Chapter 257: 255 Village Compacts and the Industrial-Technological Revolution (For Penguin

Three months earlier, in Ji'an Prefecture.

The army had already been dispatched; Zhao Han remained in Ji'an, personally handling all military and civil affairs.

Zhang Bingwen, the Provincial Administration Commissioner of Jiangxi, was formally promoted to one of the three chief secretaries, specifically tasked with assisting Zhao Han in administrative matters. The role somewhat resembled a Grand Secretariat minister of the Great Ming, but with a fundamental difference — Zhao Han's chief secretaries had no authority to draft rescripts, and after serving long enough they had to be sent out to local posts.

"Regional Commander, here is a memorial from the County Magistrate of Anfu. I fear it requires special attention." Zhang Bingwen handed over an official document.

Zhao Han took it and read. At first he found it somewhat amusing, but soon his brow furrowed.

It was originally just a minor case, and it had occurred at the end of the previous year.

A soldier, rewarded for meritorious service, had brought home a copper hair-encircling band for his wife when he returned for the New Year. This was an ornament worn around the hair bun, often adorned with tassels, pearls, or other decorations, and generally only ladies of rank were entitled to wear it.

The soldier's wife had previously been a serving maid in a landlord's household.

Wearing the ornament when she went out for the New Year, she boasted that it was made of gold, and happened to run into her former mistress. The mistress made a few sarcastic remarks, the two sides then fell into a quarrel, and the incident involved mutual hair-pulling.

Both women went crying to the village head. The village head, having questioned them and gotten to the bottom of it, had them apologize to each other and promise not to dispute the matter further.

In the end, neither woman accepted the outcome. Each brought her family members and took the quarrel all the way to the town chief.

One claimed the other had insulted her first; the other reported that her opponent was wearing gold ornaments that her husband must have looted while out at war.

The town chief dared not take it lightly and immediately had someone examine the item, discovering it was copper.

The matter should have ended there, but the woman from the landlord family suddenly kicked up a fuss about abiding by the village compact. Then this group of people began earnestly debating whether, according to the village compact, a soldier's wife was qualified to wear a hair-encircling band.

Ultimately, it escalated all the way to the County Magistrate of Anfu.

The county magistrate held that the highest legal principle in Jiangxi ought to take the articles in the Datong Collection as the standard. Even if the Great Ming Code conflicted with the Datong Collection, the Great Ming Code should step aside — let alone a mere village compact.

Since the articles in the Datong Collection state that all people are equal in dignity, then an ordinary woman could also wear a hair-encircling band.

The letter the Anfu County Magistrate wrote to Zhao Han was not to discuss the case itself, but to discuss how to regulate and guide the village compacts.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, in China's vast countryside, there was no law — only the village compact.

Unless a death occurred, the authorities simply did not intervene.

Zhao Han set down the letter and asked, "Do you know when the village compact first appeared?"

Zhang Bingwen cupped his hands and said, "The principle comes from the Rites of Zhou, but the first true written form was the Lü Family Village Compact of Lantian. Master Zhu held it in the highest esteem and personally revised it into the Augmented and Abridged Lü Family Village Compact. In the early years of our dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor promoted the village drinking ceremony, having village elders of known virtue instruct the common people and also handle village and town disputes. The village elders instructing the people and handling disputes can also be seen as a form of village compact. The Yongle Emperor then included the Lü Family Village Compact in the Great Compendium of Nature and Principle, and from there it spread throughout the realm. As for its actual implementation, that came through the Yangming School of Mind."

"What connection does this have with Master Yangming?" Zhao Han truly did not know.

Zhang Bingwen explained, "During the Zhengde reign, public morals had decayed. The Hongwu Emperor's village drinking ceremony existed in name only; those village elders were no longer worthy and instead took the lead in oppressing the common people."

To put it more plainly, Zhu Yuanzhang had used village elders, tax captains, and ward heads to govern the countryside. As society and the economy developed, by the mid-Ming period, these grassroots governing forces had become thoroughly corrupt.

Zhang Bingwen continued, "When Master Yangming suppressed bandits in southern Jiangxi, besides lightening corvée and taxes, settling refugees, and exterminating bandits, he also had to civilize the people of southern Jiangxi. So Master Yangming instituted the baojia system, took the Lü Family Village Compact as his original text, and had every baojia unit establish a village compact. Southern Jiangxi was thus brought to great order. Later, when Master Yangming's disciples became officials, they emulated this method everywhere. Only, they did not use the baojia system, but instead summoned the local great clans to jointly swear an oath and establish a village compact."

"This method proved highly effective, and during the Jiajing reign, the court ordered it promoted throughout the realm."

Wang Yangming's influence was by no means limited to founding the School of Mind and pacifying bandits. His baojia and village compact methods endured all the way into the Republican era, shaping the political ecology of China's villages for centuries.

Once a village compact was established, although the gentry and powerful clans still ran amok, for the most part they had to outwardly abide by it.

That is to say, the gentry and powerful clans might cause trouble, but they still had to observe the basic rules. If they crossed the bottom line, the villagers would point at their backs and curse them.

Furthermore, Wang Yangming's village compacts also influenced the formulation of family regulations throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties for centuries.

A village compact can be understood as an enlarged version of family regulations, enforced under the baojia system. Or, it could be voluntarily joined by the local prominent households, who together swore an oath to abide by their agreement.

The specific contents included: when seeing good, one must do it; when having faults, one must correct them; respect the old and cherish the young; mutually urge each other on; mutually help each other; regulate words and deeds; regulate ritual propriety. It advocated keeping faith, not associating with criminal elements, working diligently... and so on and so forth.

Under each item were detailed stipulations; if someone violated them, everyone would discuss the punishment together.

Why had Zhang Bingwen urged Zhao Han to take this seriously?

Because according to the Anfu County Magistrate's letter, in many places the local gentry were once again quietly promoting village compacts. Perhaps a portion of them had good intentions, but the greater number were likely trying to seize the power of discourse at the grassroots level!

Many village heads, seeing that the contents of the village compacts were good, and to make governing the villages easier, were actually actively cooperating with the gentry in stirring things up.

This was striking at Zhao Han's very foundation!

Zhang Bingwen had not only mastered mathematics but was also thoroughly versed in the Datong Collection. He advised, "Regional Commander, village compacts can be promoted — after all, they all exhort people toward goodness. But two points must be noted. First, those who violate the village compact cannot be mediated or punished by the gentry. Second, a small number of items in the village compacts contradict the Datong Collection; these contents must be deleted!"

"Well said," Zhao Han nodded. "Have every village and town submit the contents of their village compacts. Take a few men, take responsibility for finding the unsuitable parts, revise them, and then submit them for my review."

"Yes, sir!" Zhang Bingwen immediately accepted the order and left.

Zhao Han also wrote out a directive, stamped it, and had a secretary forward it to the various bureaus.

This directive was to pay the village heads a salary.

Village heads did not handle any major matters; they mainly resolved trivial disputes in the village, and therefore the position had to be held by someone from that village. If an outsider were made village head, unless their ability was exceptional, they would simply be unable to get much of anything done.

Previously, the village heads had been working for free, with no salary. Once the initial enthusiasm wore off, it was inevitable that they would grow slack. That was why they had helped the gentry promote village compacts — because having a village compact in place made things easier.

They had to start paying the village heads. Working for free was not sustainable, and there was no telling when some might start abusing their position for personal gain.

They would think to themselves: I give so much, and with no salary, it's only normal to take a few perks, right?

Paying a salary certainly could not stop this phenomenon entirely, but it could reduce it. Because in an ancient agricultural society, if a village head had no authority to collect grain taxes or conscript corvée labor, there was fundamentally little money to be embezzled. With a salary, they would have both face and substance, which would make the village heads much more settled.

What needed the most vigilance was not village heads embezzling, but village heads bullying men and violating women, seizing property by trickery or force!

Over the following month, there were two major matters under Zhao Han's governance: standardizing the village compacts, and paying the village heads a salary.

Zhang Bingwen, leading several scholars, compiled the village compacts from various places, made deletions and revisions, and submitted them. Zhao Han then personally revised several more items.

Then, they were divided into two versions.

A version in plain, unrefined language, to be distributed to every village and town.

A version in elegant, refined language, to be included in the new edition of the Datong Collection.

The document was titled the "Datong Village Compact," which could be understood as "the values of the Great Unity world." Respect the old and cherish the young, associate with the good and virtuous, manage the household diligently, abide by the law and be dedicated to one's work — matters of that sort.

Do not think it is useless. Centuries later, it would become the common consensus of all the people.

The traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, the reason they are so deeply rooted in people's hearts, is to a great extent due to the subtle, gradual influence of the village compacts. Even if the common people were illiterate, passed down by word of mouth, they would gradually come to understand these principles and use them to educate their children and grandchildren, thereby forming the fine character of a nation.

Just as Li Zheng was besieging Changsha, Chen Xisong of the Agricultural Promotion Bureau suddenly requested an audience.

"Have you cultivated some improved seed, or developed some new farming implement?" Zhao Han asked with a smile.

Chen Xisong was the very man who had presented the Treatise on Agriculture, and had been assigned to serve as director of the Agricultural Promotion Bureau. He produced a mechanical diagram and said excitedly, "Regional Commander, the water-powered spinning frame — it can now spin cotton yarn."

Zhao Han was briefly stunned, then wild with joy.

A water-powered spinning frame with over thirty spindles — in the seventeenth century, this was practically heaven-defying!

Zhao Han hurriedly examined the diagrams, only to stare blank-faced, and asked, "How did you improve it?"

Afraid that Zhao Han would not understand, Chen Xisong explained in detail: "The reason the large water-powered spinning frame cannot spin cotton yarn is that the cotton sliver lacks sufficient tensile strength; when spun on the large water-powered frame, it frequently breaks." Chen Xisong pointed at the diagram and said, "Regional Commander, please look. Here I have added a moving carriage and a pressing plate, and also added three sets of gears. The large water-powered spinning frame drives the main shaft, and the main shaft, passing through the three sets of gears, reduces the rotation speed, which in turn lessens the force on the cotton sliver. Passing through the pressing plate of the small moving carriage and hooking onto the spindle shaft, the yarn is gripped, and the moving carriage also grips the yarn. The main shaft rotates the spindle shaft through a rope loop, which can then twist the yarn."

Zhao Han understood. The main improvement was adding three sets of gears, along with assembling a more refined moving carriage, pressing plate, and spindle shaft.

However, this contraption certainly had its flaws. First, the cotton slivers had to be hand-rolled beforehand. Second, the cotton yarn it produced was very coarse, unsuitable for weaving fine cotton cloth, and could only be used to weave some coarse cotton fabrics.

In a word, it was positioned for the low-end market, capable of mass-producing coarse cotton yarn!

Zhao Han was extremely satisfied and said to Chen Xisong, "Continue improving it from now on. For this, I reward you ten taels of silver. Furthermore, within five years, if other merchants use this type of spinning frame, they must pay you a sum of silver each year, or else the government office will confiscate their property!"

"Many thanks, Regional Commander!" Chen Xisong was overjoyed. His Chen family was going to get rich.

In ancient times, there was little concept of patents. If it were an ordinary spinning frame, Zhao Han would indeed have trouble managing it.

But a water-powered spinning frame was different — that thing was simply too large, and every inspection would hit the mark.

Granting Chen Xisong an invention patent right would, first, stimulate craftsmen to invent, and second, aid in popularizing the large spinning frame. For the sake of profit, the Chen family was bound to actively promote it, hoping that the entire Jiangxi would adopt this machine.

Zhao Han was very pleased. The industrial technology revolution seemed to have begun.

(End of chapter)