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This classic text by Fei Xiaotong, China's finest social scientist, was first published in 1947 and is Fei's chief theoretical statement about the distinctive characteristics of Chinese society. Written in Chinese from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience, "From the Soil" describes the contrasting organizational principles of Chinese and Western societies, thereby conveying the essential features of both. Fei shows how these unique features reflect and are reflected in the moral and ethical characters of people in these societies. This profound, challenging book is both succinct and accessible. In its first complete English-language edition, it is likely to have a wide impact on Western social theorists. Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng's translation captures Fei's jargonless, straightforward style of writing. Their introduction describes Fei's education and career as a sociologist, the fate of his writings on and off the Mainland, and the sociological significance of his analysis. The translators' epilogue highlights the social reforms for China that Fei drew from his analysis and advocated in a companion text written in the same period.

From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society

Foreword

Introduction: Fei Xiaotong and the Beginnings

of a Chinese Sociology, by Gary G. Hamilton

and Wang Zheng



1. Special Characteristics of Rural Society

2. Bringing Literacy to the Countryside

3* More Thoughts on Bringing Literacy to

the Countryside

4* Chaxugeju: The Differential Mode of Association

5* The Morality of Personal Relationships

6. Patrilineages

7* "Between Men and Women, There Are

Only Differences"

8. A Rule of Ritual

9* A Society without Litigation

10. An Inactive Government

11. Rule by Elders

12. Consanguinity and Regionalism

13. Separating Names from Reality

14. From Desire to Necessity



Epilogue: Sociology and the Reconstruction

of Rural China, by Gary G. Hamilton and

WangZheng

Glossary

Index