Structure
The structure of the baojia system changed over time. In Wang Anshi's original system, its basic unit was the bao (watch), which consisted of ten families. However, during the Ming Dynasty, this ten family unit was instead labeled a jia(tithing), and ten jia (or one hundred families) made a bao. Each jia possessed a placard that rotated among the families. The family holding it at a given time was the jiazhang, or tithing captain. Similarly, the captain of the bao was the baozhang.
There was a great deal of regional variation in the system. In some areas, jia had as few as four families or as many as thirteen. Some Jiangnan counties added an intermediary unit called the dang (compact). This unit consisted of thirty families and had a corresponding dangzhang.
During the Qing Dynasty, the system's structure changed again. Ten households made up one pai, ten pai constituted one jia, and every ten jia formed a bao. Studies by Philip Huang and Wang Fuming of Baodi County in northeastern Hebei province (now Baodi District, Tianjin) have shown that the lowest quasi-official was the xiangbao, who oversaw about twenty villages and was intended to act as a buffer between the people and the government.
When the system was reimplemented in the Republic of China, the structure remained essentially the same, with the exception of the introduction of the lianbao (associated bao), a group of several bao at the district level.
Read more about this topic: Baojia System
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“One theme links together these new proposals for family policy—the idea that the family is exceedingly durable. Changes in structure and function and individual roles are not to be confused with the collapse of the family. Families remain more important in the lives of children than other institutions. Family ties are stronger and more vital than many of us imagine in the perennial atmosphere of crisis surrounding the subject.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“Vashtar: So it’s finished. A structure to house one man and the greatest treasure of all time.
Senta: And a structure that will last for all time.
Vashtar: Only history will tell that.
Senta: Sire, will he not be remembered?
Vashtar: Yes, he’ll be remembered. The pyramid’ll keep his memory alive. In that he built better than he knew.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)