On July 6, 2017, in Tanpo Village, Pingnan County, Guangxi Province, at 6 p.m., the sky was already dark.
A large group of young villagers, led by six men, rushed to the Zou ancestral hall in the village and picked up the sledgehammers and iron rods in their hands.
There are two clans living in the village, namely the Yang clan and the Zou clan.
The main contradiction that night was that the Yang clan wanted to smash the ancestral hall of the Zou clan.
The young people with the same surname, led by Yang Guangji, rushed into all corners of the Zou clan.
Yang Guangji and others not only smashed most of the roof decorations, but also used a sledgehammer to sweep away a large number of deceased tablets of the Zou clan and burned the spirit tablets with gasoline.
When the People of the Zou Clan saw that their ancestral hall had been destroyed and wantonly destroyed by Yang Guangji and others, they hated it so much that they did not go to the Yang Clan Theory, but directly called the police.
The Zou clan took out their mobile phones and recorded the smashing experience of Yang Guangji and others, leaving it as evidence for future generations.
The police car overturned the mountain and crossed the rugged and difficult mountain road, and they had just reached the mouth of the village when they were found by the Yang clan who were sentry.
Yang Guangji and the others immediately fled the Zou Ancestral Hall, leaving only a mess on the ground.
The police rushed to the scene to see that the Zou ancestral hall was seriously damaged, in fact, the police had long known the contradiction between the two clans in the village that had been resentful for a long time, or that they had expected it.
According to photos taken by the police, Yang Guangji and others carried a sledgehammer and directly smashed the stainless steel ancestral hall gate, rushed in and smashed porcelain pieces, tile nails and other rare animal glass decorations.
What was most unacceptable to the Zou clan was that the spirit tablets of more than a dozen ancestors were burned by Yang Guangji and others.
After the appraisal of the relevant departments, the total loss of the Zou Ancestral Hall, as high as 14,000 yuan, is enough for criminal conviction.
The next thing can be imagined, the police filed a case to arrest people, Yang Guangji and a number of ethnic groups were arrested.
On April 16, 2018, the local procuratorate filed a public indictment, and Yang Guangji and others were suspected of intentionally destroying property.
More than a month later, the local court held a hearing.
The problem is that everyone knows that smashing other people's ancestral halls is a very serious crime, and they have a complete vendetta against the Yang family.
Why did Yang Guangji and others smash people's ancestral halls? And the content of this issue of the article is the superstitious circle that cannot be walked out, and the judge has difficulty mediating...
First, the feng shui of the ancestral hall causes contradictions
The detailed history of this matter should start from the Yang clan and the Zou clan in Tanpo Village.
The Yang clan in the village has the largest number of people, and the Zou clan ranks second.
Over the years, the Yang and Zou clans in the village have gotten along quite well, getting along day and night for generations, and several families have intermarried with each other.
By 2005, the Yang clan suddenly heard that the Zou clan was going to build an ancestral hall in the village.
When I asked, I learned that among the members of the Zou clan, there was a clan member who had been living abroad for many years, and after his old age, he missed his hometown, so he wanted to build an ancestral hall for the clan.
After some people in the clan took the lead, everyone raised money and pooled funds to build the ancestral hall.
From site selection to design, to brick by brick, and even the green tree at the door, it is carefully designed by the Zou clan, and everyone attaches great importance to this matter.
On the left side of the ancestral hall are their Zou family, and on the right are the Yang clan of the same village, which means that it is located in the middle of the two surnames in the village.
At the beginning, the Yang Clan did not care about this matter, thinking in their hearts that the Zou Clan was cultivating the ancestral hall, so they let them cultivate it.
But after the ancestral hall was repaired, the Yang clan suddenly found that the clan on their side always had misfortunes.
For example, drunk driving in a car accident, such as suffering from cancer, especially more than a dozen young adults, because of such bad luck, have been buried in the ground.
This provoked the anger of the Yang clan, believing that the reason why their side had encountered various terminal illnesses and accidents was because the Zou Ancestral Hall had destroyed feng shui.
On the side of the Yang clan, from the perspective of superstition, it is believed that the corners, eaves, decorations, and ancestral tablets of the Zou clan ancestral hall ... It was some kind of mysterious feng shui array that seriously hurt the luck of Yang's side.
The four corners of the ancestral hall are facing who is unlucky, the spirit seat is facing who is in trouble, and the glass of various rare birds and beasts on the roof shines on whom, and whose family will continue to be doomed...
Therefore, the Yang clan was very angry, and said something about feng shui, and asked the Zou clan opposite for advice.
And the Zou clan believes that the ancestral hall is just a building, why is it strange to talk about it? Where is the saying that others are forced to demolish ancestral halls?
The contradiction opened up, the Yang clan demanded the demolition of the ancestral hall, the Zou clan naturally did not agree, so the two clans turned against each other and quarreled and insulted each other.
Among the Yang clan, those who had suffered unfortunate bad luck in their families began to use small means to destroy the Zou Clan Ancestral Hall.
For example, slingshots hit glazed tiles and glazed ornaments, and then such as quietly smashing decorations such as small lions and peacocks at night, similar means continue to be used.
The Zou clan saw hatred in their eyes and always found small holes in the ancestral hall one after another, and continued to repair the corners and eaves of the walls.
With the backlog of anger, some people on the Yang clan side picked up a sledgehammer in the middle of the night and smashed the wall of the Zou ancestral hall.
Seeing that the contradiction between the two clans was getting out of control, the two sides decided to sit down and talk.
In the spring of 2017, the young adults of the two clans in the village returned to worship their ancestors.
On the fourth day of the third lunar month, the two clans each elected six representatives to negotiate with the opposite side.
The Yang clan people demanded the demolition of the ancestral hall, zou naturally did not agree, after mediation by the intermediary, the Yang clan people retreated a step.
The two sides reached an agreement: although the Zou clan could not demolish the ancestral hall, it must transform the ancestral hall and dismantle all the things that affected feng shui.
The cost of four thousand yuan arising from the transformation was borne by the Yang clan, and the Zou clan completed the terms of the agreement within ninety days.
At the scene of the negotiation, most of the Zou clan and the Yang clan accepted this agreement and wanted to take a step back from the sea and the sky.
Now that the agreement was completed, the Yang clan naturally took out four thousand yuan, and then it was time for the Zou clan to tear down all kinds of glass decorations.
It can be seen from the above that although the contradiction is in the ancestral hall, the root cause is in the feng shui, and the Yang clan in the village has a contradiction with the Zou clan because of superstitious thinking.
After the negotiations were over, the Zou clan took the agreement and discussed going to renovate the ancestral hall.
But at this time, the problem came, some members did not agree, on the grounds that when the ancestral hall was built, every clan member paid for it, so the transformation of the ancestral hall also required the consent of every clan member.
Some people also said: "After we were bullied once by the opposite side, we will always be bullied by the opposite surname Yang in the future, so we must not give in." ”
Things got to this point and turned into a stalemate again.
Second, Zou Shi repented, and contradictions broke out
After consultation, the Zou clan posted an open letter in the village, fiercely believing that the ancestral hall was used by its own apprentices and belonged to the legitimate property of the Zou clan, and no one could interfere...
The most important content of the open letter is a statement: the agreement signed by the Zou clan and the Yang clan on the fourth day of the third month of the lunar calendar is invalid.
The Yang Clan was naturally not convinced, so after the three-month time limit came, they were very angry when they saw that the Zou Clan on the other side had not transformed the ancestral hall.
Yang Guangji convened a meeting of the native clans in his village, and in order to force the Zou clan opposite to renovate the ancestral hall, he went to the town government to mediate.
On July 6, local government officials mediated a dispute between the two ethnic groups.
However, both sides were fierce in their rhetoric and refused to back down from each other, so the mediation failed.
As the sun set, Yang Guangji rushed to the Zou Ancestral Hall with his own villagers, which led to the scene at the beginning of this article.
After Yang Guangji and the others were arrested, the Yang clan sent representatives to the Zou clan, hoping that the big thing would be turned into a small matter, and the two clans could reconcile the matter.
The representatives of the Zou clan naturally did not agree, they believed that the Yang clan was deceiving people too much, so the Zou clan had to severely punish Yang Guangji and others through legal channels.
What made the Zou clan most resentful was that Yang Guangji and others used filth to sprinkle the spirit cards in the ancestral hall, and then set fire to the spirit cards with gasoline.
When the procuratorate took over the matter, it naturally hoped to mediate the dispute and try not to make trouble in the court.
Therefore, procurator Li Baihui repeatedly crossed the mountains and mountains to Tanpo Village to find representatives of the Zou clan to mediate and do ideological work.
The Zou clan resolutely refused to agree to mediation, and as Prosecutor Li came more and more often, the Zou clan simply avoided seeing it.
The procuratorate was helpless, seeing that the Zou clan was so tough, so it could only let the court make a judgment.
The Zou clan is still that sentence: This is too bullying, if you are bullied once today, you will be bullied countless times in the future, so you will never agree to mediation.
When the time limit for reviewing the indictment has expired, the court will naturally hold a hearing.
When the judge heard the matter, he put forward a hypothesis for both parties: the defendant did constitute a criminal offence and was due to be punished according to the relevant legal provisions. In addition, the defendants, yang Guangji and others, if they can get the forgiveness of the Zou clan, they can get the court's sentencing lenient treatment.
To put it bluntly, the judge hopes that the two sides can put aside their grievances, after all, they have lived in the same village for generations, and try not to make trouble because of this matter.
By this time, the contradiction had entered the most difficult stage of mediation, and Judge Zheng Xin was still the first time to encounter such a difficult grievance dispute.
The judge in charge of the trial was named Zheng Xin, and her brows tightened after reading the file in her hand.
If the generation in the village has a contradiction, it is likely to continue to the next generation or even the next three generations.
And if this matter is not resolved well, once other villagers in the county follow suit, the consequences will be even more serious.
Third, a wave of uneven waves has risen again
From the judge's point of view, if Yang Guangji and others want to gain the understanding of the Zou clan, they must come up with a suitable compensation plan.
On April 23, 2018, Judge Zheng Xin looked at the file in his hand, frowned and fell into thought, feeling the biggest pressure since he joined the company.
There are clear provisions in the law, but it is better to solve; in the case of smashing the ancestral hall, there are still many places where the legal provisions are vague, testing Zheng Xin's ability to resist pressure.
First of all, the judge got the sledgehammer of Yang Guangji and others, and saw the photos of the ancestors of the Zou clan being burned, and the evidence was naturally sufficient.
The problem is that the impact of this matter is huge, and if Zheng Xin does not handle it well, it may cause a chain reaction that is out of control in the county.
Zheng Xin went all the way to Tanpo Village, first to find the Yang clan, got the compensation plan given by the other party, and then went to the Zou clan for mediation.
Although Zheng Xin had been mentally prepared for it earlier, after meeting the representatives of the Zou clan, he realized that the difficulties were far greater than he had imagined.
As a public power department, the court actually had no choice but to face the overwhelming anger of the villagers of the Zou clan, and it was not something that could be solved by three or two legal provisions.
Zheng Xin came up with a compensation plan for the Yang clan and wanted to hear the opinions of the Zou clan, who was naturally furious, said nothing and did not agree, and insisted on sentencing Yang Guangji and others.
After the Yang clan heard the opposite Zou clan's statement, they did not wait for judge Zheng Xin to give a mediation plan, they blocked one intersection after another, resulting in a further escalation of the contradiction.
Originally, the road into the village, especially the road to the Zou clan settlement, had to pass through the Yang clan's settlement.
Yang pulled bricks and tiles from this side, and even used construction machinery to block the intersection and not allow people from the Zou clan to enter and exit.
Judge Zheng Xin was in the village, looking at the roadblocks one after another, which not only blocked the entrances and exits into and out of the village, but also blocked the road of mediation, adding difficulties to the follow-up work.
After the Yang clan blocked the road, the Zou clan reacted strongly and demanded that the roadblocks be removed immediately, the road is the state and not your family.
When the Yang clan heard this, they saw that the people on the other side were so tough, instead of dismantling the barricades, they also pulled more building materials to block the road.
From the judge's point of view, the more fierce the two clans quarrel, the more they need to mediate in court to avoid escalating contradictions.
Tanpo Village resounded with the scolding of the two clans, especially those Zou clan villagers who wanted to enter the village, driving a car outside the village to have a home that was difficult to return, and the mood could be imagined...
The idea of the Yang clan is also very simple, if the Zou clan on the other side refuses to understand and has to blackmail people, then block the road forever.
Typical contradiction dead end, the Zou clan is afraid of being bullied, thinking that the Yang clan has intensified bullying its own side, not fighting for steamed buns, and never taking half a step back!
Judge Zheng Xin has done the ideological work of the Zou clan many times, guaranteeing that Yang Guangji and others will be punished, and suggested that the representatives of the Zou clan think about the rush and fatigue in the litigation process and think about the input of this cost.
Since the ancestral hall was smashed by the opposite side, the best way is to let the other party compensate according to the price, and in the future, the villagers will not look down and look up, and they can't scold the street as soon as they meet, right?
The representatives of the Zou clan, after listening to Zheng Xin's remarks, thought that the judge was right, and they were reluctantly willing to agree to mediation.
The judge saw that the Zou clan's mouth was loose, but he encountered a new problem, that is, the unfamiliar area of the clan ancestral hall.
Zheng Xin did not even have a shrine in his family, and he had never been exposed to anything like this since he was a child, so he called a number of staff members of the judicial organs and the three departments jointly mediated the matter.
More than two hundred people in the village, surnamed Zou and not going out, all participated without exception, and it was necessary to make sure that everyone agreed.
At the same time, the village committees of several nearby villages also participated in the mediation.
After half a month of difficult mediation, the Zou clan made their conditions and demanded that the Yang clan on the other side must agree.
First, the ancestral hall of the Zou clan did not allow the Yang clan to interfere.
Second, immediately shovel the barricades at the entrance of the village, so that the Zou clan can enter and exit without obstacles.
Third, the Zou clan demanded 200,000 yuan in compensation to repair the ancestral hall.
When the judge heard the first two conditions, he felt that it was acceptable to talk about it, but the 200,000 yuan in compensation for the third condition undoubtedly became the final difficulty.
Sure enough, as soon as the Yang clan heard about the 200,000, they immediately said that it was too expensive, which was obviously blackmail.
Naturally, the judge had already visited the ancestral hall, and he also knew how much money was needed to repair the ancestral hall, and 200,000 yuan was indeed too high.
Therefore, the judge suggested that the Zou clan make concessions, and at the same time test the other side's tone to see if they can transform the ancestral hall and not decorate the glazed tiles of those rare birds and beasts.
Mediation is multifaceted, and at the same time, other staff members are also doing the work of the Yang clan, asking everyone to get out of superstitious thinking.
On Zheng Xin's side, although she lacked the experience of the ancestral hall in this regard, she could take out the ancestral shrines in the surrounding areas and even the Guangdong region of Fujian province, so that the Zou clan could see what other ancestral shrines looked like.
After the comparison of the two, Zheng Xin believes that the ancestral hall of Tanpo Village does have places that do not meet the regulations.
What the government workers have in mind is always to turn the gang into a jade veil, and the generation in the village must live together, and the children and grandchildren must also live together. There must always be a plan.
After a series of difficult mediations and difficult negotiations, the staff was exhausted with real efforts and wasted the strength of the two tigers to do the work on both sides.
The first and most important is the Yang clan, which has obtained the understanding of the Zou clan.
Second, the sentence was lenient, and Yang Guangji and others were given lighter punishments.
Third, there must be no large-scale armed struggles and no further conflicts.
After the two sides accepted mediation, the judge faced a new problem, that is, the ancestral hall did not have a legally clear ownership right.
That is to say, on the side of the Zou clan, there is a lack of civil subjects, and it is signed on the letter of understanding.
Zheng Xin's solution is to organize a meeting of legal experts to discuss and propose that the Zou clan elect litigation representatives...
After a meeting, the Zou clan elected seven representatives, who were counted as the subjects of the lawsuit.
On May 22, 2018, Zheng Xin announced the opening of the trial.
In court, six defendants, led by Yang Guangji, confessed to the crimes they had committed.
The judge's verdict was that all six defendants were guilty of intentional destruction of property and sentenced to one year's imprisonment with one year's and six months' probation.
Participants include courts, procuratorates, judicial offices, representatives of the Yang clan, representatives of the Zou clan, village cadres of the surrounding village committees, etc.
The incident was not simply a matter of smashing property, but involved all aspects of detail.
On the side of the Zou clan, they signed the letter of understanding, indicating that when restoring the ancestral hall, they would no longer use glazed tiles such as rare birds and animals, but would replace them with landscape paintings.
The representative of the Yang clan took out 14,415 yuan as compensation and handed it to the representative of the Zou clan opposite.