Chapter 14 12. I recognized a small species

One morning, while lying in bed, I was reading Mr. Zhou Yumin's "Finance and Social Changes in the Late Qing Dynasty". For the first time in my life, I saw the three words "Caokou", "White Neck" and "Baigui".After reading it several times, I actually realized the joy of biologists discovering new species. Mr. Zhou quoted a memorial from Luo Bingzhang (1793-1867), governor of Hunan Province, introducing the method of dividing grain and grain, in which the word "caokou" appeared, which is transcribed as follows: This passage gives the name of a unique social group, introduces the composition, size and income of this group, and describes the foundation and struggle strategy of their livelihood.The details are disassembled below.

The Ming and Qing dynasties relied on the south-to-north transfer of grain through the canal to supply the capital and frontier defense, and maintained water transportation for nearly 600 years.Around the collection and transportation of Cao grain, a set of intertwined hidden rule system has grown up, and the proper term is "Cao Regulations". Cao regulations are private modifications to the distribution method of statutory benefits.First of all, modify the relationship with farmers, and use "floating income" to scrape farmers a few more knives; then adjust the internal relationship, and divide the fertilizer according to their respective interests and abilities.Cao regulations have been banned in all dynasties.I have transcribed the six steles of the forbidden leather rules in Changshu County, Jiangsu Province, spanning more than 130 years from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. On average, each generation has to erect a stele in front of the yamen and the grain warehouse. The words of the forbidden leather are exactly the same. specific.

For example, in the 17th year of Qianlong's reign (1752), the stele of banning leather points out 14 tricks that subordinate officials used to strip and scrape peasants.The inscription says that if the grain collectors "deliberately hate, sieve and smuggle, covertly withhold, covertly collect noodles, and extort money from warehouse workers, money from sieve fans, money from hu feet, pick-up money, wine money, etc. Ticket money, bedding money, etc., as well as sample rice, Shunfeng rice, Yangdhu rice, mouse consumption rice, and the name of accumulated grain, donated as Shi Le, cleverly established various names and colors, and those who are greedy for OOO, will go to the place separately."

These tricks such as money and rice are the rules for farmers to overpay every year before the ban on leather. This stele also points out five tricks for officials and subordinates to share fat, and officials are prohibited from asking for benefits from the "General Secretary Cao": "I am not allowed to extort Zhu price, Zhili, book fee, accompanying ceremony, door fee, etc." Packages and other items.... If the seal officials are greedy to accept the rules and condone the evil, they will be strictly punished." When transcribing these inscriptions, I seem to be able to understand the difficulties of the erectors.After hundreds of years of games, it has long been known who wins and who loses, and each group controls each other's interests, and has worked out a set of rules for their own peace.How much blood should be shed by the common people, how much profit should be shared by officials and subordinates at all levels, form a tacit understanding with each other, forming a stable equilibrium state, the situation is restricted, and it is very difficult to change.These six monuments themselves prove the difficulty of modification.If erecting a monument can really solve the problem, why set up six yuan?Moreover, some of the forbidden items in the inscription have not changed for a hundred years, and they even refuse to change their appearance and change their names.

In my imagination at the time, these six steles were like majestic emperors, standing there solemnly.If people would pay him any attention, he was extremely respectable.If everyone ignored him and fooled him, he would turn into a stone, blind and deaf, unable to move.I even want to write about these six steles specifically, and investigate how the things they represent have been taken advantage of.But I have some doubts: If these steles don't work, why do people keep erecting them again and again?Is this the result of a tug of war?An attempt to gain fame?Is it really useless at all? After seeing the way "Caokou" made a living, I realized that the official rules on the stele served at least one purpose: it showed the illegality of Cao's regulations.This is a big handle of the unspoken rules distribution system, and "Caokou" grasped this handle astutely, and used it to settle down.

Caokou is composed of "diagnosed and inferior supervisors". "Qingjin" and "supervising students" generally refer to a group of scholars at the "student" level, commonly known as scholars.The ages of these people vary greatly, from teenagers to seniors in their sixties, as long as they are admitted to state schools in prefectures and counties.After enrolling, listen to the roll call every day, and prepare for the examination under the teaching and training of the academic officer.These people have meager incomes, and they are officially paid a little granary (student food expenses), about two liters of rice per day.Non-staff students don't even have this kind of income.

In the pyramid of fame from Tongsheng to Shengyuan to Juren to Jinshi, the "diaojin poor supervisor" is at the penultimate level.If they can't get a "Fan Jinzhongju", they have almost no chance of seeking official positions.The common people have long smelled the poverty in them, and gave them ugly names like "poor scholars".This kind of poor status is doomed to the attraction of the fat meat of Caogui to them, and also encourages their "tricks" and "inferiority". "Diao Jin and bad supervisors" have advantages that ordinary people lack.First, they can read and write, and understand the court's laws and regulations.Second, they live at the grassroots level, often communicate with officials, often gather in prefectural and county schools to exchange discussions, and know the inside story of officials' illegal distribution of fertilizers.Third, they often have personal relationships with higher-level officials, and they can report the situation upwards through them, or at least they can "pretext to accuse" themselves.Fourth, they have entered the ranks of officials, have more rights than ordinary people, and are less afraid of meeting officials.But if the officials want to clean them up, they will inevitably disturb the "education committee" (study and politics) system, which is not as easy as cleaning up the common people.Fifth, they are concentrated in a large number of people, just like the current college students. It is easy to share risks through collective action and increase their strength. Murdering one or two people will not solve the problem.

In short, Caokou is familiar with information channels and has an information advantage. They are a mouth that can hurt Caogui.Realizing these, you can understand the aptness and expressiveness of the word "Caokou". How much is this legal, low-risk, low-cost ability to harm worth?According to Luo Bingzhang's description, each person in Caokou charges tens or hundreds of taels.We assume that the average charge is fifty taels.At that time, the annual income of a middle peasant family was only worth twenty or thirty taels. With this income alone, Caokou was able to support his family and live a decent life.Cao Kou earns money by talking, and what he earns is the money for gagging.

Luo Bingzhang said that when there are many, the number of people at Caokou in each county can reach dozens.If their request for fertilizer distribution fails, three countermeasures will be adopted: first, prevent farmers from paying the grain; second, go to the superior's office to sue; The strategy of petitioning and suing is expected, so there is no need to say more.However, mobilizing the masses to resist food and attacking the government to beat cadres are felonies, and it is extremely dangerous to use, so it is especially necessary to be careful.The measure is: Let the vested interest groups who share Caokou realize that if they refuse to share the fat with Caokou, they will not want to continue eating meat.When the incident got serious, to the point where the superior had to intervene and had to do business, Caokou would certainly suffer, but the vested interest groups would suffer even more, and the loss would far exceed the hundreds of taels of silver that Caokou demanded.The lesser of two evils, it is better to make timely concessions.Caokou dared to take the risk precisely because it was sure that concessions were the ultimate reasonable strategy of the Caogui interest group.

"Caokou" is the name of Hunan people.According to Mr. Zhou Yumin, Caokou is called "White Neck" in Jiangsu.Tao Shu (1779-1839), the governor of Liangjiang, said in the "Strictly Prohibiting the Bad Regulations for Wrapping Cao Cao and Horizontal Cables Attached Sheet" that there is a kind of "rice without shenghe, but white food cao regulations range from tens of taels to a hundred. The place with the largest number of people , There may be three or four hundred students in the prison, but there are two or three thousand taels in the Cao regulations, which is really shocking."

This passage further proves that the social group Caokou is ubiquitous, the scale of the Caokou Group is quite considerable, and the resources allocated by the group are no longer a fraction. The bad rules of Caoliang nourished a huge interest group, just like herbivores such as cattle and sheep nourished carnivores such as tigers and wolves.This is not a metaphor I invented.Wei Yuan (1794-1857), a thinker in the late Qing Dynasty, said: "Among the ten thousand mountains in Chongyang, Xu served the tiger and won the crown. Anyone who goes to the countryside to urge the collection of rice will feed the people for a long time." He likened the slaves who extorted Cao regulations to tigers wearing hats, and going to the countryside to collect food was to eat the meat of farmers. The metaphor of "tiger wearing a hat" is vivid, and it seems that Wei Yuan is clearly aware of the fundamental difference between carnivores and herbivores.They eat different foods, have different survival skills, and have different positions in the food chain. They are indeed two species. Following this metaphor, what kind of animal does Caokou belong to?In the seventh year of Daoguang (1827), the top leader gave a qualitative statement.The emperor said that because the prefectures and counties had to make excuses to demand the common people, "the diabolical gentry and evil tyrants were able to take advantage of their strengths and coerce them."The emperor clearly observed that Caokou feeds on carnivores and is in a higher position in the food chain.This is a bit like lice and mosquitoes, but lice and mosquitoes not only suck the blood of tigers and wolves, but also the blood of cattle and sheep, while Caokou uses the blood of tigers and wolves as its main food.The evolution of nature is wonderful. Animals will have poisons that paralyze their nerves. After the poisons, animals that eat poisons that are good at detoxification will evolve. In this way, the arms race is constantly escalating, and the ecosystem is becoming more and more complex. A species will eventually appear in the ecological niche, which can make full use of the resource flow and energy flow in that position.Our old empire has a long history, and the level of evolution of social ecology is unmatched in the world.Since this ecosystem has produced fat carnivorous species, it is inevitable to produce secondary species that eat them. As a system of unspoken rules, the Cao Regulations privately divided the interests of the official group, the Cao Gang, and the peasant group, and arranged the order and quota of fertilizer distribution within the official group.Then, after repeated contests, what kind of "rule" does the interest redistribution plan established between Caokou and the bureaucratic group belong to?Our ancestors called this "white regulation". There is a sentence in Volume 2 of "Tongkao of Continued Documents of the Qing Dynasty", Tian Fu Kao 2: "The wicked gentry coerces officials and asks for white rules." The word "white regulation" surprised me.These two characters can be understood as free food Caorui, or can be understood as the sharing of Caorui by Bai Ding who has no official status, and can also be understood as the rules of fat distribution formed by eating free and eating black.The unspoken rules are operating in secret, but the white rules are threatened with exposure. This is the blow that caught the Achilles' heel of the unspoken rules system.Tao Shu made it clear in his memorial to the emperor: "Distribute the fat through litigation, so as to increase the number of white rules." Bai Gui relied on the threat of public lawsuits to expand the amount of fat.In the repeated tasting of the language of my motherland, I once again felt the existence of a kind of wisdom, which is so clear and discerning, so deep and subtle, so broad and broad, it is everywhere. What is the development prospect of Caokou species?If we continue to copy the quotation above, after "asking for the white rules", we can see that the "unscrupulous gentry" continues to exert their advantages: "The big household takes over the small household, and the small household entrusts the big household, and has the name of entrusting the household. Uncharacteristically light and unnaturally serious, people complained and caused troubles one after another." That is to say, the small families who were extorted thought that Caokou could provide a protective umbrella, so they took refuge in them one after another and asked them to hand over the grain on their behalf to avoid extortion by officials.Caokou was also willing to take over this matter, so it evolved into a "package household".This is also understandable.It is definitely cheaper for small households to feed one caokou, and it is sure to be more profitable than the fat if the caokou is eaten by one person. This is a win-win situation.However, with such a package at Caokou, the scope of extortion by officials has been reduced. In order to maintain the original interests, they have to increase the intensity of extortion.The small households that did not find the umbrella were searched more fiercely, resulting in a situation of unusual severity, and public grievances boiled over. Trouble means trouble for provincial leaders.If things get worse, the deadline for water transportation and the quality of grain will also be affected, which means trouble for the central government.Therefore, the provincial leaders in charge of water transportation have to deal with the water mouth to calm the situation.The provincial leaders in charge of education thought it was unfair, serious violations of law and discipline in water transportation, and they didn't want to correct it, so the board hit our scholar's ass?The matter got into trouble, and the imperial decree came down. While reaffirming the discipline of water transportation, it also demanded that the water port be dealt with seriously. Three hundred and fourteen scholars were severely warned.The expansion momentum of Caokou was frustrated, and the ecological balance was restored. Caokou blackmailed the officials, and the officials naturally hated Caokou.But from the perspective of the common people, is Caokou a good guy or a bad guy?For the small households who cling to Caokou, I am afraid they are considered good people.Compared with the extortion by officials, the agency fee of Caokou is relatively low, which provides a competitive choice for ordinary people.For the small households who have never climbed to Caokou, they cannot be regarded as good people, because they drove all the corrupt officials over, and their own burden was increased.It can be seen that how to evaluate Caokou depends on whether the total amount extorted by the people (the total amount of Cao regulations) can be suppressed, but this is not something that Caokou can decide.The total amount of Cao regulations depends on the overall relationship between common people and officials. How to evaluate species like Caokou is still a matter of opinion. On May 30, 2000, the court of first instance in Longwan District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province publicly heard the case of Chen Shisong, the so-called "Minister of the Underground Organization", and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.It is said that Chen Shisong has a "vicious method of political hooliganism". He tracks and stalks cadres and digs into other people's privacy in order to blackmail and control cadres.With this "unique trick", he gradually became the "big man" in Ruian City.In the past few years, he has helped promote 4 cadres (two at the deputy county level and two at the bureau level), and helped several "beneficiaries" seek illegitimate interests. How do ordinary people view this matter?An article signed by Haozhi in Chongqing "Business" magazine introduced: Local media reported that after Chen Shisong was arrested, the crowd clapped their hands and cheered.However, after contacting the local people, the reporter found that there were not many people who simply clapped their hands and applauded, and people had their own thoughts on how to treat this character. They first believed that Chen Shisong was not a good person. Judging from the verification of him by the discipline inspection department, his behavior had touched the relevant laws. A few corrupt officials above the bureau level will not be caught so quickly, and some will even hide for a lifetime.From this point of view, Chen Shisong has meritorious service. He has done what our discipline inspection department should have done but failed to do.Although his methods are illegal and his purpose is wrong, people are more concerned about the social effect of the exposure of more than a dozen corrupt elements. In fact, if we are serious, "the social effect of the exposure of a dozen corrupt elements" may also cause controversy.Put yourself in the shoes of the common people, if the shepherds are wolves anyway, do the sheep like fat wolves or hungry wolves?