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Procursus,
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Since social mobility was great and the inter-class relationships were moderate, as indicated in the last two chapters, the trenchancy of the class barriers could not have been so strong as to bar against such unifying elements as cultural and national crises. Yet, it is a fact that no privileged class would like to give up its hard-won privileges or to let different kinds of people come in without putting up a struggle.
On the side of the underprivileged class or the commoners there is also a repulsion against those who always wear a kind of artificial makeup and who must put on a long gown even if their children and wives may have nothing to cover themselves at home. The humble people may envy the wealth and privileges of the rich but they do not want those people to be mixed with them. If a rich man should try to come to a poor man’s house great suspicious will be aroused in the poor man himself, in his family, and in his neighbors as well. If the rich man really has a good purpose, it takes time to convince the poor fellow to accept his intention. Thus, it can be generally said that at ordinary times both the upper-class consciousness of social security and the commoner’s complex of suspicion are deeply entrenched class barriers. They keep the two classes apart and set them in antagonism at times when one tries to trespass the territory of the other.
In traditional China, however, such a condition has not always existed. It is true, at times the upper class, or the privileged families, struggled vigorously to prevent the lower peoples’ encroachment, and the commoners gave no help whatsoever to their rich neighbors in case the latter were attacked or in other kinds of distress; they even made no effort to cover their gladness about a rich family’s being in trouble. At other times, or under certain circumstances, the situation was quite different. That is, the gentry class people were willing to have the road leading to their class open. They even went so far as to encourage and help the young commoners so they could really enter the upper class. The commoners were also willing to give their labor and even lives to fight under the gentry’s leadership against outside attacking forces. Instances for the conflict of classes can be found in the deteriorating period of every dynasty.
When a regime was rapidly deteriorating, there had been almost inevitably numerous social uprisings. A general pattern of such uprising was that a bunch of hungry and mistreated soldiers, or a group of desperate villagers, led by a despised but capable and alert man, would start a revolt with the idea that their grievance be heard and redressed. Then, before long, the local law-breakers and “rootless” elements joined them. They moved along like a snowball rolling.
In order to gather strength, the group welcomed anyone who wished to join, and soon they became a large, violent mob. Violent because almost everyone in the mob had some grudge or grief against the government, the authority, and the rich people. To avenge themselves and to indulge in what they had long dreamed of, they robbed the rich families and molested or killed the authorities when they could lay hands on them. This violence might have not been the original purpose of the starters. But once it was practiced, a majority of the mob became drunk on it. A few members who were opposed to it could do nothing but let it go.
The violence was first directed to the rich people and the official families. The poor peasants, small land-holders, artisans and merchants of the common class were left alone. Because the rebels were by and large of the poorer class and because those who were spared in the violence were also the common people, the gentry-bureaucracy class could not but believe that the uprising was a life and death struggle between the two classes. This belief sharpened the rich families’ consciousness of class solidarity. Consequently, they put up a vigorous fight against the rebels. First, each family made its own effort and tried to defend itself alone. Then all the rich families in one locality joined together and built up a joint defense. Later on, they also joined the government to form a united-front force or made great contribution to the government in order to strengthen the government’s fighting power against the rebellion.
It is also interesting to see how the common people, that is, the poor peasants, the small landholders, and the artisans and merchants of the common class who did not join the mob disposed themselves in such a class struggle. At first, these people were to a certain extent sympathetic toward the rebels. They thought that the rebels were oppressed people and were compelled to revolt because they had no other way to have their grievances heard and redressed. In other words, these people took the stand that the rebels were their brothers. If they themselves had not the guts to take up weapons and fight with them, they ought at least to have sympathy for them. On this argument, the non-involved commoners decided to assist the rebels by not betraying their hiding places to the suppressing forces, and by sending them warnings of the coming of government armies. In addition, they provided food, water, and clothes to those who were defeated or wounded. Toward the rich families they did nothing to help but were glad that such families were in trouble.
Let us take the poor people’s uprising at the disintegrating period of Yuán 元 (period 19) for example. (See “Social Classes in China Under the Yuan Dynasty,” by MENG Ssu-ming Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies, Monograph series No. 16, Peiping 1938. Chapter V.) This period started at the beginning of the fourteenth century, or the T’ai Ting 泰定 reign (reign 19a-12) of Yuán. At this time, drought, flood and many other kinds of calamities occurred continuously; in addition to these were the ever increasing taxes, labor conscriptions and other burdens forced upon the people. Social justice was completely ignored. Poor and helpless peasants and artisans shouldered almost all the burdens whereas the rich people and the ruling class were paying nothing or very little to the government. As a result, hundreds of thousands of the poor were practically being starved to death.
Those who did not die became desperate. Being desperate they could no longer care about the law or authority. They figured that if they obeyed the law and did nothing to help themselves they would eventually be starved to death, but if they took the risk to rise up and go get what they needed they might have a chance to survive. The crisis was ripe. What was needed was a man to come out and provide leadership. Bang Hu (characters unavailable), Han Shantong (characters unavailable), Zhāng Shìchéng 张士诚, Chén Yǒuliàng 陈友谅, and a number of other local chieftains were the men who took notice of the situation and started the uprisings.
Practically all the rebels and their leaders were people of humble origins. Their original purpose was simply to get food and other necessities for survival. But neither the government nor the rich people would give what these people wanted. Consequently, they had to use violence. Thus, the uprisings became life and death struggles of the oppressed class against the oppressing class, and that in the rebels’ mind the oppression was more of economic injustice than of political totalitarianism, is indicated in those religious dogmas formulated by the leaders of the agrarian rebellions.
The chief theme of the dogmas was that:
The action which we poor people are taking is simply a response to the call of our beloved Buddha. The Buddha is coming to us. We must do our duty to hasten his arrival. When Buddha is here among us, the world will be changed from evil to good. People will have kind hearts. They will endeavor to achieve the ten virtues. Because they have good conduct they will live long and will have all the happiness and peace. The population will be dense and towns and cities will flourish everywhere. There will be plenty of chickens. All the crops will be prosperous. One planting will yield seven harvests. All the plants will grow and bear fruits by themselves. There will be no need of plowing or cultivating. (Meng, pp. 209-210.)
Had the government or the rich families had the wisdom to see the nature of the uprisings and had adequate measures to relieve the starvation and distresses of the people, the turmoil could have been pacified before it grew out of control. But neither of them had wisdom, and subsequently the movements developed into a dynasty-overthrowing revolution.
In the whole duration of the struggle the rich families were bitterly opposing the rebels. Needless to say that the rebels did many things which could only be considered savagery. For self-preservation the rich families had to fight. But they were in a very difficult position when they discovered that the Mongolian rulers did not trust them and accused all Chinese, including the rich families, of trying to overthrow the Mongolian regime. Many of the Chinese gentry members and rich people who were wholeheartedly helping the Mongols to suppress the rebellions were suspected and persecuted by the Mongols. Moreover, the rebels now claimed that they were fighting against the foreign rulers and those who were siding with them. The Chinese gentry and rich people were greatly bewildered. They could not give up their holdings, both material and moral, to join the rebels, nor could they win the Mongols’ confidence and stay with them to fight a losing war.
This difficult situation was not relieved until Zhū Yuánzhāng 朱元璋 founder of Míng 明 dynasty (period 20), came with a compromised program of revolution. Zhū’s program was, in brief, moderate or compromising in nature. It called for order and the protection of institutions. It was opposed to mob activities, lawlessness, illegal killing, burning and robbing. On the positive side, Zhū’s program contained the important items of shifting the rich people’s surplus wealth to the poor peasants and of readjusting the tax burdens according to actual amounts of land and wealth. Considerable amounts of land of the rich families were taken away and then distributed to the landless poor peasants. Then, above all, Zhū’s program urged both the great masses and the gentry class to form a united front under Zhū’s leadership to fight against Mongol regime. Racial consciousness was greatly advocated. The slogan was to dislodge the foreign rulers and to return the Chinese empire to the Chinese to whom it ought to belong.
In spite of the land appropriation this moderate program appealed to the gentry class for it gave the class protection from the mob armies’ marauding, which was extremely violent at the time. It also solved for them the dilemma of whether to stand with the ruling Mongols or fight against them. For the peace-loving common people, Zhū’s revolution policies were also acceptable. At that time, all the common people wanted were a moderate but secured livelihood and economic and social justice. Since Zhū’s program contained such promises, they gave their support to it. Thus, the class barriers between the gentry and the peaceful commoners were temporarily removed and a united front under Zhū Yuánzhāng ‘s command was formed. When the diverging Chinese forces were thus united, the decaying Mongol regime crumbled without any significant struggle. But the mob armies led by other empire chasers did not comply with Zhū’s call. They continued to practice violence without discrimination. Subsequently, the forces under Zhū’s command had to have bitter fighting with them before the Míng regime was securely established.
The above piece of history clearly shows that under certain circumstances the class barriers between the poor people and the rich are quite entrenched. They tend to become worse when are exploited by mean and ambitious leaders of either or both sides. Under other circumstances and if the leaders of both classes are farsighted the barriers can to a great extent be removed or be put aside. For instance, we will again cite the organization of village defense in this writer’s community at times of social disturbances. At first, the bandits robbed or kidnapped only rich families of disrepute. When all such families were finished the bandits started molesting the other rich or well-to-do families. Soon they became “drunk” and mad on their marauding and the spoils they made, so they began to rob the community without discrimination.
In the first period when the bad rich families were raided, the common and poor families did not feel any disturbance. Secretly they were glad that the robbing and kidnapping happened to those whom they disliked. Needless to say, they didn’t give any help to the unfortunate families. In the second period, when the good well-to-do families were also molested, the common and poor families began to show some concern because they had affection for those families and because they had one or another kind of dependence on them. But still no positive action was taken by the commoners to help the robbed and threatened families. They still assumed that it was only the upper classes’ misfortune. When the well-to-do families talked about a united village-wide defense program, the commoners were not interested.
When the bandits began to include the majority of the village’s families in their raiding targets, however, the situation changed. Except the few very poor families, all others were in great alarm. The families which were not well-to-do but had a stable livelihood also woke up to feel the imminent danger. At this time, the village leaders again called for a united, village-wide defense program and a majority of the villagers were interested. The program was soon organized. Responsibilities were carefully distributed among the upper and lower classes in regard to each group’s and each family’s economic conditions and human power. For quite a length of time the cooperation and relations between the two classes were good and the defense program was so effective that the bandits had to leave the community alone.
A similar case is recorded in Morton Fried’s study of Chú Xiàn 滁县 [in Ānhuī 安徽 province]. Some deserted soldiers formed a band of bandits and raided rich families and diehard rural gentry. “For several months they were successful and then, quite suddenly, they were caught. The explanation was simple. Several times a company of the local militia had been marched into the countryside to find the marauders but each time the bandits had vanished. During their early patrol, the guerrilla’s efforts had been confined to the looting of more or less worthy families. The general populace, not molested, was apathetic or actively sympathetic to the bandits. Then, for reasons unknown, the bandits failed to discriminate and began raids on ordinary peasants and tenant villages, and often burnt the houses of their victims. Unconcern immediately became active interest. The peasantry kept tabs on the location of the bandits and informed the local authorities. A company of national troops was alerted. Finally, this company was led to the exact place in which the bandits were hiding and the rebels were destroyed.” (Fried, p. 229.)
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