From
his tyranny his struggling tenantry have no redress. So long as the
I-pien (the local name of the Nou-su) greases the palm of the squeezing
Chinese mandarin in whose nominal control the district extends, he may
run riot as he pleases. Social law and order are unknown, justice is a
complete contradiction in terms, and whilst one is in the midst of it,
it is difficult to realize that in China to-day--the China which all the
world believes to be awakening--there exists a condition of things which
will allow a man to torture, to plunder, to murder, and to indulge to
the utmost degree the whims of a Neronic and devilish temperament.
Slave trading is common. If a tenant cannot pay his tribute, he sells
himself for a few taels and becomes the slave of his former landlord,
and if he would save his head treads carefully.
In the early days, when different clans were driven farther into the
hills, they each clinched as much land as they could. In course of time,
by petty quarrels, civil wars, and common feuds, the Nou-su were
gradually thinned out. The Miao-tsi--the men of the hills and the serfs
of the landlords, who four thousand years ago were a powerful race in
their own kingdom--became the tenants of the Nou-su, whose rule is still
marked by the grossest infamy possible to be practiced on the human
race.
Pages:
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190