Story Blueprint: Fragment of the Judicial Archives (This document was originally from my own collection and has now been donated to the Collection of the District Archives Bureau)
Age of life: During the Tongzhi period
Origin: Tanbu Duck Lake Village, Huaxian County
Note: The author of this lawsuit once published the magazine "Yangcheng Jingu" magazine and the "Huadu People" public account with the title of "The Squire and the County Official Fighting Method - Exposing a Major Case in HuaXian County in the Qing Dynasty" that shocked the whole province. In order to highlight the story, it is re-published today.
Tanbuwei was formerly the seat of the Shuixi Inspection Department and was a famous town. Across the river there is a large village called Duck Lake Village, and there is a reader in the village named Luo Chaotang. Luo Chaotang was employed as the head of Buyun Academy in the eleventh year of Xianfeng, because of his profound knowledge. Buyun Academy is the second largest college in Huaxian County, and is the earliest and largest academy in addition to Huafeng Academy located in the county seat. It is said that the mountain chief who can serve as the head of this academy must be a local gentleman with high moral standing. However, one day in the seventh year of Tongzhi, a large red poster was posted in Tanbuwei, which read as follows:
He who tastes the weight of the judge, the one who is honest, the man who has no shame, is also a beast. Nai Shiling Division evil Luo Chaotang, Chaotao, Hatohara Eagle, Xiang District Ben Xiongsheng, to that is, father and son, and now the brothers are evil, both rational and greedy, once cut the shed and demand bribes, even the table sells drama, set up factories and stalls, pretend to tell the lord, abuse prisoners, steal the land, force The Haruka field, correct the bandit party to squeeze merchants, arsonists insult women, occupy Guanshan Mountain, accumulate royal land, open cockroach X in the bullpen, tax the fish beach in the egg household, the stinky copper of the ticket factory, and the broken items of the sand. It is to cause businessmen to complain about the city but not to be ashamed, and the people to be indignant in the countryside and not to be ashamed. Repair the fruit, celebrate the Olan. Re-darkening the boundaries of the temple, forcibly taking the ticket of the child, persuading the original, following the anti-sweeping, threatening the shopkeepers, disrupting the field, not thinking of the evil, really provoking the gods and men to work together (indignation), that is, the victim wants to eat his flesh, and the victim is willing to sleep on his skin. It is to paste the long red all over the place, cut as a confession, and the multitude that has not sought revenge, how can the cats and mice nest together, and divide the territory from then on, so as not to shed poison. Inside the west corner, Kaoru was difficult to join, and walked into the clouds. The tang is both screen, thirty-five townships share Xi Tian; non-species has been hoeed, three hundred shops salty nagging Leli. Charcoal step stickers are long red.
This big-character newspaper is a notice written on long red paper, called "long red" in ancient times. What's written on it? It is written about the various crimes of his family: Luo Chaotang, including his father and brother, committed adultery together, they not only controlled the traffic charges at the ferry port, on the one hand, they cleaned up people's files to ask gamblers for bribes, on the other hand, they opened their own gambling stalls as bookmakers, they also got involved in lawsuits, falsely accused those who were accused, guaranteed guilty people, stole and sold the fields belonging to the public (referring to the fields of xuetian, the fields of some non-governmental organizations in zutian), forced people to give up remote fields, led bandits to extort merchants, connived at soldiers to bully women, and so on, anyway, All kinds of methods can be used to squeeze money, and there is a lot of evil. However, these accusations are not accompanied by the fact that the time, place and person of any event are not specified, which is a kind of venting criticism.
So, what is the truth? Let's look at this case from multiple complaints.
1. The state of telling Luo Chaotang
Unfortunately, this complaint is only the second half of the cut, and I don't know who the complainant is or to whom. Judging from the other files, the complainant is likely to be Tang Ling, and here it is preliminarily determined that it is Tang Ling. Obviously, this complaint was filed against Luo Chaotang.
Of course, Luo Chaotang did not go to Tanbuwei to do things, of course, Luo Chaotang himself went alone, there must be a group of subordinates, or his students, or his township. The thing that Zi zi said was only half cut off, saying that Luo Chaotang falsely accused Yishengtang of "correcting bandits and seeking killing", and guessed that this Tang Ling was the value of that Yishengtang. Referring to the position of "duty", it can be seen that this "Yishengtang" is not an ordinary shop, but a non-governmental organization, and Tang Ling is one of the managers, although he has no meritorious name, he is also a person with some identity. People could not see Luo Chaotang's complaint, but from this complaint, they knew that Luo Chaotang had already sued them, and the government had also arrested Tang Ling's men. Therefore, Tang Ling begged the official government (unknown which layer of yamen) to release the innocent, and "the evil Luo Chaotang and Chaotao brothers were thoroughly investigated." ”
In passing, he also told a group of "rotten boys" in Duck Lake Village, and 10 names were also listed in the text, Luo Yazai (mixed name Erzai), Luo Wenzhen, Luo Bing (the son of Niu Xin), Luo Yakun, Luo Tianzai (mixed name boat boy), Luo Lian, Luo Hongzhang, Luo Guangqing, Luo Yasu, Luo Yayun, Luo Yajiu, and Luo Zhenye, saying that they were all famous bandits in Duck Lake Village, known as the beetles of the neighbors. The implication is that Luo Chaotang is the umbrella of this gang of bandits.
Second, the figure led by Yuan Tiqian
Let's look at another document, which was presented to the prefect of Guangzhou by Yuan Tiqian, a squire from the same county, and Vice Gongye Chaoyuan, who told the truth of the matter, but in this form, Luo Chaotang's image was completely reversed:
In July of this year, Tanbu wei invited a drama class to perform, so the villagers in the nearby area came to watch the play in the polder, and the polder was crowded with people, and there were rotten boys Li Mao, Tang Yongyao, Xu Yasheng and others, taking the opportunity to gamble, Luo Chaotang went to ban gambling. Unexpectedly, when Li Mao and others saw that gambling was forbidden, they actually entangled a group of bandits, a total of more than 100 people, and on the morning of the seventeenth day (9:00-11:00), they broke into the academy with murder weapons and slashed and smashed. At that time, there were hanging plaques of "Wen Kui" and "Vice Kui" of the Luo Chaotang brothers given by the imperial court, and they were smashed by this gang of murderers, and Luo Chaotang was surrounded and beaten by the murderers, beaten to the head and bleeding, and his eyes were swollen, fortunately, his students desperately resisted, rescued the teacher, Luo Chaotang dug the wall and walked away, only to retrieve a life. The bandits looted the academy and then swept up the money and goods. Yuan Tiqian and other squires used the phrase "Sven swept the floor, and the humiliation was extremely bad" to describe Luo Chaotang's encounter. When such a thing happens, it is natural to report to the government to deal with it. However, the certificate was handed over to the county yamen, but no one accepted it, and the county did not send anyone to investigate and deal with it at all. This incident was so strange that everyone was horrified to learn that Luo Chaotao, the younger brother of Luo Chaotang, had sued the official in June, and Luo Chaotao had crossed the level to appeal to the "wolf messenger and wanton evil" and exposed the county's yacha fish and meat townspeople to the province. This time, his brother Luo Chaotang had an accident, and the report said that the county messenger was "angry because of his brother" and was rejoicing. They indulged the bandits and said, "Nothing to do." "These bandits had already committed the crime of killing their heads anyway, and they had no fear, but instead said that they were not gambling together, but were setting up altars to worship the gods, and slandered Luo Chaotang for disturbing their rituals, and wanted to confiscate the incense money they wanted to collect from them for blessings and disasters. Li Mao and others also went to file a complaint, and the petition also listed a bunch of elderly signatures as witnesses, saying that Luo Chaotang had embezzled money and property, but instead framed them for harboring bandits in Yishengtang in Weizhong, causing the People of Tanbu to "provoke the people of Tanbu to strike the market", saying that they had a nose and an eye. On the one hand, Li Mao and others secretly colluded with the officials of the county yamen to submit the records of the investigation and handling of the case of Luo Chaotang's complaint, and asked for permission to cancel the case. On the other hand, he openly went to the province to file a complaint against the "evil Luo Chaotang" and reported for the removal of Luo Chaotang's meritorious name.
Yuan Tiqian and other squires pointed out that Zhixian was behind the scenes: "Unless there is a control to sow, the bandits dare to be wanton." Tang was robbed and injured, and almost all of them were discarded, and they were approved for detailed reform. As soon as this wind grows, the bandits become more and more blazing, and who dares to ban gambling in the future will harm the place. Gentry and others could not bear to sit idly by and watch the persecution, except for the good situation, the joint percussion, the beggar committee to take the strict handling, the investigation of the main envoy, so that the Tuyu Party, so as not to be slipped through the net, the local lai. ”
Who are the "gentlemen"? The only names listed in this form are Yuan Tiqian and Ye Chaoyuan. Yuan Tiqian was a native of the Blue Pit of Chixiao Bamboo Cave, the same year as Luo Chaotang, and his younger brother Yuan Tichong was the head of the military department in the imperial court, so he had the courage to come forward for his friends. Ye Chaoyuan's origin is unknown, and he is also the deputy tribute of Xianfeng for eleven years.
Who was Zhixian at that time? It's Qi Ling. Qi Ling's full name is Qi Tonghao, is a native of Shandong, born as a supervisor, he became the Zhixian of Huaxian County in the first year of Tongzhi, left his post three years later, and in the seventh year of Tongzhi, he was reinstated as Zhixian of Huaxian County, so he should still be quite familiar with the affairs of Huaxian County.
Next, I didn't see how the prefect of Guangzhou replied to Yuan Tiqian's form, but I found that there was a reply from the Guangzhou government to Luo Chaotang's form.
"Guangzhou Prefecture approved: Luo Chaotang submitted the report, Li Yamao, and others to extort Luo Chaotang's suspicion of banning gambling, correcting the masses to beat up Swen, destroying the library, and sending out wanton servants to commit wanton evil deeds; if it is true, the law is intolerable, and it is urgent to investigate thoroughly, so as to suppress the law and discipline and show the grand duke, and Waiting for Zhaobao's new appointment Wu Ling to find out the merits, and according to the facts, check and handle the sticky copy."
This reply, the top of the head plus the words: "Chao Tang has to return a good batch." It can be seen that it is a good news, and the original Qi Zhi County has been withdrawn, and a new Zhi County has been replaced to re-investigate this case.
Third, The form of Monson Luo Chao.leading
The next document was submitted by Luo Chao, who crossed the prefect level and was directly submitted to Guangdong According to The Inspector. According to Cha Si, the department responsible for the administration of justice in a province, Luo Chao was Luo Chaotang's protégé.
The gist of his form goes like this:
Luo Chao, a native of Huaxian County, was a prisoner, and I was going to sue the county magistrate for harboring the bandits to rob and kill people, and my teacher Luo Chaotang was so unjust that he begged the adults to send someone to investigate and arrest the bandits. So, Luo Chao said roughly what happened again, but he said it in more detail. Speaking of the location of the bandits, Yishengtang and Yongji, it is also said that Li Mao and others built more than ten gambling sheds, resulting in the gathering of tanbu wei stock bandits, and also appeared the name of Tang Daifeng, a local guard who accepted bribes and covered up gambling. When Luo Chaotang went to the county yamen to file a complaint, Xie Xie and others in the county, because they hated their brother Luo Chaotao for cutting off their "financial road", deliberately delayed it and did not investigate. Luo Chaotang repeatedly requested an examination of his wounds, and the doorman said that in five days, the provincial officials would come and wait for them to come and examine the injuries again, and he also asked his injured teacher to kneel there for a long time, and did not go to recover the belongings of the academy that had been plundered by the bandits, but even secretly instructed the bandit party, asking them to impersonate the signatures of many local elders and put Luo Chaotang on the charge of "resisting rent collection." As a result, his teacher was not only robbed and injured for forbidden gambling, but also stripped of his name. Luo Chao's sub-text also reads: "Students and others were present at the school, saw that the teacher was humiliated, and the injustice was extremely tragic, and now because of his serious injuries, he was forced to go to the province, stick to the scroll and prostrate himself, beg for an investigation, inspect the siege and take care of it, and detain the old man for investigation, and wish to go to the province." ”
It can be seen that the Guangzhou government also had twists and turns, and finally did not file a grievance for Luo Chaotang.
How did the Guangdong Inspectorate judge the case?
Guangdong's approval according to Chasi began with the form of his brother Luo Chaotao. It turned out that the stubborn Luo Zhaotao had repeatedly been unable to get along with those counties, saying that they had gone to the countryside to wantonly extort and harm the people, and had already reported the complaint to the Inspector of Guangdong. The inspector naturally asked Qi Zhi County to investigate, and Qi Zhi County quickly found out that There was no tangible evidence for the various paragraphs that Luo Chaotao "controlled." Moreover, from the county messenger's mouth, it was found that Luo Zhaotao and his brother Luo Chaotang were harboring gambling and accepting bribes. The county messengers were pinched and controlled by these inferior gentry because they were ordered to check on gambling and cut off the Luo family's financial road.
The opposite is true, guangdong according to the inspection of the messenger to whom? Xinqizhi County. The reason is that if Li Mao and others "acted and gambled, and suspected of coercing Luo Chaotang's prohibition and obstructing, and robbing and injuring people, if it was true, why didn't Qi Ling approve and not investigate?" Incomprehensible! The result of the zhixian investigation was: "Luo Zhaotao and his brother led bandits, harassed and provoked the people to strike the market in anger, revert to arbitrary obedience, and oppress the good people." According to the inspector, Luo Chaotang lectured at Buyun Academy, teaching students is his special responsibility, as for gambling and other matters, it should be investigated and handled by local officials. Moreover, he also criticized: Regardless of whether Luo Chaotang harbored gambling and accepting bribes, he had already interfered in public affairs by violating his authority to ban gambling without authorization.
Judging from the approval documents of guangdong according to the inspection department, Luo Chaotang lost horizontally and vertically, the officials and officials protected each other, and the squires and county officials broke up, which was the last thing the boss wanted to see. Fortunately, is there no new Zhi County to perform its duties, and Guangdong's approval letter according to the Cha Si also gave Luo Chaotang a way to live: "Receiving the county order can be fulfilled by the day, there is no need to return to the protection, rely on the Guangzhou government to find out the original (case), entrust the truth to the first to make a reply, on the one hand, strictly detain Li Yamao and other bandits who have provoked trouble to press (case), confirm the facts, record the confession, and report it slightly." ”
Fourth, Huang Jiagui, a squire in the township of Gongtou, appeared
So the case was raised one more level and sued the clan division. The full name of the clan division is the department of envoys and envoys, which is in charge of the civil affairs, finance, land, household registration, money and grain, and official assessment of a province or several provinces, and it is necessary to work to the level of the clan division, and it can be known that this certificate has been transferred to the county. Sue for what? If you look at the text, you know that it is to inform the county to condone the misdeeds of the people.
When Luo Chao filed a complaint on behalf of the teacher, Yuan Tiqian and other squires jointly submitted the petition, and when they reached the level of the clan division, a new figure appeared, that is, Huang Jiagui, the old gong of Gongtou Village. He also took a bunch of squires to sue. Huang Jiagui's appearance could not be seen, and judging from the approval of Luo Chao and Huang Jiagui by the Clan Division, it was the same to the effect. Moreover, it is not only to inform the clan division, but also to inform the county.
The approval given to Luo Chao by the clan was: "Luo Chao and other approvals." According to the approval of the county of submission and sticking, the provocation was carried out by each side, that is, the matter of the accusation, which arose because of the gambling situation. Local gambling is not forbidden by the government, no wonder it causes trouble, and it involves the front control. The county's case of indulgence was invited to be submitted, whether to carry the help and obedience, to rely on the Guangzhou government to quickly feed the new Hua County to investigate the cause of the provocation, to take the trouble of the various bandits, and to collect the interrogations and report them separately, without being slightly biased. Obviously, luo Chaotang was also suspicious of being nosy. You Luo Chaotang official, let the official take care of it, what hand do you intervene? After all, the government will still uphold justice, and now It has sent Xinzhi County to investigate.
The approval given to Huang Jiagui by the clan was: "Huang Jiagui and other approvals." According to this (case) first, through the agent HuaXian Qi Ling, the Luo Chaotang brothers who had the courtesy to hide the gambling rules, the county servant Dai Zhang, and others held tickets, resulting in being held by hatred and pinching and other circumstances. When approved, the government will be put on trial. According to the report, Luo Chaotang's various bad deeds, whether they are true or not, Yang Dong according to the Cha Si that is, the current Wu Ling of Hua County, will dai Zhang carved the Day Liberation Mansion. And rao Guangzhou government to collect the interrogators, etc., the quality is clear, the special rate of judgment, with no delay in reporting. "Here it is clear that It is Qi Zhi County that directly went out on the horse to accuse the Luo Chaotang brothers of gambling and receiving regulations." Dai Zhang, an errand boy, took the official documents of the county to ban gambling, and clashed with Luo Chaotang, who was sheltering gambling, so he was falsely accused by The Luo Chaotang brothers. At this point, it can be seen that Luo Chaotangdou is not Ya Cha, but the Great Lord of Zhixian County. So did ZhiXian make false accusations? The clan was about to wait for the new Wu Ling to investigate.
V. Results of the investigation of the new Wu Ling
Zha Xinzhi County is called Wu Tingjie, a native of Wanping, Hebei Province, who originally had experience as a government official, and may have been in charge of cashier documents under the prefect of Guangzhou. He wrote many words on Yuan Tiqian's approval, and the essence was four words: "At a loss." "What did he find out?" Luo Chaotang and Tang Ling and others accused each other, this matter was already clear from the previous Qi Ling, he came to Hua County, all the people around him hated the Luo family brothers, he was alone, he was not familiar with life, what could he check? Therefore, he also took the initiative to believe in his predecessor: "Shiyin Luo Chaotang and his brother Baba rented the land, so that Buyun and other squires accumulated public anger." The crowd beat up the red market. "Moreover, the appointment has also been sent to investigate, bullet pressure, detention summons, interrogation, each step is not lacking. According to the squire's appeal, Luo Chaotang was blackmailed by Li Mao and others to ban gambling, correct bandits and rob him, and collude with Tang Daling to sign the township elders behind his back, and jointly accuse him of "disturbing and bullying and collecting." If these things are true, the law will investigate them. However, the elderly Tang Da Ling and so on are completely different statements, who do you believe?
Wu Zhixian's reasoning is similar to that of the Guangdong envoys: You Luo Chaotang is a person who lifts up people and is also the head of a school, if the brothers are fair and have great prestige in the countryside, Li Mao and others are strong and tyrannical, how dare they openly correct the masses to go to the academy and wantonly beat them up because they have a personal vendetta? Moreover, how could the gentry and the people of the various townships be willing to listen to Li Mao and strike at each other? Looking at the "long red", we know that there must be a reason for this: "Now according to Er and others and Huang Jiagui's participles, the great constitution is controlled, that is, the second line of investigation, it is familiar (which) is really familiar (which) is false, who is curved and who is straight, and the aunt is waiting for the edict." In order to show that he was impartial and impartial, Wu Zhixian also replied: "Fang Xin, who is in charge of everything, has no prejudices, and refuses to be involved in a case from his previous visits, and yu Li Mao and others are slightly involved in selfishness, and do not take Er and others to present themselves as gangs, and Luo Chaotang and others intend to be biased." Each of them is forgiven. ”
This volume has no further reference here. Will Wu Tingjie continue to investigate? In this concluding sentence, is this "forgiveness" called Yuan Tiqian to forgive him and not to pursue him further, or did he ask Luo Chaotang and Tang Ling to forgive each other? Or do you tell all parties to forgive each other, and to be precious, and not to pursue the merits of the matter again? Looking at his resume, he later served as the governor of Sanshui County and the acting governor of Lianping Prefecture, and it can be seen that he did not fight in the case of Hua County. In any case, just by looking at his statement, if he is not a mediocre official, he will also have a lot of helplessness.
The author went through other archives and found that by the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, Li Hongzhang, the acting governor of Liangguang, had gone to the imperial court to remove Luo Chaotao from his teaching post on the grounds that he had "disobeyed" the orders of the government by the bandits of his patronage clan. This was the fate that had befallen his brother thirty-one years after he had been stripped of his name, and at that time, he should have been old and would not have performed any official teaching duties at all. From this point of view, we can see that Luo Chaotao's stubbornness in fighting with officials for decades can also be seen that the time of this contest is long.
In this contest between officials and gentlemen, the gentry lost. Looking at the archives, during the Tongzhi Guangxu years, the public security in HuaXian was very poor, and robberies occurred frequently, not only the ordinary people, but also the homes of the gentry, but also many records of being looted, and the change of personnel in Zhixian County was also very frequent, sometimes changing several times a year. When the officials leave, the officials are still there, and they are the ones who have power in the county. These people had no social status, and the Qing History Manuscript and Food Commodity Zhi I recorded: "All the servants of the Imperial Household Bureau, the horse fast, the bu fast, the pony, the forbidden pawn, the doorman, the archer, the servant, the grain difference, and the patrol camp fan service, are all lowly service." "The so-called lowly servants are those who have entered this profession, and they are people who cannot be officials in their lifetime, and even their children and grandchildren are not qualified to take the examination. The system design of the Qing Dynasty was originally to prevent and suppress these people, but I did not expect that they would be the most capable of gaining power. Zhixian is often often emptied. Looking at the Huaxian case, this is a typical example.
The picture shows the former residence of Luo Chaotang, and the flagpole of their brothers is erected at the entrance of the alley.