A Journey to Wu Tianban's Hometown
During the Qianjia Miao Rebellion, there was an important leader who was only 22 years old. His name was Wu Tianban, and his hometown was in the Suma River village in present-day La'ershan Town, Fenghuang County. On the ninth day of the fourth lunar month in 2007, I rode in a private car belonging to the photographer Zhong Yifu and his wife. After touring Shanjiang and Heku, we turned the car toward the Suma River. By the time we reached La'ershan Town it was already 11 a.m. We asked around and learned that it was only eight kilometers to the Suma River, so we thought it was very close and would...
During the Qianjia Miao Rebellion, there was an important leader who was only 22 years old. His name was Wu Tianban, and his hometown was in the Suma River village in present-day La'ershan Town, Fenghuang County.
On the ninth day of the fourth lunar month in 2007, I rode in a private car belonging to the photographer Zhong Yifu and his wife. After touring Shanjiang and Heku, we turned the car toward the Suma River.
By the time we reached La'ershan Town it was already 11 a.m. We asked around and learned that it was only eight kilometers to the Suma River, so we thought it was very close and would not take long. But the road turned out to be very difficult to travel, full of potholes and mud, and in some places the puddles were a foot deep. The car moved extremely slowly, and at one spot the road was so slippery that the tires nearly sank into a ditch. Not far past La'ershan Town, after crossing a mountain ridge and going downhill, we saw a rushing stream. We asked a passerby and learned that this was the Suma River. The river originates at Banjing in Lianglin, flows through Renwu, Banla, Suma Village, and Longpo, and then enters Songtao in Guizhou. The Suma River is not wide; at its narrowest it is only about ten feet across, and at its widest only fifty or sixty feet. Following the river and turning a few bends, we saw a large village appear by a mountain in the distance, with an estimated five or six hundred households, all uniformly tile-roofed wooden houses, with only one or two newly built brick-and-stone houses beside the village. We guessed that this was Suma Village. We drove up to an arch bridge by the Suma River and stopped, then asked a villager and confirmed that this village was indeed Suma Village.
Inside the village we wanted to find Wu Tianban's old house. Someone pointed out that Wu Tianban's old house was by a mountain in the distance, but that there was nothing there now except a patch of wild grass. We asked again whether there were any sites in the village related to Wu Tianban. Someone said that the village primary school had a sign reading “Tianban Primary School.” We immediately found a primary school, and indeed saw that in the middle of a two-story building on the campus hung a long wooden board sign with the large characters “Tianban Primary School, La'ershan, Fenghuang County, Xiangxi.” We happily busied ourselves taking photos. At that moment, a primary school principal surnamed Shi came over and chatted with us for a while. From Principal Shi we learned that Suma Village has four villager groups, a population of about 900, and more than 150 pupils attending primary school. This principal also did not know much about Wu Tianban's historical deeds; he only knew that he was a Miao hero in the Qianjia Rebellion, and that this primary school was named after Wu Tianban and had been approved and given its plaque by the county in the 1980s. The principal also said that Wu Tianban was also called Wu Bansheng. In fact, this latter name was bestowed by the Qianlong Emperor himself in an imperial edict. It is said that after the Qianjia Rebellion, the Qianlong Emperor could not sit or sleep in peace. One day, while hunting in the imperial garden in Beijing to relieve his worries, he accidentally and luckily shot a wild deer. His attendants flattered him, immediately saying that this was a good omen and that the rebel Wu Tianban would not live long. Qianlong then laughed and said: “I shall change Wu Tianban to Wu Bansheng; he can only live half a life!” Having said this, he returned to the imperial study and wrote the edict, and indeed wrote “capture Wu Tianban” as “capture Wu Bansheng.” From then on, the name Wu Bansheng was recorded in official histories.
During the Qianjia Miao Rebellion, Wu Tianban was extraordinarily brave and fierce. He was born broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, and the strength of his arms could draw a thousand jun. After the forces of Shi Liudeng and Shi Sanbao were defeated by the Qing army, Wu Tianban once organized tens of thousands of Miao troops and, relying on the natural barrier of the Wuchao River, held off the great army commanded by Fukang'an for more than half a year. In the end, however, because his forces were too few to resist the many, Wu Tianban was captured at Gaoduo Village. Soon afterward he was sent to Beijing and executed by lingchi.
After Wu Tianban's death, the local Miao people always remembered him deeply. Today, the primary school in Suma Village being named after him should be regarded as the best memorial.
In Suma Village, we also wandered around the various lane entrances for a while and took quite a few photos. From what we saw, most of the houses in this village are old wooden houses, there is a lot of cow dung on the village roads, the sanitation is relatively poor, and the Miao people live in relative poverty. On the way back I was still thinking that if this place could build on the celebrity brand of Wu Tianban and develop into a folk-custom tourism sightseeing spot, the poor and backward appearance of Suma Village might be greatly changed.