The _hsien_, however significant they may be in the social system of China, both past and present, cannot be described in a work such as this. It is not inappropriate, however, to reiterate that they form what is perhaps the most important grouping within China, and that much of Chinese life is centred in _hsien_ affairs. It is by reason of _hsien_ autonomy that the Chinese social system has been so elastic as to permit the shocks of invasion, insurrection, conquest, famine and flood to pass through and over China without disrupting Chinese social organization. Sun once quoted the old Chinese proverb about the Lu Shan (mountains): “We cannot find the real shape of the Lu Shan—for we ourselves are on it.” From the viewpoint of the Western reader this proverb could be turned against Sun in his treatment of the _hsien_. He was passionately emphatic in discussing the importance of the _hsien_ with his foreign friends;(290) in his writings, addressed to his countrymen, he, as they, simply assumed the importance of the _hsien_ without troubling to make any cardinal point of it. The _hsien_ is in the unit of the most direct self-government of the people, without the interference of any elaborate set-up from officialdom. Apart from its age-old importance, it will gain further significance in the democracy of Sun Yat-sen. Some of the functions to be assigned to the people in a _hsien_ are assessment, registration, taxation, and/or purchase of all lands in the _hsien_; the collection of all unearned increment on lands within the _hsien_; land profits to be subjected to collection by the _hsien_, and disbursement for public improvements, charitable work, or other public service. Add this to the fact that the _hsien_ have been the chief agencies for police, health, charity, religious activity and the regulative control of custom—sometimes with the assistance of persons—through the centuries, and the great importance of the _hsien_ in the nationalist democracy becomes more clear. The Family System. Sun Yat-sen’s democracy differs further from the parliamentary, mechanical democracy of the West in that it incorporates the family system.(291) Of course Sun understood the extraordinary part that the family plays in China—a part more conspicuous, perhaps, than in any other country. He pointed out that the family required in China much of the loyalty which in the West is given to the state. “Among the Chinese people the family and kinship ties are very strong. Not infrequently the people sacrifice their lives and homes for some affair of kinship; for instance, in Kuangtung, two clans may fight regardless of life and property. On the other hand, our people hesitate to sacrifice themselves for a national cause. The spirit of unity has not extended beyond the family and clan relationships.”(292)