In the late Qing Dynasty, the villagers in Shanxi survived under the coercion of various forces, and the village governance model formed by the local superstition and worship culture was unable to be solved by the corrupt and flattering Qing government. The head of the village and the government officials collude with each other, fish and flesh the people.
When foreign missionary forces arrived, this model of village governance was impacted, and the interests of all parties were damaged. Villagers are used by various forces, and in the complex situation, various contradictions are concentrated into xenophobic forces, which constantly trigger the struggle between villagers and parishioners, which has lasted for many years. Eventually, when the Boxers, a blindly rather than rational, patriotic xenophobic force used by the Qing government, arrived, there were even more brutal vendettas than elsewhere.
A catastrophe caused by a sum of money
In March of the 7th year of Guangxu (1881), a clash of villagers broke out in Yulin Village, Datong County, Shanxi Province, which, although small, finally alarmed the then Inspector of Shanxi.
Here's the thing: Ji Lianchang, Guan Xiang, Yang Tianzi, and other villagers in Yulin Village refused to pay the villagers' share of the acting fees on the grounds that they had already joined the Catholic Church, and had conflicts with other villagers. On March 3 of that year, Guan Fang, the head of the society, led a group of people and horses to Ji Lianchang, Guan Xiang and other homes to ask for money for the play, but if they did not have money, they would beat and scold in every way. After the scolding, they were still unwilling and broke into Guan Xiang's house again. Guan Xiang was not there, and his pregnant wife was there, saying, "We don't pay for the play." Guan Fang "forcibly took his food and belongings", and his wife blocked them, and was beaten violently until she was beaten to the point of miscarriage and "fell unconscious" on the ground.
The next day, Guan Xiang ran to the county yamen to report to the officials, but he was not finished. Guan Fang saw that he had returned without success, and then led people to Yang Tianzi's house to ask for money for the play, but he still did not have the money, and beat Yang Tianzi again. Then "block the two portals of Guan Xiang and Yang Tianzi, not allow people and animals to enter and leave, and plot against water and fire."
On April 14, when the county yamen tried the case, they did not ask Guan Fang and the defendants to go, but only called Yang Tianzi and asked: "Yang Tianzi, who are you from?" Yang Tianzi replied, "The little one is a Qingguo person." The official said, "Since you are a Qing national, why did you rebel with the foreign devils?" You are all rebellious. The village asked you for money for the play, and you just wouldn't come out. So beat you, and you dare to sue... You must pay for the play, if you don't pay for the play. You are not allowed to live in the Qing Dynasty and go out of foreign countries! ”
After the matter was big, Guan Fang did not give up. On May 4, Guan Fang and them "indulged five horses and trampled on Ji Lianchang's grass and wheat for more than half an acre"; on the 8th, they cut the ji lianchang family's wheat for six or seven minutes.
On July 12, "Guan Xiang douhe was cut off by two or three points, and three more watchdogs were assassinated." On the 15th, he forced Yang Tianzi to ask for money for the play, but Yang still refused to come out. So he broke the door of the Yang family, "fu grabbed Yang Tianzi and threw him into the puddle, and the seventy-year-old man suffered this humiliation", "His third son was about to drown when he saw his father, and he boldly jumped into the puddle to rescue him." Guan Fang and others led the second son to each carry a knife and stick, and came to the door to scold, "...
This incident was recorded in the "Archives of Teaching Affairs" of the Qing government's Prime Minister Yamen. A careful reading of this archive reveals that such incidents occur frequently in Shanxi and have continued for decades.
In May of the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), Zhang Jizong, the head of the Shangcun Society in Yangqu County, Shanxi, took the Old Rules of the Catholic "Bai Yao, Zhang Chun, Zhang Shizhi, Zhang Shiren, Zhang Taihe and other disorders, and put the arrears of money and money hard to resist and control the county". In July of the same year, in Tingguan Village, Fengtai County, Shanxi Province, after some villagers joined the Catholic Church, they "asked for money such as incense burning in the society", but they were denounced by the head of the society and "locked up the case". In July of the same year, Li Xiangtai of Yan Village, Fengtai County, Shanxi, refused to accept the opera money on the pretext of joining the Catholic Church, and was "led by the head of the society, Chang Fashan, who "led more than a hundred people" and "dragged into the temple, and ordered a fine of 100,000 wen to repair the temple and sing opera." In March of the 9th year of Tongzhi (1870), He Xuan, a naturalized villager in Shanxi, had a dispute with his brother-in-law Wang Yu because he refused to pay the apportioned drama money of 3200 yuan, and finally gathered dozens of Catholics and seriously injured his brother-in-law. In July of the 21st year of Guangxu (1895), Zhang Qianyuan, a parish resident in Shouyang County, Shanxi Province, "engaged in litigation with the head of the society, Xing Deaf, and third class" because of the performance of Qianwen.
Why does a mere sum of money provoke the villagers to turn against each other?
Strong dragons do not crush the head snake
The "head of the society" that frequently appears in the archives is similar to the village chief, also called "village head", "head correction", or "meeting head". The village chief is called "sheshou" or "rectifying the head", which is a characteristic of Shanxi and originates from the local acting god.
It turned out that Shanxi had been in drought for ten years and nine years, and the disasters were endless, and the villagers paid god for their performances in order to ensure peace, and the atmosphere was very strong. At that time, science was not developed, everyone relied on the sky to eat, acting to reward the gods, and the government and villagers were all important things. Liu Dapeng, a contemporary of Shanxi, recorded the activities of welcoming the gods in Taiyuan County: "The people from near and far, all went to the county, enthusiastically gathered to watch, young and old women, like walls, farmers and people, solid theory, and literati and bachelors also followed the waves." His father, worried about famine, persuaded everyone to raise money to build a granary, and no one squeaked, but when it came to acting to reward the gods, they all enthusiastically paid for it.
Too frequent famines make the villagers superstitious about the blessings of the gods, which is better than the management of manpower. And the two combinations of worship and acting are both safe and entertaining, so why not enjoy it? To act, you have to ask for a drama class; if you ask for a drama class, you have to pay for it from the villagers. Who's going to do it? Of course, they are able people in the village, and over time, these people are called "heads of the society" or "heads of the society", and later, they become "village heads". The head of the society is equal to the head of the village, and that's how it came.
Running an act to reward the gods may be hard work at first, but doing it has become a very profitable thing, and gradually it has been seized by the strongmen in the village. The heads of villages and communes, under the pretext of various names, apportion money and grain, "through the acting of various unhurried tasks, three times five times, arbitrarily spreading." They are "greedy and dirty, fish and meat villagers", using the whole village as their own treasury, and the money and grain looted from the villagers are several times more than the taxes and fees apportioned by the government. A good end of a god acting, actually became "one of the sick people big end", "the most evil habit".
In the 9th year of Guangxu (1883), Zhu Cai, a native of Jiaxing, became the prefect of Fenzhou, Shanxi. This gong is fond of swordsmanship, jealous and hateful, and is a capable official who takes the world as his own responsibility, and has quite a good deed. However, as soon as this "strong dragon" took office, he encountered a difficult problem, that is, how to deal with the "land snake" in the countryside - the "head of the society".
Villagers in various counties complained about the extortion of the head of the society. Zhu Cai was furious and took various measures to crack down on it. For example, it is required that each village change its head of society once a year and cannot be re-elected; it is required that the village clean up its financial accounts and "sign and refute the accounting of various funds"; it is required that "there is a fixed number of village fees, a definite chapter for acting, and a list at the end of the year", and all expenses are announced to the villagers; and even require that if it is not necessary, it is strictly forbidden to pay the gods for acting, and so on.
Zhu Cai said that the original "head-picking" is said to have been "old and experienced, upright and sound," and "elected by the masses" (that is, "directly elected by the villagers"), but in recent decades, "the righteous people have gradually led away, and most of the officials who have made friends with the arrogant and slippery have served as officials" and have become bad people. Why this change? He believes that this has something to do with the government. The officials only collect taxes, do not ask about the suffering of the villagers, and ask the village chief "if he encounters a slave, he does not ask a word, does not ask a single question, does not ask for anything, and even asks for one side." "Such a village chief, who is a decent person who wants to be?" As a result, the people selected by the government and willing to be strongmen who pursue fame and profit are all strongmen who pursue fame and profit.
It is reasonable to say that the head of the society is "directly elected by the villagers" (called "public lifting" in the late Qing Dynasty), which is changed every year. But these strongmen have done all kinds of tricks - including the now so-called "buy tickets", to dominate the position of the head of the society, and to "accumulate years of hegemony". Some engage in hereditary inheritance, "brothers and brothers, fathers and sons, as heirlooms." Some partners control and do it for each other. In Shanxi in the late Qing Dynasty, the villagers who were "elected by the public" were directly elected, and in the end, they were a group of lawless strongmen.
These people have established a network of relations with yamen, "formed a party and tree grace", and became a tyrant in the village, "familiar with the yamen, well-informed clues, hanging and beating, as common.". Originally, the acting reward god and voluntary payment of money has now become a disguised apportionment. Don't pay? Then lynch and torture to see if you can hand it over. The villagers "swallowed their voices and endured, nothing could be done." Guan Fang and his gang beat Guan Xiang and Yang Tianzi so brazenly, which is a typical example of the head of the society covering the sky with one hand.
The richer the village, the more fierce the head of the society, "the sticks gather, all take the villagers as fish meat", and the poor village is better. Many villagers were brutally exploited, had to sell their houses to pay off their debts, and even "abandoned their production and went into exile" and simply ran to other places to become tenants.
After all, those who abandon their production and go into exile are a minority and cannot go, so what should they do? Without paying the money, it is impossible. From a reasonable point of view, it does not make sense, acting is to reward God, to reward God is to seek peace for the whole village, you can not watch the play, do not pay money and enjoy God's blessing in vain, is it reasonable? Moreover, the people in the village know each other and stare at each other, and if one person does not pay, the other will not pay. When interests are at stake, will the head of society be willing to cut off the financial road? For the villagers who did not pay the money, they had to kill a hundred people, and they could not be polite, "privately set up a public court, hang and punish."
Although Zhu Cai posed as a strong dragon and made repeated orders and five affirmations, in private, he wrote a letter to his old superior, Li Hongzhang, admitting that this situation of the head of the society was almost "unbreakable" and that at the first opportunity, it was bound to "return to the old state."
External forces intensify internal contradictions
Zhu Cai's words are not all right. The "unbreakable" situation is still broken. The breaker was none other than the Christian church that was re-introduced to Shanxi after the Opium War. Villagers who could not stand the extortion and extortion of the head of the society "threw themselves into the religions of God and Jesus in order to avoid their troubles and heavy burdens".
The church, which is here to preach, is of course happy to recruit its people. Moreover, Christianity most resents pagan "idolatry", and in the eyes of the missionaries, acting to reward God is a complete "idolatry", which is extremely evil. Moreover, the heads of the company used acting to reward the gods with wealth, and connived at others to open casinos during the acting period, which was a bad deed. The missionaries also saw it in their eyes: "The gentry and others abuse the fat, which is two or three times more than the price of the play; the village receives relatives and friends, and the decoration of the clothes of women and children is ten times greater; and the more hateful, there must be dozens of gambling sheds in the theater field, and there are dozens of people in each shed, and every time such bandits go to a village, they will pay a certain shed price with the gentry, etc., and the gentleman will benefit from the price of the shed, so that they will harm the children of the people and consume people's resources, so that they will perform the drama for only a few days, until the people are impoverished all year round." ”
Therefore, the missionaries, citing the strict prohibition of idolatry, supported the parishioners in not paying for the performances. In the eyes of the parishioners, there is a good reason not to pay: we don't watch dramas, so we don't pay money, can't we? We are Christians, and of course we do not have to sacrifice your pagan gods. But in the eyes of non-parishioners, the parishioners pay money for a very good reason: you don't pay money, but in vain you enjoy the wind and rain brought about by the gods who spend money to act, isn't this taking advantage? The head of the society is even more resentful, and the parishioners do not pay money for the drama, which not only harms the interests of the act itself, but also their authority, resources and dignity. As a result, the non-payment of money by the parishioners, in fact, seriously undermined the unity and cooperation within the entire village.
As a result, contradictions arise between the church and the parishioners as one side, and the heads of the society and the villagers as the other. Both sides make sense. As for the "small interests" behind the "big truth", on the surface it is not clear. Handing over drama money has become a "frontier position" in the conflict between parishioners and non-parishioners, between churches and heads of society. In the end, there were only two ways left: one was the appeal office, and the other was the civil settlement. On both roads, the head of the society and the villagers walked.
The official Confucian and Christian churches are tit-for-tat, but they are very consistent in opposing strange forces and chaotic gods. The Ming and Qing dynasties banned acting and obscenity. Breaking idols and opposing acting is a common thing in Confucianism, not to mention a foreign religion that cannot be provoked?
Under the pressure of the missionaries, the Qing government issued an order in November of the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861) that the gods should be paid for by singing operas, and that the parishioners should not be allowed to pay for them. The local government of Shanxi is even more desperate, simply forbade villagers to act and draw salaries from the bottom of the pot. Zhu Cai issued a notice "Forbidden Idol Watching The Tent", and there were several notices, the tone was not so strong, but repeatedly stressed that "rewarding the gods and worshiping the gods does not necessarily require acting", "those who are unwilling in the village, that is, they should not be bullied to perform", "must not be forced to act strongly". Less acting, less trouble, not acting is best, this is the government's countermeasure. What they sacrifice is the entertainment and safety of the villagers and the authority and interests of the head of the society.
The problem is that a good play, which has been performed for hundreds of years, why not let it be performed? The local government also felt that it was impossible to say: "Such a situation, but the township community is routine, not an important task." Folk habits, more than two hundred years, there is no difference. Now the missionaries will be strong for change, and it is inevitable that they will see good country foolishness. "If you don't act, how can you reward God?" If you don't pay God, what if God sends a disaster? Of course, the villagers couldn't figure it out, and the head of the society was even more indignant. If the government refuses to solve it, they will solve it themselves, that is, to force the parishioners to pay for the drama. The conflict that preceded it came from this. After the matter broke out, the missionaries went to the government office, and the official persimmon picked up the soft pinch, favored the church, and punished the head of the society. The unfair handling of the case, which further buries resentment.
The "internal contradictions" of the village thus evolved into "civil and religious contradictions", or "international contradictions".
This contradiction dragged on until the Boxer Rebellion, because of the drought in Shanxi, coupled with the connivance of the government, it suddenly burst out like a raging fire. During the entire Boxer Rebellion, shanxi villagers and parishioners attacked and killed each other, far more tragically than in other provinces, which was a major reason. Shanxi missionary Dun Chongli confessed: "Last year, Shanxi's hatred for killing people in the religion was so tragic, and many of them were angry because the laymen refused to perform in the drama to worship the gods, causing the anger of the people, so the drama was also the bane of Shanxi's hatred of religion. ”
Watching the drama to pay money, today seems to be a trivial branch, but the late Qing Dynasty is a major event that stirs up the countryside of Shanxi. It stirred up the factions, sparked decades-long resentment, and finally turned into a catastrophe of killing each other!