During the last half century, a drastic social change has taken place in China. The original stable society based on an agricultural economy has been replaced by an industrial society characterized by fluidity. The most striking feature in this change is the gradual disintegration of the centuries-old family system.
In reviewing modern Chinese literature, one will find that a large number of writers attained eminence principally because they grasped the significance of family disintegration and did not hesitate to use it as background for their work. This is particularly true of the left-wing writers. The reason for the popularity of such writers is not far to seek. In the course of family disintegration, many young men and women became tragic figures. With their personal experience vividly portrayed in novels and plays, they naturally lionized the authors who seemed to give them sympathetic understanding.
At the turn of the century, Chinese society was still agricultural and handicrafts was the sole industry. In the vast rural areas, the villages were peopled by tight-knit clans. The male members tilled the land and the womenfolk wove on hand looms. In the provinces south of the Yangtze River, a village was usually composed of members of the same clan. In areas north of the Yellow River, a village ordinarily included several clans with different family names.
My own native village in eastern Hupeh, to which I returned with my family after the 1911 Revolution, was a typical Chinese rural community of the time. The day started as early as 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. In the dimness of dawn the men walked to the fields for the day's toil, while the women took to the looms or spinning jennies for their share of the family duties. The youngsters were not idle. Small boys had to attend the old-fashioned village school. Little girls, who were not supposed to invade the scholastic field, stayed at home to help their elder sisters and mothers.
The Chinese village of those days was a self-governing social unit. Although there were neither policemen nor courts of law, social order was excellently maintained. Gamblers and thieves, once their misconduct or crime became known, would be outlawed by other members of their clan. The punishment of living away from home as a social outcast· was enough to frighten many a would-be transgressor.
Self-government in rural villages was achieved by an informed code of conduct that had the effect of law. Every family strictly observed its unwritten rules. In the case of a clan, the do's and do not's were set down on paper. No violator could get away with an offense. Punishment for violations ranged from severe admonitions by clan elders to excommunication, depending on the seriousness.
Each clan worshipped its forebears in an ancestral shrine. If several clans of different family names resided in the same hsiang (a group of small villages), they had a common temple for worship. The temple also served as a court of arbitration in case of inter-clan disputes or tong wars.
There was a small town—or a market place to be more exact—for one or more hsiang. There the villagers could barter their agricultural and handicraft products. In bigger towns, especially those with big Buddhist temples, gatherings were more frequent. Such meetings also provided the villagers with a chance to exchange their goods.
The small towns, however, were mere way stations in the flow of rural products to the big cities. In the cities, the businessmen who bought the villager's agricultural and handicraft goods had shops, hotels and warehouses. The middle merchants from the small towns had to check in at these hotels and store their goods in the godowns operated by the city buyers, who either bought the merchandise themselves for resale at higher prices, or acted as brokers for the middle merchants.
City merchants doing the same kind of business formed their own guild. Each guild had its hall, worshipping the founder of that trade where members exchanged trade information, arbitrated disputes between themselves or enforced the rulings of the society.
The Intelligentsia
Most intellectuals in the China of bygone days were the product of peasant families. Such families usually wielded great influence in the village councils. It was the ancient court examination system that enabled humble scholars of peasant stock to reach the top. Under this system, the poor scholar of today might become an affluent official in a few years, if he were lucky and gifted enough to pass the series of examinations. Therefore, no one in his right mind was so imprudent as to look down upon the intelligentsia.
The 1911 Revolution was essentially a revolution of Chinese intellectuals. Rallying around Dr. Sun Yat-sen, patriotic Chinese youths inside and outside China formed the Tung Meng Hui (Society of the Common Cause) to fight for national liberation. The revolutionary movement enjoyed active support from members of the imperial military forces as well as students. After 10 abortive uprisings, the revolutionists finally toppled the Manchu rulers in the 1911 Revolution at Wuchang.
Liberty and equality, for which the revolutionists shed their blood, became ever more deeply implanted in the minds of the intellectuals after the successful conclusion of the Revolution. The new gospel quickly spread to the rural areas and caught the fancy of the peasantry. As a result, a violent upheaval in rural society was set in motion.
When the Manchus conquered China in the mid-17th century, the first thing they did was to order Chinese males to shave their heads and then grow a pigtail. Many scholars were executed for resisting the imperial decree. After the downfall of the alien rulers, Chinese intellectuals gave vent to their pent-up hatred by cutting off the loathsome appendage.
Another phenomenon of the post-Revolution period was the decline and fall of the old caste. The new concept of liberty and equality made short work of the former social strata. The intellectuals, who spearheaded the change, were themselves to suffer from it in the end. Hitherto, they had been regarded as the "salt of the earth." Now they had preached themselves out of their lofty position.
The vacancy, however, was quickly filled by the compradors in the big sea ports and the warlords who owned private armies. Money and bayonets possessed by these upstarts proved more influential and awe-inspiring than scholastic achievements. The traditional concept of regarding poverty as a cardinal virtue began to lose vogue among the intellectuals.
May 4 Movement
The patriotic student movement which began on May 4, 1919, produced profound changes in nearly every sphere of Chinese life. Besides clamoring for national independence, the Chinese students also demanded the promotion of science and democracy. In the resulting commotion, it was the family system that came out worst. In fighting for the right to choose their own mates, Chinese youths of those days often revolted against their elders. Patriarchal authority was badly shaken. The family system, which also was built upon this authority, began to crumple.
There followed a chain reaction in the course of which the traditional ethical code and social structure came under the furious assault of the rebellious youths. They regarded all time-honored social institutions and conventions as feudalistic. In their place individualism, liberalism, guild socialism, Communism, unionism, and anarchism were hailed by the young intellectuals. In some middle schools hot-headed students went so far as to ask their new teachers whether they were anarchists or Marxists. The unfortunate teachers were unceremoniously hooted down if they could not give a satisfactory answer. It was in such a chaotic atmosphere that many Chinese traditions perished.
The main stream of the student movement eventually joined the national revolution led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. The successful ending of the Northward Expedition brought the whole nation under one government and opened new vistas for China. It marked the beginning of the national struggle to shake off the unequal treaties imposed on China by the colonial powers. China finally had started its march toward complete national independence and liberty.
The Northward Expedition was more than a military operation. It was also a social revolution. The Kuomintang advocated the use of peaceful means to promote social welfare as prescribed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The Chinese Communists, on the other hand, resorted to violence to achieve their aims. After the seat of the National Government was moved to Nanking in 1927, the Kuomintang started cleansing its ranks of Communist infiltrators. At the same time, the Communist-directed peasant riots and labor strikes were quelled by Kuomintang workers. In the next 10 years, the National Government devoted itself to peaceful national reconstruction and with marked success.
The social policy of the National Government was to protect labor interests in industrial development and to encourage self-tilling farmers in the rural districts. But the construction of railroads and highways brought about a mass migration of rural people to the big cities. The exodus was especially marked among women, who quit their kitchens to seek employment in the urban centers. Just as the men cut their pigtails after the 1911 Revolution, the women cut short their hair in the wake of the Northward Expedition as an expression of their new identity. All these changes signified the rapid disintegration of the family system.
Rise of Communism
Unfortunately, the decline of the rural economy and the rise of urban life gave the Communists an excellent opportunity to stage a comeback. In the cities the presence of a large labor force inevitably produced slums and other related ills. These were powerful weapons for the Communists to use in waging class war. Deterioration of the rural economy also created favorable conditions for the Communist version of land reform.
Even so, the National Government could have wiped out the Communist insurgents had not the Japanese militarists started their aggression against China and thus paved the way for Communist revival and expansion. This is no mere conjecture. Between 1933 and 1935, the Communists established eight soviet zones in the Yangtze Valley. They were all uprooted by government troops before the latter were called to fight the Japanese invaders.
The eight-year Sino-Japanese War changed the course of Asian history and spelled an unprecedented tragedy for the Orient. The effect of the destructive conflict on Chinese society was the disappearance of the middle class and a mass migration of population. The bankruptcy of the middle class impoverished the intellectuals. In their frustration, they turned to Communism for solution of their problems. The population movement further weakened the family system, a bulwark against Communism.
The Chinese Communists saw their chance. Taking to heart their earlier failures in waging class struggle, they now turned to "united front" tactics. Aided by an efficient propaganda machine, the Communists were able to win a large number of intellectuals to their side and recruit the help of dissident political parties and civic organizations. Such individuals and organizations helped the Communists disarm public vigilance. As a result, the nation triumphed over Japan only to fall victim to Communism.
The Awakening
But all is not lost. There has been a general awakening to the evils of Communism since the Communist occupation of the mainland. By political enslavement and economic exploitation of the masses, the Chinese Communists have made an enemy of the whole nation. They can no longer count on the people for support. Aside from the use of naked force, they have no other resort to keep themselves in power.
The Communists also over-played their hands in completing destruction of the family system. It is true that many youths resented the shackles of the old family and that in doing so, they became the tools of the Communists. But nobody had questioned the sentimental ties that bind the family together.
The Communists sought to challenge these natural ties. They wanted the youths to accuse their own fathers and mothers. This was tantamount to a declaration of war against human nature. Of course, the Chinese people could not accept—not even the veteran Communist cadres. Yet the Communists cannot afford to relent because they cannot coexist with the family system. Herein lies the seed of destruction for Communism.
Despite frenzied Communist efforts to wipe out Chinese traditions, many old virtues still persist. Why? The answer is that the natural ties between members of a family are still going strong. It has always been so throughout the long history of China.
Both Dr. Sun Yat-sen and President Chiang Kai-shek recognized the importance of the family in national reconstruction. In the Principle of Nationalism, Dr. Sun stated national reconstruction should begin with the family. President Chiang also subscribed to this viewpoint in his "Supplementary Chapters on Education and Recreation to the Principle of People's Livelihood." It is a safe bet that the family-centered national reconstruction program will be carried out on the mainland with the overwhelming support of the people when the Peiping regime is overthrown.