this is a long excerpt from Xiang Lake: Nine Centuries of Chinese life. Ive decided to write little reviews of each history book I read starting with this one. But instead of doing a proper review, ive decided to copy out my favorite little story since I think it captures the essence of the book.
Through such a declaration, He Shunbin was charged with two obligations, one to his teacher and the other, through the Confucian import of the words of the charge, to be the servant of the people. We do not know the nature of Wei’s and He’s relationship. Shubin received his juren degree in 1468 and his jinshi degree in 1469; it is possible that Wei tutored him. One of the long line of distinguished officials, He became a censor in Nanjing and in the Huguang circuit. Personally upright, he incurred the enmity of obstinate and undutiful officials, who, through ties to the court, were able to have him exiled to a garrison in guangxi province.
During He’s exile, the encroachment situation at Xiang lake worsened dramatically. Leaders of the Sun lineage, adopting a strategy of intermarrying with the Wu lineage, had embarked on a major campaign to usurp lake land for their own uses. In the Chenghua reign (1465-1488), Sun Quan and his in-law Wu Can occupied 1,231 mu, turning it into paddy land. Furthermore, even before the arrival of magistrate Zou Lu in the county in 1496, they had bribed him to remain silent about their betrayal of the lake. In contrast to the Song period pattern of encroachment, the mid-fifteenth century saw the leaders of strong local lineages seducing local officials into silence and connivance.
When Censor he was pardoned for his offense, he returned to Xiaoshan (city near the lake); apprised of the reclamation by Sun and Wu and remembering the charge of his mentor, Wei Ji, he set out to restore the lake by eliminating the control of the lineages. When he sent a memorial to the throne to rectify the situation, he was not yet aware of the involvement of Magistrate Zou. We Know little about Zou Lu. He had taken the magistracy of Xiaoshan after serving in a military garrison on the western frontier. He was an active magistrate who saw after the needs of the county; in 1498, the year of He’s return, Zou had sponsored the reconstruction of the Xixing town lighthouse.
We do know that he took umbrage at he’s intrusion into the affairs of Xiaoshan county. Even if Zou had not been colluding with the usurpers, one can imagine his irritation with the native son, so recently returned from exile by the throne, pointing out Zou’s inadequacies/ the actions of he were certainly intolerable to Sun Quan, who reportedly dispatched more presents to Zou; whether that was necessary to firm up Zou’s resovle is not known. When Zou made known his intention to oppose Censor He’s involvement, he reacted by attacking Zou. The animosity between the two men escaleated rapidly. The official Ming History reported that Zou was “covetous, cruel, crafty, and ruthless.” Mao Qiling, more to the point, recorded that Zou began to feel a great hatred for He, who must have seemed unbearably self-righteouss, especially in the context of the imputation of wrongdoing that had led to his exile.
Zou hit upon a plan to discredit he, using the exile itself as the main weapon. Zou ordered Sun Quan quietly to spread the word that Censor He had illegally returned to xiaoshan without an official pardon. Because he therefore had no official seal with which to send the memorial, he had been forced to steal one. His memorial on the lake was thus fraudulent. Unable to argue on matters of substance, Zou resorted to attacks on form and procedure to undermine He’s position. Zou declared that he should be arrested and returned to his exile. Local police officials, however, did not carry out Zou’s orders, claiming it was not within their authority. Zou’s shamelessly bold attitude must have come from a sense of his power on the local scene through his connections with Sun; it was, after all, the nonofficial Sun on whom Zou relied to make known He’s supposed official misconduct.
Meanwhile, word reached Zou that He intended to send the real parodn that he had received with a memorial to the throne. He’s inability to his point to use it in the county to prove the falsity of Zou’s claims simply underscores the lack of credibility He had and, obversely, the power of Sun. Zou arranged a meeting with one of He Shunbin’s disciples, an education official named Tong Xiangzhang, who was home foa a three-year period of mourning for his father. Careers of Chinese officials were often marked by several-year interims to fulfill the proper mourning procedures. Zou apparently wanted Tong to help in devising some way to deal with the problems. Tong, however, well aware of Zou’s duplicity, reubuffed him.
Zou’s reaction perhaps more than any other event in this sorded story justifies the epithet “ruthless” as applied to the magistrate. In great anger at Tong but with great genius, he fabricated a story that Tong, on mourning leave, had been discovered digging up gravesseeking treasure; such a sacrilegiously ghoulish act in a society that emphasized filiality and propriety was scandalous. Zou had Tong arrested and charged, and he then asked the judicial officer in Shaoxing, the prefectural seat, for death by strangulation. The judge had strong doubts about the charge, however, and dismissed Tong and the charges.
The brilliance of Zou’s strategy depended not on the reactions of this prefectural judicial officer but in his asseseement of how to mobilize the area’s people to his side. While they might never be aroused by two government officials battling over esoteric issues that involved official seals and pardons, the image of someone scavenging graves, disturbing corpses, and stealing from ancestors was titillatingly horrifying. If this is the action fo the disciple (tong) the, one can hear them saying, what must the teacher (he) be like. The answer was clear: a stealer of official seals, a man arrogant enough to ignore proper official power, pretend a parodn, and return to his native place as one with authority.
Knowing that Tong would go to He’s residence following his release, Zou dispatched county clerks and runners to He’s house. They were joined by remnants of military units and area farmers, who approached He’s house shoutin: “Shunbin, yhou have rebelled against the emperor; we will imprison you.” The chanting mob of perhaps several hundred people, brandishing agricultural tools and implements, tore down the door and entered the compound. They seized and bound both Tong and He. They stole He’s official seal and the pardon that he had received. After looting his house, they grabbed both men and took them to court…The episode points to the power of the Sun family in lake affairs, the power of an unscrupulous magistrate who could manipulate opinion, and the galvanizing power of the idea of cannibalizing the dead. It suggests that political opponents have traditionally been bested in Chinese culture by the imputation of gross immorality.
Both Tong and He were flogged forty times. Tong was thrown into prison. He Shubin, however, met a much more tragic end. Ordered by the provincial court into exile in Qingyuan, Guangxi province, without appeal, he was fettered and led roughly away under the custody of an eleven-man escort led by one Ren Guan. In the court of provincial judge, in tunred out, were friends and confidants of Zou Lu, the administration of justice, like political and social affairs in general, depeneded in the main on personal liaisons rather than impersonal laws. After they had left, Zou Lu dispatched with special instructions thirteen men to catch up with He and his escort. The pretext was the fear that He’s son, Jing, and daughter, who had not been arrested and were in hiding, might seek to rescue their father on the road. Driven by Zou’s secret orders, the pursuers rapidly trailed the presioner to the southwest. Entering Jiangxi province, they even jettisoned their supplies to be able to make better time. On July 19, 1498, they finally caught up with He and his captors as they spent the night in the Changguo Temple at Yugan; there they attacked and stripped He Shunbin, stuffed soaked clothing in his mouth, and suffocated him. Zou Lu hushed up He’s violent end at Changguo temple when He’s body was brought back for burial; The full story emerged later.
The charge of Wei Ji to his protégé He lay unfulfilled amid the spasms of violence that shook Xiang Lake that summer and eventually snuffed out He’s life. Certainly He had netiehr shrunk from controversy nor shirked Wei’s instruction. But the challenge to the lake had changed from that which Wei faced three decades earlier; ther power of lineage leaders and their allies had increased dramatically, and they seemed by the year 1500 so strong that one wonders whether even Wei could have handled them.
…The story of the He-Zou controversy does not end here. Zou had wanted the arrest of He Shunbin’s wife and his son, Jing; but they fled to the home of Wang Ting in Changshu, Jiangsu province…
If you want me to continue with the story, let me know.