Reflections on History: Tyranny Is Crueler than a Tiger

The history of China is that of a succession of dynasties. The fall of each dynasty has been followed by the rise of another. There have been tens of thousands of colourful protagonists who have graced the stage of Chinese history, and millions of Chinese have endured enormous suffering. Amidst these human events, natural calamities that have often lasted for years seem to have had major roles in the play. Each calamity was a warning that retribution will come to those who violate the principles of Heaven. Each calamity seemed to presage the decline and fall of a dynasty, and the rise of a new dynasty led by a more moral monarch.

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For three thousand years, since the Western Zhou Dynasty, there had been a constant succession of dynasties and constant outbreaks of natural disasters in China. Government authorities’ continuous increase of taxes and corvée (forced labour for the state), combined with rebels’ robberies and barbarians’ invasions, took deadly tolls on the already difficult lives of peasants and farmers. Much relevant information can be found in The Book of Songs (Shi Jing in Chinese), such as: “With no clothes or only coarse woollen cloth for clothes, how can one survive a year?” (From “July” in the Chapter of Poems in The Book of Songs.) “The mighty, powerful heaven sent famine down upon the earth. The famine will not recede if the war continues.” (From “Flooding Rain as a Result of Mankind’s Misconduct” in the Chapter of Poems in The Book of Songs.) These historic records show that toward the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the taxes were heavy and farmers’ lives were unbearable. Similar historic records from the Qin and the Han Dynasties exist. Some emperors even increased taxes and doubled the portion of the harvests the state collected when natural disasters occurred, forcing the farmers into a hopeless situation. For the farmers in ancient China, truly it can be stated, “Tyranny is crueler than a tiger!”

Not only did tyrants extract every drop of resources out of the farmers, but also their local government officials and bandit gangs directly or indirectly contributed to the outbreak of disasters. Many bandit gangs occupied farming land, seized water sources and demanded that farmers pay tribute, thus causing droughts. Corrupt bureaucracies pocketed water conservation management funds, neglecting water regulation and flood prevention work, which contributed to frequent floods. For example, at the end of the reign of Qian Long of the Qing dynasty, He Qun, a eunuch at the royal court, earned the trust of the emperor, but abused his power. He Qun sold government positions and noble rank for profit. Almost all the government river regulation superintendents bought their positions from He Qun. After spending a lot to buy a position as a river regulation superintendent, these superintendents immediately began to earn their investments back by putting water conservation funds into their own pockets. As a result, silt built up in the Yellow River (Huang He in Chinese), which caused floods 17 times between the 2nd and 24th years of the Jia Qing period of the Ming Dynasty.

These are just a few examples of the disasters caused by tyranny in Chinese history. Although tales of tyranny permeate Chinese history, Jiang Zemin has committed the worst crimes China has ever seen. For the past few years, there have been increasing numbers of droughts, floods, locust plagues and sand storms in China. The entire Yellow River has dried up, depriving people and livestock of their water supply in several northern provinces. Over a hundred rivers in three northeastern provinces have dried up completely. However, Jiang’s regime has ignored these natural disasters that have severely impacted the country and the Chinese people. Instead, Jiang uses one quarter of the national financial resources to persecute Falun Gong. One fourth of the total national financial resources have been used to establish the “610 Offices” and brainwashing institutions all over China to spy on and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. In addition, the Chinese Communist Party officials steal an obscene amount of the national capital; they levy heavy taxes on all classes of society, thus forcing businesses all over the country to lay off countless employees. These corrupt officials wire the stolen capital overseas. They have deceived foreign investors with false economic data. They spend taxpayers’ money without restraint. They bribe foreign countries to deliver favourable reports about China and to conceal the persecution in China.

The evil Jiang Zemin is decimating China.