What is a township agreement?

The rural convention is not an official position, but more like a system.

Bailu Village's right to abide by the rural conventions comes from the imperial power, which supports the clan power, and the clan leader is the agent recognized by the government, making the rural conventions legal and sacred. This also determines that Bai Jiaxuan, the clan leader who carried out the village Covenant, will only be responsible for the current ruling order and power. Any regime other than imperial power is "illegal" in his view. However, the essence of this spirit has a history of thousands of years in China, and its historical origin can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty. "Zhou Li Local Officials and Family Teachers" says: "Compared with five families, ten families are connected, five people are connected, ten people are connected, four people are connected and eight people are connected. Let them protect each other, accept each other, punish them, reward them, let them be accepted by the country, serve the country, and be buried together. "

It is through extensive publicity that the township contract of Bailu Village is fully known to the public, thus having the binding function of prediction, guidance and evaluation. After the "Village Covenant of Bailu Village" was drafted by Mr. Zhu, Bai Jiaxuan invited a stonemason, chiseled two pieces of green slate and placed them on both sides of the main entrance of the ancestral hall, which complemented the "Renyi Bailu Village" planted in the yard. Later, Bai Jiaxuan called men over the age of 16, Bai He Lu, to the school to explain them one by one, word by word, and asked each man to teach his wife and children again, and students should also learn rural customs at school.

As far as the content of the township contract in Bailu Village is concerned, it completely conforms to the etiquette system of feudal times, and most of them are formulated in accordance with the Confucian philosophy of life and political philosophy of self-cultivation, family harmony and governing the country. For example, in family relations, we should "be able to heal the body, repair the family, serve our fathers and brothers, teach our children, learn from children, respect our elders and be friendly to our neighbors". These rural customs are highly compatible with the official values advocated by the rulers, and even the copy of the law itself, which has been recognized and supported by the rulers, and also conforms to the traditional moral concepts of China people and is easily accepted by the villagers.

The implementation of the rural convention mainly depends on the clan power and the behavior consciousness of the vast majority of people under the clan moral public opinion, but at the same time it also stipulates some compulsory measures to guarantee it, including kneeling punishment, fine, grain punishment, flogging and so on. Even young people who are exposed to new learning like Lu only dare to talk privately about abolishing ancestral temples in the future and realizing freedom of love and marriage; After being driven out by Lu San, Heiwa can only live in a cave on the mountain with her daughter-in-law. Until the revolutionary war burned to Bailu Village, no one dared to directly challenge the township agreement. The rural customs of Bailu Village are rooted in the deep blood relationship and geographical relationship in the traditional society. By maintaining the ethical order of Confucian ethics, it can be implemented by relying on patriarchal clan system and authoritarian state power.

The rural convention represents the traditional ruling order, and to overthrow the old order, the ancestral hall has become the first place to bear the brunt. After the establishment of the peasant association, Heiwa gathered outside the ancestral hall with 36 brothers, swung a hammer and smashed the hoop on the gate to the ground. He remembered the scene of kneeling in the ancestral temple and the humiliation that he and Tian Xiaoe were refused to worship their ancestors, so he smashed the stone tablet of "Renyi Bailu Village" and the stone tablet engraved with rural conventions. Heiwa's behavior and the smashed stone tablet show that the traditional ethical customs have inevitably declined.