I recall coming across this phrase when talking to one of my Feng Shui teachers, a highly educated professor of psychology who also happens to be a 22^th generation family lineage Feng Shui and Yi Jing master. This school of Feng Shui uses the Chinese Lo Pan, or geomantic compass and the Yi Jing to determine the Feng Shui of a location. The Lo Pan is itself extremely complex, requiring considerable training and education to use.

I asked him about the differences between his school of Feng Shui and another more popular one that is much less complicated. For example, instead of calculating the direction of the front door and then deriving the Yi Jing directional correspondences, the popular school simply says, “open your front door, that is South.”

He said “That is ignorant peasant Feng Shui. They don’t have the proper education to use the complete method, so there is a simplified one for them to use.” His comment, though said humorously was not a put-down, but a statement of fact. He used “ignorant” in the sense of its original meaning.

The second way of using “ignorant peasants” is decidedly pejorative. In 1956, when schools and universities where closed on the mainland, leadership positions in government and industry where given to loyalists. These people no doubt fought bravely and supported the new government, but they were often former revolutionary farmers ill-trained for managing enterprises, that is, the poster children for “ignorant peasants.” Because their positions gave them power, they were feared, but they were not respected. People called them “ignorant peasants” behind their back. Eventually the term developed an extended usage as a put down, regardless of the actual competence of the individual.

I came across the use of the term as a put down when talking to a moderately famous (in China) Xing Yi practitioner. The question I asked him was “Why do some Xing Yi schools practice their five element fists in different orders?” His answer was “The fists should only be practiced in the generating cycle of the Wu Xing like we do it in our school. We have the original style of Xing Yi. Probably the other schools that do it differently were founded by ignorant peasants who didn’t understand the five elements.”

When I meet another teacher of an art I already study, sometimes I will ask simple questions about well known differences between the various schools to gauge the person’s point of view and personality. In this case, although the teacher was a very nice person and very good at his style of Xing Yi, his views were pretty narrow minded.

There are valid reasons from both martial and Qigong perspectives to practice the five element fists in different orders (for example, you can practice them in the controlling cycle). If this teacher did not know of these other reasons, then he is ignorant. If he knew of them but disagreed, there really was no good reason to put the other schools down. Rather, he seemed to relish the opportunity to “Bian Di Bie Ren Tai Gao Zi Ji” to put others down in order to build his school up.

It is hard to keep a straight face when the person you are talking to tells you everyone else is wrong and he is the best because they are ignorant peasants. He was acting like an “ignorant peasant” in the original sense of the term.

However, we should resist the temptation to judge him too harshly. He may not even be even aware of what he’s doing. Instead we should learn from him – learn what not to do! What not to do is sometimes the best lesson we can learn from some people.

Learn not to be an “ignorant peasant.”

Next, we walk up the side of mountain to an ancestral temple. It’s a little run-down, local temple but it’s still used by the villagers. We observed the offering and sacrifice of a chicken. A couple had just bought a new car so they sacrificed a chicken in thanks and for protection.

We continue our tour by walking further up to another temple. This one is dedicated to all three philosophies – Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist. Many westerners find it unusual to combine different belief systems like the Chinese. Sometimes we get carried away with external forms and forget that truth is greater than any system of truth.

We were allowed to enter the upper meditation chamber of the temple – which was Taoist. It is very rare for tourists to be allowed to go into the upper mediation chamber of a functioning temple. It is only because we are in such a remote village that sees very few tourists – I wonder how long it will last…

Our group ended the day with a TCM Tui Na massage by deaf masseuses from Dali. Chinese Tui Na massage is not like the normal massage found in the west. They use acupuncture points to open blockages along the meridians to improve Qi circulation.

Unfortunately, things got worse after the Tang. The following dynasty, the Song, instituted neo-Confucianism, a bastardized version of the real thing focused on rigid societal control. This was great if you were in charge, but pretty much sucked for everyone else. It had a dramatic and detrimental impact on Chinese culture that endures to this day – a theme we may explore more in the future.

Succeeding dynasties were not better. Certainly there were brief periods of cultural revival, but the general trend was downward. This culminated in the Cultural Revolution of the 20th century, which went a long way towards wiping out most of the authentic traditional Chinese culture on the mainland.

That is why some of the best, most authentic Chinese culture is found outside of mainland China, especially in the case of the Chinese traditional martial arts. A word of caution is in order here though — It really pisses mainland Chinese off when you say stuff like this, even though it’s true. Keep in mind that, truth, especially when unpleasant, is not something anyone likes to hear. They know it, but don’t “lose their face” by pointing out what is obvious to anyone with a passing familiarity with history.

More recently, since the re-opening of China to the west, there has been a resurgence of interest in traditional culture. “Ancient temples” are being newly built, scholars are researching the classics, and Wushu is big. Unfortunately, most of the mainstream revival is only a caricature of the real thing. But what’s even worse is that the average person doesn’t realize it’s a caricature.

To be fair though, you can’t say there is no traditional Chinese culture left on the mainland. China’s a big place with a lot of people. Even the most brutal campaign of repression could not stamp it all out (although they did a pretty good job trying.) Real Chinese culture does survive in very small quantities, fairly well hidden. But this doesn’t change the fact that much what survived did so because it was spread overseas to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Southeast Asia, and to the West.