The mystery of Yongzheng's system for benefiting the country and the people has been revealed, and why it finally failed
After Emperor Yongzheng ascended the throne, he carried out a major reform of the ** Yulu, the so-called system of protecting peace. From the Yongzheng period to the early and middle Qianlong periods, the system played an important role in curbing dereliction of duty and misappropriation to a certain extent.
The implementation of the silver system was deliberately done by the imperial court in order to increase the income of **, and it was also canceled by the imperial court in order to increase the income of **. However, after the middle of Qianlong, the silver system did not keep pace with the times, and the imperial court not only spent more money, but also did not play a role in eliminating bad rules.
Yongzheng's holy decree made the local ** break out in a cold sweat.
Soon after Yongzheng ascended the throne, he issued an important decree, requiring the provincial governors to report to him the truth about the scandalous deal. He wondered how much gray income these feudal officials might have at the end of the year.
The announcements made by the governors of the provinces were scary because they didn't know what Yongzheng wanted to do. But most of the governors, after much thought, decided to tell the truth. Because since the Shunzhi Dynasty, these institutional gray incomes have become the norm, even if the emperor ** the law, the imperial court will not be able to solve this historical problem in the short term.
The reason why the governors decided to report truthfully was because they knew Yongzheng's methods, not to mention that the governors were all Belle Ye, which showed that Yongzheng was also honest and obedient. Therefore, the governors did not dare to conceal the rules of officialdom in this regard.
Although Yongzheng knew that the governors of the provinces were the best at collecting taxes, he was still surprised when he received the income tax returns of the provinces.
Nian Xiyao, the governor of Guangdong, reported that his annual shadow income was about 70,000 taels, the lowest of all governors in the country;Huang Bing, the governor of Shandong, received very few gifts, only 110 per year000 taels;The governor of Henan is said to have an annual income of at least 200,000 taelsThe chief inspector of Liangjiang is said to be the richest, receiving about 220,000 taels of gift money every year.
The governors of the provinces reported the revenues accurately, but his heart still hung in the air, feeling that a storm was coming. However, Yongzheng did not get angry this time, but was very sincere, he said that the provincial governors reported accurately, he was very happy and could understand.
After discussion, Yongzheng decided to increase the legal income of **.
It is widely believed that after the new emperor ascends the throne, he will influence the people with a generous heart. Yongzheng was supposed to be at the peak of the battle for the throne, but Yongzheng didn't think so, and at the beginning of his ascension, he corrected the rules with great power. Yongzheng was not only suspended because of the ugly rules, but also realized that the main reason for the ugly rules was that the legal income of civil officials was too low, so the system had to be changed in order to change the status quo.
Before Yongzheng, it was said that which dynasty had the lowest treatment was the Qing Dynasty. The annual salary of a first-grade judge is only 180 taels, and the annual salary of a seventh-grade judge is only 45 taels. This is a problem, not to mention maintaining officialdom etiquette, even to feed the whole family.
As the saying goes, thousands of miles of secretaries are only for the sake of being rich, and ten years of cold windows are insufficient, readers and friends. Since the income is not enough, then you can only resort to **, which has led to the proliferation of bad rules for civil servants at all levels.
Yongzheng sees this problem very clearly, he believes that in order to fundamentally solve the problem of corruption, it is not enough to rely on honesty and integrity, but also to increase their income and solve the income problem.
After many discussions, Yongzheng decided to formulate different silver standards according to the level of the first level and the complexity of the work. Yongzheng emphasized in the edict:"Because of the *** thing, I have heard about it from time to time, and for the time being, I don't want to be a clean official. "
For example, according to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, the annual salary of the governor of Zhili was 15,000 taels, while the pensions of ** at all levels ranged from 600 taels to 1,200 taels below the county level. The amount of silver received by the county governor is also different, usually more than ten times or even dozens of times that of the normal one.
Silver allowed the ** to raise their wages so that they could make a good living on their wages alone. This increase in the court's financial resources seems huge, but in fact, the court's expenditure is not a penny more than the original fire expenditure returned to the court, and part of the funds at all levels are also retained"Fire expenses returned to the public"。
After the implementation of the silver system, Yongzheng officially banned the official system. The province is worried that Yongzheng's strict law will stop. According to the data of the time, the ban on leather rules also achieved good results.
After the implementation of the silver system, in the half century from the Yongzheng period to the middle of the Qianlong period, corruption in officialdom was significantly reduced, and the rule of law was greatly improved. At the beginning of the implementation of the silver system in the Yongzheng period, the policy should have changed dynamically with the evolution of the current situation, but by the middle of the Qianlong period, it was completely deformed and lost"Purity"role.
Emperor Qianlong destroyed the company system.
From the Yongzheng period to the Jiaqing period, the Qing Dynasty experienced a long period of inflation, and prices were sharply **. Taking grain as an example, the ** price of a bucket of rice in Qianlong's early years was only 100 yuan, and Qianlong's later years rose to 300 yuan. However, the salaries of civil servants and the amount of the bank have not changed, which means that the bank cannot support the building of a clean government.
In just a few decades, prices have tripled, and there will be a gap in the income and expenditure of civil servants at all levels, and their lives will once again face a crisis.
In this case, the local ** accidentally began to secretly collect bad rules again, and history returned to the original point. If Qianlong can recognize this problem and increase his income, the ugly rules will not appear again.
Qianlong not only increased his income with the times, but also deducted their money under various pretexts. For example, in the 40th year of Qianlong, the original estimated cost of a project in Zhejiang was underestimated by more than 2 million taels due to the construction of a sea pond. Since the 46th year of Qianlong, Zhejiang Province has donated a quarter of the silver every year.
Since the end of the Qianlong period, this temporary reserve has gradually become a permanent feature. After Emperor Jiaqing, Emperor Daoguang was happy to recover"Ancestry"。Due to the fact that the palace deducted money from all levels, the idea of arbitrary regulations naturally arose.
Since the end of Qianlong's history, Yongzheng's succession to the throne, the dilemma facing the authorities has once again turned to corruption, which is more shocking and destructive than ever. Yongzheng may not have intended to leave a system that is most in line with the interests of the country and the people to his descendants, but this system has become corrupt.