Content created 2017-02-15
File last modified:
Go to
Procursus,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
In regard to inter-class relationship, quite common that the relations are gradual, or from one class to the next. Relationships seldom jump from the bottom to the top, in China. In a rural community, for instance, the poor and socially inferior families can easily form labor teams, social circles, or landing-borrowing parties with those families economically and socially immediately above them. But it is very hard for such families to have direct dealings with the few top class families. The middle class families can directly approach the top families and vice versa. When this writer was an adolescent, his family belonged to the lower part of the middle class in the village. His mother was a capable and popular woman and she raised the family’s social status to the middle class. The family had good and close relations with the poorest families in the same neighborhood. It had the same good term with families of its own kind. At the same time, the people of the top families and members of this family visited each other and had business dealings. When there was a time of flood and drought disaster, the writer’s mother was a go-between in appealing to the rich families to help out the poor ones.
In places where the tenancy percentage is high there is a great deal of relationship between tenants and landlords. This landlord-tenant relationship has long been an object of attack and a topic of contention among social thinkers, social reformers and students of economics. Some charge that the relationship is nothing but exploitation (on the landlord’s part) and being exploited (on the tenant’s part). Others try to defend the landlords by saying that the landlord must get his legitimate share to support himself and his family and that his relationship with the tenant is based on customary practices.
None of these sweeping conclusions is right. The fact is that the relationship varies considerably according to particular times and particular circumstances. At times, when there is social disturbance and when moral codes are broken, both landlords and tenants are easily influenced or swept by fear, misunderstanding, and the tendency of self-preservation. Consequently, each side tries to get or to keep as much as possible and the interrelations will undoubtedly be strained. Also, if the landlord does not live in the community and has no personal acquaintance with the tenant, and the lease is administered by the landlord’s agent whose only interest is to have the rent collected and his own interest satisfied, then the relationship is usually bad.
At ordinary times and under ordinary circumstances the relationship could also deteriorate due to either party’s unreasonable demand or excessive selfishness. When the relationship is bad, the tenant is in most cases in an adverse position in ordinary times; in abnormal times, however, it is the landlord who has to suffer.
Affection and fairness are not altogether absent in the landlord-tenant relationship, as the communists would like people to believe. To verify this statement let me quote a western scholar’s observation. (Morton H. Fried: Fabric of Chinese Society, New York, 1953. Chapter IV.) It may be assumed that the tenant may try to cheat his landlord in various ways, or try to get in more for himself at the expense of the landlord. In this case, the landlord and tenant relationship cannot but be deteriorated. On the other hand, it may also be assumed that the landlord may try to collect as much as possible from his tenant without regard to the latter’s livelihood and his family’s welfare. Actually, however, neither the tenant nor the landlord can afford to go too far. For many of the tenants and landlords know that in the long run it is a good relationship, not a bad one between them, that will assure both parties great advantages. As soon as they realize this truth, both parties will take measures to improve the quality of their relationship.
The quality is expressed in the term gǎnqíng 感情 [emotion or sentiment]. “For the most part, gǎnqíng expresses a relationship between two individuals who are not on the same social plane.” Naturally, it is the tenant who is mostly concerned with having or not having good gǎnqíng from the landlord for he knows that at any time some sudden emergency may leave him at the landlord’s complete mercy or he may have to go to the landlord for some favor. Therefore, he must be cautious in his relationship with his patron and try to build up good gǎnqíng with him.
For the landlord, good gǎnqíng from his tenant is also indispensable. Many landlords are not aware of local agricultural conditions and cannot reply when their tenants insists that the water was not enough for the growing of the rice and therefore the crop is poor. Others do not have time to investigate the true situation in the field or to look into just what are exactly the tenant’s obligation and rights. Still others feel it shameful to argue and shout with their tenants. Besides, there are tenants who are not only unkind but also quite cunning. If the relationship between them and their landlords is bad they could raise hell for the landlords. They could even invent all kinds of excuses to delay or to reduce considerably the rent payments.
It is true that on occasions a landlord with political relations could ask the county magistrate for help in the rent collection, but this is resorted to only when all other measures fail; and only the big landlords living in the county city would go so far as to have the police to force the rent payment or to arrest those who refuse to pay. A majority of the small and middle-class landlords either cannot or would not take such a step. To take such a step will eventually mean a loss, instead of a gain, to the landlord, for the magistrate and the police would not render any help to such cases unless they were assured of a big compensation or a big profit. Indeed, the profit was so big that the landlord would at the end receive little of what was collected. This little portion could hardly pay for the bitterness thus created in the tenants.
In view of these facts, wise and experienced landlords always tried to maintain a sufficient amount of good gǎnqíng in the relations with their tenants. After all, tenants are just as human as other kinds of people and they are in general more responsive to the good will and fairness of their landlords. If the latter would go one step farther by treating their tenants with sincerity and generosity, the response would be of more appreciation and honest cooperation.
It is a commonly observed fact that in the old days a tenant was willing to render extra service in addition to his regular obligations or to give his landlord special gifts, such as chickens or fruits, in addition to the legal rent.
In return, the landlord was ready to be lenient concerning the rent payment when the year was lean. He was willing to extend low interest credits to the tenants so he and his family could struggle through the spring difficulties without being “sunk”. In winter time when work was not busy in the farm the landlord in response to the tenant’s request might take a grown-up boy or girl of the tenant family to his own home or shop to help with the chores or other work so the tenant could save some food and get some extra income. There were a score of other ways in which the landlord could assist his tenant in exchange for the latter’s honesty and promptness in the rent payment and good work on the farm. One more interesting instance to be mentioned here is that observed by Fried in Chú Xiàn 滁县 [in Ānhuī 安徽 province]:
There is a normal pattern in Chú 滁 for the tenant to stop at the house of his landlord when he goes to town. There he may rest and get something to eat and a little tea. While he sits he will be told the state of the market and will be advised where and what to sell and where and what to. buy. Underlying this relationship is of course gǎnqíng. These relationships, if properly conducted, can strengthen the friendship and make future dealings even smoother.” (Fried, p. 126)
The foregoing is not written to suggest that the inter-class relationship between the landlordand the tenant has all been so smooth or ideal, nor is it written to defend the landlords or to minimize the oppression inflicted upon the tenants by notoriously bad landlords. The only purpose is to show that not only the tenants but the landlords as well need the good quality, or the gǎnqíng, of their relationship.
In conclusion, a story is cited. In a certain village there lived a big but stingy landlord and a widow with two small children. The widow was also a land owner although the amount was far less than the big landlord’s. The big landlord was ruthless and exact in dealing with his tenants, whereas the widow treated her lease holders with consideration and generosity. This difference caused the tenants of the big landlord to complain, and the big landlord was quite concerned about it.
One day he went to the widow and protested to her being kind toward her tenants. To the protest the woman answered: “My great uncle, you may protest, but you must realize that my situation is quite different from yours. You have all the help you need to keep the tenants under strict control, whereas I am a single-handed widow and my children are too young to give me any assistance. The only way for me to take is to treat my tenants with consideration and so they will treat me the, same way.”
Inter-class relationship can also be studied by examining how the lǎobǎn 老板, or boss, in a business shop or store, treats his clerks or apprentices and how the latter respond to the treatment. Traditionally, the clerks or apprentices in a shop or a store were recruited among close and distant kinsfolk and friends. A small number might come from unrelated or non-friend families through some remote introduction. While the clerks or apprentices are young and in the training period, they are to a great extent, if not completely, subject to the lǎobǎn’s harsh discipline regardless of any kinship or friend relationship. The interrelation is that between a boss and subordinates. When the clerks are grown up and have finished the training period, the kinship or friend relations start to function and influence the relationship between the lǎobǎn and clerk. The former will treat the latter with familial consideration. With those who bear no kinship ties the relationship is boss-subordinate relationship.
“Within the store the word of the lǎobǎn is law. He frequently gives direct commands to the clerks and the apprentices are always being ordered about. The tension in the shop is always greatest when the master is present and in bad humor, when he is out for the day or away on a trip the air is noticeably less strained. However, not all of the relationships between the clerks and their master are of an unpleasant nature. Particularly at festival times the atmosphere becomes light and more permissive as the master treats his staff to an enjoyable few days.” (Fried, 157.)
The relationship between the lǎobǎn and his clerk is also frequently influenced by the gǎnqíng each side has for the other. “Kinship, by itself, is often insufficient. Merely to be able to establish a remote degree of relationship with the lǎobǎn does not necessarily insure a position, nor is it assurance that the position, once granted, will be maintained.” (Fried, p. 154.) Hence gǎnqíng is needed.
When an apprentice has finshed his three years of apprenticeship, his future fate in relation with the shop is to be determined by three factors. One is that he must have proven himself a good and intelligent worker; another is that there must be a possibility of using his services; and the third one, his gǎnqíng with the lǎobǎn is good, or not bad.
If he proves a poor worker, or the boss has no good gǎnqíng for him, his relationship with the shop will be sooner or later finished. The lǎobǎn will not give him any recommendation to go to another shop. On the other hand, if his gǎnqíng is good and he has some ability, his position in the shop is more secure, for in case his services should find no use in the original shop, he would be recommended anywhere that his lǎobǎn has effective influence.
The traditional attitude of the gentry class toward the commoners and that of the commoners toward the gentry furnish another angle from which the inter-class relationships may be studied. Generally, the gentry members of a community have traditionally assumed that they are the leaders, the teachers, or the benefactors of the common multitude. Out of this assumption have grown two different attitudes. One is superiority and the other is responsibility assuming. The latter has very well been exemplified by Fàn Zhòngyān 范仲淹 when he made the famous statement: “To be first in worrying about the world’s troubles and last in the enjoyment of its pleasures.” To apply these words to the every day life of the community, the gentry members used to have the responsibility of helping the common people. They were to lead the common people to moral enlightenment and to teach them to know things which are above the level of farming , handcrafting, and exchanging.
In time of distress, the gentry members were supposed to lead and organize the masses into a united force in order to tackle the problems. If outside aids were needed, the gentry were supposed to go to seek for such aids in behalf of the whole community. When there were disputes among the people themselves the gentry were expected to mediate and have the affair settled before it was brought to the attention of the government. In case there were junior members in the community who did not behave in accordance with the established moral standards, the gentry for the whole community’s welfare and reputation could administer discipline upon them. Parents or relatives of the punished were not to protest or dispute the gentry’s right or obligation.
On these facts or assumptions, the gentry class of a community acted as the common people’s parental protectors and the people were treated as immature children. This relationship was not merely optional but was at various times sanctioned by national law or by imperial edicts. In Qīng dynasty 清 (period 21), for instance, the gentry in each community was charged by an imperial creed to teach the common people with the Confucian tents and the Imperial Maxims. When a serious moral offense or law breaking occurred in a community and it was brought to the attention of the county magistrate, the gentry members of the community were to be summoned and reprimanded for their negligence of teaching the people and maintaining the moral codes.
In case a gentry member was guilty of a specific moral lapse he was to be reprimanded with these words: “You are supposed to be the teacher and the example of the common people, yet you committed the same crime that a mean person might commit. Don’t you think that you ought to be punished more severely than if it had happened to a common person?”
The responsibility-assuming attitude is good so far as it produces good-hearted and social-minded gentry members. When, however, it evolves into a feeling of superiority, the relationship between the gentry and the commoners will soon degenerate from a parent-child or benefactor-benefited pattern, to a lord-subject or oppressed pattern. Bad gentry members often abused the meek or helpless humble families in their community for selfish purposes. But the more wide spread phenomenon was that the superiority-infected gentry acted like lords in talking to or in receiving something from a common person, especially if the common person was a small farmer, a humble artisan or a small town merchant. Through centuries of being in an inferior position these small people found it almost natural to humiliate themselves in the presence of the proud gentry members. The former never failed to address the gentry in terms such as lǎoyé 老爷 ( equivalent of sir or Lord ), shàoyé 少爷 (the young master) tàitài 太太 (the lady), etc., whereas the latter always addressed the former with first names or a number prefixed with the word lǎo 老, such as Lǎosān 老三 or “you Number Three!” Superiority and inferiority are clearly shown in these terms.
When the gentry really acted as benefactors and the common people actually received the benefits, or were not exploited by the gentry, the relationship between the two classes was in general peaceful and happy. The common people took it for granted that they were humble people, that they knew very little, and therefore that they ought to let the gentry sit above them and rule the community’s affairs, while their duties were to respect and give compensation for the services done by the gentry.
On the gentry’s side, they expected and accepted the commoner’s reverence and material payment as a matter of course, but they took into consideration the limit of the people’s economic capacity and the propriety of being respected. At times when the limit was ignored to too great an extent and for too long a period and the gentry behaved themselves too arrogantly and were too lordly over the common people, the inter-class relationships degenerated and struggles arose.
By and large, both the gentry class and the commoners were able to refrain from going to extremes in the inter-class antagonisms. This restraint was probably due to three reasons.
The first reason is that the Chinese people have long been indoctrinated by the Confucian thought of taking a medium position in both human and cosmic relations. They have a strong belief that being extreme, or trying to reach the exact end would cause trouble for all parties involved. To stop or to return at the right point, shì kě ér zhǐ 适可而止, is the gold sentence for everybody living in the “five kinds of human relations”. In addition to this philosophy is the negative attitude of Daoism. This attitude taught the Chinese to be indifferent toward or disinterested in struggling for worldly possessions, privileges, and fame. For Daoism believes that such things wouldn’t last long and they are the greatest forces which corrupt man’s body and soul. The Chinese have not all become Daoists, but many of them have learned to stop at the middle of a struggle to reconsider whether or not the continuation of the struggle is worth while. If any interceding force should come in at this moment a fight can easily be called off.
The second reason for the comparatively peaceful inter-class relationship in traditional Chinese society is that, most of the gentry members taught their families to be modest and kind in dealing with people, regardless of kin or non-kin, who are lower than themselves. Family letters written by ordinary gentry members or by celebrated scholars and statesmen are filled with such teachings. Good examples are those written by Zēng Guófān’s 曾国藩, Lín Zéxú 林则徐, Hú Línyì 胡林翼, etc.
Zhèng Bǎnqiáo’s 郑板桥 letters to his brother are mostly charming and sympathetic. In one of them, Cheng was persuading his brother to treat their tenants, poor relatives and humble neighbors, kindly. According to Zhèng, these people should not only be helped with material articles but should also be accorded human understanding, respect, and sympathy.
The gentry were not the only people who had been taught such ethics. The common people too were so oriented. A very familiar common saying goes, Zhōnghòu chuánjiā yuǎn 忠厚传家远, “sincerity and kindness make a family long lasting.” Sincerity and kindness here really mean to be sympathetic and generous in dealing with one’s neighbor, especially with neighbors who are economically and socially lower than oneself, for the application of these characters are more fitting in such relations.
Few people will love their humble neighbors just because of benevolence. For a majority, there must be other reasons. Two are speculated here.
“A great many people treated their humble neighbors with consideration because they did not want their offspring to be treated otherwise” As has been pointed out before, the social mobility since Táng dynasty had been quite frequent and people knew it. Far-sighted family heads always remembered to teach their juniors not to humiliate people on account of their being in a lower social level lest they themselves or their progeny be humiliated the same way. They taught that one never knows when his family may slip from the higher class to a lower class, but one is sure that it will, sometime. Needless to say, everyone wishes that his already established family could last long. One way to ensure this continuance, according to the long tried experience, is to have sincerity and kindness with one’s neighbors, especially the humble neighbors.
It has been a widespread and deep-rooted faith that by treating one’s humble neighbors kindly, one will please the gods and therefore have blessings upon one’s family. With the gods’ blessings, the family is sure to become prosperous and long lasting. This belief had never been a formal religion, but surely had a great deal to do with the moderation of the inter-class relationships in traditional China.
Return to top.
Go to next chapter.