holdings.  All “gentry” families owned substantial estates in the provinces which they leased to tenants on a kind of contract basis.  The tenants, therefore, cannot be called “serfs” although their factual position often was not different from the position of serfs.  The rents of these tenants, usually about half the gross produce, are the basis of the livelihood of the gentry.  One part of a gentry family normally lives in the country on a small home farm in order to be able to collect the rents.  If the family can acquire more land and if this new land is too far away from the home farm to make collection of rents easy, a new home farm is set up under the control of another branch of the family.  But the original home remains to be regarded as the real family centre.

In a typical gentry family, another branch of the family is in the capital or in a provincial administrative centre in official positions.  These officials at the same time are the most highly educated members of the family and are often called the “literati”.  There are also always individual family members who are not interested in official careers or who failed in their careers and live as free “literati” either in the big cities or on the home farms.  It seems, to judge from much later sources, that the families assisted their most able members to enter the official careers, while those individuals who were less able were used in the administration of the farms.  This system in combination with the strong familism of the Chinese, gave a double security to the gentry families.  If difficulties arose in the estates either by attacks of bandits or by war or other catastrophes, the family members in official positions could use their influence and power to restore the property in the provinces.  If, on the other hand, the family members in official positions lost their positions or even their lives by displeasing the court, the home branch could always find ways to remain untouched and could, in a generation or two, recruit new members and regain power and influence in the government.  Thus, as families, the gentry was secure, although failures could occur to individuals.  There are many gentry families who remained in the ruling elite for many centuries, some over more than a thousand years, weathering all vicissitudes of life.  Some authors believe that Chinese leading families generally pass through a three- or four-generation cycle:  a family member by his official position is able to acquire much land, and his family moves upward.  He is able to give the best education and other facilities to his sons who lead a good life.  But either these sons or the grandsons are spoiled and lazy; they begin to lose their property and status.  The family moves downward, until in the fourth or fifth generation a new rise begins.  Actual study of families seems to indicate that this is not true.  The main branch of the family retains its position over centuries.  But some of the branch families, created often by the less able family members, show a tendency towards downward social mobility.