Chapter 295: Uprising of the Xiucai in Central Zhejiang

In the late Ming, there were three eccentric Confucians: Li Zhi, Chen Jiru, and Li Yu.

What made them eccentric?

They defied orthodoxy and broke with tradition!

Li Yu is the hardest of them to sum up in a few words. Though The Carnal Prayer Mat does not bear his real name, anyone even slightly familiar with Li Yu's works can tell he wrote that novel.

The Carnal Prayer Mat has two core ideas: pleasure is no sin, and indulgence should be kept moderate.

This fellow was especially fond of sharing a bed. Three concubines — each slept alone three nights, then all four shared one night together. He called this "three parts, one union."

At this moment in time, Li Yu was not yet called Li Yu. His names and courtesy names were perfectly suited for a xianxia novel.

Surname Li, given name Xianlü, courtesy name Zhefan, sobriquet Tian Tu!

And at this time, Li Yu had only one wife. They loved each other dearly, and he kept no concubines.

Lanxi County, Xiali Village.

Li Yu was in the courtyard sharpening his sword. His mother sat beneath the eaves weeping bitterly, while his wife and sister-in-law patiently comforted her.

His elder brother Li Mao said fretfully, "Second Brother, have you lost your mind? The provincial examination is only two months away. You are the county's Five Classics Child Prodigy — you are certain to pass the juren exam this year. Why would you follow that pack of sour scholars in rebellion?"

Li Yu sprinkled water on the blade and ran his finger along the edge. "In two months, even Hangzhou will be gone. What damn provincial exam is there left to take?"

"How can that Jiangxi rebel Zhao be so formidable? Don't go stirring up trouble with them. Settle down and prepare for the exam," Li Mao pleaded bitterly.

Li Yu abruptly stood, slid the sword into its scabbard, and said to his elder brother, "Brother, you look after the household yourself. I must go this time. Our family has been a hereditary medical household for generations, and our uncle is even a medicine merchant — how could we ever separate ourselves from Jiangxi? Without the medicinal goods from Zhangshu Town, our uncle cannot even keep his business running. Brother, do you know what status physicians hold in Jiangxi?"

Li Mao said, "What status could they have? The very lowest, of course."

"Ha, wrong," Li Yu laughed heartily. "In Jiangxi, physicians are greatly respected. For that fact alone, our Li family ought to serve Heavenly King Zhao with our lives!"

In ancient times, many scholars did indeed study medicine — much like studying Daoism or Buddhism, it was a way of cultivating the mind.

But medical households in the Ming were different. "Shamans, physicians, monks, and Daoists" were lumped together, not much different from artisan households, and were objects of discrimination generation after generation.

Li Yu and Mao Pijiang were born in the same year in the same county seat. Li Yu himself was a xiucai, and his family was even engaged in trade, so he shared many mutual friends with Mao Pijiang. Yet the two never once associated their entire lives, because Mao Pijiang looked down on Li Yu's origins!

Li Yu said to his elder brother, "Brother, once Mr. Zhao wins the realm, our Li family will truly be able to rise up!"

"Zhefan, let's go!"

Someone outside the courtyard suddenly urged him on.

"Coming!"

Li Yu turned, bowed to his mother with clasped hands, and then said to his wife, "If I die, you shall remarry."

His wife, née Xu, nodded. "Go. I will guard the household while you are away."

Li Yu strode out, sword in hand, a household slave following behind him — the book boy who had grown up with him since childhood.

The household slave carried a wooden staff in his hand, his blood also boiling with fervor. He could read. If Heavenly King Zhao came, he would gain his freedom, and perhaps he could even become an official one day.

Master and servant stepped out of the courtyard. Over ten people were already standing outside.

They were all master-servant pairs like this — the masters bearing swords, the servants wielding staves. They had been drilling for over a month.

The group set off together for the county seat. To avoid drawing attention, they split into several waves and trickled into the city one after another, lodging in the home of a great merchant.

A river runs through Lanxi County, leading straight to Jiangshan County.

And Jiangshan County lies right next to Guangxin Prefecture in Jiangxi. A great volume of Jiangxi goods traveled this route into central Zhejiang, so the gentry and merchants along the way were very well informed about conditions in Jiangxi.

The first day of the sixth month.

An army composed of merchants, scholars, and household slaves — over two hundred men in all — suddenly burst out from a great mansion in the city.

Though Li Yu was a physician of superb skill and a gifted scholar versed in all Five Classics, he truly had no idea how to fight. The fellow drew his iron sword, led his household slave forward, and charged all the way toward the county yamen.

"Great Unity under Heaven!"

"Equality for good and baseborn alike!"

The crowd shouted the slogans, the household slaves shouting the loudest. They truly took "equality for good and baseborn alike" as an article of faith.

Seeing over two hundred men charging at them, the yamen runners were terrified out of their wits. They threw down their water-and-fire staves and fled for their lives. The clerks of the Six Offices had no time to react and fell to their knees one after another, hoping to save their worthless hides.

"Anfu, Zhongde, each of you take five men and guard the storehouses and official registers!"

Tang Yuqi began issuing orders. He was the leader of the Lanxi County uprising — a xiucai from a great merchant family who mainly imported goods from Jiangxi and sold them around Jinhua, which made him, loosely speaking, a member of the Longyou merchant group.

Li Yu followed Tang Yuqi as they charged into the second hall of the county yamen. It was deserted. They then stormed into the rear residence, encountering only a few servants. They seized one and questioned him, only then learning that the County Magistrate and his private secretary had already fled.

"Follow me to seize the city gates!"

Tang Yuqi bellowed.

Li Yu was beside himself with excitement. Sword in hand, he rushed out, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Great Unity under Heaven!"

Thud!

Li Yu tripped over the threshold and fell flat on his face.

Fortunately, everyone was charging forward, and no one noticed his sorry state. Li Yu scrambled up nimbly, brushed the dust from his clothes, hastily grabbed his sword, and chased after them.

Because it was so close to Jiangxi, Lanxi County also had government troops stationed there.

The rebel force of over two hundred split into two squads, each attacking the north and south sections of the city wall. The government troops, who outnumbered them, threw down their weapons in fright and fled. Just last year, these men had been drifters; soldiering was nothing more than a way to fill their bellies.

Without a single drop of blood being spilled, Li Yu and the others seized the county seat.

Several of the city's great merchants began distributing money to recruit troops, raising a thousand men to defend the city while they waited for Zhao Han to send someone to take over.

The banner of the Great Unity Army had already been planted atop the city wall, snapping and rustling in the wind.

Li Yu was in charge of holding a section of the wall with his men. Gazing out from the heights, he felt his heart and mind suddenly expand. Gripping his sword, he laughed. "Never did I imagine I would accomplish such a great deed in this life!"

The feeling was as if he had followed right at Zhao Han's side and had already helped a sage sovereign ascend to rule all under Heaven.

This Zhejiang uprising was initiated by Xu Du, the leader of the Righteousness Society, and was mainly carried out in the prefectures of Jinhua and Shaoxing.

One thing about this is utterly absurd. The Longyou merchant group of western Zhejiang ought to have been among those with the strongest revolutionary spirit. They did not hold much land in their names, yet they controlled vast amounts of silver, and they depended heavily on doing business with Jiangxi.

If Zhao Han struck over, it would be nothing but profit for them, with not a single drawback.

Yet when Xu Du planned this uprising and sent men to western Zhejiang to make contact, they were instead reported by the gentry. The Longyou merchants showed not the slightest reaction.

These Longyou merchants did business all across the realm, even reaching the southwest, the northwest, and overseas. No matter how much money they made, they always came home to build grand mansions, and since merchants were deeply despised here, the great merchants all rushed to establish academies.

The strange thing was, they only built the academies — they never hired renowned teachers or great Confucian scholars to instruct in them.

A merchant who had made a great fortune would strain every sinew to buy land, transforming overnight into a great landlord, and many simply abandoned trade altogether.

As a result, the main body of the Longyou merchant group was always made up of small and medium-sized traders. Moreover, with no official protection to look after them, they were bullied wherever they went, and the great merchants who had turned into landlords turned right around and discriminated against and suppressed the merchants.

In this uprising, across the entire Quzhou Prefecture, only Jiangshan County succeeded — every other place failed.

Longyou County was especially extreme: the great landlords directly raised troops and launched a frenzied counterattack against the rebel army that had seized the county seat, killing over thirty of the uprising's scholars and more than a hundred other rebels.

These fellows have simply gone mad!

They are so close to Jiangxi — are they not afraid that Zhao Han will come over and slaughter them?

Let us analyze and sort out why Quzhou Prefecture, where everyone is a merchant, instead developed a social atmosphere that despises traders.

The merchants here mainly engaged in long-distance transport and trade.

In ancient times, anyone doing long-distance transport was certain to be bullied and fleeced, suffering who knows how many beatings from society along the road. They feared the officials, they worshipped power and influence, and because their trade routes were too long, they could never form a stable pattern of collusion between officials and merchants.

Among the various merchant groups, in sheer numbers, the Longyou merchants were the largest.

But they did not band together, nor did they collude with officials, so they simply could not do business in the great cities. They could only travel in groups to remote regions, and most of the time they were at the mercy of others.

Therefore, when many of the great merchants grew old and could no longer manage their trade, they returned home and ceaselessly amassed land, raised their sons and grandsons to study, and from then on set themselves up as gentry and great clans.

In the mid-Ming, there was a Longyou merchant whose business in the north was enormous, his shops and warehouses spread across three and a half counties.

He came home to buy land, came home to build a mansion, and when the County Magistrate repaired a bridge, he straightaway donated ten thousand taels of silver.

As for that business across three and a half counties in the north — he sold it all!

He had money enough, in any case; he need only wait for years of natural disaster to annex more land.

Now, Xu Du raised troops in Dongyang County. Seizing the moment when the summer grain was harvested and rents and land taxes were being paid, he stirred up over ten thousand tenant farmers and small landlords, capturing the county seat of Dongyang in a single stroke. Then he took Yiwu and laid siege to the prefectural seat of Jinhua. Scholars and household slaves inside the city rose in response, and with help from within and without, Jinhua Prefecture was taken.

When the dire tidings from Longyou County arrived, the scholars of central Zhejiang were seething with fury and grief, and they honored the scholars slain by the great landlords as the "Thirty-Two Gentlemen."

Immediately, Xu Du led his troops to break through Tangxi County, his army's spearpoint aimed straight at Longyou, ready to kill those great landlords and avenge the dead.

Of the eight counties of Jinhua Prefecture, five had now been seized by the rebel army, and the whole of Jiangnan was shaken.

Xiong Fenwei, the Governor of Zhejiang, turned pale with terror and at once sent orders to every prefecture and county in Zhejiang to raise troops and suppress the rebels.

Aside from a stint as County Magistrate in his youth, every other post this fellow had ever held was as a remonstrance official.

The post of Supervising Secretary he held from the Wanli reign all the way to the Chongzhen reign — he had practically served a tour through all six offices. After being transferred to be Chief Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for War, Xiong Fenwei set himself up as an expert in military affairs and impeached several successive Ministers of War. Because he offended Wen Tiren, he was tossed out to be Chief Minister of the Seals Office — which is to say, he was put in charge of seals and tallies.

After Zhao Han seized Guangdong and Hunan, Chongzhen suddenly recalled that Xiong Fenwei understood military affairs, and so promoted the man to be Governor of Zhejiang.

At a single command from Xiong Fenwei, the whole of Zhejiang was thrown into utter chaos.

Zhejiang was already in the grip of famine, and now the Governor wanted to conscript troops and requisition grain to fight a war?

The common people of Zhejiang, long since unable to bear their heavy burdens, saw central Zhejiang rise up and likewise resorted to violent tax resistance, while also refusing to serve as corvée laborers for the authorities.

In the Kuocang Mountains region, a peasant army numbering over thirty thousand even appeared.

Tangxi County.

A scholar of the Righteous Society came running: "Zikou, Zikou, good news!"

"What good news?" Xu Du asked.

The scholar said, laughing, "Mr. Zhao has dispatched his troops — the great army has already passed Jiangshan County!"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Xu Du burst into loud laughter and summoned the many scholars and merchant leaders: "Gentlemen, Mr. Zhao has already passed Jiangshan County. Let us pin the enemy forces right here and watch how those wretches are annihilated by Mr. Zhao!"

(Seeking monthly tickets.)

(End of chapter)