From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society

This is a quick read and offers a view of Chinese life for both the novice and the expert. Fei explicates the social structure of the Chinese --- that is, guanxi. Each Chinese is born into a network of social contacts that grows as one ages. Beginning with family, then extending to friends, schoolmates, workmates, and finally those contacts that may be helpful in the future. Fei speaks of these relationships as a concentric circle that emanates from the individual where ones' contacts overlap others. Fei's work is classic and a necessary addition to any library where an understanding of Chinese culture and social structure might be sought.

Even so many years later, Many ideas in this book hold true. The prologue and epilogue provide helpful political context and after effects of this work.

The remarkable thing about this seminal book is that it is still so relevant today. If you are interested in what makes China different, how to understand how Chinese society works, read this book.

Fei Xiantong writes shortly after the end of World War 2 and before the victory of the communists. He writes in Chinese for a Chinese audience. The people who translated this work into English are also sociologists. In the main body of the text, Fei draws a very clear and somewhat detailed sketch of what relationships between people were like in a village in rural China. These relationships work well in a static society. Fei also describes how the village can adapt to slow change. The author writes simply and clearly, without jargon. The reader can almost imagine being a member of the village. Fei doesn’t discuss the material basis of life: for example, cooking, building or farming methods.The translators have added an extensive Introduction and an Epilogue. The Introduction describes Fei’s life, sets his work in the context of western sociology and describes how the work was received (very well in the west and in China until the communists banned sociology). The epilogue compares Fei’s vision for reconstructing Chinese society (described in another book by Fei) with what actually happened.

Highly recommend to anyone who wants to improve their understanding of China.

For a westerner understanding the Chinese culture is quite a harsh. The book takes you into a journey which is pictured and illustrated through life in the village and through Confucianism

"From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society" by Fei Xiaotong; translated by Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng; UC Press, 1992.In Kansas there are roadside signs bragging that "One Kansas farmer feeds 128 people and you." The efficiency of the American farmer allows over 99 percent of us to pursue other occupations. In China, this sign would read "One Chinese peasant feeds you." About one-half of the Chinese population are rural farmers. More were when this initial sociology was written, originally in essays. Fewer will be farmers over the next decades. But to understand rural China, these essays by China's first sociologist go a long way toward describing the rural roots of over a billion people.Americans tend to generalize about China with observations that the Chinese believe in responsibility rather than rights, of shame instead of guilt, the long haul rather than short term, or work for the common good rather than for individualistic gain. Yet anyone who has watched B-grade kung fu movies will notice that the allegiance is to a father or grandfather and not to the city or province or state. Western generalizations of Chinese attitudes and beliefs are generally wrong. Fei does a solid job of describing the "differential mode of association" in China, the lack of need for any government at the local rural level, the role of rituals and relationships, and the slow pace of change.The essays are uneven, and the first two are laden with discussions of the limitations of semantics that make you question if this is a sociology book. Yet the translators stay true to the intent of the author and lay out a sociology of China that is useful for the serious layperson seeking to understand the core of Chinese values that are rooted in rural society, or the junior scholar beginning serious in-depth study and who will hopefully work towards reading advanced material in Chinese.There is a steady drumbeat of animosity in America toward China that is based on American ignorance towards the culture and language, as well as very poorly educated news reporters who neither speak the language nor understand the history and culture of China. Thus we have heard for the last two decades the imminent threat of the poor rural people rising up against the Party due to the growing income gap between the developed and undeveloped zones. This nonsense is due to a total lack of understanding of the Chinese respect for education; the poor understand they are poor because they lack an education. Local cases of civil unrest today stem from corrupt local officials and local business persons committing local acts of dishonesty. Reading this sociology will go far to help Western reporters and others understand the rural mindset and how local disorder---due to local mismanagement---does not become a threat to the national political structure.John Richard Schrock

It is a very old book. But the writer still communicates the issues in a modern China with his findings rooted in the old rural China. I like how they tell the story without obscure terminology or jargon. It is one of the most enjoyable books I ever read.

So glad I bought it and I have a Chinese version ebook too. I share this one with my western friends and colleagues to understand Chinese.

Buch kam mit Eselsecken an, aber der Inhalt an sich ist sehr lesenswert!