Modern Chinese rural society

Author: Department of History, Fudan University, Research Center for Sino-foreign Modernization Process
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The village is a microcosm of Chinese society. Whether in imperial China or today, we have seen too many similar expressions. But while it is called a "microcosm," the picture is vastly different. The expressions of the village in imperial times, such as "work at dawn and rest at dusk, what have the emperor to do with me," carry idealized imprints. When Huang Shumin tells the story of "Lin Village," he particularly points out that in the idealized Confucian world, the peasants and the gentry class, which formed the traditional economic foundation, were equally respected. However, this only existed in theory and not in reality, and the reality was almost the opposite of the ideal. This has been proven by the numerous facts of the collapse of Chinese rural society and peasant uprisings that have spanned nearly a century. Today, the various voices surrounding the "three rural issues" also indicate that we are gradually losing our "imagination" of idealized rural life, and there are reasons for this. Ice doesn't freeze overnight; the heavy burden of interpreting "the village" lies in the extremely heavy historical accumulation it carries. This book primarily elaborates on how scholars from different disciplines have entered the study of Chinese rural society, and as a result, their problem perspectives are also different.