Chinese Society GEE 2190K Instructor: Ho-fung Hung Week 2.

1. Chinese Society GEE 2190K Instructor: Ho-fung Hung Week 2. Family, Lineage and the State in Traditional China

2. Family and Lineage as the Fundamental Units of Traditional Chinese Society • Chinese society before the modern age was predominantly agrarian, i.e. most of its population lived in rural area and worked in agriculture. • In traditional China, an individual was a part of a family, which in turn was a part of a lineage (or clan, 宗族)

3. Lineage Family

4. A typical format of a genealogy (族譜), which was used to record the origins and development of a lineage.

5. Lineage and Village • Sometimes, all members of a lineage lived in the same area, and formed a village with the same surname (同姓村). • Sometimes, an area was inhabited by several lineages, forming a village with multiple surname (雜姓村). • Sometimes, when the size of a lineage expanded to a point where local resources could no longer support the whole lineage, some members of the lineage might choose to migrate to other areas to establish new villages

6. The Example of the Deng’s lineage: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3998/

7. Lineage organization • Usually, lineage is a highly organized structure, led by its leaders and governed by elaborate rules. • Leadership role in a lineage is often assumed by elders (senior, respected member of the lineage) and gentry (educated member of the lineage).

8. Responsibilities of lineage leaders include: • Arbitrating dispute between lineage members. • Negotiating with outsiders and representing the lineage’s collective interest. • Managing the collective property of the lineage and organizing welfare activities.

9. The example of Deng’s (Tang) lineage in HK’s New Territories: http://www.kinhang.org.hk/pic/ping.htm http://www.kinhang.org.hk/lung/lung.htm

10. Inter-lineage Relation • In traditional China, co-existence of several different lineages in the same area were common. Below is a list of major ways that different lineages deal with one another:

11. 1) A very large, wealthy, powerful lineage dominated other smaller lineages. The latter might form alliances (yeuk, 約) to resist the dominating lineage. In some cases, originally unrelated lineages with the same surname would even join hand to form a larger “artificial” lineage. 2) In areas without a single dominating lineages, equally strong lineages might compete with one another for resources (water, wood). This would lead to bloody inter-lineage feuds (宗族械鬥).

12. The examples of Tai Po Lam Tsuen in HK and Hakka Earth Buildings in Fujian: http://www.lamtsuen.com/ http://www.earth-building.com/cn/chinese-production.htm/

13. Lineage Organization and the Government • In traditional China, the imperial government’s attitude toward lineage organizations is ambivalent (含糊). • On the one hand, the government found lineage organization useful in facilitating tax collection, settling local disputes, and maintaining local order. • On the other hand, the government found lineage organization a potential threat to the imperial rule.

14. Contemporary relevance of lineage organization 1) In today’s Chinese societies in mainland China, Taiwan and other overseas Chinese communities, lineage is still a very important social organization in people’s everyday life. 2) Lineage tie is still a very important factor in overseas Chinese’s choice of investment sites in mainland China. e.g.http://www.chinesepress.com/1131/News/news_27.htm

15. 3) In mainland China, the Communist tried to replace lineage with People’s Commune (人民公社) as the basic unit of rural society after 1949. But after the breakup of Communes, lineage reemerged as the most important social organizations in many areas. Below is a few examples:

16. “在違法犯罪之外，農村另外一個威脅農民安全的因素是宗族的械鬥。蒼南縣江南地區自1980－1991年公發生宗族械鬥2000多起。（26）1990年2月13日－18日，台州地區天台縣蒼山區兩個宗族因山林水利發生糾紛，迅速發展成7個鄉43個村「王、湯、戴、奚」與「許、鮑、周、余」兩大宗族同盟5,000餘群眾捲入的大規模械鬥。（27）湖南是械鬥的重災區，在1978年到1989年12年間，全省共發生百人以上械鬥上千起，死傷6000餘人。” (http://www.chinesenewsweek.com/97/History/7800.html)

17. 南昌“１１﹒１１”銀行大劫案爆出案中案 死者之兄竟是潛逃殺人犯　　19日，記者從南昌市特巡警支隊一中隊了解到一驚人消息：南昌“11-11”特大搶劫案受害者之一徐海群之兄徐賢群竟是潛逃八年的殺人犯。 　　11月18日上午，一中隊特巡警們在胡亞兵指導員帶領下對洪城大市場進行排查工作，當特巡警們排查到C區17棟8號服裝店(該店老板為劫案受害者徐海群)時，該店員工徐賢群作為受害者家屬，面對詢問，躲躲閃閃，極端不愿配合警方的調查工作，令一中隊特巡警心生疑竇，遂要求他回支隊接受調查，但徐予以拒絕。此時胡指導員突然想起“徐賢群”這個名字好像與某個案子有關，當即決定把徐帶回中隊審查。 　　回中隊一查資料，徐賢群竟是被公安機關已通緝8年的殺人逃犯。1992年9月20日上午，南昌縣尤口鄉南塘村發生宗族械斗，村民徐毛毛在械斗中被打死，主要凶犯徐賢群等四人逃逸后被通緝。近几年，徐賢群一直在其弟服裝店幫工。 　(桑志罩、吳剛) 　  《羊城晚報》 2000年11月20日

18. Other examples: http://daoyionline.net/HuaShan/BBS/wanhua/b5current/83554.shtml