1. For an early formulation of the debate, see Fairbank, John King, The United States and China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1948)Google Scholar; and Fitzgerald, C. P., The Birth of Communist China (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964).Google Scholar

2. See Parish, William L. and Whyte, Martin K., Family and Village in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978)Google Scholar; Lieberthal, Kenneth P., Revolution and Tradition in Tientsin (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Croll, Elisabeth, The Politics of Marriage in Contemporary China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Walder, Andrew G., “Organized dependency and cultures of authority in Chinese industry, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 1 (11 1983), pp. 51–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. The principal sources for this article are provincial newspapers and radio broadcasts. There is of course a serious question to be raised about the reliability of the Chinese media in reporting rural violence: How much accuracy can we expect in the description of what are often explicitly denounced as counter-revolutionary incidents? The same problem occurs in research on “heterodox” groups in traditional China, and is an almost unavoidable occupational hazard in the study of any dissident activities for which the documentation from the government side greatly outweighs that from the rebels themselves. Still, although exaggeration and embellishment is to be anticipated, I believe that the general picture presented is most probably credible. Informal interviews conducted in China in 1979–84 further convinced me of the veracity of press reports about rural violence under socialism.

4. Wolf, Eric R., Peasant Wars in the Twentieth Century (New York: Harper and Row, 1969)Google Scholar; Migdal, Joel S., Peasants, Politics and Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Scott, James C., The Moral Economy of the Peasant (New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press, 1976)Google Scholar; and Tilly, Charles, Tilly, Louise and Tilly, Richard, The Rebellious Century (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Tilly, Charles, “Rural collective action in modern Europe,” in Spielberg, Joseph and Whiteford, Scott (eds.). Forging Nations: A Comparative View of Rural Ferment and Revolt (East Lansing, Mi.: Michigan State University Press, 1976), pp. 9–40.Google Scholar

6. Renmin ribao (People's Daily) (Beijing), 11 03 1951Google Scholar; Xinhua News Agency. (Shanghai), 3 05 1951Google Scholar, in Survey of China Mainland Press (SCMP), No. 102, p. 49Google Scholar; Wen Hui Bao. (Hong Kong), 8 08 1951Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 157, pp. 27–29Google Scholar; Nanfang rihao (Southern Daily) (Guangzhou), 6 06 1953Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 650 supplement, pp. v–viGoogle Scholar; Guangming rihao (Brighi and Clear Daily) 4 07 1955.Google Scholar For more information on the issue of collaboration between the sects (especially the Yiguan Dao) and Japanese or Kuomintang forces, see Noritada, Kubo, Chūkyō no shūkyō seikaku to minshu dōkyō [The Chinese Communists' Religious Policy and Popular Daoism], Tōyō Bunka, No. 11 (1952), pp. 1–26Google Scholar; Ikkandō ni tsuite [Concerning the Yiguan Dao], Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo, Kiyō No. 4 (1953), pp. 173–249Google Scholar; Ikkando hōkō [Further research on the Yiguan Dao], ibid. No. 11 (1956), pp. 179–212. The last article also contains a Japanese translation of a pamphlet entitled Yiguan Dao shi shemma dongxi? [What Sort of Thing is the Yiguan Dao?], published in China in August 1956.

7. Jiefang rihao, (Liberation Daily) (Shanghai), 8 06 1953Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 628 supplement, p. v.Google Scholar

8. Ibid. pp. v–x.

9. Ibid. 5 June 1953, in SCMP, No. 628 supplement, p. ii.

10. Da gong bao (The Worker) (Hong Kong), 8 12 1950Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 26, p. 15.Google Scholar

11. Ezra Vogel writes of Guangzhou that “by late 1951, most former secret society members were afraid to have contact with their former associates.” See Vogel, , Canton Under Communism (Cambridge. Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969), p. 65.Google Scholar And Kenneth Lieberthal writes of Tianjin that “during the Suppression of the Counterrevolutionaries Campaign in the spring of 1951, the Communists publicly executed a number of people whom they identified as former coolie association heads and secret society leaders. It seems reasonable to speculate that this campaign marked the last phase of the CCP's efforts to eradicate the secret society leadership in Tientsin, although the influence of the secret society mentality undoubtedly lingered on in the minds of many for a long time.” See Lieberthal, , Revolution and Tradition, p. 11.Google Scholar That sects and secret societies continued their activities in many urban centres is shown in Changzhou gongren bao (Changzhou Worker) (Changzhou), 19 09 1956Google Scholar, in Union Research Institute (URI) Classified Files microfilm reel. No. E18; Liaoning ribao, (Liaoning Daily) (Shenyang), 22 10 1956.Google Scholar in URI files. No. E18; Changjiang ribao (Changjiang Daily) (Hankou), 29 09 1957Google Scholar, in URI files, No. E45; Zhejiang ribao (Zhejiang Daily) (Hangzhou), 9 10 1957Google Scholar, in URI files. No. E45. Most recently, the city of Tianjin has seen a revival of secret societies. Unemployed youths were reported in September 1983 to be operating in “hooligan gangs similar to the red and green gangs of old China.” [Tianjin ribao (Tianjin Daily) 25 09 1983, p. 1Google Scholar in Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: China (FBIS). 19 10 1983, p. R5.]Google Scholar That same month, public security officers cracked down on Yiguan Dao activitist in Tianjin (ibid. 5 September 1983, in FBIS, 4 October 1983: p. Rl).

12. Jiefang ribao, 8 06 1953Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 628 supplement, p. xii.

13. Changjiang ribao, 15 03 1952Google Scholar, in URI files, No. E4 and SCMP, No. 309 pp. 16–18.

14. Allegiance to Guan Gong (the “God of War”) was not uncommon among these groups. In May 1951, for example, an Yiguan Dao sect in Shanghai was reported to have changed its name to the “Guan Gong Society.” See Xinhua (Shanghai), 3 05 1951Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 102, p. 49.

15. Changjiang ribao, 15 03 1952, in URI files, No. E4.Google Scholar

16. Ibid. 25 August 1951.

17. Renmin ribao, 29 11 1951.Google Scholar

18. Gunsu ribao (Gansu Doily) (Lanzhou), 27 09 1951Google Scholar, in URI files. No. A7.

19. Qunzhong ribao (Masses Daily) (Xi'an), 13 09 1952Google Scholar, in URI files. No. A7.

20. Hebei ribao (Hebei Daily) (Baoding), 30 11 1954Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,001, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

21. Xinhua (Baoding), 16 06 1955Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,078, pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

22. Xinhua (Taiyuan), 16 10 1955Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,158, p. 24.Google Scholar

23. Heilongjiang ribao (Heilongjiang Daily) (Harbin), 7 03 1959Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,775, pp. 14–16.Google Scholar

24. In 1954–55 Daoist sects in Guangdong were said to have spread a rumour that holy water in Haifeng county contained magical curative properties. For months as many as 2,000 people a day thronged to the holy site from the surrounding 80 counties. Guangming ribao, 4 07 1955.Google Scholar

25. Xinhua (Guangzhou), 2 08 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,588, pp. 31–32.Google Scholar A Guanyin festival that did erupt in anti-state violence is described in Guizhou ribao (Guizhou Daily), (Guiyang), 19 08 1957.Google Scholar

26. Renmin ribao, 1 07 1955.Google Scholar

27. Xinhua (Baoding), 16 06 1955Google Scholar; Gansu ribao, 21 01 1955Google Scholar in URI files. No. A31; Zhongguo aingnian (Chinese Youth) 1 02 1955Google Scholar, in URI files, No. A31; Renmin ribao, 18 03 1955.Google Scholar

28. Renmin ribao, 1 07 1955.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., 6 July 1955.

30. Xinhua (Baoding), 16 06 1955Google Scholar; Xinhua (Taiyuan), 16 10 1955.Google Scholar

31. Xinhua (Guangzhou), 2 08 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,588, pp. 31–32.Google Scholar For a similar incident in which followers of a 16 year-old “emperor” killed cadres in an armed attack, see Xi'an ribao (Xi'an Daily) 18 08 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,641, pp. 14–15Google Scholar; Shaanxi ribao, (Shaanxi Daily) (Xi'an), 11 02 1958Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,740, p. 12.Google Scholar

32. Sichuan ribao (Sichuan Daily) (Chengdu), 31 08 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,647, pp. 21–24.Google Scholar

33. Xinhua (Chengdu), 1 08 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,588, p. 32Google Scholar; Da gong bao (Beijing), 2 08 1957Google Scholar, in URI files, No. A64.

34. For additional cases, see Sichuan ribao, 22 08 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1, 652, p. 27Google Scholar; Guizhou ribao (Guiyang), 14 08 1957, in URI files, No. E45Google Scholar; Qunzhong ribao, (Masses Daily), (Chengde), 19 12 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,729, pp. 21–22Google Scholar; Jilin ribao (Jilin Daily) (Changchun), 20 03 1958Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1, 770. pp. 19–20Google Scholar; Zhejiang ribao, 9 10 1957, in URI file. No. E45.Google Scholar

35. Changjiang ribao (Wuhan), 18 09 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,663, pp. 35–36.Google Scholar

36. Hubei ribao (Hubei Daily) (Hankou), 28 09 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,729, pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

37. Changjiang ribao, 27 09 1958Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,915, pp. 13–14.Google Scholar

38. For the religious appeal of the sects in an earlier period of Chinese history, see Overmyer, Daniel L., Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late Traditional China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39. Dazhong ribao (Great Masses Daily) (Jinan), 13 08 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,652, pp. 20–21.Google Scholar For titles of religious scriptures of an Yiguan Dao sect in Shanxi, see Guangming ribao, 29 08 1955.Google Scholar

40. Changjiang ribao, 15 03 1952Google Scholar; Qunzhong ribao, 19 12 1957.Google Scholar

41. Jiangxi ribao (Jiangxi Daily) (Nanchang), 16 06 1958Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,875, p. 17.Google Scholar

42. Guangming ribao, 9 09 1957.Google Scholar

43. Ibid.

44. Ibid. 4 July 1955.

45. Shanxi ribao (Shanxi Daily) (Taiyuan), 6 01 1955Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 985, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

46. Qinghai ribao (Qinghai Daily) (Xining), 17 09 1957Google Scholar, in SCMP, No. 1,647, p. 10.Google Scholar

47. For more on the social composition of “traditional” sectarian groups, see Naquin, Susan, Millenarian Rebellion in China: The Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), pp. 38–39Google Scholar; and Shantung Rebellion: The Wang Lun Uprising of 1774 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 43–45.Google Scholar

48. For an example of an alliance between members of the rural elite and local “riff-raff” in what the Qing state pronounced a “heterodox rebellion,” see Perry, Elizabeth J. and Chang, Tom, “The mystery of Yellow Cliff: a controversial ‘rebellion’ in the late Qing,” Modern China (04 1980), pp. 123–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. On the Red Spears, see Perry, Elizabeth J., Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980), Ch. 5.Google Scholar An interesting account of Red Spear resistance in the early months of the People's Republic appears in British Foreign Office records FO371, piece No. 83271, document No. FC101020/5. The Red Spears are described as having “decided to join hands with the landlords in an attempt to upset the communist agrarian policy.” My thanks to Bruce Cumings for sharing this report with me.

50. For a secret society based on marketing networks, see Hsieh, Winston, “Triads, salt smugglers and local uprisings,” in Chesneaux, Jean (ed.), Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972), pp. 145–64.Google Scholar For village-based cases, see Hofheinz, Roy Jr., The Broken Wave (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977), pp. 203–206CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Bianco, Lucien, “Secret societies and peasant self-defense, 1921–23,”Google Scholar in Chesneaux, , (ed.). Popular Movements, pp. 213–24.Google Scholar For a lineage-based case, see Marks, Robert, “Class relations and the origins of the rural revolution in a South China county,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 15, No. 1 (01–02 1983), pp. 36–49.Google Scholar

51. See Shue, Vivienne, Peasant China in Transition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).Google Scholar

52. This point is also made in Burns, John P., Chinese Peasant Interest Articulation, 1949–1974, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1979, pp. 19, 304 and 350.Google Scholar

53. Lewis, John Wilson, “The leadership doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party: the lesson of the people's commune,” Asian Survey, No. 3. (03 1963), p. 463.Google Scholar

54. Parish, and Whyte, , Family and Village, p. 302.Google Scholar

55. Skinner, G. William, “Marketing and social structure in rural China,” Journal of Asian Studies. No. 24 (1964), pp. 3–43 and No. 24 (1965), pp. 195–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56. Chen, C. S. (ed.). Rural People's Communes in Lien-chiang (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1969), p. 97.Google Scholar

57. Ibid. p. 110.

58. Nanfang ribao (Guangzhou), 18 04 1964.Google Scholar

59. See, e.g. Wen, Chung, China Tames Her Rivers (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1972), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

60. Chen, (ed.), Rural People's Communes, p. 110Google Scholar

61. Certainly there were exceptions to this picture of loyal cadres. A 1961 military investigation in Xiayi, Henan revealed, for example, that, virtually all the local militia leaders were descended from “ruffians, bandits, puppet troops and rightists.” In Shangcheng county, 84% of the heads of commune armed forces, 73% of militia regiment commanders and 74% of militia battalion commanders were found to have committed “seriously unlawful acts.” See Cheng, J. Chester (ed.). The Politics of the Chinese Red Army (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1966), p. 119.Google Scholar However, the majority of incidents reported in this highly classified document, the Gongzuo tongxun (Work Bulletin) depict local cadres who duly enforced state policies in the face of restive peasants. (See ibid. pp. 431–32).

62. Renmin ribao, 29 07 1981.Google Scholar

63. Ningxia ribao (Ningxia Daily) (Yinchuan), 10 05 1982, p. 3 in FBIS, 25 May 1982, pp. T3–4.Google Scholar

64. Xinhua, (Beijing), 10 03 1983, in FBIS, 11 March 1983, p. K16.Google Scholar

65. Ibid. 25 August 1981 in FBIS, 26 August 1981, p. K2.

66. Field work in Anhui and Jiangsu, summer of 1984.

67. Gui-hou Provincial Service (Guiyang), 24 04 1981, in FBIS, 27 04 1981, p. Q1.Google Scholar

68. For examples of traditional Huaibei feuds, see Perry, , Rebels and Revolutionaries, pp. 74–80.Google Scholar

69. Anhui Provincial Service (Hefei), 23 08 1979Google Scholar, in FBIS, 27 08 1979, p. O1Google Scholar. A similar case was reported in Hong'an county, Hubei in late 1983. A newly-wed woman, surnamed “He,” fought with her husband and then committed suicide. Her family amassed more than 100 He's who marched to the husband's home and caused more than 4,700 yuan in damages. See Zhongguo nongmin bao (Chinese Peasant Gazette), 20 10 1983, p. 1.Google Scholar

70. Anhui Provincial Service, 3 02 1980Google Scholar, in FBIS, 5 02 1980, p. O3.Google Scholar

71. Shandong Provincial Service (Jinan), 7 11 1979Google Scholar, in FBIS, 14 11 1979, p. O3Google Scholar; Guangdong Provincial Service (Guangzhou), 26 10 1980Google Scholar, in FBIS, 27 10 1980, p. P2Google Scholar; Anhui Provincial Service, 14 12 1980Google Scholar, in FBIS, 19 12 1980, p. O3 and 3 February 1980Google Scholar, in FBIS, 5 02 1980, pp. O2–3Google Scholar; Hunan Provincial Service (Changsha), 14 12 1981Google Scholar, in FBIS, 17 12 1981, pp. K16–18Google Scholar; Shanxi Provincial Service (Taiyuan), 12 11 1982Google Scholar, in Joint Publications Research Service: Agriculture, No. 244, pp. 152–53.Google Scholar

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73. A further discussion of cadre discontent can be found in Latham, Richard, “The implications of rural reforms for grassroots cadres,” in Perry, Elizabeth J. and Wong, Christine (eds.), The Political Economy of Reform in Post-Mao China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985).Google Scholar

74. On traditional armed feuds, see Lamley, Harry J., “Hsieh-tou: the pathology of violence in Southeastern China,” Ch'ing-shih Wen-t'i, Vol. 3, No. 7 (1977), pp. 1–39.Google Scholar

75. Hainan Island Service (Haikou), 21 03 1980Google Scholar, in FBIS, 25 03 1980, p. P7.Google Scholar

76. Hainan ribao (Haikou), 18 09 1980, p. 1Google Scholar in FBIS, 15 10 1980, pp. P4–5.Google Scholar

77. Hainan Island Service, 11 09 1981Google Scholar, in FBIS, 14 09 1981, p. P4.Google Scholar

78. Hunan Provincial Service, 5 04 1981Google Scholar, in FBIS, 8 04 1981, p. P14.Google Scholar

79. Hainan Island Service, 19 10 1981Google Scholar, in FBIS, 23 10 1981, pp. P1–2.Google Scholar

80. Nanfang ribao (Guangzhou), 5 11 1981, p. 2.Google Scholar

81. Zhongguo nongmin bao, 18 10 1983, p. 3Google Scholar; 20 October 1983, p. 1.

82. Nanfang ribao, 26 01 1983, p. 2Google Scholar. My thanks to Graham Johnson for bringing this article to my attention.

83. Zhongguo nongmin bao, 18 10 1983, p. 3.Google Scholar

84. On 19 August 1981, an Anhui radio broadcast reported a Daoist priest on Mt Jiuhua who claimed to be a 123 year-old immortal “sent by the Jade Emperor to heal the sick.” His promises attracted a sizeable crowd. Similarly, on 14 December 1980, a Zhejiang broadcast reported that a production team head in Yiwu county, claiming to be a demi-god, had set up a formal healing practice. After a patient lit three sticks of incense, the team head would have visions and draw spells on paper. Then he would burn the paper and give his patients the ashes as a cure. See Inside China Mainland, 12 1981, p. 10.Google Scholar

85. Guangming ribao, 20 04 1981, p. 3.Google Scholar

86. An Inner Mongolia radio broadcast on 1 July 1980, reported that a spring drought had stimulated a series of mass worship services in the affected areas. Inside China Mainland, 12 1981, p. 9.Google Scholar

87. Guangming ribao, 20 04 1981, p. 3Google Scholar; Ban yue tan (Bimonthly Commentary) 25 12 1982Google Scholar, in FBIS, 17 01 1983, p. K18.Google Scholar

88. China Daily (Beijing), 3 11 1983, p. 4.Google Scholar

89. Nanfang ribao, 5 05 1981, p. 2Google Scholar in FBIS, 20 05 1981, p. PI. Emphasis added.Google Scholar

90. Ibid. p. P2.

91. Zhongguo nongmin bao, 20 10 1983, p. 1.Google Scholar

92. Ban yue tan, 25 12 1982.Google Scholar

93. Renmin ribao, 12 07 1982Google Scholar; also cited in Wen Hui Bao (Shanghai), 11 10 1982, p. 3.Google Scholar

94. Xinhua (Beijing), 2 09 1983Google Scholar in FBIS, 16 09 1983, p. K12.Google Scholar

95. Beijing Review, 23 04 1984, pp. 19–21.Google Scholar

96. Renmin ribao, 24 04 1984, p. 2.Google Scholar

97. Fujian ribao (Fujian Daily) 2 04 1984Google Scholar. My thanks to Stephen Averill for showing me this article.

98. See Tilly, Charles, “Rural collective action.” An earlier version of the analysis appears in Tilly, “Collective violence in European perspective,” in Graham, Hugh Davis and Gurr, Ted Robert (eds.), The History of Violence in America (New York: Bantam, 1969), pp. 28–38.Google Scholar

99. The threat of such a possibility was seen in the winter of 1979 when thousands of peasants demonstrated in the streets of Beijing, carrying banners and shouting slogans calling for an end to hunger and injustice. On 14 January a group of 100 or so angry peasants yelling “We're tired of being hungry” and “Down with oppression” tried to storm the residence of then Party Chairman Hua Guofeng in an unsuccessful attempt to present their grievances directly to him. See the reports by Agence France Presse correspondents Georges Biannic and Deron, Francis in FBIS, 9 01 1979, p. E1Google Scholar, 15 January 1979, p. E1, 22 January 1979, p. E1, 23 January 1979, p. E2, 25 January 1979, p. E2.