VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933
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Whenever possible, therefore, lesser criminal cases are tried by the clan leaders, although this is probably not legal. Major crimes, or those which are too flagrant to conceal, go to the magistral court for trial. The controlling principle which operates in all judicial decisions made by the leaders, as reported by Kulp for Phenix village, and probably typical, is to treat all parties as though they were members of the natural or economic family. Leaders have been known, in announcing the judgment against an offender, to shed tears of sympathy, at the same time trying to console the offended party by a demonstration of affection!1
IV
We see, then, that the clan is a unit of government by itself, quite capable of handling most administrative or judicial problems. This is because the whole orientation of the individual members is familistic, and the whole machinery of government is familistic likewise. The chief operating principle is to integrate responsibility through the heads of smaller moieties within the clan. By building from a combination of smaller units through the larger religious families, the final apex is reached in the heads of the clan.
In a village composed of more than one clan, the kin group itself becomes a unit in the larger village government. It is this sort of organization, with its basis in clan government, that is to be considered in the next chapter.
(Chapter 3) THE VILLAGE INTERNALLY
(Chapter 3) THE VILLAGE INTERNALLY
In the following discussion, there is being supposed a village composed of more than one clan, as this represents a civic as well as familistic unit. This is a type of organization quite common in North China. Civism is superimposed on familism, however, and this fact colors the whole case. The diversity of actual situations in village life is as much due to this imposition of one type of organization...
1 Kulp, op. cit., p. 322.
2 Taylor, J. B.; The Study of Chinese Rural Economy, p. 13, found that of 123 villages in North and Central China studied from this point of view, only two were composed of families all having the same surname. However, these figures are not entirely applicable as they specifically represent villages in which there have been migrations due to famine or warfare. Directly applicable statistics could not be found.