Agents and Victims in South China Accomplices in Rural Revolution Helen F.Siu Yale University Press New Haven and London A fading imprint of Mao Zedong on the wall of an old village house.(16) 不0 27AUG90月
GEMI366L76 For my mother, a most compassionate Chinese woman any form (beyond that copying permited by Sections 107ndof the U.S.Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press),without writen permission from the publishers. Designed by Jo Aeme and set in Meridian type by The Composing Room of Michigan. Printed in the United States of America by Vail-Ballou Press,Binghamton,New Yark. Lbrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Siu.Helen E Agents and victims in south China:accomplices in rural revolution /Helen F.Siu. 1BN0-30-04465-8ak.ppe L.EoS -China.2.China- -China.4. na-Politics and goverment-1949- 1.Title HN740,Z9E465198988-26993 307.7'2'0951-dc19 CIP The paper in this bookmeets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 10987654321
、 Contents List of Figures and Tables ix Acknowledgments 雄 Prologue:Images Periods in Chinese History xx General Administrative Levels,1958-1983 xxiv Note on Weights and Measures xxiv Introduction Historical Geography 15 Social Cells:Community and Kin 36 Cultural Tissues:A Regional Nexus of Power 57 The Reign of Local Bosses 88 6 Understanding Revolution:The Language of Class 116 Losing Ground:Community Cellularized 143 The Leap:Community Bureaucratized I70 9 Complicity and Compliance 189 10 The Paradox of Power 212 11 The Paradox of Self-Reliance 245 12 State Involution 273 3 Agents and Victims 291 Notes 303 References 341 Glossary 365 Index 373
Figures Photo galleries following pages 56.142.and 272 2.1 South China:Lingnan 17 2.2 Huicheng and Vicinity before 1949 19 2.3 Xinhui County Boundaries,Kangxi Period,Seventeenth Century 21 2.4 Xinhui County Boundaries,Daoguang Period,Nineteenth Century 22 2.5 The Pearl River Delta 23 7.1 Townships in the Huancheng Area,1956 145 8.1 Huancheng Commune and Brigades,1965 172 9 The Party Committee in Huancheng Commune 1970-79 209 9.2 The Revolutionary Committee in Huancheng Commune, 1970-79 210 10.1 Old Waterways in the Huancheng Area 233 10.2 The Plan for the Highway-Dike Project,1975 234 10.3 The Highway-Dike Project-The Parts Completed. 236 Tables 21 Sands in the Delta,1930s 25 5.1 Selected Taxes and Surcharges in Xinhui,1920s-1940s 92 6.1 Committee Members of the Guangdong Provincial People's Government 120
Figures and Tables Figures and Tables 6.2 Delegates of the First Provincial People's Congress,1950 122 11.3 Industrial Development:Comparisons of Huancheng Backgrounds of Leading Cadres in the Prefectural, and Other Communes in Xinhui County,1979 249 6.3 Municipal,and County Governments,Guangdong 11.4 The Background of Leading Cadres in Commune Province,1950 124 Enterprises,1981 258 6.4 Background of Township and Village Cadres in 11.5 Profiles of Workers in the Huancheng Commune Palm- Guangdong and Hunan Provinces,1952 125 Handicraft Factory,1978 261 6.5 Class Compositions,Dongjia and Tianlu Xiang 126 11.6 Profiles of Workers in the Huancheng Commune 261 7.1 Grain and Citrus Production,Xinhui County.1949-82 152 Agricultural Machinery Station,1978 8.1 Enterprises in Huancheng Commune,1958-77 179 11.7 Proflles of Workers in the Huancheng Commune Paper 8.2 Education and Health Care in Huancheng Commune, Factory.1978 262 1961-78 182 11.8 Profiles of Workers in the Huancheng Commune 8.3 Some Statistics for Huancheng Commune,1953-65 186 Agricultural Machinery Factory,1978 263 General Statistics for the Brigades and Teams,1962-82 194 11.9 Enterprise Development,Selected Brigades 266 9.2 General Statistics for the Brigades.1962-82 196 12.1 Cropping Patterns in Dongjia and Tianlu Brigades 275 9.3 Class Differentiations in Selected Brigades,1964 199 12.2 Per Capita Team Income of Tianlu Brigade 278 9.4 Class Differences in Savings and Loans,Yuanqing 12.3 Per Capita Team Income of Dongjia Brigade 282 Cooperative,Dongjia Brigade,1962 200 10.1 Leading Cadres in Selected Brigades,1980 216 10.2 Ages of Leading Brigade Cadres.1980 217 10.3 Grain Production:Planned Acreage and Output 221 10.4 Grain Production:Actual Acreage and Output 222 10.5 Grain Procurement and Consumption for Huancheng Commune 223 10.6 Secondary Crops,Huancheng Commune,1961-78 224 10.7 Major Crops as a Percentage of Total Cultivated Area. 1961-82 225 10.8 Grain Quotas for Selected Brigades,1966-82 227 10.9 Enterprise Performance of Sancun Brigade 241 11.1 The Growth of Commune Enterprises in Huancheng 247 11.2 A Comparison of Commune,Brigade,and Team Output 248
Acknowledgments This project started Ifinished my dissertation and was unhap py with what I had written.Numerous institutions made this book possi- ble.Some of the data was collected during the time I was a faculty member at the Chinese University of Hong Kong(1976-80),a position that allowed me to use res search grants from the Harvard-Yenchi nstitute and from the Trustees of Lingnan University.As a Culpeper Postdoctoral Fellow at Williams College(1980-82).I continued fieldwork in China during the summers.The Yale Center for International and Area Studies provided supplementary research funds in 1985.In 1986,I received a r-long research grant from the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China.National Academy of Sciences.Though I focused my research on a neighboring county,I made several short trips back to my old field site to collect comparative data. am particularly grate at Yale University in the Depart ment of Anthropology.in the Council of East Asian Studies,and in the Whitney Humanities Center for their support.Special thanks to the past and present members of an informal study group,Jean Agnew,Deborah Davis,Mat Hamabata,William Kelly Keith Lu ia,Sarah Morris,Bridgi Mumaghan,James Scott,Susanne Wofford,and Susan Woodward.Our explorations into Renaissance history and literature,social theory,and popular culture have been intellectually exhilarating and socially gratify- ing.If it were not for them,I would have finished the book four years ago Ishall alwaysrem mber three people who contributed tomy intellectual commitment but who are no longer with us.Paul Riesman was a most inspiring teacher at Carleton College.Judy Strauch,fellow graduate stu- dent at Stanford University,focused my interest on political brokers.Tsui Wei-ying was my first stud nd research assistant.Her devotion helped us survive the most difficult fleld trips. I would like to thank those who have generously given their advice. gy Barlett,Myron L.Cchen,Deborah Davis,Nicholas Lardy.Hong Lee,Ann Lindbeck,William Parish,Suzanne Pepper,Jame ott,Micha Smith,Jonathan Spence,John Starr,Roger Thompson,Ezra Vogel,Frede
xiv Acknowledgments ric Wakeman,and Arthur Wolfhave read and commented on parts or all of the manuscript at different stages of writing. I am grateful to James Hayes.Ye Xian'en,Liu Zhiwei,and Chen Prologue:Images Chunsheng for guiding me through the archives in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.The comradeship of my research assistants,Cheng Man-tsun, Yip Kam-bor,Wen Hing-bo,Wong Chi-ming.and Pong Suet-ling was essential in the field the maps ha e been prepared by Philip Yeung.Too See-lou,and Heidi Fogel.Elizabeth Kyburg converted my statistical tables into works ofart.Over the years,Ellen Graham of Yale University Press has encouraged me to persevere with the crucial question:Is the manuscrip done?Thanks toCaroline Murphy.EmilyBooch It was an unusually wet spring in April 1977.I was among ten university ever,manuscript editor,as well as to John Ziemer,for their meticulous teachers from Hong Kong invited by the Chinese authorities to survey various rural communes in the Pearl River delta of Guangdong Province I would like to thank my mother and sisters in Hong Kong who pro On the last leg of our journey we reached Huicheng,the county capital of Xinhui,knov n for its scenic be vided lodging in an otherwise unaffordable city wheneve auty and h historical interest at the wester de d a break from the field.Thanks also to Ching-hwa Tsang and Michael Gaynon. edge of the delta.It had rained for three days.I sensed the anxiety behind the civillty of our hosts,who arranged for our immediate departure.It whose phone have always tothe chilly New Haven nights. seemed that crossing the swollen xi River (a major tributary of the Pear Last but not least are two friends to whom Iowe special intellectual and River)was quite risky,but being stranded was not a pleasant alterative. personal debts.David Faure has rekindled my enthusiasm in the cultural Travel facilities were tight,and everyone speculated about when we would reach the provincial capital,Guangzhou (Canton).110 kilometers and in the field.Both he and Jack Goody have patiently and critically read away.The amosphere was tense and uncerain,as were many political careers at the time.When we were ferri through the manuscript and have been a constant source ofinspiration and humor. the pler vere half-submerged,and fields that were still quite bare pushed My deepest gratitude of course goes to the people of Huancheng and against the currents of the Xi River.Only the lush green fan palms stood Huicheng who have shared with me what was at times politically out on the dikes against the dismal horizon.We hurried off,but I looked unthinkable. back.For the following ten years I retumed to that par of the times to do resea rch.The la delta many and the people with whom I made friends* eventually formed a social landscape that continued to excite my curi- osity and capture my imagination.I looked back in time to the history yond present realities to understand ther hopes It may be helpfu l to the reader if I explain why I chose to study Huancheng Commune of xinhui County.In fact,my hosts were often intrigued by the same question."We are peasants,"they sald."What is it thatinteresis you?"Ipaldmy initial visit to rural China in 197infuenced by ideological erences to which I hoped to atach academic dignity.I shared the sense of outrage of many modern Chinese intellectuals at how peasants in the first half of the twentieth century had been abused by *The names of most individu als,except for prominent historical figures,have been changed to protect thelr identity
xvi Prologue Prologue xvii successive regimes.Naively assuming that the Communists had come to epbeleed to be necessary before the level of accounting could to a higher one within the comn une.Both pro cesses were aimed at facilitating the commune's eventual incorporation provide a degree of social equality for the vast peasantry.Having been into the state sector.?What better site and moment could there be to subjects for as long as the Chinese dynastles had been in power,the peas- indulge my political enthusiasm and academic curlositv? ants,I thought might finally acquire the status of citizens. I began the research for m dissertation in 1977.The political atmo I was initial lly concemed with a central them e in China's development sphere was tense as cadres at all levels watched the ambiguous signals from strategy:rural industrialization.Since late 1958,the regime had promoted the party center.I was not able to conduct the conventional year-long field small-scale enterprises at the commune and brigade levels of administra- research expected of anthropologists.Instead I made do with numerous tion.These were to provide the communities with income,employment, trips of a few an overeas Chinese helped,especlally service for agr ndustrial skis.By when my mother had a sister in Xinhui County.Such statusr for self-reliant development,the regime hoped to avoid an exodus from the created its own problems.My peasant friends were somewhat offended by villages to cities,the social and political consequences of which have con- the fact thatI did not visit my cousins until near the end ofmy research:my tinued to plague many agrarian societies in the transition to a modern hosts,cadres in the commune,exerted their share of pressure because they generally expected ethnic Chin e with the nation's political pr What interested me most was the regime's political objectives.These orities.They were quite dismayed that I did not seem to be concerned with small-scale enterprises were operated by communes and brigades.With my native roots.From the spring of 1977 to the summer of 1980.I paid a their accumulated industrial resources,communes maintained two sets of series of visits to Huancheng Commune and cities such as Huicheng.Jiang- institutional ties.They contracted with state industries to secure supplies and Guar ou.I in cadres at various levels of the adm and markets; ed their leverage istration.I visited commune and brigadeenterprises and made friendswith over subordinate brigades and teams.In fact,communes were expected to junior cadres and workers.Over tea and fruit,we exchanged ideas and use their resources politically,in a way that narrowed disparities among shared observations until late in the night.Occasionally,Ifollowed them to brigades:the same was expected of brigades in relation to their teams.My the villag politicalatitudcsathctim sat inside dilapidated halls then pment istrative h and list ned to elderly pea ants reco struct a his of these enterprises facilitated what I believed to be a gradual,benign tory that they felt they had had a part in. integration of the vast countryside into a modern socialist state,and how Despite my preoccupation with rural enterprises,I was catching glimpses parochial concerns of family and community might eventually be trans- of another,more disturbing reality in the course of my field research edtoidenifications with party and nation.The Chinese odo which would change my viev about the nature of modern state-building ,might b ome a model for agrarian societies undergoing The commune and its brigades in fact had little autonomy in what was the pains of modern development. officially termed self-reliant development.Unlike small-scale industries in I chose to study Huancheng Commune because its diversified economy, Hong Kong or Taiwan,the operations of those in Huancheng Commune based on rice,fan palm,fruits,sugarcane,and vegetables,provided ample uated sha ply with natic political cum rents rather than with localo research materials fo or my inte t in ses.Historically,the area regional market conditions In the early,for example a profitabl was known for its palm handicrafts;if one believed that postrevolutionary machine-tool contract with a county factory was revoked by the county development bore the stamp of the past,it would be worth examining how administration on the grounds that it would divert the attention of the the traditional handicrafts and their associated economic arrangements commune factory from aiding agriculture.Old peasant cadres were chosen made the transition to new institutional contexts.Looking ahead,the ommun's both meshed with industrles at H to head industria 0 for their technica cheng at its mpetence but for their presumed political lovalties.Managers hoarded surplus raw matertals northern boundary and served agriculture through its 29 brigades com- so that they could use them for political leverage.A vegetable-processing prising 190 production teams.The enterprises were intended to be instru- factory proposed by the commune was abandoned because county-level mental in narrowing the disparities among the commune's subordinate cadre emned the project ascapitalistic.Abrigadec ould not build a
Prologue Prologue xix much needed road because is quota of the mid-1980s,I made friends with three of the commune's leading cadres, ment was small and nothing else was available in rural markets.Accusa whose life experiences intertwined to form a continuous political theme in ommune,specifically,the step-by-step conso relatives and friends for industrial jobs,which paid higher wages and were ion ofa powerful rural bureaucracy and its imerent ar sought after by young laborers who wanted to avoid back-breaking work Xu Wenqing was from a family ofurban intellectuals.A college graduate in the fields. Even re alar ming were the wasteful projects that the working in the provincial government,he responded to the party's call in county government obliged the commune to carry out.One such project 1954t0 ettle in the ryside.His move to Huancheng a mixed was the construction of a highway-dike in 1975.To create a set of canals, blessing from his point of view.On the one hand,he entertained idealistic which later turned out to be an ecological disaster,the commune drained notions about his part in the young regime's effort to build socialism:on its treasury of funds acc mulated over ten years,several brigades in the the other hand,his family's"bourgeois"background made him politically commune found their valuable farmnland ced in size,and team mem suspect in the eyes of some party leaders.He saw no choice but to make the bers lost their fruit trees on the dikes.To top it all,the county government extre effort to show his com tment For twenty-five years he lived in never delivered the water pumps or the electricity that it had promised. small house in the commune,married a local woman,raised a family, When asked why they conducted such a project,cadres in the commune participated in menial work,and helped Huancheng's semiliterate party and brigades ur mmly replied, ifor choice did we have when ou secretaries handle voluminous documents. county party secretaries wanted to follow the spirit of Dazhai? 6 When I met him 1977, director of the of the commune resented the waste but grudgingly complied.Most felt that they had to go government,but he did not hold a leadership position in the party commit- along with the cadres.As it was put to me:"Objections were voiced: tee.A soft-spoken man with a slight build,he was very reserved.However, reports were ade to the higher-ups;and we dragged our feet.But wedug when I traveled with him to the villages,I was pleasantly surprised by his the canals,did we not? Ironically.such fearful paralysis prevailed pre detalled knowledge of gricultural roduction peass nd brigade cisely during the 1970s when socialist ideals were professed most ardently cadres greeted him eagerly and plead with him to speak for them on by national party leaders.As a brigade cadre aptly described their predica- various policy matters.He was their"Bao Qing Tian,"a legendary offictal ent,"We may occasionally ride political storms,but we cannot prevent who helped victims of bureaucratic abuse.I once asked him what I could ng. contribute to the commune's effort to modernize,and he answered The party has exercised authority in the name of revolution and so Bring us dictio naries. e are to face the outside world, ve need to start cialism.How was it held accountable to the people it supposedly served? from the basics.The problem with our country is that we have relied too The mandate of heaven has been changed to a mandate of the people,but much on faith."I was away when he fell seriously ill in the summer of to what extent were p easants citizens instead of subjects?7 Granted that 1979.Nevertheless,he struggled to instruct my research assistant as to one should treat ideological professions with caution and that China's whom Ishould vith afte he vas gone.He way two day political tradition could not be expected to change overnight,it is intrigu- later at the age of fifty-three.It was sadly ironic that his death came at the ing to explore the predicament of rural society when a regime summoned end of an era of radical politics during which a generation of intellectuals unprecedented determination to transform it with a different claim to who were eager to construct their country's future were treated with suspi- authority. cion because of class labels fixed upon them The commune's apparent lack of political initiative led my attention to Chen Mingfa was the cadre named by Xu Wenqing to help me.They rural cadres who were responsible for implementing policies.It is worth were close friends,though their backgrounds and careers could not have comparing their situation with that of the local gentry in imperial China been more different.A peasant activist with a primary school education, andofpoliricalbroket f other state arian soc ieties.What is the nature Chen was recruited into the party in the early 1950s and had subsequently power or the fact that the risen in the party ranks a arca's"peasant thec tician.He spen authority is assumed in Chinese culture and that the postrevolutionary twenty years in his native village as party secretary until he was transferrec state has amassed a remarkable concentration of economic resources and to the commune enterprise office in 1971.He admitted later that he hated political leverage?8 In the course of my research from the mid-1970s to the the job because he felt incompetent and did not adjust easily to industrial
XX Prologue Prologue xxi schedules.However,loyalties to his background in the peasant class mat- details of folk festivals during the lunar year,and young ones,who could tered most at the time,and the commune entrusted him with the task of only relate to the anti-Confucian campaigns,I experienced the cultural preventing the enterprises from neglecting agriculture.He was the head of consequence of the revolution.Recent political liberalization has brought the office when I met him in 1977.His dark,weather-beaten complexion with it the revival of popular rituals,and I found that it is no longer and awkward manners gave him a "peasant"appearance most incongru- uncommon for young people to participate in religious pilgrimages or to ous with the thick pair of glasses on his face.My respect for him grew subject themselves to the demands of traditional wedding ceremonies through the years as he revealed the commune economy and officialdom However,when questioned about the wider cultural meanings behind the to me sensitively and sensibly.In an unassuming manner he also exposed activities,they responded with perplexed looks that bespoke the problems me to the web of social relationships in which he served skillfully as of a cultural vacuum. mediator.To my surprise,he was dismissed from office in 1982 after being More blatant was the ideological vacuum displayed.I could understand implicated in a corruption case involving one of his subordinates.His why former landlords and their children held grudges against the regime downfall was unexpected among his peers.A sincere man,he was not for having reduced them to a caste of untouchables for more than three disliked by fellow workers.Unfortunately his career paralleled too closely decades.However,among a generation of young workers who were rela- the reign of Maoist politics.He might have protected his subordinate out of tively literate and articulate,I also detected a disturbing sense of cynicism. kindness,but higher officials attuned to party politics were too eager for Though raised on the socialist ideals promoted by the new regime,they political scapegoats at a time of ideological redefinition. keenly felt the discriminations against their rural status.They also saw My third contact,Chen Sheyuan,came from the same village as Chen careers and hopes shattered by decades of political vicissitudes.The lives of Mingfa.Also a local activist made party cadre in the 1950s,he had worked these people were often controlled by political forces quite out of their as an accountant and a headmaster of a primary school.He was assigned to reach.They collaborated and conflicted to make the best of circumstances. the commune government office in the late 1950s and became its director How they perceived their predicaments and pursued their interests and after Xu Wenging's death in 1979.Though he could not live up to Xu's hopes made up the social political dynamics of the commune.They ac- legacy,he commanded respect in his own way.After al,he was more tively used the resources within their means to cope with a state deter- "educated"than many of the commune party secretaries.His straightfor- mined to include them.They gave it compliance and,at times,complicity. ward style made him approachable in the eyes of local peasants.I once Yet so many felt victimized by the very structures and processes to which watched him jump off our van to remove two 50-catty baskets of grain their actions had given significance. blocking the way,embarrassing junior cadres who expected peasants to I am not sure when I began to confront my own disillusionment,but my respond to our driver's honking."During the Cultural Revolution,the growing unease in the 1980s precipitated an intellectual urge to analyze tabloids I wrote for the commune would cover all of Huicheng",he often the source of the problems in the system.Not that I look back to the Maoist announced with a broad smile,"but now,economic energies have livened days with nostalgia or that I regard the recent reforms as a second libera- up to the same degree as politics had then."We met again in March 1986. tion.Few of my informants do.Ironically,amidst their anxious efforts to and I was not surprised to learn that he had not been forced into retirement shed their political past and to get ahead economically,a familiar paralysis as a matter of policy in the post-Mao era.A low-keyed cadre who toed lurks behind their strategies.It seems to me that despite efforts to reform ideological lines carefully,he has been a survivor. itself,a weighty bureaucracy representing the party-state continues to Through the maze of human networks introduced by the three cadres,I reach the most private corners of people's lives.Like the dynasties before it, came to know many characters-ordinary peasants,team and brigade it is rather self-righteous and arbitrary.Yet unlike many dynasties in the cadres,old party secretaries,young workers in the commune and brigade past,it wields tremendous organizational power. enterprises.There was the party secretary whom people fearfully referred What my peasant friends could not articulate is captured in a novella by to as "the occupant of the gray-brick mansion."Others included brigade Liu Xinwu entitled "Overpass."Though the story develops around bu- cadres known to have enjoyed "helicopter rides,"because they had risen reaucratic bottlenecks that have led to agonizing overcrowding and des- precipitously during the Cultural Revolution.Between toothless old peas- perate mancuvering for a family in Beijing,its political and philosophical ants,who could count every ancestral hall in the village and recalled messages have a wider relevance.In the foreword to an anthology of post-