A Research On Relationship Of Clan's Weakening And Villagers' Self-governance--Take Pingfeng Village As An Example

Clan (lineage) culture is an important layer of Chinese country life, and villagers' self-governance is a quite important part of Chinese political system. This research chooses Pingfeng Village of Huangpi District, Wuhan, Hubei Province as the central research object, and observes current clan problem and the relationship of it and villagers' self-governance from the visual angle of clan's weakening.In the history, Pingfeng Village once had proper clan structure. It had Shaikh (who is in charge), pedigree, clan fields, clan regulations, clan hall, and clan culture which is represented by dragon lantern. The clan organization of Pingfeng once committed most of the countryside self-governance assignment. But because of the weakness of economic power, the clan organization of Pingfeng never obtained the superiority against other organizations or forces, and couldn't offer enough political and economical safeguard to its members.As same as most of Chinese rural areas, the clan organization of Pingfeng suffered severe destroys, and lost main resources and functions such as politics, economics, culture, etc. But the clan organization of Pingfeng hasn't reconstructed or revived as south rural China after 1982. It is still in a state of weakening. The clan consciousness of villagers and their territory in daily life become more and more narrow, and the sacrifice of Spring Festival and Qingming also individulize. Clan normally appears as a community of family name. Each clan's consciousness is totally different by their extent, and there has obvious difference among the inside. Villagers' actions focus on their own interest. Although clan's consciousness exist tough in many situations, it cannot function in villagers' self-governance. In the course of elections in which many villages most express their clan's force, Pingfeng's clan cannot embody their unity, but their derivation. Only in some unusual situations that endanger the whole clan's interest, the clan would take actions as a whole.This paper thinks Pingfeng Village clan's weakening is a product of the interaction between the state and the folk society in the 20th century, especially from the birth of PRC in 1949. It maybe be a typical village in central China. There are some reasons resulting in clan's weakening: the weakening of the importance of the land, the reform and destroy of state power, the relaxation of social tradition, the organizations on the basis of region and culture, the power of modernity, the tension of individualism and egoism, the poor economical resource, seeking after the maximum economical profit, not being a forceful class of the gentry, being so many small clans, other life styles, and so on.