100 Historical Stories That Unlock Teenage Wisdom

Chapter 56 4 The hair-shaving order was strongly resisted

Strong resistance to Chapter 64's hair-shaving order

——Don't spoil the big things for the details. To do big things, you must have a big mind, and don't care too much about the details and be persistent.If you magnify the details, it is likely to spoil the big things.

Manchurian customs, men shave off the hair around the top of the head, leaving only the top of the head, braided and hanging down the back, except for family funerals and national funerals, which must not be shaved for a hundred days, the hair around the head should not grow long.After Qing Taizu Nurhachi established the country, he demanded that the Han people and other ethnic groups who surrendered or belonged to Manchuria must shave their hair. After Nurhaci captured Liaoshen in 1621, he ordered the common people to adopt and not kill those who shave their own hair, and they already regarded whether to shave their hair as a sign of surrender or not.In Liaodong, this practice of forcing other ethnic groups to shave their hair once aroused strong resistance.

In the first year of Shunzhi (1644), Dorgon led the Qing army into Shanhaiguan on a large scale, and still insisted on the traditional practice of shaving hair.In April of this year, Ming general Wu Sangui went to the Qing army to surrender before the fierce battle with Li Zicheng's army. Dorgon asked Wu Sangui to shave the oath of alliance before sending troops to rescue.After defeating Li Zicheng's army, Dorgon ordered the soldiers and civilians inside and outside Shanhaiguan to shave their hair on the same day.The Qing army entered Beijing in May, and the discipline was strict along the way, which was well received by the people. However, Dorgon ordered the officials and the people to shave their hair along the way, which caused great dissatisfaction.Some officials and people asked Dorgon to keep the old customs, but Dorgon said: "I will keep it as if I were the first generation, and if I am the next generation, I will cherish this hair?" Organize armed resistance.This situation is obviously unfavorable to the rulers of the Qing Dynasty who have just entered the customs and have yet to gain a firm foothold.

Soon after the Qing army entered the customs, Ming and Qing officials in Nanjing established the Hongguang Nanming regime.In order to win the hearts of the people and unify the world, the Qing court accepted the suggestion of Wu Sangui and others, and once abolished the order of shaving hair.On May 24, Dorgon announced that "subjects all over the world, let their hair be tied up, and follow their own convenience."Since then, people in newly conquered areas and returnees will no longer be forced to shave their hair.Until May of the following year, Duduo led the Qing army to conquer the southern capital of Ming Dynasty, and still posted notices at the gates of the cities: "Shaving the head has become a custom in this country. Wait until you don’t follow the law and shave it yourself. There are shameless officials who shaved it first to see it, and the country has already scolded it. Special notice.”

However, the continuous victories of the Qing army in the unification war stimulated the arrogance and arrogance of the Manchu nobles.Before the Qing army captured Nanjing, some Han officials who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, such as Sun Zhixie, the Minister of Rites, and Li Ruolin, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, were instigated by the Manchu nobles and offered to restore the shaving method and use Manchurian clothes.Although this proposition was strongly opposed by some other Han bureaucrats, it was approved by the highest rulers of the Qing Dynasty.At the end of May, news of the conquest of Nanjing had arrived in Beijing. When Dorgon summoned the cabinet members, he reiterated that all officials and people should shave their heads.On June 1645th, the Qing government sent officials to Nanjing and ordered surrendered officials and civil and military officials and civilians everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River to shave their heads. On June [-]th, [-], the Emperor of Qing ordered the Ministry of Rites to issue an order to the inside and outside of the capital, stipulating that officials and people all over the country, inside and outside the capital, were limited to ten days, and all provinces and localities were limited to ten days on the date of the ministry's writing; all shaved; Severe punishment will not be given; all local officials must conduct strict inspections, and the hair-shaving incident is not allowed to be reported; after the hair-shaving, the clothes and hats will also be changed accordingly, learning from the Manchurian system.This is the so-called "shaving order".

After the hair-shaving order was issued, some local officials adopted the method of increasing the price layer by layer. In some places, such as Jiangyin, the order was limited to three days, and in some places, such as Suzhou, it was required to shave in one day.In some places, the hair style is changed into a very insulting style without authorization: all sides of the head are shaved, leaving only the top of the head as big as money, which is called "money rat tail".For the people who resisted the shaving order, most of the local officials and the Qing army implemented the policy of "keep the head but not the hair, and keep the hair but not the head".This attitude of indiscriminate punishment aroused extreme dissatisfaction among people in various places, and people in some areas put forward the slogan "the head can be cut off, but the hair must not be removed".

When the rulers of the Qing Dynasty first entered the south of the Yangtze River and their rule was not consolidated at all, they forcibly implemented the hair shaving order, which seriously hurt the feelings of people of other ethnic groups. It was an extremely stupid thing.After the promulgation of the hair-shaving order, many places in the south of the Yangtze River that had surrendered or were about to submit to surrender staged uprisings one after another. People in Jiangyin, Jiading, Suzhou and other places fought against the Qing with armed forces for several months.Although the uprisings in various places were finally suppressed, the anti-Qing trend spread from Jiangnan to all parts of the country.

The rule of shaving hair and wearing Manchu clothes lasted until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.Although this system has survived by relying on violence, it has always been a symbol of national oppression, hiding a huge crisis.In the rebellion in the Qing Dynasty, almost all braids were cut off and the clothes of the Ming Dynasty were restored in order to win the hearts of the people.

Wisdom Interpretation:

The power of culture is powerful, and the Qing government took great pains to even "keep the hair but not the head", but in the end, the Qing court was still conquered by the powerful Han cultural power.Therefore, although the emperor wrote poems of the Tang Dynasty, he used traditional characters, and even Emperor Qianlong was even more proud of the prolificity of "poetry". Isn't this a good irony?
Don't let the shaved hair fall into the soul, and don't lose your youth, growth, and glory by vomiting for a long time because of small things.

(End of this chapter)