In the process of this humiliation, the late Qing Dynasty has carried out many acts of self-help, such as the Western Affairs Movement, the Penghu Reform Law, the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty, etc., in short, it is mainly based on learning advanced Western science and technology, it is obvious that these self-help acts are failures, otherwise there would not be so many humiliations.
Today, Song Anzhi talks about one of the highlights of the late Qing Dynasty's study of the Western system and the combination of the national system, that is, the new prison system at that time can be said to be a major good governance in the qing dynasty.
This new type of prison is called "self-renewal", which means "the prison house for those who commit minor crimes". The main thing is to detain those who have committed theft or something, and during the period of restraint, the first is to carry out moral indoctrination in ordinary times, so that they can realize their previous mistakes and will not repeat them in the future. The second is to teach them to learn the craft, so that after coming out, they can have a skill, not without the cost of settling down, and after these people have a skill, they will naturally no longer do the thing of stealing chickens and dogs.
It can be said that the system of "self-renewal" belongs to the root cause of solving the factors of social instability, avoiding the risk of thieves doing some more things to steal chickens and dogs, and even further killing people and setting fires.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, similar to the existence of the "Zixin Institute", there were also institutions such as "Qianshan Institute", "Congshan Institute", "Reform Institute", "Provincial Enlightenment Institute" and other institutions in the same place, which played a no small role, not to say that it blossomed everywhere in the country at that time, but also implemented in more than a dozen provinces.
Like Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang in the thirteenth year of Guangxu, he tried to set up a relocation office in Nanhai and Panyu counties in Guangdong. It is to "distinguish the courtyards, set up leaders, purchase tools, recruit engineers at their discretion, order each offender to learn art for self-sufficiency, measure the south to teach art and limit the completion of education, widely raise food, strictly prohibit trouble, as the name suggests, change and relocate." In the future, each art can be born, and nature is no longer right, and the figure can be expected to be less and less."
Later, Zhang Zhidong also donated 30,000 taels of incorruptible silver from his own pocket, and raised half of the merchants' income to serve as the perennial fund for the relocation of Nanhai and Panyu counties.
In the 27th year of Guangxu, Zhang Zhidong also played the second fold of the "Three Folds of the Jiang ChuHui Variation Law" with Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, and even more formally put forward the proposition of "repairing prison detention" and "teaching craftsmanship" and other new prison systems, which had a great impact on the improvement of the prison system at that time and profoundly influenced future generations.
The reason why Zhang Zhidong did this and vigorously promoted it showed that this model was still very good at that time, and in terms of maintaining social stability, it was still possible to eliminate many problems at the root.
And this kind of policy, for the people who stole chickens and dogs at that time, can be said to be a good governance that must be mentioned, and the effect is also very good, which shows that the prison system of feudal society still has its advantages.
Next, Song Anzhi will talk about the origin of the "Self-Renewal Institute".
Regarding the new-style prison system of the late Qing Dynasty represented by the "Zixin Institute", many people today, including some overseas scholars, believe that the Qing government at that time borrowed the achievements of the new-style prisons in the West, but ignored the advantages of the Qing Dynasty system at that time.
First of all, the "Zixin Institute" originated during the Qianlong period, and according to historical data, in the Qianlong Decade, the "Zixin Institute" was first created in Wu, Changzhou, Yuanhe and the three counties of Suzhou.
In the thirteenth year of Qianlong, Weng Zao, the envoy of Jiangsu at that time, mentioned in detail in the recital: "According to the details of the three counties of Su County, Yuan, and Wu, more than ten houses were built, surrounded by walls, and the name was Zixin, and each of them would commit a crime once or twice and the old thieves who had no concubines to be handed over were bound to them."
As for the results, it has been more than three years since the trial, although it has not been eliminated in the territory, and the theft is relatively small than before".
At that time, the "Self-Renewal Institute" can be said to be "both parenting and rearing".
According to historical data, it was "each prisoner who gave one liter of rice a day, five pieces of money, and gave capital at his discretion, teaching and learning to perform, spinning, bundling, weaving mats, and so on." He was skilled and well-fed, and he was about to pay for his rations. After a year, Cha Qiguo was able to repent and move to good deeds, and check and make sure his relatives and neighbors were released on bail. Every night, the canonical history was ordered to be sealed and properly guarded.
It can be seen from this that at that time, the "New Institute" began to teach the craft, so that after the generation of stealing chickens and dogs came out, there was no need to repeat the same mistakes. This model was still very good, and it began to spread in Jiangsu and Zhejiang at that time.
At that time, the Self-Renewal Institute also had some characteristics similar to the new prison system in modern Times in the West.
For example, in the Self-Renewal Institute during the Qianlong Period, "the rat thieves know that they repent of themselves, beg for mercy on their relatives and neighbors, and serve their sins to the master", and the joint ring can be restored to a good citizen."
This situation is similar to today's bail, and has similarities with the "parole system" in the new Western prison system.
Moreover, by incarcerating prisoners "without shackles, without a year's worth of fault, and reverted to good people", to exhort prisoners to abandon evil and follow good, which has the meaning of the "progressive treatment system" of the new Western prison.
As for ideological enlightenment, the West was the Christian confessional system, and the Qing Dynasty at that time was the traditional Confucian mode of indoctrination, such as the Holy Sayings and Teachings, as well as the Buddhist idea of repentance, the two can be described as the same end.
Of course, the development of the "self-renewal institute" model can be described as a series of twists and turns after Qianlong, and it was not until the same light year that it began to be popularized on a large scale, and it has to be said that this is also a deficiency, because the good model has not been popularized on a large scale.
Just as the so-called history is a mirror, with regard to the history of the late Qingxin prison system, it can be seen that the "Zixin Institute" existed as early as the Qianlong period, not copying the Western system, but the perfect combination of the local system and the Western system, but why do many people today think that the Western system is copied?
The reason is that many people are not culturally confident, choose a one-size-fits-all approach to the problem, think that the West is good, and think that our ancient feudal society is mainly bad, so I firmly believe in this view.
But just as the so-called reading of history makes people wise, in fact, what our ancestors left behind is still very good. Even the Qing Dynasty, which is closed to the country and ignorant in the traditional impression of many people, can have a very good prison model of "self-renewal", not to mention other dynasties, so Song Anzhi believes that at present, we must not be arrogant and thin, our culture is still very broad and profound, why should the culture not be confident.
Thank you for watching Song Anzhi's exclusive original article, focusing on the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties and its great history of China, like to talk about those immutable histories from a different perspective, I think friends can remember to like and pay attention to Ha.