In the era of the feudal dynasty, because of the authoritarian centralized system, coupled with the strict hierarchical system of inferiority, people in society will be divided into different classes and groups, and at the bottom of this is a large number of beggars living on the streets, who are heavily exploited by the government or affected by war, homeless, displaced, and at the same time, they are born poor, neither have received any education, nor do they have any skills, it is naturally difficult to maintain their own lives, and eventually they fall into the streets and make a living by begging.
And this situation was particularly pronounced in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, so the question arises, even if these beggars can get food on weekdays, where should they live at night? Not to mention that there is still winter in the north, why haven't they been frozen to death?
The reason for the sharp increase in the number of beggars during the Qing Dynasty
The increase in the number of beggars in the Qing Dynasty was not only in the last years, it can be said that such a situation has existed since the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, but the growth of this number in the early days was not very large, and the number of beggars increased sharply in the late Qing Dynasty.
The root cause of this situation is still due to the decadent feudal autocratic rule of the Qing Dynasty, the upper rulers claim to benefit the people and solve the problems of people's livelihood, but in terms of practical actions, he often pays more attention to the interests of the aristocratic class, even if there are many beneficial to the people, but it can not fundamentally solve the problem of people's food and clothing.
Even in the heyday of Kangqian, there were also beggars, because no matter what demands and tactics the rulers made, it was difficult to avoid the exploitation and oppression of the government, and the heavy servitude and taxes would increase the burden on the people.
In the late Qing Dynasty, that is, the stage when Empress Dowager Cixi was bowing to the government, the rulers were not only faint and incompetent, but also tried their best to squeeze the people, coupled with the signing of some treaties of loss of power and humiliation of the country, the compensation for the cession of land, the imperial court in order to solve this problem will naturally exert pressure on the local government, and the local government will increase taxes in disguise, which led to many people having to sell houses and land to pay taxes, which also indirectly led to the destruction of more and more people.
Then there was the Qing Dynasty period to implement a closed policy, the concept of heavy agriculture and suppression of business mainly attached importance to the development of agriculture to inhibit commercial trade, which also made the social economy at that time in a state of stagnation for a long time, the people's living standards were naturally difficult to improve, and there was a lack of many employment opportunities to earn economic income, at the same time, serious land annexation and many peasants lost the cultivated land on which to survive, so there were fewer and fewer people who really worked, and more and more people were living on the streets, and the increase in the number of beggars was also an inevitable situation.
The miserable living situation of the beggar
What kind of living situation will these beggars who have lost their financial resources and are homeless face? First of all, a very clear point is that these beggars are destined to beg for a living, and they will also take a bowl to beg along the street on weekdays, and when they meet well-meaning people, they may give them one or two copper plates, and ordinary people will also give some leftovers, but if they encounter bad hearts, they are likely to scold them, and even punch and kick, this situation is the norm for these beggars, after all, in that era, people are divided into three or six or nine, as beggars they are undoubtedly the lowest end of society. In the eyes of those nobles, they were not even slaves, and how could they be treated equally and justly.
So many beggars are hungry every day, starving to death on the street is countless, in addition to these people because there is no place to live, generally can only find some bridges or grass piles as a place to live, lucky can also find some dilapidated ancient temples or abandoned old houses, this is their only dependence, even if the wind leaks on all sides, the roof leaks rain, it is better than sleeping on the street.
In addition to the two big problems of eating and living, on weekdays, they are also ragged, they are reduced to begging for a living, and how can they have money to buy decent clothes, so the clothes worn by these beggars are basically patches and patches, since there is no clothes, there will naturally be no shoes to wear, whether it is spring, summer, autumn or winter, many beggars are barefoot, and some of these wandering children may be able to pick up some clothes and shoes thrown away by others, and do not have to show them naked.
In general, in that era when there was no social security, beggars did not get people's sympathy and pity, and there was no relevant rescue agency, these people were more like walking dead people wandering the streets aimlessly all day, perhaps they only had the belief to live and lost the meaning of living, death for them has no fear, so at that time many beggars were expressionless before death, not even a word of mourning was issued, it can be seen that they have completely lost hope for life.
Happy nest - chicken feather room
Although there were beggars all over the country during the Qing Dynasty, but the situation they faced was not exactly the same, for example, the beggars living in the north had to face a very serious problem, that is, to survive the cold and windy winter, to know that the winter in the north is usually minus ten, twenty degrees, not to mention no heavy cotton clothes to keep warm, even if there are people usually difficult to stay too long in the cold, but for these beggars they not only have to find cold clothes, but also look for a place to spend the night.
Like some dilapidated buildings or haystacks that have completely failed to resist the cold wind or wind and snow, it is reasonable to say that many of these hungry and cold beggars should face death because it is difficult to survive the winter, but in fact, they are not frozen to death, because there was a special residence at that time , the chicken feather house.
The so-called chicken feather room is a hotel specially provided for beggars to live, only three copper coins are needed to live here for a night, for this price many beggars can still afford it, so in order to survive, they have to live in this room almost every day, there is no bed here, there is no bedding, only feathers on the ground, generally after the slaughterhouse kills the chickens, these feathers are usually not disinfected, after all, it is for beggars to live, the price charged is extremely low, Merchants naturally do not go to too many layouts.
In this room many beggars will be crowded together, because there are feathers on the floor, so everyone will be more compact together, and there will be a very large quilt hanging up in this room, and when everyone is lying down, the merchant will let people put this quilt down and cover these beggars, perhaps for the beggars, this moment is the happiest time of their day, and there can be such a nest to ensure that many beggars in the north will not be frozen to death in the cold winter.
epilogue
However, we do not know that such a nest of comfort, there are still many beggars who can not afford to live, these beggars who have nowhere to go will eventually face the fate of death, from these things we can also deeply appreciate the hardships of people's lives and the darkness of society under the era of feudal society at that time, and at the same time feel the indifference and ruthlessness of human nature in that period.
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