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An Oral History of the Special Olympics in China Volume 1 Overview William P. Alford
An Overview of the Central Plains around 2000 B.C.
Xu Hong
Translated by Chen Beichen and Ge Yun
Where did the word “China” ( Zhongguo 中国 , the Central State) come from, and why was this hinterland named “Central State”? This book retraces the origins of China. It provides readers with a timeline, and tells the stories that happened in the central plain (the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River) around 2000 B.C. Through analysis of the rise and fall of Taosi, Songshan Cultures, the rise of Xinzhai Site and so on, which finally leads to the study of Erlitou Site and culture, the author deconstructs the birth of the Xia Dynasty, which was the first dynasty of China, and reconstructs the formation of the prehistoric and protohistoric China.
Professor Xu Hong , one of directors of Chinese Archaeological Society,works at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His masterpieces include East Asian Bronze in the Pre-Oracle Period, Dynamic Interpretation of Early Cities in Ancient China, The Earliest China: The Rise of Erlitou Civilization, and so on.
What Makes China China
What Makes China China
An Overview of the Central Plains around 2000 B.C.
Translated by Chen Beichen and Ge Yun
PETER LANG
New York - Berlin - Bruxelles - Chennai - Lausanne - Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number: 1234567890123
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Taosi city with an area of 2.8 million square metres 4
Figure 1.2: Left: The drum sherd; Right: the Tuo drum after refitting 9
Figure 1.3: The vermilion writing on the pottery hu 17
Figure 2.1: The geographical terrain around Mount Song 30
Figure 2.2: The 3-Dimensionalreconstruction of terrain around Mount Song 30
Figure 2.3: Different ding on the top and li at the bottom (Top left from Anyang Hougang; Top right: Yongcheng Wangyoufang; Left bottom: Sanmenxia Sanliqiao; Right bottom: Taosi) 33
Figure 2.4: The distribution of settlements in late Longshan period at the upper reach of Ying River 43
Figure 2.5: The distribution of quarry and its exploitation in late Longshan period 49
Figure 2.6: The three systems of wall-construction technique in East Asia
Figure 2.7: The plane layout of Guchengzhai site
Figure 3.1: The layout of Xinzhai site which was circled by the trenches and the river
Figure 3.2: The distribution of the sites in the ending phase of Longshan period 68
Figure 3.3: Up: a bronze fragment which is similar to the pouring part of gui or he Down: the pottery he found at Xinzhai site 72
Figure 3.4: The ‘Zhou Zisunyi’ recorded in the Xiqing Gujian 74
Figure 3.5: Left: pottery gui found at Yaoguanzhuang site in Longshan period Right: pottery gui found at Xizhufeng site in Longhshan period 75
Figure 3.6: The dragon pattern incised on a pottery lid from Xinzhai site 77
Figure 3.7: The cultural movement in the Longshan era 83
Figure 4.1: Five ancient dynastic capitals in the Luoyang Basin (all are located in the south foot of Mangshan mountain facing the Luo River) 91
Figure 4.2: The changes of water system and the distribution of pre-Qin sites in central and eastern Luoyang Basin 93
Figure 4.3: Changes of Erlitou settlement pattern 95
Figure 4.4: The important palatial foundations in the central area of Erlitou site 98
Figure 4.5: The transformation of morphologies of bronze vessel from Erlitou to Erligang period 106
Figure 5.1: The distribution of the sites found with Erlitou style ritual potteries 113
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1. Large and small settlement clusters in the Central Plains 37
PREFACE
‘What makes China China’ was the title of the last section of my previous book –The Earliest China (Xu Hong 2009b). It gives an open ending to conclude this small book in the form of a question:
‘In exploration of the question ‘What makes China China’, its unique environment and culture are no doubt two major topics worth pondering over. Related thoughts with long-term observation may be able to shed light on how China shaped up to be a unified multi-ethnic country, and to help us understand further how the earliest China emerged.’
The topic –‘What makes China China’ is an inquiry into the cause, so the answer to it is supposed to be on a more reflective and philosophical level. The current book, however, is based on a narrative of a process – the story of the birth of the earliest ‘China’. Of course, such a topic cannot be fully answered by a narrative, but comparing with other approaches, a narrative may be able to provide us with a clearer picture of the answer, and that is what this little book attempts to do.
If we regard Erlitou site, a royal metropolis, as a point of ‘The Earliest China’, then we shall view ‘What makes China China’ as a try which is telling the cradle of the Earliest China. So, in some way, it can be considered as a sister book.
If we go back to review the study of early Chinese civilisations, due to rich written records and the resulting history-oriented approaches, related discussions are naturally centred on identifying specific ethnicities or dynasties. A historiographical trend has thus inevitably been throughout the research history of Chinese archaeology (Xu Hong 2009a).
This trend has been taken up by Chinese archaeologists as their basic mission, which is also known as ‘zhengjingbushi 证经补史 (to certify classics and replenish history)’ in Chinese. The ‘history’ here is seen as a larger concept that embraces the whole process of social and cultural development. On that basis, archaeology and the study of transmitted text, as two parallel disciplines, are largely regarded as a means to construct the framework of this concept of history. It is an indisputable fact that archaeology plays an irreplaceable role in deciphering the ‘unwritten books’ of the period before and after the birth of China’s first writing, and then building the framework of the history of early civilisation in East Asia. For archaeologists, participating in the study of history is an inevitable trend, but switching from one discourse system to another is not easy. In this line of thinking, the current book attempts to sketch an outline of that period in a more narrative way.
An outline is probably the farthest place that archaeology can take us to, as this discipline is best known for its macroscopic examination of historical and cultural development over a long period of time, but it is not good at constructing the absolute chronology and specific historical events (ibid.). Therefore, the narrative in archaeology is rough comparing with that in the study of transmitted text (especially for the historical period). From this viewpoint, it is understandable that around 2000 B.C., the time span of our target period can be adjusted from tens to hundreds of years. The absolute year number here only represents an approximate date, and the archaeological records observed in relation to this date are only a temporal understanding based on the archaeological and chronological evidence at the time. So the year number of the Gregorian calendar (in relation to the birth of Jesus Christ as its starting point for counting) does not have much historical significance, which, in this book, is merely an entry point in exploring the early Chinese civilisation.
This entry point, however, is a good start of the book.
According to classical literature, the Xia 夏 dynasty is considered as the earliest one in China, which broke the previous primitive democracy and started a ‘hereditary monarchy ( jiatianxia 家天下 in Chinese)’. It is generally accepted that the Xia dynasty was founded in the 21st century B.C. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project (Xia Shang Zhou DuandaiGongcheng
夏商周断代工程) estimates the establishment date of the Xia dynasty to be around 2070 B.C. (Xia-Shang-Zhou Duandai Gongcheng Zhuanjiazu 2000), whilesome scholars also suggest that the beginning of Xia dynasty should be no earlier than 2000 B.C. Anyway, 2000 B.C. is an easy-to-remember date of founding of the Xia dynasty based on the text-based studies.
However, it is not easy to correlate the text-based studies with specific archaeological records. So far, in the absence of written materials of the time, we are still not able to confirm the existence of either the legendary kings, such as Yao 尧, Shun 舜, Yu 禹, or the Xia dynasty, let alone the one-to-one correspondence between archaeological remains and the ethnic groups or dynasties. The narrow legitimising system and perspective are also insufficient to cover the vast scope of this period of history. Archaeologically, the period around 2000 B.C. should belong to the ‘Longshan 龙山period'1 (Yan Wenming 1981, 1997), and there is no clear sign of Xia dynasty with archaeological visibility. Therefore, the history of this period may need to be retold.
In the midst of the chaos, however, a new trend is spotted in its very beginning. Around 2000 B.C., the glorious Taosi 陶寺 culture in the southern region of Shanxi, east of the Yellow River, turned from prosperous to declining. Almost at the same time, the Songshan 嵩山 area south of the Yellow River showed a sign of regional integration with the rise of regional groups (inShiji 史记 it is called chasing deer in the Central Plains‘zhuluzhongyuan 逐鹿中 原’), especially the Xinzhai 新砦 group. Obviously, the rise of Xinzhai laid the foundation for the subsequent leap forward in the development of the Central Plains ‘wide-territory kingship state with Erlitou as its forerunner. Geopolitically, the Zhengzhou-Luoyang郑州-洛阳 region, located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, became the cradle of its civilisation.
In this view, 2000 B.C. is an important turning point in the history of civilisation of the Central Plains and even of the whole history of Chinese civilisation.
1 Generally, the Longshan era is equivalent to 3000 B.C. to 2000 B.C. Now, according to the latest research of archaeology and chronology, the terminal chronology of the era could be extended to 1800 B.C. which temporally sequences the Erlitou Culture.
preface
References
Xu Hong. 2009a. “Fangfalun shijiaoxia de Xia Shang fenjie yanjiu (A study on the demarcation between Xia, Shang and Zhou from the perspective of methodology).”In Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Xia Shang Zhou Kaogu Yanjiushi (eds.). Sandai kaogu (Archaeology of the three dynasties), vol.3: 68-80. Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing.
Xu Hong. 2009b. Zuizao de Zhongguo (The earliest China). Kexue Chubaneshe/Science Press, Beijing.
Xia-Shang-Zhou Duandai Gongcheng Zhuanjiazu. 2000. Xia-Shang-Zhou Duandai Gongcheng 1996-2000 Jieduan Chengguo Baogao - Jianben (Brief report of Xia-Shang-Zhou chronology project from 1996 to 2000). Shijie Tushu Chuban Gongsi, Beijing.
Yan Wenming. 1981. “Longshan wenhuayu Longshan shidai (Longshan cultures and Longshan Era).” Wenwu/Cultural relics 6: 41-48.
Yan Wenming. 1997. “Longshan shidai chengzhi de chubu yanjiu (A preliminary study on the cities of Longshan Era).” In Tsang Cheng-hwa (eds), Zhongguo Kaoguxue yu Lishixue zhi Zhenghe Yanjiu (Integrated studies of Chinese Archaeology and Historiography): 235-256. Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei.
THE RISE AND FALL OF TAOSI MATERIAL CULTURE
1.1 Revolution in Taosi?
For the Taosi elites lived around 2000 B.C.1 (He Nu 2004), this period brought them a great misfortune: the Taosi capital, one of the most important cities in the great Central Plains, was revolted by the mud people and a ‘violent revolution’ took place.
In transmitted texts, the term ‘revolution’normallyrefers to the change of dynasties, such as the ‘Tang-Wu Revolution汤武革命’ in Yijing 易经 (also known as Book of Changes). However, here we move to a slightly different way of thinking about it. A revolution can also be understood as a socio-political change, the concept of which is borrowed from the ‘violent action of one class to overthrow another class’ by classical writers.
How can it be inferred that the ‘revolution’ was a violent action by people from lower classes against the upper within the Taosi society, rather than an
1 Taosi Culture, which existed for over 400 years, is divided into three periods, the Early Taosi period (2300 B.C.-2100B.C.), Middle Taosi period (2100B.C.-2000B.C.), and Late Taosi period (2000B.C.-1900B.C.). Around 2000 B.C., it was the transitioning period from middle period to late period.
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attack of foreign groups? Thousands of years later, archaeologists still shudder at the sight of such a scene:
The original palace area had been occupied by ordinary craftsmen engaged in the processing of stone and bone tools.
In a large trench where stone and bone wastes were dumped, more than thirty human skulls, mostly of young males, overlapped in a jumble. Skulls were cut off. Some of them look like a mask as only the face part was left, and some others are found with the top of the cervical spine. It is reported that the scattered human bones belong to 40–50 individuals, mixed with animal bones.
At the bottom of the trench, a woman up to the age of 30 or slightly beyond it is found with her entire body, with her neck twisted, her mouth widely opened, and her legs splayed apart. An ox horn was inserted into her genital area.
A large amount of construction waste was piled up in the trenches, and the white plaster, stamped with fine designs or blue paint, suggests the existence of a sophisticated building in this area. The rammed-earth walls that once towered above the ground were abandoned by this time, and many of them were overlaid or broken by remains of the late Taosi period. It is thus reasonable to assume that there was a large-scale‘mass movement’ to destroy the buildings (Zhongguo shehui kexueyuankaogu yanjiusuoShanxi gongzuodui et al. 2005).
In the large-and-medium-sized tombs of the Taosi elitesin this period (‘king’s tomb’ included), what we call ‘disturbance pits’ are pretty common in cemetery, which directly broke the coffin chamber in the centre of the tomb. Within them there are randomly discarded human skulls, broken bones, and burial objects (stone tools for example). They are not quite like normal looting pits in later periods, but very similar to what happened in the imperial cemetery in the north-western part of the Yinxu 殷墟 site. Fragments of stone qing 罄, collected from two or three elite tombs, could form a complete set of musical instrument, which indicates that these tombs were dug at the same time and backfilled together. It also implies that the destruction of the tomb may have been a result of war. Rather than searching for valuables, the looters here seem to have put more emphasis on giving vent to their anger. A lot of important remains were thus left for archaeologists (Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Shanxi gongzuodui et al. 1983,2003).Of course, sometimes high-quality items are also found in smaller tombs, which normally do not correspond to the identity of their occupiers. It is believed that these items may have been seen as trophies of ‘revolutionaries’.
All of the indications come down to the fact that an act of serious revenge took place in this period.
Archaeologists analyse styles of the materials for daily use, and suggest that the Taosi culture, extending for hundreds of years, had experienced a mostly uninterrupted development. Therefore, both the perpetrators (or should we say the ‘avengers’) and the victims (who were tortured after death) should belong to the same social group. Obviously, the powerful Taosi ruling class encountered an unprecedented ‘revolution’, a bloody storm started by their own group, and destroyed their aristocratic order and elite culture.
As an old Chinese adage goes: ‘water can carry a boat on one hand, while it can overturn it on the other (shuinengzaizhou, yinengfuzhou
覆舟)’. It was probably extracted from such historical events by our ancestors, and the Taosi‘revolution’is probably the earliest example known so far.
1.2 Display of the Taosi Capital and Cemetery
Before the revolution, the capital of Taosi had already experienced great prosperity over two or three hundred years. It is dated to the second half of the third millennium BC, namely the late Longshan period in archaeology, also known as the ‘heroic era (yingxiongshidai 英雄时代)’ in Chinese history. This was also the era when the ‘ancient kingdom (guguo 古国)’ of Taosi in full bloom. Its capital city was huge in scale and rich in ‘kingliness’, which made its contemporaries pale in comparison.
In this period, along the Yellow River in north and the Yangtze River in south, the most remarkable man-made landscape should be the cities rising from the ground. The earthen cities, scattered on both sides of the Yellow River, were the result of human adaptation initiated by people who were familiar with the Yellow Earth and the Yellow River. The cities were also the result, or should I say the masterpieces, of man-land relationship and interpersonal relationship towards later periods of civilisation. Loess was widely used to build the cities. The nature of loess soil made it possible to usebanzhufa 版筑法2 to build the rammed-earth wall. The tall city walls and the palace buildings on high platforms indicate that the social complexity emerged, which is seen as the earliest monument of civilisation known so far. This distinctive method of
2 Banzhufa is a technique for constructing foundations, in which soil is filled in a large wood box or frame and then being compacted until it is solid.
civil engineering construction can still be seen today in some suburban areas of the Yellow River basin.
The Taosi capital was surrounded by a circle of rammed-earth walls, which enclosed an area of 2.8 million square metres with a perimeter of about seven kilometres (Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Shanxidui et al. 2005) (Figure 1.1). It is acknowledged that the average speed of people walking is about four to seven kilometres per hour, so if a squad of soldiers wanted to patrol around the city, it would take them nearly an hour to do so. The width of the city wall is about eight metres, and it must be high enough to block people from the outside. So here are the questions: how many people should have
Figure 1.1: Taosi city with an area of 2.8 million square metres.
been involved in the construction of a seven-kilometre-long, eight-metre-wide wall with a reasonable height, and how did they do it? How many people would be accommodated inside the city? The huge amount of labour involved in this construction shows a great power of social mobilisation, and the presumably large urban population leaves a great deal to be desired.
The Henan 河南 province across the Yellow River, who later became the centre of Chinese civilisation, was also full of city sites in Taosi period, but they were much smaller comparing with the magnificence of the Taosi city. The largest one is the Wangchenggang 王城岗 site at Dengfeng 登封, coving an area ofmore than 300,000 square metres. The Wadian 瓦店 site at Yuzhou 禹州 has two zones surrounded by a ring ditch. The smaller one is measured about 400,000 square metres, and the larger one is more than 500,000 square metres. The rest sites are mostly 100,000 square metres or less. The situation in Shandong 山東 was similar, in which the largest site had an area of only 300,000 square metres at this time.
This is the outstanding Taosi.
Now let us turn our attention to the underground world, the display of cemetery of the Taosi elites.
A recently excavated large tomb at Taosi, marked M22, is a ‘giant’ among its contemporaries. Like other, this tomb was heavily disturbed as well, but we still find more than 100 sets of burial goods. The remain of its vertical shaft pit is measured five metres long, three metres wide, and more than seven metres deep. The surface of the interior tomb wall is finished with five decorative bands, which may have been an imitation of the house decoration of the diseased.
In ancient China, it seems to be an overwhelming understanding that ‘treating the dead is all the same to treating the living(shisirushisheng 事死如事生)’. The tomb can thus be seen as an underground microcosm of its occupier’s living environment.
As we can imagine on the basis of the remains, at an elaborate burial ceremony, a boat-shaped wooden coffin was placed in the bottom centre of the deep chamber. The wooden coffin, made of a single piece of wood, was coloured in red, and covered with coffin cloth. Due to the destruction of the tomb, the bones of the tomb occupier and his/her burial goods within the coffin have been disturbed.
A complete set of boar jaws was placed at the head end of the tomb occupier, right at the visual centre of the tomb wall, so the head of the
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boar seemed to be looking down majestically on the whole chamber. Taking it as the central axis of the tomb, the foot of this tomb wall, on both sides, are decorated with a set of three upside down jade yue 钺 and qi 戚 (another kind of yue, with the edge of the two sides having the appendix teeth) with lacquered handles, which may have been a sign of dignified manner of the ceremony. Four big kitchen knives and seven wooden boards are found between the left side of the coffin and the tomb wall, and the bones and rotten ashes under the knives indicate that fresh pork was possibly used during the burial ceremony. Twenty pieces of half-cut pig are placed around the feet of the occupier, indicating that there were at least ten pigs buried here. Around the tomb chamber, there are also a number of wooden boxes, painted pottery with lacquered stands, lacquerware, bone arrows and wooden bows in red-coloured fu 箙 (bags for carrying bows and arrows), and so on. There are in total 11 niches found at the bottom of the tomb walls, in which jade, lacquerware, painted pottery, pork, and other burial goods were placed. When the burial ceremony was close to the end, a young man was cut in half at the waist as a sacrifice and his body was buried the tomb was backfilled (Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Shanxi gongzuodui et al. 2003).
From what have been discussed, we can get a big picture of the display of the Taosi elites from their underground world. The seeds of hatred from the tomb looters may have been buried right in such context.
Based on the fact that the looters could always have been accurate in locating the tomb chamber, it is easy to assume that after these tombs were refilled, there must have been some kind of signs or even buildings to mark the location of these tombs, which were at least visible when they were looted.
For the several thousands of tombs known to us at Taosi, such large tombs represent only a very small percentage of the whole. Their variety shows a ‘pyramid’ type of structure. For those excavated ones (more than 1,300 burials in total): 90 % of them are small tombs without burial goods; only 10 % of them are buried with a few artefacts or more; and less than 1 % of them are large tombs with one or two hundred artefacts, including those with ritual purpose. It is believed that this is a reflection of the ‘pyramidal’ hierarchical structure of Taosi society, where the king, the high and low elites, the commoners, the destitute, and even the non-free people, have been quite seriously divided (Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Shanxi gongzuodui et al. 2003; Gao Wei et al. 1983; Gao Wei 1993).
1.3 The Dragon Plate,
Crocodile
Drum, and Chime Stone
The most striking thing about Taosi is the ‘rites’ that embodied in the elites’ burial goods – the prototype of the later ‘ritual and music system (liyuezhidul 礼 乐制度)’ of the period of the three dynasties. These ‘old rituals’ are the essence of the civilisation that made China China.
The core of the ritual system is hierarchy. Comparing with the primitive customs that embodied the characteristic of equality, the ritual system was so different that it showed the privilege and inequality among members of society. The ritual system is thus essentially a hierarchical system, a systematic oppression of social groups to advantage and strengthen the dominant ones, which is normally between the lower and the upper, the inferior and the superior, the younger and the elder, etc. The buildings and ritual artefacts used for political and religious activities such as sacrifices, court engagements, and banquets were not only symbols of social status, but also markers to distinguish the ranks within the nobility (The second year of Duke Cheng in Zuozhuan 左传·成公二年).
Therefore, as some scholars point out,when people are proud of the statement: ‘the state of etiquette and civilisation (wenmingguguo 文明古国, liyizhibang 礼仪之邦)’, they seem to forget that to distinguish the superiority and inferiority is exactly the core of ‘rites’ in ancient China.
With the following paragraphs, I would like to use three important artefacts, dedicated to the Taosi top-level elites, to discuss the continuity of the ritual system in China.
Dragon plate (long pan 龙盘) is a painted black polished pottery plate with a vermilion dragon coiling on its inner surface. The dragon motif is a combination of snake-like body and skin of kylin 麒麟 or crocodile, with a square head and a pair of round eyes, and a huge mouth with a long tongue. Pottery plate was normally used for serving food or water, but this particular one has a very low firing temperature, and its dragon is very easy to be peeled off. So rather than a practical pottery, this plate is more likely to be used as a sacrificial offering.
In early Taosi cemeteries, plates with dragon motifs are only seen in large tombs, and each tomb had one only. Although some relatively larger medium-sized tombs also have this kind of plates, but the dragon motif never show up, which implies that the dragon motif may have had an exceptional position in Taosi society, and possibly a special meaning as well. Some scholars
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speculate that it was probably a symbol of clan, like the clan emblem (zuhui 族 徽) on the later bronze ritual vessels in Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Crocodile drum (Tuogu 鼉鼓) refers to a wooden drum covered with crocodile skin, and chime stone (teqing 特磬) is a large percussion instrument consisting of a set of flat stone chimes. Both of them are documented in later literatures such as chapters of Daya 大雅 and Shang song 商頌 in Shi jing 诗经. The process of making the crocodile drums is also recorded in Ancient Music –Lyu’s Spring and Autumn Annals (Lyushichunqiu 呂氏春秋). These important royal court musical instruments in China were first discovered during the excavations at Yinxu in the 1930s (Liang Siyong et al. 1968), and the Taosi findings brought forward the history of this important group of ceremonial instruments by more than a thousand years.
As important musical instruments dedicated to top-level elites, the crocodile drum and chime stone are only found in large Taosi tombs as well. Normally two drums and one chime form a set in each tomb. The body of the drum is a vertical cylinder (about 0.5–0.9 metres in diameter and roughly onemetre-tall), which is made of a tree trunk and painted on the outside. Inside the drum, archaeologists find crocodile bones so it is reasonable to assume the material used for the drum cover. The chime stone, on the other hand, is measured about 0.8–0.9 metres long, but the chimes had not been carefully crafted, so most of them look a bit rough (Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Shanxi gongzuodui et al. 1983; Gao Wei et al. 1983).
The aforementioned ritual artefacts show that some kind of conventional system of using ritual instruments with a strict ranking was indeed practiced in the Taosi capital. Therefore, it seems safe to say that the Chinese ritual system should have been formed no later than the Longshan era (Gao Wei 1989a).
1.4 ‘Revolution’Caused Amnesia?
It is noted that the ritual system revealed by the Taosi elite burials was mostly inherited by the later civilisation of the three dynasties, while a large portion of it was lost and became extinct.
If we go back to the three dynasties, the world had witnessed earth-shaking changes when one dynasty physically overturned another, but the predecessor’s traditions were inherited in most cases, as Confucius summarised, ‘Yin is the result of the Xia rituals, and the gains and losses can be known; Zhou is the
result of the Yin rituals, and the gains and losses can be known (Yin yinyu Xia li suosunyikezhi ye 殷因于夏礼所损益可知也, Zhou yinyu Yin li suosunyikezhi ye 周因于殷礼所损益可知也)’ (For the Government in Analects of Confucius 论 语·为政). As we have discussed above, the three dynasties (starting with the Erlitou culture) had somehow abandoned the Taosi ritual system. Is it possible that this abandonment was due to this internal revolution, a ‘smashing’ of old traditions, which led to a cultural amnesia? It would be very interesting if we think of it this way.
The large-sized tombs in Taosi normally have one or two hundred pieces of burial goods, including painted lacquerware, painted pottery, jade and stone artefacts, which together consist of groups of furniture, kitchenware, food and drinking vessels, storage vessels, weapons, tools, musical instruments, and ornaments, as well as sacrificial animals (pigs mostly), and so on. Those for propose of ritual or music, led by the dragon plate, the crocodile drum, and the chime stone, have been discussed above. Many of them can be seen as prototypes of the ritual vessels and musical instruments in the later Shang and Zhou periods.
But comparing with the later ritual assemblages, those in Taosi period have their own characteristics. First of all, none of the ritual artefacts were made of bronze, which are called ‘pre-bronze ritual assemblage (qian tong liqi 前铜礼器)’ by some scholars (e.g. Gao Wei 1989b). Although the use of bronze
Figure 1.2: Left: The drum sherd; Right: the Tuo drum after refitting
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had already been acquired by the metropolitan people from the Taosi capital by this period, it seems that bronzes had never been able to bear the weight of its ritual (it will be further discussed later in this section).
Secondly, the pre-bronze ritual assemblage was well-found in terms of its rich variety and large quantity of ritual artefacts. Most of them (such as the mentioned food and drinking vessels, musical instruments, weapons and tools) were designed and arranged in sets, and we cannot see any of the categories (for example drinking vessels) is in the majority. This is also very different from the later drinking-oriented ritual assemblages in Erlitou and Yinxu periods.
The aforementioned boat-shaped wooden coffin, as well as the simple arrangement of the coffin chamber in Taosi, were also replaced by a more complex set of coffin-and-coffin chamber system (guanguoxitong 棺椁系統) in the later three dynasties.
Despite social stratification is observed, tombs with different types of social status had been mixed in the same cemetery, and we do not find any separate place allocated to the royal burials only as that in Yinxu. Similarly, the entire population seems to be mainly distributed within the city. So, such a ‘social inclusivity’ makes it very hard to see Taosi as a highly developed society.
Comparing with the later three dynasties, these phenomena can be seen as a result of either the primitiveness of the Taosi society, or the differences between regions and/or social groups in terms of their own cultural characteristics.
Both the clear hierarchy between Taosi and its contemporaries, and the existence of the ‘pre-bronze ritual assemblage’, strongly suggest that the ritual system, an important sign of new order established in early complex societies, was already in place in the societies in the Central Plains and its surrounding areas. But in different regional societies, the pre-bronze ritual artefacts had their own unique characteristics. A cross-regional, unified ritual practice had not yet been formed in this period, indicating that most of the regional societies seem to be still in their early stages of ritualization. It is the continuous competition and the exchange between these societies that laid the foundation of the later Chinese civilisation of ritual and music (Xu Hong 2004).
Due to the collapse of the Taosi ‘social pyramid’ and the interruption of elite traditions in late Taosi society (there is no signs of the upper-class burial in this period, and for those reasonably high-level ones, their occupiers only had a few jade objects as their burial goods),the degree in which the later three dynasties could learn from the living examples may also have been severely affected.
1.5 The
Fruit of the‘nalaizhuyi 拿來主义’3
Everyone would be amazed if one has a chance to take a closer look at the complex sources of Taosi‘pre-bronze ritual assemblage’.
In a folkloristic manner, it is clear that the Taosi artefacts (mainly in the form of daily potteries)were inherited from the indigenous cultures of the Loess Plateau (such as the Yangshao 仰韶 culture and the second phase of Miaodigou 庙底沟 culture), with some influence from the northern China. The ritual assemblages (especially painted potteries, lacquerware and the motifs on them, as well as most of the jade objects and other higher level remains), however, are not inherent to the local cultures, the sources of which can be found in the east, southeast, northeast, west, and south of the Central Plains.
Taking the pointy-headed jade gui 圭 for instance, the earliest examples known to us are closely associated with the late Yangshao culture, which are found in a temple-like building in Qin’an 秦安, Gansu 甘肃 province to the west of the Central Plains. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that those jade gui with pointy heads in Taosi may have been a result of contact with the western regions.
Also, for the Taosi painted potteries, there are more than ten types are very similar to those found in Dawenkou 大汶口 culture. Some of them are also seen in the ‘post-Hongshan 紅山 culture’ and the Xiaoheyan 小河沿 culture in the northeast of Inner Mongolia, and in the Qijia 齐家 culture in GansuQinghai region (Gan-Qingdiqu 甘青地区).
The motifs on them are quite close to the painting style of the Dawenkou culture. For example, in the burial goods dated to the late Dawenkou period, there is a trend of using red colour to decorate a vessel’s rim and the lower edge of the ring foot, while large red dots (three dots in most of the cases) normally appear on the shoulder or the upper belly of the vessel. All of these can be found on the Taosi potteries. The only difference is that the Taosi potteries are relatively larger, so are the motifs on them. Meanwhile, as Taosi has black polished potteries, when adding vermilion pigment on them, it makes a very strong and striking visual impact.
As for the motifs of cloud pattern (yun wen 云纹), concentric pattern (hui wen 回纹), as well as other geometric or imaginary patterns on the Taosi
3 “拿來主义” include bringing principle, bringism, copinism, and borrowlism etc. which is a term created by famous Chinese author Lu Xun 鲁迅.
what makes china china
potteries, some of them can even be traced back to the Zhaobaogou culture in the northern China, dated back to 6,000 years ago.
The V-shaped stone kitchen knife used with the wooden chopping board ‘zu 俎’in the Taosi tomb is also very similar to those of the Liangzhu 良渚 culture in the lower reaches of Yangtze River, which should have come from the same source. Interestingly, in the prehistoric culture of Jiangsu-Zhejiang region (Jiang-Zhediqu 江浙地区), this kind of tools with large edges is generally understood as agricultural tools, such as trenching ploughs (MouYongkang et al. 1981), and some scholars speculate that the function of the V-shaped stone knife may have been changed when the Taosi people adopted it from Liangzhu.
The ritual jade cong 琮 and bi 璧 of the Liangzhu culture are the most characteristic example of its kind; yueis common in the Liangzhu culture and the Dawenkou-Longshan culture in the Bohai-Taishan region (Hai-Dai area 海岱地区4); the origin of double-hole jade knife can be traced back to the Yangtze-Huai region (Jiang-Huaidiqu 江淮地区). If we go bake to Taosi jade, the yue seems to be closer to the form of the same kind of tool in the BohaiTaishan region, while the bi and huan 环 may have contained factors of Hongshan culture (Gao Wei 1993).
As the saying goes:‘One is precious when it is scarce (wuyixiweigui 物以稀 为贵)’. It seems to be obvious that those products from long-distance places were used as tokens of status by the Taosi elites, which can be seen as a manifestation of an open-minded and all-inclusive attitude. The foreign factors contained in the Taosi ritual assemblage show the contact and exchange between cultures of the Central Plains and its neighbouring regions, though their specific means is not known. As some scholars have pointed out, the characteristics in Taosi cannot be formed by a natural development based on the second phase of Miaodigou culture in southern Shanxi province. It may have been a result of a large volume of learning from eastern cultures (Han Jianye 2003). On all accounts, from what happened in Taosi, we can see a tendency to integrate multiple origins into one.
1.6 Huge Capital, Small Territory
In contrast to the vast size of the Taosi capital, its territory was relatively small.
4 It refers to the coastal region centred the Mount Tai at the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and it equals to the current Shandong province.
Strictly speaking, the later concepts, such as the territory and the boundary of a country, did not exist at all in Taosi period. What we talk about here can be understood as the general range controlled by Taosi as a centre of power. However, even describing the scope or extent of its control is extremely hard in the field of archaeology. Without the contemporary written evidence or reliable later documents, what archaeologists are capable of is to speculate about the scale of the central power according to a general similarity of a group of ‘things’ that similar to those in the capital or the central settlement, as well as their spreading range, which is also known as the distribution of ‘archaeological culture’ in Chinese archaeology. This methodology is based on the premise that the spreading range must coincide with the distribution, but we will nearly always find exceptions in practice. So, although there are certainly dangers in drawing such conclusions, it looks as if we may have no other choices but to follow the current solution.
The archaeological survey shows that the distribution of the Taosi settlement was basically limited to the Linfen 临汾 basin where the Taosi capital was located. The basin situates in the lower reaches of the Fenhe River 汾 河, where more than one hundred sites of the same period have been found so far. These sites can be divided into different groups in terms of their size and content, which together form a multi-level settlement with Taosi capital as its centre. Apart from the capital, two other sites may be important central settlements of the ancient Taosi Kingdom 古國 (Gao Wei 1996):the site of Fangcheng-Nanshi 方城-南石, only 20 kilometres away from the Taosi capital and separated by Ta’er Mountain 塔儿山, coversan area of more than two million square metres; the nearby Kaihua 开化 site, which has an area of more than one million square metres. In recent years, archaeologists found another large settlement of 1.1 million square metres at Xiandi 县底 to the north of Taosi near the ancient lake marsh area (He Nu 2011).
The ruling class of Taosi seems to have been a group of elites who were happy to stay in their place and failed to stimulate their potential to expand their realm. Although it was a highly developed civilisation, Taosi was not much of a ‘hegemonic state’, and thus was not qualified to form a ‘wide-territory kingship state’.
In view of this, Gao Wei 高炜 (1996), the previous leader of the Taosi excavation team, concludes: ‘From the archaeological findings, the Taosi culture had the highest level of development among its contemporaries, but its coverage did not exceed Linfen basin; the relationship between Taosi and its neighbouring cultures can be summarised as “emphasising absorption, while
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Title: The Review, Volume I, No. 9, September 1911
Author: Various
Publisher: National Prisoners' Aid Association
Release date: February 12, 2024 [eBook #72941]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: National Prisoners' Aid Association, 1913
Credits: Carol Brown and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE REVIEW, VOLUME I, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1911 ***
VOLUME I, No. 9. SEPTEMBER, 1911
THE REVIEW
A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY
TEN CENTS A COPY.
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS A YEAR
E. F. Waite, President. James Parsons, Member Ex. Committee.
F. Emory Lyon, Vice President. A. H. Votaw, Member Ex. Committee.
O. F. Lewis, Secretary and Editor Review.
E. A. Fredenhagen, Chairman Ex. Committee.
G. E. Cornwall, Member Ex. Committee.
Albert Steelman, Member Ex. Committee.
PRISON LABOR LEGISLATION OF 1911
B E. S W
General Secretary, National Committee on Prison Labor
The state’s property right in the prisoner’s labor exists by virtue of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States which provides that slavery or involuntary servitude may be a punishment for crime, after due process of law. This property right the state may lease or retain for its own use, the manner being set forth in state constitutions and acts of legislatures. To make this of material value the prisoner’s labor must be productive. The distribution of the product of the prisoner’s labor inevitably presents the problem of competition. The confounding of the evil of penal servitude with the methods of production and the methods of distribution which have grown out of it has produced a confusion in the thought underlying prison labor regulation by legislative enactment.
The usual penological analysis of prison labor into lease, contract, piece-price, public account and state-use systems is impossible to use in an economic analysis of the labor conditions involved. Economically two systems of convict production and two systems of distribution of convict-made goods exist; production is either by the state or under individual enterprise: distribution is either limited to the preferred state use market or through the general competitive market. In the light of such classification the convict labor legislation of the current year shows definite tendencies toward the state’s assumption of its responsibility for its own use of the prisoner on state lands, in state mines and as operatives in state factories; while in distribution the competition of the open market, with its disastrous effect upon prices, tends to give place to the use of labor and commodities by the state itself in its manifold activities.
Improvements like these in the production and distribution of the products mitigate evils, but in no vital way effect the economic injustice always inherent under a slave system. The payment of wage to the convict as a right growing out of his production of valuable commodities is the phase of this legislation which tends to destroy the slavery condition. Such legislation has made its appearance, together with the first suggestion of the right of choice allowed to the convict in regard to his occupation. These statutes still waver in an uncertain manner between the conception of the wage as a privilege, common to England and Germany, and the wage as a right as it exists in France. The development of the idea of the right of wage, fused as it is with the movement towards the governmental work and workshops, cannot fail to stand out in significance when viewed from the standpoint of the labor movement.
The expression of these tendencies found in the legislation of 1911 comes to view in divers states and a confusion of statutes in which every shade of development is present. While no state legislated to give new powers of leasing or contracting for the labor of prisoners and one only, Idaho, extended the field of its present leases, twenty-one made some provision for the state’s assumption and operation of industries: eight, California, Idaho, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wyoming, provided in some manner for the state’s consumption of the manufactured articles; and six, California, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, and Wyoming, established laws for the regulation of prices and standardization of commodities. The prisoner received compensation for labor in six states, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Wyoming; his dependent family was given assistance in five, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Jersey; while Nevada gave him the right to choose between working on the roads or working indoors. The New York farm and industrial colony for tramps and vagrants is of significance. Florida met the peonage issue by a provision for working off fines during imprisonment. The antagonism of organized labor to the distribution of the products of the convict’s labor on the open market resulted in the passage in Montana, Oregon and California of laws requiring branding of convict
made goods. The New Jersey and Wyoming laws, which are especially complete, are summarized below.
In a word, the economic progress in prison labor shown in the legislation of 1911 is toward more efficient production by the elimination of the profits of the leasee, more economical distribution by the substitution of a preferred market where the profits of the middleman are eliminated in place of the unfair competition with the products of free labor in the open markets, and finally the curtailment of the slave system by the provisions for wages and choice of occupation for the man in penal servitude.
New Jersey.—The sale on the open market of the products of convict labor of any state penal institution is prohibited after the expiration of existing contracts. A preferred market is established consisting of all manufacturable articles consumed by the state and sub-divisions thereof. A prison labor commission is created to so regulate the penal industries that the greatest amount consumable by this preferred market will be produced. They are to publish a list of all possible articles of manufacture and grant releases when articles cannot be supplied. Penal officers are required to keep all physically capable convicts employed, not to exceed nine hours a day except Sunday and holidays, on productive work or in receiving industrial and scholastic instruction.
Yearly budgets are to be sent on October 1st to the commission by all purchasing officials in the state. The penal institutions are to report fully regarding all convict labor and its productive power together with the cost of production. A uniform system of accounting is to be established, together with a standardization of commodities to be manufactured, on which is to be affixed a fair price. Agricultural pursuits are to be given preference and the products sold as above, except that the surplus products may be sold at advertised auction to the general public once in six months unless they are of destructible character and require more immediate sale. Counties and municipalities are to conform to the state plan but may employ the prisoners for their own use. Charitable institutions are allowed to manufacture for their own use. Prisoners’ families dependent on charity are relieved by the commissioner of charities at the rate of
fifty cents for every day the prisoner works, but this relief fund is limited to 5 per cent. of the value of all goods produced. The services of charitable societies are to be used for making investigations of families. The estimates of added appropriations needed to carry this into effect are to be included in annual estimates. The commission reports to the governor.
Wyoming.—The state board of charities and reform and the warden constitute a state commission on prison labor, to regulate according to its best judgment the employment of the state convicts so that they may acquire a knowledge of a trade at which they can earn a livelihood upon release. The labor of the convicts is to be upon products for the state and sub-divisions of the state, and public officials cannot purchase in the open market, unless upon release by the commission. The price is fixed at the market price, and the type of articles may be standardized. Prisoners, in the discretion of the commission, are to receive a graded compensation, in no case more than 10 per cent. of earnings of the institution. Surplus earnings may go to a prisoner’s family, but may never be used in buying food or clothing beyond that of common usage in his class; the balance, paid on release, is subject to draft.
A REAL JAIL
[From the Boston, (Mass.,) Globe, August 6, 1911]
The new jail and house of correction for Plymouth county is the finest of its kind in the state. To Sheriff Henry S. Porter credit is due for the jail. Had it not been for his untiring efforts to get the county commissioners to buy and build in this locality the county would not have had such a place.
Soon after the county purchased the property work was commenced on laying out for the new building. Excavating began in 1907. The work was done by the “trusty” prisoners, in charge of officers and engineers. The building is fireproof. The material is concrete and iron, most of the work being done by the prisoners themselves. All the floors in the institution are of terrazzo, made and finished by the “trusties” after a few instructions. Such a building put out to contract would have cost Plymouth a fortune, more than $200,000, but as it is the cost will not be far from $100,000.
The jail is on the top of a hill. It commands a view of the surrounding country. It has a frontage of 250 feet, and is 48 feet deep, with an ell 86×46.
In January, 1902, when Sheriff Henry S. Porter took the position of high sheriff of Plymouth county, there were 53 inmates in the jail. During the following five years prisoners increased to nearly 100. At the present time the number varies from 120 to 130. After he had been in office a short time he began to consider improvements for the men. They were all cane-seating chairs for townspeople, an industry which netted the county but $400 a year and they paid an instructor $1200. The sheriff found that a good man who had some experience could earn only about five cents a day and others two
and a half cents and that the industry was not a paying one. It was then that he first devised the plan of working his men in the open. He hired half an acre of land in Samoset street and placed four or five of the “trusty” prisoners, in charge of officers, tilling the ground. That year he raised 50 bushels of potatoes, and the men who did the work were in much better condition than those employed inside. The sheriff was vigorously opposed by the county commissioners, who ordered him to stop the work, but after he had shown what could be done the commissioners decided to let him continue. A tract of land of three acres was bought in 1904, and that year the sheriff raised 519 bushels of potatoes, 265 bushels of turnips, 610 pounds of ham, 325 pounds of rib and at the end of the season had four hogs left. The products sold for $1084.25. The expenses were $390. They were for dressing, seed and tools.
The next year the sheriff made more money, and provided fresh vegetables and potatoes during the winter for the men in the institution. In 1907 he prevailed upon the county commissioners to purchase what was known as the Chandler farm, at Obery, about a mile from the center of Plymouth on which was a dwelling house and barn. Its acreage was 135, field and woods. The farm was much run down and was covered with bushes and weeds. The sheriff started in immediately to build it up, and a large number of the “trusty” men were put out there, with officers in charge, and cleared away the bushes and broke up the land. Part of the men worked on the new jail, while the others were employed in the garden.
In 1910 about 15 acres were broken up into tillage land. In that year was grown 75 tons of hay, 175 bushels of potatoes, 850 bushels of turnips, 650 bushels of corn, many vegetables, five tons of cabbages, 100 hogs, scores of sheep and numerous hens. At the beginning of 1911 there were five cows, two yokes of oxen, seven horses and a large number of hogs and poultry at the place.
The construction of the new jail was begun late in 1908, and since then an average of 48 to 50 men have been employed at it daily. A good deal has been said about the care and expense of prisoners in all institutions, but Sheriff Porter believes that his scheme is one of the best that can be done for prisoners, as the work benefits the men
and they are not likely to come back. Last year the sheriff had to send to the state farm for men to assist in the general work. Out of 100 who have been here and worked on the farm, 85 have made good. The sheriff believes that good treatment and outdoor work has good and lasting effects. One man who did work at the jail for nearly a year after his term expired was employed by the contractor, and worked every day thereafter until the building was completed. Several others who worked on the construction of the building have been working at the concrete business out in the free world ever since.
“Men who work on the farm have to have different food from those inside,” says the sheriff. “We give them a hearty breakfast, dinner and supper and no fault is found with the bill of fare.”
During the period of outdoor work only four men have tried to escape. They were brought back. Not a man has been treated roughly and no man has been required to do more than a fair day’s work. The sheriff says that when he first took charge the dungeon was used 65 times a year. Last year it was only used three or four times, which seems to show that the prisoners are contented.
THE EVILS OF “DOUBLING UP.”
On his return from a two-months’ trip to Europe, where he visited some two-score prisons and correctional institutions, O. F. Lewis, general secretary of the Prison Association of New York, has raised the issue in New York City of the “doubling-up” of prisoners in cells. In an open letter, published in interview form in several city papers, Mr. Lewis says:
“I have just returned from a two months’ visit to about forty prisons in Belgium, Holland, Germany, England, and Scotland. In not a single cell of the thousands which I saw did I see two inmates imprisoned. One might say that the first principle of all in administering correctional institutions in Europe and in Great Britain is that prisoners shall never be ‘doubled up.’
“As for the situation in New York city on the night of September 10, at the Jefferson Market district prison, in four cells two men were sleeping, though only one cot was in each cell. In two instances the men were sleeping, one at the head and one at the foot of the cot; in two other instances, one of the men was sleeping on the floor. The ‘doubling up’ was occasioned by a lack of cell space for the male prisoners. On the ground floor there is for male prisoners a pen with bare boards, not separated off into bunks, where men sleep or try to sleep overnight.
“In the night court for men on East Fifty-seventh street the prison connected with the court was so crowded at 11.30 on that night that in several cells five and six men were confined, so closely as to forbid any of the men lying down unless on the floor. In one large room sixteen peddlers, fined $2, were awaiting midnight to pay $1 then remaining of their fine. The night keeper at the district prison stated that the prison is frequently grievously overcrowded, that ‘doubling up’ of three or four persons is common, and that on such
nights as last night it is necessary to pack prisoners into the various cells and await the close of court, when the distribution can take place with some alleviation, but with a continuance of the ‘doubling up’ system.
“At the Criminal Courts building there are so-called prison pens in which persons not yet convicted are held often for hours pending their appearance in some one of the parts of the Court of General Sessions. Particularly on Fridays one of these pens, smaller than the cattle car of a freight train is packed with from fifty to seventy-five persons, mainly young men. No more improper or wretched preparation for a court trial could, it seems to me, be imagined than this pen. Fortunately our foreign visitors to the International Prison Congress last fall were not shown this pen. Grand juries and the Prison Association have since the first of the year frequently called the attention of the borough president to this condition, yet it remains unchanged. ‘Doubling up’ is of frequent occurrence in the Tombs. English law expressly provides that such ‘doubling up’ shall never take place.
“We cast around for explanations of crime waves, increasing tendency to criminality, and a growing disregard by young men in New York City of the principles of law and order. I fail to see how any young man going through the experience now daily undergone by hundreds of our young men can emerge from New York City’s prisons without a vindictive attitude of mind toward the city which maltreats him thus.
“The remedy is more money—more money for more cells and more prisons. For some years a new workhouse has been contemplated. It is as necessary to have an up-to-date workhouse as an up-to-date police force. If we are to have a night court for men, to save the innocent from overnight imprisonment, we must have a night prison which will not condemn the guilty to intolerable conditions of imprisonment. If we expect to reform our young criminals, we must provide a cell for each prisoner. And if the city is really concerned with the reduction of crime, its Board of Estimate and Apportionment must clearly recognize that it costs money to
reduce crime, and that one of its first principles of useful imprisonment is separate confinement.”
DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT OF NEW YORK
B K D
[Reprinted from Boston Transcript]
The domestic relations court which was established in New York city exactly one year ago has already taken its place as a permanent institution of the city. The tremendous work of this court arouses wonder that the idea had not been adopted years ago and that it is not more widely emulated in other cities throughout the country. Chicago and Washington are the only two other cities where similar courts exist, and even in these cities the jurisdiction of the courts is not quite the same as in New York. There are two domestic relations courts in New York city, one located in East Fifty-seventh street in the same building with a magistrate’s court and a municipal civil court, and serving the needs of the residents of the two boroughs, Manhattan and the Bronx; the other is in Brooklyn, administering to that section of the greater city.
The domestic relations court is essentially a poor man’s court. In its prime office, indeed, it partakes of the nature of a conciliatory court, similar to the conciliatory courts of France, through which all domestic difficulties pass before any divorce or other serious case involving domestic infelicity, abandonment or non-support can enter the courts proper. Like the judges of the conciliatory courts in France, the judges of the domestic relations court in New York are chosen for their tact, patience, knowledge of mankind and sympathy with the frailties of men and women. Every case that comes into the domestic relations court these judges first try to adjust without legal procedure.
In the next instance the domestic relations court is a woman’s court. In almost every case that has appeared here the complainant has been a woman. It is not more than once in several months that a man appears as a complainant in this court. This is, of course, largely owing to the fact that man is not usually dependent upon his wife for support, and even if deserted by his wife a man is not likely to be exposed to hardship and suffering as is the case with a woman. Furthermore, this court has no power to grant divorces. It merely adjusts differences, punishes abandoning husbands, and advises separation when separation seems the only wise course, and determines the amount of money that the man must contribute towards the support of his wife, children or other relatives. The law under which the domestic relations court was established provides that to this court “shall be taken or transferred for arraignment, examination or trial, or to which shall be summoned all persons described as disorderly, all persons compelled by law to support poor relatives, and all persons charged with abandonment or nonsupport of wives of poor relatives under any provision of law, conferring upon magistrates summary jurisdiction or the authority to hold for trial in another court.” The law further provides that “the commissioner of public charities shall establish and maintain an office of the superintendent of outdoor poor in or convenient to the building in which is situated the domestic relations court.” This latter provision is to insure the supervision over delinquent husbands and also to provide against any miscarriage of support money. In other words, it is a sort of clearing house and controlling office after the case has passed through the domestic relations court.
The functions of the domestic relations court in New York, therefore, are clearly defined and extremely limited. In Chicago the domestic relations court has a much more ample scope, for it has jurisdiction in any of the following violations of state laws: Abduction of children under twelve years of age, abandonment of wife or child, bastardy, improper public exhibition or employment of children under fourteen years of age, contributing to dependency or delinquency of children, violation of all laws relating to child labor, violation of all laws relating to compulsory education and truancy, climbing upon cars by minors, permitting minors to gamble in saloons, permitting
minors to enter dance halls where intoxicating liquor is sold, sale or gift of deadly weapons to minors, having or procuring intoxicating liquors for minors, sale of tobacco to minors. And also the Chicago court has jurisdiction over violations of the following city ordinances: sale of cigarettes to minors, sale of cigarettes within 600 feet from schoolhouse, gathering of cigar refuse by minors, sale of tobacco to minors under sixteen years of age, sale of intoxicating liquors to minors, purchasing of intoxicating liquors by minors, obtaining intoxicating liquors by minors by false pretences, sale of materials saturated with liquor to minors under sixteen years of age, giving samples of intoxicating liquors in bottles or otherwise to minors, gambling by minors in saloons, jumping up on moving cars by minors under eighteen years of age, employment of minors under sixteen years of age in pawnshops, receiving pledges from minors by pawn brokers, sale of deadly weapons to minors. Thus it is apparent that the Chicago domestic relations court is almost a combined children’s court. If the jurisdiction of the New York court were anything like as large, the calendar would be constantly glutted, and cases would have to wait as long as cases on the Supreme Court calendar must needs wait now. As it is, the domestic relations court handles all of its cases promptly, although it is perhaps the busiest court of the city, owing to the fact that the docket is cleaned up every day.
The two judges who sit in the Manhattan court are Magistrates Harris and Cornell. Each magistrate sits fifteen days alternately, then five days in one of the regular criminal magistrate’s courts, and then ten days holiday. Under Judge Harris and Judge Cornell the domestic relations court experiment has been tried out and proved successful. Under these two magistrates there has been established a progressive procedure in regard to husbands who refuse to live with and support their wives and families. When a woman appears in this court the judge listens to her story and if he feels that there is ground for action or need of legal interference, he will issue a summons which is really a legal form of request to the husband to appear in court on a certain day The wife is then told to come back on the same day. If the husband appears in response to this summons, all well and good.
On the other hand, if he fails to take cognizance of the summons, a warrant is issued for his arrest, and he is brought to court willy nilly. When the moment for trial comes, the woman is put on the witness stand and after being duly sworn, proceeds to tell her story, without let or hindrance. If the corporation counsel happens to be present he represents the woman, and the defendant is entitled to counsel, although most of them are willing to tell their side of the story and abide by the decision of the judge. In the absence of the corporation counsel the presiding magistrate questions the woman, not in a hostile way at all, but with the idea of drawing from her all the facts which shall enable him to attain a wise decision. When she has finished the defendant takes the stand in the usual way and the judge questions him with a similar desire to elucidate the trouble. If the case is flagrant it is within the power of the court to sentence the man to the workhouse for a period of not more than six months. Many women urge that their neglectful husbands be sent away, but it is in this connection that the law is perhaps not all that it should be. If sending a man to prison provided his wife and children with bread and butter and rent it might frequently be a good thing for society in general and the family in particular to have the man locked up. Unfortunately, a man sent to Blackwell’s Island for six months is obliged to do work for the state, but this precludes all possibility of his contributing to the support of his family during the period of his incarceration. Furthermore, the law will not allow the prosecution a second time of a man who has just served a term of imprisonment for non-support or abandonment within one year of the first prosecution, so that if a woman asks the court to lock up her husband and the court complies, that woman voluntarily surrenders all legal right to take further action against him or collect money from him for a whole year. There is an agitation just now to have the state pay a prisoner for the work he does during his term of imprisonment and have the money forwarded to his family. This surely is a wise and reasonable provision.
If the court stipulates that a man making nine or ten dollars a week must contribute three dollars and a half or four dollars a week to the support of his family, that man is either placed on probation to one of the two regular probation officers attached to the domestic
relations court, or he is placed under the supervision of the department of charities, alimony division. Money to be paid through the department of charities is regulated in this way. The defendant is instructed to bring or send the stated amount to the office of this department, at the foot of East Twenty-sixth street, a certain day in the week, and then the wife or whoever is to receive the money must call in person the following day and, upon accepting the amount, is required to give a receipt which is duly sent to the remitter. These receipts often figure in court at a later date as evidence of the amount of money which has actually been paid by the payee. It frequently happens that a man will contribute faithfully for several weeks and then payments will cease. In some instances this secession of payment is for a legitimate reason—the man may be sick, or may have lost his position, whereupon he is given an opportunity to explain in the court the reason for his delinquency. When the wife appears in court and tells the magistrate that her husband has become delinquent, the clerk of the court sends out a printed form which reads as follows:
Dear Sir—I have been informed by your wife, So-and-So, that you have failed to comply with the direction of the court to pay her——so much——per week. I desire to inform you that unless the direction of the court is complied with at once, a warrant will be issued for your arrest and you may be compelled to furnish a bond to insure the payment of the said money for the support of your family.
Respectfully,
If the man appears in court in response to this notice, all well and good, otherwise he is arrested by an officer and brought before the judge to explain his failure to comply with the direction of the court.
The work of the domestic relations court is constantly increasing as the functions of the court are being more widely heard of throughout the city, especially among the foreign population. The largest number of cases that come before this court are classified under the nationality of Russia. There is an injustice in this classification, however, inasmuch as the “Russians” are 99 per cent.
