Expanding Possibilities 355
to survive, the rural communities that formed the bulk of the population
chose to meet the challenges head-on. Instead of being contented with
the old modes of production and living in isolation from the outside
world, they made the necessary adjustments in their socioeconomic
life and involved themselves in extra-village activities. Exodus from the
native villages was not just an escape from desperation, but also a way to
seek new opportunities.
Rural Society in Flux^20
To understand traditional Chinese society, the most convenient place to
begin is with kinship relationships at the grass-roots level. In terms of
the foundation of kinship, the family as the basic, core unit is formed and
extended to become a common descent group known as a lineage. The
lineage members are traced to a single ancestry and settled in a given
locality.^21 In the rural society of the Min-Yue region, the lineage played
an important role as an economic, political, social, religious, educational
and military entity.^22 For purposes of survival, the social structure of rural
society tended to be highly disciplinary and collectivized. Individuals
were subject to the constraints of their lineage and the wishes of the
communal leaders. Consequently, lineage functioned as a stabilizing
factor and the leaders were often drawn from among the local gentry-
scholars. The lineage leaders were also bona βide managers of the rural
communities, representing a form of informal government.
The formal administration in a province consisted of three levels,
namely: province, prefecture and district or department; no ofβicials were
appointed below the district level to the townships, villages or hamlets.
The rural areas beyond the district city-walls covered an extensive zone
and a large population, but were not subject to direct governance. This
administrative practice made it necessary for the government to rely
on the local gentry, mostly shengyuan or the βirst-degree holders of the
- See Ng Chin-keong, Trade and Society: The Amoy Network on the China Coast,
1683 ‒ 1735 (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1983), Ch. 1; and “The
Cultural Horizon of South China’s Emigrants in the Nineteenth Century: Change
and Persistence”, in Asian Traditions and Modernization: Perspectives from
Singapore, ed. Yong Mun Cheong (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992),
pp. 1‒30. - Feng Erkang 冯尔康, Zhongguo shehui jiegou de yanbian 中国社会结构的演变
[The social structure of China and its evolution] (Zhengzhou: Henan renmin
chubanshe, 1994), pp. 392‒3. - Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (London:
Athlone Press, 1958), pp. 35‒6.