Growing sales force and title:
Selling officials and titles has existed since ancient times. Throughout the history of the Qing dynasty, this is also a phenomenon that exists in various periods. This does not come from prosperity, and of course it will not be prosperous in the end. Selling officials and titles existed as early as Kangxi and Yongzheng. Yong Zhengdi's favourite Li Jue is also a benefactor. But in the late Qianlong period, selling officials and titles began to become the root of corruption. Officials at all levels clearly mark the price. How much money a county magistrate spent, how much money a governor spent, and the geometry used by a governor are all clearly marked. Some wealthy gentry or junior officials pay a lot of money to buy the office they want. After these people came to power, they stepped up exploitation of the people in order to get back the money spent on buying officials. Emperor Qianlong could not have been unaware of this phenomenon, but after the mid-Qianlong period, due to the frequent use of foreign troops, famine continued everywhere, and the court often lacked money, so Emperor Qianlong always turned a blind eye to it, neither asked nor stopped it. Although selling officials and titles leads to corruption, it is only the most superficial corruption, and the deepest corruption lies in the emperor himself.
Tributes from all over the world:
In his early years, Qianlong was very resistant to such things as giving gifts and tribute. At one time, he thought it was enough to attack such things. However, in his later years, Qianlong was keen on exquisite utensils because of his great joy. He demanded perfection in tribute and reached the peak of material enjoyment. Some ministers in their later years, such as Cathay Pacific, Li Shiyao and Wang Danwang, were experts in tribute. These tribute experts were unintentionally involved in corruption cases, and these tribute officials took the opportunity to search for people's money under the banner of paying tribute to the emperor, and the people were the ultimate victims. Emperor Qianlong not only asked officials to pay tribute, but also often took the opportunity to ask officials to pay tribute. Gan Long made six southern tours in his life, and each time he returned empty-handed and loaded. In order to please the emperor, local officials spared no effort to search for all kinds of rare treasures for the emperor. After the mid-Qianlong period, this trend became more and more serious, with lax administration and corrupt discipline.
The notorious negotiating bank system:
Another system criticized during the Qianlong period was the negotiation bank system. It was none other than Xiao Shenyang, a famous corrupt official in history, who put forward this notorious system. The so-called negotiation bank system itself is a practice of abusing power for personal gain. The power of national laws and regulations originally belonged to the state and not to the emperor himself. However, the negotiation bank system in Little Shenyang openly sold the national laws, and the money after the sale did not belong to the state but to the emperor himself. In fact, the personal behavior of corrupt officials was raised to the state behavior. The state machine became a tool for Qianlong, the behind-the-scenes supporter of Little Shenyang, to get rich personally, and the ultimate beneficiary was Emperor Qianlong. The negotiation bank system eventually evolved into an official public bribery system. According to the historical records of the Qing Dynasty, the so-called "sin" in the theory of sin is often an insignificant mistake, and most of it is not a crime at all. Many of them are officials who "surrendered" for the purpose of giving money to the emperor in disguise. For example, if there is a typo in the throne, they will hand in 100 thousand taels of silver themselves, and the handwriting on the throne is unclear, which is actually a bribe to the emperor in disguise. So the purpose of discussing crime is not to condemn crime, but to pay money.
The money that was punished by Qianlong did not go into the state treasury, but all went into the small treasury of the palace. It can be seen that Ganlong himself is also an insatiable person, and officials are inevitably insatiable. After repeated exploitation by Qianlong, in order to maintain a decent life, corruption and extortion gradually became the official atmosphere.
Gan Long acceded to the throne at the age of 25. After his father Yongzheng 13, the national treasury was enriched, which can be said to be a peaceful country.
Emperor Qianlong, on the other hand, was overjoyed and went to Jiangnan six times like his grandfather Kangxi, spending a lot of money. Why are there so many old corrupt officials? I have to mention a person here, Xiao Shenyang. Xiao Shenyang was once an important official of Qianlong, and won the favor of Qianlong. Not only is he in power, but Xiao Shenyang's son also married the daughter of Qianlong, Princess Ten, who is worthy of the name. Xiao Shenyang also held many important positions in the imperial court, such as chief university student, minister of military aircraft, minister of finance, minister of punishment, minister of guard, commander of infantry and so on. With the increase of power, little Shenyang's selfish desires are expanding day by day, and he participates in corruption, bribery and nepotism. But Qianlong didn't stop it and let it develop. In his later years, Xiao Shenyang was in power and in power. It can be said that the officials of the imperial court are all subordinates of Xiao Shenyang, so the following officials are naturally effective.
After the death of Qianlong, the property of Xiao Shenyang was the fiscal revenue of the Qing government for fifteen years, which shows the degree of corruption of officials at that time.
Once a large number of costume dramas involve the government, there must be a property drama. Even if you are watching a play, you can enjoy such a scene and shout loudly. A group of people can copy a person upside down with an imperial edict or token.
There are basically no such two kinds of people who have been robbed of their property. One is rebellion, and once it is found out, it is the crime of genocide, no matter how serious it is. The first is corruption, which depends on the amount of corruption, but it will definitely be mixed with property. Without ability and courage, it is impossible to be an anti-thief or a corrupt official, and it is certainly more difficult to be found out.
Let's talk about corruption first. Mediocre and timid people are absolutely incapable of being robbed of their property. Their strength is also very small. They basically rely on small fights to recover dirty silver, and they are fined and dismissed from office, and even the benefits are fined at most. The real evil is the great greed.
These people are intertwined and deeply rooted. For them, the imperial edict does not exist at all. Even though the emperor repeatedly banned greed, they still banned it again and again. With the strengthening of the imperial power system in Ming and Qing dynasties, corrupt people were often sentenced to death. However, due to the concentration of imperial power, local restrictions on the royal power were very limited, and these people were arrogant and unscrupulous.
Officials represent imperial power, or the specific executors of imperial power. Officials protect each other and form an umbrella. In the eyes of civilians, these people are all the same leaders, so they have to stay away from each other. Officials are naturally fearless, spreading like cancer cells and gradually forming an atmosphere.
For a long time, the whole empire began to form a systematic corruption bond from top to bottom, which affected the whole body. Through the relationship between officials, relatives and fellow villagers, it formed a corruption alliance one by one, which had natural immunity to the supervision system of the imperial history.
As a climate, even the imperial power has to consider the consequences of these corrupt officials. For example, when Gan Long was in Gansu, the whole yamen system was in a mess, and Gan Long had to consider the boundary of accountability. After all, he needs someone to collect taxes for him and supervise everyone.
Even those really vicious and unbearable greed often end in the destruction of the family, but in the implementation, we still have to consider various messy factors, such as the credit of ancestors, personal credit, and the relationship encouraged by students, which are all factors that affect the final decision.
As for the property finally executed, it will still be neither a token nor an imperial edict. After all, there are some darumas in officialdom, and tomorrow there will be a burden. The day after tomorrow, I found that the imperial edict of the day before yesterday was wrong and wrong. These will be in an awkward position.
As a result, these serious cases tend to be rigorous and subtle, and many yamen will gather together for joint trial. Only six military departments have no objection to the implementation. When these cases will be completed depends on the emperor's personal preferences, the usefulness of offending ministers, the activities of his family and whether he has anything to do with his family.
It's been a long time since I got the imperial edict to give people real estate. Even many people are fine when they are alive, which naturally gives others a lucky psychology.
As for the rebellion, once it is settled, basically no one will tolerate it. Asking for salary from the emperor is hell, and the speed will be very fast. It didn't take much effort to settle down, and then took an imperial edict to implicate nine families, and officials quickly implemented it. Otherwise, it's really reversed, which is even more harmful.
Qianlong was the heyday of the Qing dynasty. If the dynasty was too prosperous, the economy and people's livelihood would go out of an inverted V-shape. This is the truth that when the water is full, it will overflow, and every month will lose. In this case, there will be powerful ministers, powerful minions and mixed bureaucrats. Such as Wang Mang, Li and Yang. Cai Jing and Tong Guan appeared after the party struggle in Yuan You in the Song Dynasty. Wang Zhen, the powerful minister who led to the change of Daming Civil Fort, Yan Song and his son in Jiajing period, Wang Danwang and Little Shenyang in Qing Dynasty.
The reasons for repeated prohibitions are still man-made. Gan long loves face too much, is a perfect old man, and does not criticize himself.
First, Huai salt cited examples:
Salt has been profitable since ancient times. Eaton, who is as famous as Tao Zhugong Fan Li, made his fortune by cooking salt. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong pushed Qi Huangong to the Five Powers by ironmaking and salt boiling.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were regulations on salt administration, and salt merchants could detain the salt import for the next year. This policy is similar to the current discount of acceptance bills.
The normal market price is quoted at one or two. If it is withheld, the interest will be increased by one or two, and the difference between the two will not be paid. This policy provides space for corrupt officials.
In the thirty-third year of Qianlong, the case of salt diversion from Huaishui and Huaihe River was reported, and the New Salt Administration sued the latter two. Gao Feng and other officials decided in the fall that the case involved tens of millions of dollars.
Two: Gansu disaster relief.
Wang Xu (Dan) was born a scholar, and later donated an official to buy a magistrate. From the magistrate all the way to Gansu, and then transferred to the governor of Zhejiang. 178 1 year, the Hui people in Gansu made an insurrection, and in the case of repeated wars and defeats, the court sent Gui to suppress it. The battle report described the heavy rain in Gansu, which was inconsistent with the drought reported by Wang Danwang, causing the court to doubt. After investigation, Wang Danwang was insatiable. Instead of falsely reporting relief silver, he falsely reported donations. Copied Wang Danwang's house, with millions of vehicles and countless jewels and jade articles, Wang Danwang was beheaded. Other officials involved/kloc-more than 0/00, involving tens of millions of dollars. Small Shenyang, a big corrupt official, is the whistleblower of this case.
Three: Shandong Governor Case
People involved: Cathay Pacific and more than 30 people, involving 2 million vehicles, and Cathay Pacific itself involved 782,000. Xiao Shenyang is involved in this case. Qian Feng and Liu Yong investigated the case, and the 24 counts that were investigated later in Shenyang were all from Qian Feng's manuscript.
Four: the case of Qianlong greedy for small Shenyang
Small Shenyang is full of stalls and is favored by Emperor Qianlong. At the time of investigation, he was the biggest corrupt official in history. 1779, Gan Long died, Xiao Shenyang was investigated and sentenced to death and imprisonment.
The confiscated silver is said to be 820 million, which is equivalent to the fiscal revenue of the Qing government for more than ten years, but there is no official history to test.
With the continuation of political power, interest groups are complex and huge, and governance is opaque. The abuse of power has not solved the problem from the institutional mechanism, but can only be prevented. Nature is inevitable.
I have seen many people analyze the corruption in the late Qianlong period, some talking about system problems, some talking about bureaucracy problems and some talking about consciousness problems. I won't talk about this here. I'll just say Qianlong itself. Qianlong himself was corrupt in his later years, and his ministers were not greedy.
In fact, when Qianlong just succeeded to the throne, the anti-corruption efforts were very strong, which was more severe than Kangxi and Yongzheng. After six years of Qianlong (174 1), the emperor executed 1200 yuan's Ministry of War Shangshu and Nine Magistrates Eshan. From the twenty years of Qianlong (1755) to his forties, more than a dozen people in high positions were executed.
However, Emperor Qianlong lived so smoothly from his succession to his later years that there was no question of the crown prince vying for the throne, no major rebellion and disaster. He also won the war against Mongolia, and the internal Su Forty-three and Miao uprisings were quickly put down. After Qianlong compiled Sikuquanshu, he also made people feel that he was a "perfect old man" and was very qualified to live a luxurious and luxurious life.
As the peak of centralization, the ministers of Qianlong Dynasty were different from Kevin·Z and other famous ministers. They live in fear and may be angry with the emperor at any time, so most of them are good at speculating on the imperial edict. When the emperor changed his mind, everyone naturally knew it soon. Like small Shenyang,
The emperor wanted to make a southern tour, but he didn't want to use the money from the state treasury. Because of his bad reputation, Xiao Shenyang came up with the idea of negotiating bank. Officials can buy freedom and innocence with money when they break the law. Gan Long not only didn't stop it, but also thought it was a good idea.
In the late Qianlong period, there were even incidents of competing with officials for production. Wang Danwang, the principal offender of "Gansu Disaster Relief Case", was robbed of property. After the things were sent to Beijing, Qianlong looked at them several times and found that a pair of jade bottles and a jade mountain son were missing. Qianlong knew about it, because Wang Danwang gave these two things when he paid tribute. Although Qianlong couldn't let go, he returned them to Wang Danwang in accordance with the practice of nine in and three out.
This time, the property owner Gan Long felt that the treasure must be in his hand, but he didn't. After investigation, he was actually replaced by Chen Huizu, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang who was in charge of property. Qianlong was furious, and Chen Huizu was naturally beheaded by the real estate owner.
Now let's think about this ridiculous situation. The emperor and his ministers were in a panic because of some stolen goods. The darkness of the officialdom in Qianlong's later years can be seen.
In the middle of Qing Dynasty, official corruption was very serious. It is caused by many reasons.
The first is the overall social environment. The Qing Dynasty was at the end of the traditional society in China. At this time, the traditional society has entered the stage of decline, and there are serious signs of decline in the system, and corruption is its concrete manifestation. In this case, it is impossible to completely reverse the social atmosphere by making some simple tinkering. During Yongzheng period, some anti-corruption work was done through the emperor's own efforts, but the problem was not fundamentally solved. Although some achievements were made in a short time, with the death of Yongzheng, the situation deteriorated rapidly.
Secondly, the Qing Dynasty was a dynasty with serious corruption in the history of China, which was related to the special historical development of the Qing Dynasty. Generally speaking, the management of officials in the early days of the unified dynasty was relatively good, and corruption was not particularly serious. But the Qing dynasty was special. After the Qing dynasty entered the customs, special policies were implemented in order to pacify the southern region as soon as possible. All officials in the Ming Dynasty can continue to hold their original official positions as long as they surrender to the Qing government. This made officials in the late Ming Dynasty become officials in the Qing Dynasty. Most of these officials have corruption problems. That is, there have been serious bureaucratic problems since the Qing Dynasty. Shunzhi period has not been able to effectively solve this problem. During the reign of Kangxi, in order to stabilize the situation, a more inclusive policy was adopted for the corruption at that time. It was not until the Yongzheng period that the situation converged. Judging from the whole historical development process, the official management of the Qing dynasty has not been very good.
Finally, it is Gan Long's own problem. Gan Long is a man of average personal ability, but he is particularly ambitious. This made the fiscal deficit of Qianlong dynasty very serious. In order to solve this problem, Qianlong introduced the negotiation bank system. In other words, officials are allowed to use fines instead of punishment. This stimulated official corruption. In addition, Gan Long also runs personal businesses, and has set up commercial institutions such as the Royal Pawnshop in Beijing. Use such institutions to openly accept indirect bribes from officials. Because the emperor himself became a member of corruption, he naturally indulged the corruption of ministers. So this naturally led to the emergence of Xiao Shenyang, the biggest corrupt official in the history of China.
Not centuries. Everything in China a few days ago was a few cents a catty. Not far away. Everyone worked hard and sold it to whom. A few days ago, fish and shrimp became a disaster. How many people cried and didn't buy it? Everyone has it. They had to take it back to feed pigs and dogs. Pigs and dogs are too expensive to eat In the past, pork was fragrant for dozens of kilometers, but now it should be dozens of times. The Qianlong dynasty didn't want money, but someone took it. Begging is not a waste of people, just like the landlord. In the past, it was almost inexhaustible to eat delicacies in the Qianlong Dynasty. It should have been many years. Now everything is feed, and human beings are no exception. Eating feed has little fertility.