Fu Yingzhen Sets Up the Community Compact, 1574

Background

The earliest entry in the gazetteer on schooling the populace is for 1375, when orders were given for community schools to be established in every county. The community compact of 1574 was set up by the magistrate Fu Yingzhen in Lishui itself, and its content was the expounding of the Hongwu emperor's Sacred Edict.

What was done

神宗万历二年甲戌，知县傅应祯设乡约，申明太祖圣谕。凡讼者必先由乡约评之，期年无讼。增置学田。 — Kangxi Lishui County Gazetteer, 卷之一·邑纪·神宗万历二年甲戌

Translated: In the second year of the Wanli era, the zhixian (county magistrate) Fu Yingzhen set up a community compact and expounded the Sacred Edict of the founding emperor. All who brought disputes had first to be judged by the compact, and for a year there was no litigation. School fields were also added.

Three things are recorded: the compact and the expounding of the Sacred Edict; the requirement that disputes be judged by the compact first; and the addition of school fields in the same year. The phrase "for a year there was no litigation" is the gazetteer's summary of the result.

Consequences

The compact operated below the county level, and disputes passed through it before reaching the magistrate, adding a stage before official hearing. The gazetteer gives no change in the number of cases, only the phrase about a year without litigation. In 1577 the magistrate Wu Shiquan petitioned with the Eight Proposals for Convenience and added a screen wall in front of the school; in 1578 he rebuilt the main hall, the second gate and the rear hall of the county office; in 1579 further school fields were added in a good year, when a sheng of rice cost only three cash. The run of entries shows county government in the early Wanli years occupied mainly with schools, granaries and public buildings.

Uncertainties

First, the gazetteer gives neither the rules of the compact, nor how its heads were chosen, nor how many were set up in the county.

Second, the phrase about a year without litigation is a summary with no case numbers or records of the compact's hearings behind it.

Third, the relation between the compact and the community schools ordered in 1375 is not stated; whether they met in the same places or were run by the same people cannot be checked.

Fourth, whether the compact long survived is unclear; no later entry mentions it, and the sources cannot show when it lapsed.