Hometown: An Old Society on the Verge of Collapse

Fu Ssu-nien was born on March 26, 1896, in Liao-ch'eng, Shantung, where his ancestors had lived since the fifteenth century. From 1467 to 1487, Fu Ssu-nien's ancestor Fu Hui-tsu, a native of Kiangsi, served as magistrate of the Kuan-hsien district in western Shantung. An epitaph records that when Hui-tsu's tenure was up, the local people begged him to stay, whereupon “he had (three of) his sons remain to comfort the people.” Two of Hui-tsu's sons later moved from Kuan-hsien to the neighboring district of Liao-ch'eng. Henceforth Liao-ch'eng became the “hometown” of that branch of Fu's family, which by Fu Ssu-nien's time had lived there for fourteen generations.

The geographical setting and decline of Liao-ch'eng during the late Ch'ing exerted considerable influence on Fu's upbringing. The fate of Fu's hometown followed that of the Grand Canal and the “eight-legged essay” (pa-ku-wen). The economic importance of the Grand Canal in this area was pivotal. “Its river network stimulated trade and tied the region together, its commercial traffic was a great source of private and public wealth, and its rhythms shaped the life of millions in the counties along its banks.” Liao-ch'eng was an important harbor along the Grand Canal, and its fate hinged very much on the success of the canal. For the residents of Liao-ch'eng, this was both fortunate and unfortunate. For centuries the canal brought easy wealth to the city, making Liao-ch'eng one of four major inland harbors north of the Yangtze River.