Chapter 5 3. The secret of switching between unspoken rules and formal rules

To speak the official language or not to speak the official language is a matter of choice with a long history.I have read several dialogues written by people in the Qing Dynasty, and there are scenes of discourse system choices, including scenes that force the official speakers to change their mouths.Carefully appreciating the responses and choices of the parties concerned, there is quite a reason that can be calculated based on interests. On September 4, 1853, the Small Knife Society rebelled in Shanghai and captured Wu Jianzhang of Shanghai Road. Ningbo, which is across the bay from Shanghai, suddenly became nervous.The Little Knife Club was originally a branch of the Hongmen Tiandi Club and was active in Ningbo and Shanghai. The people from Ningbo plus the Shanghainese, together with the Guangdong Gang and the Fujian Gang, are one of the three major gangs of the Little Knife Club.Now that Wu Daotai from Shanghai has been captured by Xiaodaohui, life and death are unpredictable, what should the prefect of Ningbo think?

Duan Guangqing, the prefect of Ningbo, sensed the rebellion under his rule. He immediately set up a civil joint defense system and arranged for the joint defense team to patrol the night.The specific method is: Each household rotates adult men to be on duty every five days.The night watch is not completely white. Duan Guangqing persuades the merchants to donate food and cook porridge for the night watch team as supper.Of course, in an emergency, these measures can only be regarded as temporary local policies, and legal procedures are somewhat problematic. In the process of implementing the land policy, a land protector approached Duan Guangqing to complain, saying that there was a battalion in the west of the city who opened a small shop, but he couldn't send it, and he just refused to go to watch the night.The battalions were soldiers from the green battalion of the regular army of the Qing Dynasty. When the Eight Banners were completely rotten, the green battalion had become the main force and was not under the jurisdiction of the local administrative system. It is not surprising that the Dibao sent no battalion soldiers.However, the neighbors began to compare and ask why the owner of the small shop asked everyone to defend him for nothing, what was fair, and it was indeed enough to embarrass the landlord.

At this time, Guangqing came forward.He came to Ying Bing's house and asked him why he didn't go.Below is the conversation between the two recorded by Duan Guangqing. The battalion soldier knelt down and said to Yu: "The battalion soldier has to watch the night with the officer every night, and no more patrols can be sent." Yu laughed and said, "You don't need to speak official words to me. If the people in the camp go out on patrol every night, why do you need the people to watch the night? Today I persuade the people to watch the night, and I originally wanted them to protect each other's ears.

"Besides, you eat food as a soldier, practice in the middle of the day, and hunt down thieves at night. This is the business of your camp. Why do you come to the west of the city to open a shop? I will take you to see the battalion officer and ask if you are really a camp soldier?" The battalion soldiers were speechless, but they kowtowed and agreed to go out to patrol the night. This is really interesting.A soldier insists on speaking official language, but a senior official threatens him not to speak official language. What exactly is this "official language"? Here, the official language expresses a set of orthodox sayings about the nature and tasks of the army. It is said that the soldiers of this army practice during the day and patrol with the officers at night, working very hard.Once you enter this set of arguments, you will enter a set of rules that local officials cannot interfere with. Every moment of your life is dedicated to the country and the people according to the regulations. Of course, you have no time to participate in civil night patrols.This set of official language was high-sounding, and Dibao probably choked on it.

Duan Zhifu refused to enter this system, he said something else.To be precise, Prefect Duan rejected the "Beijing dialect" and replaced it with "Ningbo dialect".The Ningbo dialect expresses the local policy. Once this set of rules is entered, the battalion soldiers must participate in the night watch, otherwise it will be unfair.Just ask: Why do ordinary people do things that should be done by soldiers?Those professional soldiers get four taels of silver a month, which is equivalent to twenty or thirty catties of rice a day, while civilians stay up late on patrol before they are given a bowl of porridge.A professional soldier who takes 20 to 30 catties of rice is sleeping at home, and a civilian who drinks a bowl of porridge is going to defend him—the reality maintained by that set of "Beijing dialect" is too outrageous.

In short, the dispute over discourse is actually a dispute over the selection of rule systems.The dispute over rules is, in the final analysis, a dispute over interests. We continue to disassemble this story to see what is the difference between victory and defeat. Before proceeding with the dismantling, I want to laugh at the battalion soldier.This dude is really stupid, he is still a professional soldier, no wonder the green battalion in the Qing Dynasty was so useless.Sun Tzu's Art of War says: He who knows whether he can fight or not can win.Sun Tzu's Art of War also said: More counts as victory, less counts as nothing.Is it possible to fight such a battle?For that battalion soldier, winning or losing is nothing more than a matter of staying up for dozens of days and nights, but for Prefect Duan, winning or losing is related to the establishment and stability of the joint defense system, and to the authority necessary to maintain this stability, and these are related to The future of Duan Zhifu and even his wealth and life.Not to mention the disparity in the status of the two sides, just counting the will to fight and the determination to fight to the end, the battalion can no longer win.

I guess, the battalion soldier didn't think about it from the very beginning, even though he was running a small shop, his eyesight was only enough to watch a move.He thought that Di Bao would not invite the magistrate at all, as long as he choked the di Bao back, he would be considered a victory.Unexpectedly, Dibao also acted on the instructions of the leader, wishing to push the difficulties to the leader, and the prefect had no choice but to come out to support the Dibao.At this time, the arrogant soldiers may be in chaos.Of course, there is another possibility, he has already thought about it, and is ready to fight to the end.Lao Tzu is not your subject, can you control it?Which family's law would I violate if I didn't watch the night?

Local officials can't control if they don't participate in night patrols. This is the wishful thinking of the battalion soldiers in one step.Duan Zhifu was more far-reaching than the battalion soldiers, he calculated the three-move chess all at once, and showed the three-move chess to the battalion soldiers. Duan Zhifu said, you play according to my rules. Although it is inevitable to stay up late, it is also beneficial to you. It is natural for everyone to contribute to protecting everyone's safety.This is the first step in calculating the stakes. If you insist on getting in my way, insist on playing according to your rules, and don't take anything away, I have no choice but to play with you to the end.Do you think I can't beat you by playing by your rules?Do you want me to take you to find your leader?Not only will I make your wishful thinking come to naught, but I will also make you suffer heavy losses, even your original capital.This is the second step of the threat of interest.

If the second step is really taken, and it really makes trouble in the officialdom, and there is a conflict of interests among the various departments, can the magistrate really take advantage of those arrogant soldiers?What if the officers of the green battalion are afraid of taking responsibility for Xiaobing's mistakes and want to make decisions for him and join forces to resist the prefect?This is the third move that the magistrate has to consider.Duan Zhifu thought about it, and showed his tricks. Duan Zhifu said, when playing chess with your leader, I will ask him, are you a real soldier who runs a small shop in the west of the city?This is a question that hints at the strategy of climbing the pole, and its subtext is: the leaders of your military system do not have to take responsibility for lax management, and I have no intention of pursuing such responsibility.You can say that this battalion soldier is a fake, and you can put the responsibility entirely on this little bastard.Just think, why is it difficult for the officers to kill a soldier?It's not his own son, he can still eat up the money by cutting off his head that caused trouble for the leader, four taels of silver a month.

Ordinarily, by the third step, the winner could be decided, the battalion suffered a disastrous defeat, and the magistrate won completely.However, in case the big bosses in the army are not mature enough politically, or in case the man who runs the small shop is the son of a certain officer, and the officers refuse to settle the matter by climbing the pole, we can find that the prefect’s There was also a fourth move in ambush in those words.If the military officers really want to argue with the magistrate, then the Ningbo garrison as a whole may be held accountable, because they did not assume their duties of guarding the land, and the people of Ningbo need to watch the night for them.In this regard, the officers must be guilty.This kind of guilty conscience also guaranteed that no military officer would argue with Duan Zhifu, unless they were so stupid as a whole that they were not worthy of being an official at all.

Prefect Duan's threat is credible.If he refuses to deal with this little trouble and treat those who don't listen to his orders, the Dibao will have a reason not to work hard, Ningbo may fall, and the prefect will suffer too much.Suffering a little trouble is the lesser of two evils, not due to prefect Duan's lack of capacity.What's more, if even a small soldier can't be ruled, where will the magistrate's face be put?Xiaomin's face is worth money, not to mention the prefect's face. In short, the magistrate Duan has a long way to go, and every step is a chance of winning, and every step is a "player" command player - if you don't want to lose the game, you have to make a move at the position designated by the magistrate Duan.As long as the player is not a lunatic, knows how to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and knows how to save the car, submitting obediently is the only choice.In fact, the determining factor of which rule system to enter is the calculation of the benefits and losses behind different rules.Calculating and comparing the costs, risks and benefits brought about by different rule systems is the essence of fighting.Demonstrating the ability to influence such costs and benefits is the deterrent strategy adopted by Prefect Duan. To put it to the extreme: the biggest loss for a rule selector is his own death.Violence can produce death, so the most violent has the right to choose or decide the rules.These are meta-rules—rules that determine rules. Although our battalion soldiers are not very good at chess, they still understand.In the whole story, Ying Bing only said two sentences, the first sentence showed that he insisted on his original position and wanted to play according to the rules expressed in official Chinese.The second sentence means to admit defeat and play according to the rules specified by Duan Zhifu.Both of these sentences are reasonable, and both are the best choices in his own interests.The first sentence is the best choice for players who can only see one move, and the second sentence is the best choice for players who understand three moves.Since both sides got their best choice in the rules formulated by the magistrate, they could speak the "Ningbo dialect" and gave up the Beijing dialect, and the game of chess was well played. I feel a little embarrassed.Duan Zhifu only had a few words, in order to analyze clearly the stakes behind these few words, explain the different consequences of different choices, and explain the decision-making process of abandoning Mandarin and the formal rules it represents, I actually went so long time.I should shut up.However, historiography particularly dislikes isolated evidence. In order to get closer to the model of historiography, I had to continue rambling, copy two more paragraphs, and then explain a few more sentences. Liu E (1857-1909) was also a magistrate. In the fourth chapter, he told a story about a nun temple turned into a brothel, which also involved the issue of Mandarin. The original text is as follows. The old teacher said: "The rules in our temple are different from those in the kiln. When the prostitute in the kiln reaches the age of fifteen or sixteen, he will be forced to refit so that he can do business in the future. It is illegal to keep guests in the temple. It has been handed down from the ancestors: young people have to put on powder and rouge to entertain guests, and there are some things that are difficult to strictly prohibit, for fear of hurting the face of the guests. In the past few decades, it was still dark, but gradually recently, it became a bit clear However, it is still a semi-dark matter. You can only discuss it with Hua Yun (quote note: a beautiful nun in the temple). If you want to, we will definitely not ask. "But there is one thing that must be said. It was also a rule passed down from this temple, because this bhikkhuni should be a virgin, and should not be polluted by the world; if you commit this crime in other temples, you should be expelled from the temple. Go, no longer take them in, but our temple cannot use this official language to deceive people. But there is a difference: if it is a virgin, all clothes are provided by the temple, other people's clothes, virgins can also wear, other people's things, Virgins can also use it. If they get caught in the dust, they will be regarded as offenders. All clothes and other items must be purchased with their own money, and they must also be subsidized for temple expenses every month. If there are things such as building houses, It must also be spread on the bodies of some of them who are in the dust. Because there is no incense field in the temple, and there is no fate book, but everyone who writes fate books will naturally write them in the temple of Qingxiu. Who would write here? What about the half-clear temples? Don’t you know? Besides, the first time you get dusty, you have to write a lot of merit money. No one can get this money, and it’s collected in the public account for use.” The teachers and fathers here voluntarily declare that they do not speak official language, because official language represents formal rules, and formal rules cannot provide benefits to both parties involved, while unspoken rules explained in private can create benefits for both parties in the transaction. The "Mandarin" here is slightly different from the previous story.In my reading range, the word "Guanhua" first appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, and its meaning is similar to today's "Mandarin".Using "Mandarin" as a metaphor for official official rules was first seen in Duan Guangqing's "Jinghu Self-written Chronicle".By the writing era in the late Qing Dynasty (1903-1906), this kind of metaphor was expanded to refer to various formal rules, and the official rules of the religious circle were also included in it.But it’s a bit presumptuous to say this: The religious circles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were also under the strict management of the government. The leaders of the religious circles also had official grades and official seals, just like the division-level Taoist priests and bureau-level monks we are familiar with. .Even if you become a monk or priest at the mass level, you need to report to the government for approval and record. Only after the government collects money and issues a degree certificate can you become a monk and Taoist priest.In this way, the official rules of the religious world have long been stained with official rules, and they were not expanded later. There is another point to draw readers' attention: the teacher's father's truth thoroughly analyzed the costs and benefits of transforming formal rules into unspoken rules.In such a turn, the temple has become a half-clear temple, and devout believers are unwilling to give alms here, and the benefits that formal rules can provide will naturally decrease.This is loss.In order to compensate for the loss, those who want to benefit from the unspoken rules have to write a large sum of merit money.If the amount of money paid is too small to compensate for the loss of the unspoken rules, who is willing to give up the formal rules and official language?If a lot is given, then in this transformation, both parties are beneficiaries, and it is the reputation of the religious circle that bears the loss.Of course, this is a matter of the overall interests, and it is also a matter of the government. The important thing is that the temple and I make money first. Both of the above two stories do not speak the official language, and there are also stories about insisting on speaking the official language.For example, in Chapter 80, it talks about a small official who collects taxes at the customs on the river. Changed story.This petty official is not a gentleman, Xuezheng has harmed him in the past, and he wants to avenge himself, the so-called "officials avenge their personal revenge".In that story, Xiaoguan insisted on speaking the official language, and also chose the rule system that was most beneficial to him. What is rare is that when he succeeded, he also rescued more than seventy girls.Naturally, there is also the possibility of the opposite: if his temper is not so strong, and he changes his mouth after receiving a sum of money, he and Xuezheng can win a win-win situation in the unspoken rules, and the unlucky ones are the seventy girls. Mandarin is usually more pleasant, because the formal norms it represents take into account that "water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn it", so I don't dare to play with water.The problem is that water doesn't always take the form of a flood, which is the form of a mob rebellion in extraordinary times.When water is put in jars, buckets, and bowls, it has no power to overturn a boat.At this time, the official language is just talk, and if you really do it, you will be asking for a loss, and most people will not ask for a loss.As a result, Guanhua has the meaning of fooling people, and it has become a derogatory term, which inevitably damages the image of the person who speaks Guanhua.However, the turmoil in the officialdom is dangerous, and speaking official language will not be caught by people, even if the image is damaged.