There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 290 Village Covenant and Law

Lunar New Year's Eve has passed, and the next day has arrived.

The first day of the first month of the year Jiwei.

Nie Yu could no longer stay in the gentle embrace of the harem. He first played with his son with the Queen, and then went to the Princess's courtyard for a chat, instructing her to rest and take care of her pregnancy and not to worry about trivial matters.

After several months of hard work, Nie Yu's only princess finally became pregnant, which brought great joy to the court officials.

Although the princess's status is not high, she is still a princess, and the princes born to her will have the right to inherit the throne according to their birth order.

Moreover, if the Queen Consort could also give birth to a prince, then the Han King's offspring would truly flourish, the Han Dynasty would have a successor, and they would no longer have to worry every day about the King's eldest son dying young and the Han Dynasty having no one to inherit it.

Unfortunately, ancient medical technology was limited. Even though Nie Yu brought antibiotics, it was impossible to cover all aspects of life, and the infant mortality rate was generally higher than in later generations.

Before leaving, Chen Huilan personally greeted him, and while she was fixing Nie Yu's fur coat collar, she said, "Your Majesty, today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. The twelfth lunar month has just passed. You should not overwork yourself and ruin your health."

Nie Yu grabbed Chen Huilan's hand as she adjusted her collar, and Chen Huilan immediately retorted coquettishly, "There are people watching outside..."

The attending secretary, Zuo Guanlan, very tactfully took two steps back, pretending not to have seen anything.

After a moment of tenderness, Chen Huilan spoke softly, "Your Majesty is busy with state affairs, and I also need to take care of the inner quarters and Bao'er (the child's nickname). My sister is pregnant, so perhaps... perhaps Xing'er would serve Your Majesty tonight..."

Upon hearing this, Nie Yu couldn't help but be somewhat surprised.

Although Chen Huilan had made it clear that she wanted to, and would often arrange for Xing'er to buy him a coat when it was cold and bring him refreshing drinks when it was hot, their relationship never really got to that point.

After all, Nie Yu is now the King of Han. He can no longer decide on the selection of concubines as easily as he did when he first became king. His harem is now a political appendage. The selection of concubines and the birth of children by his concubines must be approved by the Ministry of Rites and recorded in the register.

Nie Yu glanced at Xing'er, who was shyly hiding behind Chen Huilan, and smiled after a moment of silence: "Send a list to the Ministry of Rites later and ask them to prepare for the official registration!"

That counts as an agreement.

The Ministry of Rites quickly received the list sent by the Queen, and after repeated verification, their efficiency was exceptionally high. All matters were arranged before noon, and a special memorial was submitted to inquire of the King of Han about the bestowal of a title upon the concubine.

They couldn't afford to be unhappy, because the King of Han had too few women in his harem.

So far, there are only two people, a queen and a princess, which has led people to almost believe that the King of Han is not interested in women.

Fortunately, it's only the first day of the new year, and the King of Han has gained another member to his harem. Congratulations!

No, it should be two more people. In addition to the one recommended by the Queen, there is also a telegram sent directly by the Prefect of Hefeng.

The selection process for the Tujia and Miao people in Hefeng took quite a while, but they finally selected the right person.

We are currently on a boat, on our way to Jingzhou Prefecture.

This is a political marriage between the Han Dynasty and the Tu Miao people. It is imperative to take a Tu Miao concubine, as this will stabilize the Tu Miao minority group throughout the land.

Nie Yu decided on the titles of the two concubines quite quickly. It was simply because his education level was limited and he knew only a limited number of concubine titles, so he simply didn't care and directly made the Queen the most honored, with the other concubine titles being equal, without any distinction of rank among the concubine titles.

If it weren't for ensuring the stability of the harem and silencing public opinion, Nie Yu wouldn't even have planned to grant the queen special privileges.

On the first day back to work after the New Year holiday, Nie Yu received a special memorial.

More precisely, it wasn't a memorial to the throne, but a case submitted in the form of a memorial to the throne.

The first signature in the case is that of the mayor of Huangxikou Town, Xupu County.

The case originated from a very simple incident in a small village in Huangxikou Town. Two families happened to be allocated the same plot of land when they were dividing it up. Later, one of the families accidentally damaged the embankment of the neighboring field while cultivating it.

This should have been a minor issue; the paddy field ridge was simply damaged. It could have been resolved by digging the soil back up and offering an apology.

Unfortunately, the farmer's wife who had damaged the paddy field ridge had previously worked as a maid in a landlord's household and had a fiery temper. As a result, the two families started arguing.

Before they knew it, the two got carried away and started fighting. Fortunately, patrol members from the farmers' association intervened in time to stop them, preventing a major disturbance.

But by this point, the matter had become unmanageable. Neither side wanted to let it go, so they took it to the town and asked the town mayor to make a decision.

The town mayor dared not delay and immediately found out the cause and effect. He discovered that it was indeed a minor matter, so he resolved to let it go.

The matter should have ended there, but the farmer's wife, who had initially started the trouble, began causing trouble again, and the two sides started arguing once more. This time, they didn't go to the town mayor; they decided to resolve the dispute directly according to the village agreement.

By the time the town mayor discovered this, it was completely unsolvable, and he could only report it to the magistrate of Xupu County.

The magistrate of Xupu County also found it troublesome, because the village covenant was no ordinary thing. This thing already existed in the Song Dynasty and was chosen to be inherited by the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

To put it simply, the imperial court and local governments granted local governments a legal framework, and then townships and towns, led by officials and dominated by local gentry, formulated their own autonomous laws.

This set of self-governing laws means that the government will not directly interfere or arbitrarily change it unless necessary. If any problems arise, the townships will resolve them themselves according to the village rules.

If the people do not report it, the officials will not investigate.

However, just around this time, the "New Laws of the Great Han Dynasty" were officially released and promoted.

This is a newly enacted law of the Han Dynasty. If we are not careful, the village covenant may supersede the new law, which would be extremely serious. It would be a monstrous crime to disregard the laws of the Han Dynasty.

The magistrate of Xupu County was unable to resolve the issue. He considered applying the "New Laws of the Great Han Dynasty," but feared it would incite public anger, so he could only submit the matter to the prefect of Chenzhou.

Prefect Liu Hongchang of Chenzhou also realized that this matter was not simple and could not be regarded as an ordinary village dispute, especially the so-called adherence to the village covenant. Why should the village covenant be adhered to?

The villagers are clearly very familiar with the village covenant and may have used it to resolve many disputes. But who is the person behind this covenant?

Liu Hongchang immediately sent an urgent telegram to Changsha, requesting a joint petition to report the case.

Thus, this memorial describing a dispute in the village already had more than a dozen signatures on the first page of the cover, from the mayor of Huangxikou Town to the magistrate of Xupu County, the prefect of Chenzhou, and officials from the three Hunan provincial departments, etc. Anyone who had been involved in this case had signed their name.

Below the memorial, there were also more than ten additional memorial books, all containing suggestions from Hunan officials.

Nie Yu quickly flipped through a few articles and asked his Hunan secretary, Zuo Guanlan, "Do you know what a village covenant is?"

Zuo Guanlan cupped his hands and said, “When I was young, I did hear about it in my hometown. At that time, even between villages, the content of the village covenant was different, but in general, it taught people to be good. Although many gentry still acted recklessly after the village covenant was established, they were still bound by the village covenant to some extent. This situation only began to change rapidly as I grew up.”

"Why is that?" Nie Yu asked, puzzled.

Zuo Guanlan said with a sarcastic tone, "Because of the 'Qianlong Prosperity'! A prosperous era requires money and grain. Each village had its own covenant, which made it difficult for the government to exploit the people. They could only use the gentry as intermediaries. So the covenants, which the government originally did not interfere with, became nominal. The covenants of each village were gradually changed into covenants that the government needed. The government used these covenants to exploit and abuse the people on a large scale."

The village covenant was indeed a good thing at first, because the imperial power did not extend to the countryside, and the cost of the court to control local towns and villages was too high. This village covenant system, which was established by the court and invited local gentry to participate, could perfectly fill this gap without draining the court's finances.

In other words, the village covenant system at this time was primarily intended to meet the actual needs of social development, resolve various problems and disputes encountered by the people, and maintain the basic stability of local towns and villages, rather than simply to increase the authority of the imperial court.

In addition, community schools and baojia (a system of mutual responsibility among local officials) also cooperated with the village covenant system. They would often select the most respected people in the village to serve as village chiefs, grain chiefs, and other official positions, serving as grassroots agents for the observance of the village covenant.

In order to better manage the village, the government will further delegate power to these agents, allowing them to better implement and maintain the village covenants.

however……

Everything changed during the Qing Dynasty, especially during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns. Regardless of whether it was a prosperous era or not, China's population did indeed surge rapidly during this period.

Emperor Qianlong, greedy for power, in order to strengthen the court's control over towns and villages, first added the "Six Words of Imperial Edict" to the village covenants, and then required local villagers to bow to the "village covenant plaque" when they abide by the village covenants.

During the Qing Dynasty, village covenants had essentially become tools for the Qing court to control power, and no longer served the purpose of teaching people to be virtuous and to help each other.

(End of this chapter)