Overview of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture — Historical Evolution and Social Change (Part 4)
Section 4: Socialist Transformation. In 1953, Chairman Mao Zedong stated: "From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the basic completion of socialist transformation, this is a transitional period. The Party's general line and general task during this transitional period require the gradual realization of national socialist industrialization over a considerable period of time, and the gradual realization of the socialist transformation of agriculture..."
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section IV Socialist Transformation
In 1953, Chairman Mao Zedong pointed out: "From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the basic completion of socialist transformation, this is a transitional period. The Party's general line and general task during this transitional period is to gradually realize the country's socialist industrialization and gradually realize the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce over a fairly long period of time." The three major socialist transformations in Xiangxi began in 1951 and ended in 1957, lasting more than 6 years.
I. Socialist Transformation of Agriculture
After land reform, farmers thoroughly escaped the exploitation and oppression of the feudal system, greatly increasing their enthusiasm for production. Agricultural production developed rapidly, and some poor peasants and hired peasants began to rise to middle peasants, with a trend of "middle-peasantization" appearing in rural areas. This was a gratifying change in the development of productive forces, and farmers' lives were improved and enhanced. However, rural agricultural development was uneven. Because farmers after land reform still operated as small peasant individual economies based on private land ownership, they could not rationally use land or rationally implement division of labor and cooperation, were unable to carry out large-scale water conservancy construction, and could not withstand major natural disasters. Some farmers, especially poor and hired peasants, due to lack of means of production and backward farming techniques, had even lower capacity to resist disasters and maintain production. Some farmers began to become poor again, and phenomena of borrowing and lending, buying and selling land and standing crops appeared, with wealth polarization becoming increasingly obvious. According to a survey of Xinzhai Township in Yongshun County: the township had 493 households, including 246 poor and hired peasant households and 207 middle peasant households. Among the poor and hired peasants, 29 households practiced usury, accounting for 11.8%; 57 households were in debt, accounting for 23.2%; and 6 households sold land. Among the middle peasants, 35 households practiced usury, 19 households were in debt, 15 households bought land, and 9 households sold land. This phenomenon was common in all counties of the prefecture. The masses' lives remained difficult, and they urgently hoped to organize together for common prosperity. These problems attracted the attention of Party committees and governments at all levels. In 1951, following the spirit of the "Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Agricultural Production Mutual Aid and Cooperation," Party committees and governments at all levels in Xiangxi actively guided farmers onto the path of mutual aid and cooperation. In areas where land reform had been completed, some agricultural activists and model workers took the lead in establishing a number of agricultural production mutual aid teams. The socialist transformation of agriculture in Xiangxi went through agricultural mutual aid teams (temporary mutual aid teams and year-round mutual aid teams), elementary agricultural production cooperatives, and advanced agricultural production cooperatives, a development process from lower to higher levels.
In the spring of 1952, in Baiyan Village, Chadong Township, Yongshui County (now Huayuan County), a Miao-inhabited area, Miao farmer Zhang Shengrong took the lead in linking up with 6 farming households to organize a year-round mutual-aid group. They used bamboo tags as work tickets for scoring and applied the method of fixed scores with flexible assessment, which consolidated the mutual-aid group. In the autumn of that year, the group's rice yield per mu increased by 52% over the previous year, and corn increased by 104%. It was awarded the title of Special Model Mutual-Aid Group of Hunan Province. The General Office of the CPC Central Committee, on behalf of Chairman Mao Zedong, sent a letter of encouragement. Hui farmer Ma Guangwu in Xianren Mountain, Tawo District, Yongshun County, organized 10 farming households to establish a mutual-aid group, with an average rice yield of 325 kilograms per mu. It was rated as an advanced mutual-aid group and attended the provincial model conference. The CPC Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region Committee and the Regional People's Government carefully summarized the experience and promptly promoted it. By the end of the year, the region had 9,112 temporary mutual-aid groups, with 471,753 farmers participating, accounting for 13.9% of the total farming population; there were 946 year-round mutual-aid groups, with 5,162 households participating, accounting for 1.5% of the total farming households. Mutual-aid groups helped each other in manpower, animal power, seeds, funds, and other aspects, which was conducive to overcoming difficulties, and their increases in production and income were generally higher than those of individual farmers. Therefore, more and more farming households requested to establish and join mutual-aid groups. In the spring of 1953, the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee determined the policy for the mutual-aid and cooperative movement: vigorously develop temporary seasonal mutual-aid groups, focus on developing year-round mutual-aid groups, and experiment with agricultural production cooperatives. Agricultural mutual-aid and cooperative organizations emphasized the three principles of democracy, voluntariness, and mutual benefit, enabling the region's mutual-aid and cooperative movement to develop healthily, with farmers' enthusiasm running high.
In 1953, while actively developing mutual-aid groups, the Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region extensively and deeply publicized and implemented the general line for the transition period, carried out the spirit of Hunan Province's Third Agricultural Mutual-Aid and Cooperation Conference, and began piloting elementary agricultural production cooperatives. In 1954, party committees and governments at all levels implemented the CPC Central Committee's "Resolution on the Development of Agricultural Production Cooperatives," and all counties in the region organized pilot elementary agricultural production cooperatives, establishing a total of 21 elementary cooperatives. By the first half of 1955, this had grown to 376, with 7,913 households joining, accounting for 2% of the total number of farming households. Most of these elementary agricultural production cooperatives practiced the pooling of land, farm cattle, and large farm tools as shares after price evaluation, unified operation, year-end final accounting, and distribution according to the ratio of labor and share capital. After establishment, they generally increased production by 16%–53%, and elementary cooperatives that increased both production and income accounted for 97.5% of the total, initially demonstrating the superiority of elementary agricultural cooperatives. During this period, party committees and governments at all levels carefully grasped the policies, proceeded from the actual thinking of the rural farming masses, rationally organized mutual-aid groups and elementary cooperatives, did not seek excessive size, did not use coercive commands, and let facts speak, allowing the masses to spontaneously recognize the superiority of agricultural cooperatives.
In September 1955, the CPC Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Prefecture Committee and the Prefecture People's Committee examined the "Right-deviation conservatism" in guiding ideology and proposed shifting the focus of rural work to agricultural cooperativization. The 10 counties of the prefecture quickly set off a high tide of establishing agricultural cooperatives. In 1956, elementary agricultural production cooperatives suddenly increased from 376 to 4,794, and Yongshun County also piloted 19 advanced agricultural production cooperatives. On the basis of popularizing elementary cooperatives, they quickly transformed into advanced cooperatives. In the autumn of 1956, the prefecture's 4,794 elementary cooperatives were reorganized into 3,997 advanced agricultural production cooperatives through the method of merging cooperatives and upgrading, with participating households accounting for 98.3% of the total farming households. In 1957, adjustments were made again, and advanced agricultural production cooperatives were adjusted to 3,897, basically realizing agricultural production cooperativization. Advanced agricultural production cooperatives abolished land remuneration, converted farm cattle and large farm tools to public ownership after price evaluation, used them uniformly, and implemented distribution according to labor. In August 1958, after the CPC Central Committee issued the "Resolution on the Question of Establishing People's Communes in the Rural Areas," the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, within two or three months, merged all advanced agricultural production cooperatives into 135 people's communes.
Transforming the small-peasant individual economy based on private ownership of the means of production into a socialist collective ownership economy was a major change in the relations of production and promoted a major development of the productive forces. However, problems such as excessively rapid development, blind rash advance, management failing to keep up, and egalitarian distribution once led to a "wave of withdrawing from cooperatives." Although it was consolidated through adjustments, it also left many aftereffects.
II. Socialist Transformation of Individual Handicrafts
In 1952, the Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region had a total of 2,464 individual handicraft households and 4,135 people. The main trades included rice milling, printing, oil pressing, farm tools, native paper, umbrella making, pig bristles, iron and woodwork, silver ornaments, bamboo weaving, leather, sewing, brewing, cotton fluffing, bricks and tiles, lime, rice husking, and food processing. These handicraft operations were characterized by insufficient funds, backward technology, few employees, uneven distribution, individual operation, disordered management, high costs, and low output value. Handicraft products were closely related to people's lives. The rapid development of agriculture required handicraft products to adapt to it, and there was an urgent need to organize. Beginning in 1953, the CPC Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region Committee and the Regional People's Government, according to the policy of "developing handicraft production to serve production and life for urban and rural people" and the principles of voluntariness, mutual benefit, and democratic management, practiced "overall consideration and comprehensive arrangement" and "active leadership and steady progress." Through three organizational forms—production groups, supply and marketing production cooperatives, and production cooperatives—they organized handicrafts by trade. For their difficulties such as insufficient funds and lack of raw materials, state-owned commerce and supply and marketing cooperative departments helped solve them by methods such as processing orders, purchasing and marketing all products, supplying raw materials, and advancing payments. By 1955, the Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Prefecture had organized 97 handicraft production cooperatives (groups) and handicraft supply and marketing cooperative groups, with 1,547 employees and a total output value of 1.5297 million yuan. In 1956, this reached 236, with 8,991 employees, accounting for 91.4% of the total number of handicraftsmen, and an annual output value of 9.5053 million yuan. In 1957, handicraft cooperative organizations developed greatly, and their trades expanded to 27 major categories including power generation, mining, textiles, printing and dyeing, and food. Overall labor productivity increased from 388 yuan per person in 1955 to 1,057 yuan, basically completing the socialist transformation of handicrafts and initially building an industrial system including 13 industries such as coal, metallurgy, machinery, chemicals, building materials, brewing, textiles, papermaking, grain and oil, and food processing, with 63 enterprises and the capacity to produce nearly 100 products. The total industrial output value was 28.35 million yuan, an increase of 169.8% over 1952, with an average annual growth rate of 11.2%.
III. Socialist Transformation of Private Industry and Commerce
At the beginning of the founding of New China, private industry and commerce in the prefecture was very backward. Its obvious characteristics were: more commerce, less industry, all handicraft industry, and no modern-scale industry; many individual households, few employees; many categories, low output value and sales; little capital, and backward technology and equipment. In industry, most were processing and repair, small in scale, high in cost, and low in product quality. In 1949, there were 20 private industrial enterprises, of which 4 had capital of more than 10,000 yuan and 2 had 5,000–10,000 yuan, with a total industrial output value of 8.5 million yuan (calculated at comparable 1952 prices). In private commerce, most were individual merchants and itinerant peddlers, with only a few wholesalers. In 1951, there were 3,060 formally registered private merchants, with 4,279 employees.
In the first half of 1950, counties successively established industry and commerce sections responsible for leading and managing private industry and commerce. Afterward, county-level state-owned comprehensive trading companies and cooperative general cooperatives (hereinafter referred to as "state-cooperative") were established one after another. Before 1952, the transformation of capitalist industry and commerce was mainly carried out through the "state-cooperative" by adopting methods of processing orders and distribution and sales agency, bringing their production and operation into the orbit of state planning. In 1950, the Luxi County People's Government took over the Maxikou Weixin Coal Mine run by Wu Weizhou and quickly restored production. In 1951, with state investment, the Pushi Power Plant and Rice Mill were transformed, and Yao Hengsen's private enterprise was transformed into a public-private joint enterprise. During the "Three-Anti and Five-Anti" movements of 1951–1952, with regard to private commerce, on the one hand, its legitimate operations were protected and supported; on the other hand, illegal acts such as hoarding for speculation and driving up prices were cracked down on, restoring and developing private industry and commerce and enlivening urban and rural markets. From the winter of 1952 to the spring of 1953, counties successively organized 36 urban-rural material exchange conferences, promoting the development of primary urban and rural markets, and the number of private industrial and commercial households gradually increased. In 1952, the Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region had 24 industrial and mining enterprises, with an industrial output value of 20.71 million yuan, 2.44 times that of 1949, and the total industrial output value accounted for 15.2% of the region's total industrial and agricultural output value. After the general line for the transition period was announced in 1954, the policy of "restriction, utilization, and transformation" was implemented for private industry and commerce. The transformation of private industry consisted of rectifying and consolidating existing public-private joint enterprises, developing public-private joint enterprises in a focused way, expanding processing orders, and purchasing and marketing all products. The transformation of private commerce consisted of planned expansion of state-owned wholesale business, gradually replacing private wholesalers, and implementing whole-trade distribution and sales agency for private retailers. In 1954, Yongshun County used the method of redemption for 275 private commercial households in two and a half trades (cotton cloth, catering, and slaughtering) in both urban and rural areas, and distributors and peddlers were gradually brought into the collective economy through forms such as organizing cooperative stores and cooperative groups. By the end of the year, the region had a total of 9,139 private industrial and commercial households, 13,131 people, capital of 2.172 million yuan, and total domestic sales of more than 17.5 million yuan. In 1955, the prefecture and counties established "leading groups for the transformation of private [industry and commerce]," drew cadres from state-owned commercial departments and administrative organs to form special teams, and comprehensively carried out the work of private transformation in towns and cities, enabling urban private merchants to unite several households or more to form cooperative stores with unified operation and unified accounting. The transformation of stallkeepers was generally carried out through the form of cooperative groups, delimiting the scope of business activities and conducting operations. The transformation of rural private commerce was mainly the responsibility of supply and marketing cooperatives. In 1955, the prefecture had 3,608 rural private commercial households and 4,388 people. That year, 488 households were transformed through various forms, accounting for 13.5%; the number of people transformed was 593, accounting for 13.5%. By the end of 1955, all private wholesalers had been replaced by state-cooperative commerce. In early 1956, after implementing the spirit of Hunan Province's Conference on the Transformation of Capitalist Industry and Commerce and the CPC Central Committee's "Resolution on the Question of the Socialist Transformation of Capitalist Industry and Commerce," counties quickly set off a high tide of socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce. According to the principles of "maintaining broad coverage so that everyone has food to eat" and "comprehensive arrangement, whole-trade joint operation, merger and reorganization," through procedures such as publicity and education, mobilizing applications, democratic consultation, clearing assets and verifying capital, establishing institutions, and setting up systems, and by methods such as merger, changing trades, conversion to other businesses, allocation, and absorption, redemption was implemented for capitalist industrial and commercial households and public-private joint enterprises were established; small merchants and peddlers were organized to set up cooperative stores (groups) and take the road of the collective economy. By the end of the year, all capitalist industry and commerce had been transformed into socialist industry and commerce. The prefecture built a total of 1,076 public-private joint enterprises, 613 cooperative stores and cooperative groups, and 133 cooperative economic groups; 5,728 industrial and commercial households and 7,152 people were incorporated into public-private joint industry and commerce, with the transformation rate being 91.53% by household and 93.06% by person.
After capitalist industry and commerce implemented whole-trade public-private joint operation, the state made appropriate arrangements according to individual suitability for industrial and commercial capitalists, capitalist agents, and non-capitalist private personnel brought into public-private joint enterprises, enabling capitalist personnel to become truly self-reliant laborers. For small merchants and peddlers in rural areas who had not yet joined commercial cooperative organizations, the government recognized the legality of their individual operation, and that year issued business licenses to 523 individual households with 597 people. These individual peddlers went from village to village and attended markets, making things convenient for the people and being deeply welcomed by the farmer masses.
Enterprises after socialist transformation were conducive to concentrating funds for major undertakings, to the progress and promotion of science and technology, to the renewal and transformation of products, and to stabilizing prices and guaranteeing supply. However, because requirements were too urgent and the pace of transformation was too fast, centralized merging and reduction of small merchants and peddlers brought inconvenience to the masses.
The victorious completion of the three major transformations of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce gradually changed private ownership of the means of production into collective and whole-people ownership. The relations of production changed, greatly liberating the productive forces and enabling the national economy to develop continuously and rapidly. In 1957, the total agricultural output value of the prefecture's 8 counties reached 117.33 million yuan (at 1957 constant prices, the same below), an increase of 29.1% over 1952; total grain output was 421,400 tons, an increase of 26.4% over 1952, and per capita grain availability rose from 269 kilograms in 1952 to 309 kilograms. Total industrial output value was 28.35 million yuan, an increase of 74.8% over 1952, with an average annual increase of 11.8%. The three major transformations played an important role in promoting industrial and agricultural production, prospering the ethnic economy, improving the lives of all ethnic groups, and changing the long-standing poverty and backwardness of ethnic minority areas. However, after 1958, administrative means were adopted to carry out people's communeization, exceeding the masses' level of consciousness and the level of development of the productive forces, with too broad a scope of transformation and too rapid a pace, leaving many remaining problems.