Chapter 210: Xu Xiake's Observations

In the ninth year of Chongzhen, Xu Xiake set out on his sixteenth journey — the last journey of his life.

His original planned route was to go straight from Fuzhou to Ji'an, visiting Turtle Peak, Dragon Tiger Mountain, Magu Mountain, Qingyuan Mountain and the like along the way. But the rebel Zhao of Luling was causing too great a disturbance, and word had it that the abbot of Qingyuan Temple had been mistreated to death (a rumor), so Xu Xiake had to detour to Nanchang to find out what was happening.

He had hired a boat to come, and his luggage was considerable. The personal attendant he had brought along carried one bundle, a boat hand helped carry another, and he still had to hire dock laborers to lug two more bundles.

On the dock stood a public notice pavilion — really just a bulletin board — plastered with all sorts of commercial notices, and sometimes imperial edicts and government proclamations were posted there too.

A crowd had gathered around it, and a scholar was reading aloud: "Mr. Zhao of Luling earnestly seeks men capable of building large water-powered mill-wheels and large water-powered spinning frames. All are welcome, commoner or artisan, and all shall receive generous treatment. Should a machine be successfully constructed, a reward of twenty taels of silver will be given. Those willing to stay and serve may be granted official posts; those willing to move their entire household shall have land allotted to the whole family! Those who can improve the loom shall receive further handsome rewards!"

At these words, the crowd erupted in uproar.

A down-and-out scholar said angrily, "The rebel Zhao of Luling, brazen to this degree — he has actually posted his notices in Nanchang Prefecture!"

"Young Master Liu, don't just curse — do you dare tear down the rebel's notice?" someone who knew him teased from the side.

The down-and-out scholar's face instantly flushed scarlet. "I... what have I to fear? I have urgent business at home today and must hurry back. I shall come another day and tear it down!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

The crowd roared with laughter.

Xu Xiake listened in utter shock. A rebel had posted notices in the provincial capital, and no one even dared tear them down.

Were the three provincial offices of Jiangxi all deaf and blind?

"A water-powered mill I know, but what is a large water-powered spinning frame?"

"Just a water-powered spinning frame, that's all."

"Ah, a pity I don't have the skill, or I would certainly take down the notice and apply."

"Watch your tongue — don't let the government runners hear."

"What is there to fear? Sooner or later Nanchang will be taken by the rebel Zhao. I've heard from a friend who went to Linjiang Prefecture that the common folk there live quite well. The rebel Zhao levies no harsh and miscellaneous taxes."

"This cousin speaks true. My niece married into the countryside of Fengcheng — they rushed the marriage early this year just when the land was being distributed. I hear that as long as she married in time, she herself could get four mu of land, and once she married over, she really did get it."

"Then your niece has good fortune, catching such a fine moment."

"..."

Xu Xiake felt as if something was wrong with his ears. This was the provincial capital of Jiangxi, and a crowd of commoners was earnestly discussing the subject of joining the rebels.

Xu Xiake could not help asking the laborer he had hired: "Why is the rebel Zhao of Luling so brazenly arrogant?"

The laborer answered with a smile, "At autumn harvest, Mr. Zhao won a great victory. Word is that tens of thousands of government troops were completely wiped out. Now everyone is hoping Mr. Zhao will take Nanchang soon, so that the days ahead will have something to strive for."

"The peasants can get land — what can you get?" Xu Xiake asked.

The laborer said, "Under Mr. Zhao's rule, even drifters can get household registration."

Xu Xiake was instantly speechless. For the sake of a household registration alone, the laborer was willing to join the rebels.

The reason was simple: the court did not issue household registration to drifters, tacitly allowing the existence of vast numbers of such unregistered people. But unregistered people were unregistered people, after all — not only could officials and clerks exploit them at will, even common folk could bully them. If such drifters were cheated out of their money, they had no way to bring a lawsuit at the yamen.

On the way to the inn, Xu Xiake asked again, "What does the rebel Zhao of Luling want with recruiting artisans who can build large water-powered spinning frames?"

"No idea," the laborer said, shaking his head.

To develop the textile industry, of course!

Whenever the textile industry of the Ming dynasty is mentioned, one thinks of the Jiangnan prefectures — Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Huzhou, and the rest.

But Jiangxi, too, had four major cotton-producing and textile regions: Jiujiang, Guangxin, Yuanzhou, and Ji'an — and two of them were now part of Zhao Han's territory.

The Wanli-era Gazetteer of Ji'an Prefecture records: "The land yields no mulberry or silkworm; the people clothe themselves in cotton."

Before the Zhengtong reign, the peasants of Yuanzhou Prefecture had to transport cotton cloth and ramie cloth to Anqing to trade for grain to pay their autumn tax — extremely inconvenient. In the Zhengtong reign, Zhou Ying, the County Magistrate of Fenyi, petitioned the court to allow cotton cloth and ramie cloth to be directly commuted into grain for tax payment, and the court approved.

That the peasants of an entire prefecture used cotton cloth and ramie cloth in place of autumn grain to pay their taxes shows how flourishing the local textile industry must have been.

However, it never reached the scale of the Jiangnan prefectures, nor did large textile factories emerge — it was all weaving women working on their own at home.

Now Zhao Han was already drawing up an economic development plan —

Linjiang Prefecture: focus on developing medicinal herbs, iron smelting, and commerce.

Yuanzhou Prefecture: focus on developing textiles, iron smelting, ceramics, and commerce.

Ji'an Prefecture: focus on developing textiles, cloth dyeing, ceramics, and commerce.

Ganzhou Prefecture: focus on developing cash crop cultivation (tung oil, lacquer, tea-oil, tobacco, and so on) and commerce.

Why does every one include commerce?

Because every one has a major water-transport hub — commerce was already thriving!

After Zhao Han abolished the harsh and miscellaneous taxes, commerce within his territory grew even more prosperous, and many merchants from other regions were willing to come and do business. And the flourishing of commerce in turn expanded the market for all kinds of goods, with traveling merchants carrying local specialties to sell in provinces far and wide.

As for the large water-powered spinning frame, it was invented during the Southern Song dynasty. Its work efficiency was over thirty times that of a manual spinning wheel, capable of spinning over a hundred jin of hemp yarn a day.

Unfortunately, cotton fibers are too short, making them unsuitable for this type of water-powered spinning frame.

Thus, after cotton cloth became widespread, the water-powered spinning frame was phased out, and by the late Ming it had all but vanished.

Zhao Han decided on a three-step approach:

Step one: rebuild the large water-powered spinning frame to spin hemp yarn in bulk. Then sell the hemp yarn to weaving women, who would weave it into hemp cloth — a product for which there was still a market.

Step two: improve the large water-powered spinning frame so that it could be used to spin cotton yarn, gradually giving rise to a large-scale industry.

Step three: improve the loom. Once cotton yarn could be produced in vast quantities at high speed, the loom would no longer be able to keep pace with industrial development. Merchants would then inevitably invest in improving the loom themselves, and a virtuous cycle of technological research and development would take shape.

Jiangxi is crisscrossed with a dense network of waterways — it would be a terrible waste not to make use of hydraulic machinery!

Arriving at the inn and settling in, Xu Xiake began to organize his diary and revise the essays he had written about his visits to Dragon Tiger Mountain and Magu Mountain. At the same time, he had to record what he had just witnessed. The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake were meant to record events as well, and he secretly employed the Spring and Autumn style of subtle judgment — in the Jiangxi travel diaries alone, he had already satirized several people.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

A knocking came from next door, followed by the sound of conversation.

"Brother Shizai, look what fine thing I've got my hands on."

"A Register of the Women Generals of Great Unity? I've read this book — it's full of women who do not observe the womanly virtues."

"Heh heh, open it up and look again."

"Huh, it actually has illustrations. Which publishing house printed this?"

"I don't know either. Anyway, someone's selling it on the sly, and the price is pretty steep."

"Don't rush me. Let me first take a look at the painting skill."

"……"

Xu Xiake had read The Great Unity Collection; that thing had already spread to the two prefectures of Fuzhou and Raozhou.

This so-called Record of Great Unity Heroines was clearly rebel propaganda the moment you heard the title. Yet not only did it circulate unhindered in Nanchang, but booksellers were even taking the initiative to print an illustrated edition to make money.

One could only say, Jiangxi was truly a wondrous place!

In truth, Zhao Han also found it both laughable and exasperating. The Record of Great Unity Heroines was meant for women to read. Prostitutes, maidservants — those among them who were literate would inevitably feel a yearning in their hearts after reading it.

He never expected men would enjoy reading it too, purely out of a taste for the exotic, and it spread even faster than The Great Unity Collection. So much so that unscrupulous booksellers quietly pirated it, and now they had even produced an illustrated edition.

Every trade has its specialists — true to their calling as booksellers, they understood the reader's psychology perfectly.

Next door, the conversation continued —

"Speaking of these one hundred and eight Great Unity heroines, the Star of Heavenly Excellence, Zuo Shangyun, is the most endearing. She comes from a collateral branch of a great clan, not from the lowly registers of prostitutes or maidservants, and her poetry and lyrics are superb. The lyrics for 'Moon Over Qingjiang,' which recounts the Battle of Qingjiang, came from this woman's own hand. Ah, were it not for following the rebels, she would be a talented lady indeed."

"I, for one, prefer the Star of Heavenly Subtlety, Pan Saisai. Rumor has it she was a celebrated courtesan of Ji'an Prefecture. A bewitching face, a graceful figure, and when she sings, her voice is especially clear and lovely. The illustrations are well done too — I wonder which painter's hand they came from."

"This Star of Heavenly Slaughter, Liu Fengying, is no ordinary woman either. Brother, look at what the book records: she was helping distribute land in the Wugong Mountains when suddenly several dozen bandits emerged. The official in charge was terrified and wanted to retreat, but Liu Fengying remained unflustered in the crisis. She organized over thirty people from the propaganda corps and the peasant association, waved banners and shouted in the forest, then led the group in a sudden charge, capturing more than fifty bandits on the spot. Truly a heroine among women — I burn to behold her lovely face!"

"……"

Xu Xiake, listening from his room, was amused, yet at the same time deeply struck by the rebels' cunning — they were actually using a honey trap on the literati.

Zhao Han could only cry out at the injustice; he had no intention of using a honey trap. It was those lawless booksellers who had come up with that damned illustrated edition, drawing all the female propaganda instructors as great beauties, which stirred the lustful hearts of the stinking men who read it.

If this went on developing, he reckoned there would soon be storytellers in the teahouses, spinning all those female propaganda instructors into romantic legends!

Beauties plus the exotic — it truly was convenient for spreading. In terms of popular influence, The Record of Great Unity Heroines could leave The Great Unity Collection a hundred streets behind.

Having learned that the rebel Zhao did not kill people indiscriminately, Xu Xiake lingered only a single day in Nanchang before taking a boat straight to Mount Qingyuan, outside the county seat of Jishui. In the Ming dynasty, Mount Qingyuan did not refer only to that single peak; the surrounding hills were also collectively called Mount Qingyuan.

By now it was already deep autumn. Entering the mountains, Xu Xiake found sweet potatoes planted everywhere.

Only a few mountain folk were tending the fields; most were instead building a road — men and women alike, and even the old and the young had come to help.

The four-year compulsory education could not yet be extended into the mountains; children here still began farm labor at a few years of age.

Xu Xiake could not help walking over. He cupped his hands in salute and asked, "Venerable sir, are the corvée levies very heavy in this place?"

"Building our own road — what sort of corvée is that?" The old man was actually not that old, just in his fifties, but his hair was already white and his face lined with wrinkles.

Xu Xiake had to ask again, "If it is not corvée, does the government pay wages?"

The old man said with a smile, "Building our own road — what need is there for wages?"

Xu Xiake asked, puzzled, "No wages, and it doesn't count as corvée — then what is this road-building?"

The old man said cheerfully, "Mr. Zhao said to build the road, so we put in the labor to build it. All the mountain paths in this area belong to Dashu'ao Village. Once the road is built, going down the mountain will be easy. With nothing to do sitting idle at home, we might as well come build the road. If we can't finish it this year, we'll come back next year and build some more. Sooner or later, it will be done."

"The government didn't force you?" Xu Xiake asked.

The old man was still smiling: "Building our own road — why would we need the government to force us?"

The reasoning was actually very simple. In the past, when roads were built, the chief beneficiaries were the mountain landlords.

Now, when roads were built, the beneficiaries were all the peasants!

The old man kept saying "building our own road" — this was the consciousness of a master. Before, they could not be masters; now they could be masters. They themselves were the masters of these mountain roads.

From the founding of New China until the year 2000, Chinese peasants built village roads in exactly this way.

Not taking a single cent in wages from the government, bringing their own tools, bringing their own dry rations, they cut into mountains and split rock to build roads that belonged to themselves. After they were built, they maintained them every year — men and women, old and young, working with fiery enthusiasm.

(End of chapter)