Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 39 Rural Divorce Cases
Since ancient times, the imperial court can only control the prefectures and counties, while the vast rural areas below the prefectures and counties are governed by the gentry.

The five-level structure of imperial court-local officials-squires-patriarchs-parents constituted a strict patriarchal system, which also made the society extremely stable and remained unchanged for thousands of years.

The Fan Tieniu incident this time was a conflict between the Fan family and the Lu family, and it was related to the two families, so the squires were to mediate.

There are two modes of squire mediation. One mode is to find a squire who is recognized by both parties to come forward.

Another mode is that both sides find a few squires, and everyone sits together to judge.

If people from the same village mostly choose the first mode, but if they are from different villages or even different towns, they generally adopt the second mode.

Jiaobaiwan Village belongs to Hengtang Township, while Jiangwan Village belongs to Mudu Township. If the two families can't find a squire they agree with, they can only choose the second model.

Since Fan Tieniu came from Zijiaobaiwan Village, the place of mediation can only be held at Lizheng Zhou Shuigen's house in Hengtang Township.

Several large tables were set up in the yard, surrounded by several benches. Several old men wearing fur hats and satin jackets sat on the benches and chatted. Tea, melon seeds and snacks were placed on the tables.

A chubby middle-aged man who appeared to be active was holding a plate of good snacks and candies, inviting several elderly people to enjoy them with a smile on his face, and chatting with them from time to time.

This lively, chubby middle-aged man is Fan Tieniu's father-in-law, Lu Yuanwai. His family has [-] acres of land and seven or eight cows. He is the landlord of Jiaobaiwan Village, and his family is very large. There are families of them everywhere in Hengtang Township. relative.

Lu Yuanwai's family property is quite rich, the only regret is that he has no son, only one daughter.

In rural areas in the south of the Yangtze River, this kind of family usually recruits a son-in-law.

Lu Yuanwai has been paying attention to his son-in-law since ten years ago.

In a rush, he met Fan Tieniu by chance who helped him to carry the load back home. He immediately fell in love with Fan Tieniu. He is honest, good-natured and easy to control.

More importantly, Fan Tieniu is strong!

One person carried a load of two hundred catties and walked several miles to send him home without taking a breath.

Lu Yuanwai found Fan Dachuan. Fan Dachuan happened to be worried about his youngest son going to the county school. The two hit it off.

In the countryside of Wu County, there are quite a lot of son-in-laws who come to visit, but there is a characteristic of recruiting son-in-law. The two parties must not match each other. Generally, women are rich and men are poor, and the economic base determines the status of the family.

Therefore, the son-in-law who visits the door usually bows his head and behaves honestly. It is common for the father-in-law to beat him twice and the mother-in-law to scold him a few times.

The problem is that the Fan family is also a small landlord. Fan Dachuan has [-] acres of land, and there is a big Fan family in Mudu Town. Although Fan Tieniu is honest and weak, he still has the dignity of the children of a big family in his heart.

So he couldn't stand the discrimination of the son-in-law who came to visit, and he couldn't stand the father-in-law who always yelled at him and beat him, and fled home every three days, and then the Fan family sent him back, and negotiated a few words by the way.

After a long time, the Lu family also felt humiliated. In addition, Lu Yuanwai was rather mean and petty. Usually fifty or sixty guan would be enough to find a son-in-law, but the Fan family asked him for 200 taels of silver to let Lu The staff members were very upset.

Lu Yuanwai was always thinking about the extra 100 taels he spent, and he wanted to earn back his money, so he treated Fan Tieniu like a cow.

Contradictions are accumulated day by day.

The fuse of this conflict was that Fan Tieniu wanted his daughter to take his own surname. He believed that his son's surname was already Lu, and what his daughter's surname was was not important to the Lu family, but to him, it was a way to regain his dignity.

In order to coax Fan Tieniu into planting [-] mu of land, Lu Yuanwai agreed to him, but after the autumn harvest, Lu Yuanwai found that Fan Tieniu could plant another [-] mu of land.

The honest man was irritated, and the contradictions accumulated over the past few years broke out.

On the other side of the yard, Fan Dachuan was sitting upright, and his four sons were standing behind him. They were silent and serious, in stark contrast to the active Lu Yuan.

Patriarch Fan Dazhi sat on the other side, looking very uncomfortable. He didn't really want to come, but because of face, he didn't want to come.

He thought that Fan Dachuan was to blame for this matter. Why did the dignified Fan family son become someone else's son-in-law, and also hurt the Fan family's reputation.

At this time, Lizheng Zhou Shuigen came out. Lizheng was mainly responsible for collecting taxes from the government, but if there was a conflict between the neighbors, he would bridge the gap, ask the squire to mediate, and then sign as a witness.

Zhou Shuigen clapped his hands and said, "Since everyone is here, let's start!"

He looked at the two families, there were too many Lu family members, dozens of men and women came, while the Fan family only had four or five people, which seemed very asymmetrical.

Zhou Shuigen laughed and said, "Both parties should invite squires!"

What he meant was that this matter should be judged by the squire, and others should not intervene.

Lu Yuanwai quickly stood up and introduced the squire he invited, "This is Li Yuanwai, this is Wang Yuanwai, and Zhao Yuanwai, all of them are highly respected squires."

Several old men nodded slowly, putting on airs.

Zhou Shuigen asked Fan Dachuan again, "May I ask who the squire Fan invited..."

Fan Dachuan pointed to Fan Dazhi next to him, "This is our patriarch, he came to mediate for the Fan family."

As soon as the words fell, Lu Yuanwai's brother jumped up, "It's not okay to do this. Our Lu family invites people with foreign surnames. There is a conflict between the two families. There is no reason for us to ask our own people to judge."

It was indeed very reasonable, the members of the Fan family looked at each other, and they realized that they had made a mistake.

At this time, Zhou Shuigen said to the patriarch Fan Dazhi: "Mr. Fan, let's take a step to talk."

The two went to the side and muttered for a while, then Fan Dazhi walked over to Fan Dachuan and said, "Second brother, it's really not convenient for me to come forward as a mediator, but I can help you talk about it, and take it as the opinion of the Fan family."

The situation changed suddenly, and the three gentry in charge of mediation were all invited by the Lu family, and the Fan family lost the right to speak.

Fan Tiezhou frowned, and said to Zhou Shuigen, "Why don't we come to mediate tomorrow."

Fan Dachuan waved his hand, "No, just today, settle the matter, and we'll go back!"

Fan Dachuan was a little impatient, and he also thought that his third son was too delicate, so he ran home every now and then, not like a door-to-door son-in-law.

Especially Fan Ning's analysis last night made him understand that the Lu family doesn't want a divorce, and if the other party's request is not too much, he is ready to agree.

Zhou Shuigen said with a chuckle: "Since both parties agree, let's start. This mediation was proposed by Lu Yuanwai, so let Lu Yuanwai speak first. What is the Lu family's attitude?"

"We firmly demand a divorce!"

The one who spoke was Lu Yuanwai's brother, named Lu Ah Shui, who was originally a litigator and now works as a civil servant in the county government of Wu county. He is eloquent and very shrewd.

"We feel that Fan Tieniu has no intention of being the son-in-law of the Lu family. He would run back to his parents' house at every turn. Our Lu family is being talked about, as if we abused Fan Tieniu. If you become the door-to-door son-in-law, then you will get a divorce."

Zhou Shuigen nodded, and said to Fan Dachuan, "What about the Fan family's attitude?"

The Fan family is dealt with by the fourth eldest, Fan Tongzhong. He is a scholar, has read the most books, and is more eloquent.

In fact, the second brother Fan Tiege thought it would be better for Fan Ning to come forward, but both Fan Dachuan and Fan Tiezhou disagreed. Fan Dachuan felt that the child would be laughed at if he came forward, while Fan Tiezhou didn't want his son to be involved in this matter.

Fan Tongzhong came out and said calmly: "There are rules for being a door-to-door son-in-law. It doesn't say that beating and scolding casually and not giving food are what a door-to-door son-in-law should bear. My third brother was abused by the Lu family. In fact, the Lu family cannot deny this."

Lu Ah Shui snorted, "A door-to-door son-in-law is half a son. Since he is raised as a son, isn't it normal for his father-in-law and mother-in-law to scold him when he is disobedient? Which door-to-door son-in-law doesn't get scolded? Since Fan Tieniu can't stand scolding , then don’t be this door-in-law, get a divorce! My brother and sister-in-law are too old to stand such a strong door-in-law.”

The Lu family's strategy is very clear, which is to force the Fan family to divorce and seize the weakness of the Fan family.

Zhou Shuigen looked at Patriarch Fan Dazhi, "What about Patriarch Fan's opinion?"

Fan Dazhi said slowly: "I also agree to the divorce!"

Fan Tiezhou glanced at his father in surprise. How did his father talk to the patriarch? If he talks about divorce before he has the moral upper hand, he will suffer a lot in the end.

Fan Dachuan didn't say a word. In fact, he and Fan Dazhi had a quarrel this morning. He blamed his family for not caring about him, while Fan Dazhi blamed him for acting recklessly.

So Fan Dazhi also came here with anger, he only had one attitude, divorce, dissolve this marriage, as for the price of breaking up this marriage, that was Fan Dachuan's business, not his.

Fan Dachuan also sighed and said, "Since this marriage makes everyone dissatisfied, it's fine to leave."

Lu Yuanwai and his brother exchanged glances, they were proud, everything was implemented according to their steps, with a few squires supporting them, this time the Lu family was sure to win.

(End of this chapter)