Land tenure distribution. Farming economy. Village community: Rural Shandong, 1900-1945

Author: / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-12-01
Features: "Lǐsú shèhuì" (ritual-society) is an entity concept rooted in Chinese local society rather than a value concept. It provides a comprehensive rather than partial summary of Chinese society. The establishment of this concept is highly effective in explaining the distribution of rural land in modern China. For example, the system of weights and measures was a crucial issue in the distribution of rural land in modern China. Until the Republican era, there was no unified standard for weights and measures across different regions, relying primarily on local trading customs. In Shandong's Yanzhou and Gansu's Fuxiang County, there were even cases where 100 jin of wheat equaled one dou, while in Shandong's Tengxian, 150 jin was considered one dou. The confusion in the acreage system was simply unbearable. Even today, rural Chinese society still primarily regulates social relationships through folk customs. In land use activities such as water irrigation and labor cooperation, clan ethics serve as the fundamental value orientation of the ritual-society. The rural Chinese society is not a utopia isolated from urban society, but urbanization has led to the underdevelopment of rural socio-economy, resulting in a dualistic structure between urban and rural economies and societies. The coexistence of urbanization and the lag of modern rural economy is indeed a rare historical fact. Chen Bozhuang depicted the urban-rural disparities along the Pinghan Railway: "The Yellow River Basin, known as the cradle of Chinese civilization, but how were the farmers' lives? They lived in dilapidated earthen walls, grass huts, and thatched cottages, dark and narrow, with no air or light. Livestock were kept together, which was not considered strange. Rice was a luxury, like meat, only available during festivals. Cabbage and radishes were boiled in plain water, fearing the waste of oil, and sometimes even salt was too expensive to eat plain food." "This cave-like, wild life coexists with modern skyscrapers, giving a sense of anachronism." The dualistic structure of urban-rural socio-economy cannot be further explained by Western modernization theories, but development theories originating from underdeveloped countries share value-level isomorphism and entity-level similarity with the analysis of Chinese society. From the construction of the entity model and the transformation of analytical paradigms, two basic methods of historical research can be concluded. History is "the history of the whole," and historical studies should also be the history of social sciences as a whole, a view early proposed and applied by the founders of the Annales School, Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. Therefore, interdisciplinary research methods should be adopted in specific research processes. As mentioned earlier, when analyzing the relationship between humans and nature, as well as between the state and society, centered around land issues, multidisciplinary and multi-dimensional understanding is necessary. Comprehensive research involving geology, meteorology, botany, ecology, geography, philosophy, economics, sociology, law, politics, ethics, folklore, anthropology, and statistics is essential. If still confined to the narrow perspective of traditional political economy, statically studying production relations, the result will only be the accumulation of historical materials and the endless repetition of previous research findings. Croce said, "All history is contemporary history"; Collingwood stated, "All history is the history of ideas." Historians cannot study knowledge without ideas; the value judgments of the research subject inevitably blend into the research object. However, there is a fundamental methodological principle: value judgments should be based on factual judgments, not the other way around. The construction of the entity model is an analytical framework based on the objective description of nature and social order, rather than a value system. Through the analysis of the transformation of analytical paradigms, the two major characteristics of modern Chinese society—ritual-society and the dualistic structure of urban-rural society—are concluded as entity concepts rather than value concepts. If this is used as a paradigm for the historiography of modern Chinese history, it can avoid the academic bias of imposing value judgments on historical facts. Due to the neglect of water conservancy, the deterioration of embankments, the siltation of waterways, and the natural causes of concentrated rainfall, Shandong has experienced frequent floods. Records show that from the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty to 1937, there were over 70 major floods, with 15 of them affecting more than 10 counties. Due to the uneven distribution of rainfall throughout the year, drought often followed floods. According to the Shanghai Gazette, in the third year of the Guangxu era (1877), the people in Qingzhou lived in extreme hardship due to two consecutive years of no harvest caused by drought. "High had been exhausted, and the only food available to the people was bran and the skins of imported vegetables (the original text uses 'vegetable skin,' the editor's note), as well as the bark of edible trees and high roots and grass seeds." Between 1929 and 1930, 48 counties in Shandong suffered from severe drought, with crop yields reduced to 10% to 30%. Drought also bred locusts, leading to locust plagues. "In southern and western Shandong, locusts swarmed the fields, or frost and hail devastated the crops." Floods, droughts, and locust plagues had a devastating impact on the production and lives of Shandong farmers. "Western Shandong is poor and arid, suffering from floods and droughts. This year (1934), the (flood break) of Changyuan, in the western Shandong counties of Puyang, Shouzhang, and Fanxian, suffered severe floods again, with autumn crops ruined and no harvest." Jining "was not considered a particularly disaster-stricken area last year (1934), but in the southwestern parts of the city, it was already like 'sailing on land!' In the area of Tangkou in the west of the city, it is said to be the most severely affected area, almost completely submerged last year, still unable to be farmed. The land had been exposed to intense summer sunlight, the surface gradually dried, but the inner layer still contained water, causing the ground to collapse into deep pits, several feet deep and a foot wide, making it dangerous to walk." The village of Lao in Tai'an County often suffered from floods and droughts, and locust plagues also occurred occasionally. In 1940, when a surveyor from the South Manchurian Railway Company visited the village, the villagers still remembered the locust plague of the summer of 1928: "A vast swarm of locusts darkened the sky from the south, devouring all crops on the ground in an instant." Droughts bred locusts, leading to locust plagues. However, when Professor Huang Zongzhi studied the agricultural ecology of North China, he described: "In the poorly drained eastern part of the Hebei Plain and the northern part of Shandong, heavy rains in July and August often cause waterlogging. In the most severely affected areas, the land turns into marshes, breeding locusts and becoming another major natural disaster in the region." Based on the oral history collected from elderly villagers in rural areas (my hometown is Chengwu County in southwestern Shandong), locust plagues followed droughts. Verifying with the above data, it appears that Professor Huang Zongzhi's statement lacks historical evidence and the support of rural life experience, making it incorrect. In the evolution of agricultural ecosystems, natural environmental factors such as terrain, climate, soil, rivers, and disasters exist in a complex relationship of mutual influence and constraint. Since the perspective of agricultural ecosystems is centered on land use, the interaction of these natural environmental elements lies in their impact on soil types and soil changes. Logically, the next step is to analyze the role of these natural environmental elements, centered on this, in agricultural cultivation systems and farmland water conservancy, among other land use activities. When Yang He had not yet concluded the previous contractual relationship, he had already completed a land sale with Yang Si, targeting the same piece of land. Since Yang He did not return the redemption price, Yang Liu still retained the right to occupy the land, making it inevitable for the dispute over land ownership between Yang Si and Yang Liu to arise. The elderly Yang Liu was ultimately beaten to death by Yang Si. In the case of a "live sale" of land, even if it was long ago, could the original seller redeem it? In this case, the understanding of all three parties was consistent: according to rural customs, redemption was still possible. According to the Da Qinglüli, if land was mortgaged or sold for more than 30 years without a "permanent sale" clause, it was considered "" (permanently sold) and redemption was not allowed. However, rural customary law contradicted written law. Yang He and the intermediaries Yang An and Li Lun stated in their confessions: "We are ignorant villagers, unaware of the laws, and believed that a live contract should be redeemable." In the 43rd year of the Qianlong era (1778), Li Songlin, a landlord in Pingdu County, attempted to redeem 2 mu of land mortgaged 40 years ago to Li Zhao in Liyuan Village. Over 40 years, the land had changed hands several times, with the current owner being Zhu Decai. According to rural customs, permanently sold land could not be redeemed, leading to a dispute where Li Songlin was killed. There are still many rural customs related to land ownership, such as the "face" mentioned by intermediaries, which can help one party in the transaction gain certain benefits. Of course, the transaction costs for land sales involving intermediaries will increase accordingly. In land sales, clans and neighbors have the right of first refusal. Due to the logical structure of this book, these folk customs related to changes in land ownership will be discussed in later chapters. In Xinji Village in Gaorong County, northern Shandong Plain, "labor cooperation was entirely emotional. They didn't care if one household did more or less work." For example, Zhang Dquan and Zhang Fuhàn of Renhe Tang partnered in farming. Renhe Tang had 43.2 mu of land, fewer but younger livestock, and more tools; Zhang Fuhàn had 34.2 mu of land and only one livestock. They only farmed once a year and considered it done. Five small self-cultivating households from the same clan—Zhang Jingkong (14.4 mu of land, one strong laborer, one donkey), Zhang Jingxu (13.57 mu of land, one strong laborer), Zhang Jingrong (11.52 mu of land, one strong laborer), Zhang Jingyan (11.52 mu of land, one strong laborer), and Zhang Jingmeng (14.4 mu of land, two strong laborers)—shared a set of farming tools, with only Zhang Jingkong having a donkey. They farmed together every year. Zhang Zhaolin, Wu Xianzhang, Zhang Fengtong, and Zhang Zhaoyuan jointly invested in an archery workshop and farmed together. The four households had two donkeys and 58.32 mu of land, enough to plow all the land, in addition to using livestock to pull bows. In labor cooperation, there was also an example of Zhang Mingjing and Zhang Jianquan farming together. Similar labor cooperation was common in the village. During the war, with a significant reduction in farm animals, this form of cooperative farming developed even further. In Xinji Village, the labor cooperation relationships in "" (labor assistance and cooperation) were primarily guided by the value orientation of clan ethics. In the labor combination of the five small self-cultivating households, the land holdings of Jingkong and Jingmeng, as well as Jingrong and Jingyan, were exactly equal. This was not a mere statistical coincidence but likely the result of two pairs of brothers who had recently divided their family property. According to the author's observations in rural Shandong, these two pairs of brothers, plus Zhang Jingxu, might be from the same clan within the five-clan system. Labor cooperation like Xinji Village's was likely very common in modern Shandong rural areas. The institutional expression of rural production relations cannot be analyzed simply and formally within the narrow perspective of traditional economic history. In the next chapter, when discussing the differentiation and integration of village communities, this author will further explore the family system background of such labor cooperation relationships. In the resource allocation of village communities, single-clan villages often cooperate or compete based on "branches" or "doors" within the clan. In multi-clan villages, the distribution of interests affecting the entire village is carried out among the various clan groups. In both types of villages, the prerequisite for one "branch" or one clan to dominate is having a large population and resources, which is their common point. Tai'tou Village in Jiaozhou is a multi-clan village with three major clans—Pan, Chen, and Yang—as well as other smaller clans. The Pan clan is the largest, divided into several branches, though living in scattered areas, they still have a strong clan cohesion in the village community's interest distribution. The Chen and Yang clans are basically residentially concentrated. Competition within the village occurs between the Pan clan and the Chen and Yang clans, with frequent fights between the Pan and Chen clans. The Pan and Chen, Yang clans also engaged in a prolonged struggle for control of school management. The village school was originally a private academy of the Pan clan, but later, the Chen and Yang clans, feeling that their children were not treated equally in the school, established their own primary school. After the implementation of the "New Policies" in 1900, state power penetration into villages increased, and Christianity was introduced to the area. The original Pan clan academy became a public primary school, recognized and funded by the county government, while the other school became a church school. The struggle for public funds between the two schools intensified. To ease tensions, a system of nearby school attendance was adopted, but when someone proposed merging the two schools' assets, the conflict flared up again. The Pan clan believed that the purpose of the merger was to undermine their clan's position in the village, leading to increased antagonism between clans. At the time, the village head was Pan, and he favored his own clan when handling disputes. In multi-clan villages, especially those with market towns, numerous clans of different surnames exist. Although there are conflicts of interest among the clans, as none or only a few clans dominate in population or resources, the clans tend to unite geographically within the same village, known as "the eastern end of the village, the western end of the village," or "front street, back street." Panjiadian Village in Qihe County, as a relatively large local market town, is convenient for transportation and commerce, with a high population mobility. In the mid-1930s, it had over 800 households and about 5,000 people, with many clan types. In the allocation of public resources, geographical unity was the main approach. The establishment of the village school is a typical example of this issue. "In this town, every small area wanted to establish its own school, as there were school fields and school funds. The local gentry managing the funds wanted to keep the management power in their hands. However, it was impossible in reality, as the school funds were limited. If they were scattered, they could not support a school, and teachers' salaries could not be reduced to the minimum due to fewer students. Therefore, five or six villages combined to establish a primary school. Now, there are three primary schools in this town—one on the west street, one on the north street, and one on the east and south streets. The students in the west street school are usually between 30 and 40, while the other two schools never had more than 30 students. These students are generally from families with over 30 mu of land, with a few families whose main occupation is farming, even if they have 30 to 40 mu of land, their children are not sent to school. There are also a few ruffians, as their children have no daily chores at home, so they have more opportunities for education than landowners." In areas where clan organizations based on blood ties are relatively dispersed, geographical unity based on local ties (neighboring relations) becomes inevitable. The scale of land ownership per household and differences in occupations also lead to certain social differentiation among the residents of Panjiadian, so the geographical integration is carried out on the basis of social differentiation.