Wang Lung experiences the extremes of both of these problems in The Good Earth; first his crops die because of severe drought, and years later he is unable to plant his fields because rising flood waters have covered his land.
Because of these difficult conditions, survival in China's rural communities has always depended on the close cooperation of the group. Some scholars suggest that this need for cooperation has resulted in China's strong system of values, which governs all aspects of society. This value system emphasizes the importance of the group and subordinates the individual. In China, the family is the basic economic, political, and moral institution. At the turn of the twentieth century, the family, not the individual, owned property, paid taxes, and took responsibility for the legal or moral transgressions of one of its members. The family unit was therefore crucial to maintaining social discipline and order in peasant communities.
A family unit operated on the basis of a hierarchical structure. At its head was the grandfather or father of the family, who had absolute authority over the other family members.
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