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.

Image & Remembrance

Schoppa Chapter 4

I suppose it's high time for me to actually catch up with the Schoppa blogs, especially because this is going to help me get my thoughts together for the paper, so, here we go. Some very far back-logged blogging. (Because you know you wanted more! BWAHAHAH!... no, really. xD)

Chapter 4 of Schoppa's book, "Image and Remembrance. 1644-1705" represents the transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty.

"Xiang Lake was a reservoir, storing water to pour forth in drought-destroying streams. Xiang Lake was a source of food, of fish and plants pulled from the depths. Xiang Lake was a transporter to gravesites, tree-shrouded pavilions, and crumbling shrines. Xiang Lake was a source of pleasure, intensifying the giddiness of a wine-induced reverie." (89) The lake was a source of life for those around it; it offered many things to fulfill the needs of the townships that surrounded it.

"The lake, the river, the well became agents of death for the horror- and panic-stricken, to escape the fury of the Manchu army. The depths of the lake became the apartments of the dead, the corpses mingling with the tangle of water plants, then floating to the sunlit surface, where their stench, like nature's fury itself, destroyed every possible image of fragrance, leaving only the nauseating smell of death." (92) With the invasion of the Manchu, the lake was no longer a source of life, but rather a place of death; the view of nature shifted. It was a place to escape forever the rampaging armies of the fallen Ming and the ascending Qing.

"For most, escape meant traumatic flight, leaving home and most possessions to venture into an area less likely to experience the ravages of war. Becoming a refugee, however, was not easy... [(Sidenote: DUH. Thanks for stating the obvious, Schoppa.)] Away from home, how would one live? Away from home, how would one speak to villagers whose dialect (so different it might as well be a foreign tongue) might differ from village to village? Away from home in a culture in which outsiders were considered as threats or as nonpeople to be ignored, how would one cope? Only staring into the face of the specter of rape, pillage, and murder could the choice of flight become feasible." (94) This was not a fun time to be from Xiang lake, obviously.

"Many stayed to farm, fish, dig mud, carry on trade, and live as though the world around them were peaceful, ignoring the turmoil if it did not affect their own personal interests." (94). I'd like to point out that this is probably the key to the issue of environmental problems and everything that plagues China today. Nobody gives a damn, they stick their heads in the sand and pretend it's okay, because that's what Mao would want. Well, maybe not... but still. If people would stop ignoring the problems around them, in China and elsewhere, things could be better worldwide.

"Most important, however, was the growing disaffection [for the "administrator of the realm"] of the populace. The military had become omnipresent. The people were continually expected to provide more soldiers and send more provisions. Assaulted by the seemingly inevitable military plundering- some of the worst of which occurred around Xiang Lake and Long River near Fang Guo'an's garrison- the populace saw the confiscation of the wealth first of those who had thrown in their lot with the Manchus, then of the very wealthy Ming supporters, and finally of the commoners themselves." (96). The fringe group of Qing that were trying to hold their power just kept screwing up with the populace. They were doomed to failure and merely needed to get their acts together and accept it themselves. Things weren't going to turn around, and their constant failures and demands all but guaranteed that people would turn to the Ming.

Then the Qing fall, and the Ming take over. Yes, this was inevitable. It's also history, so we knew it was coming. No huge plot-twist here.

So, then we've got a bit about the poets that Schoppa is so enamored of, followed by the climax of the chapter: the Sun lineage's encroachment on the Lake. (OMG! Encroachers! With money! What do we do?!)

"The climactic attempt of the Sun lineage leaders to turn a public reservoir into a private preserve came in the early fall of 1689." (105) The Sun family continued to be self-serving and went so far as to slice the already-ruined Lower Xiang Lake in two via a dike that allowed them to reach the "county seat" with greater ease. Lazy bums. Mao Qiling took action, thankfully.

"Disgusted with the deciet of the Sun clique, he called for an immediate meeting of officials and people to discuss the problem. But even now, with this special emissary from the governor, there was only silence: no one would discuss the case. Mao returned briefly to Hangzhou for medical treatment but tried a few days later to sponsor a meeting; again no one came. A second attempt brought people together, but they simply sat and stared: those who knew about lake matters dared not set forth formal legal complaints. Even though the Sun's actions were endangering the livelihood of those irrigating from Lower Xiang Lake and ultimately would affect all irrigators, area people feared immediate retaliation by the overreaching Sun clique, whose arrogance before the community and officialdom apparently knew no limits." (106-107) Nobody would help Mao deal with the Sun. They were cowards who were terrified of confrontation and ultimately had nobody to blame for the ruination of the lake but themselves.

"The passivity of the Chinese around Xiang Lake may be charged to intimidation and fear, but it points even more to the immobility that stemmed from submission to authority, the trait inculcated in family training and through the various government ethical-political strategies that promoted officially prescribed virtue." (108).

I was going to put chapter 5 in here as well, but this is actually a very long response, so I think it may be more appropriate to put it into its own post.

Obligation & Death, Strange Fruit

Schoppa, Chapters 2 & 3

- The Mongols invaded. Things were not good. People of Xiang Lake prayed that Li Di would protect them again. He did not.

- "Wei's treatment of human activity is remarkable: the world of nature is for human use and profit- a contrast to earlier (and later) descrptions that render humanity inconsequential amid the awesome power of nature." (Schoppa 41)

- "Finally, during Wei's retirement, the situation had reached the point where area elders petitioned the county seat to clear away households that had reclaimed the lake and to figure an appropriate fine of grain per mu of reclaimed land to be placed into an official fund for relief purposes" (Schoppa, 43)

- Of course, with the construction going on around Xiang Lake at this time, flooding became even more of a problem than it had been before. "The irony of the situation is readily apparent: Xiang Lake could have a distinguished array of upholders of the lake- Yang, Zhao, Gu, Guo, Zhang, Wei- whose energy and diligence preserved the lake as a reservoir. But government decisions to resolve another water control problem, seeming perhaps as arbitrary to the Xiang Lake community as nature's might itself, placed the effective long-term functioning of the lake in jeopardy and cut off all access to the lake water for some." (Shoppa, 44)

- "Increasingly serious for the viability of the lake as a reservoir was the level of encroachment reached around the lake by the 1460s. In most cases, encroachers simply planted rice or lotuses in a small area near the shore that had grown shallow over time. In some cases sheep were pastured or willows planted on dikes. Both practices eroded the dikes, making leakage or outright breaks more likely... taken together, the amount of the lake destroyed by encroachment was 7,318 mu (over 1,100 acres), almost 20 percent of the original size of the lake" (Schoppa, 46). Alright, time for a small rant... How hard of a concept is this? Yes, we have a whole pie sitting in front of us. Yes, everyone wants some. But I'm just gonna take a small nibble, nobody will notice. Then the next person does that, and the next, and so on until you have nothing left and everyone is screwed. I mean, really? It's not that difficult of a concept. Mess with your neighbors and you mess with yourself. Destroying the lake destroys your own livelihood. Geez.

- We then move on to talk about the Sun tyranny and other such issues. While interesting, they're not terribly important. Well, they are, but not for what I'm focusing on. It would be easier to focus on something, of course, if I had pondered it, but I didn't. So I'm going to arbitrarily claim that I'm not focusing on the Sun's tyrannical control of the lake. Nope. Not I.

Moving right along, we're onto Chapter 3. Wohoo! Of course, saying the Sun lineage is not my focus was not my most brilliant plan, considering Chapter 3 could be retitled "The years in which the Sun lineage were masters of the lake"...

- "The historical record indicates that in 1551 plum trees in Xiaoshan county bore oranges. It was a bad portent: an agricultural handbook explained that when "trees produce strange fruit, there would in reality come a great calamity." More specifically, it warned: "When trees produce what is inappropriate, the farmers and all the people will be robbed."(Schoppa, 64)... and so on. Obviously they'll be robbed of the fruit they expected. If you have plum trees and you're expecting a plum crop, but you get stuck with a load of oranges, you're robbed of profits. Though if oranges are more valuable than plums, and you don't mention the oranges are from plum trees, you might get to rob others, though the "portent" still holds true in this case. Someone gets robbed.

- The Emperor's New School just started on TV. This doesn't relate in the slightest to China, but it means that it's friggin late. I'm not going to be very awake in class at this rate. Oh well.

- "Proper timing for encroachment was of the essence. Petty encroachers dug illegal drainage holes in the dikes at night. For more widespread intrusions into the lake, choosing a time when official attention was diverted to other problems allowed encroachers to present those around the lake with various faits accomplis."(Schoppa, 70) I had no idea what that word meant, so I had to look it up...

- Then the Sun bastards build that stupid bridge because things are starting to fall apart, and it signals the beginning of the end for Xiang Lake.... okay, not quite, but still. That stupid bridge does mess things up.

The Beginnings, 1112-1214: Four Servants of the People

Schoppa, Preface & Chapter I

Schoppa's Song Full of Tears represents a Microhistory of China. It focuses on Xiang Lake, "a six-thousand-acre reservoir ten miles from scenic West Lake in the city of Hangzhou" (xi) It isn't an important location, just a place to start. But that doesn't mean nothing happened there. Lots of key events occurred.

Some events, of course, were more interesting than others.

Schoppa, of course, seems to feel the need to lead each chapter with a "view" of the lake, and then throw a bit of poetry into the mix. Poetry was a key aspect of Chinese society; understanding poetry was a sign of culture, and a part of the civil service exams.

In Chapter I we are introduced to patriarchal lineages, key groups in the culture of the lake. Lineages were important economically and culturally; political and local leaders frequently came from lineage lines. The same names recurred throughout history.

Xiang lake became a more important area when, "In 1127, with the establishment at Hangzhou of the refugee Song court, Hangzhou became the imperial captisal. The city's changed status transformed Xiaoshan county into an area of great strategic importance for the court." (17) This importance would wax and wane through time as political groups shifted. But it is not the main point of Schoppa's work.

(Schoppa, by the way, is a much better, if cheesier, writer than Elvin. He manages to follow his topic... which is great progress by way of authors).

The struggles experienced at Xiang Lake for thousands of years are explained in a few sentences: "At the crux of the problem was the relationship between population, land, and water. Water nourished the rice paddies, which in turn supported people. As the population increased, land per capita decreased and more land was sought; but as land was reclaimed and increased, water to nourish the rice paddies decreased." (19) Essentially, the more people the were, the greater the demand for land and water. The more demand for land, the more likely people were to encroach on the lake, and the less water would be available to go around. When there wasn't enough water to go around, there was no point in having the land because crops could not be grown to nourish the people, so fewer people would survive to need the land and water. Thrown into this mix were the officials who sought to regulate usage (such names as Yang, Zhao, Gu and Guo) . They were key in the first years of this history.

Anyway, Chapter I is really just setting the stage for the rest of the book.