The Survival of Peasants in Ancient China

In ancient times, peasants were at the bottom of the social ladder. They not only had to engage in agricultural production and pay taxes, but also had to undertake the obligation of national construction, which was corvée service. Sometimes, due to the malicious encroachment of land by aristocratic bureaucrats and big families, the peasants were often left with nothing overnight and had to rent the land of the big families, thus accepting secondary exploitation.

Thus, the happiness of the peasants in ancient China mainly depended on factors such as the amount of taxes, the amount of corvée service, the extent of land annexation, and the existence of racial discrimination policies.

Expanded Information

Among the people of China, there are those who look up to the peasants and those who look down on them. However, the number of people who look down on them is far greater than those who look up. Our farmers are generally discriminated against, as can be seen from the situation of migrant workers.

One is the economic aspect, such as poor wages and benefits; the second is the social aspect, for example, in some places, the children of migrant workers are often not allowed to enter the local ordinary schools, only to go to the children's school, and there has even been a forced closure of the children's school, while at the same time not arranging for the children of migrant workers to enter the local school things.

Some bus attendants, for example, may be quick to look askance at migrant workers carrying large bags; third, political aspects, such as the low proportion of peasant representatives in the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), where peasants lack their own interest-representing organizations; and fourth, policy aspects, such as the segregation of urban and rural household registration systems that still exists in the country so far, despite the fact that a residency permit system is being introduced in various parts of the country.

People's Daily Online - China's peasants: between tradition and modernity