This book is very thin, with only 70,000 words. As the author mentioned in the preface and postscript, the fourteen papers included in this anthology are part of the course "Rural Sociology" that I taught at National Southwest Associated University and Yunnan University in the late 1940s. This booklet is not a description of a specific society, but some concepts extracted from a specific society.
The local China mentioned here is not a concrete sketch of China society, but a unique system contained in China's concrete traditional grass-roots society, which dominates all aspects of social life. It is not excluded that other systems have the same influence on China society, and those influences can also play a role in the grass-roots society in China. A clear understanding of my concept of rural society will help us to understand the specific China society. In this sense, concept is a tool for us to know things.
1. Locality: The "locality" of a rural society has three characteristics: rural people cannot live without soil, mobility and acquaintance society. Modern society is a society ruled by law and rural society is a society ruled by law.
In sociology, we often distinguish between two different societies, one is a society that has no specific purpose but grows together, and the other is a society that is United to complete a task. In Durkheim's words, the former is "organic unity" and the latter is "mechanical unity". The former is gemeinschaft, and the latter is a legal society. Familiarity is a kind of intimacy from time, many aspects and frequent contact. This feeling is the result of countless small frictions.
In a familiar society, we will be free to do what we want without exceeding the rules. This is different from the freedom guaranteed by law. Rules are not laws, but customs. From the ordinary is from the heart. In other words, society and individuals are linked here. "We are all acquaintances. Just saying hello. Do you need to say more? " Such words have become an obstacle to our modern society.
Modern society is a stranger's society, and everyone doesn't know everyone's details, so we should make it clear; Even if you are afraid of not saying anything, you should draw a bet. This is how the law came into being. Law can't happen in rural society.
This is a characteristic of the countryside. Because only life that depends directly on the soil will take root and sprout in one place like a plant, and people who take root and sprout in a small place can be familiar with everyone's life calmly for a long time, just like a mother to her children. Strangers can't understand what the baby said, but the mother can hear clearly and can also hear the meaning expressed by words and sounds.
2. Writing in rural areas: local people may lack the "knowledge" of modern society, but it is not "intelligence", and people in modern society have not mastered the "knowledge" of local people.
Country people are "stupid" in the eyes of city people. Of course, we remember many friends who advocated rural work. They associated ignorance with disease and poverty, and thought it was a symptom of rural China. It seems that we still have objective standards for disease and poverty, but what is the basis for saying that rural people are "stupid"? The countryman panicked when he heard the car honking behind him on the road. He's not hiding. The driver pulled the brake, leaned out of the window and spat at the old man: "Idiot!" "
If this is stupid, then they are really wronged. Once I took my students to the countryside, where there were buns, and a young lady pretended to be an expert and said, "The wheat has grown so high this year." . The country friend next to her didn't spit on her, just smiled, which might as well be translated as "idiot". Country people have never seen the world in the city, so they don't know how to deal with cars. That's a question of knowledge, not intelligence, which means that city people can't even drive dogs when they get to the countryside.
If you don't admit that a woman who goes on an outing is "stupid" when she hears a dog barking, there is naturally no reason to say that rural people don't know that the direction of "walking on the left" or "walking on the right" is often changed because of "stupid". Where's the fool?
Third, "rewriting the words to the countryside": local people should not be criticized for being stupid just because they can't use words. The fundamental reason is that it is enough for local people to use "language", and there is no need to use words to help them live in society.
People living in rural society need different memory ranges from those living in modern cities. Rural society is a very stable society. As I have already said, people who make a living by being dirty and begging can never move. People born in this place will grow up in this place until they die.
In this society, language is enough to transmit experience between generations. When a person encounters a problem in life, he can certainly seek an effective solution to this problem from someone older than him, because everyone is in the same environment and walking the same road, he goes first and you go later; Those who leave later step on the footprints of those who leave first, and it is passed on from mouth to mouth, and there will be no omissions. Where do you need words? There is no barrier in time, and it is very tight. All cultures can be taught to children by parents.
Fourth, "differential order pattern": "differential order pattern" refers to the differential order relationship determined by blood relationship and geographical relationship. China people's unique "private" personality has created China's unique "differential order pattern".
When we say it is public, it means that almost everyone can use it, with rights but no obligations. As small as two or three families share a yard, the public corridor is filled with dust as usual, and the yard is full of weeds. No one wants to pull it out clearly, and it is even more difficult to go to the toilet. No one wants to mind their own business, and whoever doesn't like it will have to serve others in vain and get no thanks. So just like Graham's public law, bad money drives out good money, and public morality is driven away by selfishness here.
The most important kinship in our society is the property of throwing stones to form concentric circles and ripples. Kinship is a social relationship based on the facts of birth and marriage. From the network formed by fertility and marriage, we can always generalize it, including endless people, past, present and future figures. That's what we mean when we say that there is a table of three thousand li. In fact, those who do three things mean that they are vast.
This network is like a spider's web, with a center, and this center is itself. Each of us has such a network spread by blood relationship, but no network covers the same group of people. People in a society can remember their loved ones with the same system, but only with this system.
System is an abstract model, or a concept related to category. When we use this system to identify specific relatives and friends, everyone's identification is different. We all have parents in the blood system, but my parents are not yours. Moreover, no two people in the world can have exactly the same relatives. Of course, the two brothers have the same parents, but each has his own wife and children.
In our rural society, there is not only blood relationship, but also geographical relationship. The modern Baojia system is a group model, but it is incompatible with the traditional structure. In the traditional structure, each family takes its position as the center and draws a circle around its position. This circle is the neighbor. If you have a happy event, please buy wine, if you have a baby, you should send red eggs, and if you have a funeral, you should come out to help carry the coffin. It is a mutual aid organization in life.
But this is not a fixed group, but a range. The scope also depends on the strength of the center. The neighborhoods of powerful families can be all over the village, and the neighborhoods of poor families have only two or three neighbors. This is similar to our family circle. For example, in the Grand View Garden of Jia family, you can live with your cousins Lin Daiyu and menstruation Xue Baochai. Later, there were many, and everything that attracted relatives could be tolerated.
The difference pattern in China's traditional structure has this kind of flexibility. In rural areas, families can be small, but when it comes to rich landlords and bureaucrats, they can be as big as a small country. People in China are particularly sensitive to the indifference of the world, precisely because this flexible social circle will change with the change of the central power. Once we know the social scope that can be released, collected, expanded and contracted, we can understand the private problems in the traditional society of China.
I often feel: "In the traditional society of China, one can sacrifice his family, his party, his country and the world for his family." This is in line with the "University": "The ancient desire is obviously superior to the world, governing the country first; If you want to govern your country, you should first get your family together; If you want to be harmonious with your family, you should cultivate yourself first, cultivate yourself and then your family will be harmonious, your family will be harmonious, and your country will be harmonious with the world. "
Organizationally, they are related, but the difference is only introversion and extroversion, and positive and negative statements. You can sacrifice your family for yourself and your family for your family. This is a de facto formula. In this formula, if you say he is private? He can't admit it, because when he sacrifices his family, he can do it for his family, which is open to him. When he sacrificed his country for the interests and rights of his clique, he did it for the public and for the public of the clique.
Five, "maintaining private morality": ethics in the network reached by countless personal relationships maintains a pattern of difference.
The social scope formed by self-extension is a personal connection, and each rope is maintained by a moral element. Social scope is pushed from itself, and there are various routes in the process of pushing. The most basic ones are relatives: parents and compatriots, and the matching moral elements are filial piety. Filial piety is also the foundation of benevolence.
It's friends who push each other's route, and loyalty is the match. Is it unfaithful to others? Is it true that making friends is not credible? The Lord is faithful, and he who has no friends is worse than himself. Confucius once concluded: Disciples are filial when they enter, and filial when they leave. They are sincere and trustworthy, they love people all the time, but they are kind.
6. "Family": Family includes not only reproductive functions, but also political, economic, religious and other complex functions.
Different forms also lead to changes in nature. Although the family contains the function of reproduction, it is not limited to the function of reproduction. Anthropology believes that the clan is a commercial organization, which can become a tribe when it is expanded. Clans and tribes are endowed with complex functions such as politics, economy and religion. This is our family. My hypothesis is that China's rural society has adopted a pattern of differential order, formed a community by using kinship ethics, and run various undertakings, thus turning this basic family into a clan.
On the one hand, we can say that in China's rural society, political, economic, religious and other functions can be undertaken by families; On the other hand, it can be said that in order to run many businesses, the family structure cannot be limited to the small combination of parents and children, but must be expanded.
Moreover, all political, economic, religious and other things need long-term continuity, and this basic community must not be temporary like western families. Family must be continuous, not divided by personal growth and not ended by personal death, so the nature of family becomes family. Clans are long-term, just like our family. Calling our community a small family also shows this long-term nature, in contrast to the temporary nature of the family.
China's home is a commercial organization, and the size of the home depends on the size of the business. If the business is small, the cooperation between husband and wife is enough, and this family can be as small as one; If the career is too big for both husband and wife, brothers and uncles can get together. This shows that in our rural society, the size difference of families may be very large. However, no matter how different the size is, the structure is in principle consistent and single-line differential order pattern.
Seven, "men and women are different": In the rural society of China, the family is a continuous business community, and its main axis is between father and son, between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
For the affection between the two sexes, China people are particularly reserved and reserved, and discipline excludes affairs. The spirit of love cannot exist in rural society, because rural society does not need new social relations, and it is even more afraid that old social relations will be destroyed. In rural society, the relationship between men and women must be arranged so that there will be no exciting feelings between them.
Love is an adventure, an exploration of the unknown. This is not the same as friendship. Friendship can stop understanding to some extent, but love is a pursuit. This attempt is not for practical purposes, but the creation of life experience, which can also be said to be the creation of life meaning, but it is not economic production or career. The persistence of love depends on innovation, constantly overcoming obstacles and constantly discovering obstacles. What we want is this process, not the result of this process.
Judging from the results, there can be nothing. Not only is there no achievement, but it will also make social relations unstable, so that businesses that rely on social relations cannot operate at the top profit. According to modern culture, the development of emotional excitement between men and women makes the cause of childbearing falter. This business is run by society. Unless other ways are found, Faust spirit is really destroying the basic business of this society.
This spirit is impossible to exist in rural society. It doesn't need to create new social relations, which is decided at birth. It is more afraid of the destruction of social relations, because the local society pursues stability. The relationship between men and women must be arranged so that there will be no exciting feelings between them. That is the principle that men and women are different. The difference between men and women is that men and women don't have to seek common ground while reserving differences.
This isolation is not only physical, but also psychological. Men and women only operate the economic and reproductive undertakings of division of labor and cooperation according to certain rules in behavior, and do not want to have psychological contact with each other. Social order covers individuality. In order to maintain order, all elements that can cause disorder are contained. The gap between men and women is thus formed. Rural society is a different society for men and women, and it is also a stable society.
Eight, "rule by courtesy": In rural society, social order can rely on rule by courtesy. Rule by courtesy does not mean gentleness, but a socially recognized code of conduct.
The possibility of rule by courtesy must be based on the premise that tradition can effectively deal with life problems. Rural society conforms to this premise, so its order can be maintained through etiquette. In a rapidly changing society, the effectiveness of tradition cannot be guaranteed. No matter how effective this way of life was in the past, if the environment changes, no one can cope with new problems in the old way.
If the problem to be dealt with is team cooperation, everyone must accept an agreed way. To ensure that everyone can cooperate to solve the same problem in a prescribed way, there must be a power to control everyone. This is actually the law, the so-called rule of law.
Rule by law and rule by virtue are two different social models. The so-called rule by courtesy here may be ordinary rule by people, but the word rule by courtesy is not as easily misunderstood as the word rule by people, so that some people think that social order can be maintained by personal likes and dislikes. The rule of propriety is far from the rule of personal likes and dislikes, because propriety is a tradition, and the whole social history is maintaining this order. It is impossible for a society ruled by courtesy to appear in a rapidly changing era, which is the characteristic of a local society.
Nine, "no litigation": there is a contradiction between the order of courtesy and the order of rule of law in rural society.
A county magistrate who is also a sheriff once told me many such examples. A man hurt an adulterer because his wife stole a man. This is a matter of course in China. But there is no sin in harmony, not to mention that there is no evidence, but it is guilty to hit people. The county magistrate asked me, how did he judge? He knows better that if he is a kind countryman, he knows that if he does something bad, he will never come to the yamen.
These scum with a little legal knowledge do evil in the countryside, and the law will protect him. I also admit that this is a very possible fact. The current judicial system has a very special side effect in rural areas, which destroys the original order of rule by courtesy, but cannot effectively establish the order of rule by law.
The establishment of the rule of law order depends not only on the formulation of several legal provisions and the establishment of several courts, but also on how the people use these devices. To make further progress, we must first make some reforms in social structure and concepts. If we don't carry out these reforms and just push the law and the court to the countryside, the benefits of the rule of law order will not be obtained, but the disadvantages of destroying the order of etiquette and law have already occurred first.