Chapter 1890 - Progress Through Setbacks
"Whether Lu Xun knew what he was talking about, we won't discuss," Wen Desi said. "What do you plan to do now?"
"Public resentment is boiling. The Sentiment Reports don't look optimistic—there's even a trend of denying all the good policies we've implemented since entering the city." Lin Motian couldn't help waxing lyrical. "My personal disgrace doesn't matter, but all the efforts of so many comrades will have been in vain."
Wen Desi smiled without speaking—this was obviously a "preamble," and what would follow was surely "considering the overall situation."
"...I'm thinking about whether to establish a special infectious disease cemetery somewhere sparsely populated in Guangzhou's suburbs, where all infection deaths would be uniformly buried. Of course, we'd need to take sanitary measures: corpses disinfected first, then deeply buried, ensuring they don't become new infection sources. This way we could both ease citizens' hostile sentiments and achieve the isolation effect."
Wen Desi laughed after hearing this and set his cigar on the ashtray. "Comrade Lin Motian, what do you think all of us abandoned our comfortable twenty-first-century lives and came to this timeline to do?"
Lin Motian was taken aback. His thinking was actually simple—he just hadn't wanted to spend time in a hospital working his way up to associate director, then director. He said: "Nothing more than seeking glory and riches. Of course, there's also an element of realizing personal ideals."
"Glory and riches—for us now, that's too easy. If all we wanted was that, why would we bother coming to this filthy, chaotic medieval city, risking plague infection to do all this? Whether Guangzhou's common people die from plague or starvation—how is that our concern?"
"..." Lin Motian hadn't expected Wen Desi to speak so bluntly.
"We came to this timeline, whatever each person's purpose may be, to do just one thing—build a new world!" Wen Desi waved his hand and declared loudly. "Whether our comrades want to found their own schools and become academic powers, become landlord tyrants who bully men and seize women, become high officials whose every call is answered, or just to build a maid ethnography museum—without smashing the old world and building a new one, none of it can be done."
Lin Motian stared at Wen Desi in astonishment. He had had little interaction with Chief Wen—he'd only heard him give formal speeches at public occasions and had never spoken with him privately before.
"Precisely because we want to build a new world, when plague is spreading, we stay in the city, working and living under its shadow. You're here racking your brains. If you ask me: simply burning Guangzhou to the ground, people and buildings alike—is there any cleaner, more convenient purification measure than that?"
Now Lin Motian trembled slightly. He realized Wen Desi wasn't saying this as mere big talk—he had genuinely considered it.
"That... that doesn't seem appropriate," he said quietly.
"Of course it's not appropriate. But it's still an option as a last resort," Wen Desi said. "But here's the thing—since we're going to build a new world, we inevitably have to destroy the old world. If we spend all day hesitating, worrying about what the natives will think, not wanting to offend this person, wanting to respect that custom—then what did we come here for?"
Lin Motian understood Wen Desi's meaning. "But popular sentiment..."
"Popular sentiment, yes, popular sentiment must be respected." Wen Desi nodded. "Tell me then, purely in terms of fighting plague, which is more advanced—our epidemic prevention measures, or traditional methods?"
"Naturally our methods are more advanced."
"Exactly. We clearly possess advanced technology and methods, we represent the direction of development, yet we should compromise and yield to meaningless, even ignorant and backward, self-harming traditional customs, just because they're 'popular sentiment'—don't you find that strange?"
Lin Motian thought: that's exactly what I think! But the fact was, it was hard to handle. He had always firmly believed that violent methods weren't all-powerful. The Qing dynasty's queue order was indeed implemented through ruthless methods, but the consequences were decades of anti-Qing uprisings one after another.
Before Lin Motian could answer, Wen Desi continued: "What we're implementing now is merely cremation of disease victims' corpses—at most a technical epidemic prevention measure. It doesn't even touch the edges of 'changing customs.' If we back down today, whenever future livelihood measures encounter citizen opposition, should we back down too? Besides, if we back down today, the families of those whose corpses were burned yesterday will have complaints—why is it that just one night later, the Old Wang family next door doesn't have to be burned? Won't all our previous work be wasted? You know the propaganda personnel are still out there explaining 'only by cremating disease-death corpses can we cut off the infection source.' If tomorrow it becomes 'centralized deep burial is also fine,' wouldn't what the propagandists said before become lies? With orders changing morning and evening, where would our credibility be?"
Lin Motian nodded. These words touched him.
"Have you read Peter the Great? Haven't? Then let me recite a passage for you. It made a deep impression on me when I read it." Wen Desi thought for a moment, then recited: "'Most important is the people, people, people! Drag them out of the swamps of ages, pry open their eyes, poke them in the ribs... Beat them, twist them, teach them, make something of them... Travel thousands of miles through snow, trudge through mud... Destroy, build... Looking back, he truly felt a bit horrified: Hey, what kind of mountain is that, that hasn't been moved yet!'"
He smiled meaningfully. "Before us is exactly such a mountain."
"I understand now." Lin Motian had made up his mind by this point. "The epidemic prevention measures already announced cannot be changed!"
Wen Desi took a deep puff of his cigar and asked: "What kind of citizens in Guangzhou do you think are currently opposing cremation of disease victims' corpses?"
Lin Motian was momentarily puzzled, then said: "All citizens oppose it, I believe. Looking at the sentiment reports, there's opposition everywhere. The Chamber of Commerce has also come to persuade..."
"I'd say those who truly, strongly oppose cremation are those who can afford decent burial plots and coffins. As for most citizens, busy all day, earning barely enough for three meals, with no provisions for the morrow... do you think they're so sensitive about what happens after they die?"
"Well..." Lin Motian hesitated. "That may be so, but the concept that 'one's body, hair, and skin come from parents and mustn't be damaged' is also universally accepted by common people..."
"That only shows we haven't grasped control of the discourse," Wen Desi said. "I think we should start precisely with this portion of lower-class people who can't read yet still hold Confucian mindsets."
"How do we do that?" Lin Motian was now grasping at straws. Chief Wen's earlier words had certainly dispelled his hesitation and strengthened his resolve to continue strictly implementing all quarantine and epidemic prevention measures. But the problems he faced remained unsolved. He still had to confront the possibility of conflicts from insisting on cremating disease-death corpses.
"How are the ashes of disease victims being handled after cremation now?"
"Abandoned corpses are buried on site. Those with relatives can collect the ashes with their corpse slip and do whatever they want with them. If they want to buy land for burial, that's not prohibited," Lin Motian said. "Actually, that counts as 'resting in peace in the earth' too. But many people simply don't come to collect the ashes—in the end it's still handled as an unclaimed corpse."
"Among disease victims, the poor must be the majority."
"Yes. Bubonic plague is mainly transmitted by fleas, and lower-class people have nearly one hundred percent flea infestation rates," Lin Motian said. "If we had adequate public bathhouses, that situation would improve considerably..."
"You see, more lower-class people die. After these disease victims are cremated, there's nowhere to bury them—even if there were, it would just be in the pauper's field. The pauper's fields in Guangzhou, I've seen them. Mostly bones piled on bones, pits that can't even be dug deep. Never mind bones being washed out when the rain is heavy—sometimes a newly buried body is dug up by wild dogs that very night. It's really no different from leaving the corpse in the wilderness. Just self-comfort. We should work on their afterlife matters."
"So..."
"Didn't you want to establish a disease victims' cemetery? That plan is good—we should still build it. Pick a place with good feng shui. Make the buildings and landscaping refined. In short, no less impressive than the family cemeteries of wealthy households. Any disease victims' ashes whose families can't afford burial themselves—whether they have relatives or are unclaimed—can all be buried in the public cemetery. Of course, if rich people want to, they're welcome too. Everyone gets a headstone. The cemetery will have a Disease Victims' Memorial Hall, with public memorial services in all four seasons—what ordinary person ever gets this kind of treatment? Though the body was cremated, at least they're resting in peace in a site with excellent feng shui, with offerings made in all seasons."
"This way we'll occupy the moral high ground!" Lin Motian exclaimed.
"Exactly," Wen Desi said. "Common people's thinking is actually very simple: they want to 'benefit.' Even a tiny advantage can comfort quite a few people. When all is said and done, what right do urban poor in this timeline have to fuss about what happens after death? Sharing a pauper's grave piled with other corpses is their final destination. All this talk about 'body, hair, and skin that mustn't be damaged' is just people parroting each other without thinking. If we give them a real, tangible benefit and they see it for themselves, they'll naturally be grateful to us. Besides, providing pauper's graves has always been considered charity—even those pedantic Confucians can't find fault with it."
"Chief Wen, you're absolutely right!" Lin Motian suddenly felt as if clouds had parted to reveal the sun, nodding vigorously with excitement. "I think we can even make it more solemn—for instance, have Mayor Liu conduct public memorial services, have Daoist Cui perform a few jiao rituals, organize a grand salvation ceremony..."
"Besides New Taoism, Buddhism and Catholicism can both get involved. All beings are equal—all religions should be equal too." Wen Desi smiled. "I believe there are plenty more ideas to come up with. Since we can't bring ourselves to use fire to burn down the old world and rebuild afresh, at least we can make progress through setbacks."
Author's Note: Tomorrow's update will be Section 9 of Volume 7—Liangguang Campaign.
(End of Chapter)