Chapter Seven Social Erosion in the Rural Communities

第柒章 乡土社区的社会侵蚀

● EROSION: OF LAND AND OF MAN

Lilienthal, in his book on the TVA in America (Democracy on the March), uses the term "mining" to describe the methods of growing cotton on the played-out farmlands of the South, methods by which for the sake of a single crop the wealth of the soil was taken out and its riches exhausted. Even the addition of chemical fertilizers could not combat the evil effects of soil erosion accelerated by floods—floods at least in part directly due to the decrease in cover crops, deforestation, and the resulting lack of organic matter in the soil to make it hold water. It was through this sort of erosion that the soil of the Tennessee Valley, originally quite fertile, became barren and unproductive. Lilienthal's project for the TVA was to restore the organic equilibrium of nature, so that man should no longer attempt to defy nature but to understand and co-operate with her, and should bring it about that the river, whose floods had been a yearly threat, should now be harnessed for the service of man.

If I mention the TVA here, it is not so much in order to make clear Lilienthal's ideas as to draw an analogy between physical erosion of land as described by Lilienthal and the social process which is going on in China today. In China today we are interested in promoting the principles of soil conservation. But we shall also do well to extend this concept to rural life in general, that is, to the conservation and encouragement of talents and human resources. In considering the TVA experiment, it has become clearer to me that Chinese agriculture is not only a matter of techniques but also a system of customs, institutions, morality, and leadership which, in the past at least, worked together to maintain the life of China. But in the last one hundred years it seems to me there has been at work a process of social erosion suggesting that which went on in the Tennessee Valley. As a result have come poverty, illness, oppression, and suffering. In the traditional organization of society it appears we had a system under which most of the people could manage to live. It is true that standards of living were very low and that life was not without its hazards and disturbances. Yet there was achieved a stable organization of society in which most people did not starve and did not suffer excessively. This traditional way of life was built upon an economy which carefully served the land and preserved the fertility of mother-earth so that people could continue to live upon the land without destroying its richness. The Chinese attitude was not one of the exploitation of resources but rather of companionship with and adaptation to nature. From what I understand of Lilienthal's work, he seems to have been working toward a goal very close to the Chinese conception.

● 对土地和人的侵蚀

李林塞尔在他有关美国TVA计划（田纳西河流域管理局——译者注）的著作（《行进中的民主》）中，用“采矿”一词来描述业已贫瘠的南方农场的种棉方法：为使棉花生长良好，耗尽了土地的养料。即使增施化学肥料，也敌不过洪水加速侵蚀土地的恶劣后果。造成洪水的直接原因至少部分是由于地表植物减少，森林砍伐，导致土壤中有机成分缺乏，使得水土无法保持。正是由于这种侵蚀，田纳西河流域曾经肥沃的土地变得贫瘠，少有产出。李林塞尔的TVA计划意在恢复自然生态平衡，于是人们不应再试图违抗自然，而应理解和与自然合作，并且应该治理好每年洪灾泛滥的河流，造福人民。

我在此谈TVA计划，并不是为了把李林塞尔的观点弄清楚，而是为了在他所描述的土地的物理侵蚀和中国今天正在经历的社会进程之间找到可类比之处。今天的中国对于改善土壤保持倍感兴趣，但我们还应该把这一概念推广到整个农村生活中去，即要对才智和人力资源给予维护和鼓励。在研究TVA计划时，我更清楚地认识到，中国的农业不仅是技术问题，还是传统、社会结构、道德及统治的问题，这些因素至少在过去共同维持了中国的生活。我认为近百年来，似乎存在与田纳西河流域类似的社会侵蚀，其后果是贫穷、疾病、压迫和苦难。在传统社会结构中，好像存在着一个大多数人都可以生存的体制。虽然生活水平很低，人们仍有可能遭受危险和骚乱，但却有一个稳定的社会结构，多数人不受饥饿和其他方面的过分煎熬。这种传统生活方式建立在人民悉心保护土地，保持养分，以便可以继续以土地为生且不破坏其肥力的经济之上。中国人的观念不是剥夺资源，而是追随和顺从自然。以我对李林塞尔的工作的理解，他所为之努力的目标与中国人的观念似是很接近的。

Any visitor who has had an opportunity to observe the life of a Chinese countryman cannot but perceive his close bonds with the soil. He carefully uses those things which grow from the land and then as carefully turns them back to the land. In this way human life is not a process of exploiting the earth but only a link in the organic circulation. And the fact that, when life has left a body, the corpse goes into the soil is a source of comfort. It seems there is a close bond between man and the land. This is doubtless one reason why it is so important for a man, when he comes to die, to go back to his own native spot, the place from whence he came. The stream of life of which everyone is a part flows parallel with the life of the earth, which has its own life.

In the folk society man and the land are linked by strong bonds of sentiment—an attachment called, in Chinese, the sang ("mulberry") and the tzu ("catalpa"), a name derived from the two varieties of trees (sang and tzu) traditionally in ancient China planted near the house.[1] Men, it is suggested, are like plants that take their nourishment from the land. But when the springtime of their growth is past and they come to the fall of life, they must return to the land, just as leaves of a plant fall and come in time to nourish its roots. Such a conception, in recognizing genuine ties between man and nature, emphasizes the fundamental unity of life. But when carried to extremes an attachment of this sort may appear unreasonable and even absurd, as, for example, when overseas Chinese laborers work day and night to send back money, penny by penny, and leave as their dying command that their coffins be transported from afar back to their native spot. This kind of yearning to return even after death can hardly be appreciated by the West. But in Chinese traditional culture such a feeling is of supreme importance. Among my own forefathers there was one man who passed a high examination and was sent by the government to Yunnan to supervise the salt-mining industry. At that time Yunnan was a far frontier and, moreover, dangerous on account of the prevalence of malaria. In fact, my ancestor contracted malaria and died soon after his arrival. He had a younger brother who, when he heard the news, made up his mind to go to Yunnan and bring back the coffin of his brother. After working for several years to save up enough money for the trip, he set out, struggled through all kinds of difficulties in wild mountain country, and at last succeeded in having the coffin carried home. To accomplish this task, which to modern minds would appear quite unnecessary, he not only sacrificed his career, since he gave up his chance to take the government examinations, but even risked his life. In our family chronicle this exploit is written up as though it were the one really big thing which had been done in the family.

任何一个有机会观察乡村生活的人都不会不发觉，农民与土地有着紧密的关系。他们小心利用土地上长出的东西，又很仔细地将其返回土地。如此看来，人类生活并不是一个掠夺地力的过程，而是这有机循环中的一环。当生命离开身躯，尸体还要入土为安。人与土地之间似存在着一种紧密联系。这无疑解释了为什么人们快死时对回归故里一事这么看重，在什么地方出生，就要回到什么地方去。每个人都是生命长河的一部分，与土地自己的生命之流平行。

人和土地在乡土社会中有着强烈的情感联系，即一种桑梓情谊，“桑”和“梓”是古代人们种在家门口的两种树。[2]这使人想到，人同植物一样从地里吸取养料。当生命的春季过去、秋季到来时，他们必然要回归大地，正如落叶归根，滋养土地。这样的观念承认人与自然的真正纽带，强调了生命的根本统一。但是如果走向极端，这种情感可能变得无理甚至荒谬，比如，海外的华侨终日劳作，把钱一分一分攒起来寄回家里，死了也要大老远地把棺材运回家乡安葬，这种甚至连死后也要万本归原的愿望是西方人难以理解的，而在我们传统文化中却看得比什么都重要。我自己就有一个老祖，中了举，派到云南去监管采盐业。那时，云南是远疆，又有瘴气弥漫，相当危险。我那位老祖就受了瘴气的感染，到那里没多久就去世了。他的弟弟听到他的死讯后，决定去云南将哥哥的灵柩运回来。在辛苦数年攒足了路费后，弟弟出发了，穿过荒山老林，历尽艰辛，终于成功把棺材运回家乡。为了完成这项在现代人看来多此一举的使命，他不仅放弃了参加科举考试的机会，牺牲了自己的前途，还冒了生命危险。在我们的家谱上，此举被大书特书，仿佛是历代事业中最伟大的一项。

It seems to me that one does not understand what the underlying feeling here is if one does not see that this strong sense of the importance of kinship ties is extended to a symbolic kinship between man and the earth. Better not to leave one's own place, but, if one goes, one must come back. Coming back from Europe in the steerage during the war, I met Chinese peddlers who had been living for years in France selling a certain type of jade. They could speak nothing but Chinese and had taken no part in the life of this foreign land. Instead they had struggled to save every penny they could in order to send it home where their relatives put it into the building of fine houses. When the Nazis dosed the borders, they risked their very lives to see that the money got out, and now, old and worn out, they were going home, not to enjoy life but merely to die.

From the peasant's first act of the morning in collecting manure from the streets to the putting of a coffin in the ground, all is part of the same big cycle of nature and of man's attachment to the soil. And it is the strength of this relationship which to my mind has maintained Chinese culture throughout the years. I hope, however, the reader will not misunderstand me as advocating this type of attitude. I wish merely to emphasize the existence of this spirit in Chinese life and particularly in relation to the changes now taking place—changes which I call the process of "social erosion."

Among country children in my native area one of the most common names is Ah-kên ("The Root"). Man has roots. Individuals are like the branches of a tree which has grown up from its roots and which depends for its well-being on the strength of these same roots. For man the roots are the society from which he gets his material well-being and his education; they are the family, the village, the region, and the nation. These roots are something like what Lilienthal refers to in American life as "grass roots." From the point of view of society, whether human or plant, that which is taken away must eventually be returned. If basic elements are taken away by a "mining" process, then after a certain length of time the community will become bankrupt. The cycle of giving and taking away may become very complicated. The TVA represents the more complicated, the Chinese farm the simpler, form of the process.

在我看来，如果人们看不到对这种血统重要性的强烈感情已延伸到了人与土地的象征性亲缘关系，就不能理解其潜在的感受。人最好不要离开自己的乡土，如果要离开，就必须要回来。战时我乘坐最差舱位从欧洲回来时，遇到了一些曾在法国居住多年、以贩卖某种玉石为生的中国小贩。他们只会讲汉语，从未融入异乡的生活；相反，他们拼命攒下每一分钱，为的是寄回家里让亲属盖好房子。纳粹党封锁边境之后，他们冒着生命危险以保证钱安全寄出。现在，他们老了，精力耗尽了，踏上了归途，不是去享受生活，只是等待死亡的降临。

从农民清早上街拾粪，到送棺材入土，都是自然界同一个大循环中的一部分，也是人与土地的关系的一部分。在我看来，正是这种人地关系的力量支撑着这历久未衰的中国文化。不过，我希望读者不会误以为我在提倡这种拾粪运柩的人生态度，我只是想强调这种精神在国人生命中的存在，尤其是有关现在正在发生的变革，我把这种变革叫做“社会损蚀”。

在我的老家，农村孩子最常见的名字是“阿根”。人也有根，个人不过是根上长出的枝叶，生命之树的茂盛有赖于根。对于人来讲，根是他从中获得生长资料和教育文化的社会：小之一家一村，大之一乡一国。这些根类似于李林塞尔所指的美国生活中的“草根”。从社会的角度来看，无论是人还是植物，取之于一地的必须回之于一地。如果基本要素被“采矿般”地挖掘走了，那么一段时间之后，这个地方必会荒芜。供给和消耗的循环可能变得非常复杂。TVA计划代表这一过程较为复杂的形式，而中国农田是较为简单的。

The greater and more highly developed the cycle, the higher the standards of living; but, simple or complex, it must still remain a cycle of reciprocal action. The mining process is suicidal, for, though it may give returns for a while, eventually it exhausts all available resources, and the mining town becomes a ghost town. Thus it is clear a healthy community can survive only when it can draw adequate nourishment from its environment.

● THE DESERTERS—RURAL BOYS WHO DO NOT COME BACK HOME

In our traditional culture the men of talent were spread throughout the local communities. Recently I analyzed with Professor Quentin Pan the source of origin of nine hundred and fifteen scholars who passed the high-ranking imperial examinations (those above provincial rank). The distribution was as follows: 52.5 per cent came from the Chinese traditional town, 41.16 from rural areas, and 6.34 from intermediate small towns. If we divide the series according to provinces, the percentage from rural areas surpasses that from urban areas for four provinces in North China: Shantung, Anhwei, Shansi, and Honan. These statistics show that even in this field of activity, which requires long literary training, half of the students were at this time from rural areas. Still more significant is the question whether their fathers had literary degrees or not. This turns out to be about the same for rural as for urban areas, the ratio in the city being 68 to 33 and in the country 64 to 36 (the larger number applies to those whose fathers did have degrees).

This shows that, in China, men of ability and learning were not concentrated to a very large extent in the city as they are in the countries of the West. According to Sorokin's theory, in the West, unless a man becomes a city dweller, he will have no chance to rise.[3] But, in China, the tradition of "the leaves going back to the roots" seems to have helped to maintain the high quality of the rural population. People who attained high social honors still did not forget their place of origin and, when they were old at least, would come back and would do their best to make use of the prestige and advantages gained outside for the benefit of their home community. Thus, having one distinguished man in an area might lead to there being more, since this man would help others to get a start. Able men formerly did not leave their grass roots permanently. As a result not only did intellectual men share in the life of the countryside but they also helped to encourage others in the same region.

循环越大，程度越高，人民的生活水平就越高。但是，无论复杂与否，必须保持一种互惠行为的循环。采矿式的消耗是自杀性的，虽然一时会带来回报，但最终会耗尽所有可利用的资源，一个有着丰富矿藏的镇会变成死镇。因此，很明显，一个健康的社区只有从环境中获得适当的养料，才能生存下去。

● 逃亡者——不回家的乡村子弟

在我们的传统文化中，人才是分散在地方上的。最近潘光旦先生和我一同分析了915个通过了（乡试以上）科举考试的读书人（清朝贡生、举人和进士）的出身。他们的地域分布如下：52.5%出自城市，41.16%出自乡村，另有 6.34%出自介于城乡之间的市镇。如果再按省份来分，乡村百分比超过城市百分比的有山东、安徽、山西、河南四个北方省份。这些数字表明，即使需要很长时间文字训练才能考中的人才，竟有一半是从乡村出来的。更值得注意的是，我们所分析的人物中父亲已有功名和父亲没有功名的比例，城乡之间几乎相等，城市的比率是68∶33，乡村是64∶36（大数代表父亲已考取功名的人）。

以上事实表明，中国有才能和学问的人不像西方国家那样主要集中在城市。根据索罗金的理论，在西方，除非一个人变成城里人，否则不会有出人头地的机会。[4]但在中国，落叶归根的传统似乎为乡土社会保持着人才。即使飞黄腾达的人也不会忘记故土，至少是年老的时候，他们就会回来，利用自己在外面获得的声望和有利条件为家乡谋福利。这样，一地有了一个成名的人物，接下来就会人才辈出，因为这个人会帮助其他人成才，所谓“开了风气”。在以前，有能力的人不会永远脱离他们的“草根”。结果不仅是知识分子参与乡村的生活，而且还会鼓励当地的其他人参与。

Now the situation is quite changed. At the present time those whom the community supported in their youth no longer return in order to become useful to it. Recently we said goodbye to a number of college graduates who were threatened with unemployment. One of their teachers was urging them to go back to their own birthplace. All agreed that in principle this would be a good thing to do but said that, speaking realistically, they could not go back. And actually I do not know of one case where a graduate has returned to his own community. Instead they either managed finally to squeeze into positions in the city or remained unemployed, living with the help of friends. They were unable to go back to their homes not only because they felt unwilling to do so but because it would have been impractical for them to try to live there. At the time that they had left their homes there seems to have been some force from outside which pushed them out. Their parents, brothers, and other relatives had done their best to help them realize their dream of going to the city. In order that they might do so, some families even sold land or borrowed money. Yet, when the young people came to graduate from college, they were apt to find that these several years of absence had severed their links with the home community. In the country there are no jobs for college graduates. It is not so much that in the modern college the student may have learned Western science or technology as that he has become accustomed to a new way of life and to a system of ideas quite different from that found in the country. The change is enough to make him conscious of the fact that he is different. So the college graduate of today feels that in the country there is no one to talk with, no one who understands him, and he often even feels alienated from his own kin. If he does go back, he will not find a suitable job where he can apply the knowledge he gained in college, since Chinese colleges are not preparing men to work in rural areas. What he will have learned in the university is usually knowledge imported from the West. It is true that knowledge should have no national boundaries and that the need in present-day China to modernize quickly must be met by the introduction of Western knowledge. Modern knowledge must provide the plan for the reform of the traditional system in the rural areas. But the point is that the students who have been trained in the universities have usually failed to find a bridge by means of which they might bring over and apply their knowledge to their own communities. Without such a bridge, modern knowledge is ineffectually hanging in the air. And as a result the countryside, which is constantly sending forth its children, is losing both money and men.

现在情况则有所不同。目前，那些在青年时期曾受到过乡土社区培育的人已不再回去为其所用。最近有很多大学毕业生找不到工作，有一位老师劝他们回家乡去，他们原则上都能接受，但又非常现实地说他们回不去了。事实上我也没听说有一个人回去的。他们宁可待在城市里，费劲心思谋个职位，或无处供职，靠朋友资助为生。他们回不了家，这不仅是因为他们不愿，也是因为回家生活已经很不现实。在没有离乡之前，好像有一种外在的力量在推他们出来，他们的父母、兄弟和其他亲人也为他们想尽办法实现离乡的梦，有的甚至变卖田地或背负债务。当他们大学毕业时，他们发现几年的离乡生活已把他们同乡土的关系割断了。乡村没有大学毕业生的工作。这不仅仅是因为他们在学校学到了西方现代科技知识，更因为他们已经适应了那种与乡村生活截然不同的新的生活方式和观念，这一变化已足以使他觉得自己已有异于乡村人了。所以，今天的大学生毕业回到乡村后无人交流，没有人理解他，他自己竟然经常觉得被家人疏远了。即使他回到家乡，也找不到合适的工作，学校里学来的知识没有用武之地，因为中国的大学并不培养去乡村工作的人才。从大学里学到的东西常常是来自西方的知识。知识不应分国籍，我们也应该快速现代化，要现代化就要引入西方知识。现代知识必须提供乡村传统制度改良的方案。但问题是大学生无法找到一座桥梁能把他学到的东西介绍和运用到自己的家乡农村中去。没有这样的桥梁，现代知识只能徒劳地悬在空中。结果是不断输出子弟的乡村同时丧失了金钱和人才。

This holds true not only for most Chinese university students but also for the middle-school students. In Yunnan I studied a village near a walled town. A short distance from the village was an agricultural school. This village depended for its livelihood upon market gardening. The village gardeners used to point to the school farm and laugh, saying, "The teachers and students in that school plant their cabbages like flowers. That doesn't pay." On the other hand, the teachers, who had been trained in modern methods of agriculture, told us that the cabbages grown by the villagers could be improved, and they even demonstrated to us improved varieties. There was truth on both sides. Unfortunately the students when they left school would not be able to continue using modern techniques or experimental methods, since their families neither could afford nor did they wish to do so. There seems to be an unbridged gap between the school and the farmer. The farmer is not prepared to learn from the school. As a result the graduates of this agricultural school either became teachers in the primary grades or entered the military academy to become officers, or some of them did nothing at all and simply spent their time loafing around the district town. Parents who send their children to school believe, according to the traditional idea, that education will give promotion to a higher social level. But they are not rich enough to enable their children to complete the education which is necessary to permit a young man to take a job in the big cities. On the other hand, for young men who have passed a number of years in being educated, to go back to working in the fields would be a disgrace in which the family would share. So they are caught and are unable to go forward or back. It seems that during the last few decades the army and party (Kuomintang) organizations have attracted people of this sort; this explains to a certain extent, I believe, modern Chinese Fascistic tendencies. It reminds one of the situation in Japan before the war, where young men from rural areas frustrated in other careers became part of the political and military machine and developed extremist ideas which sometimes even led to irresponsible attempts to seize power. Formerly, the traditional educational system took care of such people by enabling them to come up for examinations, the passing of which gave some official status and enabled them to achieve satisfactory social positions in the community as petty gentry. Moreover, they might keep on working and hope to pass a higher examination. But changes in the present educational system and the gap between the modernized city and education in the interior now all combine to frustrate their ambitions.

不仅大学生，中学生也是如此。我曾对云南一个县城附近的村子作过研究。村子不远有个农业学校。这个村子依靠市场园艺业营生。村里的菜农常指着学校的农场笑着说：“学校的老师和学生种菜像是种花，那可挣不到钱。”另一方面，受过现代农业种植技术培训的老师则告诉我们，乡下人种的菜大可以改进，甚至向我们展示改良的品种。实际上他们各有道理。不幸的是，学生离开校园后无法再运用现代技术和实验方法，因为家里没有本钱也不愿意让他们这么做。学校和农场之间好像有一条无法逾越的鸿沟。乡下人不想向学校学习，结果，这个学校的毕业生有的当了小学教员，有些转入军校当军官，有些就什么都不干，只是在县城附近闲逛鬼混。送孩子上学的父母依照传统观念认为，上了学就能提高社会地位，但是他们的经济条件又不允许让孩子完成能在大都市工作的必要学业。另一方面，这些年轻人认为，受过多年教育之后又回到家乡种地，对自己、对家庭都不体面，所以他们进退两难。似乎最近几十年来，参军和加入国民党吸引着这些年轻人，我认为这在某种程度上为现代中国的法西斯倾向提供了注解。这使人联想起战前日本的情形：一些在其他职业中遭到失败的乡村年轻人变成政治和军事机器的一部分，产生了极端主义观念，甚至导致不负责任地攫取权力。在过去，传统的教育制度给这些人提供关照，让他们通过考试来做官、成为小士绅，从而在社区里获得更高的社会地位。他们也许还会继续努力来通过更高级的考试。但是目前教育制度的变化和现代都市与内地教育之间的鸿沟共同破灭了他们的理想。

College graduates have more chance for employment in the city than do the graduates of the middle schools, to be sure, but even for them the problem is essentially similar. In the first place, there is little opportunity for them to reform the traditional ways of doing things by using the modern methods in which they have been trained, and, second, since there is no way for them to earn a living through productive activities, they must do so by striving for power and influence in the political field. Thus in a poor community there is always the burden of maintaining a huge number of political appointees in administrative offices. This explains some of the inefficiency of our administration. Thus I am afraid that the present educational system has not successfully carried out its function of modernizing China but on the contrary has drained off the sons of the well-to-do farming class from the country and brought them to town without providing them with useful employment there. This I call the "process of social erosion."

● THE PARASITIC LAYER

Some may think that modernization always implies urbanization. Modern civilization is the product of the city, and the city population must of necessity come from the country, since the city cannot replace itself. In the country the able man does not have a chance to develop his abilities, but, once he comes to the city, he finds opportunities for developing them. In this sense the city is the place where human capabilities may be realized. Potential talents of the countryside, we may say, can be developed only through the process of urbanization. But this principle does not hold entirely for China. I mentioned above Lilienthal's work. From what he says I suspect that this principle is not always true for America either. Especially in the south of the United States there seems to have been going on a somewhat similar process of social erosion. As in China, the process of organic circulation has been disrupted, and men and wealth have been constantly drained away. The TVA, as I understand it, aims, by introducing modern knowledge, to restore this circulation and, by creating the bridge I spoke of above, to restore prosperity. To create a bridge, there is needed not only knowledge of modern techniques but a utilization of the human element in such a way that those who have received a modern education will be able to go back and serve their own communities. Without such a bridge, the development of the city will cause a dislocation of the social mechanism.

在城市里，大学生当然比中学生有更多的就业机会，但即使对大学生来讲，问题基本上仍是相似的。首先，他们几乎没有机会利用学过的现代方法改革传统的行为方式。其次，他们不能通过生产活动来谋生，只能通过在政治领域获得权力和影响。因此贫穷的社区常常要背上养活大批政客的负担，这也部分解释了为什么我们的管理低效。所以，现在的教育制度恐怕没有发挥使中国实现现代化的作用，反而使小康农家的子弟流入城市，但城市又不能为他们提供有价值的就业。我称此为“社会损蚀过程”。

● 寄生阶层

也许有人认为现代化总是意味着都市化。现代文明是都市的产物，都市人口必然来自乡村，因为都市人口无法自我补充。人才在乡村没有发展的机会，但是到了城市后，他就有机会自我发展。从这个意义上讲，城市是发挥才能的地方。可以说，乡村潜在的人才只有在都市化进程中才能得到发展，但是中国又不完全如此。我在前面提到过李林塞尔的计划。从他的话中，我猜想这一原则在美国也不是永远正确，特别是在美国南方，发生着与中国相似的社会损蚀。在中国，有机循环受到破坏，人力和财富被不断地掠夺。我理解，TVA计划的目标是通过引进现代知识来恢复这一循环，通过搭一座我前面讲到的桥来恢复繁荣。建一座桥，不仅需要现代技术，还需要人力因素，即那些接受现代教育的人回归本土为社区服务。没有这样的桥，城市的发展将引起社会机制的混乱。

At present the growth of great urban centers is like a tumor from which China is suffering. The economic aspects of the unfavorable relations between city and country I explained in the foregoing chapter. Here I merely wish to add a cultural perspective to the picture. It is not correct to my mind to take the modern city as representing Western civilization and the rural areas as representing the traditional Chinese civilization. In my opinion the modern Chinese city is the product of the contact between East and West. Those individuals who, through contact with Western culture, have changed their way of life and their way of thinking will not find themselves able any longer to live in the country. Some portion of them will be taken in by newly developing urban enterprises. But, since such enterprises are limited in number, there will be sure to be some who are left out to roam about without being attached to anything. Thus there develops a new type of person, one who avoids productive work in either city or country but rather goes in for seizing political power. This new type of person is both directly and indirectly recruited from the country. Before the contact with the West, the examination system would have taken care of these people, and they would have continued to live in the country or small towns as gentry. Being versed in the classical Confucian philosophy, they performed the function of the "man who knows." It is true indeed that such men were parasitic in so far as they derived their support from the working people, living mainly as they did on their rent from land. But, since they continued to live in the country, there was at least no large outgo of wealth from the countryside.

If in Chinese modern cities industrial enterprises might be quickly developed, the elements that have been taken in from the countryside might find their proper place. Although the countryside would then still suffer from a certain measure of "erosion," this would be compensated for by the prosperity of the city. And, like TVA in America, China might be enabled to turn back benefits from the city to the country. If this were so, the situation in China would be very different. Unfortunately China is still in the status of a semicolony. Large-scale industrial development is not feasible. The essence of Western civilization, industrialism, has not been really introduced as yet. What has been brought in is the superstructure of the more superficial elements of this civilization, including the desire for material comforts and satisfactions. But there has not been constructed as yet the material foundation on the basis of which these things would make sense. This lack of foundation creates a special class of people who live superficially in Western culture but without a traditional base from either the West or the East. These are both the victims and the directors of China's tragedy.

目前大都市化正成为中国的疾患。我在前一章节从经济角度讲过不尽如人意的城乡关系，现在只想加上文化角度。如果说现代都市代表着西方文明，乡村社区代表着传统中国文明，我认为这一观点是不正确的。我认为，中国的现代都市是东西方接触的结果。那些通过接触西方文化改变了生活和思维方式的人发现，他们自己再也不能生活在乡村了。他们中的一部分被新发展的都市企业吸收。但是由于这样的企业数量有限，必然有一部分人游离于任何组织之外。这样就产生了一类新人，他们既不在城市也不在乡村从事生产活动，而是追求政治权力。这类新人直接或间接来自乡村。在与西方接触之前，科举制度吸住了这些人，使得他们可以作为士绅在乡村或县城生存下去。他们精通传统儒家哲学的教育，执行身为“知者”的社会任务。这类人确实是一种寄生的人，因为他们是从劳动人民那里得到给养，靠收取地租来生活。但是，由于他们继续生活在乡村，所以至少财富没有大规模外流。

如果中国都市里的生产事业发展得快，从乡村吸收来的人可能会找到合适的位置。虽然乡村仍在某种程度上遭受着“损蚀”，但会被城市的繁荣所补偿。像美国的TVA计划那样，中国也许能够把利益从城市返回到乡村。果真如此，中国的情况就大不一样了。不幸的是，中国仍处在半殖民地的地位，大规模的产业发展不大可行。西方文明的本质——工业主义还没有被真正地引进，引进的是其表面或上层的因素，包括对物质享受和满足的渴望，但是还没有建立起能使这些变得有意义的物质基础。这种基础的缺乏制造了一个表面上生活在西方文化中，但又没有东西方传统基础的特殊阶层。他们是中国悲剧中的主角和导演。

● BENEATH THE FLOOD

Erosion of land takes place when the land is bare of grass and tree cover and thus not able to hold water. Then floods follow and bring disaster to the people. Social erosion has a similar effect, causing an exodus of the population. In the process of social erosion, at first only the top layers are carried away, those economically well-to-do and better educated who no longer choose to remain. But, as both wealthy and able men are washed away in this fashion, the pressure of city industry continues with this fact to press the country people still further down into poverty. Well-to-do people who remain become poorer. And the really poor can no longer remain but must desert the land. Movement away thus comes from both upper and lower levels, leaving behind only the middle class of peasants.

As for the elements mentioned above who are left outside of productive work, they tend to form a new class of organized parasites. Since villagers are both naive and not very well organized, they may easily become the prey of such people. When I was in a village one time a roving individual came and tried to blackmail my landlord, because, he said, my landlord's son, who had left military school, was a deserter. Actually the boy had done nothing wrong, and the man was simply trying to work a racket. I said to this man, "You come from the country yourself. How would you like it if someone like you came to your village and tried to bully and blackmail the people there?" He could not find an answer. I felt that the man himself was rather pathetic, a dislocated drifting individual. But it is people such as this who have aroused the hatred of the peasants. The lot of the conscript is a hard one also. The government takes all the able-bodied men from the country and enlists them. But, when these men are discharged, no one pays any attention to them. Country people say that those who have gone as soldiers will never return to farming. Once enlisted, they become disorganized and are no longer accustomed to obedience but rather to looting and other wild behavior. Thus conscription accelerates the processes of social erosion. The banks are broken and a flood results: in this case, peasant revolt. The disorganization of life, economic, political, and moral, has confronted China with needs for new leadership and reform.

● 在洪流的冲洗下

当土地缺乏植被不能保持水分时，就会发生土地的损蚀，接着就会有洪水的到来，给人们带来灾难。社会损蚀具有相似的后果，造成人口大量流亡。在社会损蚀的过程中，起初只有最顶层的人离开，他们在经济上比较富裕，受过较好的教育，不愿意继续留在乡村。但是由于富有和有能力的人都离开乡村，加上都市工业势力的压迫，使得乡村开始变得贫困。小康之家降为穷户，而穷户再也支撑不住，开始离乡。这样的转变发生在贫富两极，中间阶层则足以维持。

我们在前面曾经讲到不从事生产活动的人，他们试图组成一个新的有组织的寄生阶层。由于村民单纯幼稚，又缺乏良好的组织，他们轻易就会成为这一阶层的牺牲品。有一次我在一个村子时，一个游手好闲的人想敲诈我的房东，他说房东离开军校的儿子是个逃兵。实际上房东的儿子并没做什么坏事，那个人只不过想找碴捣乱。我对他说：“你不也是来自乡村吗？如果有人像你这样到你的乡村去敲诈，你觉得怎样？”他无言以对。我觉得他自己很可怜，是一个被命运抛弃的人。但是正是这样的人引起了农民的仇恨。参军入伍也是一个艰难的问题。政府把所有身强力壮的人都征去当兵，退伍时却没有一个人来关心他们。乡下人说那些去当兵的人永远也不会再回来种地。入伍之后，他们变得涣散不羁，不再循规蹈矩，而沉沦于抢劫掠夺等野蛮行径。征兵因而加速了社会损蚀的进程。农民如决堤的洪流般起来反抗。中国面临着生活、经济、政治、道德的混乱，她需要新的领导和改革。

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[1] According to the Book of Poetry one should revere the sang and the tzu because they symbolized parental and even ancestral ties. Since then the phrase has come to stand for a man's attachment to his own region and particularly to his own homestead.

[2] 据《诗经》记载，人们应该尊敬桑和梓，因为它们象征着与父辈甚至是祖辈的联系。从那时起，“桑梓”开始指代一个人对他的家乡——尤其是他的家园的眷恋之情。

[3] Pitirim A. Sorokin, Social Mobility (Microfilm Collection, University of Chicago Library, 1927).

[4] 《社会流动》，彼蒂里姆·索罗金著，微缩版，芝加哥大学图书馆，1927年。