Chapter 22 The Black Kiln Incident and the Order of Land Hegemony

Interviewer: Chen Jianli, reporter of Southern Metropolis Weekly Time: June 29, 2007 Since the Shanxi black kiln incident was exposed by the media, critics responded quickly and strongly, exploring the core issues of the incident from different angles. The moral courage and rational power of public opinion constituted the most gratifying highlight in the process of saving the kiln slaves.Today, rescue forces have been mobilized, but the analysis and reflection on the incident should not stop.We have been looking for a more in-depth perspective to look at the black kiln incident. We found Mr. Wu Si, a historian who discovered the "hidden rules" and "law of blood reward" from the vast historical materials. His theory It is verified by today's black kilns: Don't those cold-blooded kiln owners and local officials believe in gray "hidden rules" and bloody "laws of blood rewards"?The final end of the black kiln will also depend on the end of the local blood order.In the face of the black kiln incident, Mr. Wu Si proposed a new concept - the order of land hegemony.It is under the order of the local hegemony that black kilns will bloom everywhere.

Judging from the information revealed by the Shanxi black brick kiln incident, child labor, mentally handicapped people, corpses, wolf dogs, thugs, village party secretary, 95% of unlicensed operators, etc., are you shocked to see these? Not shocked.This is not only true in Shanxi, it may also be true in other provinces.Historical experience shows that this kind of thing exists widely in China.Moreover, the previous solution is basically the same as the current one, relying on top-down supervision.If there is no such thing in China, I would be surprised.Because the core structure of power has not changed, it is still a pyramid structure that is responsible to the superior.The exposure of this incident only confirmed my judgment once again.

Historically, such incidents have already happened? I will read to you a few excerpts from my reading history (see Wu Xiaoyu's "The History of Coal").In December of the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), Jiaqing issued an edict: "Xishan Coal Kiln is the easiest place to hide traitors. I heard that there are gangsters named Water Foreman there, who often lure good people into the kiln and drive cruel people to death." The emperor ordered Shuntian Mansion will lead the yamen with the army, and send people to closely investigate and visit, "If there are such villains, they will be investigated and punished according to the law."

Therefore, a prefect surnamed Lu led the military service personnel, "traveled through several kilns, and threw out all the coal that was imprisoned in each pot," and demolished all the pots in the coal kilns.According to records, Mei Ding who was rescued at that time "all cheered and cheered".The Xishan Coal Kiln is located in Mentougou, Beijing today. This kind of thing happened not only during the Jiaqing period, but also during the Qianlong period. "There is Mentougou on the west mountain of Wanping, where all the coal used in the capital is produced. There are more than 200 coal mines. Those who opened the mines sent people hundreds of miles away to hire poor people to enter the caves to mine coal, and at night they drove them into the pots. The pots It is a place for food and lodging. The stone is a high wall, and thorns are added so that people cannot go over it. The wages cover two meals, and there is nothing left." This kind of kiln also has a special name, called "Guanmen Kiln".

From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, these problems were not completely resolved, and they all made a comeback.At the same time, the geographical area is not limited to Mentougou in Beijing. Leiyang County in Hunan, Mi County in Henan, Lushan County, and Shaanxi have all happened one after another.In Hunan, local kiln owners often hire ruffians and thugs to take charge of water engineering and water work, which is called "Shui Chengxing". A local official in Hunan during the Guangxu period described in a report: "Shui Chengxing is mostly acted by local traitors. , The matter of catching the guests by force. Shui Chengxing built an earthen room, dark and deep, with a wooden fence outside, and only a sinus was left at the hole, and the door was opened by Shui Chengxing. To coax those who are captured by force, the name of the confinement drum is "Shui Hamu". The general team strips off their clothes, and specially orders them to take turns to transport water, day and night. They are hungry and cold. If they are tired, they will whip and beat their backs. If they want to escape, they will stab their feet with knives. .Besides, the inside of the hole is full of yin and cold, and the work is extremely hard. Therefore, the weak often die because of it within half a month. The strong man will have a rotten abdomen within a few months. No rest, no medicine, just sit and watch. "

So how did such problems form, and why are they repeatedly banned? The Qing Dynasty once legislated to strictly prohibit it.In the second year of Daoguang (1822), after the reconsideration of Shuntian Mansion and the agreement of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, the imperial court approved and promulgated the "Regulations on the Handling of Coal Boilers", strictly prohibiting the opening of "closed" pots. "All the thorny walls set up will be demolished." In addition, a law was also stipulated: "Deceive good people, force them to enter the kiln, and imprison those who cannot escape. According to the murderer's stick rule, they will be punished first. Hiding criminals is a crime."

But the law is also unreliable.Na Yancheng, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment at the time, was worried: "I am afraid that it will be slack for a long time, and it will be in name only," and "unworthy students will have to be regulated by coal mines, so they will be neglected." Why are these problems repeated and repeated?Na Yancheng made it very clear that he acted negligently, this was the first reason. At the same time, this has something to do with the local "hegemony order" in Chinese history.In the history of China, we can see one site after another. Although the national law has regulations, this site has its own rules.It is called unspoken rules in officialdom, and horizontal rules in gangs. I call it the local "hegemony order".How are these territories formed?If everything is unimpeded and government management is in place, these sites cannot be formed.

For example, Shanxi Heiyao can be regarded as a site.Who is the beneficiary in this land hegemony order?We can analyze it from the stakes, from the cost-benefit. First of all, the beneficiaries must be these kiln owners.Judging from the exposure of the news media, the kiln owner got the money first by buying officials, and then colluding with different departments and levels.Those who recruit people into the partnership can also get benefits, thus forming a chain of interests.The rich, powerful, powerful and those who have access to information are all beneficiaries.There was only one victim, and that was slave labor.For the maintainers of this order, as long as the benefits outweigh the costs, the order will be established, maintained and even expanded.

Looking at local officials again, the benefits are obvious, but where are the risks?The risk comes from high-level anger.Officials also have many ways to deal with risks.One is concealment.Officials do not report, do not deal with it, pretend not to see it, and act negligently. This is an information war.The second is to fight procedural warfare.Delay, push back, ignore, obstruct, make things difficult, resist various instructions, suppress opponents.Didn’t the Henan TV reporter say that the biggest resistance to his investigation came from the local government in Shanxi, and some departments even secretly sold the rescued people to their bosses.But they will not resolutely resist the wrath of the high-level, they only benefit from this, and it is not worthwhile to lose their black hats.But they also have ways to deal with the movement. Didn't some officials play cards in the office when they were supposed to go to investigate?

Whoever is a victim of the order of the hegemony is a staunch opponent.There is no benefit to the highest level in this matter, only embarrassment.After this incident came out, the central government held meetings again and issued instructions to hold local officials accountable.Slave labor is the biggest victim of the local hegemony order.They should be the most powerful opponents, but how high is the cost of slave labor opposition?Is it cost-effective?In this order, they are not united or have no way to unite. They are scattered, there is no trade union organization, no information channel, and they are facing a single line of power.It doesn't mean that if he can't find the local government, he can go to the court; if the court can't get it, he can find a representative;The resolution of this matter was first triggered by the media, and later it aroused the anger of the high-level.Fortunately, Fu Zhenzhong is a reporter from Henan TV station, and the local order cannot subdue him. If he is from Shanxi, Fu Zhenzhong may become Gao Qinrong's second.

In China's current administrative structure, the rural areas, especially the administrative organizations at the administrative village level, still exist, and there is no power vacuum in the rural areas. However, the black brick kiln incident exposed that the grassroots regime acted as a protective umbrella for the black kiln owners. The Lord conspired to disregard the laws of the country and human rights. How is the grassroots government produced? Is it elected or appointed?According to the current grassroots structure, the village head is elected and the village branch secretary is appointed.The village party secretary Wang Dongji who was dismissed was actually the top leader.Of course, it is hard to say what the relationship between this occurrence and the construction of grassroots political power is.It cannot be said that popular elections can solve this problem, but it is very likely that non-popular elections caused this problem.According to media reports, the villagers all said that the village party chief is domineering, and that if elected by the people, he might not be elected.He is also a representative of the county people's congress. Is this representative of the people's congress elected by the people?Not sure either. Second, democracy may not necessarily solve the problems of interest groups.The village is internally democratic, but the villagers may not necessarily protect the interests of migrant workers from other places.We cannot rely solely on the conscience of the voters, and the conscience of the voters may not be reliable. So how can we break the order of geo-hegemony formed by the connection of interests? To protect the rights and interests of workers, the most fundamental thing is to rely on the victims themselves.First of all, the cost of obtaining information must be reduced. Television, print media and the Internet have all reduced the cost of information.This time, the family members of the victims were able to organize themselves, thanks to Tianya.com.Although compared with the past, the cost of obtaining information has been reduced, but there is still a gap from the ideal state.Second, it is necessary to reduce the cost of filing a lawsuit for the victim.A lawyer once calculated the accounts of migrant workers asking for wages. If the legal settlement of the 100 billion yuan wage arrears to migrant workers across the country would cost 300 billion yuan.If you don't take the path of suing, you can also allow victims to organize, which can strengthen your courage, speed up the flow of information, and reduce costs.Or encourage the development of NGOs and civil rights protection organizations. These organizations protect vulnerable groups, and organizing them is an effective way to fight against those in power. The height of the devil is one foot, and the height of the Tao is one foot, and this order can also be broken by reducing the resistance.This way is democracy, where villains can be voted out.There can also be decentralization of powers. One cannot cover the sky with one hand. There should be an independent discipline inspection department, an independent judiciary department, and an independent legislative department. Of course, the most important thing is to carry out institutional reforms and improve the power of the people to supervise the government.If the village level can be elected, the town level can be elected. Although foreigners are enslaved, but for the sake of votes, this matter can also be revealed, so that local officials can lose face and step down.At the same time, greater freedom should be given to the news media to benefit the excrement pickers.If Fu Zhenzhong can win the Changjiang Journalism Award this year, then he is on the right track. Only in this way can the local "hegemony order" be fundamentally broken, the legal promises will not be merely on paper, and a real civil society can be established.In the face of the hegemony order, if the solution is still the same as before, with high-level anger and a top-down accountability mechanism, it can only solve a temporary or partial solution, not a complete or fundamental solution. This incident was actually revealed by the media and followed up further. It was only later that the high-level attention was paid to it. The public power intervened and acted quickly, from accountability to the leader's apology, and thus launched a nationwide "sweeping gangster operation." , how do you view the performance of the media throughout the course of the incident? Compared with previous incidents of this kind, from exposure to resolution, the performance of the media may be one of the few bright spots, and this is the breakthrough point.In fact, to a certain extent, the media has shared the cost of the victims and their families' confrontation with the local "local hegemony order", and it has become an alternative method. There is a view that blames the greed of capital for the occurrence of this incident, and such incidents would not have occurred before China's reform and opening up.How do you feel about this point of view? The greed of capital is one thing without a doubt.Capital is greedy, and so is power.Everyone is greedy, workers and peasants are also greedy.The greed of workers is to pay more and work less.Everyone is like this, the question is how to restrict.Are you counting on its self-discipline, or relying on the system to constrain it.Are these black kiln owners capitalists?No, he is already similar to a slave master.His greed is to hope that these slave workers will eat less and work more.For the greed of capital, the most important constraint comes from trade unions.If these capitalists have illegally employed labor and committed crimes, the restrictions should come from the government and the police.If the police do not act, then it should consider restricting power. The black brick kiln incident is completely in line with the logic of power, and it also conforms to the law of blood reward you defined.In addition to possessing the labor of slave labor, the kiln owner even completely possesses his body.But to broaden this matter a little, it can be said to be an extreme manifestation of China's labor-capital relations.In media reports, we can often see the occurrence of forced labor, body searches, poor working conditions, overtime work, wage arrears, etc.Some people attribute such phenomena to "problems in development" and "the inevitable price of China's transformation" towards modernization. How do you evaluate this "development value"? How could this be the "cost of development"? This is precisely the manifestation of "non-development".What happened two hundred years ago has reappeared. Is this "development"? "Development" is essentially the extension of the rights of every citizen, and development is first of all the development of a right.The development of China's agriculture is firstly the result of the development of farmers' rights. With large contracts, farmers can control the fruits of their labor, farmers are allowed to go out to work, and farmers are allowed to be trafficked remotely. These rights were "confiscated" in the past.The same is true for industry, which used to belong to the state, but now individuals can open factories, and capitalists have obtained their due rights, so industry has developed.Now that workers are angry, their rights are often eroded in labor-management relations. How can this be development? In the game between labor and capital, the reality has repeatedly shown that it is often difficult for atomized individuals to fight against powerful capital. In your opinion, how should the current trade union play its role?There is a voice that believes that in the current global profit chain, China is still at the end. If the trade unions really have the ability to bargain with the management, it will inevitably lead to an increase in China's labor costs, and thus lose its competitiveness in the global market. This will affect the Chinese economy. The blow was fatal. I also wrote a special article last year, which was to calculate the wage gap between workers with and without trade unions in the Zaozhuang coal mine during the Republic of China.Before there was no trade union, workers were severely deprived. After four or five years with the union, the net wages of workers increased by 32%.Trade unions are a kind of political rights. Political rights are valuable and can be eaten as food. The amount of money worth is 32% of their original wages.The second question is, after the salary increase, has the boss suffered?Are profits down?As far as their Zaozhuang coal mine is concerned, there is no decline. I also asked two bosses, if within 5 years, the salary of your company's employees increases by 30%, what will happen to your company? Will it lose its competitiveness in the international market?They all said that China's competitive advantage in the international market, especially the cost advantage, is not the slightest bit.Now Chinese products are being dumped all over the world, relying on the advantages of labor costs. This has also caused dissatisfaction among workers in other countries, and has even become an issue of the international order. I did some calculations, assuming that there are currently 100 million migrant workers in China, if wages are increased by 32%, the benefits to the migrant workers' entire families are five times that of the abolition of the agricultural tax.The money will be turned into purchasing power. One of China's current problems is overproduction.Even if competitiveness in foreign markets weakens, the benefits of stimulating domestic consumption more than make up for it.