Public-domain ebook
Village Life in China: A Study in Sociology
Language: en1,463 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Archaeology & Anthropology·Sociology
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #33485.
About this book
Arthur H. Smith’s Village Life in China offers a systematic sociological survey of Chinese rural communities at the turn of the twentieth century. Framed as a “humble contribution” to understanding the “Chinese problem,” the work opens with a foreword that stresses the author’s long residence in China and his respect for its people, then launches into a detailed description of village structures, institutions, and daily customs. The opening pages set the tone with vivid observations, ranging from the construction of villages and the role of wells to the organization of markets and religious societies, while repeatedly reminding readers of the sheer scale of China’s rural population and the difficulty of capturing its diversity in a single volume.
The book reads like a scholarly travelogue written in the polished, earnest prose of late‑Victorian missionary literature. Smith’s voice combines meticulous cataloguing, occasional humor, and a moral earnestness that reflects his evangelical background. Readers who appreciate exhaustive cultural studies, historical anthropology, or the perspective of a Western observer deeply immersed in Chinese life will find this text rewarding. It is especially suited to scholars of Chinese history, sociologists interested in rural community dynamics, and general readers drawn to richly illustrated accounts of a world that was, in 1899, just beginning to enter Western consciousness.
Who appears in Village Life in China
- Mr. SmithLate‑Victorian British gentleman, dark suit, waistcoat, round spectacles, trimmed beard, solemn expression
The opening · free to read
Mr. Smith's volume is a highly entertaining one, showing uncommon shrewdness, with keen analysis of character.
From The Critic.
There is all the difference between an intaglio in onyx and a pencil scrawl on paper to be discovered between Mr. Smith's book and the printed prattle of the average globe-trotter. Our author's work has been done, as it were, with a chisel and an emery wheel. He goes deeply beneath the surface.
From The Standard.
It is much the most interesting book upon China which we have ever read, and it is specially valuable as a practical commentary upon the national and social institutions of the Chinese, the natural effect of their long isolation, and the benumbing effect of such a religion as has in great part made them what they are.
From The Living Church.
That this is the most valuable account of the Chinese ever written is, we believe, generally acknowledged.
From The Missionary Review of the World.
Every chapter is a thesaurus of startling antithesis, humorous portraitures, acute observation and marvelous sagacity.... The book is most delightful reading, and will be found most fascinating. It is a mirror of Chinese characteristics, as its name indicates. Within its pages we have found a volume of aphorisms and sage sayings seldom embraced in such a book.--_Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D._
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 63 Washington Street Toronto: 154 Yonge Street
The book keeps going
Keep reading, and see it illustrated
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
