Chapter 73: 072 Sorting Out the Contradictions

"Absurd, muddle-headed, the height of shortsightedness!"

Fei Yuanlu roared in fury, so enraged he lost all reason, and began smashing things wildly around the room.

Every child student, without exception, has a record on file at the county school.

Fei Yuanyi had "Fei Han" struck from the household registry; with no blood ties to the Fei clan, and the County Magistrate personally looking into it, the child student's file was immediately deleted.

After a long while, Fei Yuanlu finally calmed down and, his face dark with anger, set off for the ancestral residence at Henglin.

"Master of the Mountain, my master is not at home," the gatekeeper said with an ingratiating smile.

"Out of my way!"

With a great shout, Fei Yuanlu charged straight in, clutching his climbing staff.

How would the servants dare to stop him?

He stormed all the way into the inner courtyard. Fei Yuanzhen, already informed of his arrival, came out personally to receive him and greeted him with warm familiarity: "Yuanlu, I've just composed a poem — come and help me polish it."

Fei Yuanlu stood motionless in the courtyard and demanded, "Elder brother, why did you do such a thing?"

"What has happened?" Fei Yuanzhen looked utterly bewildered.

Fei Yuanlu said, "The academy child student Fei Han has been struck from the county school rolls!"

Fei Yuanzhen continued to play dumb: "Fei Han? Who is that? Is he a son of our Fei clan? A youth from which branch and which house?"

Fei Yuanlu said, "He is the adopted son of the Ehu Fei line — gifted and intelligent, a young man of great promise!"

"The Ehu Fei line?" Fei Yuanzhen sighed. "Worthy younger brother, you know full well that I, a useless clan head, cannot even control the Henglin main branch. How would I have the power to meddle with the Ehu Fei line? I truly know nothing of this matter. If you wish to do something about it, go and seek out Fei Yuanyi."

Fei Yuanlu could hold back no longer and roared, "Whatever conflict lies between us, lay it out in the open. The Fei clan's literary tradition is in decline; none of its sons and grandsons amount to anything. We finally took in an adopted son with a future — how can we tear down our own Great Wall!"

Fei Yuanzhen sneered. "An adopted son — and you would rely on him as the Fei clan's Great Wall? I think you've lost your wits!"

Fei Yuanlu spoke with pained vehemence: "This boy, at such a young age, already has his own scholarly convictions and was greatly praised by Education Commissioner Cai. Whether or not he ever passes the juren or jinshi examinations, he can still raise the Fei name. You... you people struck him from the household registry — truly the most shortsighted of men!"

"An adopted son is a household slave, and you even put him on the household registry? Shall we let him enter the ancestral hall next?" Fei Yuanzhen laughed coldly.

"If he can achieve great things, then why not let him enter the ancestral hall?" Fei Yuanlu shot back, matching him point for point.

"Utterly ridiculous!" Fei Yuanzhen flicked his sleeves and walked away.

Clutching his climbing staff, Fei Yuanlu bellowed, "You old scoundrel, you are unworthy to be the Fei clan head!"

The Yanshan Fei clan and the Great Ming court were one and the same — there was no difference between them.

Whenever someone tries to accomplish something, there will always be others who trip him up, letting all his painstaking efforts go to waste.

Fei Yuanlu stumbled away, walking as if his soul had left him.

One Zhao Han alone was not enough to cause him such heartache.

It was the infighting within the Fei clan that made him feel despair, and for a time, all his spirit and ambition drained away.

He took a boat to Hekou Town. Gazing up at the towering Three Worthies Arch, recalling the prestige the Yanshan Fei clan once commanded, Fei Yuanlu found himself, before he knew it, with old tears streaming down his face.

Snowflakes drifted down; heaven and earth were a vast expanse of white.

"Brother, don't be sad," Fei Chun consoled him.

Zhao Han laughed heartily. "Just a child student — if I'm not one anymore, so be it. What is there to be sad about?"

Fei Chun said anxiously, "This isn't about being a child student. Brother, you've been struck from the household registry. From now on, you'll be just like me — you can only be a servant of the Fei clan."

Zhao Han put away his smile and said with gravity, "Fei Chun, remember this. A man stands between heaven and earth — no one is born lower than another. Is a household slave necessarily beneath a child student?"

"That may be so, but how can a household slave and a child student even be mentioned in the same breath?" Fei Chun's face was crumpled with distress.

These days, Fei Ruhe had disappeared to who knows where — probably gone home to pester his mother for money, wanting to seek out a famous teacher to study riding and archery.

Fei Chun had been left behind in Hekou Town, selling the Ehu Ten-Day Journal together with Fei Yu, and as a result had spent even more time with Zhao Han.

Zhao Han had once saved his mother from being beaten to death by the mistress, Madam Lou. Zhao Han was generous with money, loyal to his friends, and of household slave origin himself — all of which made Fei Chun feel closer to him.

Household slave to household slave, they could truly open their hearts to each other.

Between household slave and master, no matter how good the relationship, there was always a layer of separation.

Fei Ruhe could only ever be a master; Zhao Han was the one who was Fei Chun's friend.

Soon, Xu Ying, Liu Ziren, Fei Yuanjian, and Fei Yu also got word and hurried over to offer comfort.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Zhao Han laughed brightly. "Gentlemen, why the long faces? What's so remarkable about a child student? No more of this womanish fretting — today, my treat. Let's go drink at the Dingsheng Tavern!"

Everyone was speechless, not knowing what to say.

Zhu Zhiyu stood silently in the snow, watching Zhao Han turn around and comfort his companions, and a very strange thought arose in his heart.

Putting himself in the other's shoes — if such a thing had befallen him, Zhu Zhiyu did not think he could face it so calmly.

This truly was not about being a child student; it was about falling from commoner status into debased status!

It would affect him his entire life, and his sons and grandsons after him — all would be finished.

Yet this youth before him could still laugh, and it was no forced smile — it seemed more like the exhilaration of casting off shackles!

Could it be that he regarded his status as an adopted son of the Fei clan as a cage?

Could it be that he regarded the Fei clan's patronage as fetters?

What exactly did he intend to do?

Zhu Zhiyu recalled the contents of the "Discourse on Status" and dared not think further. This was no ordinary matter of rebellion. An ordinary rebel would rely on the Fei clan's power, not rush to distance himself from them!

Zhu Zhiyu had once thought of rebellion himself, but it was only a fleeting thought, born of his despair at the state of the times.

Rebellion?

Best to think on it and leave it at that — a son of an established family could never become a rebel.

Inside the thatched hut, master and disciple sat facing each other as heavy snow sealed the door shut.

Zhao Han rubbed his hands together and breathed on them. "Teacher, the winters are getting colder year by year. You should move to a better room."

Pang Chunlai drew his sleeves tight around himself, huddled into a ball. "Compared to a Liaodong winter, what is this? Let's talk about your affairs first."

Zhao Han smiled. "What affairs could this student possibly have?"

"Ah, you really should still take the examinations," Pang Chunlai sighed. "No matter what, having a xiucai degree would make it far more convenient when you raise your banner in the future."

Zhao Han shook his head. "The Fei clan has treated me with excessive kindness. If I don't break free of them, every move I make later will be constrained at every turn."

Pang Chunlai admonished him. "Since ancient times, who has ever launched a great undertaking without relying on a powerful clan? Liu Bang relied on the Lü clan. Yang Ji'an and Li Yuan were themselves of great clan stock. Zhao Kuangyin simply usurped power. Even the founding emperor of our own dynasty borrowed his father-in-law's influence!"

Zhao Han smiled. "The founding emperor's realm was carved out blade by blade, spear by spear."

Pang Chunlai said, "I meant that in the early days when the founding emperor first joined the army, without his father-in-law's patronage, how could he have accumulated connections and prestige so quickly?"

Zhao Han explained, "This student believes that when examining the problems of the world, one must first clarify the key contradiction."

"Is that really how the word 'contradiction' is used?" Pang Chunlai said, amused.

"As long as it's understood," Zhao Han continued. "The Great Ming's situation is collapsing. Factional strife, official corruption, the Later Jin, the roving bandits — these are all secondary contradictions floating on the surface. We must seize the principal contradiction!"

Pang Chunlai's interest was finally piqued. "What is the Great Ming's principal contradiction?"

Zhao Han said, "Land annexation is severe. The means of production are monopolized by a handful of people. The state has lost the capacity to redistribute social resources. The productive forces of the vast lower classes cannot be unleashed!"

"What does that mean? I only understood the part about land annexation." Pang Chunlai was already thoroughly baffled.

Zhao Han explained, "Land is a means of production. Workshops and factories are means of production. These are all monopolized by the gentry and great merchants. They can evade and avoid taxes. They can collude with officials. As a result, the state's finances are depleted, and the common people do not have enough to eat."

Pang Chunlai nodded. "That is indeed the case."

Zhao Han continued his explanation. "The redistribution of social resources means that the wealth created by all trades and industries is gathered by the imperial court in the form of taxes, and then channeled back to the people under heaven through local government offices. Protecting the realm and securing the people, building irrigation works, repelling foreign invaders, constructing city defenses, governing localities, building official roads — all of this is the redistribution of social resources."

Pang Chunlai suddenly saw the light. This was no mere talk of redistributing social resources — it was nothing less than an explanation of how a state itself functions!

Zhao Han spoke again. "Productive forces are the power of people to create wealth. To put it more simply, it is how many useful things people can accomplish! Yet now, farmers are tenant-slaves, artisans are hired slaves, soldiers are military slaves, servants are household slaves. Look across the Divine Land — all are slaves! Being slaves, with no assurance of even tomorrow's meal, what spirit do they have to labor? What spirit do they have to till the land? What spirit do they have to fight? They merely drag out a wretched existence!"

"What do you intend to do about it?" Pang Chunlai was growing excited.

"The peasants!" Zhao Han said.

The core contradiction was still land annexation, because peasants made up the overwhelming majority of China's population.

Historically, how had the Manchu Qing resolved the land contradiction?

In Zhili, they killed the people and seized the land — naturally, the contradiction vanished. Dividing up the seized land also consolidated their own power base.

Elsewhere, they killed those who would not cooperate and accepted those who would, turning a blind eye to the contradictions that remained.

Take Jiangxi's land contradictions, for example. They were never resolved — not in the Qing dynasty, not even in the Republic. It took the New China to finally resolve them.

Peasant movements in Jiangxi ran through the entire Qing dynasty.

The smaller ones carried out rent-resistance uprisings; the larger ones rose in outright rebellion. The Manchu Qing's response was to send in the troops and crush them.

How was it finally eased?

Jiangxi's rent-resistance uprisings persisted into the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns. By then, the Little Ice Age had ended. After centuries of experience, the gentry had also worked out a set of tactics.

Just as capitalists deal with workers: first raise basic conditions, then sow internal division. Set tenant farmers against tenant farmers. Transform class contradiction into contradiction within the class itself!

Zhao Han had no desire to see the realm he fought to build plagued by unending peasant uprisings until the day he died of old age.

Though he had not yet risen in rebellion, and had no way of knowing whether he would succeed, he had to establish the correct line from the start.

Of course, that correct line was certainly not to go red — that would violate the laws of social development. Stride too far and you'll tear your crotch.

(End of chapter)