Maoyan River and Qin Hou
Maoyan River and Qin Hou: The Maoyan River lies within the territory of the Maogang Tusi on the upper reaches of the Lishui River. Qin Hou, the most influential Tujia leader, waged a seven-year peasant uprising in this area. Every legend of the Maoyan River is closely tied to Qin Hou's name. It is said that in the late Yuan Dynasty, a feng shui master spotted the true burial site on Xian'e Peak and told his disciple to cut some bamboo...
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Maoyan River and Qin Hou
Maoyan River is located within the territory of the Maogang Tusi in the upper reaches of the Lishui River.
Qin Hou, the most influential leader of the Tujia people, persisted in a seven-year peasant uprising war in this area.
Every legend of the Maoyan River is closely linked to the name of Qin Hou.
It is said that in the late Yuan Dynasty, a feng shui master saw the true burial spot on Xian'e Zui (Immortal Goose Beak), so he told his disciples to cut some bamboo and stick them into the mountain beak. The next morning, they saw the bamboo had green branches and leaves, and even bamboo shoots had sprouted below. The disciples asked: 'Master, how can this spot be buried?' The master said: 'To bury in this true spot, first, dried fish must climb a tree; second, a person must wear an iron hat. Only at this hour can the earth be broken. Dig down one zhang and two chi, and there will be a bluestone slab. The slab must not be turned over; place the coffin on top of it, and among the descendants a true emperor will emerge.' Unexpectedly, this was overheard by Qin Hou's father, who was grazing cattle in the palm grove. He quietly circled up the mountain and with one knife cut down the bamboo they had stuck in the mountain beak, and stuck it into a large mound nearby.
Not long after, Qin Hou's grandfather died, and his father instructed that the coffin be carried to the mountain beak. That day the sun was blazing, and it happened to be market day at Shapan, with people coming and going on the road. Suddenly a thunderstorm came, and a man carrying a dried fish came under the big tree to shelter from the rain. He hung the fish on the tree: dried fish climbed the tree. Then came a man who had bought a pot; seeing the heavy rain, he put the pot on his head: the one wearing an iron hat had come. Qin Hou's father quickly ordered the earth to be broken. They dug down one zhang and two chi, and indeed there was a bluestone slab. When tapped it gave a pong-pong sound. One of the helpers said: 'It's hollow inside, there must be something buried in there. Lift it up and take a look.' When everyone lifted it, 'puchi'—a fairy goose flew out with a flap of its wings, frightening everyone so much that they quickly dropped the slab back down. A female goose was still pressed underneath, but the male goose had flown away. Qin Hou's father shouted to chase it quickly. The male goose flew to Xian'e Yu, and when everyone arrived at Xian'e Yu, the male goose flew with another flap to Egong Zui. When everyone arrived at Egong Zui, the male goose flew away with another flap. It flew across a river and landed on the green mountain on the other side. Everyone rushed there and searched everywhere, but it was truly hard to find. This place was then named 'Nancha' (Hard to Find).
The male goose had flown away, the dragon vein was weakened, and it was destined that Qin Hou could not achieve great things. At that time, the Yuan Dynasty's mandate was nearly exhausted, and the world was in chaos. Qin Hou was born in this year of war and disorder. On the night of his birth, many people saw a red ball fall from the sky onto the roof of his house. After he was born, he refused to take a hot bath, so he was carried outside to a rock basin, and living spring water was channeled through a bamboo pipe
to give him a cold bath. While bathing, three lively flesh dragons appeared on his body. His father was greatly alarmed, and quickly carried him inside, shutting the door tightly, and said to his wife and daughter: 'This is terrible, not a word of this must leak out!'
Unexpectedly, the news of the flesh dragons appearing on Qin Hou's body spread to the capital within a few days. When the emperor heard it, he broke out in a cold sweat of fright and immediately ordered: 'Quickly capture Qin Hou and kill him!' Qin Hou's elder sister carried him through the night and hid in a cave by the Maogang River. The government soldiers captured Qin Hou's parents. The two old people refused to hand over Qin Hou, so the soldiers cut off their heads and threw their bodies into the pond in front of the house. A few days later, a grave mound swelled up in the middle of the pond, and three bamboo shoots grew on the mound. These bamboo shoots grew as soon as they felt the wind, growing to the size of water buckets, over ten zhang long, sweeping away the dark clouds in the sky.
The cave where Qin Hou took refuge was on the cliff face, with the Maoyan River below. He was fond of water by nature and went down to the river to bathe every day. From the cave entrance to the riverbank there were three thousand six hundred stone steps. He found it hard to climb up and down, so he asked his sister for a bolt of white cloth. Standing at the cave entrance, he gave it a shake, and it turned into a waterfall, flowing through winter and spring, all four seasons. The dragon on Qin Hou's body swam with the water, making it much easier to go up and down. He also helped his sister wash clothes. Below the river there was only a thread of light, and the clothes could not dry in the sun, so he got a wooden pole and propped it up, inserting it into a stone hole in the cliff wall. The washed clothes dried quickly. That clothes-drying pole is still stuck in the cave to this day.
One night, Qin Hou dreamed that his parents, covered in blood, spoke tearfully: 'Child, quickly cut down the nan bamboo on our grave and make bows and arrows, and practice hard. After three years and six months, when the moment comes that chickens fly and dogs climb onto the roof, shoot your arrows toward the east, kill the emperor, and avenge your parents.' Qin Hou woke up and wept bitterly. He discussed it with his sister, and they still returned to live at Guizhu Lang. He bought a white horse from the Xianjie River market, cut nan bamboo to make bows and arrows, and practiced riding and archery every day.
Qin Hou's elder sister was an impatient person. Seeing her brother's martial skills improve day by day, she clamored for him to shoot the arrows quickly and avenge their parents. By this time Qin Hou had grown to manhood. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and had trained to have extraordinary martial skills. Seeing his sister urging him, he said: 'I have only practiced three years; there are still six months to go. The moment when chickens fly and dogs climb onto the roof has not come. How can I shoot the arrows?' When his sister heard this, she was so anxious she could not sleep all night. Early the next morning she ran to the back house and released the chickens, found the dog, and gave it a wild beating, chasing the chickens into flight and the dog onto the roof. She ran inside shouting: 'Brother, the moment has come, shoot the arrows quickly!' Qin Hou got up and looked—indeed the chickens were flying and the dog was on the roof. He leaped onto the white horse, gave it two whips, and shot three arrows in succession toward the east. The first arrow did not catch the string and fell into a pool below the mountain; this pool was later called 'Arrow Pool.' That day the emperor was holding morning court when they heard a 'clang'—an arrow flew in and stuck in the dragon throne, its tail still quivering. The emperor was so frightened he collapsed like a lump of paste. Then another arrow flew in, shot off the emperor's golden crown, and stuck in the dragon pillar behind. The emperor's face turned the color of a dead man, and he shouted: 'Catch the assassin, catch the assassin!' The civil officials were so frightened they burrowed under their desks, and the military officials slashed and killed wildly. After a long commotion, not even the shadow of the assassin was found. The left and right ministers pulled out the arrows and saw the two characters 'Qin Hou' carved on them. The emperor was furious and ordered Yang Jing to lead one hundred thousand government troops up to Maogang to capture Qin Hou.
Just when Qin Hou shot the three arrows, there was a 'pi pi pa pa' explosion in the back garden. Every stalk of the precious bamboo in the garden burst open, and from each node leaped a man, a horse, and a spear. The man had one leg already over the horse, and the other leg just lifted. But because the moment had not yet come, a gust of wind blew them up into the sky.
After the heavenly soldiers and generals left, Qin Hou immediately summoned the native people of the nine ridges and raised the banner of uprising. He directed the native soldiers to build city walls and cannon platforms at the Seven Years Fort. By the Maoyan River he dug forty-eight mortar pits, and in the caves he dug saltpeter and pounded gunpowder, set up pig cannons, and prepared to meet the enemy. In the eighth month of that year, the government troops came up the mountain and fought a fierce battle in a gorge, killing until blood dyed the mountain gate and corpses choked the deep ravine (this ravine was later called 'Blood Gate Gorge'). Qin Hou, outnumbered, retreated to defend the Seven Years Fort. Yang Jing surrounded the mountain fort completely. There was no food in the fort, so Qin Hou ordered the native soldiers to clear land and plant grain. There was no salt in the fort, so Qin Hou brought a bolt of cloth, tied one end to a rock pillar, and flung it across to Yuejia Mountain opposite. The cloth turned into a flying bridge, and salt was transported from the other end of the bridge (this bridge is now called 'Flying Bridge,' and the mountain gully where the bridge was built is called 'Flying Bridge Bay'). Sometimes Qin Hou painted a few pictures on the cliff wall (these paintings were later called 'Qin Hou's Divine Paintings'), and when he had time he went fishing at the fishing platform (later called 'Qin Hou's Fishing Platform').
Seeing that hard fighting would not work, Qin Hou sent someone down the mountain to negotiate peace with Yang Jing. Yang Jing immediately sent a general up to the Seven Years Fort. Qin Hou ordered the man bound and forced him to reveal the government troops' deployment. That night Qin Hou led his men in a fierce charge and routed the government troops. Yang Jing had fallen for the trick and had to withdraw his troops back to the capital. When Yang Jing returned to court, the emperor cursed him as a good-for-nothing and immediately sent the Zhenman General Zhou Dexing to lead troops again on a punitive expedition. Zhou Dexing ordered the government troops, after entering Maogang, to kill everyone on sight, cutting off Qin Hou's source of soldiers. On Maogang Mountain, great fires blazed to the sky, and corpses lay everywhere. Seeing the common people suffer such disaster, Qin Hou could not bear it. At this time his son-in-law Zhu Siji sent word telling him to withdraw his troops to his place and then fight the government troops again. That night Qin Hou took part of his native soldiers, lowered themselves down the cliff with kudzu vines, and rushed under cover of night to Jinyan Fort in Cili County. As soon as they arrived at Jinyan Fort, a troop of men suddenly rushed out from the fort and bound Qin Hou. It turned out that Zhu Siji had been bought off by the emperor and had devised this wicked scheme. Qin Hou had never expected his son-in-law to do such a heinous thing. That night, Zhu Siji put his father-in-law in a prisoner's cage and escorted him to the capital. Later, the natives called the mountain pass where Qin Hou was captured 'Mieqin Pass' (Kinship-Destroying Pass), and the place where Qin Hou was escorted in the prisoner's cage 'Prisoner Cage Bay.'
After Qin Hou was sent to Nanjing, the emperor interrogated him: 'Do you really have three flesh dragons on your body?' Qin Hou said: 'Yes, there are three flesh dragons!' The emperor asked again: 'Are they natural-born or painted?' Qin Hou replied: 'They are painted.' When the emperor heard this he flew into a rage: 'You muddle-headed thing, you spread rumors to deceive the people, saying you were the true emperor with three dragons around your body, and frightened me to death—so they were painted! I will have your skin peeled off to quell the rumors in the world!' With that he ordered the skinning. Just as the skin was about to be peeled open, three living dragons appeared and turned into three beams of golden light flying up into the sky. Immediately the sky turned black and the earth dark; for seven days and seven nights the sun and moon gave no light, and day and night could not be distinguished. The emperor realized he had killed the true emperor by mistake, and that heaven and earth would not tolerate it. He quickly knelt down and made a vow to heaven. He promised that every year on the sixth, sixteenth, and twenty-sixth days of the sixth month, Qin Hou would be seated for three days, and he would bow three times and kowtow nine times to Qin Hou to show his repentance. Only then did the clouds part and the mist disperse, and the sun and moon shone again. To obtain Qin Hou's true form, the emperor also ordered the skin to be blown up and enshrined on the altar. Every year on the sixth day of the sixth month it was turned over and dried once to prevent insect damage. This custom was later passed down by the Tujia people. Every year on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, every household must turn out boxes and cupboards and sun their clothes, called 'Qin Hou Sunning His Skin,' or 'Sunning the Dragon Robe.'
(Collected by Chen Ziwen and Xichuan)
[Appendix] About 'Lingchi' (Slow Slicing)
Qin Hou, originally named Wenjin, was a famous Tujia peasant uprising hero, born on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the fourth year of the Taiding reign of the Yuan Dynasty, and died on the sixth day of the sixth month of the renzi year in the fifth year of the Hongwu reign (AD 1372), at the age of fifty-one.
In the early years of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, Qin Hou served as the pacification commissioner of Cigu Prefecture. In the last years of Emperor Shun, Liu Futong, Han Lin'er, Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youliang, and other heroes rose up in swarms to resist the Yuan Dynasty's ethnic oppression. Qin Hou saw that the time had come and raised his banner in response. Emperor Shun of the Yuan sent the great generals Ren Wenda and Liao Yongzhong to suppress Qin Hou. Qin Hou's rebel army defeated the government troops at the Seven Years Fort, overthrew the Wu Tongzhi and Wu Yuzi father and son who commanded the Maogang Marshal's Office, and seized back the Tusi regime. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, representing the interests of the bureaucratic landlord class, he continued the policy of suppression and punitive expeditions against the 'barbarians' of western Hunan. Qin Hou rose up again, 'joining with the eighteen caves of the eight ancient skins in rebellion, and the Miao of Changsha were all incited.' (Yongding County Local Gazetteer) Zhu Yuanzhang sent the Pingzhang Yang Jing, the Zhennan General Zhou Dexing, as well as Liao Yongzhong, Tang He, and other five marquis-level generals on a punitive expedition, and issued three imperial edicts in succession, personally directing this war. Qin Hou held the Seven Years Fort, resisting the enemy by relying on the terrain for as long as three years, shaking the whole country. Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict cursing Yang Jing: 'You disobeyed my words and acted rashly, and could not pacify the rebels. Having already failed, you then fell for their treacherous scheme and lost your subordinate generals. Where are your wisdom and strategy?'
The episode of Qin Hou 'shooting three arrows at the imperial palace' is largely similar to the story of King Xiang shooting three arrows at the imperial palace, and is widely circulated in the border regions of Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan. Many of his deeds have been deified. His death anniversary, the 'Sixth of the Sixth Month,' has become a traditional festival of the Tujia people in the border regions of Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan.
Zhu Yuanzhang sentenced Qin Hou to the extreme penalty of 'lingchi.' What is 'lingchi'?
Examining Chinese criminal law, the earliest in the Xia Dynasty there were the five punishments of dapi (death penalty), bin (removing the kneecaps), gong (destroying the reproductive organs), yi (cutting off the nose), and mo (tattooing the face); the Sui Dynasty promulgated the Kaihuang Code, establishing the five-punishment system of beating with a light stick, beating with a heavy stick, penal servitude, exile, and death. The Ming Dynasty newly created the punishment of military exile, divided into six grades: extreme, miasmic, remote, frontier guard, coastal, and nearby. Ancient methods of execution included beheading and hanging the head on a pole, tearing apart by chariots, strangulation, decapitation, and lingchi. The Great Ming Code regarded plotting rebellion, plotting great sedition, plotting treason, plotting evil rebellion, inhumanity, great irreverence, unfiliality, disharmony, unrighteousness, and internal disorder as the 'Ten Abominations.' All those who plotted rebellion, regardless of whether they were ringleaders or followers, were executed by lingchi.
'Lingchi' was the most cruel form of death penalty in feudal society, also called 'luanxing' (dismemberment) or 'guaxing' (slicing), commonly known as 'skinning.' It began in the Five Dynasties and was abolished in the late Qing. The Comprehensive Compendium of the Great Qing Legal Code records: 'Lingchi: its method is to slice inch by inch, until the body has no remaining pieces of flesh, then cut off his member (note: male genitalia); for a woman, penetrate her privates (note: female genitalia), remove the internal organs, to end her life, and still dismember the joints and chop the bones before finishing.' The specific execution steps were: when carrying out 'lingchi,' a total of three thousand three hundred and fifty-seven cuts were made. After each cut, a designated person had to announce the number of cuts. When three thousand cuts had been made, the flesh on the torso and limbs was almost completely scraped away, the white bones clearly exposed one by one, dripping with blood. Beside him a designated person held a basin to catch the minced flesh, one basin for every thousand cuts. Every ten cuts the executioner had to pause and rest his hand, and give a shout, to show solemnity. At this point, the five viscera and six bowels were clearly hanging in the chest cavity. The three thousand and first cut began at the head, the knife scraping on the skull with a ka-ka sound; next the ears were cut off, each ear requiring fifteen cuts; then the eyelids, each eyelid requiring three cuts, but without damaging the eyeballs, so that the supervising official could see the eyeballs still moving. When the skull had been shaved down to a skeleton, only then did the executioner turn to the internal organs. At this time only one hundred cuts remained, the most tense moment for the executioner; hands and feet had to speed up. In an instant, only flashing knife light and flying blood and flesh could be seen. The person announcing the cut count no longer announced one by one, but switched to announcing in fives and tens. When the three thousand three hundred and fifty-sixth cut came, the executioner paused briefly to let the supervising official check whether the heart was still beating. If the prisoner had already died first, the executioner would be held accountable. The final cut went straight into the heart, and the entire process of 'lingchi' was then concluded.