From the soil, the foundations of Chinese society : a translation of Fei Xiaotong's Xiangtu Zhongguo, with an introduction and epilogue / by Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fei, Xiaotong.

Contributor:

Hamilton, Gary G.

Wang, Zheng, 1952-

Standardized Title:

Xiang tu Zhongguo. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

China--Social conditions.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 160 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This classic text by Fei Xiaotong, China's finest social scientist, was first published in 1947 and is Fei's chief theoretical statement about the distinctive characteristics of Chinese society. Written in Chinese from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience, From the Soil describes the contrasting organizational principles of Chinese and Western societies, thereby conveying the essential features of both. Fei shows how these unique features reflect and are reflected in the moral and ethical characters of people in these societies. This profound, challenging book is both succinct and accessible. In its first complete English-language edition, it is likely to have a wide impact on Western social theorists. Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng's translation captures Fei's jargonless, straightforward style of writing. Their introduction describes Fei's education and career as a sociologist, the fate of his writings on and off the Mainland, and the sociological significance of his analysis. The translators' epilogue highlights the social reforms for China that Fei drew from his analysis and advocated in a companion text written in the same period.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1. Special Characteristics of Rural Society

2. Bringing Literacy to the Countryside

3. More Thoughts on Bringing Literacy to the Countryside

4. Chaxugeju: The Differential Mode of Association

5. The Morality of Personal Relationships

6. Patrilineages

7. "Between Men and Women, There Are Only Differences"

8. A Rule of Ritual

9. A Society without Litigation

10. An Inactive Government

11. Rule by Elders

12. Consanguinity and Regionalism

13. Separating Names from Reality

14. From Desire to Necessity

Epilogue: Sociology and the Reconstruction of Rural China

Glossary

Index

Notes:

Translation of: Xiang tu Zhongguo.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613806741

9781282134164

1282134167

9780520912489

0520912489

9780585104362

0585104360

OCLC:

801363596