Chapter 331

The Story of the People’s Uprising, Part One

According to feedback from my agents, some readers feel certain aspects of the people’s uprising are implausible; here I must clarify that all uprisings in this volume are based on historical records.

In this volume, I will share, as easter eggs, several uprisings that inspired this narrative.

One: The Suzhou Uprising

In mid-May of the twenty-ninth year of Wanli, Sun Long reoccupied the Suzhou Weaving Bureau and met with local officials to discuss how to implement new commercial tax levies.

The local officials decided that part of the tax would be drawn from state reserves, and part from the populace.

News of the levy from the people spread rapidly, and panic and rumors erupted.

In early June, workshop owners began a complete shutdown of weaving operations.

This immediately cut off the livelihoods of thousands of weavers and dyers employed by the workshops, who gathered at the gates of the Suzhou Weaving Bureau demanding answers.

On the sixth day of the sixth month, over two thousand laborers assembled near Loumen in northeastern Suzhou, electing Ge Cheng, a weaver from Kunshan, as their leader; they entered the city and held a sacred oath ceremony at the Xuanyuan Temple, the guildhall of silk-weaving artisans (whose actual controllers were typically collectives of production asset holders).

During the oath, Ge Cheng demanded that they target only the tax eunuchs and their agents, not the workshop owners who had initiated the shutdown; the dyers and weavers immediately swore to this.

Ge Cheng then divided the crowd into six squads, each led by one man carrying a banana leaf fan as a signal, while others followed behind wielding cudgels.

They then went outside the city to kill tax officials—binding them on the road, hurling stones, and smashing them to death.

After the killings, Ge Cheng climbed to a height and cried out: “Today’s actions are to rid the court of evil. If anyone seeks personal gain from this, who in the world could justify it? Those who abide by my orders, follow; those who do not, leave!”

The crowd again swore to heaven that their action targeted only the tax eunuchs and their appointed officials, and would not harm Suzhou’s local residents.

Then Ge Cheng led the large group back into Suzhou city, encountering no resistance from the city garrison troops.

The organizers had all prepared “hand lists” tucked into their belts, each listing the names and addresses of every tax official to be punished—by timing, these must have been prepared in advance with hundreds of detailed files.

Immediately afterward, the rebels systematically surrounded the residences of these tax officials and set them ablaze.

Because of the pre-prepared punishment lists, the likelihood of looting during the chaos was greatly reduced.

Even more, Ge Cheng personally killed a dyer who had taken advantage of the chaos to rob a middle-class household; the demonstrators’ reputation soared, and local residents lined the streets to welcome them.

During this time, the eunuch Sun Long pleaded with Prefect Zhu Xieyuan to deploy troops to suppress the uprising, but was refused.

The reason given was that the army was meant to defend against foreign invaders; failing to arrest the organizers before the uprising was his failure as a parental governor; but now that the uprising had begun, sending troops to suppress it would cause massive civilian casualties and worsen the unrest.

In short, eight words: “Public wrath cannot be defied; adding fuel to the fire.” With no alternative, Sun Long fled to the home of a prominent local family. (According to the 1984 paper by Duan Benluo and Zhang Qifu, it was almost certainly the home of Shen Shixing.)

By June 9, nearly all tax officials had been eliminated; some had fled to the prefectural yamen for refuge.

Ge Cheng and others posted notices on all Suzhou city gates, declaring that the purpose of this action was solely to punish the tax eunuchs and their agents—not to rebel against the court.

They also warned Suzhou’s citizens to maintain order and not use this event as an excuse for rebellion.

On June 10, the Suzhou local yamen arrived belatedly; Prefect Zhu Xieyuan and his subordinates rode into the streets and began negotiations with Ge Cheng and others.

The outcome was that Prefect Zhu Xieyuan announced the arrest of several tax officials who had sought refuge in the yamen—the last remaining fugitives—and hinted that these officials would soon be executed.

Ge Cheng stepped forward and voluntarily surrendered himself to prison.

The uprising ended.

In the post-event report to the central court, Provincial Governor Cao Shipin (mentioned earlier as the official demoted for misusing official transport, later ambiguously promoted to governor) submitted a formal assessment of the incident.

He said: “...They carried no weapons (this contradicts county annals, prefectural annals, the ‘Stele of General Ge of Wu,’ ‘Annotations on Dingling,’ and other sources), seized no property, warned neighbors in advance to prevent fires from spreading, and abandoned money offered to bribe for immunity.

When officials came to counsel them, they knelt and confessed guilt, stating they acted only because the tax officials were excessively cruel, and would not harm the innocent; once Tang Xin (the fleeing tax official) and others were arrested, the crowd dispersed quickly.

Ge Cheng voluntarily turned himself in, willing to accept punishment to avoid implicating others; his anger is understandable.

The people of Suzhou are impulsive and easily believe rumors; many live on daily wages—without work, they face death.

From my observation, the closure of dye workshops left thousands of dyers unemployed; the shutdown of weaving workshops left thousands of weavers unemployed; these are all virtuous commoners who rely on their own labor to survive, now driven to desperation—I deeply grieve for them.

The annual taxes of the four prefectures amount to no less than several million taels of silver; what difference does six ten-thousand taels make? If these taxes are not swiftly abolished, how can this vital fiscal region be pacified?”

This is the latter half of the memorial.

Clearly, it contradicts Sun Long’s report.

Caught between two difficult choices, the Wanli Emperor ultimately chose a compromise.

He issued an imperial edict ordering the investigation of Ge Cheng and other uprising organizers’ responsibilities, and demanding the Suzhou yamen rigorously prosecute the imprisoned tax officials for corruption and abuse of power.

Local officials interpreted this imperial decree with a bias—yes, imperial edicts could be interpreted with bias; this is one of the great features of Classical Chinese.

In the end, Ge Cheng and others were treated with courtesy in prison, released ten years later, while the tax officials were sentenced to death, becoming sacrificial pawns to appease public outrage.

As for commercial taxes.

Throughout the entire Ming dynasty, commercial taxes were never successfully collected.