History of Chinese Displacement (Ancient Volume)

Author: Jiang Lihua, Sun Hongtao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-06-01
Features: The homeless are a common demographic and social phenomenon that emerged after the advent of class society. Around the 21st century BC, China established a slave-state—the Xia Dynasty—and the phenomenon of the homeless also appeared on Chinese soil. With the passage of time and social evolution, the issue of the homeless not only failed to be eliminated but became increasingly severe and complex, exerting extensive and profound impacts on politics, economy, culture, and social production and life. The basic characteristics of the homeless can be broadly summarized in the following aspects: First, spontaneity and disorderliness. The homeless leave their hometowns and migrate to other places not due to official coercion or organization but as a spontaneous act. Their movement is in a disordered state. This disorder primarily refers to two aspects: one is that during their migration, they temporarily break away from the government's organizational management system, becoming a population without administrative control; the other is that there is no formal organizational management system within the homeless themselves. They act independently, without subordination to one another, and exhibit a high degree of blindness. Second, the of the homeless are the "people," primarily farmers. "People" is a distinctive feature of this category of floating population. Of course, some of the homeless may not have been "people" before, such as some former government officials, scholars, escaped convicts, and soldiers. Especially during major wars, such individuals join the ranks of the homeless. However, on one hand, they constitute a very small proportion of the homeless, and on the other hand, once they join the homeless, they effectively lose their previous status and position, detach from their original organizational systems, and more fully exhibit the characteristics of the homeless. We might call them "quasi-homeless" or "sub-homeless." Third, transience and temporariness. The homeless are a certain number of people who, after leaving their original places of residence and abandoning their means of livelihood, form a temporary and special population group. From leaving their hometowns to resettling, this group is constantly on the move, lacking normal and stable production and living means, exhibiting transitional characteristics. Generally speaking, most of them, after a period of time—long or short—of wandering, either return to their hometowns or settle in new places, regaining legitimate means of production and living, and exit the ranks of the homeless. The homeless population is always in a dynamic state where some leave and others join. This volume is the ancient part of the study on the issue of the homeless in China, forming an integral whole with the modern and contemporary parts to conduct a comprehensive exploration of the issue of the homeless in China from ancient to modern times. The main purpose of writing this book is to provide some historical experience or insights that can be for the present by researching the ancient issue of the homeless in China.