The Village Sideline And The Change Of The Rural Society

The moral economy of the peasant in the traditional rural society had been challenged under the new historic conditions since it was the twentieth century ,because of the shock of the commodity wave ,the pressure of the population and all kinds of the natural calamity. The only mode of production of the "man ploughing and woman weaving" in the past could not keep pace with the demand of the times. The village peasants in Shanxi especially who had less cultivated land, could seldom maintain the balance between revenue and expenditure if they only depended on agriculture. At this time, the village peasants must look for all the survival plans, and the sidelines became one of the most fundamental and necessary survival plans.The early year of the Republic of China, the village sidelines did not only make up with peasant's life but also affected the change of the rural society. The thesis first discussed the kinds and the situations of sideline. Secondly, the thesis analyzed the reasons of development on sideline from the internal and external cause, announcing that the sidelines were developed under the specific historic conditions. Finally, the thesis analyzed the effect of the sidelines on Shanxi society from the social history.In short, the village sidelines in Shanxi could not be generalized with the word decline or bankruptcy during the year from 1912 to 1927.At that time, the peasants could apply to the change of society ,and the peasants who had many burdens could still eke out their livelihood, apparently because of the existence of the sidelines.