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Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China, Part III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

G. William Skinner
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Even before the completion of land reform, the Communist regime had introduced in most parts of China the two new institutions through which it planned eventually to socialize rural trade, namely the state trading companies and the supply and marketing cooperatives. The former, wholly owned by the state and controlled by governmental departments of commerce, were normally established in cities and central market towns. Each company specialized in certain lines—e.g., grain, edible oils, marine products, stationery supplies—and established branches in nearby market towns as required for sales or purchases. With few exceptions, free competition obtained between the state trading companies and private firms until November 1953, when the companies began to acquire official monopolies of important commodities. By the end of 1954, state concerns had absorbed a number of larger private firms and captured a major share of the wholesale market.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , May 1965 , pp. 363 - 399
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Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1965

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References

142 Hsin Hua pan-yüeh-k'an, No. 91 (6 Sept. 1956), p. 46. A fuller treatment of state trading companies is found in Donnithorne, Audrey G., “Organizational Aspects of the Internal Trade of the Chinese People's Republic, with Special Reference to 1958–60,” Symposium on Economic and Social Problems of the Far East, ed. Szczepanik, E. F. (Hong Kong, 1962), pp. 55–68Google Scholar.

143 Tientsin Ta kung Pao [hereafter TKP], 28 Dec. 1955, trans, in Survey of the China Mainland Press [hereafter SCMP], No. 1210 (18 Jan. 1956), pp. 13–16. Also see Ten Great Years (Peking, 1960), p. 40Google Scholar.

144 An official source puts it this way: “With the vital wholesale link in its hands, the state was able to control the sources of commodities and stabilize prices. It also created a situation in which private commerce had to go to state-owned socialist concerns for its supplies of goods …” Cheng-ming, Wu, “Socialist Transformation of Private Trade,” People's China, No. 10 (May 1956), p. 12Google Scholar.

145 See in particular articles in Tientsin TKP dated 21 Jan., 29 Jan., and 4 Feb. 1956, and trans, in SCMP, No. 1222 (3 Feb. 1956), pp. 11–12; No. 1229 (16 Feb. 1956), pp. 14–17; and No. 1229 (16 Feb. 1956), pp. 17–19. Also Wu Cheng-ming, “Socialist Transformation.”

146 Han-ch'uan hsien chien-chih [Brief Gazetteer of Han-ch'uan Hsien] (Wuhan, April 1959), trans, in Joint Publications Research Service [hereafter JPRS], No. 16,268 (20 Nov. 1962).

147 In 1951 parts of Mien-yang hsien, to the west, were added to Han-ch'uan hsien. The 51 market towns in question were those obtaining in the 1940's in the territory which Han-ch'uan hsien incorporated after 1951.

148 Ching-yüan, P'an, “Wei shen-ma yao k'ai-fang tzu-yu shih-ch'ang?” (“Why is it Necessary to Have a Free Market?”) Cheng-chih hsüch-hsi, No. 11 (13 Nov. 1956), pp. 10–14Google Scholar, trans, in Extracts from China Mainland Magazines [hereafter ECMM], No. 61 (17 Dec. 1956), pp. 31–34.

149 Tientsin TKP, 4 Feb. 1956, trans, in SCMP, No. 1229 (16 Feb. 1956), p. 18.

150 Wu Cheng-ming, “Socialist Transformation,” p. 14.

151 Data and quotations from Chang Yao-hua, “Wei shen-ma yao tiao-cheng nung-ts'un shang-yeh kang?” (“Why is it Necessary to Reorganize the Commercial Network in the Countryside?”) Shih-shih thou-ts'e, No. 9 (10 May 1956), trans, in ECMM, No. 42 (9 July 1956), pp. 27–29.

152 For the most part, higher-level agricultural producers' cooperatives (“collective farms”) were formed to coincide with natural villages. See below.

153 p'an Ching-yüan, in reference to earlier leftist policies, stated in November 1956 (see Footnote 148) that “state commercial organizations and supply and marketing cooperatives had had to establish branch stores, which … inevitably increased costs.”

154 See the State Council's “Instruction” of 24 October 1956, in Jen-min jih-pao [hereafter JMJP], 25 Oct. 1956, p. 1, and the interpretation in “Free Market,” China News Analysis [hereafter CNA], No. 160 (7 Dec. 1956), p. 4.

155 Ching-yüan, P'an, “Tzu-yu shih-ch'ang shang liang-t'iao tao-lu ti tou-cheng” (“The Struggle between the Road of Socialism and the Road of Capitalism on the Free Market”) Hsin chien-she, No. 3 (13 March 1958), pp. 21–28Google Scholar, trans, in ECMM, No. 136 (21 July 1958), pp. 27–33.

156 See “Transport,” CNA, No. 213 (24 Jan. 1958); Grossman, Bernhard, “The Background of Communist China's Transport Policy,” Symposium on Economic and Social Problems of the Far East (Hong Kong, 1962), pp. 46–54Google Scholar. For extensions of steamer traffic in Szechwan, see Afanas'evskiī (Footnote 136 in Part II), pp. 313–18.

157 All ton-kilometer estimates from U. S. Central Intelligence Agency, comp., The Economy of Communist China, 1958–62 (Washington, 1960), Table 9Google Scholar.

158 The 1957 figure is taken from JMJP, 20 November 1957, as cited in CNA, No. 213, p. 6. Ten Great Years (Peking, 1960), p. 144Google Scholar, cites the following figures for the total length of highways in China: 80,768 km. in 1949, 126,675 km. in 1952, and 254,624 km. in 1957. Official statistics as of December 1936 had cited a total of 109,749 km. of highways in all of China, with an additional 16,165 km. under construction. The Chinese Year Book. (Shanghai, 1937), p. 927Google Scholar.

159 As in pre-Communist times, the highways were of greater importance for the modest increment of efficiency which they afforded animal-drawn carts and human carriers than for the jump in transport efficiency which comes with the use of motor vehicles. Of the total freight tonnage carried on China's highways in 1958, less than one quarter (280 million out of 1200 million tons) was carried by motor vehicles. In Honan province in the same year, over 90 per cent of highway freight was transported by animal-drawn carts. Peking TKP, 8 April 1959.

160 Hu-nan sheng chih (ch'ang-sha, 1961), trans, in part in JPRS, No. 16,387 (27 Nov. 1962).

161 Li-men, Chang, (“Special Features in the Changes of Administrative Areas in China”) Cheng-fa yen-chiu, No. 5 (2 Oct. 1956)Google Scholar, trans, in ECMM, No. 57 (19 Nov. 1956), p. 11.

162 A Nationalist source cites 218,970 as the number of townships in mainland China as of 1955. China, pu, Kuo-fang, Ch'ü, Ch'ing-pao, Kuan-yü fei-Ch'ü hsing-cheng Ch'ü-hua yen-pien Ch'ing-k'uang chih yen-chiu, etc. (Taipei, 1956), p. 21Google Scholar. Official Communist figures for 1952–55 vary between 210,000 and 220,000.

163 The text of the directive is reprinted in Jen-min shou-ts'e, 1957. A translation of this passage is given by Hofheinz, Roy, “Rural Administration in Communist China,” China Quarterly, No. 11 (1962), p. 146Google Scholar.

164 JMJP, 25 June 1958. In fact there was a pause in administrative consolidation during 1957 while the Party officially resolved its doubts concerning the wisdom of fostering ever-larger cooperatives.

165 Shih-shih shou-ts'e, No. 14 (25 July 1956), trans, in ECMM, No. 48 (20 Aug. 1956), pp. 34–35. The relevant article, in the form of questions and answers, appeared in a journal which is designed specifically for the guidance of cadremen and “activists.” All quotations in the paragraph are from this source.

166 This statement, based on the testimony of informants, is supported by the fact that Nationalist figures for hsiang and chen in 1948 and Communist figures for township-communes in 1958 were virtually identical. (See below.)

167 Hofheinz, pp. 143, 146.

168 See Footnote 5, Table 7.

169 An estimate in excess of 30 per cent is given circumstantial support by the total number of post offices and postal stations in rural China as of 1959—if it is assumed, that is, that a post office or postal station is maintained in each town which still functions as an economic central place. According to JMJP, 21 Sept. 1959 (p. 9), in all of mainland China diere were in 1959 some 64,000 post offices and postal stations, of which 53,000 were in rural areas. According to my modernization model, the number of economic central places remaining in agricultural China exclusive of cities would1 total 53,960 on the assumption that 30 per cent of intermediate marketing systems had been modernized, and 51,760 on the assumption of 35 per cent modernization. Since a certain number—most probably under a thousand—of the “rural” postal stations must have been situated in non-agricultural China, these figures suggest a modernization rate of intermediate marketing systems closer to 35 than to 30 per cent.

170 Model article concerning Supply and Marketing Departments of Rural People's Communes published in JMJP, 4 Sept. 1958, trans, in People's Communes in China (Peking, 1958)Google Scholar [hereafter PCC], pp. 78–79.

171 “Kuan-yü tang-Ch'ien shih-ch'ang wen-t'i ti tiao-Ch'a pao-kao” [“Report of an Investigation into Current Marketing Problems”] Chi-hua ching-chi, No. 12 (Dec. 1958), trans, in ECMM, No. 157 (11 Feb. 1959), pp. 17–18.

172 New China News Agency [hereafter NCNA], Tientsin, 7 July 1959, trans, in SCMP, No. 2059 (21 July 1959), p. 10.

173 Li Ju-mei, “Shih-t'an kung-she mao-i shih-ch'ang ti tso-yung” (“Functions of Commune Trade Markets”) Ho-pei jih-pao, 3 Aug. 1959, trans, in SCMP, No. 2134 (12 Nov. 1959), p. 25.

174 Peking TKP, 24 Aug. 1959. See “Communes and the Market,” CNA, No. 299 (30 Oct. 1959), pp. 2–3.

175 NCNA. Peking, 24 Sept. 1959, trans, in SCMP, No. 2108 (2 Oct. 1959), pp. 6–9.

176 Ibid., p. 9; Hsing, Ch'en, “Yu ling-tao yu chi-hua ti k'ai-chan nung-ts'un chi-shih mao-i” [“Develop Trade at Rural Markets with Leadership and Planning”] JMJP, 25 Nov. 1960, p. 7Google Scholar, trans, in SCMP, No. 2393 (8 Dec. 1960), pp. 11–14.

177 As late as June 1961, favorable publicity was given to a case of market-day schedule reduction designed to minimize the loss of production time. The market in P'ao-tzu in Fou-hsin hsien, Liaoning, had been revived with its traditional 2–5–8 schedule, but to conserve production time the authorities altered the schedule to 5–10 for the duration of the busy farming season. JMJP, 22 June 1961, trans, in SCMP, No. 2528 (30 June 1961), pp. 18–20.

178 “It would be incorrect to regard the holding of rural markets as a temporary measure … and to open or close them at will.” Kuan Ta-t'ung, “Kuan-yu nung-ts'un chi-shih mao-i” [“On Trade in Rural Markets”] Hung-chi, No. 18 (16 Sept. 1961), pp. 16–22. See also Yang Hsiao-hsien, “Chia-Ch'iang tsu-chih ling-tao keng-hao ti k'ai-chan nung-ts'un chi-shih mao-i” [“Strengthen Organization and Leadership in Futhering the Development of Trade in Rural Markets”] Peking TKP, 13 Jan. 1961, trans, in Union Research Service [hereafter URS], XXIII, No. 5 (18 April 1961), 70–74.

179 This last problem was still a matter of serious concern in 1964. See the editorial in Peking TKP, 29 Aug. 1964.

180 Peking TKP, 14 April 1962, trans, in CNA, No. 435, p. 4.

181 See “The Movement of Goods,” CNA, No. 462 (29 March 1963), pp. 3–6.

182 Peking JMJP, 21 Feb. 1963. The relevant article is translated as “Economic Areas not Administrative Areas Should be Criteria for Commodity Circulation.” JPRS, No. 18,712 (Communist China Digest, No. 89), 16 April 1963.

183 Peking TKP, 12 Jan. 1963. The relevant article is translated as “The System of Supplying Several Districts by One Purchase and Supply Station.” JPRS, No. 18,096 (13 March 1963), pp. 16–19.

184 See Footnote 182.

185 Peking TKP, 28 April 1961, trans, in SCMP, No. 2499 (18 May 1961), p. 1.

186 Peking TKP, 21 Jan. 1961, trans, in SCMP, No. 2449 (6 March 1961), pp. 2–6. Peking TKP, 17 April 1961, trans, in SCMP, No. 2499 (18 May 1961), pp. 6–10.

187 C. K. Yang, A North China Local Market Economy, p. 7.

188 S. D. Gamble, Ting Hsien, p. 280.

189 Peking TKP, 18 Oct. 1961. Also Kuan Ta-t'ung (see Footnote 178).

190 peking TKP, in an editorial of 30 Dec. 1962 reviewing developments during the past year, referred to the increase in trade “following the further restoration of rural markets …” (JPRS, No. 17,796, pp. 6–7.) Clues of this kind plus the testimony of émigrés make it clear that a number of the standard markets closed in 1958 were reopened only in 1962.

191 17 Sept. 1962. Trans, in CNA, No. 462, pp. 3–4.

192 Peking TKP, 12 Jan. 1963. See CNA, No. 462, p. 6.

193 CNA, No. 462, p. 6.

194 Peking TKP, 22 May 1964. The relevant article is translated as “On Simplifying Commodity Circulation Links.” JPRS, No. 25,948 (17 Aug. 1964).

195 Kuo Lung-Ch'un and Lin Jui-fan, (“How Supply and Marketing Cooperatives Expand their Business in Yang-chiang and Hsin-hui”) JMJP, 20 Dec. 1962, p. 2, trans, in JPRS, No. 18,240 (20 March 1963).

196 “80 per cent of Assistants of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives in Ch'in hsien, Shansi, Carry Loads of Goods to Rural Areas for Sale.” NCNA, Taiyuan, 16 Jan. 1964, trans, in SCMP, No. 3156 (7 Feb. 1964), pp. 9–10.

197 See, e.g., Peking TKP editorials of 29 Aug. and 18 Sept. 1964.

198 Peking edition, p. 2. Trans, in JPRS, No. 27,977, 23 Dec. 1964.

199 Exception must be made for eight hsien in the far west of Szechwan, beyond the limits of agricultural China. In the case of Szechwan, total length of completed motor roads comes to 35,000 km. “New Highways Built in Szechwan Province.” NCNA-English, Chengtu, 4 June 1964; “Hilly Southwest China Province Builds up Highway Network.” NCNA-English, Kweiyang, 7 June 1964; JMJP, 9 June 1964, p. 2.

200 “Growth of Shipping in Communist China,” URS, XXXV, No. 14 (19 May 1964)Google Scholar; “Improved Transportation in Southwest China.” NCNA-English, Kweiyang, 22 Nov. 1963.

201 Tseng t'ien-chieh, (“Fifteen Years of Highway Transport in Kwangtung”) NCNA, Canton, 14 Aug. 1964, trans, in URS, XXXVI, No. 26, pp. 389–92.

202 JMJP, 11 June 1963, p. 2.

203 “Village Transport,” CNA, No. 147 (20 April 1962).

204 Yen-pei, Hou, “Farmers Take to Bicycles.” China Reconstructs, XII, No. 8 (Aug. 1963), 17Google Scholar.

205 See, e.g., Chang Wu-tung and Yang Kuan-hsiung, (“The Role of Transportation in the Development of Agricultural Production”) JMJP, 6 June 1964, trans, in SCMP, No. 3247 (26 June 1964), pp. 4 ff.

206 Cheng, Ho and Wen, Wei, “Lun nung-ts'un chi-shih mao-i” [“Trade in Rural Markets”]. Ching-chi yen-chiu, No. 4 (17 April 1962), p. 14Google Scholar.

207 Peking TKP, 2 Jan. 1964, trans, in SCMP, No. 3149 (29 Jan. 1964), p. 8. Emphasis added by GWS.

208 No attempt is made to provide full documentation for the generalizations made below. They are based on a reading of articles on rural trade published in Communist publications from the summer of 1963 through 1964, and on the testimony of 1963 émigrés.

209 To cite only one instance: Ch'ing-feng-tien, Ting hsien, Hopei, is listed in the Ting-chou chih of 1850 as an important chen with a 2–7 market schedule. A newspaper account of the town published a few months after the market reopened (Peking TKP, 28 April 1961) tells us that in 1961 its market days included March 3, 8, 13, 18, and 23. These dates turn out to be the 17th, 22nd and 27th of the first lunar month and the 2nd and 7th of the second lunar month. Marketing thus continues on the schedule which was traditional over a hundred years ago.

210 URS, XXXII, No. 21 (10 Sept. 1963), 379.

211 For a fuller description of the three categories of goods, see URS, XXXIII, 340.

212 Canton Nan-fang jih-pao, 14 Nov. 1963, trans, in SCMP, No. 3125 (23 Dec. 1963), p. 15. “Third-category agricultural and subsidiary products are an important source of cash income to peasants and of money to add to the production funds of production teams. Income from this source accounts for around 40 per cent of the total agricultural income.”

213 “Commerce, 1957–1962,” CNA, No. 435 (31 Aug. 1962), pp. 4–5. “It is striking that these warehouses, like private commercial agencies in the past, advertise in newspapers the range of their business, and the type of commodities for which they are agents.”

214 “After the liberation, these temple fairs were gradually turned1 into commodity exchange fairs aimed at coping with the needs of development of production and the people's livelihood.” Peking JMJP, 25 Aug. 1964, based on a report from Shan-hsi jih-pao, 17 Aug. 1964. The relevant article is translated in SCMP, No. 3299 (16 Sept. 1964). Temple fairs were normally held once or twice annually; commodities-exchange fairs are often convened more frequently.

215 Quotations from Peking TKP, 2 Jan. 1964. For a collection of articles on these fairs, see URS, XXXIII, No. 22 (13 Dec. 1963).

216 Peking, 2 Jan. 1964. All quotations from SCMP, No. 3149 (29 Jan. 1964), pp. 8–9.

217 Peking TKP, 24 July 1963, trans, in URS, XXXIII, 351.

218 According to my modernization model, when 40–45 per cent of all intermediate marketing systems have been modernized, the number of essentially unmodernized central market towns, in agricultural China as a whole, should fall in the 1300–1500 range.

219 Canton Nan-fang jih-pao, 26 April 1963, trans, in URS, XXXII, No. 21 (10 Sept. 1963), 387–392.

220 Quotation from Kuan, Yao, “Socialist Commerce in China.” Peking Review, No. 8 (21 Feb. 1964), p. 11Google Scholar. Also see Yao, Liang, (“The Current Task of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives”) Hsin kung shang, No. 2 (18 Feb. 1964)Google Scholar, trans, in Selections from China Mainland Magazines, No. 421 (15 June 1964), pp. 1–5.

221 The arithmetic of the case tends to confirm this correspondence. Village neighborhoods, it would appear from the literature, typically ranged from 5 to 75 households, with the great majority clustered between 20 and 40. Communist sources give 32 as the average number of households in lower-level agricultural producers' cooperatives (Hsin Hua pan-yüeh-k'an, No. 24, 21 December 1956, pp. 63–65).

222 Support for this assertion is given in the text below and in Footnote 235.

223 By March 1957, some 668,000 collective farms had been established. Yin, Helen and Yi-chang, Yin, Economic Statistics of Mainland China (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), p. 38Google Scholar. The figure for the number of agricultural producers' cooperatives which was cited in the summer of 1958 is 740,000, while the retrospective figure for the total number of collective farms from which communes were formed is given as 750,000. Hong Kong TKP, 17 Sept. 1964, trans, in SCMP, No. 3307.

224 “Resolution of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on the Establishment of People's Communes in the Rural Area,” 29 Aug. 1958. Official translation in PCC, p. 3. The passage went on to note that more than one commune might be established in a township which “embraces a vast area and is sparsely populated” and that several townships might be merged into a single commune “in some places … according to topographical conditions and the needs for the development of production”—meaning, perhaps, in modernized areas?

225 Experience in Szechwan during the Republican period had clearly demonstrated the advantages of a postal system which maintained one agency in each market town. Li Mei-yün, An Analysis of Social, Economic and Political Conditions in Peng-shan Hsien …, 1945, p. 288.

226 Chiang-ning hsien Shun-hua chen hsiang-ts'un she-hui-Ch'ü chili yen-chiu, 1934, p. 44.

227 All quotations from Martin Yang in this paragraph are from pp. 246–48 of A Chinese Village.

228 Pp. 246–47. The passages have been reordered.

229 “Directive of the CCP Central Committee and State Council on Strengthening Production Leadership and Organizational Structure in Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives.” NCNA, Peking, 12 Sept. 1956, trans, in SCMP, No. 1382 (3 Oct. 1956).

230 “Directive of the CCP Central Committee on Overhauling Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives.” NCNA, Peking, 17 Sept. 1957, trans, in SCMP, No. 1618 (26 Sept. 1957), quotation from p. 21.

231 “Directive of the CCP Central Committee on Improving the Administration of Production in Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives.” NCNA, Peking, 15 Sept. 1957, trans, in SCMP, No. 1618 (26 Sept. 1957), quotation from p. 25.

232 “Directive … on Overhauling …,” p. 21.

233 “Directive … on Improving …,” pp. 24–25.

234 The 1956 Directive (Footnote 229) had warned that “villages which differ greatly in the distribution of land, in the levels of income, and in the nature of production and management should not be incorporated into one collective farm under present conditions, since this would be detrimental to both production and consolidation …” And the 1957 Directive on Improving the Administration of Production (Footnote 231) referred to “the tendency toward dispersionism and departmentalism” within collective farms. Evidence of factionalism along intervillage lines, not adduced here for want of space, is abundant in the periodical literature of 1957 and in interview protocols obtained from émigrés.

235 The literature on rural China attests the existence of bona fide villages as small as five households and as large as five hundred; the great majority would appear to fall in the 50–200 range. Average (mean) village size in late traditional and republican China was well under 100 but rising. According to my general model, the average for villages per se in 1958 was still less than 100, but the average for villages togedier with standard and intermediate market towns was slightly over 100. Inasmuch as agricultural households in lower-level market towns as well as in villages were organized during 1956–57 into collective farms, the latter figure is the relevant one. The average number of households in collective farms as of mid 1958 is officially given as 160 (Hsin Hua pan-yüeh-k'an, No. 19, 12 Oct. 1959). This statistic suggests that villages of larger-than-average size as well as those of average size were in most cases organized into a single collective farm, whereas smaller-than-average villages were usually combined into multi-village units, a conclusion which is reinforced by a comparison of my model estimate for the total number of villages and lower-level market towns in agricultural China—1.2 million in 1958—with the total number of collective farms, 750,000. Thus, while it may not be quite true that a majority of villages formed a single collective farm, it remains highly probable that a majority of collective farms in 1958 did consist each of a single natural village.

236 John W. Lewis, “The Leadership Doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party: The Lesson of the People's Commune.” Asian Survey, III, No. 10 (Oct. 1963), 463. It is unfortunate that the context of Professor Lewis' remarks makes it appear that the general alignment of collectivized unit with village occurred as lower-level agricultural producers' cooperatives were formed during the mid 1950's.

237 For details and documentation see Table 8 below.

238 For general accounts of the commune movement during 1958–59, see Chu-yüan, Cheng, The People's Communes (Hong Kong, 1959)Google Scholar; Strong, Anna Louise, The Rise of the Chinese People's Communes (Peking, 1959)Google Scholar; and An Analytical Study of the Chinese Communist's “People's Communes” (Taipei, 1959)Google Scholar.

239 Cf. Ullman, Morris B., Cities of Mainland China: 1953 and 1958 (Washington, D. C., 1961), p. 11Google Scholar and enclosed map.

240 I have located about 20 of these model communes on large-scale maps, and the great majority are situated on or near railroads, motorable roads, and/or rivers navigable by steamers. Practically all the communes publicized during the first year are located in the strip of more modernized provinces running from Liaoning in the northeast to Kwangtung in the south.

241 An Analytical Study, pp. 16–17.

242 Hsiang-kuei, K'ung, Tsai Ch'i-li-ying jen-min kung-she [Inside Ch'i-li-ying People's Commune] (Peking, February 1959)Google Scholar.

243 Yu-li, Chao, “Spotlight on a People's Commune,” Peking Review, No. 4 (27 Jan. 1959), P. 14Google Scholar.

244 Ying-chieh wo-sheng jen-min kung-she yün-tung [Welcome the People's Commune Movement in Our Province] (Kunming, 1958), p. 43Google Scholar.

245 Ho-nan jih-pao, 14 Aug. 1958; Ts'ai ching yen-chiu, No. 6 (15 Sept. 1958), trans, in ECMM, No. 148, pp. 23–30.

246 JMJP, 18 April 1959.

247 “Kao-pei-tien jen-min kung-she tiao-Ch'a” ["An Investigation of Kao-pei-tien People's Commune”] Ch'ien-hsien, No. 7 (1959). Reprinted in Jen-min kung-she kuang-mang wan-chang [The Thousand-League “Leap” of the People's Commune] (Peking, 1959), pp. 55–63Google Scholar.

248 Hou-jen, Tseng and Hsing-hua, Feng, “Chao-ying kung-she kuo-chien ti ching-yen” [“Chao-ying Commune's Experience in Expansion”]. Tsen-yang pan jen-min kung-she [How to Manage People's Communes] (Chekiang, 1958), pp. 38–42Google Scholar. Details supplied in this source, coupled wirn reference to large-scale maps, make possible a reasonably valid analysis of the commune's composition.

249 In this regard, it should be noted that the few model communes which were situated in areas where true agrarian modernization had clearly not occurred were likewise outsized. Cf. Chien-ming commune (Tsun-hua hsien, Hopei) with its 125 villages, described in detail from official sources by Lewis, John W.. Leadership in Communist China (Ithaca, 1963), pp. 204–211.Google Scholar

250 See Footnote 224 above.

251 “Hold High the Red Flag of People's Communes and March On,” official translation of the JMJP editorial in the issue of 3 Sept. 1958, as given in PCC, p. 18.

252 Wu Chih-P'u, “Yu nung-yeh sheng-ch'an ho-tso-she tao jen-min kung-she” (“From Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives to People's Communes”), Hung-Ch'i, No. 8 (16 Sept. 1958), trans, in PCC, p. 18.

253 Wu Chih-pʻu, p. 37.

254 Lin Tʻieh, “The People's Commune Movement in Hopei,” Hung-chʻi, No. 9 (1 Oct. 1958), trans, in PCC, p. 56.

255 Wu Chih-pʻu, p. 35.

256 The mode of expression used here should not be taken to imply the existence of perduring, organized “leftist” and “moderate” factions within the Central Committee or other leadership organs.

257 “The size of communes … will be decided in accordance with local conditions by the various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities …” PCC, p. 5.

258 Data taken from Kuan Wei-Ian. Eight hsien included in agricultural China which in 1948 were a part of Sikang province had by 1958 been incorporated into Szechwan.

259 For instance, Hung-kuang commune, Pi hsien, on the Chengtu Plain northwest of the city, was reported to include 16,000 households as of August 1959. JMJP, 31 Aug. 1959. Reprinted in Jen-min kung-she kuang-mang wan-chang [The Thousand-League “Leap” of the People's Commune] (Peking, 1959). PP. 10–13Google Scholar.

260 T'ao Chu, “Hu-men kung-she tiao-Ch'a pao-kao” [“Report of an Investigation of Hu-men Commune”] JMJP, 25 Feb. 1959, trans, in SCMP, No. 1971 (12 March 1959), pp. 26–40. It goes without saying that in his report Mr. t'ao devotes as much space to the successes of Hu-men commune as to its shortcomings. My treatment here is not directed at a balanced assessment.

261 Pen-wei chu-i, commonly rendered as “departmentalism,” is more appropriately translated “localism” or “local particularism” when the units in question are territorially based.

262 Keng-tso Ch'ü, alternatively translated “cultivation areas.”

263 Cf. Schurmann, H. F., “Peking's Recognition of Crisis,” Problems of Communism, X, No. 5 (Sept-Oct. 1961), 9Google Scholar.

264 Cf. John W. Lewis, “Leadership Doctrine,” p. 463. “When the mammoth commune emerged in 1958, it engendered widespread factionalism beyond the control of commune-rank cadres. The larger size made the commune leaders ‘outsiders’ and threatened village power while it intensified village rivalries.”

265 Just how far the authorities were prepared to go in using traditional forms of leadership is suggested by the widely publicized case of Lü Wan-liang, a cadreman in Liaoning. A native of Ssu-chia-tzu village, Lü had in 1961 been promoted to the post of vice-director of Ku-Ch'eng-pao commune. In June 1962, he was returned by popular demand to lead the brigade which consisted of his native village. His transfer was permitted in order to curb the hostility and resistance to outside cadremen which had grown to alarming proportions during the preceding year. In justifying the transfer of veteran cadremen back to their native communities, the following points were made: Leaders native to the community are “familiar with local conditions pertaining to social relations and to geography …” They know not only “the condition of every plant in the locality” but also “the character and personality of everyone in the village.” For, after all, “the local villagers are all either relatives or friends.” These advantages are “not within the reach of cadremen from other places.” See “Sheng-ch'an tui chih-ming yao-Ch'iu lao chi-ts'eng kan-pu hui-hsiang kung-tso” (“Production Brigade Requests Transfer of Veteran Basic-level Cadres to Village for Work”) Liao-ning jih-pao, 19 June 1962; reprinted in JMJP, 28 June 1962, trans, in SCMP, No. 2779, pp. 18–19. Cf. John W. Lewis, “Leadership Doctrine,” pp. 457–58.

266 Recent general studies include the following: Zürcher, E., “The Chinese Communes,” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, land-, en Volkenkunde, CXVIII, 1 (1962), 68–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Luard, Evan, “The Chinese Communes,” Far Eastern Affairs, No. 3 (1963), 59–79Google Scholar. Lethbridge, Henry J., The Peasant and the Communes (Hong Kong, 1963)Google Scholar. Dutt, Gargi, “Some Problems of China's Rural Communes,” China Quarterly, No. 16 (Oct.-Dec. 1963), 112–136CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Strong, Anna Louise, The Rise of the Chinese People's Communes—and Six Years After (Peking, 1964)Google Scholar.

267 Cf. Chu-yüan, Cheng, “The Changing Pattern of Rural Communes in Communist China,” Asian Survey, I, No. 9 (Nov. 1961), 9Google Scholar: “The commune really lost its significance after the implementation of the three-level ownership system based on the brigade … At present its chief function is the exercise of the administrative powers of the former hsiang (townships).” “Yet, for the sake of political prestige, the government must retain the label of rural commune …”

268 See Footnote 260, p. 36 of the translation.

269 After the decentralization of agricultural production, the commune remained not only the basic unit of territorial administration, but also the primary unit in charge of construction projects, banking and financial activities, and internal security.

270 References to commune subdivision are made in Kung-tso t'ung-hsün, No. 17 (25 April 1961), p. 3, and No. 18 (30 April 1961), p. 3. For a description of the nature of this confidential journal, see China Quarterly, No. 18 (April-June 1964), p. 67.

271 “Nung-ts'un jen-min kung-she kung-tso t'iao-li ts'ao-an” [“Rules and Regulations for the Operation of Rural People's Communes (Draft)”], 12 May 1961 (unpublished).

272 Lu-yen, Liao, “Acerca de la colectivización de la agricultura en China,” Cuba Socialista (Oct. 1963), p. 46Google Scholar. An English version of the article was published subsequently in Peking Review, No. 44 (1 Nov. 1963).

273 To my knowledge, the figure of 74,000 for the total number of rural communes has been repeated without change ever since its first publication. A recent repetition may be found in Hong Kong TKP, 17 Sept. 1964.

274 According to Anna Louise Strong, “the tripling of communes by subdivision into smaller units … was … largely confined to mountainous areas with minority nationalities, where difficult communications and different languages made smaller commune-townships better.” Miss Strong also notes that she was told in Canton that Kwangsi—a relatively underdeveloped province and the only one in agricultural China in which non-Han peoples outnumber the Chinese—has “nearly 10,000” communes. “Some Comments on the Chinese People's Communes,” Letter from China, No. 16. Reprinted in Peking Review, No. 24 (12 June 1964), p. 20.

275 It is unlikely, however, that any part of the Eastern “core” escaped commune subdivision altogether. A reference in Kung-tso t'ung-hsün, No. 18 (30 April 1961), p. 3, makes it clear that subdivision of communes was underway in Liaoning. A Nationalist intelligence report of 1962 included an incomplete list of communes in Kwangtung province which totaled 235 more than the full number of communes in 1958. China, Kuo-fang pu, Ch'ing-pao chü, Wei Kuang-tung sheng ti-Ch'ü Ch'ing-kuang tiao-Ch'a chuan-chi (Taipei, 1962), pp. 109–131. Thus, in two highly modernized but widely dispersed provinces of the Eastern “core,” commune subdivision took place at the same time it is known to have occurred in peripheral areas.

276 The 1958 figure is given in T'ung-chi kung-tso, No. 20 (1958), p. 23. The recent figure is cited in Nan-fang jih-pao, 12 April 1963. It appears that Anna Louise Strong was misinformed in 1964 when she was told in Canton that “in Kwangtung province, the number and size of communes had barely changed …” “Some Comments,” p. 20.

277 In recent years, communes equivalent to the standard marketing community have been held up as models. Take the case, for instance, of Hsiao-P'ing-i commune, Shuo hsirn, Shansi. It includes 20 natural villages with a population of 12,000, organized into 18 production brigades and 92 production teams. Hsiang, Wu, ch'ang-chen, Chang, and Wen-chin, Yao, (“A Visit to the Hsiaopingyi Commune at Harvest Time”) Hung-Ch'i, No. 19 (1 Oct. 1963)Google Scholar, trans, in Selections from China Mainland Magazines, No. 387 (22 Oct. 1963). It is also significant that the official Peking Review recently carried an article by Anna Louise Strong which notes that decentralization within the commune “concentrates responsibility for production and distribution in one place, the original natural village, the oldest, most stable unit in the countryside where everybody knows everybody else.” “Some Comments,” p. 20. In this article and consistently in her other writings, Miss Strong considers the natural village to be aligned with the production team rather than with the production brigade. With more than five million teams in China, the equation is manifestly impossible as a general proposition. The figure for the number of teams is cited in “I-nien-lai kung-fei ti nung-yeh [“Agriculture in Communist China during the Past Year”] Fei Ch'ing yen-chiu, VI, No. 20 (31 Dec. 1963), 128Google Scholar.

278 Robinson, Joan, “A British Economist on Chinese Communes,” Eastern Horizon, III (May 1964), 7Google Scholar.

279 It should be noted in this regard that brigades comprising more than one village were also subdivided during 1961–63. A Nationalist source asserts that the total number of brigades increased from 500,000 to more than 700,000. “I-nien-lai kung-fei ti nung-yeh,” Fei Ch'ing yen-chiu, VI, No. 20, 128Google Scholar.