How can moral values and social relations be reconstructed in villages?
如何重建村庄的道德与人际关系？

Currently, many a change is taking place in rural China. Urbanization, marketization, and clashes between traditional culture and modern culture have all contributed to a common rural governance challenge: erosion of villagers’ moral values and breakdown of family-like relations among villagers. This case is derived from Hesilu Village of Chengxijiedao of Yiwu City in Zhejiang Province. The village has made some successful attempts to address this challenge with its innovation project by the name of “Gongdeyinhang” – meaning “Bank of Merit”.
当前我国农村正经历着巨大变化。城镇化的快速推进、市场化的侵袭，传统文化习俗与现代文明不断碰撞，使得一些乡村出现乡情冷漠、村风退化的问题，重塑乡里乡亲浓郁的乡情乡谊成为了民众的普遍诉求。浙江省义乌市何斯路村首创的“功德银行”，一方面遵循乡村的熟人社会特点，记录村民的善言善行，给予一定的精神和物质激励，从而充分发挥了道德的教化作用；另一方面配套开发现代化的“功德银行”手机软件，形成了成熟的运作模式，实现了乡村治理中德治与自治、法治的有效结合。

On the one hand, “Bank of Merit” has played a role in promoting moral values among the villagers. Each villager has an account in the Bank, keeping a record of his/her good words and deeds as claimed by oneself or by others. Such claims can also be filed retroactively. The record is then reverted to points according to certain pre-set criteria. All villagers’ points are published in the form of quarterly report, a document that functions as an important criterion for bank loan application and homestead allocation. Assessment of points are conducted by four parties, namely Village Party Branch Committee, Villagers’ Committee, Village Affairs Supervisory Committee, and Voluntary Representatives of Villagers. Information regarding this assessment can be retrieved from Villagers’ Committee. The villager accumulating the highest points within a year is recognized as “Outstanding Contributor of the Year”, thus becoming a moral exemplar in the village.
功德银行给每位村民设置一个账户，通过个人申报、他人报告和事后补录等途径，将村民的善言善行善举记录在册，按照相关标准积分，一季度一公布，作为银行贷款、宅基地分配的重要依据。积分评议由村党支部委员会、村民委员会、村务监督委员会成员和村义工代表共同参与，所有事项均可以到村委会查找，将年度得分最高者评为突出贡献者，号召村民向其学习。早年功德银行的记录是纯手写记录，不仅费时费力，而且数据难以整合与继承。2019年，何斯路村运用互联网信息技术，构建了功德银行云平台。村民关注微信公众号，输入的账户名称以及密码，便可进行查看积分、功德传承等各项便捷操作。

On the other hand, “Bank of Merit” has become a mature model of rural governance that combines self-governance, rule of virtue, and rule of law. Merits used to be recorded by hand. Therefore, record keeping was time-consuming, and it was hard to categorize the records. Nonetheless, the Bank’s functionality has been improved with the help from the Internet and information technology in recent years. In 2019, a cloud platform was developed for the Bank. Now villagers can log into their accounts to check their points and perform other functions either through Hesilu Village’s WeChat public account or through the Bank’s mobile app.
另一方面，“功绩银行”已发展成为结合自治、德治和法治的成熟乡村治理模式。过去，功绩都是手工记录，因此记录保存耗时费力，且难以分类整理。但近年来，借助互联网和信息技术，“功绩银行”的功能得到了显著提升。2019年，“功绩银行”搭建了云平台。现在，村民可以通过和思庐村的微信公众号或“功绩银行”的手机应用程序登录账户，查看积分并进行其他操作。


“Bank of Merit” has some implications for rural governance. First, personal morality and credibility are very important in an acquaintance society. As shown in this case, it is not uncommon for a person with few points in the Bank to become socially marginalized in the village. Second, material rewards may help achieve good governance in rural China. In Hesilu Village, a person with more than 50 points in the Bank can get an unsecured low interest rate loan of up to 600,000 RMB. Noteworthy is that some villagers used this loan as venture capital for their startups, which in turn have contributed to the economic development of their village. Third, it takes time to develop an effective and efficient rural governance project. “Bank of Merit” has been functioning well for over a decade mainly because people have made continuous efforts to improve its functionality, particularly by using digital technology in recent years. It is not a surprise that villages from more than 10 provinces have adopted Hesilu’s “Bank of Merit” as their model of rural governance.
何斯路村的功德银行有着非常值得借鉴的意义。第一，熟人社会的一个显著特征在于人们彼此熟知，因此个人的道德和信誉在人际关系中十分重要。如果某人在“功德银行”中几乎没有善行的记录，那么几乎可以认定其是道德、信誉较差的人，在熟人社会中很容易被边缘化。第二，积分对于村民也有着充足的现实激励。例如，村民只要积分超过50分，无需任何抵押就可贷到最高60万元额度的低息贷款。若干缺乏启动资金的创业村民便是凭着“功德银行”的积分顺利贷款启动了创业项目。第三，功德银行不是一个短期的政绩工程，而是有成熟的运作系统，已成功运转10余年并于近年实行了更加高效的数字化管理升级。何斯路村也积极向外推广功德银行，目前已有10多个省的数十个村庄加盟，使得这一模式能更加有效地持续。