Chapter 51 Section 4 Lijia System: The Curse of the "Little Boys"

What peasants who are passing by look down on most are "loafers".When the honest farmer came to the city, what he feared most was the local ruffian.As a standard farmer with strict family education since he was a child, although Zhu Yuanzhang had been in the rivers and lakes, he had a strong aversion to idlers in his nature. He has never been used to those "prodigal sons" who indulge in fun. Looking through historical materials, I came across a speech by Zhu Yuanzhang when he met the children of heroes, and recorded a fragment of it, from which we can see Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards life:

In a manly family, learn to be a person like your father, and don't want to live your whole life crookedly. Every time you (you) take advantage of me to kowtow every year.You (you) still come here every year (dialect, which means "come here every year").You are a small family, you are young, don't want to learn that kind of naughty naughty... You are also young, study and learn to do things well.Every time you learn, I will do it. Once, Zhu Yuanzhang heard that the soldiers of the Jingwei were drinking in their spare time, so he summoned them and reprimanded them: "I heard that you are addicted to alcohol, and the cost of getting drunk is unknown. With limited funds, you can pay for your insatiable expenses. How can there be no lack of nourishment?" He hated young people playing chess, playing ball, blowing flute and singing songs, and once issued an edict to severely punish them:

"In Beijing, there are military officers and soldiers who learn to sing, and cut off their tongues; those who play chess and Shuanglu cut off their hands, those who play Cuyuan take off their feet, and those who do business send them to the remote areas. Singing the song, cut off the upper lip and the tip of the nose; Longjiangwei commander Fu Yu and Benwei Xiaoqi Yao Yanbao Cuyuan, unloaded his right foot, and sent the whole family to Yunnan." After becoming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang saw the horror of the vagrants from another angle.Peasant uprisings in the past dynasties were all led by homeless people. They had the courage, ambition and social activity ability that the peasants did not have.More importantly, they can move freely in society. Therefore, when the world is in chaos, they often become sparks that start a prairie fire.Therefore, after ascending the throne, he regarded the elimination of homeless people as the key to controlling society.

He stipulated that everyone should engage in a fixed occupation, and no jobless people are allowed in society. He said in "Dagao Continuation Zaiming Youshi Sixth": Once again, it is not allowed to do business properly, and everyone must know each other's occupations.I would like to make an order that the local governments, neighbors, and Lijia should warn and teach these idlers, and let them find a job immediately... If they are still idle within a month, the neighbors and Lijia will take him to the government. .If the government doesn't care, you will be sent to Beijing to eliminate troubles for the people.If you don't take it, such a person will either do bad things in the government's spare time, or be a thief in the village... Once the law comes out, Li A in the neighborhood can't arrest him and go to the government to go to Beijing, so that this person does bad things in the local area, and the crime will happen soon. On that day, the neighbors of the four neighbors were guilty of the same crime!It's true!

In the era of planned economy, the main means of social control is to embed people into units one by one, becoming "unit people" and "fixed people". Only by relying on the unit can everyone survive and receive wages and rations.In this way, it can be ensured that everyone's life is controlled by the state apparatus to the greatest extent. More than 500 years before the emergence of the planned economic system, Zhu Yuanzhang had strengthened the traditional "Lijia" system into a mosaic social control system, using the "Lijia" network to grid and fix the people of the whole country.He stipulated that for the people of the whole country, every ten households are compiled into a Jia, and every one hundred and ten households are compiled into a li (a li includes ten Jia, and the other ten households take turns as the head of the li).People all over the world have their own "units" to which they belong.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's lijia system was inherited from previous dynasties, its rigor far exceeds that of previous dynasties. He stipulated that the leader of "Lijia" has the power to organize production and life within one mile.Residents within one mile have the obligation to supervise each other.Every family has to guarantee each other, practice even sitting, if one family commits a crime, the whole family will be unlucky.He issued the "Da Gao" and said that every family within a mile should know the situation of other families: You need to know what occupations the members of this family are engaged in.For example, a student must know who his teachers and classmates are, and whether he is attending a county school or a state school.As a teacher, the neighbors must know the situation of his students to see if these are the people who come in and out of his house every day.

Farmers, from the top of the kang to the field every day, come out and go in every day, and the neighbors can see it. This situation is easy to grasp. As a craftsman, the neighbors must look at his pass and know where he has been working. Generally, he goes to a distant place to do big work, and he can stay out for a longer time. If he does small work nearby, he should return soon. Home and neighbors should keep abreast of these situations. For those who are in business, some do big business, some do small business, some go far, some go close, and there is a pass to check wherever they go, and there is no need to strictly limit the time limit for returning.However, the neighbors should also inquire more frequently. If there is no letter all year round, and they have not returned for two years, the neighbors will go to the person's house to ask why. ("Dagao Continuation · Mutual Knowledge Dingye No. 3") The reason for keeping a close eye on the neighborhood situation is to report to the government as soon as any unstable factors are found. "In one mile, if you find robbers and thieves, people who have escaped from the army, prisoners who have escaped, and other people who do not obey the rules and make troubles, the head of the village and the old people with high morals, they must call the people in the same village to arrest them and send them to them. Go to the government, if you don't do this, you will be punished severely."

Under such strict social control, there is of course no room for idlers to survive.Zhu Yuanzhang reiterated: "In one mile, if there is a person who is idle and not doing his job, the head of the village will sit idly by, and the neighbors and relatives will not arrest him and send him to the official, then this idle person will be executed, and the head of the village and his neighbors and relatives will be exiled. To the frontier!" The Lijia system is like a cage, making people in the world "like a bird in a cage and a beast in a watch, although you want to let go, you can't get it."Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a prodigal son, sat in the world. Of course, the second Zhu Yuanzhang must be prevented from appearing.