Restoring the Lake

Schoppa, Chapter 5

Now we move on to Chapter 5: "Restoring the Lake: Of Mud-Dredgers, Leeches, and Worm Officers, 1758-1809", in which things fall apart and are vaguely pieced back together.

"In many ways the eighteenth century- known generally as the height of traditional Chinese power and splendor- seems a watershed in the history of Xiang Lake." (120) Now, I'm not sure what a "watershed in the history" would be, but it sounds fascinating. Riveting image, unclear meaning. Perfect. Seems more like Elvin than Schoppa though.

"The preceding six centuries acquire the aura of a morality play; men seem almost larger than life: incarnations of vice who plotted maliciously, killed, and sized for self and models of virtue who worked tirelessly, preserved, and saved for others. Xiang Lake became the stage for grand battles between filiality and betrayal, obligation and irresponsibility, loyalty and surrender, chastity and impurity, and civic virtue and private greed." (120) I don't have commentary really, I just thought this was really cool. And "filiality" didn't come up in my firefox dictionary, so when I checked it was "bestiality" or "triviality", then firefox wasn't in my firefox dictionary, but fire fox was. Hrm. Oh firefox. Oh off-topic ramblings.

"In the decade 1759-1768, a number of leading figures from around the lake, led by Huang Yun... instigated action in the name of the public interest to protect the area from private nonagricultural threats." (121) But not agricultural threats, apparently. Brilliant, guys.

"The opposition's primary objection was that Ding "sought private interests with a black heart"; "not knowing the difference between life and death," Ding's activity "profits one household and harms ten thousand". This pointed stipulation of the clash between the public interest and private greed recalls Mao Qiling's dictum seventy years earlier that private interests (in that case, those of Sun Kaichen) could not serve as the standard for actions around the lake." (121-122) It's interesting that it's always one person leading the protests, while others sit back and watch, or blindly follow. Nobody has the drive or initiative to stand up for themselves... or maybe the few that do end up the leaders. It's a little odd, and a little confusing, but it seems like nobody cares but the occasional official.

"Though the issue of lake encroachment had always been basically an issue of public versus private interests..." (122) Gee, ya think?

"In 1768, continuing his efforts to restore the environment of and around the lake, Haung Yun, joined by unnamed petitioners, asked that the original dividing line between lake and mountain land be restored and that those living inside the lake land be cleared out. The prefect and magistrate, with the help of local leaders, began investigations. The survey of "lake-dwellers," completed in 1770, showed that 308 households were living in the lake land, an increase from the 210 households living there in the early sixteenth century. The inhabitants had increased almost 50 percent over a period of nearly 270 years." (123) The trouble is that they let anyone get away with living in the lake; it falls into the "give an inch, they'll take a mile" proverb, parable, whatever it's called. You can't let some people get away with it, or others will demand or assume that they can as well, and then it's like a snowball, it becomes a bigger and bigger problem. Well, vaguely like a snowball. Sorta. Not really.

"Encroaching on the lake was a risky business. If rains came, they might quickly inundate the developed land, destroying crops and flooding homes." (124) There were more issues than just these, but apparently the benefits for the individual outweighed the risks. Or else nobody thought about the risks until their home had been destroyed by a flood. It's not really clear, and we can't jump into the minds of eighteenth-century Chinese people yet.

"While Huang had asked that all encroachers and their property be removed, in effect calling for the absolute exclusion of all private claims on the lakeland, the decision of the local officials (ultimately corroborated by the emperor) carefully balanced public and private interests. The prefect indicated that many of the people had lived all their lives on the lake land and depended on it for their livelihood. If they were suddenly dispossessed, how would they live? And if, on the contrary, the land were recognized as private and the householders were required to pay back taxes, how could they produce the money? Either decision, the officials feared, might lead to social unrest, with the households joining together to fight for their interests." (125) because, of course, the inactive and essentially lazy Chinese people would suddenly bond together and get off their asses to protest something? I doubt it. I suppose I can see, vaguely, where they're coming from, but History says they'll just accept the governmental orders, or they'll kill themselves.

"Mao Qiling wrote the history of Xiang Lake primarily as a cautionary tale about encroachment on the lake; it praised the preservers and blamed the usurpers." (128) it's a pity not everyone believed that.

"The wretched state of the lake dikes and the continuing proliferation of illegal private outlets prompted Yu's concern. Both problems had been addressed earlier in the century, the latter, as we have seen, in 1719. Rectifying the state of lake dikes and openings had become the project of Zhao Yuziang and his son, Zhao Wijin..." (128-129) This issue was hardly new, and once again, only one person stepped up to do something. The actual citizens of the lake didn't care enough about their continued livelihood to actually do anything about their problems.

This is becoming yet another ridiculously long blog post. But it'll help with the paper to actually have my notes concentrated in one area rather than scribbled in the margins throughout the book. Plus, it gives me a chance to exercise my sarcasm. It needs to be taken out and used occasionally or it gets antsy and I become unnecessarily mean.

There's some more talk about the technicalities of the dikes vs. the sluicegates, and the fact that "worm" officials failed to do their jobs, etc, etc. It's a bit repetitive, and just says what the rest of the chapter already says.

I guess it's especially irritating to read this because it proves time and again that it takes an official working their arse off to get anything done. The people don't give a damn about their own livelihood; they'll live IN the lake if they damned well please and think they can get away with it be content to live in the lake and get rid of the water. It's moronic, and annoying, and I don't see any proof that the Chinese peasants weren't complete idiots.