on beyond the market would occur a dark gray extension, but lighter than for the fields surrounding Phenix Village, on to ‘‘Tan’’ Village. An arm would occur still lighter and narrower, extending to Chaochow, where there would be several satellitic nodes; and a thin line possibly to Swatow. But the significant thing is that within the area so delimited gossip is constant, people meet face-to-face, impose values and attitudes upon one another and in many ways control behavior. The basis of this neigh- borhood is blood; the values that serve as schematized behavior norms are familist. THE SPIRITUAL NEIGHBORHOOD Two questions still press for answer: Does the neigh- borhood extend to the areas of immigration? Should one speak of a spiritual neighborhood in Phenix Village? If so, what is its relation to the living neighborhood? To answer the last question first: the people of Phenix Village conceive of a world of spirits that are constantly supervising and controlling for good or ill the fortunes and behavior of the living. These spirits roam at will and are everywhere. They may reside in tablets and yet move about. When they are dis- pleased they wreak vengeance and the sinner suffers bad luck. That is how he knows he has displeased them. So constant is the concern of the ordinary villager for these spirits, so frequent their magical per- formances for placation, that the stereotyped con- ceptions of the values and attitudes of the spirits are seen to be of equal importance to those of the living. Given these notions, Phenix Village as a neighborhood 342 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA must include the inhabitants both physical and spiritual. Although it may be claimed that these spirits are purely projections of the imagination, dogmatic beliefs without foundation of fact, they nevertheless act as stimuli, through the operation of the ‘‘mirrored self,’ and, through suggestion as a mechanism of social interaction, control people’s behavior. As such, the spiritual inhabi- tants of Phenix Village are just as factual as the living physical occupants. So long as the villager’s faith in spirits holds firm, so long by the very subjective nature of the spiritual neighborhood the emigrant carries this part of his neighborhood with him. How real it remains can be determined by the degree of divergence of the behavior of emigrants when abroad and when in the village. Data are not in hand for any generalization on this matter, except to note that village values as to marriage, particularly bigamy, give place to foreign values, which indicates at least a partial disintegration of faith and some disappearance of the spiritual neighborhood. There is no evidence, direct or indirect, to indicate complete loss of faith and submission to the spiritual neighbor- hood, except in the case of one emigrant family which, being Christian, lives under the control of an entirely different set of values. Phenix Village as a neighbor- hood extends its control to areas of immigration through the functioning of the spiritual neighborhood; one’s ancestral spirits in Saigon impose upon one the same values as in Phenix Village, so long as one believes and adheres to the religious complex of ancestral worship. Familist attitudes and organization may grow weak in their influence upon particular emigrants, but few have come to the point of complete denial of their familist obligations, or of sacrifice of their privileges A NEIGHBORHOOD AND A COMMUNITY 343 for individual freedom. Divergence is seen to be most frequent and greatest among the emigrants, when compar- ing the behavior of all the members of Phenix Village sib. By virtue of the effective imposition of behavior norms in the Phenix Village locality, by the time the emigrants leave home their personalities are so sta- bilized that their habits in general seem to retain their strength even in foreign social situations. The village habits are, of course, supported and reénforced by other members of Phenix Village among whom an emigrant goes to live. So do familist ideals of loyalty and familist practices of mutual aid tend to build up in areas of immigration extensions of the Phenix Village neighborhood. That the extension is not identical is proved by the fact that returned emigrants are con- stantly introducing new attitudes and practices into Phenix Village, thereby deranging village controls. IS VILLAGE LIFE ADEQUATE? Is Phenix Village an area of adequacy? Is it a com- munity? Excluding discussion of the emigrants at this point, it is possible to note that the area of adequacy varies inversely to the number of people. Thus familist practice is of such a character, and the material culture is so simple, that not a few households are well-nigh self-sufficing. That they are not completely so is shown by the support of the market and the use the villagers make of the ferry to obtain service from Chaochow. The larger homes, the village with the market, and the village linked by ferry with Chaochow represent the contour lines of areas of relative adequacy. For all ordinary purposes one might think of the village as a community in that it maintains itself and within it most people get satisfaction for all their wishes. 344 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA The various chapters preceding are all built up around description and analysis of just how the people try to satisfy their wishes within their own group as delimited on a blood basis. From time to time the inadequacy of the village, as geographically defined, has been recognized. Such a time was when the leaders decided to establish their own market; such a time, when the group that now operates the ferry established that transportation ser- vice; so also, when people emigrated to the South Seas to seek their fortunes, to Swatow to secure modern and advanced education, to Chaochow to live under conditions of greater freedom and opportunity. However, there are two connections which in spite of migration hold people to membership in the Phenix Village community. For this reason the community does not split, but spreads. This process may best be represented not by a rock that fractures but by an amoeba that expands and sends out pseudopods and occasionally, by fissure, establishes a new organism. The village community by virtue of its familistic or- ganization—the blood and the land nexus—preserves its unity even while expansion goes on because of in- creasing inadequacy of the local village area to provide opportunity for personal achievement and expression. All this expansion has further reacted to increase the variation in wish-formation which, in turn, makes the local area still more inadequate. The leaders must come to recognize this as fundamental to the main- tenance or destruction of their village community. With increasing values introduced by new mechanisms and types of communication, the pressure for migration from the village will grow stronger. The only alternative is for the village to develop wise leadership that will, A NEIGHBORHOOD AND A COMMUNITY 345 through reconstruction within the village community, tend to increase the adequacy of that local geographic area. At best this will never be complete adequacy for the simple reason that there is always a lag between personal wish-formulation under new social stimulation and the provision in the community for satisfaction of newly formulated wish-complexes. Imagine the situation of a young student nineteen years of age who through reading has learned of dancing and wishes to enjoy the pleasure he reads about in a Shanghai newspaper. The leaders have become conscious of this crisis and have attempted reorganization by substituting modern schools for the old types. But there is opportunity for improvements of many kinds. The great inadequacies are: recurrent floods and failure to control their destruc- tive force, inability to improve crops and so a failure to increase income, ignorance of business practice and marketing methods,—wish for security; strict imposition of social stereotypes, adherence to traditional norms of behavior purely for traditional reasons, filial piety,— wish for dominance; limitation of experience through constant toil to maintain life, little opportunity to travel, the fundamental similarity of the people and their customs, the infrequency of dramatics and processions, the taboo on play, the ennui of women of the wealthier homes, the fatigue of women of the poorer homes,— the wish for new experience; selection of a wife by the family authorities without consultation of the person most involved and most concerned, weakening belief in Fate as controlling these matters, growing independ- ence of thinking and judgment, limitation of intimate experience with the other sex, formalized relationships between different members of the familist groupings or conventionalized status,—the wish for personal response. 346 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA As the leaders are able to eliminate these inadequacies Phenix Village will become more of a community than it is at present and will be able to preserve its identity and essential unity and solidarity. Lacking such im- provements it will be absorbed in the Chaochow commu- nity and become eventually just a neighborhood for those that remain. As such it will be a unit within the growing Chaochow social basin. But it is still so nearly a community in spite of rapidly increasing wishes on the part of the younger people that it would provide the natural and social basis for any leadership or program of rural village improvement. The real problem for social leadership in Phenix Village lodges in the fact that the changes are occurring not in the biological conditions, nor in the geographical conditions, nor even in the technological conditions, but in the conditions of social stimulation. The people are being drawn into the maelstrom of world thought and activities without the world’s technic in knowledge, mechanical skill, or philosophy. New wine is being poured into old bottles. Phenix Village as a community has vigor and resources in tradition and the physical and mental capacities of the people. It is, however, beginning to crack under the stresses and strains of the infusion of modern ideas. That it will survive in its present independent unity and familist solidarity is open to grave doubt. Familism does not provide the technic of adjustment to a world dominated by capitalism. The struggle between the two social systems is already on in Phenix Village as a rural community, though the nature of the conflicting forces is not at all recognized by the village leaders. It is to be hoped that familism may adopt the technic of capitalism without its exploitative objectives and expand into civism that is so sorely needed in modern China. SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY GALPIN, C. J. Rural Life. New York: Century Co. 1918. ————.. The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community. Research Bulletin 34, May, 1915, Agricultural Experi- ment Station of the University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wis. SANDERSON, D. The Farmer and His Community. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1922. Locating the Rural Community. Lesson 158. Country Life Series. Cornell Reading Course for the Farm. June, 1920. New York State College of Agricul- ture at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. and THompson, W.S. The Social Areas of Otsego County. Bulletin 422. July, 1923. Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. Kos, J.H. Rural Primary Groups. A Study of Agricultural Neighborhoods. Research Bulletin 51. December, 1921. Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin and United States Department of Agriculture Codperating. Madison, Wis. . Service Relations of Town and Country. Research Bulletin, 58. December, 1923. (Address same as above.) Haves, A. W. Some Factors in Town and Country Relation- ships. September, 1922. Tulane University of Louisiana. New Orleans, La. MERRITT, E. and Hatcu, K. L. Some Economic Factors Which Influence Rural Education in Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. ZIMMERMAN, C. C. and Taytor, C. C. Rural Organization. A Study of Primary Groups in Wake County, N. C. Bulletin 245. August, 1922. Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigh, N. C. DapiIsMAN, A. J. French Creek asa Rural Community. Bulle- tin 176. June, 1921. Agricultural Experiment Station, 348 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA College of Agriculture, West Virginia University, Morgan- town, W. Va. Morcan, E. L. Mobilizing the Rural Community. Rural Community Organization. Extension Bulletin No. 23. September, 1918. Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass. Nason, W. C. The Organization of Rural Community Build- mgs. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1192. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, D. C. (Reprint March, 1922.) FRAME, N. T. Lifting the Country Community. Circular 255. July, 1922. Extension Division. College of Agri- culture, West Virginia University, Morgantown, W. Va. Helping the Country Community. Circular 265. January, 1923. (Same as above.) CLARK, W. W. and WIL.IiAMs, J. H. A Guide to the Grading of Neighborhoods. Department of Research, Bulletin No. 8. July, 1919. Whittier State School, Whittier, Cal. McCLENAHAN, B. A. Organizing the Community. New York: The Century Co. 1922. Witson, W. H. The Evolution of a Country Community. Boston: The Pilgrim Press. Ed. 1923. MacGarr, L. The Rural Community. New York: The Macmillan Co. 1922. Sms, N. L. The Rural Community—Anctent and Modern. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1920. (A book of well-selected readings.) APPENDIX NOTE 1 SAMPLE FIELD CARD FOR ANTHROPOMETRIC INVESTIGATIONS OBVERSE AND REVERSE ASPECTS CHINESE ANTHROPOMETRY 7 SUPNAME — cavmnnnerectewamee mmwre Sis snes to oa Mt he Province .§.\. AL UAV] SUM illage Investigator. NWT I XYO FF date 05 76 fo 3 Hair ‘color—dark roubbialeediget Hair form—streight, wavy, deinlae UU ME ad ee cess eee wee Skin color—light dark. AG So thighs hee! |, Nose—aquiline, vienaghtpconenve. : Eye form—0, 1, dr3-{Japamneo}. Ear form—normal ebkanrit-Barpe Chin hi nerrg ere oe receding. Particuler characteristics : os —tip ofayield p process Pentagonal fornt of skull. rho it j Hair on body—scant whtdont. —tip of middle finger upper edge of ‘great trochanter ,, —knee joint » sitting ,, . Max. length-head .. ... » breadth-headt + Min, » Max. I, Length of Face (Phys) , Petit chats ARAL) J, . Nasal height .,, » breadth ., oe . Int. ocular breadth ‘eevee Ext, ° Sas tioas . Length of ear pion . Bregdthofear .. wo. NOTE 2 METHOD OF ANTHROPOMETRICS The method of making the measurements for the determination of racial types in Phenix Village and their relations to other types in Asia was based upon the investigations made by Dr. S. M. Shirokogoroff, curator of the Museum of Ethnography and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Petrograd. A number of cases were measured under Dr. Shirokogoroff’s supervision in order to make sure of the identity of points of measurement. The instruments used were an anthropometer for vertical points on the body and two calipers, one for the head and the other for the points of the eye and ear, etc. They were made by P. Hermann, Zurich. The skin color was taken on the basis of the color scale made by Professor von Luschen of Munich. The point taken was under the arm pit where the sun could not darken the skin. Points 1 to 10 were taken with the anthropometer; points II to 23, with the two callipers. The stature was taken twice. The first time the person was faced directly forward, the extension arm of the anthropometer was pressed gently down upon the topmost point of the skull and the result recorded. Then he was faced in a three-fourths position and the height recorded again. Without letting him move, the arm of the instrument was quickly dropped to the ear hole and that height recorded. By subtracting the last result from the former the height of the head could be estimated with accuracy. APPENDIX 353 Age, hair color, face form, skin color, nose form, eye form, ear form, chin form and form of skull were noted by observation and recorded according to the categories listed and shown in Note 1, illustrated, reverse aspect. The absolute measurements taken in the field were entered in Column I of the field record card. From these data the absolutes for Column II were worked out as follows: i. Il. III. IV. i VI. VII. WALL IX. x. Stature (1) (Arabics of field record card. Height of the head (1, II-2, I)* Length of the upper arm (4, I-5, I) Length of the forearm (5, I-6, I) Length of the hand (6, I-7, I) Length ot the arm (4, I-7, I) Length of the leg (8, I) Length of the thigh (8, I-9, I) Height of the knee-joint (9, I) Length of the trunk (10, I-3, II) Note 1) The relative measurements worked out from these results were: Ati XI. Height of the head —— . 100 ripe XII. Length of the arm ep 100 = 7, III 4, II XIII. Length of the upper arm T° 100 = 4, III 5, II XIV. Length of the forearm T 100 = 5, III 6, II XV. Length of the hand ari 100 = 6, III 8, I XVI. Length of the leg rie 100 = 8, III 10, II XVII. Length of the trunk - 100 = 10, III ’ *Roman numerals refer to columns. 354 Further COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA absolutes in Column I that were secured through use of the calipers and calculated for Column II: XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVIII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. Maximum length of the head (11, I) Maximum breadth of the head (12, I) Minimum frontal breadth (13, I) Physiognomical length of the face (16, I) Anatomical length of the face (17, I) Height of the forehead (Column II) (16, I-17, I) Interzygomatic breadth (14, I) Gonial breadth (15, I) Internal interocular breadth (20, I) External interocular breadth (21, I) (20, I-21, I) Ocular length (Column IT) Nasal length (10, I) Nasal breadth (19, I) Length of the ear (22, I) Breadth of the ear (23, I) Indices calculated from the above data: XXXITI. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVIT. XXXVITI. XXXIX. XL. XLI. joe | Eu Height of the head to length of the head aly tt. 2 Height of the head to breadth of the head | ToL Cephalic index . 100 = 11, IIT «1007=) 17, 1V ¢ 100 = (72, TV 14, I Physiognomical facial index : T° 100 = 16, Ill 16, I . 100 Anatomical facial index : 7a) fe Lay Gonial index . 100 15, III 4, Nasal dudes ono areal d J ; 23 Auricular index 2, - 100. = 22, III ’ I . 100 Frontal index 13, III (Compare Shirokogoroff, S. M., op. cit., pp. 1-3.) NOTE 3 CENSUS OF SANCHIAOPU, CHEKIANG 1918 The following census was made by Dr. James V. Latimer of Hangchow, Chekiang, who visited personally every house. His own observations were checked up through the assistance of a seller of candies on the streets, who knew every family, especially the children, since his business was largely with children. Where the statements of the people were incorrect, this candy- seller corrected them in their presence giving the number of children they had and their names. Every cooking range was taken as the basis for a household, since that indicates a separate establishment. This represents an economic unit of investigation but does not necessarily coincide with familist groupings. And yet many of the familist groups are as they are because of the special form that the economic bond takes in addition to the blood nexus. The data are offered here because they offer valuable comparison with those of Phenix Village, Kwantung. Number Number Total of Households of Persons Persons 17 I L7 33 2 66 49 3 147 54 4 216 37 5 135 35 6 210 7 7 49 II 8 88 2 9 18 356 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA 6 10 60 3 II 33 I 12 12 2 14. 28 I 20 22 I 25 25 259 Average 4:54 1,176 Eliminating the last two and the first set of cases, the average size of the household is 4:64. The mode falls on four persons to the stove. The number of persons who live singly is accounted for by the fact that some of the carriers for the mountain resort nearby remain throughout the year in this village, and follow regular occupations. Transients were not counted. It is important to remember that these figures would need further correction before they could be applied to the marriage-group, the father, mother—wife or concubines—and the children. In the groups listed here on the basis of those using the same stove, some of the persons may be relatives. Thus the eleven groups of eight persons each does not mean that the eight persons are father, mother and six children. The mem- bership might range from suchas a case of kin distribution to no children at all. They might all be adults— brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, or nephews and nieces. No accurate figures exist to show the exact distri- bution of membership in the natural family, or marriage- group, as described above. The results of this census are printed here by per- mission of Dr. Latimer. INDEX Aboriginal ancestry of coastal peo- ple, 66 Adaptation of environments, 27f. Adequacy, areas of, xxix Adoption, 144; change of name in, 82 Adults, xviii, 37f.; education of, 246f. Adultery, punishments for, 176 Administration, village, 123-34; of education, 246f. Age, xxiv; and polity, 106; at mar- riage, 176; control, 110; disap- pearance of, as a basis of leader- ship, 116f.; distribution, xvii, 38; graph of, 35; table of, 34 Agriculture, 87f.;occupationsin, 8of. Adjudication of customary law asa function of leadership, 132 Almanac, 186-87 Anagamy, 182-84 Ancestors, xxiv; fortune of, the chief concern of familist effort, xxvii Ancestral-group, and polity, 123; composition of, 145; halls as collective representations of func- tional groups, 14, 146; home, floor plan of, 153; homestead, description of, 152-56; newest and finest in Phenix Village, 155; inheritance and economic family, 148f.; lands, 102; property as sources of income, 86f.; tablets, 62, 154; temple, 303; use of, as school, 232f.; worship, and the spiritual community, 137f.; wor- ship, 299-306; and association, 201; fundamental notions of, 306 Animism, xviii, 284-87 Anthropology of North China, Shiro- kogoroff, 20 Anthropometrics, method of, 352 Apprentices, 121 Apprenticeship, 257f. Architecture, xxvi, 272-74 Areas, xiii; of control, the neighbor- hood, 338; of discourse, xxx; of emigration, xxiii; of interaction, 334; of movements, 41-45; of personal participation, 338f.; of recreation, 261-83; of village, II-13; of social participation, XXiil ART AND RECREATION, xviii; and conventionality, 275-78; evi- dences of, 236ff.; fundaments for, 262; in village temple, 293; minor objects, 274f.; of the ink, 265-68; of music, 278; objects, XXvi; products, xxvi Artistic appreciation, xxvi; dualism, 262 Assimilation as deserving investiga- tion, 43; in the familist group, 161 ASSOCIATIONS, 189-215; Parent- Burial, 196-203; Sugar Manu- facturing, 203-06 Attitudes, xxiv, xxx; as processes, xxx; complexes of, in club, 195f.; family, 15; in Parent-Burial Association, 201f.; individualistic, 333; of avoidance of death, 198f.; of emigrants, 51f.; religious, 307-09; fate in mating, 172f.; strength of, in voluntary asso- ciation, 213; weighting of, 212 Authority, xxiv 358 Autonomy, familist, xxviii; of vil- lage, 134 Avoidance attitudes in death, 298f. Ba-gwa, 3126. Balance in art, 270 Bamboo projects, 91 Bath-houses, 60 Beggars, 100f. Behavior schemes, xxviii Bei, 296f. Belief, fundamental notion of neigh- borhood and community, 334 Betrothal, xxv; age of, 170; meth- ods of, 170-75 Bigamy, 50 Biological data, xvii Biology, xxx Births, 202; as basis of membership in a sib, 143; rates, 31-33 Blood as basis of familist alignment, 135-38; nexus and _ leadership, 106; relationship, xxv Books, xviii; of Change, I Ching, 186 Boxing Club, xxv, 207-09 Boys, importance of, 152; informal education of, 256-59 Branch-family, 145-48; size of, in relation to strength of leadership, 113 Bride, 179; status of, 143f. Bridegroom, 179 Buddhism, xviii Buildings, xvii, 13; public, 14 Burial, Parent-, Association, 196- 203 Business contacts, I9 Butterfield, 334f. Cabinet of ancestral tablets, 154f. Calligraphy, xxvi, 266 Capitalism and familism, 188; in conflict with familism, 346 Carving, 271f. COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Catharsis through the religious ac- tivities of associations, 204-06 Census records as a function of leadership, 132 Ceremonies in ancestral worship, public, 302-06; in public worship, analysis of, 304-06; private, xxvii, 301f. Changes in the village, xxv Chaochow, xxili, I, 341 Chapels, ownership of, 1o2f. Charities, xv Chart, of typical familist groups, 157 Chia-chang and the economic family, 159; and natural leadership in clubs, 195; and the religious atti- tudes, 307; and the religious fam- ily, 159f.; as administrators of schools, 231-32; as administrator of economic family, 148f.; as leader in private religious cere- monies, 302; definition of prop- erty of, 186; function in marriage, 170f.; illustration of economic responsibility of, 162; positions of, 102; widow as a, 129 Checking, method of, xix Children, xviii; number of, 35ff. “‘Chinese’’ expansion of culture, 62-67; migration of, 42f.; new year ceremonies, 285; ‘‘Who were they?’’ 66f. Christian missions, effect of, 309-11; school, 227f. Christianity, xvili Civil wars, 52 Civism, growth of, 117-20; region of, 30f.; sources of, 115; the need of modern China, 346 Clan unity, xvil Climate, xvii, xxiii, xxx, 22ff. Coffin, artistic decoration of, 275 Colonies and Chinese, 43-54 INDEX Colonization, 65 Comity, promotion of, in village, as a function of leadership, 132f. Common law, 130-33 Communication, xvii, 18; and ex- pansion of community, 344f.; types of, xxx Communism, 149; non-existence of, 102f. Community, xiii, xiv, 338; and neigh- borhood in the village, 334-46; and Parent Burial Association, 202f.; and the school, 250f.; as an area of impersonal discourse, XxIV; as satisfying wishes, xxix; definition of, 337; familist, 119; natural industrial, historical, xxvii; organization, 334; spirit sib, 185; spiritual and religious, 284-314 Comparison, xxii Competitive examinations, 217f. Concubinage as a symbol of wealth, 187 Concubines, 50, 158, 161; status of, 330; rights of ownership, I5I Conditioning factors of attitudes and interactions, xxx Confucianism, xviii Contact, xxvii, xxx, 52; as deter- mining quality of rural commu- nity, 21; business, transportation, newspaper, letters, 19; conditions of, 22; index, 19-22; index, cor- rections of, 20; primary, 340; quantification of, 19; method of estimation of, 20f.; of village folk, 18f.; on the ferry, 6-8; tests of quality of, 21f. Contrasts in art, 2o1f. Control, xxiv; incidents of, xviii; by elders, 108-10; of personal wishes in relation to neighborhood, 338; fields and forms of political, 122f. Conventionality, xxviii, 275-78 309 Cooperative, Irrigation, 206f.; society, 88f. Council of leaders, xxiv Courts, cases, 322; criminal and civil, xxviii; leaders as village, 127; regional, 132 Crime, xviii, xxiv; types of, 318f.; as a cause of emigration, 49 Crises in death and its solution by Parent Burial Association, 198f.; in modern life, 345 Cultural aspects of village life, xviii; invasion from North China, 42 Culture trait, 16f.; complex and religion, 308f.; economic elements of, 63; expansion of ‘‘Chinese’’, 62-67; fundaments, 52 Curricula, xviii; and modern schools, 236-42 Curriculum, xxvi; administration of old type, 225f.; of the old type, 224-26 Customary law, 139 Customs, xvii Society, Daughters, xxiv Death and dissolution of marriage, 185; and its fears as involved in Parent Burial Association, 197f.; rates, 31-33 Defectives, 54 Deficit economy, xxiii Delimitation of community, meth- od of, 338ff. Democracy and Mutual Aid Club, 196; village, 133f. Dialects of the coast, 66 Denudation, 27 Discipline, 235f. Discussion, 114f. Diseases commonly found in Phenix Village, 55-57 Dishonesty, 326f. Dissolution, xxv 360 Division of labor, 88 Divorce, xxv; non-existence of, 184 Djou dynasty, III Doctor, 60 Dominance, xxv; wish for, 46-193 Doolittle, v Doors, 274 Drains, 57f. Droughts, xxili Dualism in philosophy, 312f. Dunn, 335 Ecology of rural community, 15 Economic, attitude predominant in intentional groups, 212; family, xxiv, 158f.; as social unit of mutual aid, 152; composition of, family, 148-50; in relation to adminis- tration of punishments, 322f.; fundament of ‘‘Chinese’’ iden- tical with Europe, 63; group and polity, 123; phenomena, xvii; productivity, period of, 38 EDUCATION, AND THE SCHOOLS, XVlli, Xxv, 216-60; in play, 258f.; modernization of, 220ff.; of boys, informal, 256-59; of girls, xxii, 249-56; opportunities in, 247-49; religious, 250f. Educational, administration as a function of leadership, 132; re- organization, 226-30 Effects of emigration, 50-54 Emigration, xxiii, 40-54, 90, 162; and art, 277; and dissolution of marriage, 185; and social control, 333; causes of, 44-50; effects of, 50; changes in, 28; in North China, 47 Emigrants, marriage of, 181f. Environs of Phenix Village, 8-11 ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS, xvii, 62-83 Ethnos, village, 260 Ethnotic, 47 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Evaluation, theory of, 313 Exile, xxviii Exogamy incorporated into law, 168 ‘“‘Face’’, 200; education, xxv, 251, 260 Facial characteristics, 74f. Familism, and neighborhood under emigration, 54; as injured by emigration, xvii; definition of,asa social system, xxix, 187f.; in con- flict with capitalism, 346; in rela- tion to politics, 117 FAMILY, AND THE SIB, 135-88, xviii; attitudes and values, 15; distri- bution of, by income, xvii Familist autonomy, xxviii; economy not completely independent, 95f.; groupings, 140-50; income, xxiv; organization, xxili, 162; perpet- uity, xxiv; religion, supervision of, as a function of leadership, 132; solidarity, probable survival of, 346 Farming, 84 Fate, as controlling the selection of mates, 171-77 Feasts, 202 Fecundity, 33 Feeling of inferiority, 46; in rela- tion to art, 276 Fees in the transition period, 229f. Fengshui, 11, 285f.; and education, 216; disappearance of, 218f. Ferry, xxiii; Phenix Village, 5-8 Field investigator, xvii Fields, 11-13 Filial, duties, xxiv; piety and asso- ciation, 201; piety as a cause of emigration, 49; as old age insur- ance, predominant attitude of village life, 135-37 Finances of modern schools, 246 Findings, xxiii Ve INDEX Floods, 25-27; as cause of emigra- tion, xvii, xxiii, 84 Folk heroes, xxvii Folk wishes in art forms, 293 Folklore, xvii Foreign relations committee, the leaders as a, 126 Formal education, 248 Formulation of customary law as a function of leadership, 132 Friendship, xxv Fruit-growing, xxiii, 84f. Gambling, 325f. Gardening, 84 Geographical relations, 18; situa- tion, xvii Geography, fundamental notion of neighborhood and community, XXX, 334 Giddings, F. H., 214 Giles, Sirange Stories from a Chinese Studio, 280 Girls, analysis of activities of, 252f.; as slaves, 165f.; education of, 249-56; educational practices of, 217f.; home training of, 253-56; importance of, 152; sib member- ship of, 144f. Gods, xxvii; of wind and water, 61; village, xviii Gossip, xxvi Graves, 300f. Graveyard, 185 Groups, attitudes of, 211-15; clas- sifications of, 141f.; causes and formation of, 141; feeling, the notion of, 126f.; fractured, and the chia-chang, 149; natural, in Phenix Village, 141f.; inten- tional, of Phenix Village, 142, 189-215; kinship, xviii; motive in cooperative society, 207; psy- choanalytic explanation of, 206; 361 organization of, 195; sociology of, 140-42; typical familist, 156—- 64; types of, for economic needs, 215 Hakka dialect, 79f. Han dynasty, expansion of control in the South, 65 Han River, 1; up the, 4-6 Handicrafts, 87f. Health, xxx; and population, 29- 61; and sanitation, 54-61; edu- cation, 59; superstitions affecting, 57-59 Heredity, xxx Hieronymous, 335 Historical community, xxvii Holo dialect, 79 Homestead, form as fitting familist organization, 155f. Horoscopes, divination of, in mar- riage, 171-80 Houses, distribution of, 14; sanita- tion of, 58f. Hua Gung Ma, 295 I Ching, Book of Changes, 186, 312f. Imitation, 258 Immigrant experience, effect upon village, 52f. Immorality, as an index of individ- ualization, 315f.; kinds of, xviii Inadequacy of village life, 345f. Income, xvii; sources of, 85-87 Index, contact, 19-22 Individualism and familism, 188 INDIVIDUALIZATION, XXVii, 315-34 Industrial communities, xxvii; oc- cupations, 8of. Infant mortality, 33 Infanticide, existence of, 166 Informants, xx Inheritance, 159, 186; and concu- binage, 182 362 Ink, in village art, 265-68 Instincts, 45 Institutions, village, xxvii Instruction in schools, xxvi Intelligence tests, need of, 55 Intentional groups, xxv, 214 Interaction, xxx, 18 “‘Interest’’, concept of, 118 Invention, xxx Investigation, xxx Irrigation Club, xxv; cooperative society, 206f. Isolation, 18ff.; of phenomena, xv 315-33; unit of, Jackson, 335 Judgment, as application of social opinion, xxviii Justice in Phenix Village, 323 Kiangsi, 62 Kin, aspects of, 106-08; status and polity, 106 Kinship, 29f.; basis of, 135; group, 41; in relation to neighborhood, 338; land basis of, 138f.; law basis of, 130f. Kwantung, I; government of, 134 Lacquer, 270f. Land values, IoI Language, xvil Law, customary and_familistic, 1209f.; general code of the Chinese emperor, Ja Ching Lu Li, 139 Leaders, xxiv; as chia-chang, 160; corruption of, 131f.; in Mutual Aid Club, 193; in relation to criminal responsibility, 323f.; nat- ural, 114-17; responsibility for inadequacy, 346; types of, I10 Leadership and polity, 106; func- tions of, 132f.; types of, xviii Leang and Tao, v Learning, xxvi, 258 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Legal aid as a function of leadership, 132 Lepers, 54 Levirate in Phenix Village, 168f. Life histories of emigrants, 47 Likemindedness, 214 Lineal status, xxv Lindeman, 335 Literary consumption, xxvi; god, 294 Living community, xxvii; tions, pressure of, 47f. Location of village, xvii condi- Magic, 285f. Magical devices, xxvii MAINTENANCE PRACTICES, 84-105 Manchuria, 42 Manufacturing, Sugar, Association, 203-06 Marital status, xvii, 38-40; graph of, 37; table of, 36 Market, center of Phenix Village, 10, 13; street, 30; village, 93-96 Marriage, xxv; age at, 176; and mating, 166-86; by purchase, a negative value, 174f.; ceremonies, determining the time of, 175-77; dissolution of, 184-86; distribu- tion of, 39; in relation to village unity, 81f.; license, 177; mores, violation of, 50; spiritual sanc- tion of, 172 Match-maker, function in marriage, 170-82 Mates, selection of secondary, 169 Mating, xxiv; and marriage, 166-86; conventional aspects of, primary forms of, 169; forms of, 181-84 Measurements of body, 60f. Membership, xxiv Meteorology of Phenix Village dis- trict, 24 Middleman, 99 ee INDEX Migration and the community, 344f.; in China, 41-45 Military god, 293f. Mindlessness, 214 Miscellaneous occupations, 8of. Modern period in education, 230- 60; schools, 345 Moieties, or branch-families, 106 Money in betrothal negotiations, 173f. Mongolia, 42 Monogamy, I81 Monogamous family, 162 Monsoon season, I0 Mores, xxiii; of mating, violation of marriage, 50 Mortality, xviii; infant, 33 Movements, area of, 40-45; of popu- lation, xviii Multi-sib village, 116 Mural painting, 268-70 Music, xviii; club, xxv, 209-II; forms of, 278 Mutual aid, the economic family as a social unit of, 152; club, xxv, 189-96; operation of, 191; organi- zation, 190 166-86; National language, 225 Natural community, xxvii; family, XXiv, 41, 142, 158, 338; function of, 180f.; ownership in, 1I12f.; groups in Phenix Village, 141f.; leaders, 114-17; leadership, xxiv Necromancy, 285ff.; as preventing sanitation, 58; values of Phenix Village and Almanac, 187 Neighborhood, and kinship group, 338; as an area of intimate dis- course, xxx; contacts, primary, gossip, xxix; definition of, 330; in Phenix Village, 339-43; spiritual, 341-43; the village as a, and a community, 334-46 363 New experience, xxv; desire for, 45; wish for, 194 Newspaper contacts, 19 North China, 42; subjected to one rule, 65 Occupational distribution, 90 Occupations, 87-93; for distinct groups, 8of.; types of, xvii Offenses, xxviii Offspring as chief familist value, 180 Organic method of study, xiv Organization, xxv; of groups and severity of crisis, 215; political, XViii; social, xviii Ownership, I0I-04 Paintings, 267f.; mural, 268-70 Parent Burial Association, xxv, 196-203; ancestral worship and filial piety, 201; organization of, 190f. Participation-education, 252 Pathology, social, xviii Paths, 15-18 Pentagonal skull, 74 Personal ascendency and the natu- ral leader, 115; hygiene, 6o0f.; recognition, xxv; rivalry, xxv Personality, xxviii; stabilized, 316f. Phenix, River, 8-13; Village, xvi, 11-18; as a neighborhood, 339- 43; as a community, xxix; as an area of adequacy, 343-46; emi- gration from, 44-54; environs of, 8-11; establishment of, 68f.; re- gional map of, 9; relation of, to China and South Seas, 2 Philanthropy as a function of leadership, 132 Philosophical dualism, 312f. Philosophy in the village, 311-13 Physical characteristics, comparison between Phenix Village and other 364 Asiatic groups, 77; drill, 237f.; of men in Phenix Village, 69-79; measurements of Phenix Village men, 71 Play-education, 258f.; ground, 282 Plurality of communities, xxvii, 317 Political organization, xix Polity, village, 106-34 Polygyny, 181; in natural economic-family, 161 POPULATION AND HEALTH, 29-61; composition of the, 34-40; dis- tribution of, xvii; mobility of, 4o- 54; movements of, xviii Poverty, xxiii, 104f.; in the formation of Parent Burial Association, 197 Preferential mating, chart of, 167 Primogeniture, existence of, 186 Primary contact, 340f. Private ceremonies of ancestral worship, 301f.; ownership, 103f. Processes, xxx Procession, religious, 297-99 Professional occupations, 8o0f.; spir- itists, 288 Prohibited relationships from sex intercourse, 332 Projects, 84; as values, xxx Production functions, xxiii Property, confiscation of, xxviii; ownership of, by wife, 150; and concubinage, 150f. Prostitution compared to concu- binage, 330f. Psychic compensation, 46 Public ceremonies of ancestral wor- ship, 302-06; lands, 102; works as a function of leadership, 132 Punishments, xviii, xxviii, 319-24; administration of, 321-24; forms of, 320f.; by the head of a sib group, 127 Pupils, xviii; in the transition pe- riod, 228 and COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Racial relations, 67-79 Racially, xxiii Radio, xxvii, 283 Railway, Swatow to Chaochow, 3-4 Rainfall, mean monthly total, 25 Rates, birth and death, 31-33 Recognition, desire for, 45f. Recreation, xviii, xxiv; adult forms of, 282; and art, 261-83; forms of, 281ff. Recreational life of women, xxvi Red, cards in marriage, 170f.; paper, 285; for religious bulletin, 295 REGIONAL SITUATION, I-28; char- acteristics, xvii; map of Phenix Village, 9 Registering marriage, xxiv Relationship, ethnic, 62-83 RELIGION AND THE SPIRITUAL COM- MUNITY, 284-314, Xvili, Xxvii; function of, 314 Religious, attitudes, 307-09; educa- tion, 259f.; family, xxiv, 145-48, 159f.; images, 295; membership in, basis of, 147f.; procession, Xxlli, 297-99; social function of, 299 Research, xiv Residences, 14; of membership in the rural community, 120; of sovereignty, Xviili Response, desire for, 45f.; preferen- tial personal, 46 Responsibility, for crime, 323f.; in crime, 127f.; of the head, xxviii Rites of worship, 300 Road building, methods of, 17 Rural, sociologists, 334; village community, 18, 206; ecology, 15; education, 239 Sacrifices, arrangement of articles in home worship, 302 Salaries in the transition period, 220f. INDEX Sanchaopu, census of, 355 Sanderson, 334f. Sanitation, xviii Sanitation, Health and, 54-61 Scholarship, xxiv Scholars, as leaders, I10-13, 116; business of, 218; Hall, 14, 111, 218 Schools, xxvi; and community, 250f.; census of 1923, 245f.; com- parison of, in the transition period, 222; education of, 216- 60; evaluation in, 242-45; equip- ment, 231-33; member of the village, 125 Scientific control, xiv Security as a dominant motive in society, 207; desire for, 45f. Scrolls, 266 Seasons, 25 Self-complex, 258 Service area, 337f.; functions, xxiii Sex, xvii; and kin status, 107f.; de- linquency, 329-33; distribution, 38; graph of, 37; groups in Phenix Village, 142f., 158f.; and polity, 123; irregularity, causes for, 332; reasons for infrequency of, 331; table of, 36; taboos, 332 Shamanism, 288f. Shansi, xxiii; region of early settle- ment, 63 Shirokogoroff, Prof. S. M., 76f., 352; Anthropology of North China, 70 Shops, types of, 93-96 Sib, xviii, xxii, 143-45; and the school, 232; and natural leaders, 114; family, and the, 135-88; religion of, xvii; religious organ- ization of, 300f. Siblings, 166-69 Singapore, 50 Skin color, 74 Slaves, 164-66; existence of male, 365 165f.; girls, work of, 88; treat- ment of, 164f. S Ming Gung, 179f. Smith, v . Social, approval of birth practices, 203; control, 315-18; life of the Chinese, v; opinion, xxiii—xxviii; and common law, 139; and leader- ship, 116f.; and punishment, 324; as expressed by leaders, 125; con- cerning mates, 50; forms of, xviii; limiting rights of chia-chang, 102; organization, xviii; causes for, 193f.; pathology, xviii; practices, immoral, xxvili; processes, 28; self-consciousness, expansion of, in birth practices, 203; values in Phenix Village, 314 Society, xxx; for the manufacture of sugar, xxv; irrigation, coopera- tive, 206 Socialism and familism, 188 Socioanalysis, xxx, 334 Sociological method for the study of village, xvi Sociology of a group, 140-42 Sons, xxiv Sources of income, xvii South China, culture complex, 66f.; types, 76-79; Sea Islands, 40 Sovereignty, incidence of, 117; limits of village, 120-23; residence of, xviii; ultimate element of, 122 Spencer, Herbert, v Spiritism, 287-89 Spirits, xxvii, 15-18 Spirit-sib community, 185 Spiritists, professional and tem- porary, 288 Spiritual community, xxv; and religion, 284-314 State, xxvili; government, xxiv Static type of village community, xvii 366 Status, xxiv; leadership in village clubs, 194; of brides depending on motherhood of sons, 143f.; of concubines, I51 Statutory reorganization, 130f. Stereotypes, xxvii Story-telling, xxvi, 278-81 Stoves, 162 Straits Settlements, 41, 42, 276 Sugar Manufacturing Association, 203-06 Suggestion, 258 Sung dynasty, xxiii, 217; and official examination, IIIf. Superstitions affecting health, 57-59 Supervision of morals as a function of leadership, 132 Swatow, 341 Taboos, 324-33; of marriage, 166f.; strengthening village unity, 81f. Ta Ching Lu Li, Code of Laws of the Chinese Empire, 139 Tan Tou, 10, 14, 162 Tan Village, 8-15, 341 Taoism, xviii Taxes, xxiv, XXViii Teachers, xviii, xxvi; in modern schools, 233f.; methods and ob- jectives, 234ff. Technology, xxx Temperature, mean variability of, 23ff. Temple, interior of, 291-97; village, 14, 289-99 Temporary spiritists, 288 Thomas, W. I., 45 Traditional norms, xxviii Transition period of village educa- tion, 220-24 Transportation contacts, 19; point, 13 Tribes, Turcic and Mongol, 64 Tsth, first wife, 50 COUNTRY LIFE IN SOUTH CHINA Tsing Ming festival, 301 Tungus, 65 Unit of study, xv Universe of discourse, I10f. Values, familist, 15, 255; introduc- tion of new, xxx; involved in the selection of, 169; offspring as the principal familist, 180; of Phenix Village, weakening, I60f.; per- sonal, social and maintenance, 105; schemes in education, 248f. Vehicles, absence of, 17f. VILLAGE POLITY, xxiv, 106-34; ad- ministration, 123-24; and town life in China, v; AS A NEIGHBOR- HOOD AND AS A COMMUNITY, 334-46; beauty, xxvi; commu- nity, and economic-family as a unit of, 149f.; cultural aspects of, Xviii; democracy, 133f.; education, the history of, 217-24; ethnos, 260, 330; finance, management of, as a function of leadership, 132; gods, XViii; institutions, xxvii; leaders, administrative functions of, 124— 33; life in China, v; market, 93- 96; mores, inculcation of, and the education of girls, 254; phi- losophy, 311-13; origin of, xvii; sib, xxiv; temples, architecture of, use of, 289-99; entrance, 269; unity, xxvii, 81-83; and the natural leader, 115; values, 314 Walls, decoration of, 274 Waterways, 18 Watson, J. B., 45 Wealth, 85-87; and polity, 106 Wedding ceremonies, 177-81; chair, artistic decoration of, 275 Wet, 62 Wells, 59 | INDEX 367 Wen Li, 219 Wen Ti, 294 Wholesale fruit dealers, g1f. Widows, 149; remarriage of, 158 Widowers, remarriage of, 158 Wine drinking, 325 Wish complex, 46; analysis of, 46; formation of, 46 Wishes, xxv; as causes of group formation, 193-96; complexes sat- ised in the community, 345; for dominance, 193; for security, xxv; in relation to neighborhood, 338 Women, forms of recreation for, 282f.; intellectual life of, 98; rec- reational life of, xxvi; status of, 150f.; work of, 96-99 Work of women, 96-99 Worship, of ancestors, and the person’s réle in the supernatural community, 260; collective ob- jectives of, xxvii; in village tem- ple, 296f.; in home, 154; in mar- riage, 179f.; of ancestors, 146f., 299-306; of associations as relief from tension, 205; social function of, 180 Wu Di Ya, 2936. 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