Rural Society in Modern China -- "Journal of Modern Chinese Studies".2

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 a "microcosm," the picture is vastly different. The expressions of the village in imperial China, such as "work at dawn and rest at dusk, what do the emperor's powers have 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, both the peasants and the gentry class, which formed the foundation of traditional economy, were respected. However, this only existed in theory, 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 lasted for 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 thickens not 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 perspectives on the issues are also different.