Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-10-24
THE RURAL MASSES In CHINA.
Hopeless Poverty Early Marriages -
Joint Family system.

Joint Family system.
A family, G. d., consisting Of eight
persons, owns an acre and half of
land. The land was bought by the
grandfather of the present head and
has never been subdivided since nor
added to. He grows about seventy
bushels Of rice and seyenty-five of
wheat and some vegetables and cotton
besides, worth altogether in money
about $40. lie has two nephews who
work outside and bring home some
thing to help, and in that
way they get along, but are very poor
He pays government land tax to the
extent of $l.50 a year. lie and all his
neighbors wear native blue cloth, spun
and woven in the family by the women
from cotton grown by themselves. lie
never Wore foreign cotton. The coat
he had on Ca well-worn affair." had
been made two years previously, and 1t
would last two years more, 1t served
him at night as a coverlet as well as a
coat by day.
Another family owned four acres
odd, only part of which was suitable
for rice culture. Their income was
about eighty bushels of wheat and $50
Of rice, about fourth of which they
could usually sell. They paid some
thing over $3 a year as government
land tax. They also grew more cotton
than they could use, and sold every
year about SO worth. They were
better off than some of their neighbors.
but never saved anymoney. They had
fifteen mouths to feed.
The foregoing cases are given be-
cause they represent fairly the average
condition to be found in rural China.
The greater number of cultivators
probably belong to the class Of tenants.
Some say the proportion of tenants to
peasant proprietors is as seven to three;
others put it as three to two; but,
whether tenant or proprietor, the con-
/ litOn of the cultivatOr is much the
same--that is, it rarely rises above
what IS just enough for the bare
( accessories of life. Ny own observa-
tions have been mostly confined to this
and the adjoining provinces, and ! eX-
cluded the cultivators of tea silk and
opium, who, growing a commodity
more and more in demand and easily
tranSportable, are in far better posi-
tion than the ordinary peasant but
speaking for the greater part of China,
believe | am not over-stating the case
in saying that for the working agricul-
tural masses it is a daily hand to hand
struggle with want, In succession
of good years they are very comfort
able, they have enough to eat and to
wear and they have few other wants
but population is ever increasing up to
the food limit, and when a bad year or
two comes they die off by hundreds or
thousands.
Two or three causes may readily be
named as having mainly conduced to
this state of things-causes which are
generally to be found among Asiatic
races. The rule prohibiting the
deyolution of property by will, and
making division compulsory among all
male children, tends rapidly to reduce
all holdings to minimum--that is, to
the very lowest quantity out Of which
it is possible to make a living. Here,
as everywhere else energy and good
luck raise individuals to a position of
wealth, who may, if they choose, be
come large land owners but in the
course of Il few generations this univer-
sal eQualiser, aided by the apathy of
the ordinary Chinese when in comfort
able circumstances, will have reduced
things to the former dead level.
Another equally potent factor is the
habit of too early marriages Parents
deem it a religious duty to provide
matches for their children as soon as
they are of marriageable years, and the
young people go to the altar in as much
the same way as they go to school in
Europe. 1t never occurs to them to
ask first whether there will be enough
to fill the mouths that may come after
wards. The evil is further aggravated
by the joint family system, which
takes the responsibility off ones
shoulders and puts it jointly on that
of half a dozen Others. When thema
knows that he will get an equal share
of what is going whether he earns it or
no, and that the benefit of denying him
self any particular indulgence will
accrue to others as well as to himself,
a great motive for thrift is withdrawn
In one respect the Chinese peasant
is in better condition than the Indian
ryot he is not in debt to money-lend-
ers. But l do not know that that is a
virtue for which he is entitled to much
credit, for there is no class of money
lenders to whom he could get in debt. |
Indeed am not sure that he is not |
thereby in a less advantageous posi-
tion, for when hard years come he has
no means of pledging his property,
which, if he could, might save him
from sheer starvation.
A Touching Romance.