[
    {
        "id": 208411,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 135,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\nfrom the right to own property.\n\n119\n\nA recognition of these evils by modern, educated Chinese has led to a vigorous and disruptive attack upon the whole traditional system. Sun Yat-sen recognized these evils, and the new civil code of the Republic aims to break the grip of the family system by altering its legal basis.1\n\nII\n\nAn interesting outcome of this family unity is the theory of mutual responsibility. This theory is of the utmost importance both in family life and in village government, of which it is a cornerstone in legal theory and in practice. The family is collectively and directly responsible for the crimes of each member. Indeed, one of the postulates of Chinese law seems to have been this principle.2 Under the Ch'ing dynasty punishment for the crimes committed by an individual might sometimes be visited upon any or all the members of his family, even to the extent of death for the whole group in serious cases.3\n\nIn customary practice this phenomenon of mutual responsibility is very active. The deeds of each member of the family are the intimate concern of all. Strong pressure will be brought to bear upon an individual to prevent or to correct breaches which might impair the reputation of the family or entangle it in quarrels and law suits. Kulp, in his study of Familism in South China, finds that all offenses except failure to pay taxes are in reality against the family, and are subject to judgment in the first place by the family and its leaders. The extreme inquisitiveness of the typical Chinese villager is but one aspect of this feeling of responsibility for all that\n\n1 China. National Government; The Civil Code of the Republic of China. Vol. II, p. vii. For particular examples see below p. 14, 15.\n\n2 On this point see: Alabaster, Ernest; Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, p. lxx-lxxii, 151, 152, 193-196. On the evils of mutual responsibility, from the legal point of view, ibid., p. lxxi-lxxii,\n\n3 Ta Ch'ing Lu Li, (****), (Sixth Division: Criminal Law, Book I, Sec. 254) translated by Staunton, George T.; Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Being the Fundamental Laws, and a Selection from the Supplementary Statutes of the Penal Code of China, p. 269-270. See also: Alabaster; op. cit., p. lxvi, 466-467; Boulais, Guy; Manuel du Code Chinois, p. 464-466.\n\n4 Kulp, Daniel Harrison; Country Life in South China, Vol. I: Phenix Village, p. XXVIII. (This work will hereafter be referred to as Phenix Village.)\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136",
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        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208428,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 152,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "136 \n\nC. MARTIN WILBUR \n\nmunity.1 Kin status is for all practical purposes also a prerequisite. To be a village elder a man must stand at the head of a large clan or family, and the more powerful the group behind him, the greater will be his influence. Age is a second value which custom requires, although this is losing its force in many places today. Ability, specifically scholarship, is the third desirable quality for village leadership. Scholarship, whether of the old or the modern style, almost universally brings leadership, both because of the traditional reverence for learning, and because the man of letters is able to talk on a plane of ease and familiarity with officials of the government higher up, a thing which the common villager can never do. \n\nThe traditional village leaders have behind them several very powerful psychological supports for their authority. The first of these is custom: all that is carried over from the familist system such as reverence for age, respect for status, and the habit of obeying vested authority. The central government, at least up until very recently, recognized them as the responsible authority in the village, and thus added to their prestige. Also, they hold their position partly because of their practical ability, their wisdom, and their popularity. At the same time these leaders are constantly protecting and reinforcing the customary values to which they owe their influence. \n\nOne of the most obvious indications of change in village government today is the emergence of a new type of leader in rural affairs. In villages where the influence of new forces has begun to penetrate, men who lack the traditional qualifications for leadership are beginning to assume an importance in village polity. These are men of natural ability who are able to exert power by inspiring and leading small, discontented groups, or the mob generally, to an opposition of \n\n+ \n\n1 Maybon, B.; Essai sur les Associations en Chine, p. 192 points out that throughout all associations in China runs this common trait of “particularism”. He says: \"Entre les members d'une association existe toujours un lien de communauté. la commune n'est ouverte qu'aux habitants originaires des villages, à l'exclusion des aubains.\" From the point of view of the central government, speaking historically, it was only possible for a man to change his political residence (i.e. to become a member of a village other than that of his ancestral home) if the family from which he came had been destroyed. Then if he were the head of a family of his own, had been a registered land owner for twenty years in his new home, could speak the dialect properly, and were an honorable character, his name might be transferred to the local Yüan Chi (§#) or register which fixed his political residence. Bazin; \"Recherches sur les Institutions Administrative et Municipales de la Chine\" II, p. 258. On this point see also Boulais, Guy: Manuel du Code Chinois, p. 161-162.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208439,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 163,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n147\n\nare to collect taxes and reasonably to preserve peace and prevent crimes. These two considerations control the entire policy of the government with regard to the villages: so long as the two requirements are met the government is satisfied to allow the villages to manage themselves. For their part the villages remain almost oblivious to the central government, happy, indeed to know nothing of it, since relations between the two are seldom if ever in favor of the people.\n\nA survey of the government offices of the Ti-pao gives a good insight to the relations between the government and the village, and it is here that it is possible to find most exact information. One of the first duties of the Ti-pao is to keep the census record. In former times this record had a significance in determining the corvée, but at present the record seems to be mostly for police and census purposes, and to aid the Ti-pao in his official duty of knowing everything about everyone. At the door of each dwelling there ought to be posted a tablet or men-p’ai (門牌) on which are inscribed the names of all the individuals who live under the common roof. Details to be noted are as follows: The name and surname of the Chia-chang, his profession and age; the names and ages of his wife, his sons and his daughters; the names, surnames, ages and first homes of his servants or people in his employ; the total number of people who live with him. The Ti-pao, himself a member of the village, is supposed to check and correct his report from his own knowledge. When the verification has taken place the men-p'ai are transcribed onto a public register, Hu Chi (戶籍).\n\nThe system of corvée which depends upon this register of families is under the direction of the Ti-pao. Every individual over the age of sixteen is supposed to be liable for a certain amount of personal service to the state, and in olden times this seems to have been a burden. Carts, animals and porters were supposed to be put at the service of officials travelling through the district. To some extent these levies are still made, according to Jamieson, but the principal calls in modern times are for work in case of emergency as in the\n\n1 Bazin; \"Recherches sur les Institutions Administrative et Municipales de la Chine\", II, p. 249 f.\n\n2 Ibid., p. 252. On the matter of census see also Boulais, Guy; Manuel du Code Chinois, p. 160-166.",
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    {
        "id": 208457,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 181,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n165\n\nany contingency of administration which faced the small and self-contained villages of the rural districts in which the great mass of the Chinese people dwelt.\n\nAuthor's note: On rereading this effort of an aspiring young Sinologue in Peking some 45 years ago, the author realizes how quaint it must seem today for the \"state of the art\" is far advanced since then, with a proliferation of on-the-ground studies of Chinese rural life done by sociologists and social anthropologists in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. They provide concrete information on village governance richer than all one could find in 1933, C.M.W., 15 October 1979.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nI. WORKS CITED IN THIS PAPER.\n\nAddison, James T.; Chinese Ancestor Worship: a Study of its Meaning and its Relations with Christianity. No place, Chung Hua Shen Kung Hui, 1925.\n\nAlabaster, Ernest; Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law and Cognate Topics, London, Luzac, 1899,\n\nBazin; \"Recherches sur les Institutions Administratives et Municipales de la Chine\" (Journal Asiatique. 5th Series, vol. 3, 1854, p. 6-66; vol. 4, 1854, p. 249-348), (The two papers are differentiated by the Roman numerals I and II.)\n\nBishop, Carl W. Man from the Farthest Past. New York Smithsonian Institution, 1930. (Smithsonian Scientific Series, vol. 7.)\n\nBishop, C. W.; \"Prefatory Note on the Worship of Earth in Ancient China.\" (Excavation of a West Han Site. Shanghai, no pub., 1932, p. 1-20.)\n\nBishop, Carl W.; \"The Rise of Civilization in China with Reference to its Geographical Aspects\" (Geographical Review, Oct. 1932, p. 617-631.)\n\nBoulais, Guy; Manuel du Code Chinois. Shanghai, Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique, 1924. (Variétés Sinologiques 55.)\n\nBuck, John L.; Chinese Farm Economy; a Study of 2866 Farms in Seventeen Localities and Seven Provinces in China. Shanghai, Commercial Press, 1930.\n\nChen Huan-chang; The Economic Principles of Confucius and His School, 2 vols. New York, Columbia, 1911.\n\nChina National Government. The Civil Code of the Republic of China. Translated into English by Hsia, Ching-lin: Chow, James L. E.; Chang, Yukon, 2 vols. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1930-31. vol. 2.\n\nChina Year Book 1932. (Woodhead, H. G. W. Ed.) Shanghai, North-China, 1932.\n\nChinese Repository. See: \"Clanship Among the Chinese.\"",
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        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
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