Exile
, how terrible is exile? In the 18th year of the reign of
Emperor Shunzhi (1661), 61 people were exiled to remote areas in Northeast China after the conclusion of the “Zhejiang Anti-Grain Case” which shocked the whole country. In a short period of time, 17 people died, 33 people fled and one person was unaccounted for.
Eight of them died directly on the road.
Exile is not relegation.
Relegation is aimed at officials, is the crime of ministers to local officials, still enjoy the treatment of officials, so along the way to meet friends, write letters, the mentality is quite relaxed. Exile is for sinners, and since they are sinners, of course they have to look like sinners and wear chains all the way.
Photo taken in 1873
by Scottish Explorer John Thomson, a prisoner of Shanghai County in the late Qing Dynasty. In 1873
, John Thomson, a Scottish Explorer, photographed a prisoner in Shanghai County in the
late Qing Dynasty. Exiles were usually escorted by two soldiers, and there were two forms of escort: long and short.
The so-called short solution is that every time we go to the next place, the military service will go through the handover procedures, and the state we pass through will send two people to escort the prisoners to the next state. During the handover process, they not only verify the identity of the prisoner according to the documents, but also check whether the locks and handcuffs are complete. Only when there is no problem can it be signed and transferred. The big cases handled in the
capital generally do not need to be solved in a short way, but in a long way. The Ministry of War sent two soldiers to be responsible for the whole process of the escort.
Escort is a hard job, military service with heavy responsibilities, dare not have the slightest carelessness. Although they can prey on prisoners and sometimes rape female prisoners (some military service will gang rape female prisoners exiled by the whole family), they do not want to do anything, their most important task is not to let prisoners escape. If you lose someone halfway, you will be punished. If it is light, it will be beaten with a stick; if it is heavy, it will be exiled. In the twenty-seventh year of the
reign of Emperor Qianlong (1762), Su Chonga escorted a gang of thieves, who escaped halfway, and he himself was sent to Ili as a slave. There is a time limit for
escort. The general requirement is to walk 50 Li (roughly 40,000 steps) every day. The exile places of felons in the early Qing Dynasty are generally 3000 Li away from the capital. The journey of 3000 Li is exactly 60 days.
This is a dead number, no one dares to change at will, even if there is a provision that prisoners can stop in the next state for treatment when they get sick halfway, but most of the time, this is a dead letter, no one is willing to abide by. Because the eunuch in charge of the destination is somewhat abnormal, and he always doesn’t care why you are late. Not bringing is equal to not writing, and being late is equal to having fun. If the date is delayed, there is no ambiguity as to how many sticks will be given every half day.
The bannermen had to go to Ili to do hard labor when their military service escort was late. Which ordinary military service was willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of the exiled prisoner and let him walk slowly?
No.
Unless you can give enough money to make people tremble.
In the process of going to the penal colony, most of the prisoners suffered the most real pain in the world. They were covered with a stench, and their illnesses were difficult to cure. The heavy instruments of torture (the wooden cangue alone was a minimum of 25 Jin) had worn the bones out of their hands and feet, the wounds were bleeding and festering, and the festering soles of their feet were wrapped in yellow soup that had just broken out of their shells. In the cold northeast, the pus was frozen into ice at night. The hand could not be curled up, the back of the hand was bulging like a blood-red steamed bun, and the knuckles were purple poison, which was the most serious frostbite, like nails deep into the bone marrow.
Every day, they have to walk 40000 steps in grief and indignation. When resting, the feet should be buckled with wooden cangues or shackles to prevent escape. Therefore, there is no night when they can rest well.
Photo: Republic of China, prisoner with feet …
Figure: Republic of China, wearing the feet of prisoners Figure
: Late Qing Dynasty, wearing cangue lying on the ground to rest prisoners …
Photo: At the end of the Qing Dynasty, prisoners
lying on the ground in flail were different from those in military service. When tigers and wolves came, they could not protect themselves and could not run away. They could only let wild animals break their necks and eat their limbs.
Usually, when a prisoner dies on the way, he has to be certified by the officials of the state and county where he lives, and his body (even an arm) has to be sent to his destination. As for how he died, whether he was really injured by a wild animal, whether he died of the abuse of military service, the hardship of a long journey, illness or injury, no one can say.
That’s it. Eight people died on the road. What about the prisoners who
were lucky enough to live to exile? They may be
greeted by a more serious disaster. Several places of exile in the early
Qing Dynasty were mainly located in Shangyang Fort, Kaiyuan, Tieling, Weiyuan Fort and Ninggu Pagoda in Northeast China.
Due to the publicity of the recent TV series, people all know that Ninggu Pagoda is the most terrible existence in the penal colony. The three Chinese characters
“Ninggu Pagoda” always make people misunderstand. Ninggu Pagoda is not a pagoda. These three characters are in Manchu, roughly meaning “Liu Wo Pu.” They are similar to “Mao Er Dong” and “Wu Ke Shu.” They are located in today’s Hailin City, Heilongjiang Province. 3000 miles from Beijing. Before the Qing Dynasty, it was still a very remote and bitter cold place.
Cold is its first characteristic. As the saying goes, “Ice on ice, snow on snow” is not suitable for human habitation at all, but from the end of the Ming Dynasty, some people opened up wasteland here.
From the beginning of spring to the middle of April, the wind blows here day and night, like thunder. Even if they are close at hand, they will be beaten blind. It was warmer from May to July, but it rained all the time, wet and cold. It began to snow heavily in the middle of August. At the beginning of September, the river was completely frozen. The snow
here is not gentle, and it immediately turns into ice when it falls to the ground. Let the sun shine at noon, but it will not melt. A glance can see thousands of miles, thousands of miles, are white. Today,
hundreds of years later, someone has discovered a business opportunity in this world of ice and snow, and has named this place “Snow Village.” Very few people know that this place is actually the original Ninggu Pagoda.
For the prisoners of the Zhejiang anti-grain case, the most tragic thing is that the time of exile is the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, it was the lowest temperature of the Little Ice Age (Gao Shouxian’s Agricultural Economy and Rural Society of the Ming Dynasty), which undoubtedly lowered the temperature that could have frozen to death.
However, the real cold is not the weather, but the heart. This sentence is not a joke.
According to my observation, in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the most bitter place was not Ninggu Pagoda, but a place called Shangyang Fort.
According to the records of prisoners who successfully reached Ninggu Pagoda, the management of Ninggu Pagoda was very lax, and the precautions were not very strict ( “the precautions were not very strict”). After the prisoners arrive at the place, they can be exempted from all corvee and live like ordinary people with only one stone grain every year. They were supposed to be slaves to the men in armor, but they were able to go in and out freely and make friends freely. Whether it is business, farming or teaching, as long as the individual has the ability, there is no big obstacle.
This is entirely due to the local official customs of Ningguta.
Ningguta is remote and simple, and the local people are full of admiration for the educated people. Among them, the officers of Ningguta played a very good leading role. They were very friendly to these educated criminals and called them “Hapan” (noble people). In order to enable the prisoners to feed themselves, the supervisor will also distribute seeds to them during spring ploughing.
What could be more heart-warming than that?
Have.
After the war in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, serious tiger infestation occurred in southwest China (especially near Chengdu) and northeast China. Even in the county town, there is no saying where a tiger will come out, and many people will die in the tiger’s mouth. When a county magistrate went to take office, several of his fellow travelers were killed by a tiger.
General Ningguta cherished human life and allowed the exiles to live in the wooden city, because there were flag soldiers garrisoning and wild animals dared not approach.
Ningguta locals are also very simple. The Confucian scholars lacked labor experience, and some of them could not even make a fire to cook, so the neighbors and aunts helped to cook, all of which made the prisoners who walked to Ningguta alive full of gratitude. Many years later, looking back on the past, they still remember those years and those things.
Of course, for some people who lack the ability to live, lack family support, and have no skills except through the back door, it is really hard to stay in Ningguta. However, no matter how difficult it is, it is much better than people imagine.
As a matter of fact, all remote places have such a characteristic that the folkway is simple and the holy order is remote. Everyone can not fully abide by the good or bad laws and systems, and some even do not know what laws have been issued by the higher authorities. Governance depends entirely on the consciousness of the villagers.
For the exiles, this is the chance to survive! And Shangyang Fort, which is closer to the land of civilization, is the real horrible existence that kills people!
In this exile, 10 criminals were sent to Shangyang Fort. Of the 10 people, 5 died and 5 fled, and none of them survived until Kangxi’s pardon. The prisoners who
were exiled to Tieling, Kaiyuan and other places basically escaped with one death, and quite a few of them stayed in the local area and lived until amnesty.
But not in Shangyangbao. Where on earth
is Shangyang Fort?
Shangyang Fort, located in the north of Shengjing (now Shenyang), is also closer to the capital. Since the Ming Dynasty, it has been an important place of exile for the imperial court (named Jing’an Fort in the Ming Dynasty).
Photo: The general location
of Shangyang Fort and Ninggu Pagoda. The approximate location
of Shangyang Fort and Ninggu Pagoda. It is precisely because they are close to the “Civilization Field” that the officials there are always very strict in their management, and they have rich experience in how to deal with exiles.
Take an example. In the 12th year of the reign of Emperor Shunzhi (1655), Ji Kaisheng, a scholar of the
Imperial Academy, advised the emperor not to buy a woman in Yangzhou, and was exiled to Shangyang Fort by Emperor Shunzhi for the crime of fabricating facts. Shangyangbao officials hoped that Ji Kaisheng would die. In the fourth year, Ji Kaisheng met a group of scoundrels by chance. Without saying a few words, he began to beat him to death. After he died, he threatened to burn his body.
This matter is not small, and many people are paying attention to it. Because Ji Kaisheng is knowledgeable, nice and honest, he has many friends in the local area. But in the end, the local government didn’t ask at all. People suspected that someone was behind him and deliberately wanted to kill him.
Also tragic was a man named Li Yuchan in the anti-grain case. He was supposed to be sent to Shangyang Fort, but he died on the way. His fellow victims took his body to Shangyang Fort and buried it. In the autumn of the first year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi, his wife Zhang traveled 5,000 Li to attend the funeral. As a result, she was detained by the people of Shangyang Fort and was not allowed to return. According to the law of the
Qing Dynasty, if an exiled criminal is exiled himself and his crime is not as serious as that of his family, his wife can come to visit him and return at will. Prisoners died for some reason, unless the people who came to the funeral were unwilling to return home with the coffin, the rest could return to their native place, and the government had to give a certain amount of travel expenses.
However, these explicit laws are not feasible in Shangyangbao, which advocates rules. The officials
of Shangyang Fort enforced the law heavily and introduced morality into the law. The woman who came to collect her husband’s body could not go back, so they asked her to guard the grave.
Guarding the grave, also known as mourning, requires “seeing the bones.”. Because of extreme sadness, tea does not want, rice does not want, hungry skin and bones, representing the deep yearning for the dead. This requires living in a hut for three years, eating cold food, drinking cold water, and crying every day.
Zhang, a woman with bound feet, had traveled thousands of miles with months of sorrow to visit her husband buried in the earth in this cold place. She just wanted to pick up her husband’s body and go home, and they tried to kill her, detain her, and kill her half. At the end of the period of
guarding the grave, they still forbade Zhang to go home. The family waited and waited for three years and three years. Why didn’t my mother come back? So her grown-up son, Li Shangpan, walked 5000 miles to pick up his mother.
The result is that he can’t go back. It
was not until the summer of the seventh year of Kangxi (1668) that the court granted amnesty and they were able to return as ordinary people.
For the officials of Shangyang Fort from top to bottom, this kind of thing can never be wrong. At first, there was no imperial edict to release them, so they refused to release them. Now that there is an imperial edict to return, they should be sent away immediately.
Just imagine, in the hands of such a group of officials who are good at guessing, what good fruit can they have to eat?
These officials will only strictly enforce, or even increase, the terms of enforcement. Of course, the exiles at Shangyang Fort had to be “slaves to the men in armor,” and there was no chance of redemption.
Some people don’t know the disadvantages of being a slave, because they equate being a slave with being a waiter, and they don’t realize that slaves are abused all the time.
Slaves are bitches. It’s written into the law.
The reason why it is “cheap” is that it is also a fight. When a slave beats a mortal, the crime is aggravated, and when a mortal beats a slave, the crime is very light. When a slave scolds his master, it is equivalent to causing serious injury. Slaves beat the younger generation of their masters, and the crime is second class. Hit the master himself, direct death penalty. Kill the master, Ling Chi executed. When a master beats a slave, he is not punished by law. Of course, according to the law, the master is guilty, but the actual situation is often dead.
Therefore, it is not that slaves dare not resist, but that the law does not allow them to resist. Once there is a little resistance, it is the punishment of the law to meet the slaves. In the early summer night of the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1691),
a Han Chinese slave named Kang Yu killed the wife of his master, Anadai, and his son. Usually, the family either beat or scold Kang Yu. In their eyes, this man is not as good as a beast, so they don’t give him food to eat. That day, Kang Yu was too tired to work, but Anadai forced him to work.
This kind of life, let Kang Yu feel that life is worse than death, want to commit suicide. I thought that since I was going to die, I might as well do a big job. So, while the master went to the manor to see the land, he killed the woman and the young master with a knife.
This is not want to live the slave to do a big case, the result is naturally Ling Chi executed. The sinners
of Shangyang Fort lived such a life of being beaten and scolded, unable to rest, and probably like Kang Yu, they worked hard for half a day without even giving them a meal. Five of the
ten people died and five escaped, which is the best footnote to the exile life of Shangyang Fort. As a prisoner
in a place like this, the best hope of survival is escape. Therefore, from the late years of Shunzhi to the early years of Kangxi, there was a serious wave of escape in the exile areas of Northeast China, and almost half of the prisoners chose to escape.
Some people say that in ancient times, people had to have a pass to cross the border, so it was impossible to escape.
This is a typical misunderstanding.
The so-called pass is actually the road guide of the Ming Dynasty and the certificate of the Qing Dynasty. However, it is not necessary to have such things as road guides and vouchers, and sometimes the guards at the gates everywhere are too lazy to check them.
Hard to compare, it is similar to the community pass during the epidemic, the people in the community hold the pass, not the people in the community, there must be proof, there is no reason, can not enter and leave the community at will. However, we also know that, in fact, only when the epidemic is more serious, this thing is needed to enter the door. In the early years of the
Qing Dynasty, local governments followed the loose habits since the mid-Ming Dynasty (the high-pressure situation could not last too long), especially in cities, many times they did not check the vouchers at all, especially in remote areas, which led to the frequent occurrence of fugitives crossing the pass easily. There are usually three destinations
for exiles to escape. The first one is the origin mentioned above, which is a common choice for prisoners in the early Qing Dynasty.
Later, the Qing government made a series of improvements, requiring strict investigation at the border, and allowing the generals in exile to inform the criminals of their origin as soon as they found that someone had escaped, so as to get a reward for the escaped criminals, thus plugging the loophole and making the criminals afraid to go home easily.
Second, where the composition of personnel is very complex, such as the army recruiting refugees and the prefectures and counties with a large floating population, the success rate is not low. During the reign of
Emperor Yongzheng, a Han Chinese named Wang Shudan worked as a slave for four years in the Northeast. He was beaten so badly that he ran away. Not daring to go home, he went to Guangdong to become a magic stick and make a living by looking at people. Later, I was very homesick, thinking that my father was so old, and I didn’t know what he was like now, and whether he was dead or not. So he went home secretly to visit, and was recognized and captured. At night, he managed to escape again, and this time he went to Hangzhou, where he still made a living by looking at people. A few years later, he was recognized and arrested in Shaoxing.
The third is Mongolia. Mongolia is vast and sparsely populated, and there are often business horses, Danmenqin (peddlers), and groups of Han people mowing grass. Mongolians are hospitable, and accommodation for outsiders is usually unknown. Accommodation for prisoners is not a problem, but in life, they can get by by selling their labor force at a slightly lower price. More than 30 criminals in
the anti-grain case chose to escape, and no matter where they went halfway, almost all of them eventually ran back to their hometown. Quite a few of them, along the way, did not encounter any decent obstacles, so that they slipped safely from outside the pass to inside the pass, from Heilongjiang to Liaodong, across the sea to Shandong, from Shandong to Jiangsu, across the river, and returned to their native place in Zhejiang. People from the
other side of the country, it seems, do not want to cause more trouble, are turning a blind eye, the county officials do not ask. In this way, after a few years, the people who escaped from the amnesty began to organize the banquet openly.
In this way, 61 people were exiled, 17 people died in a short time, 33 people fled, and one person was unaccounted for. In the end, only 10 people were left, who were pardoned during the reign of Kangxi and were able to return to their hometown as civilians.
And I still want to say that the horror of exile lies not only in the external environment, but also in the people of the world. Of
these 10 people, one who survived successfully was a scholar named Cai Chu, who eventually became half mentally ill.
Cai Chu is a very honest and honest person. I can testify that he really didn’t make any mistakes in this matter. The cause of
the anti-grain case was that a pair of scholar brothers paid the tax many years ago, but the tax difference was embezzled. The government asked them to pay again, but they were unwilling. They were caught and beaten in the government office. One was seriously injured and the other was killed. Triggered a collective protest of the scholars in Taizhou, Zhejiang. Cai Chu’s students also took part in the protest. He did not participate in it. As a result, the students signed him. He was involved in the case. After several defenses, he was still sent to Kaiyuan, which is very close to Shangyang Fort. He worked as a coolie for many years. From the beginning to the end of
the anti-grain case, everything was absurd. The most absurd thing was that the Qing court, regardless of so much, found an excuse to resist grain and taxes, and killed so many people, many of whom did not know where they were wrong. After
Cai Chu finished his service and returned to his hometown, he nervously buried his pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and never mentioned any idea. Meet people, others are strange, ask why you look at people’s eyes so fierce, like who has a grudge? Why do you always mutter to the air and your own shadow?
When Tsai Chu heard this, he just waved his hand and said, “I don’t know.” Cai Chu, who
returned to his hometown, was a completely different person. He no longer talked and laughed with people. He was no longer a sainted scholar. He didn’t know anything. It is ridiculous to think that
this poet and scholar, who once opened a museum to accept apprentices and was admired by people, has now become a walking corpse without soul.
Seven years of exile didn’t kill him, but it did.
