Qipian's Book of Artifice: Difference between revisions
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'''Qipian's Book of Artifice''' is a treatise on scams and chicanery written by the eunuch Qipian, a famous bandit leader in the late Chen dynasty. Penned and distributed to his forces as a practical guide for raising money through illegal means, it would become a blueprint to follow for Corummese criminal organizations long after the author's capture and execution. Qipian's band were behind one of the first | '''Qipian's Book of Artifice''' is a treatise on scams and chicanery written by the eunuch Qipian, a famous bandit leader in the late Chen dynasty. Penned and distributed to his forces as a practical guide for raising money through illegal means, it would become a blueprint to follow for Corummese criminal organizations long after the author's capture and execution. Qipian's band were behind one of the first pyramid schemes in history, taking money from investors for 'carrying on an undertaking of great advantage' that ended in the collapse of Qaxi's provincial economy. | ||
===Background=== | ===Background=== | ||
Qipian was a former minor functionary working in a regional office of the Imperial treasury. After being found tampering with tax records and pocketing some of the revenue he fled back to his home village and used some of the stolen funds to recruit local vagrants and his own family members into a bandit force. Being a former official that was able to write, read and with knowledge of arithmetic and other subjects gave Qipian a leg-up when it came to running his band and in addition to common banditry in the countryside, he had his followers engage in more sophisticated crimes which were harder to detect and would not immediately provoke provintial law enforcement into action. He codified the majority of these money making schemes into a pamphlet that would later be used against him at his trial, the so called Book of Artifice. | Qipian was a former minor functionary working in a regional office of the Imperial treasury. After being found tampering with tax records and pocketing some of the revenue he fled back to his home village and used some of the stolen funds to recruit local vagrants and his own family members into a bandit force. Being a former official that was able to write, read and with knowledge of arithmetic and other subjects gave Qipian a leg-up when it came to running his band and in addition to common banditry in the countryside, he had his followers engage in more sophisticated crimes which were harder to detect and would not immediately provoke provintial law enforcement into action. He codified the majority of these money making schemes into a pamphlet that would later be used against him at his trial, the so called Book of Artifice. | ||