Peasant Economy And Social Change In Southwest Shanxi In Late Qing Dynasty And Republic Of China

There are two basic understandings of the traditional Chinese rural society in academic circles.One is that farmers are farm-oriented and business is the last.Although they are engaged in some non-agricultural occupations,they are less engaged in commercial activities.Many people are attached to the land,forming a tense relationship between people and land.The second is that the peasants stick to the land,relocate and relocate,and have less contact with areas outside the village.The space for activities is very limited,and the village as a whole is closed.This thesis uses the newly discovered farmer archives to study the 12 villages in the western part of Yuxiang County in the southwest of Shanxi and the northern foot of Zhongtiao Mountain in modern times.It is found that the production and production of local residents are mostly restricted by the ecological environment.These villages have mountains and waters,extensive distribution of alkaline drought and gravel land,poor soil quality,and are constantly affected by floods and droughts.Most families' income from cultivating land is insufficient to maintain their livelihoods.The environment also enriches people's livelihoods.Local farmers have developed and formed a variety of side industries and household handicrafts,including the “running mountains” industry,which mainly carries firewood and grass,and charcoal,the fruit and vegetable industry,which focuses on fruit trees and vegetables,and the production of small farm tools.In the preparation industry,there are handicrafts mainly composed of technical artisans and family workshops,catering industries mainly composed of noodles and cooked foods,farming industries mainly composed of livestock and poultry,and other rural service industries.Some of these sideline local farmers have an important source of income other than agricultural farming,and some even exceed land revenue.At the same time,operating sideline businesses have enabled farmers to have closer ties with local markets.On the other hand,farmers in southwestern Jinan have the tradition and ethos of going out for business.In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,due to the chaos of local social order,the meager land benefits,the attraction of commercial profits,and the rational arrangement of farmers' family livelihoods,some local farmers,especially young male laborers,left the countryside to go to surrounding towns and counties,Shaanxi,Henan and other places across the Yellow River engage in large and small commercial activities.Among them,mainly employed apprenticeships,shop assistants,and folks,etc.,there are also some self-employed and joint-venture businessmen with large capital.Business activities show certain class differences.Some farmers only use business income as a subsidy for their families,while others rely mainly or entirely on business income.By going out to do business,farmers have expanded their space for activities,broadened their horizons,infected customs and habits,and consolidated and expanded their social relations network.The village's connection with the outside world has become closer,and the village's interior has been strengthened because of the same industry and township relations."Business" plays a very important role in the local rural economic and social structure.In Ding-wu Disaster,the population in Shanxi,especially in the southwest of Shanxi,suffered huge losses,which profoundly affected and changed the economic and social changes in the local villages.In the late Qing and Republic of China period,either officially advocated or spontaneously,guest people from Henan,Shandong,Shaanxi,Hebei and other provinces gradually flowed into the southwest of Jinan.From the perspective of livelihoods,local residents mostly rely on selling labor,carrying firewood and mowing grassland,reclaiming land or renting land,as well as their own small handicrafts.From the perspective of marriage,most of the male guests are married or adopted as children,while the female guests are married in the form of child rearing,remarriage,and trafficking.The constant influx of guests and citizens has objectively filled the labor vacancies caused by locals going out to engage in sideline businesses and commerce,and has achieved a regional labor market balance.At the same time,the people also brought some new production technologies and lifestyles,and promoted social and cultural exchanges between regions.It can be said that the citizens have widely participated in the local labor market,land transaction market,and marriage market,and have profoundly shaped the structure of the local population,marriage,family,culture,economy,and society.Based on the perspective of mobility analysis,different from the previous academic circles' understanding of traditional Chinese rural society,we believe that the rural population in southwestern Shanxi was relatively mobile during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.The population relationship is more complicated.At the same time,the two populations show differences,stages and continuity.There are differences in the economic methods of the local residents.Indigenous farmers “emphasize business but not agriculture”;foreigners “emphasize agriculture but not business” and “good deputy and good work”.Family relations and other aspects complement and adjust each other,thereby objectively achieving a balance.Whether farmers have "rationality" is a fake question.The peasants of different classes have "rationality",but they have different forms of expression.Because of the differences in parents 'individual qualities,the internal development status of the family,and the external social environment,farmers' families show different understandings of future development expectations and arrangements for livelihood ethics.Poor households are the first choice to maintain basic subsistence and adequate food and clothing.Medium households are trying to seize opportunities and favorableconditions to achieve family development.Rich households want to work hard to consolidate and expand existing capital wealth.Reasonable class differences stimulate farmers to adopt corresponding livelihood models,promote production cooperation between families,and promote horizontal and vertical social movement.In short,during the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,the rural areas of southwestern Shanxi showed overall mobility and openness.Farmers exerted their "rationality" to the fullest extent during the process of family economic development.The characteristics of the Chinese peasant economy in the traditional period reflected by the "Southwestern Jinan Experience" are inconsistent with some traditional knowledge or views of the academic circle.This has important academic value and practical significance for rethinking the "community" theory of Chinese historians in Japan and Philip Huang's "Involution" theory,as well as re-understanding of Chinese farmers.