ABSTRACT
Nearly everywhere in China the more or less compact village formed a basic unit of rural society. The clan was usually but one section of a village. In the provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung, however, the lineage and the village tended markedly to coincide, so that many villages consisted of single lineages. The fact of having a common surname at the least set up between any two lineages a bar on marriage. But, however remote the genealogical connexions they traced between them, the possession of a common surname might in certain circumstances lead to formal co-operation such that localized lineages were grouped into wider agnatic units. The large size of localized lineages obviously depended to a considerable extent on the time they had existed. Not only was Phoenix village comparatively small but it was also comparatively recent, having been founded at the end of the sixteenth century.
