"Do you have to print paper money on your own printer?"
As the Qingming Festival approached, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, issued a notice prohibiting the manufacture and sale of feudal superstitious funeral supplies such as paper money and paper objects in the city. Although this policy was introduced to promote funeral reform and environmental protection, many people have raised opinions.
The relevant departments of Nantong responded to the public: "We emphasize the prohibition of manufacturing and sales from market behavior, and do not say that the use of this link is prohibited." This is confusing: "If the market does not sell, how can you use it?" This prohibition obviously starts from the supply side, and indirectly prohibits the burning of dead money, paper money, paper solid objects and other memorial activities during the Qingming Festival.
The effect of this ban in Nantong City (hereinafter referred to as the "Nantong ban") is by no means limited to the tomb sweeping on the Qingming Festival, and the sense of ritual is missing. It itself is controversial on its legal basis, and it does not fully listen to the opinions of the people and respect their customs before it is published. At the same time, its arbitrariness also affects a small and micro industry. Our reflection will begin from these aspects.
Nantong ban / Source: Nantong issued
Does the paper money pollute the air?
One of the bases for the ban in Nantong is the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law. It has been suggested that burning money produces smoke and particulate matter, including fine particles such as PM2.5. However, there are no credible empirical studies on the extent of air pollution caused by burning paper money. This means that while some amounts of air pollutants may be produced, the extent of their impact on overall air quality is unclear.
More importantly, the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law does not prohibit citizens from burning paper money and paper objects, let alone prohibiting the manufacture and sale of them. It only advocates residents to save energy and reduce emissions, and consciously protect the environment. Therefore, the Nantong ban issued under the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law is actually an advocacy act that elevates an obligation to prohibit, which goes beyond the principle of the superior law.
In fact, this is consistent with the logic of a complete ban on the sale and setting off of fireworks and firecrackers in some places in mainland China in recent years.
On December 26, 2023, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress pointed out that "a complete ban on fireworks and firecrackers is illegal". The Legislative Affairs Commission believes that the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the Regulations on the Safety Management of Fireworks and Firecrackers formulated by the State Council and other laws and regulations do not make comprehensive prohibitions on fireworks and firecrackers, and at the same time authorize the people's governments at or above the county level to delineate the time periods and areas for restricting or prohibiting the discharge of fireworks and firecrackers.
Stills from "Hidden in the Dust".
Therefore, some local regulations on the comprehensive ban on the sale of fireworks and firecrackers are inconsistent with the superior law and should be revised. For example, it is completely possible to stipulate that people set off fireworks at specific times and in specific areas, and guide people to set off fireworks scientifically and appropriately.
In the same way, the local ban on paper money and paper objects is nothing more than environmental pressure and safety hazards, but the "one-size-fits-all" lazy policy is simple and crude, and it is difficult to justify even invoking the air pollution prevention and control law.
For fireworks, the government can demarcate time periods and areas where fireworks can be set off, and for paper money, the government can also guide safety measures. Why did it choose to ban it altogether? The Nantong government needs to think about the working logic and administrative inertia behind this.
"Fight against feudal superstition?"
The Nantong ban also points to the destruction of feudal superstition, which believes that paper money and paper objects belong to "feudal superstitious funeral supplies", so they should not be manufactured and sold. So do these items belong to the category of feudal superstition?
The Regulations on the Administration of Funerals issued by the State Council do mention that "the manufacture and sale of funeral articles of feudal superstition are prohibited", but paper money and paper objects are not clearly defined as feudal superstitious goods.
Many people do not understand what feudal superstition is, and it is easy to take the four words of feudal superstition as synonymous with those things that cannot be accepted or understood.
In fact, gossip is not necessarily superstitious, as a model it helps us to think about some phenomena, and burning incense may also be conducive to spiritual sustenance and even have a placebo effect. But it would be too "superstitious" to explain everything and decide everything.
Therefore, breaking superstition generally refers to a more persistent belief in astrology, divination, feng shui, horoscopes, ghosts and gods, etc., and these ignorant thoughts are serious enough to affect personal life and social order. Specifically, in criminal cases, it is mainly embodied in the use of superstitions such as "disasters from heaven, ghosts and ghosts, and methods to solve problems" to commit crimes.
Paper houses in Nantong
It is undeniable that some comparisons will be seen in some folk memorial activities, such as sky-high price memorial objects, and even the existence of bad habits such as marriage in some areas. The ancients believed that if a man died without starting a family, he needed to be buried with a deceased of the opposite sex who was close to his age, and this ignorant thinking drove the birth of a black industrial chain of stealing corpses and even killing and selling corpses. Such superstitious ideas are of course the object of legal crackdown.
However, the paper money and other things that appeared during the Qingming Dynasty represent more of a folk custom than superstition, and I am afraid that no one will think that relatives in the underworld can really receive sky-high currency.
But this ritual of chasing the distance is a nostalgia for the ancestors and a bond of family affection.
Funeral supplies such as money and paper money have always played an important role in traditional Chinese culture. Ancestor worship is emphasized in traditional Chinese culture, and memorial ceremonies are repeated in various literary works and ancient poems.
As a result, the Nantong ban interprets its expansion as "feudal superstitious funeral supplies" and imposes penalties of confiscation and fines on manufacturers and sellers, an overly harsh criticism that may cause emotional discomfort.
The book "Folklore and Superstition" points out that the use of coercive methods and high-pressure means to defeat superstition will not be effective in any way. If we want to completely defeat superstition, we must first start with the cultural environment, the environment changes, knowledge is popularized, people's basic needs are also met instead, and superstition will naturally disappear.
Stills from "Life Events".
Therefore, the concept of "feudal superstition" needs to be limited to a certain extent, and the elimination of superstition also requires sufficient research to avoid affecting people's lives.
Is this an economy based on the rule of law?
According to the ban in Nantong, all units and individuals in the city are prohibited from manufacturing and selling such supplies, which is tantamount to defining most of the shops and individuals engaged in the manufacture and sale of funeral goods in the city as "illegal operations".
There is no mercy on the prohibition of illegal operations: paper money, paper objects, etc. will be confiscated, and a fine of between 1 and 3 times the amount of manufacturing and sales will be imposed. If a violation of the administration of public security is constituted, the public security organ shall impose a public security administrative penalty in accordance with law; if a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.
Such strict regulations make the city's businesses engaged in the production and sales of funeral supplies directly affected by the policy. How many shops can't open, how many people will lose their income, and have you conducted industry research before the policy was introduced, have you gone through a hearing process, and have you considered supporting the livelihoods and transformation of those involved?
At the end of 2023, Professor Luo Xiang and economist Qian Yingyi had a cross-border dialogue between law and economics, talking about the relationship between the market economy and the rule of law. The market economy is a process of decentralized decision-making with the participation of the people, and the people's expectations are the premise of decision-making, and only under the condition of clear rules can the people have reasonable expectations. If there is a change in the order of the day, so that the people cannot form reasonable expectations, it will affect the good operation of the market economy.
Economist Qian Ying (left) and Professor Luo Xiang (right)/Source: The Paper
The Nantong ban seems to be administering according to law, but it violates the rule of law.
In fact, the 2024 government work report also specifically requires that all localities should create a stable, transparent and predictable policy environment. Because only under stable expectations can enterprises dare to expand investment, and residents' consumption potential can be better released.
However, in practice, there are some cases of insufficient preliminary research on some enterprise-related policies, insufficient listening to opinions, incoordination between policies, and failure to set aside the necessary adaptation and adjustment period. The ban in Nantong not only reflects the instability of reasonable expectations mentioned above, but also reflects the haste in which the government has introduced policies and lacks the necessary research and adjustment cycle in advance.
The ban in Nantong is, at worst, related to the confidence of the market economy and the policy environment; to put it mildly, although the production and sale of funeral products is only a small industry, and it does not have much volume, it also feeds a large number of employed people. Without public understanding and support, policies are bound to be misunderstood and resisted.
In response, Nantong responded: "The people have some discussions, maybe they haven't understood (the document) or we haven't explained it, but it's two different things from the people chasing after each other, and there is no inevitable connection." ”
Stills from "Keep You Safe".
In fact, this shows that Nantong has not figured out what the people have misunderstood, nor has it understood the business environment in Nantong. What local governments should focus on, what they should manage, and what they should not manage, is where they should "eat thoroughly".
In short, the Nantong ban violates the higher-level law and expands the scope and target of punishment in terms of legitimacy, and in terms of reasonableness, it deviates from the common and harmless custom of worship, which has aroused public doubts.
Qingming is coming, Nantong is still too late to correct mistakes, the dead do not necessarily need the paper money, what they hope is that if you have a better life - the family sacrifice is not forgotten to tell Nai Weng.
Author | Chen Bi, associate professor at the School of Criminal Justice, China University of Political Science and Law
Edit | to the by
New Media Editor|Zhang Lai
Typography | promise