Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:47:44.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Family Division and Mobility in North China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

William Lavely
Affiliation:
University of Washington

Extract

In China there is less inequality in the fortunes than in the conditions of men. Property in land has been divided into very moderate parcels, by the successive distribution of the possessions of every father equally among his sons. It rarely happens that there is but one son to enjoy the whole property of his deceased parents; and from the general prevalence of early marriages, this property is not often increased by collateral succession. These causes constantly tend to level wealth; and few succeed to such an accumulation of it as to render them independent of any efforts of their own for its increase. It is a common remark among the Chinese that fortunes seldom continue [to be] considerable in the same family beyond the third generation.

Type
Landed Wealth and Social Status
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Beattie, Hilary J. 1979. Land and Lineage in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berkner, Lutz, and Franklin, Mendels. 1978. “Inheritance Systems, Family Structure, and Demographic Patterns in Western Europe, 1700–1900,” in Historical Studies of Changing Fertility, Charles, Tilly, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brandt, Loren. 1989. Commercialization and Agricultural Development: Central and Eastern China, 1870–1937. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brook, Timothy. 1990. “Family Continuity and Cultural Hegemony: The Gentry of Ningbo, 1368–1911,” in Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Joseph, Esherick and Mary, Rankin, eds. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Chayanov, A.V. 1966. The Theory of Peasant Economy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Chao, Kang. 1986. Man and Land in Chinese History: An Economic Analysis. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Fu-mei Chang and Ramon, Myers. 1976. “Customary Law and the Economic Growth of China during the Ch'ing Period.” Ch'ing-shih wen-ti, 8:5, 132.Google Scholar
Chen, Han-seng. 1936. Landlord and Peasant in China. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Cheng, Ying and Claude, Aubert. 1984. La Famille, vol. 2 of Les Greniers de Mancang. Chronique d'un village taiwanais. Paris: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique.Google Scholar
Chiao, C.M.; Thompson, Warren S.; and Chen, D.T.. 1938. An Experiment in the Registration of Vital Statistics in China. Oxford, OH: Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems.Google Scholar
Chūgoku nōson kankōchōsa (CNK) (Field Studies of Chinese Agrarian Customs), 6 vols. 19521958. Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar
Cohen, Myron L. 1976. House United, House Divided. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dennerline, Jerry. 1986. “Marriage, Adoption, and Charity in the Development of Lineages in Wu-hsi from Sung to Ch'ing,” in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China 1000–1940, Patricia, Buckley Ebrey and Watson, James L., eds., 170209. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dore, R.P. 1953. “Japanese Rural Fertility: Some Social and Economic Factors.” Population Studies, 7:1 (07), 6288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eberhard, Wolfram. 1962. Social Mobility in Traditional China. Leiden: E.J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elvin, Mark. 1970. “The Last Thousand Years of Chinese History: Changing Patterns in Land Tenure.” Modern Asian Studies, 4:2, 97114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esherick, Joseph W. 1981. “Numbers Games: A Note on Land Distribution in Prerevolutionary China.” Modern China, 7:4 (10), 387411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fei, Hsiao-tung. 1939. Peasant Life in China. New York: E.P. Dutton.Google Scholar
Gamble, Sidney D. 1954. Ting Hsien: A North China Rural Community. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack. 1990. The Oriental, the Ancient, and the Primitive. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, Hengyu. 1979. “Shilun Qingdai qianqi diannong yongdianquan de youlai ji qi xinzhi” (A Preliminary Discussion of Origins and Character of Early Qing Permanent Tenancy Rights). Qingshi luncong, vol. 1:3753.Google Scholar
Harrell, Stevan. 1985. “The Rich Get Children: Segmentation, Stratification, and Population in Three Chekiang Lineages, 1550–1850,” in Family and Population in East Asian History, Hanley, Susan B. and Wolf, Arthur P., eds., 81109. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hill, Polly. 1986. Development Economics on Trial. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Ping-ti. 1959. Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Ping-ti. 1962. The Ladder of Success in Imperial China. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hong, Huanchun. 1988. Ming Qing Suzhou nongcun jingji ziliao [Materials on Suzhou's Agricultural Economy during Ming and Qing Times]. Suzhou: Jiangsu guji chubanshe.Google Scholar
Huang, Miantang. 1990. “Qingdai nongtian de danwei mianji chanliang kaobian” (Qing Dynasty Land Productivity). Wenshizhe, 3 (1990), 2738.Google Scholar
Huang, Philip C.C. 1990. The Peasant Family and Rural Development in the Yangzi Delta, 1350–1988. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jian, Bozan. 1980 [1955]. “Lun shiba shiji shangbanqi Zhongguo shehui jingji de xingzhi” (On the Character of the Chinese Social Economy during the first half of the 18th Century). Beida renwen xuebao, 2. Reprint, Jian Bozan lishi lunwen xuanji, 234–96. Peking: Renmin.Google Scholar
Kito nōson jittai chōsa hōkoku sho (Field Study Report of Village Conditions in North China). 1937. Tianjin: South Manchurian Railway.Google Scholar
Lee, James; and Bin Wong, R.. 1991. “Population Movements in Qing China and their Linguistic Legacy,” in Languages and Dialects of China, William, Wang, ed., 5277. Berkeley: Journal of Chinese Linguistics.Google Scholar
Lenski, Gerhard E. 1966. Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Li, Bozhong. 1984. “Ming Qing shiqi Jiangnan shuidao shengchan jiyue chengdu de tigao—Ming Qing Jiangnan nongye jingji fazhan tedian tantao zhi yi” (The Rise in Paddy Productivity in Ming Qing Period in Jiangnan: A Study of the Economic Development of Ming Qing Period Jiangnan Agriculture). Zhongguo nongshi, 1, 2437.Google Scholar
Li, Wenzhi. 1957. Zhongguo jindai nongyeshi ziliao (Materials on Modern Chinese Agricultural History). Peking: Sanlian.Google Scholar
Malthus, T.R. 1982 [1914]. An Essay on the Principle of Population. London: Dent.Google Scholar
Min, Zongdian. 1984. “Song Ming Qing shiqi Taihu diqu shuidao mou chanliang de tantao” (Rice Paddy Productivity in the Lake Tai Area during the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties). Zhongguo nongshi, 3, 3752.Google Scholar
Moise, Edwin E. 1977. “Downward Social Mobility in Pre-Revolutionary China.” Modern China, 3:1 (01), 331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muramatsu, Yuji. 1975 [1949]. Chú-goku keizai no shakai taisei (The Social Structure of the Chinese Economy). Reprint. Tokyo: Toyo keizai shimposha.Google Scholar
Myers, Ramon. 1970. The Chinese Peasant Economy: Agricultural Development in Hopei and Shantung, 1890–1949. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Myers, Ramon. 1982. “Customary Law, Markets and Resource Transactions in Late Imperial China,” in Explorations in the New Economic History, Roger, Ranson, Richard, Sutch, and Gary, Walton, eds. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Niida, Noboru. 1952. Chūgoku no nōson kazoku (The Chinese Village Family). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar
Niida, Noboru. 1962. Chūgoku hōseishi kenkyū doerinō dohō kazoku sonraku nori (A Study of Chinese Legal History—Law of Slave and Serf and Law of Family and Village). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar
Oyama, Masaaki. 1984 [1957]. “Minmatsu Shinsho no dai tochi shoyu: toku ni Kōnan deruta chitai o chu-shin ni shite.” Shigaku zasshi, 66:12, 130; 67:1, 50–72. Reprinted as “Large Landownership in the Jiangnan Delta Region During the Late Ming-Early Qing Period,” Christian Daniels, trans., in State and Society in China, Linda Grove and Christian Daniels, eds., 101 –64. Tokyo:University of Tokyo.Google Scholar
Peng, Yuxin. 1990. Qingdai tudi kaikenshi (A History of Land Clearance in the Qing Dynasty). Beijing: Nongye chubanshe.Google Scholar
Perkins, Dwight. 1969. Agricultural Development in China 1368–1968. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Rawski, Thomas G. 1989. Economic Growth in Prewar China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, William T. 1990. “Success Stories: Lineage and Elite Status in Hanyang County, Hubei, c. 1368–1949,” in Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Joseph, Esherick and Mary, Rankin, eds. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Shanin, Teodor. 1972. The Awkward Class. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Shepherd, John R. 1988. “Rethinking Tenancy: Explaining Spatial and Temporal Variation in Late Imperial and Republican China.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 30:3 (07), 403–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiga, Shuzo. 1967. Chūgoku kazokuhō no genri (The Principles of Chinese Family Law). Tokyo: Sobunsha.Google Scholar
Shiga, Shuzo. 1978. “Family Property and the Law of Inheritance in Traditional China,” in Chinese Family Law and Social Change, Buxbaum, David C., ed., 109–50. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, G. William. 1976. “Mobility Strategies in Late Imperial China: A Regional Systems Analysis,” in Smith, Carol A., ed., Economic Systems, vol. 1 of Regional Analysis, 327–64. New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stover, Leon E. 1974. The Cultural Ecology of Chinese Civilization: Peasants and Elites in the Last of the Agrarian States. New York: Mentor, The New American Library.Google Scholar
Syst, W. 1957. “The Influence of Economic Conditions on the Fertility of Peasant Women.” Population Studies, 11:2 (11), 136–48.Google Scholar
Sung, Lung-sheng. 1981. “Property and Family Division,” in The Anthropology of Taiwanese Society, Emily, Martin Ahern and Hill, Gates, eds. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tang, Mei-chun. 1978. Urban Chinese Families. Taipei: National Taiwan University Press.Google Scholar
Uchida, Tomoo. 1956. Chūgoku nōson no bunka seido (The System of Family Division in Chinese Villages). Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar
Watson, Rubie S. 1990. “Corporate Property and Local Leadership in the Pearl River Delta, 1898–1941,” in Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Joseph, Esherick and Mary, Rankin, eds., 239–60. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Wolf, Arthur P. 1985. “Fertility in Prerevolutionary Rural China,” in Family and Population in East Asian History, Hanley, Susan B. and Wolf, Arthur P., eds., 154–85. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric. 1966. Peasants. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Wong, R. Bin. 1988. “Rural Industry and Demographic Change in China and Western Europe: A Preliminary Sketch.” Chugoku kindaishi kenkyu, 6, 132.Google Scholar
Yang, Guozhen. 1988. Ming Qing tudi giyue wenshu yanjiu (Research on Ming and Qing Land Contract Documents). Beijing: Renmin.Google Scholar
Yang, Martin C. 1945. A Chinese Village. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Xifu. 1748. “Chenming migui zhi youshu” (A Report on the Reasons for Expensive Grain). Huangchao jingshi wenbian, 39, 2125.Google Scholar
Yang, Yi. 1972 [1958]. “Qingchao qianqi de tudi zhidu” (The Land System of the early Qing Dynasty). Shixue yuekan, 7:21–26. Reprinted in Zhongguo jin sanbai nian shehui jingjishi lunj. (Hong Kong: Chongwen), 1:34–39; translated in Chinese Studies in History, 15.1–2, 93–112.Google Scholar