ABSTRACT
At the time of the peasant agreement and the equalizing communions, the solidarity of the families who were gathered together in rural communities was obtained by the help of payments in kind which were at once alternative and total. As long as the rule of alternation governed the social organization payments in kind were in principle total. When Shun marries the daughters of Yao and becomes minister, with future succession, Yao presents him, in addition to his daughters, with bullocks and sheep, instruments of music, the shield and lance which will be used in war and the dance, the granary which will enable him to show his generosity, all his vassals and all his sons. 1 Shun, who receives all Yao's inheritance, will in his turn give all his inheritance to his own minister. If he restores everything he does not give more than he has received. It is otherwise in the feudal order. At any moment any possession may have to be restored to the Chieftain. Nothing is possessed which has not first been resigned (jang). “When a man of the people has a possession, he gives it back to the head of the family. When a dignitary has a possession, he makes an offering of it to his lord. When a lord has a possession, he gives it back to the Son of Heaven. When the Son of Heaven has a possession, he resigns (jang) the Virtue (tô) of it to Heaven.” 2 A thing can be made use of only after the gift has lifted its tabu, but the gift becomes profitable as soon as it is made to a superior. It is then equivalent to a consecration. The gift gains in value in proportion to the authority of the chieftain to whom it is made. The Chieftain, on principle, must not monopolize. He must be able “to communicate his fortune and to distribute it from top to bottom of the scale of creatures, thus causing gods, men, and all things, to attain their supreme development.” 1 Property becomes valuable when it is used for gifts. The circulation of things creates and defines values, at the same time that it defines and creates a social hierarchy. The virtue (tô) of things is the result of their consecration by the chief when he resigns (jang) them to Heaven, the supreme authority. Fortune is the result of sacrifice, abundance (jang) the result of the sacrificial oblation (jang). 2 Thus every gift attracts to itself in return the gift of increased value. The benevolence of the god or the generosity of the chief responds to the sacrifice of the believer or the vassal. Presents serve in the first place to show respect and to enhance the prestige of the receiver, then to reflect respect and prestige upon the giver. Emulation, made up at the same time of disinterestedness and of ambition, is the common principle of homage and of tribute, of the feudal system of payment, and of the nobility.
