The soldiers are in chaos, there is not enough to eat, make do with life, there is no money to buy new clothes.
This is people's first impression of the "old society". In those days, talking about life was luxury, and talking about survival was the key.
Why is it called "the old society of all evils"? How evil was the "all evils" of the old society?
For us modern people, it just feels abstract and there is no concrete concept.
And these 16 rare photos may subvert all your imagination of the old society.
All content in this article is officially reliable**, and the specific information is detailed at the end of the article.
A collection of images from German photographers.
In 1930, a man named Heinz. Feng. Perckhammer1895-1965) traveled to China.
His family is a photo studio business, and he has learned a lot of photography skills since he was a child.
This ** was taken somewhere on the outskirts of Macau, where a large group of women were washing clothes by the river, and the environment was very bad.
Heinz. Feng. When Peckhammer pressed the shutter, many people turned to his photographic equipment, perhaps curious about this "big machine".
I don't know if you've noticed, there are a few details in this **, which makes people feel sad.
The first is that the river has a very small flow, or maybe it's not a river, but a small pond that is about to dry up.
There were about a dozen people washing clothes on the shore, but there was not a single bit of foam by the river, so it can be inferred that there was not even washing powder or soap at that time.
In addition, most of these women were carrying children, all of whom were yellow and thin, and looked malnourished.
I'd rather be a dog in a prosperous world than a person in a troubled world, this ** really interprets this sentence.
The child was begging along the street with a container in his hand, perhaps too hungry to walk, so he chose to rest on the steps.
Seeing this situation, the other passers-by were also busy with their own affairs, and were unable to help the poor child.
At this moment, his parents do not know where they are, and the fate of this child can be imagined.
In the old society, when encountering natural and man-made disasters, it was commonplace, and there were people fleeing the famine everywhere.
In order to survive, these people came together, and when they were tired, they took a nap on the street and road, and sometimes they really had nothing to eat, so they went to the field to dig grass roots to satisfy their hunger.
Without food, clothing, plague and war, we would not have imagined how difficult it was to survive at that time.
This is a deserted old man, in the cold winter wax moon, he is on crutches, carrying a woven basket, and there is a dilapidated empty rice bowl inside.
It can be clearly seen that his clothes are rotten, his eyes are hollow, and his expression is very helpless.
Victims like him, once they break away from the main army, don't know how far they can go.
A mother with five children, there was no concept of family planning at that time, and many children died soon after birth due to nutrition and disease.
And the children in ** seem to be in good health, only the mother looks haggard, she has paid too much for this family.
The men who were begging on the streets, hungry and unable to walk, crawled on the ground with difficulty.
His clothes had long since been rotted into a piece of cloth, and his right hand seemed to be injured, but fortunately, many people were attracted by his miserable appearance.
A good Samaritan threw him a few pieces of change, and there was still a little water left in the bowl next to him.
Everything we see is almost all the survival resources of this man, and that kind of eyes eager to live are really unforgettable.
The little girl rested on the stone steps as a pillow, her mouth half-open, and she looked like she hadn't eaten for days.
* on the man is not just from the sheepskin of the **, draped on the body to keep warm.
He had no clothes other than this sheepskin, not even a full pair of trousers.
In the wasteland on the outskirts, several people were cutting the bark of trees, and the grass on the ground was eaten up by the people at that time.
Normally, the young and strong will climb the tree and pluck the leaves to cook porridge and drink.
However, the leaves will soon be eaten, and only the bark can be eaten, which is a coarse plant fiber with little nutrients and is difficult to digest.
Some people couldn't poop for several days after eating the bark, some were swollen with their bellies, and some were pierced by branches.
At that time, I was so hungry that I had no choice but to chop the bark with a machete, soak it in water and soften it before eating.
In some areas, there is a shortage of water, and there is no suitable pot to process the bark, so the victims simply hold on to the trunk and eat.
Although the trunk of the tree has dried up, this does not stop people from eating it in the slightest, after all, there is nothing left except the trunk of the tree that is left with an endless amount of loess.
The two children fell asleep on the side of the road, their thighs as thin as arms, and their bodies and faces covered with dust.
Such things are not uncommon in the old society, and the picture is too sad to bear.
The scrawny victim crawled on the ground, his clothes gone, like a skeleton.
He still has Qing Dynasty braids on his head, as many people in the old society did, unwilling to abandon national traditions.
The tree had been stripped of its bark, but there were still people with machetes looking for something to eat, and a child was standing next to it.
There are now many ** farmers who grow corn in our country, but at that barren end of the year, ordinary people could not even afford to buy seeds.
Whoever picks up a corn cob on the street is like picking up a treasure, taking it home and chopping it up to make soup, and it can survive for a few days.
This is a victim fleeing the famine, with the railway behind him, and at that time there was no map, so he could only walk along the railway tracks.
It seems that the family is too hungry to walk, and the two children are very pitiful.
The large army was digging in the southern grasslands, probably in search of plant rhizomes, which were considered superior food at the time.
As you can see from their dress, these people are farmers, and it is obvious that their own land does not grow a farmer.
Behind all this, the "evil" of the old society is reflected, and the peasants have been farming all their lives, but in the end they are starved to death, which is really ironic.
A woman was towing a farm cart with a person on board, and it was not difficult to tell from the fixed rope that it was a corpse.
Maybe this is the body of her loved one, and the Chinese pay attention to entering the soil for safety, which is the last thing she can do.
In the old society, some people went out to sit in a sedan chair spotlessly, and this child could only sit obediently in his grandfather's burden.
Compared to others, this child is happy, at least accompanied by relatives, and does not need to beg alone on the streets.
In the past, I often heard the older generation say that when I was a child, I didn't have to wear the clothes of the poor, and there were only two or three clothes in a family of more than a dozen people, and whoever went out wore them.
If anyone's clothes don't have patches, the rate of turning heads when walking on the street is quite high, and it can even be said that it is out of tune with the times.
In winter, if there is no food, they simply stay at home and do not go out, work more and eat more, and sleep without fear of hunger.
In some places, the living conditions are relatively better, but there are often bandits who occupy the mountains as kings, and the life of the people is not easy.
In the Central Plains, several people wearing ** are particularly conspicuous, judging from their equipment, they should not be regular troops.
The man on the right with a machete, full of oil and water, forms a strong contrast with the others around him, and he can see at a glance who is the official.
This photo was taken in a temple in Mongolia, where several monks sat around and were playing chess.
The temple was perhaps the perfect sanctuary for those days, where the monks had a daily meal to eat and a free time to entertain.
Mongolia is a vast and sparsely populated country with endless steppes, so food is relatively not so scarce.
In Beijing in 1930, in a dilapidated thatched hut, children listened attentively.
Although we can't tell whether this is a formal school or a private school founded by a businessman, one thing is certain: these children are from wealthy families.
At that time, there was no state support for schooling, tuition fees were very expensive, and the salary of a teacher was very high.
I just don't know what the fate of these children will be in the future, after all, the old society didn't pay much attention to intellectuals, and most of them were illiterate.
The woman looked like a big family, and her clothes were neat and tidy, and she had small shoes to wear.
The people behind him, all tall and burly, very strong, may be from the landlord's family.
The peasants in the fields were ploughing, and many of them had no work at that time, so they had to work for the landlords in exchange for food.
The most common business is farming, and the average landlord makes money from grain and then spends money to buy larger fields.
Through the inheritance of several generations of the family, these farms have accumulated more and more, so much that they can no longer grow them themselves, so they have to hire others to work from outside.
This is how landlords came into being, and as time went on, there were more and more peasants in society, and the landlords became richer and richer.
However, the peasants did not have their own fields, so they could only rely on the weather for food, and in the event of a catastrophe and famine, the peasants were hungry.
Therefore, if the peasants have the opportunity, they will also choose the local owner, after all, there was no industry in those days, and the capital could only flow in this way.
If the cycle continues, it is easy to breed many social problems, such as the peasants' low enthusiasm for work, the oppression of landlords, and so on.
You must know that the land in the past is not like now, it has been modernized, and the rice varieties have been carefully cultivated.
At that time, there was very little grain per acre of land, and there were many people who needed to be fed, so food was always in a state of tension.
* During the period, there were warlords fighting everywhere, and the people lived in fear.
Some people had to flee their homes to escape the war, but in general, the countryside was relatively safe.
However, in remote places, it is easy to breed bandits, who have guns and food, and many people choose to take refuge in them.
This ** was also taken in 1930, and the landlord in the picture sat in front of the house, and his life was very nourishing.
Actually, Heinz. Feng. Peckhammer has not only photographed these ** in China, he has released many ** episodes in China, including "China and the Chinese", "Baimei Film", "Beijing" and so on.
The truth of these streets** is enough to make us feel the evil of the old society.
Text|Uncle Luo Ying.
Edit|Uncle Luo Ying.
Reference: Heinz. Feng. Peckhammer – China and the Chinese, 1930 (photo).
Heinz. Feng. Peckhammer – Beijing, 1930 (pictured).