A Summary Of The Peasant Association Of Northeast China (1908-1930)

The Peasant Association of modern China is a new social group which few people researched its history. Since the 1980s, some Peasant Association thematic research results emerged because of diverting of the historical research, but the research is very far from enough. Peasant Association history research is also very weak, the depth and breadth of this study need to be extended. Regarding to the Peasant Association of northeast region, related researches are significantly less, only some monograph of the northeast agricultural economy had mentioned about.The basic materials of this study includes: "Shengjing Times"; chorography; all kinds of local archives collections. This research is in the pursuit of to be the reproduction overview of organization and activities of the Peasant Association of Northeast in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China,and explore its historical significance in the early-modern Northeast region society. This paper reviewed from four aspects : the background, organization profiles, social relations, activities and impact of the of the Peasant Association, conducting a comprehensive study.According to research the time of establishment of some County Government whose informations be got from chorography, the paper made a form of establishment time. Through comparative analysis and combination of "Shengjing Times" reports ,this paper thought that the establishment of the Peasant Association is closely related to the degree of the North-East and socio-economic development. The personnel, institutional settings and fundings of Peasant Associations all around the nation have no much differrences, because they are all under the charge of the the central government department and the unified constitution.So the text of these study focused primarily on the analysis of the constitution of the Peasant Association on basis of the local records, archives and other evidence found in the agricultural composition. This study find that the institutional settings have a lot of consistency, sources of funding are also basically the same, just differ on numbers around .According to research,a number of factors contributed to the birth and development of the Peasant Association: the development of modern commodity economy, guidance support, the introduction of Western constitutional ideas, farming squire traditional governance ect.They co-determine the nature of Peasant Association organizations. The Peasant Association established on the background of the New Policy in the end of the Qing Dynasty, at that time, the commercialization of agriculture and increasing agricultural production were in a very low level in Northeast China.The Peasant Association actived at the end of the Qing Dynasty,turn low when entered into the public of China,then began to gradually flourished before and after the year 1920. Peasant Association organizations in line with other parts of the country. The members of The Peasant Association were mainly agricultural landowners , and leadership elite of local society. Peasant Association will be mainly funded by local government contributions and grants constitute ,however,the vast majority of Peasant Association are in a lack of funding for the state.The Government has relied on the Peasant Association for agriculture-related matters and a number of thorny issues, from the establishment of agricultural activities, in terms of funding will be tight control of Peasant Association.In the meanwhile,the Peasant Association need the government to implement their own ideas. The main agricultural activities include two categories: agricultural activities and participate in social public affairs. Farm activities including: start-up testing of agriculture; promotenew varieties of new agricultural technology by editing books, lectures, exhibitions and other forms of agriculture; survey the agricultural conditions; afforestation; reclamation; proposed agricultural improvement, and so on. Farm agricultural activities should be the main job, but due to lack of funding and other reasons,they hardly be the real effective ones, instead,participation in public affairs has become the most frequent agricultural activities.The public affairs including municipal construction, food management, the home survey, vigilante organization, the admissibility of civil disputes, disaster relief and so on. It is worth noting that Peasant Association will take part in public affairs is the lack of social protection systems, the constitution had no such statute provides the functions of Peasant Association.Peasant Association had a major impact to the Northeast Modern society as a social existence. First of all, the Peasant Association carry out a certain amount of farm activities, the introduction and promotion of a number of new agricultural technology, new varieties and cultivate a number of agricultural professionals. On some extent,they promoted the modernization of agriculture. But the chaotic political situation, lack of funding limits the Peasant Association in the promotion of modern agricultural development in Northeast role. On the other hand, Peasant Association will actively participate in social and political activities, social integration and management, the spread of modern civilization factors, such as safeguarding national sovereignty has also generated a positive role.From the development of the Peasant Association in northeastern region, to a large extent,Peasant Association is indeed a product of capitalist economic development. The organization and leadership systems, procedures reflect the characteristics of the modern. During the late Qing Dynasty, the northeast Peasant Association have their own constitution, although on the layers of control by the government, but they has a certain independence. This article did not agree the ideas that designed the Peasant Association to be a ocio-economic self-help groups aiming on promoting the development of agriculture in the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China. The Northeast Peasant Association, as a new type of modern societies, provided the local elite a new political arena, becoming the center of power in a new place. Peasant Association will be the main social function is to participate in local community management of public affairs, contrarily, its stated purpose is to improve agriculture and living in a secondary status.