Ecology of the Chinese Peasant
Household
The House-Field-Town Nexus and its Decline in the
Qing
An accompaniment to chapter 3 of An Ecohistory of
People’s China
Stevan Harrell
Revised for Han Chinese Society and Culture
6 February 2013
Historical Frequency of Floods and Droughts in the Wei
River Plain
Source, Yin Shuyan et al., Historical Drought and Water disasters in the Weihe Plain. Acta Geographica Sinica 15(1):197-205, 2005.
Qing—Disturbance and slow variables
Qing slow variables:
Population growth (Oct 5)
Agricultural extension and
Intensification (Oct 10)
Increased water capture
(Oct 12)
The house-field-town nexus and the decline in its resilience (today, October 24)
Qing--Hysteresis
Qing Hystereses:
Eroded lands
Altered watercourses
Overtaxed institutions (today we concentrate on household level)
Waterworks as illustration of the curvilinear
relationship between productivity/intensification and
resilience
ResIience
Start with irregular rainfall
Build a reservoir
Reservoir contains excess in big storms
Reservoir retains water in droughts
Natural events don’t become disasters
Harvests become more reliable
Resilience varies
directly with
productivity
Resilience varies
inversely with
productivity
Productivity
Reclaim more land
Reservoir can’t release water, exceeds
capacity
Community more dependent on lands that
will flood
Natural events become disasters
The Household Developmental Cycle
Nuclear
Stem
Joint
Nuclear
The House-Field-Town Nexus
Affines’
Village
House
Village
Town
Forest
and
Pasture
Fields
Household’s
Own Field
Figure 3-3
Flows of Household Goods and Services
Solid arrows are private goods
Dashed arrows are common pool goods
Importance of flows is roughly proportional to weights
of arrows.
The house-field-town nexus
The house-field-town nexus: materials and ventilation
placements of nianhua (Diagram by Andrew Whiteman
The house-field-town nexus: House
plans and spirits
The most prevalent kind of nianhua produced by both the Chen and Li families in
Mianzhu is the military door-god. The Chens produce over ten different pairs of
military guardian deity pictures, each with characteristic dress, headgear,
weapons, and pose, and produced as a pair in contrasting colors. These military
guardians are used to protect the family as a unit from outside attacks, whether
by malevolent spirits or by criminals, so their armaments and their postures are
central to their function. They are placed at locations where the family meets the
outside: at the front and back gates of the compound, where the private world of
the family meets the public world of the street (in front and sometimes in back)
or of the fields (usually in back).
Figure 9: A pair of military door gods (Photo copyright Burke Musem)
Next in line, and also belonging to the broad genre of door gods, are the
The house-field-town nexus: House plans and
household structure
The house-field-town nexus: The Village as an agglomeration of
houses with obligations of reciprocity
The house-field-town nexus
The house-field-town nexus: Private resources
The house-field-town nexus: Resource Commons
The house-field-town nexus
Market
Landlords
State
Buffers or Guarantors
• Infrastructure: mostly waterworks
• Institutions
– Kin groups
– Irrigation Associations
– Temples
• Beliefs and values: See descriptions in Fei, Yang, Leonard, etc.
–
–
–
–
Frugality
Recycling
Generational Continuity
Within-community Reciprocity
• Ecological buffers
–
–
–
–
Wetlands
Forests: Recall Elvin and Marks
Fallow land
Ungrazed pasture
Population Growth in the Qing and
PRC
500
450
Million
Figure 1b. Messy Situation of Estimates and Guestimates, 1000–1911
McEvedy-Jones's estimates, 1978
Chao's estimates, 1986
Maddison's estimates, 1998
400
Elvin's estimates, 1973
Lavely–Wong's estimates, 1998
350
Lee-Wang's estimates, 1999
Cao's estimates, 2000
300
Perkins' estimates, 1969
Ho's point, 1970
250
Pomeranz's point, 2000
200
150
100
1900
1850
1800
1750
1700
1650
1600
1550
1500
1450
1400
1350
1300
1250
1200
1150
1100
1050
0
1000
50
Time
Kent G. Deng, Unveiling China’s true population statistics for the pre-modern
era from census data. Population Review 43 (2), 2004
Source: Official censuses based on Liang 1980: 4–11; see also Lu and Teng 2000: Appendix. Estimates: Perkins
1969: Appendix A; Ho 1970; Elvin 1973: 129, 310; McEvedy and Jones 1978: 166–74; Chao 1986: 41; Lavely and
Wong 1998; Maddison 1998: 267; Lee and Wang 1999: 28; Cao 2000: 690–772; Pomeranz 2000: 241.
Note: Tax regimes: T.T. – Period of the triplex tax regime; D.T. – Dual tax regime; S.T. – Single-track tax regime.
www.chinaprofile.com
Flows in the
house-fieldtown nexus
Rough balance
Guarantors
Infrastructure
Institutions
Values
Eco. buffers
(s+r+t)-p=exploitation
Within bounds=moral economy
Energy
Slow variable
change in the
house-fieldtown nexus
Rough balance
Guarantors
Infrastructure
Institutions
Values
Eco. buffers
Energy
Depletes
Topsoil
Forest biomass
Ground water
Game animals, etc
(s+r+t)-p=exploitation
New World
crops in hilly
areas as slow
variables
Energy
Increases
Fertility
Population
Area Planted
Depletes
Topsoil
Forest biomass
Wetland reserves
Weakens Guarantors
Infrastructure
Institutions
Values
Eco. buffers
Population
explosion as
slow variable
Energy
Increases
Fertility
Population
Area Planted
Depletes
Topsoil
Forest biomass
Wetland reserves
Weakens guarantors
Infrastructure maintenance
Adaptability of institutions
Summary of Loss of Ecosystem Resilience in the Qing
Dynasty
INSTITUTIONS
INFRASTRUCTURE
ECOLOGICAL
BUFFERS
VALUES
Limited adaptation to new environments
Reaching capacity in rule-making and adjudication
Migration and refugees disturb composition
Strain increased
More locked in
Maintenance deteriorates
Wetlands reclaimed
Forests converted to grain
Pastures grazed more intensely
Swidden cycle shortened
Desperation leads to re-evaluation of self-interest
Value transmission and teaching disrupted
Positive Feedback Loops Within the House-Field Axis
Need for more
land
Convert Forest
to Arable
Flooding
Lower
Productivity
Increased runoff
Soil Loss
Positive Feedback Loops Within the House-Field Axis
Need for more
land
Reclaim Wetland
Lose buffer
against storms
Flooding
Lower
Productivity
Positive Feedback Loops Within the House-Town Axis
More state coercion
More demand on granaries
Less tax collection
Tax evasion
Prices rise
Less relief and market grain
Moral economy disrupted
Decreased resilience in the house-town axis
Institutions of granaries and market fail as guarantors
Less cooperation
Positive Feedback Loops Between the House-Field and the HouseTown Axes
Convert Forest to
Arable
Less goods
Reclaim Wetland
Lose buffer
against storms
Less reliability of
crop
Refugees
Flooding
Decreased resilience in the house-field axis:
Ecosystem buffer fails as guarantor
More demand on
granaries
Less relief and
market grain
Less tax
collection
Prices rise
Moral economy
disrupted
Decreased resilience in the house-town axis
Institutions of granaries and market fail as guarantors
Rebels
Decreased resilience on
both axes, community
institutions and values
fail as guarantors
Implications for Resilience Theory
• System can remain in backloop for a long time
100-150 years
Implications for Resilience Theory
• Or chaos of late Qing can be seen as alternative
stable state
Population
Growth
Guarantor
Weakening
Mid-Ming System State
Weather events
Military actions
Increased exploitation
Late Qing System State