| Nanyang Basin is situated on the borders between Henan, Hubei, and Shaanxi Provinces. It is surrounded by three rivers:Huang He, Huai He and Chang Jiang. This thesis is a survey of the countryside of Nanyang Basin from the late Qing Dynasty to the middle of the Republic of China. It focuses on the social and economic changes which took place during that period and consequences after that region was marginalized for traffic.The first chapter explains why Nanyang Basin changed from the heartland to a cesspool of bandits. Nanyang had been an important metropolis of China’s regional economy. Since the late Qing Dynasty, the social economy of Nanyang Basin underwent the most drastic disintegration in the wake of decay of nature and social ecology and the lost of geographical advantages in traffic. Chapter One traces the historical context of Nanyang Basin’s social decay since the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the perspectives of the destruction of natural ecology, the marginalization of space and lost of balance in social ecology.Chapater Two analyzes the deterioration of modern social structure. It delves into the causes of the rampant bandits and the powerful gentry, which are the two characteristics of the local society in Nanyang Basin. It examines the change of social customs in modern Nanyang Basin. The elite took up arms, and the common people became bandits. The regions around Nanyang were virtually controlled by the despotic gentry. This chapter probes into the underlying casuse of this new social order. Apart from that, it also investigates the position and mobility of the common people in gun clubs, the local militia, bandit gangs and other social organizations. It explores the means of living for the common people in such social environment.Chapter Three makes a thoroughh inquiry into the distribution of land and tenancy relationship, which are the key subject of this part. Based on the documents about the social investigation of Nanyang Basin, this chapter discusses about the characteristics on distribution of land and tenancy relationship during1920s and30s. It further establishes the connection between those characteristics and the social decay.The penultimate chapter talks about the disintegration of rural economy in Nanyang Basin. After investigation of the rural society and economy, rural side-line production, trade and transportation, it makes a survey of the characteristics of the decay of rural social economy and its consequences. As a result of the decay of social ecology, the land was desolated, people fled from home, rural sideline production gradually declines, traffic order was undermined, the rural economy went into bankruptcy, poverty was aggravated.The last chapter describes the rustic life. During the1920s and30s, as a result of the social decay and breakdown of order, it was impossible for the peasants to live in peace. They were short of the basic nessecities of life. They were made the victim of social decay in Nanyang Basin and they paid the ultimate price for it.In its modern history, Nanyang Basin was deprived of favor from the government when it made policies. It became a marginalized regional society. After its ineluctable decay, the new social order established by the local despotic gentry was due to the government’s disregard of this region in its administration. |
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