Chapter 109 Nangan Fourth District
In November of the fifth year of Zhengde (1510), Wang Shouren, who served as the county magistrate of Luling for seven months, was ordered to go to Beijing for a pilgrimage and returned to his position as the head of the Ministry of War. Since then, his position has changed frequently, and he has been appointed as the secretary of the Qing Dynasty, the young minister of Nanjing Taipu Temple, and the secretary of Nanjing Hongyu Temple.
Recalling that he returned to his familiar eunuch environment from the deep mountains and old forest in Longchang, Guizhou, and there were many disciples and teachers around him, so that he had time and conditions to learn from each other and deepen and develop his thoughts. In Xinglong Temple, he met Huang Wan as a friend. He also lived next to Zhan Ruoshui and studied together. More and more people worshipped him as a teacher and listened to his lectures, and even Fang Xianfu, who was above him, came to learn from his teacher. Wang Shouren told them about the harm of indulging in exegesis, research and rhetoric in their learning style, and discussed the moral cultivation of body and mind. He sometimes distinguished the difference between Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan's studies, and sometimes clarified the purpose of the Confucian classic "University" to pay attention to moral practice. Yes, advocating "sitting", hoping that students can sweep away the evil thoughts and worries in their hearts in silent meditation, and experience the firm rock-like and silent mind they once had when they realized the way in the dragon field. Sometimes they emphasize "province of Kezhi", which shows that when dealing with the private thoughts that sprouted in their hearts when carrying out moral cultivation, they should be like cats catching old. He was as absorbed as a mouse and showed no mercy, "look at a glance, listen with one ear", and did not let it have any chance to succeed.
After leaving the Dragon Field, six years have passed in a blink of an eye. Wang Shouren has been an official while carrying out academic exploration, supplemented by the practice of apprenticeship, which has enriched and given full play to the original idea of the unity of knowledge and action. However, after all, "the unity of knowledge and action" is his personal physical and mental experience in the special situation of living in the dragon field. It is difficult to explain it clearly to students in words, and it is not easy to be understood by those mediocre officials who live in the deep palace courtyard all day long, read poems, record chapters and sentences, are obsessed with fame and fortune, and are dedicated to eunuchs.
Wang Shouren found that the unity of knowledge and action is gradually falling into the theoretical discussion of the relationship between knowledge and action, and meditation cultivation has caused some people to flow into emptiness, which promotes the habit of not focusing on practice, and the whole service has achieved the expected effect. So he also proposed "hone on things" and wanted to tell his disciples directly that moral cultivation cannot be understood by reading alone, but must have a sincere "self-control" effort. "Training on things" as a remedy for the unity of knowledge and action may not have been widely noticed by scholars at that time. However, Wang Shouren himself did have a honed experience in his career. The reason why the idea of "conscience" has matured is precisely because he has such an unforgettable "honed" process.
In the 11th year of Zhengde, Wang Shouren was recommended by Wang Qiong, the minister of the Ministry of War, and promoted to the imperial history of Youjindu, and governor Nankang, Ganzhou, Tingzhou, Zhangzhou and other places. At that time, peasant uprisings in various places were surging. At the junction of Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Hunan provinces, the mountains were deep and lush. The terrain was complex, and the uprising army was full of cottages, forming a huge momentum. Xie Zhishan called the king of the south, and Lan Tianfeng and Zhong Jing were in Hengshui, Zuoxi, Tonggang and other villages; Chi Zhongrong was called the King of the Golden Dragon Overlord, and established the village according to Guangdong. The two teams echoed each other and were active on the Jiangxi-Guangdong border. In addition, there are Zhan Shifu, Dageng Chen Yaneng, Lechang Gao Zhongren and Hunan Gongfu, each occupying one side and connecting with each other.
The rebel army occupied land and attacked the states and counties, causing trouble on one side of the Ming Dynasty. Some of them go down the mountain to farm during the day and return to the cottage at night; some are in close contact with the local people and rely on the people to transmit information and provide cover. In the past, the officers and soldiers "encircled and suppressed" without waiting to go out. They had already got the news first and hid. As soon as the officers and soldiers left, they immediately moved again. What a ghost. There was nothing he could do. The officers and soldiers fought and fled without waiting for the confrontation. A governor was so worried that he resigned due to illness.
In the Ming Dynasty, southern Jiangxi included Ganzhou and Nan'an. In the early Ming Dynasty, it was administratively under the jurisdiction of Jiangxi Buzheng Envoys. In the eighth year of Hongzhi, in order to deal with the suppression of thieves in the border areas of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangdong provinces, the Ming court set up a governor of southern Jiangxi in southern Jiangxi, which ruled the above four provinces. Boundary area. The history of the Ming Dynasty records this matter as follows: "Starting from next year, the governor of southern Jiangxi, and the governor of southern Jiangxi will be set up to the south." The jurisdiction of the governor of southern Jiangxi has changed. At its peak, it once governed Ganzhou and Nan'an in Jiangxi, Shaozhou, Chaozhou and Nanxiong in Guangdong, Pingyuan and Chengxiang in Huizhou, the second line of Pingyuan and Zhangzhou in Fujian, and Huguang. State, but the governors of Ganzhou and Nan'an have not changed.
South Jiangxi is located in the south of Jiangxi, bordering Fujian, Hunan and Guangdong provinces in the east, west and south, and is located in the mountains. In the early Ming Dynasty and before, it has always given people the image of "the land is open and sparse". "The land is deep and the territory is wrongly embroidered" and "Before the Han and Tang Dynasties, it was regarded as wasteland." Yang Shiqi once described it when he was a training instructor in Shicheng
"Gan is a county, living in the upper part of the right river. The ten cities it govern are all remote, and there are few people scattered among the mountains and streams, or dozens of miles of houses are not found. Lixu holds the signs of the public ultimatum, or does not give up for a few days, and the rock rill is deep, the smoke and poisonous fog, which is not used to it, and often causes illness and the dead are often seven or eight. The river is dangerous, and the stones are like tiger teeth. ... is regarded as the favorable by the Huifu, and there is a hundred needs to serve, and it is often halved by other counties."
Yang Xiaoyuan, an official of An Yuan during the reign of Hongwu, also said
"I treat the sins of Anyuan, and I know that Anyuan is prosperous and abandoned, and the county is three. I also visited the county in detail and didn't hear the big surname, and I didn't understand the reason. And to investigate the countryside, looking at the forest, non-step climbing the peak, Dan cliffs, birds and sheep intestines. I couldn't help but be in tears, and my heart was broken. Those who know the far away, the first line of mountains and hills are already there!"
Judging from the situation described above, Gannan was obviously an undeveloped mountainous scene at that time. The miasma and poisonous fog were everywhere, the population was sparse, and there were no houses for dozens of miles. However, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the situation gradually changed, with an increase in population and an increase in arable land, mainly due to the arrival of migrant people.
After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the tax burden of farmers increased, coupled with natural disasters, etc., caused a large number of farmers to leave their hometowns and become exiles. At the time of the British orthodoxy, national exiles appeared. Movement, and due to the "rare land", there were still a large number of unclaimed wasteland in southern Jiangxi, which became an important place for the activities of the people at that time. In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, the movement and migration of people were restricted, as stipulated in the second year of orthodoxy
"If (the exiles) live in the mountains, forests and lakes, or go to hide in the powerful homes of officials, refuse to fight against the lawsuits, do not accept the summons, and are executed, and the households will send border guards to fill the army. The old nest's family is the same as those who do not know the leader and are not stingy"
Although the spontaneously formed folk activities in the Ming Dynasty were illegal, many exiles still broke through the restrictions of the government after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. During the Chenghua period, the exiles began to enter the southern Jiangxi region one after another. "(Mingui) Chenghua was appointed as a deputy envoy of Jiangxi in six years and entered Guangdong as an inspector. For a long time, he was the governor of Jiangxi with his right face. There are many thieves in southern Jiangxi, and the "strong servants" here should be the exiles who fled from other places. "Large local households and various flag armies gather to cultivate people's tenants, often gathering for thieves and plundering people's wealth. ... (the exiles) do not count the membership, are useless, free to go in and out, and become wild. It's often strong, and it's mostly this apprentice." It can be seen that large households in southern Jiangxi have recruited nearby exiles as tenants, but the arrival of these exiles has "often gathered together as thieves" and turned into local robbers. According to Cao Shuji's research, these exiles are complex and do not come from the same region, but roughly speaking, they are mostly from northern Guangdong, Jiangxi and western Fujian. By the Zhengde period, many "thief areas" beyond the control of the government have been formed in southern Jiangxi, such as the situation in Nan'an Prefecture as follows
"According to the submission of the soldiers and the township guides, since the visit of the hospital in the first month of this year, soldiers have been recruited and trained; the thieves listened to the news and sent their families and women to the dense forests. Their respective strong thieves went down the mountain to cultivate during the day and went to the cottage at night... This road can find nests near You County, there are drought pits, tea pools and other nests, Nankang County has Changlong nests and other nests, and Dayu County has fox pits, boat pits and other nests; most are three hundred, and at least 70 or 80.
The situation in Anyuan, Xinfeng and other counties in the south of Ganzhou Prefecture is more serious.
"The areas under my jurisdiction are all at the border of Jianghu and Fujian, with mountains and valleys, mountains and peaks. In the past, the people were pirated areas. However, it is as dramatic as the new people in Huangxiang. Its land belongs to Anyuan, Jiangxi. Although it is famous as a township, it is actually a big county, and there is a mountain in the middle, surrounded by more than 300 miles. During the Zhengde period, He Jiyu, Zhu Gui, Qiangfeng and other dangers were high and nested in them, so they plagiarized the residents, captured the cities, and harmed the four provinces.
It can be seen from the above two materials that the situation of thieves in Nan'an and Ganzhou in southern Jiangxi was quite common. On the one hand, the arrival of exiles accelerated the development of the mountainous areas in southern Jiangxi. They reclaimed wasteland and planted rice, peanuts, sugar cane and other cash crops, which increased the number of villages in the mountainous area of Gannan. , the ecological outlook of "exote and sparsely populated" before the Ming Dynasty has been changed. However, on the other hand, a large number of exiles "go down the mountain to cultivate, and at night they escape from their own villages as thieves" has caused the poor local public security, and the government is tired of dealing with large and small sling armed forces. What's more serious is that the spread of thieves has caused almost no difference between the local people and thieves. In fact, not all the thieves in southern Jiangxi were exiles at that time, and there were also many local Lijia editors and indigenous people such as "Shu" and "Yao" who lived here before the Ming Dynasty.
After the disaster of prison and his wandering career, Wang Shouren is in an extreme contradiction. First of all, I am already suffering from lung disease. If I go deep into the wet miasma to suppress bandits, I don't know if I will come back. Secondly, my grandmother is old and it is really time to fulfill filial piety. So Wang Shouren wrote a resignation report and went back to his hometown in Zhejiang.
However, the court gave Wang Shouren three instructions, urging him to take office immediately without delay!