Abstract: Max Weber and Richard Tawney both analyzed the British social structure and its modernization from the perspective of "gentry". They made analogies between China and Britain on this basis. Fei Xiaotong was influenced by their thinking. In the process of transition from the Middle Ages to the modern time,the gentry,as a rising power,had gradually become an important part of the British social structure and a crucial modernization force. The concept of gentry changed constantly in history,eventually encompassing people from both traditional to modern,and rural to urban. The traditional British gentry was prominent landowners who obtained the post of Justice of Peace by virtue of wealth and prestige. British gentry was the core contributor of the transition from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft,not only connecting Gemeinschaft with modern politics but also village communities with modern markets. By contrast,the Chinese gentry were administrators and supervisors of the imperial political body,and they,at the same time,assumed the leadership of autonomous local groups and acted as an auxiliary force for self-governing local communities. When modernization brought changes to the old political system in China and the rise of a new type of gentry,it was difficult for the new and the old gentry to integrate. Conflicts were guaranteed over progress.
Fei expanded his gentry research by comparing gentry groups between the British and the Chinese. This paper explores Fei's work to find out its Western theoretical background and the prototype of its Chinese experience. Theoretically,Fei's work represented a continuity of Tawney and Weber's social comparison,but empirically,it was based on the Chinese traditional administrative system in rural Yunnan. We attempt to explain the ways that Fei sublated Tawney and Weber,and the tension rising from applying the gentry theory to the Chinese experience.

Key words: Fei Xiaotong, gentry, community, modernization, history of ideas