There was a huge crisis lurking in the Qing Empire-the cancer of luxury, arrogance and corruption grew rapidly in the prosperous times, eroding and destroying the body of the country and society day by day. When the imperial court was complacent about Gan Long's literacy skills and indulged in the prosperous times, the Qing Dynasty quickly fell from the peak of the prosperous times, and soon fell from the prosperous times of Kanggan to the prosperous times of Jiadao. The decline came, and everything happened during the Qianlong period. The literary martial arts and economy in the Qianlong period were the result of the efforts of the previous generation, and Qianlong basically enjoyed the success. Just at this time, the whole court, from the emperor to officials at all levels, was overjoyed. The rulers relaxed their bureaucracy and abandoned the tradition of being honest and simple, and extravagance became increasingly popular. Because Qianlong was overjoyed and arrogant, the military affairs in the DPRK continued. The so-called perfection, protracted, wasting people and money. Although the fiscal revenue of the Qianlong dynasty increased compared with the previous generation, the expenditure increased faster and the growth rate of the national treasury reserve slowed down greatly. By the time Jiaqing changed the yuan, it was already a huge empty shelf, which made Jiaqing have to get a peace? Open the knife and supplement the national use. At the same time, behind the increase of fiscal revenue in the Qianlong dynasty, abnormal sources of income (including donations, merchant services, salt and Tianjin increase, pool maintenance and even selling officials and titles) have been increasing and become the norm. Although these abnormal incomes can alleviate the temporary emergency, they are tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst for the government and the country and society. The national finance relies on a large amount of abnormal income, which has already seen the clue of corruption in the Qing Dynasty and will inevitably eventually decline. The more basic and decisive reason for the rapid decline of the Qing Dynasty is the extravagance, arrogance and corruption of the whole bureaucratic system and even the whole society in a closed and arrogant environment. After being rich, the ruling and opposition parties are ignorant of the times, unable to see the changes in the overall situation of the world, losing the direction and motivation to move on, coveting the luxury enjoyment in front of them and pursuing the extravagant life of partying and getting drunk. The wind of greed, extravagance and greed spread all over the officialdom, which made the seemingly powerful Qing Dynasty lurk a huge crisis of social chaos and decline and collapse. In his later years, the extravagance and corruption of Kangxi rose, and was later controlled by strict economy and hell to pay during the Yongzheng period. When Qianlong arrived, with the prosperity of economy and abundant financial resources, the wind of extravagance and corruption revived and intensified. Ganlong made six trips to the south of the Yangtze River, toured the mountains and waters, took a ride along the way to bid farewell, and paid tribute to Daxing, which was unprecedented in luxury and costly. Ganlong takes the lead and the demonstration effect is unparalleled. Officials, large and small, take advantage of opportunities such as driving to be extremely luxurious. In order to talk about ostentation and extravagance, they tried their best to share donations, bribe and blackmail. As a result, the bad style of corruption has intensified. However, the righteousness of obeying the law, being diligent and thrifty, being honest and honest is increasingly isolated. From the emperor down, no matter the princes and nobles, officials, big landlords and big businessmen, they all lead a life of feasting and drunkenness, especially the Manchu you cherish, which is most polluted by luxury and lewdness. Manchu Akdang Arenhuai has been the governor for more than ten years, and there are countless people who are fat and rich, so they are called "God of Wealth". The luxury of Han bureaucrats is similar. Most officials, big or small, go home empty-handed. When they go home, they pull carts and carry boats. The extravagant life of the ruling class is accompanied by widespread corruption and corruption of power institutions. In the process of the superficial prosperity and decline of the Qing Dynasty, corruption spread like cancer cells in the body of the country and society, damaging the health of the country. During the Yongzheng period, he was determined to reform the long-standing abuses, practice "returning envy to the people", substantially increase the salary of officials ("fostering honesty"), rectify official management, and fight corruption with an iron fist to recover compensation, so that the wind of corruption was temporarily restrained. By the time of Qianlong, the bureaucracy was expanding and aging, and the efficiency of administrative operation was getting lower and lower. Because the emperor took the lead in extravagant corruption, the corrupt cells lurking in the bureaucracy lost their inhibitory power, and they obtained crazy environmental conditions. Bribery and corruption have become the norm in the ruling and opposition circles. In the middle and late Qianlong period, major corruption cases occurred one after another. 1757, the "Golden Furnace Case" occurred between Governor Heng Wen of Yunnan and Governor Guo of Yunnan. In the process of operating the tribute furnace, the two men bought low and sold high, adulterated and faked, and pocketed their own money. In the same year, another case of embezzlement of funds occurred when Jiang Zhou, governor of Shandong Province, was the governor of Shanxi Province. After the incident, Hengwen was ordered to commit suicide, Jiangzhou was punished and Guo was exiled. Subsequently, three salt cases occurred successively in Gaofeng, Pufu and Lu Jianzeng, and the amount of corruption reached100000 (equivalent to14 of the annual income of the Qing government). After the incident, all three were punished. However, since then, major corruption cases have not decreased, but have increased. 178 1 year, Zhejiang Governor Wang. Participated in corruption relief in Gansu, involving more than 60 officials, Wang? I hope that 22 people will be punished, and the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu involved in the case, Jin Erjin, committed suicide. Moreover, the case was established in the case. Chen Huizu, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, who investigated the case, exchanged gold for silver in the process of seizing property and took Wang's stolen goods for himself. After the incident, Chen Huizu was ordered to commit suicide. 1782 There was another case in which the Governor of Shandong, Guotai and Buzheng, embezzled the state treasury, and Cathay committed suicide after the case. 1786 Wu Lanna, Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Pulin, Governor of Fujian, were punished for demanding bribes. 1792, Song Fu, the governor of Zhejiang Province, committed suicide for asking for bribes and misappropriating public funds. Although a number of corrupt people have been slaughtered, and many of them are governors, governors and other senior officials, the wind of corruption in officialdom is getting worse and worse, because it is being done harmoniously. This is the root of corruption. In punishing greed, they actually took the opportunity to "slaughter fat ducks" and make a fortune. The result is tantamount to greed. These major cases are just the tip of the iceberg of corruption cases. The above-mentioned crimes were punished by the viceroy, all of which were revealed and could not be concealed, and the rest were not reported. And then what? Under the protection of Qianlong, he was in power for more than 20 years, and the value of stolen private property reached 654.38 billion yuan, equivalent to the government's fiscal revenue for two years at that time. Even two of his servants were robbed of more than 7 million yuan. Therefore, there was a folk saying at that time: "and? When it falls, Jiaqing is full. " J The officialdom in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Han Dynasty was obviously corrupt at that time, but Qianlong still pretended to be deaf and dumb, whitewashed peace and refused to listen to advice. 1790, Yin Zhuang, assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, showed a lack of enthusiasm and advised: "Governors and officials are notorious and lax in official management. I passed by and observed whether the officials were virtuous. Half of the businessmen and the people frowned and sighed. Generally speaking, the atmosphere in all provinces is the same "(Zhao Erxun: Draft of the History of Qing Dynasty 109). Qianlong was furious after seeing it. First, he was sentenced to "beheading" for the crime of "deceiving the public and falsely remonstrating", and then he was relegated to avoid the reputation of Cheng Yin Zhuang's loyal remonstrance. In this atmosphere of only listening to good words, ignoring rules and advice, avoiding illness and avoiding medical treatment, protecting officials from each other, shielding them from top to bottom, collecting money and not accepting bribes, regardless of whether the people live or die, officials of all sizes are persisting, deceiving their superiors and deceiving their subordinates, and are ineffective and ineffective. Cao Zhenyong was a famous celebrity in Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang Dynasties, and he was a very important official. His way of being an official is "kowtow more and talk less". It was these people who governed the country in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, and the consequences could be imagined. Corruption was also the direct cause of the disintegration of the Qing military and the decline of the army's combat effectiveness. The army is the pillar of the state machine and the guarantee of national prosperity and social stability. In the middle and late Qianlong period, with political corruption, there was a phenomenon of military slack and abandonment of military equipment. The Eight Banners soldiers in the early Qing Dynasty were brave and good at fighting. When entering the customs, he was invincible and made great contributions to defining the Central Plains and unifying the whole country. However, after only one generation, the Eight Banners and the Manchu Dynasty degenerated and decayed due to various privileges and lost the heroic spirit of their ancestors. In Kangxi's campaign to quell the "San Francisco rebellion", the Eight Banners' military discipline was lax and their military strength was not as good as before. Since then, the children of the Eight Banners and the Eight Banners soldiers have become more arrogant and lazy. With the power in their hands, they run amok and do all kinds of evil. Not only military discipline is corrupt, training is sparse, life is corrupt, drug abuse, gambling, whoring, and even extortion and trampling on the people. The Eight Banners soldiers have become masters who can't fight but only disturb the people, and the children of the Eight Banners have become idle dandies and black sheep living in the open land. Later, there was a war in the imperial court, mainly relying on green camp. However, in a corrupt social environment, people in green camp are also rapidly corrupt, embezzling military salaries, colluding with soldiers and bandits, and corruption has become a common practice, which can only scare ordinary people. When Emperor Jiaqing was the Crown Prince, he had a military parade with Qianlong, but what he saw was "archery, empty arrow; The farce of running a horse to the ground (Volume 7 of Jiaqing Chaodong Lu Hua, the first month of Jiaqing 4th year). Because both the Eight Banners and green camp were corrupted and lost their fighting capacity, the Qing Dynasty had to mainly use Xiang Yong and Ying Yong in the social uprising in An Baili. By the time of the Opium War, the Eight Banners, green camp, Xiang Yong and Yingyong were all useless, and hundreds of thousands of Qing troops were defeated by more than 10,000 British expeditionary forces. Since then, the Qing Dynasty has fallen into the abyss of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Due to the imperialist invasion and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising and other civil strife, the situation in the Qing Dynasty became increasingly out of control and corruption became more and more serious. The military, political and financial power gradually shifted outward, and the central authority gradually decreased. Under the impact of internal troubles and foreign invasion and the erosion of internal corruption, the Qing Dynasty gradually went to the point of no return. The inevitable consequence of extravagant corruption in bureaucratic institutions is to intensify the oppression and exploitation of ordinary people, leading to the increasing poverty of the general public. Bureaucrats, nobles, landlords and wealthy businessmen have swallowed up a lot of land, and more and more farmers have lost their land. There are also a large number of farmers who can't stand extortion, abandon their fields and flee, lose their livelihood and wander around. The number of social refugees has increased dramatically, social instability factors have increased day by day, class contradictions have become increasingly acute, and a major social storm is brewing. 1796 In February, the Anbaili uprising broke out, which lasted for nine years and swept through five provinces including Hubei and Sichuan. The Qing dynasty mobilized troops from 16 province, and it took 22,000 yuan to put out the uprising. Anbaili Uprising stripped off the coat of prosperity of the Qing Dynasty, exposed its decadent and weak essence, and became a turning point for the decline of the Qing Dynasty.