[Preface to Xueshi yigui—WR]
ON UNIVERSAL EDUCATION
Throughout his career, Chen campaigned vigorously to extend educational opportunities to all persons under his jurisdiction, no matter how poor or remotely located. He strove to combat the elitist cultural bias he found pervasive among his superliterate colleagues, in defense of the Confucian doctrine “In education, there are no class distinctions” (Analects 15: 38). For Chen, education was essentially moral training. The cultivation of one’s innate moral sense via literary education would enable the educated person to exercise independent moral judgment, rather than require constant discipline by external authority. In all these respects Chen carried on the educational theory and practice advocated by Zhu Xi.
Although Chen pushed his educational programs in every province in which he served, he was particularly celebrated for his efforts in frontier areas of the southwest. During an era in which the Qing was rapidly annexing border territories, Confucian schooling was an important means of promulgating Chinese cultural values (assumed by Confucian elites to be universal values) among the empire’s growing numbers of non-Chinese subjects. Chen’s egalitarian educational philosophy thus neatly dovetailed with the “civilizing mission” of an expanding imperial power.
Human nature is essentially good. There is no person who cannot be civilized and enlightened. Chinese and barbarians are essentially the same. There is no local custom that cannot be transformed and improved. It is the duty of those who hold local authority to ensure that schools are established in each and every locality, to see that these do not fall into neglect after they are established, and to make certain that they do not exist simply on paper. If this is done, proper guidance will be provided for the process of civilization, literacy will rise, and local customs will be excellent. . . .
I will not listen to such things as “Barbarians will always be barbarians.” The transformation of frontier society is certainly not something to be achieved overnight, but processes of transformation begun today will bear results in the future.
[Peiyuantang oucun gao 1: 33–35—WR]
The promotion of men of talent and the improvement of popular customs are the basic tasks of education. If proper teaching methods are established, then the people will be good. If scholarship is done properly, then popular customs will be as they should be. . . .
Yunnan is a frontier region, where Chinese and barbarians dwell intermixed. Because of solicitous imperial attention, some measure of civilization has begun to take hold. However, the poor people of the province do not have the resources to educate their children, and the aboriginal people in remote rural areas have no thought of sending their children to school. If education is not applied universally, then it is very difficult to transform a population. If moral guidance is not everywhere available, then popular customs will remain uncivilized and savage. Therefore, it is even more urgent to establish schools in frontier areas than in the heartland, and more urgent in rural than in urban areas.
[Peiyuantang oucun gao 3: 5–11—WR]
Local officials are charged with the duty of shepherding the people and providing moral guidance. . . . Their goal must be to extend education to every locality and all persons within their jurisdiction and to improve teaching methods. In the end, there will be educated persons everywhere, and education will be under way in every remote village and marketplace. Gradually, the most capable will be able to immerse themselves in profound scholarship, while the crude masses will become imbued with respect for the rites and moral propriety. . . . Thus, the establishment of schools for elementary education is a cardinal task of local administration.
[Peiyuantang oucun gao 5: 6–7—WR]
ON WOMEN’S EDUCATION
The first half of the eighteenth century witnessed a heated debate among Chinese literati over the propriety and content of women’s education, prompted by the social realities of women’s increasingly moving out beyond the confines of the home and of rising female literacy. Chen’s anthology of historical writings on women’s education, compiled in 1742 during his tenure as Jiangxi governor, was a celebrated contribution to this debate. In it, Chen did not challenge the conventional view that women ought to be restricted to occupying familial roles that subordinated them to males, but, based on his faith in human reason and in the imperative to universal education, [he] argued that women could best fulfill these roles if they had received at least an elementary classical literary education (as the Ming Empress Xu had argued earlier [see chapter 22]).
There is no uneducable person in the world. There is also no person whom it is justifiable not to educate. How then can female children alone be excepted? From the moment they grow out of infancy, they are protectively shut up deep within the women’s quarters, rather than, like male children, being allowed out into the wider world, to be carefully corrected in their behavior by teachers and friends and to be cultivated by exposure to the classical literary canon. Although parents may love their daughter deeply, they give no more serious thought to her personal development than by providing her with a home, food, and clothing. They teach her to sew, prepare her dowry, and nothing more. . . . This view that female children need not be educated is a violation of Principle and an affront to the Way. . . .
Now, a woman in her parents’ home is a daughter; when she leaves home she becomes a wife; when she bears a child she becomes a mother. If she is a worthy daughter, she will become a worthy wife. If she is a worthy wife, she will become a worthy mother. If she is a worthy mother, she will have worthy sons and grandsons. Thus, the process of civilization begins in the women’s quarters, and the fortunes of the entire household rest on the pillar of its womenfolk. Female education is a matter of the utmost importance.
Some will object: “But women who can learn to read are few. And if they do become literate, in many cases it will actually hinder their acquisition of proper female virtue.” This argument fails to recognize that all women possess a degree of natural intelligence. Even if they cannot learn to master the classics and histories, they nevertheless can get a rough idea of their message. . . . Moreover, it is evident that in today’s world there are already many women with a smattering of learning. They cling fast to the half-baked ideas they have absorbed, cherishing them till their dying day and imparting them to others. Under these circumstances, would it not be better if they [learned to] recite the classical texts in order to get their message right?”
[Preface, Jiaonu yigui—WR]
ON THE DUTIES OF AN OFFICIAL
Chen Hongmou’s published correspondence, official and private, comprises a virtual encyclopedia of Qing techniques of governance, revealing his detailed knowledge of such diverse areas as agronomy, water conservancy, fiscal and litigation management, and communications logistics. Thus his scholarship includes the classical and the functional (as Hu Yuan had recommended in the eleventh century and Zhu Xi in the twelfth).
The selections that follow highlight his more general principles of administration. Upon transfer to office in a new province, Chen would characteristically survey both the region’s potentialities and the efficacy of existing bureaucratic operations and then devise fundamental overhauls of areas he considered to be in neglect. He endeavored to gain a rapport with the local population and to convince them of his sincerity in placing priority on popular well-being. He was, however, as eager to repair perceived deficiencies of local culture as those of local economic productivity. He was also highly committed to goals of bureaucratic efficiency and the ability of the state to monitor and control all aspects of local society.
We in official service ought to look at all matters from the point of view of what is best for the people’s livelihood. We must plan for the long term, rather than for the moment. We should concentrate on the substantial and practical, rather than disguising our inaction with empty words. To do otherwise would violate the court’s basic principle that officials exist for the good of the people.
[Le
tter to Sun Quan, Chen wengong gong shudu 1: 8—WR]
The Way of shepherding the people involves no more than educating and nurturing them. . . . By “nurturing” I mean construction and maintenance of irrigation works, encouragement of land reclamation, and patronage of community granaries. These are all matters of great urgency. If the people can be made to produce a surplus, store it, and allow it to accumulate over the years, their well-being will be ensured. By “education” I mean promoting civilized behavior, diligently managing public schools, and widely distributing classical texts. Schools are the fountainheads of popular customs. If educational practice is correct, popular customs will be virtuous.
[Letter to the Prefect of Guangxi, Chen wengong gong shudu 1: 4–5—WR]
As our dynasty has ever longer exercised benevolent rule, the population has continually grown. All available natural resources have been turned into productive assets. I fear, however, that our limited supply of land cannot adequately support our growing population. Under these conditions, officials cannot sit idly by and watch as potentially useful land remains undeveloped, on the excuse that the effort involved would be too great or that their initiative would not yield immediate results. Now, feeding the people directly by the government is not as good as developing the means whereby the people can feed themselves. This always takes time, however, and results cannot be seen overnight [i.e., during an official’s own tenure in a post]. Indeed, results that appear overnight almost never prove to be enduring. Therefore, officials must look to the long term, not the present, and in so doing put the interests of the people ahead of their own [career] concerns.
[Letter to the Governor of Guangxi, Huangchao jingshi wenbian 16: 35—WR]
In governing, good intentions and good policies alone are insufficient. There are those policies that sound admirable but that prove impossible to implement in practice. . . . If the local official truly approaches each matter from the standpoint of the people’s livelihood, in carrying out any new policy he will first thoroughly canvas local public opinion on the matter. He will then consider every aspect of its implementation, noting in which aspects it is advantageous to the people and in which aspects it will cause them hardship. If the advantages outweigh the hardships, implement it. One ideally seeks a situation of absolute advantage and zero hardship, but this is seldom possible, and the possibility of hardships should not cause one to abandon a policy that will prove on balance advantageous. If the policy is a sound one, such hardships as do accrue may be redressed subsequently, so as fully to maximize the advantages.
[Letter to Wei Dingbu, Chen wengong gong shudu 2: 4—WR]
The court appoints officials for the benefit of the people. Officials must cherish the people and exercise their authority to the fullest in their behalf. It is no accident that the formal title of a district magistrate is “one who knows the district,” nor that he is referred to as the “local official”—there should be no matter within their locality about which he does not know. The common people refer to the magistrate as their “father and mother official” and call themselves his “children.” This implies that there is no suffering or pleasure on the part of the people that the magistrate does not personally share. Their relationship is exactly like that of a family. . . .
I have drawn up the following list of items a local official should keep in mind in determining how to conduct himself. Superiors are also directed to keep these points in mind when evaluating their subordinates:
1. Maintain genuine commitment. This is the basis of everything else. With genuine commitment, your energies will never flag; without it, whatever ability you possess will be wasted. Do not leave things to others, but remain personally aware of all that goes on in your district. . . . Officials without genuine commitment give prime consideration to how a policy will appear in their reports to superiors, rather than the impact it will have on the people. If local officials are truly committed to the people, all things will fall into place.
2. Be incorrupt. An official must act unselfishly and maintain the highest standards of personal integrity. Ill-gotten gains will be discovered in the end, because they will become the subject of popular gossip or because one’s corruption will weigh upon one’s conscience and be revealed in one’s speech and demeanor. One will therefore tend to shrink from the public gaze. . . . It may sometimes be possible to fool your superiors, but you can never fool the “ignorant populace.” . . .
3. Provide exemplars of civilized behavior. Because counties are large and populous, people do not routinely see their magistrate. . . . But magistrates should make regular tours of the countryside, to investigate local customs, good and bad, and to meet with local community leaders to clarify for their benefit what is considered legal and proper. On these tours, officials should make detailed observations of conditions in villages along the way and make follow-up visits to determine if conditions have improved or deteriorated. Reward or punish community leaders accordingly. . . . Local persons who have been models of filiality or chastity, public service or philanthropy, should be rewarded with votive tablets, public rituals of praise, gifts of silver or rice, or tax exemptions. . . .
4. Endure toil and tribulations. Within my jurisdiction, what affairs do not depend on me? Among daily affairs, those that do not concern popular material well-being inevitably concern local customs and popular morale. There are so many affairs to manage that one is always plagued with anxieties that one has neglected something or that there is not enough time to do it all. How can one in such a post be the sort to shun hard work? . . .
5. Scrutinize subordinate officials carefully. . . .
6. Keep a tight rein on your clerks. . . . Failure to control their predations will inevitably generate popular resentment. . . .
7. Avoid perfunctory performance. Human beings have their own natural disposition, and events have their own natural logic. When the time is ripe for something, it cannot be avoided; discussions after the fact are fruitless. How can one suppose that the course of one’s official career is due to anything other than public knowledge of one’s performance? A bad habit among today’s officials is to give little heed to real needs and conditions, but rather, out of selfish careerist motives, simply to imitate in a perfunctory fashion what other officials are doing. Then, when someone is promoted ahead of them, they attribute it to something having unfairly invited their superiors’ enmity or someone having spread false rumors about them. Can it really be that higher-level officials do not have the public interest at heart and are led only by their partisan likes and dislikes?
8. Prevent harassment of the people. For an official to impose harassments on the people himself would be the height of stupidity. But, jurisdictions being very broad, evil government functionaries and local tyrants will inevitably come up with ways to harass the people. Consequently, no matter how hardworking the magistrate, and how well intentioned the laws, such harassments can be prevented only through constant and diligent scrutiny. . . .
9. Do not cover up your mistakes. . . . Many local officials today are unwilling to admit their mistakes in judging legal cases. Instead, they arrogantly presume that their own superior ability will allow them to get by, and [they] figure that the people are so stupid that they will not recognize an unjust decision when they see one. . . . Such cover-ups do terrible injury to the official’s own character, as well as to the locality. . . .
10. Avoid losing your temper. Officials must remain composed. . . . The way to control anger is to overcome oneself. Self-regulation is prerequisite to the regulation of others.
[Peiyuantang oucun gao 20: 11–24—WR]
Popular attitudes and customary practices vary from locality to locality. It is the duty of the official to promote those that are advantageous and eliminate those that are disadvantageous. . . . Magistrates are therefore directed to compile and submit to me a casebook, describing in detail the situation in their counties with regard to each of the following items:
Tax and sur
tax assessments and collections . . .
Grain tribute assessments and collections . . .
Government granaries . . .
Community granaries . . .
Varieties of crops grown . . .
Potentially reclaimable land . . .
Water conservancy and irrigation works . . .
Local customs regarding marriage and funerary rites and popular religious practices . . .
Community libation rituals . . .
Exemplary cases of filiality or virtuous widowhood . . .
Official temples and sacrifices. . .
Scholarly trends and fashions . . .
Academies and public schools . . .
Incidence of feuds and capital crimes . . .
Incidence of theft . . .
Incidence of banditry . . .
Incidence of cattle theft and illegal slaughter. . .
Tax arrears . . .
Incidence of gambling and smuggling . . .
Counterfeiting or melting down of government coins . . .
Backlog of civil litigation . . .
Maintenance and security of cemeteries . . .
Refugees and vagrants . . .
Poorhouses and orphanages . . .
Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 2 Page 25