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Text: Yanyan
Edited by Yeon-yeon
Preface
During the Ming Dynasty, the Jiangnan gentry, with their profound cultural heritage and economic strength, often made the imperial court feel helpless. However, in the Qing Dynasty, these unruly gentry suddenly fell silent, as if they had lost all their resistance overnight.
What happened so that the Qing court was able to suppress these gentry so easily? Will the high-handed policy work, or will an ingenious conspiracy succeed?
What kind of means did the Qing Dynasty use to make the former diehard forces bow their heads and admit defeat? Behind this, what kind of little-known history is hidden?
Positioning of the sales case
After the Qing army captured the division of Dashun in Beijing, the Manchu regime was most worried about the old and young remnants of the Ming Dynasty who were still active in various parts of the country. Among them, there were many powerful Jiangnan gentry, and once such a group gathered strength, it would certainly pose a great threat to the emerging Qing regime.
As a result, a crackdown on the gentry throughout the country began, which became known as the "Dump Case". Although the case was ultimately only a relatively mild "reckoning," its impact was by no means superficial.
To a certain extent, the case had a profound impact on the changes in social class relations and structure in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties and its succession, and its importance was no less than that of the thrilling "massacres" in the early years of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Unfortunately, due to the Qing court's deliberate evasion and ignorance of this history, many of the inside stories of the cancellation case are still vague to this day.
Fortunately, there are also some contemporary erudite and insightful people, such as Mr. Meng Sen, who have systematically sorted out and summarized this past. Let's take a look back at this past with the help of their research.
The origin of the sales case
The so-called "sales" are actually documents in which each province reports to the central government every year on the financial situation of tax collection and arrears for one year. At the beginning of the Qing regime, the government and the opposition were disturbed, and the financial deficit and the treasury were empty during the war years.
In order to accumulate wealth and defend the imperial government, Emperor Shunzhi was determined to severely punish the important offenders who owed the imperial court grain throughout the country. Therefore, in the sixteenth year of Shunzhi (1660), the governors of various provinces reported to the central government the cancellation account book, and the Qing court found that there were a large number of unpaid arrears records.
Among them, the most eye-catching is the Jiangnan region, especially the four prefectures of Susongchang Town. This area is not only the base camp of the relics of the Ming Dynasty, but also the most economically developed and culturally rich area in the country at that time.
The inherent gentry class has long been rooted here, and is close to the local officials, who have monopolized a lot of resources and privileges by virtue of their fame in the imperial examinations, and are well-deserved to be the upper class of society.
However, with the replacement of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the flames of war, the gentry in the Sifu area of Susong Changzhen were not just in arrears of food.
The money everyone who became an official for a time left as soon as he went; Poor scholars who have studied in private schools for several years will stop there once they fail to pass the exam...... These strata of the rich who are not willing to be poor and the poor who are not willing to be rich have always been called "corrupt gentry" and "remnant gentry".
And their main source of income, in addition to operating ancestral property, is to oppress the people and force taxes. In the Ming Dynasty, no matter how they did evil, the court could only turn a blind eye and tolerate it.
After all, the political and cultural influence of the Jiangnan gentry is too great, and the slightest collision may cause a catastrophe. The Manchu dynasty was not trivial, and in their eyes, what were these Confucian literati and nouveau riche gentry?
Finally, in the seventeenth year of Shunzhi (1661), the Qing court decided to severely punish the "Diao Min" who were in arrears of grain payments throughout the country, and the four prefectures of Susong Changzhen naturally became the main targets.
Zhu Guozhi, who was the governor of Jiangning at the time, was an important minister of the Qing court, and he established a lot of military exploits as a banner man of the Han army, and he was able to deal with the natural means of "Diao Min".
"I abuse a good person, and I have nothing to regret when I am enviable" - the sales case broke out
In March of the 17th year of Shunzhi, Zhu Guozhi made an extremely detailed report on the arrears of grain in the four prefectures of Susongchang Town in the account book. He believed that the long-term delay was caused by the collusion between the officials and the local gentry, so he made up his mind to severely punish the local gentry.
In this way, since May, Zhu Guozhi, as the governor, has concentrated all his efforts on dealing with the squires of the four prefectures of Susongchang Town, regardless of the size of the family, and deprived them of their status as doctors.
The first to become the target of the arrow were 2,171 squires such as Zhang Yuzhi, who had an official status, and 11,346 scholars such as Shi Congzhe, who had a name in the school. Their fame was revolutionized by Zhu Guozhi, and they were about to be demoted from high society to grass mustard.
Next, it was the turn of the scattered squires in the four towns of Songchang Town, Su, who had some fame and status, all of them copied their family backgrounds, and they were destitute. The gentry, who were middle-aged or over the age of old, were helpless in the face of sudden changes.
The resentment of the family, coupled with the arrogance of the Confucian scholars who had been instilled since childhood, made them never give up. So the activities of the Crying Confucius Temple, which bloomed everywhere, were immediately launched, and for a time the crying was all over the south of the Yangtze River.
The gentry tried to arouse public opinion and make the Qing court have to listen to public opinion and calm the people. However, the Qing court had long seen through their old tricks, and instead considered this move to constitute an open provocation against the new regime.
Therefore, at Zhu Guozhi's further request, the Qing court quickly reacted and arrested 18 literati such as Jin Shengxian who organized the weeping temple activities, and executed them all after a simple interrogation.
In this way, the stubborn Jiangnan gentry finally realized that the Manchu people were very different from the Ming court in the past. Not only does he not take their class status and cultural capital into account at all, but he also cares about them and sees them as a thorn in the side.
In desperation, the Jiangnan gentry had to endure the pain of handing over the arrears that had accumulated for many years. However, the Qing court was not satisfied with this, but dealt with it more harshly, and further escalated the case.
demanded that the gentry, who had been stripped of their fame, give up their property on the spot and become a class; For the diehards who refuse to pay their debts, they resort to violent means of extorting debts, whipping and threatening, detaining family members, and raiding and selling their homes, and the cruelty of the methods is outrageous.
In just a few months, the gentry who have always been proud and self-sufficient in the entire Jiangnan have been swept away, and everyone is silent. Some of their possessions were scattered and forced to become beggars; In order not to be humiliated, some simply picked up their bags and fled to a foreign country...... The former clamor for the restoration and the exorcism of the Tartars turned into a farce.
The sale case quickly cleaned up the remnants of the gentry class in Jiangnan. However, the imperial court did not stop there. According to the letter written by Gong Dingyu during the Kangxi period, it can be seen that the sale case was actually a large-scale counterinsurgency operation that took place across the country.
Although it was not as impressive as the Jiangnan region in other provinces, through both military and economic means, the Qing court finally eradicated most of the Ming Dynasty relics in one fell swoop in the late Shunzhi and early Kangxi years. At this point, the Manchus finally cleared out the last stubborn anti-Qing forces.
Punishment is abundant, and mercy is also there
However, even if the attack was so ruthless, the Qing court did not put the gentry in a dead end. Seeing that the gentry group in Jiangnan had been basically disintegrated due to the sale case, the Qing court slightly restrained some of its prestige during the Kangxi period.
For those who had already paid their innocent net worth, Emperor Kangxi allowed them to regain their fame with a high "donation" fee. However, even so, most of the dismissed gentlemen who have been wronged all their lives still live in poverty.
In contrast, the biggest beneficiary of the sale case was the Qing court itself. Relying on this round of large-scale wealth accumulation, the Manchu Qing not only filled the treasury, but also took a long-term view, dismantling the main power center of the Han people in Jiangnan in one fell swoop, and ensuring the long-term peace and stability of the Manchu regime.
However, the case was not without its regrets. Relying on the mana of the court staff alone, it will eventually cure the symptoms but not the root cause. The arrogant nationalist sentiment that the gentry had been building up for a long time did not fade away, but intensified.
With the advantage of being familiar with the scriptures, the Qing ruling class soon realized that Han Confucianism could become the biggest stumbling block to the new dynasty's advance. Therefore, on the one hand, we must continue to be vigilant against any remnants of the legacy, and on the other hand, we have to accommodate the cultural identity of the Han people.
This is the reason why, although the Qing court deliberately suppressed its influence, it never completely erased it from the history books. Not only that, but the Qing Dynasty made a large number of additions and revisions to the Confucian classics on several occasions in order to achieve the best of both worlds.
By the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, the Han landlord class and gentry had been integrated into the Eight Banners system and became part of the ruling class.
At the same time, during the Republican period, this Confucian culture, which was regarded as a "flood beast", finally broke through the shackles of narrow patriarchal ethics and turned into a powerful force for social progress. Although the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in order to maintain their long-term rule, exterminated the gentry group one by one.
But just as they still tried to recruit Confucians after the sale, the vitality of culture is too tenacious to be blocked or suppressed by any force. To this day, the Confucian classics and the legacy of the gentry continue to influence contemporary Chinese society in various forms.
epilogue
As an important measure taken by the Qing regime to suppress the remaining anti-Qing forces during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the case not only allowed the Qing emperor to get rid of the Jiangnan gentry group that might create turmoil in one fell swoop, but also consolidated the foundation of his rule.
More far-reaching, it marked the complete decline of the gentry class at the end of the Ming Dynasty and carved a strong mark in the long-term process of Chinese social history.
Looking back now, this seemingly mild liquidation has actually brought great changes to traditional Chinese society.