1. Summaries of some income data can be found in He-fa, Feng (ed.), Zhongguo nongcun jingji ziliao (Shanghai, 1935), pp. 28–32, 120–23, 229–39, 600.Google Scholar

2. Published by Nongxueyuan, Beiping Dame in 05 1932Google Scholar; Buck, J. L., Land Utilization in China, Nanjing, 1937.Google Scholar

3. An example of an above-average area in Dingxian, Hebei province, showed a direct relation between household income and household size in 1929;

$100–$200: 3·8 persons

$200–$300: 5·9 persons

$300–$400: 6·7 persons

$400–$500: 9·3 persons

4. He calculated a Gini-coefficient of 0·537. Blecher, Marc, “Income distribution in small rural Chinese communities,” CQ, No. 68 (12 1976), pp. 797–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Myers, R. H., The Chinese Peasant Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970)Google Scholar. I suppose age was counted in Chinese style.

6. In the poorest eight villages, average per capita purchasing power ( = net cash income) of independent farmers and tenant farmers was 7 resp. 1·5 yuan. In the richest eight villages, it was 25 resp. 13·7 yuan. The average of all 34 villages was 15·5 resp. 7·6 yuan. Averages have been calculated from data in Tables 19A and 20A, Chen Bozhuang et al., Pinghan yanxian nongcun jingji diaocha (Economic Survey of the Villages Along the Peking-Hankow Railway) (Shanghai: The Research Institute of the Communications University, 1936); I have changed, however, the atypically high figure for a village in Dingxian to the next highest figure.

7. Nichols, F. H., Through Hidden Shensi (New York, 1902), p. 230.Google Scholar

8. See, for example, I. and Crook, D., Revolution in a Chinese Village (London, 1959).Google Scholar

9. Such statistics have been used by several western authors, for example, Yang, C. K., A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959).Google Scholar

10. Yefang, Sun (then vice-director of the State Statistical Bureau) underlined this political bias in “Guanyu nongjia shouzhi diaochazhongde jige wenti” in Tongji gongzuo, No. 10 (1957), pp. 11–17.Google Scholar

11. “Typical” villages in mountains and plains were selected, in different areas, but the selection was not weighted for China nor for provinces or smaller administrative areas. In some provinces commercial areas were overrepresented (for example, in the 1955 survey there were no villages from Northern Jiangsu but only from very commercialized South Jiangsu). In Shandong, on the contrary, not a single cotton-producing or fishing village was selected. There was an overrepresentation of villages which had progressed farthest on the road to co-operativization and collectivization. Within villages, the rather well-off families were chosen, or those nearest at hand. Sun Yefang stated on this topic that many representative surveys had given a too rosy picture of production and income increases after co-operativization; he felt that representative surveys, i.e. “selected with a certain goal in mind” were necessary, but that they could not replace selective surveys, which are mechanically selected at random. He Qian, , “Guanyu nongjia shouzhi yicixing diaochazhong tuoli shiji qingxiangde wojian,” Tongji gongzuo tongxun, No. 18 (1956), pp. 28–30Google Scholar, Tongji gongzuo, No. 10 (1957), pp. 11–17.Google Scholar

12. Ibid.

13. Xingke, Sun, “Dui nongye shengchan hezuoshe shouyi fenpei diaocha tomgji gongzuode jidian yijian,” Tongji gongzuo, No. 11 (1957), pp. 11–14.Google Scholar

14. In a comment on the income data in the 1955 survey, for example, it is stated that “Sichuan's lower income does not mean that living standards in Sichuan are lower than elsewhere, but is mainly caused by lower prices. In Liaoning and Jiangsu the income is higher because these regions have rather many commercial crops, and the prices are rather high, and other sources of income besides agriculture are larger in areas near industrial cities,” “Zen neng shuo renminde shenghuo shuiping xiaxiangle ne,” Tongji gongzuo, No. 13 (1957), p. 5.Google Scholar

15. See, e.g. the articles on income development in Renmin ribao, July and August 1957, and Gongnong qunzhong shenghuo zhuangkuang diaocha ziliao, Xi'an, 1958.

16. Xinhua banyuekan, Vol. 140 (1958), pp. 94–98Google Scholar. In a very unusual manner, the “southern area” includes not only Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, but also all provinces in the Yangzi river basin and Anhui and Jiangsu south of the Huai river. From the “north-western areas” Shaanxi is excluded. In grain consumption, the survey did not indicate a large difference: the distributed foodgrain per capita in “North-west China” (185·5 kg.) and “southern China” (214 kg.) are almost equal after adjustment for the different losses in processing wheat/millet and rice. Both the rate of “public accumulation” and the percentage versed into the “welfare fund” were higher in “southern China” than in the north-west (viz. 5·7% and 1·3% versus 5·0% and 0·9%). But average capital of each household was only 139 yuan in “southern China” as against 364 yuan in the north-west. It is hard to draw a definite conclusion from these data, especially as the Chinese surveyers pointed out that price differentials between these regions “and other factors” might have influenced the outcome.

17. Of each province or autonomous region a minimum of seven co-operatives was selected, and a maximum of 12. The north-west accounted for 34 co-operatives, but from the grain figures it seems likely that the nomad population was not represented.

18. Zhenlin, Tan, “Guanyu woguo nongmin shouru qingkuang he shenghuo shuipingde chubu yanjiu,” Renmin ribao, 5 05 1957.Google Scholar

19. Some of the results found their way in provincial newspapers or national journals, some in popular books, some in scientific publications. Examples of the two last mentioned are: Ba sheng nongcun jingji diaocha, edited by the Committee for Finance and Economics (Beijing, 1957)Google Scholar – a collection of surveys from Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guangxi, Zhejiang and Shaanxi, which covered five to 17 selected xiang with 2,700 to 7,000 households, generally for the 1948–54 period.

Similar collections, Nongcun jingji diaocha xuanji (Hubei, 1956), and Xibei nongcun jingji diaocha xuanji (Xi'an, 1956), were pointed out to me by Kenneth R. Walker. For the late 1950s there are Gongnong qunzhong shenghuo zhuangkuang (Xi'an, 1958); Shaanxi nongcun di shehui zhuyijianshe, 2 vols (Xi'an, 1956–1958)Google Scholar; Dayuejinzhong Hubei nongcundi yixie qingkuang (Beijing, 1958) and several other provincial publications.

20. Shanxi nongcun jingji diaocha (Taiyuan, 1958), p. 30.Google Scholar

21. I conclude from the available data in this survey that a correction has been made for regional price differentials, although it does not state so explicitly.

22. Nongxueyuan, Hunan (ed.), Hunan nongye (Beijing, 1957), pp. 71–72.Google Scholar

23. Schran, Peter, The Development of Chinese Agriculture 1950–1959 (Urbana, 1969).Google Scholar

24. Khan, Azizur, “The distribution of income in rural China” in: Poverty and Landlessness in Rural AsiaGoogle Scholar, an ILO publication, concludes that there is a very high degree of equality of income in rural China. Both his basic data and his method are highly questionable; he accepts some dozens of communes visited in the 1960s by westerners (Burki, Dumont, etc.) as a representative sample, distributes their average income according to the distribution pattern in one village in 1961 (Liuling, an advanced village surveyed by Myrdal in the poor region of Yan'an, with a per capita collective distributed income of 92 yuan in cash and 360 kg. of grain), and then draws a conclusion for the whole of China in the 1970s.

25. Shijie jingji daobao, No. 28, 13 04 1981Google Scholar, as translated in Summary of World Broadcasts, BBC/FE/6731/BII6–9, with minor improvements.

26. Official statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture on 5,040,000 economic accounting units (i.e. almost all-China); Beijing Review, 19 01 1981Google Scholar; Remin ribao, 5 11 1980Google Scholar; Nongye jingji wenti, 09 1980, p. 13Google Scholar. The subdivision of the category 50–150 yuan is my own estimate based on the official data that “less than 25 per cent” of rural households had an average distributed collective per capita income above 100 yuan, “about 50 per cent” between 50 and 100 yuan, and on the assumption of the following averages within each income category: (below 40) 35 yuan, (40–50) 45 yuan, (100–150) 120 yuan, (150–300) 200 yuan, (above 300) 350 yuan. I assumed the percentage of 27·7 mentioned in Beijing Review to be a printing error for the 27·3 in Renmin ribao. In a subsequent publication the average figure of 83·4 yuan was changed to 84·2 yuan. Xinhua yuebao. No. 2 (1981), p. 117.Google Scholar

27. Liuzheng, Zhang, “Guanyu gaishan Shaanbei nongmin shenghuodi jige wenti,” Nongye jingji wenti, 08 1980, pp. 36–41.Google Scholar

28. The sample covered 466,000 people. Nongyejingji wenti, 09 1980, pp. 28–31.Google Scholar

29. The poorest region in Shaanxi province is Yulin, with an average per capitadistributed collective income of 52 yuan in 1979, as against 57·2 for Yan'an. The two regions together have an agricultural population of some 3·5 million, organized in some 30,000 production teams.

30. Parish, W. L., “Egalitarianism in Chinese Society,” Problems of Communism, 01–02 1981, pp. 37–53.Google Scholar

31. China's communes reinvest about 7 per cent of their gross income; net income is a out two-thirds of gross income. The welfare fund expenditure is 2–3 per cent of gross income (or 3–4·5 per cent of net income). Health and education subsidies may be another 5–7 per cent. If we assume that in the 10,282 families survey in 1979, published in Renmin ribao, 3 January 1981, the figure of 102 yuan represents net collective income, and not distributed collective income, and that the average distributed collective income in this representative survey was equal to the national average of 84·2 yuan, then in 1979 the average net retained collective income would have been 102–84·2 = 17·8 yuan per capita.

32. In Qinghai province in 1979, the percentage of gross income retained by the collectives was only 10 per cent, Qinghai Provincial Service, 8 August 1980.

33. Some preliminary results of this survey have been published in my article “Population and agriculture in Guanzhong, 1935–1980,” Leyden Studies in Sinology (Brill, Leyden, 1982), pp. 215–35.Google Scholar

34. In Anhui province in 1979 production expenses plus tax took 27·8 per cent of the total household side-lines income. The private plots constituted less than 8 per cent of the farmland, but produced 10 per cent of all foodgrain, over 40 per cent of the oil crops, 80 per cent of the vegetables and 98 per cent of the pigs in Anhui, , Nongye jingji wenti, 11 1980, pp. 40–45.Google Scholar

35. For Qinghai province 20 yuan. North Shaanxi province 20 yuan, Nongye jingji wenti, 08 1980, p. 36.Google Scholar

36. Viz. the Huaibei Plain in Anhui province, Nongye jingii wenti, 11 1980, p. 40.Google Scholar

37. Khan, , “The distribution of income.”Google Scholar

38. Although the first argument has been refuted in Chinese publications, in defence of household side-lines: “At present superfluous labour forces constitute generally 25 to 30 per cent of the rural labour force,” “in agriculture there is always a slack season (Bai Juyi, Marx),” “there is no major seasonal conflict with collective production,” Nongye jingji wenti, 10 1980, pp. 11–15 and November 1980, p. 43.Google Scholar

39. Beijing Domestic Service, 4 02 1979.Google Scholar

40. The lower figure applies to millet, the higher figure to rice (10–15 per cent by weight is milled off in case of millet and wheat, 30 per cent in case of rice). In 1979 Qinghai and Shaanxi provinces had a minimum of 150 kg., Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region 160 kg.; 200 kg. has been mentioned for rice areas. Inner Mongolia Regional Service, 10 02 1979Google Scholar; private communication; Nongye jingji wenti, 09 1980, pp. 28–31.Google Scholar

41. Qinghai mentioned 50 resp. 75 yuan, Shaanxi 50 resp. 70 yuan, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan 50 yuan (collective distributed income), Hubei 80 yuan (total income), Qinghai Provincial Service, 8 08 1980Google Scholar, Shehui kexue yanjiu, Vol. V (1979), p. 81Google Scholar, Nongye jingji wenti, 08 1980, p. 36–41Google Scholar, Zhonghua renmin gongheguo guowuyuan gongbao, No. 2 (1981), p. 63.Google Scholar

42. According to official data, the percentage of production teams with an average distributed collective income below 50 yuan per capita was 39 per cent in 1977, 29·5 percent in 1978, and 27·2 per cent in 1979, Guanliju, Nongyebu Renmin Gongshe, “1977 zhi 1979 nian quanguo qiongxian qingkuang,” Xinhua yuebao, No. 2 (1981), pp. 117–20.Google Scholar

43. Nongye jingji wenti, 01 1981, p. 24.Google Scholar

44. Beijing Review, 19 01 1981Google Scholar; Renmin ribao, 3 01 1981.Google Scholar

45. For North Shaanxi the following computation was made recently of a minimumincome of 70 yuan per capita: foodgrain (180–200 kg.) 40 yuan, fuel 10 yuan, edible oil and pork 3 yuan, salt 2 yuan, cotton-cloth and cotton 10 yuan, other items for use (includes kerosene, buying some things, repairs of the cave, small agricultural tools, etc.) 5 yuan, Nongye jingji wenti, 08 1980, p. 38.Google Scholar

46. In 1979 the average rural household spent 63·9 per cent of its income on food, Beijing Review, 19 01 1981.Google Scholar

47. Xinhua Domestic Service, 29 August 1980.

48. Nongye jingji wenti, 08 1980, pp. 20–21, 32, 36–37Google Scholar; Renmin ribao, 26 11 1978Google Scholar; Hongqi, No. 8 (1981), p. 14Google Scholar; Guangming ribao, 3 01 1979Google Scholar. In Shanxi province average consumption level was 21·4 per cent below the national average in 1978, Nongye jingji wenti, 11 1980, pp. 49–51Google Scholar. The lowest published figure is that of Wudu xian, Gansu: 27·27 yuan per capita. The highest is that of Jiading xian, Shanghai: 294·54 yuan per capita, Fudan xuebao, No. 5 (1980), p. 103.Google Scholar

49. In 1979 the considerably above-average province of Heilongjiang denoted 19 per cent of its production teams as poor, Hubei province also 19 per cent, Sichuan province 15 per cent (although the average per capita collective distributed income in Sichuan was 26 yuan less than in Hubei!), Renmin ribao, 27 05 1980.Google Scholar

50. Nongye jingji wenti, 09 1980Google Scholar; pp. 13–15; Clark, Colin and Haswell, Margaret, The Economics of Subsistence Agriculture (London, 1970), pp. 18 and 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51. Qiming, Qiao, Zhongguo nongcun shehui jingjixue (Shangwu Press, 1944), p. 388.Google Scholar

52. Renmin ribao, 3 01 1981.Google Scholar

53. Ibid. For the consumption pattern of high-income farmers in the Suzhou suburbs, see Nongye jingji wenti, 10 1980, pp. 25–31Google Scholar. They spent almost one-half of their income on food.

54. Ibid.

55. Anhui province may be an exception. For Zhejiang's Jiaxing prefecture a high distributed collective income has been reported (130 yuan in 1977 and 140 yuan in 1980, Zhejiang Provincial Service, 28 12 1978)Google Scholar. Hubei province's 1980 income suffered from severe floods along the Yangzi and Hanshui Rivers.

56. Nongye jingji wenti, 10 1980.Google Scholar

57. Satellite pictures can be very useful in this respect, see, for example, Woldai, T. and Vermeer, E. B., “Geomorphology and land use of the Jianghan plain and surroundings, Hubei province, China, from Landsat imagery,” ITC Journal, No. 4 (1979), pp. 519–34, map.Google Scholar

58. Nongye jingji wenti, 01 1981, p. 47.Google Scholar

59. Ibid. p. 24 and September 1980, pp. 13–15; Xinhua yuebao, 02 1980, p. 117Google Scholar. In low-production areas, production teams generally are smaller than average.

60. Shaanxi ribao, 18 07 1957.Google Scholar

61. For example, in Lanzhou municipality (Gansu), which comprises over two million people in three xian and six ju, farmers had an average distributed collective income per capita of 92·57 yuan in 1979. Within the suburban districts there was the following distribution: Chengguan (nearest to the city) 233·50 yuan, Anning 201·39 yuan, Xigu 145·80 yuan, Baiyin 131 yuan, Honggu 125 yuan. The nearer to the city, the higher the distributed collective income, Gansu shida xuebao, No. 3 (1979), p. 117Google Scholar; Nongye jingji wenti, 01 1981, pp. 46–48.Google Scholar

62. Nongcun gongzuo tongxun, No. 2 (1981), p. 20.Google Scholar

63. Beijing Review, 4 02 1980Google Scholar; this is about 9 per cent of the rural labour force.

64. See for the economic importance of vegetable production for the farmers around Beijing, , Tianjin, and Shanghai, : Nongye jingji wenti, 10 1980, pp. 51–54.Google Scholar

65. Beijing Review, 19 01 1981, p. 20.Google Scholar

66. NCNA, English, 21 January 1979; Heilongjiang Provincial Service, 21 January 1979; NCNA, Chinese, 19 February 1979. In 1976 Yantai's average distributed collective income was 101 yuan per capita; by 1979, this had increased to 156 yuan. Renmin ribao, 19 01 1981, p. 26Google Scholar. In Shandong province, differentials between the eastern and western prefectures are particularly great.

67. NCNA, Chinese, 19 February 1979; Beijing Review, 19 January 1981, pp. 19–29. In 1980 there was considerable discussion on the “let some areas and peasants prosper first” policy, see Nongye jingji wenti, 08 1980, pp. 46–51.Google Scholar

68. Dazhong ribao, 14 07 1980Google Scholar; Nongye jingji wenti, 09 1980, pp. 28–31Google Scholar. In Shandong province in 1979 there were 47 production brigades with a per capita collective distributed income exceeding 300 yuan. Shanghai had a record brigade with a per capita amount of 667 yuan.

69. All data in this chapter are based on the survey Guanliju, Nongyebu Renmin Gongshe, “1977 zhi 1979 nian quanguo qiongxian qingkuang,”Google Scholar reprinted in Xinhua yuebao, 02 1980, No. 2, pp. 117–20Google Scholar, from Nongye jingji congkan, No. 1 (1981).Google Scholar

70. Blecher, M., “Income distribution,”Google Scholar calculated an average of 0·22 for three cooperatives in 1955–56 and 0·17 for two teams in 1974.

71. A 1979 survey of 62 households in a commune near Suzhou showed that the richest six families had an average income three times as much as the poorest 15; a 1977 survey of two production teams in Anhui showed differentials of 3·3 and 2·9, Nongye jingji wenti, 10 1980, pp. 25–31Google Scholar; Anhui shida xuebao, No. 1 (1979), p. 33.Google Scholar

72. Because this movement was quietly killed, it has not received much attention and its scope still is not clear. I have seen or heard only its implementation in the northern parts of China. Shanxi province may well have been the most prominent: in the Jinzhong region, during the first half of 1978 the number of brigades serving as economic accounting units was raised from the 39 per cent of the past to 71 per cent of all brigades, Nongye jingji wenti, August 1980, p. 4.

73. Renmin ribao, 5 11 1980Google Scholar; Document No. 75 of the CCP Central Committee, issued 27 September 1980, NCNA Chinese, 19 May 1981.

74. Nongye jingji wenti, 04 1981, p. 24.Google Scholar

75. Ibid. p. 42.