Against Slavery: Pure and Remote Hotel

COOL POEMS: Introduction > THE POEMS

Topic: Against Slavery

Author: Fan Chengda (1126-1191)

Pure and Remote Hotel

Author’s original preface: “Prior to my stay in Dingxing county, two slaves had the two words “ran away” tattooed onto their faces. I heard that their master had privately and personally committed the act. Although the law were to threaten death for such acts, it would be insufficient to stop the practice.”

Dripping sweat, she chases the carpeted carriage;
I’ve heard her brothers live over in Huaixiang.
Slaughter a man slave, kill a female slave, either way officials don’t inquire.
Tatooing the face would be too light a punishment for such a crime!

Comments: In 989 Song Emperor Taizong made illegal the practice of privately tattooing slaves as punishment. Noting that even slaves, originally, were ordinary people, he commanded that punishment for slaves accused of crimes be determined through the proper authorities. In this edict it is evident that slaves, too, are min, or citizens, and come under the protection of the law. Still, just as African-Americans often suffered abuse despite the civil rights laws of the ‘60’s, so in China were slaves sometimes abused even though these practices were technically illegal. Under such circumstances, public opinion often was the only channel for reform. In Song China, poetry was a common medium for public debate, and it is here that we find infractions of the legal system exposed. Fan Chengda (1126-1191) once noticed an instance of illegal treatment of slaves and so published this poem exposing the officials who should have prosecuted the case. Notice that his argument for the dignity of slaves is essentially a Mencian argument. She, too, has a family which lives in a particular community and so, like us, is human and deserves dignity and respect. Such arguments are effective because we normally dehumanize certain categories of person by removing all vestiges of personal qualities (they’re simply portrayed as Asian, or Islamic, or whatever). Fan restores personal qualities to this slave, making it impossible for us to dismiss her simply as “one of them.”

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