Chapter 31 Act V Who is Revolutionizing and How

In Lu Xun's novel "The True Story of Ah Q", it is said that when he heard that the revolution was coming, Ah Q wanted to rebel, so he braided his hair with chopsticks and swaggered through the market.At first Master Zhao and the scholars didn't know what was going on, and didn't know the details of the revolution, so they humbled Ah Q.Later when the fake foreign devils came back, they realized that the revolution was not about killing them, so they put on a show.Ah Q wanted to participate, but the fake foreign devils would not allow him.Lu Xun wrote novels, but in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, there are really peasants who want revolution (although they, like Ah Q, don’t know what revolution is about), not only the gentry and landlords don’t allow it, but also the local military government after the revolution. not allowed.

During November 1911, the traditional rent collection season, there were several anti-rent turmoil in Wuxi and Changshu, Jiangsu. The biggest one was started by a peasant organization called "Thousand People's Association".Like Ah Q, these peasants had heard about the revolution, but they didn't quite know what it was about.Ah Q wanted to participate, and he didn't know why he was going to participate. All he could think of was to rob the rich and help the poor, and earn some money for himself.But they knew that the revolution was going to get rid of the emperor, but what did it mean to them that the emperor was gone?Thinking about the good, the emperor is gone, and the local government has changed. Without the emperor, it means that there will be no kingly law, so the rent and rice can not be paid.It is not unrelated to this kind of thinking that the resistance to rent in Jiangsu and Zhejiang can make a big fuss.However, the Thousand People Association is not Ah Q. They are organized and can make a big disturbance.

At that time, the independence of various places, at the county level, was nothing more than a few gentry plus a few teachers or students, and then mobilized the local garrison camps, and then drove away the original county magistrate, and became the masters of the country.Ordinarily, farmers can do the same.However, the peasants who wanted to make trouble were quite confused.They pulled up troops and danced with guns and clubs, but their real intention was to resist the rent.Let’s say it was rent resistance, but they also organized and established the “Renyi Agricultural Bureau”, led by Sun Er and Sun San in Wuxi, also known as the governor.In addition to the governor, they also have a scholar Fan Wentao as a military adviser.With the governor, military adviser, and troops, according to the principles of revolution, they can also be regarded as revolutionaries, and they can establish themselves as kings.However, the revolutionary governments of Wuxi and Changshu did not agree.They can stand on their own feet, but farmers can't, why not?There is no reason to say, no way, no way.The "silver peach" revolution can be associated with the fake foreign devils, but it is not the same with Ah Q.

In fact, organizations such as the Association of Thousand People existed widely in rural areas before the revolution. They were a kind of mutual aid group among farmers, a non-governmental organization that borrowed money from each other and donated food and rice.It is a kind of "meeting" and "community" that existed in ancient times, and the scale of the Thousand People's Association is only a little larger.However, due to the revolution, the Thousand People’s Association became a bit more ambitious. It intervened in the rent reduction negotiations between farmers and landowners. The asking price was too high, and the negotiation collapsed. There was a conflict in Yizhuang, and its leader, Zhou Tianbao, was arrested by the Changshu County Government, and things got serious.Tens of thousands of members from Wuxi and Changshu flooded into Wangzhuang, smashed Yizhuang, and took relatives of the landlord as hostages.Then the governor's mansion was set up in the Wangzhuang Town God's Temple, and the banners of the "Thousand People's Conference" and the "Renyi Agricultural Bureau" were raised.Notices jointly signed by the governors Sun Er, Sun San and military advisor Fan Wentao were plastered all over the place, as if to establish a peasant government.It's just that this peasant government doesn't have much promise, and only asks for a rent-free policy. It doesn't want to kill the county seat and sit on the top spot.Since it is called rent-free, of course it has been negotiated, and it is not impossible to pay less.Although the peasants used force to riot, they had nothing more than hoes and harpoons in their hands, it was not a real riot, and no one was killed.

However, thousands of peasants took the guys, occupied a large village, and set up a governor's mansion with flags. Even if they didn't use force to kill people, they committed a big taboo.As a result, the troops from Wuxi and Changshu were dispatched to encircle and suppress with guns and artillery.Of course, farmers who only have hoes and harpoons can only be scattered birds and beasts. Those who are unlucky will become ghosts under the gun, and those who cannot run fast will become prisoners.Zhou Tianbao, the leader of the Association of Thousand People who had already been arrested in prison, was shot dead. Sun Er, Sun San and Fan Wentao fled without a trace.A peasant revolution of 1911 tragically came to an Ah Q-style happy ending.The only good thing is that after the incident, the local rent has actually been greatly reduced.

A similar peasant revolution also took place in Nantong Siyu Port.After the recovery of Nantong, the local farmers also declared recovery, organized a government, and held the ranks of commander-in-chief, military and political chief, and financial chief.However, the purpose of this peasant-style restoration was also to resist rent and tax, so it was naturally difficult for the revolutionary government to tolerate it.Soon, the Nantong military sub-government sent troops to suppress it. After some fighting, the peasant government in Siyugang was destroyed, and Ah Q, the second leader, lost his head.

The revolution of the revolutionaries is a revolution, but they do not mobilize the masses, especially the peasants.When Sun Yat-sen took office as interim president during the Revolution of 1911, he told foreigners that they did not need the initiative of the masses.Such an approach has always belonged to the condemned "incompleteness of the bourgeois revolution".The revolutionary party would rather instigate the party and use the underworld than mobilize ordinary farmers.In the eyes of today's historians, this is entirely an error caused by the limitations of the bourgeois class.From the historical point of view of class analysis, this statement is undoubtedly justified.However, the problem with this view of history is that the premise of the analysis is to put all kinds of people in society into class affiliations. However, it is very difficult for all kinds of people to put them into separate boxes like the medicinal materials in a Chinese medicine shop.It is difficult to say that these overseas Chinese, students and members of the revolutionary party really belong to the new class of entrepreneurs and businessmen.In terms of living habits and concepts, the so-called Chinese bourgeoisie are closer to the Constitutionalists.But one thing is, the backbone of the Revolutionary Party did belong to the Chinese elite at that time. In terms of maintaining social stability as much as possible, they have similarities with the Constitutional Party.Therefore, whether it is the reform of the Constitutionalists or the revolution of the Revolutionaries, they are not interested in mobilizing the bottom of society.It is not wrong to say that they are afraid that mobilization at the bottom will harm their class interests, but what they are more worried about is the impact on social order after mobilization at the bottom.The destructive power of the traditional Chinese peasant rebellion is astonishing, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not far away, and they all know it.Therefore, in almost all revolutionary places, even places where the post-revolutionary party is very powerful, the new regime is willing to cooperate with the local gentry to maintain the original order as much as possible and maintain social stability.For this stability, of course, the interests of the squires must be defended.Not allowing the peasant revolution is an inevitable choice.