Take Du Fengzhi as an example to understand the economic hardships of the new officials of the Qing Dynasty before they took office
A reader left a message, asking Yu Shi to write an article about the new officials of the Qing Dynasty. There have been quite a few such articles, but most of them only talk about the system and do not take into account some details. This time, we will use the Governor as an example to talk about the financial difficulties of the new officials.
The so-called three fires and promotions of new officials refer specifically to the initial official position, not to be transferred. Under the Qing system, the procedure of appointing ambulances to the ministry replaced the procedure of the governor, so I had to stand by in the capital, and when I got the official certificate, I could take the ambulance to the provincial capital to take office.
In order to let readers have a comprehensive understanding of the imperial court governors during the Tongzhi period, we take Du Fengzhi, the prefect of Guangning, as a special case, and talk about how he solved his economic problems before he took office and after obtaining his official certificate.
Du Feng's economic situation before taking office.
Du Fengzhi's situation is very representative. He was a university scholar, and Xianfeng was admitted to the prefect in five years. Like many other **, he stayed in the capital for ten years, during which he tried all kinds of ways and did his best, but the real reward is still far away.
After March of the fourth year of Tongzhi, Du Fengzhi finally got the real power as he wished, and was assigned to Guangdong as the governor. On March 27, he came to the ministry and received a letter"He took office on the seventh day of August this year"certificates.
The time limit for appointing a new ** at the imperial court is one to four months, depending on the distance of the appointment. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, this system was strictly enforced, and if the time limit was extended, ** would be punished or even dismissed. However, by the end of the Qing Dynasty, this system almost ceased to exist, and delays in appointments were common.
Du Fengzhi was appointed according to the 100-day system, but he did not leave immediately, but delayed leaving the capital for four months, and did not leave until the third day of the eighth month, while Quang Ninh was appointed on the 24th.
The reason why Du Fengzhi was delayed in the capital for four months was not because he was picky, but mainly because he was short of money, because he couldn't even take out a tael of silver during that time. This is no exception, the ** of the Qing Dynasty, unless it is a family with a lot of money, the vast majority of ** are candidates on the side of the capital, and Du Fengzhi and the two are no exception.
* There is no money to take office, so that many people see business opportunities. The big money houses and big merchants in the capital would lend money to these new officials at very high interest rates, and eventually they were called in the officialdom"Debt pullers"。In fact, many new officials who have just taken office will inevitably have to deal with these people.
Du Fengzhi had tried to persuade at least forty or fifty people in Beijing to come to their homes to collect debts, but Du Fengzhi could not get them to agree because the interest rate was too high. He said:"There are rules in the industry, for example, during the Qianlong period, if you owed 5,000 taels, you could only repay 2,500 taels"This is going to be deducted. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the proportion was even lower, with only 2,000 taels on hand, and there were many additional conditions.
On June 29, Du Fengzhi finally paid off the arrears to Beijing, saying that he owed 4,000 taels and Beijing repaid 2,000 taels. But the creditor demanded that Du Fengzhi must send someone to be his long-term companion.
However, Du Fengzhi has not given up this loan, because according to the practice of officialdom, the new official takes office with three fires, and all kinds of filial piety are indispensable. It's a pity that the 2,000 taels of silver borrowed by Du Fengzhi are not even enough to take office, let alone travel expenses.
In desperation, Du Fengzhi continued to borrow money in Beijing, borrowing a total of about 10,000 taels and borrowing five times. At this time, Du Fengzhi seemed to have found another way out, but in any case, he was already in debt. In other words, he is now lying on the ground.
Two important conclusions can be drawn from Du Fengzhi's debt to Beijing.
1.As soon as the Qing Dynasty judges came to power, they fell into a debt crisis.
*Debts abroad were not unique to the Qing Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty had a similar situation. Later, in the Song and Ming dynasties, the imperial court realized this problem and also took measures to ensure that the newly appointed ** could temporarily pay two months' salary in the criminal department. During the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court did not issue any directives, so the phenomenon of debt repayment in Beijing was very common.
In fact, this account is very easy to calculate, Du Fengzhi is only a seven-grade Guangning Zhi County, and his annual salary is only 45 taels. After Yongzheng, the silver salary system was implemented, although Guangning was not fat, but it was not all, and his silver salary was only 600 taels. In this way, Du Fengzhi's legal annual income is only 645 taels.
However, Du Fengzhi's debt is as high as 10,000 taels, and in order to repay the money, he must live without food or drink for 15 years. Besides, it's not realistic to eat or drink. In fact, this meager amount is not enough for a year's expenses, and Du Fengzhi has to pay out of his own pocket.
In this case, it is logical to trade power for money. Du Fengzhi is still a person with a conscience, a person who knows how to restrain himself. However, there is still nothing he can do about extrajudicial killings.
2. New officials who borrow debts are easy to lose their autonomy, which provides Xu ** with a power field.
As mentioned above, when Du Fengzhi borrowed money in Beijing, the lender put forward an additional condition, that is, he had to send someone to Quang Ninh to accompany him to study and work as a family member for a long time. The fact that Du Fengzhi borrowed money many times suggests that he may have more than one companion or servant by his side.
Upon arrival, these long-term retinues and domestic servants mainly played a supervisory role to ensure that the interests of their masters were not compromised. Because they are good at lending money, they are also involved in local politics. It is not difficult to imagine that it is very unrealistic to expect them to consciously participate in governance and love the people and benefit the people.
For a long time, the Qing Dynasty has been restricting the number of people in states and counties, stipulating that no more than 20 people, and violators will be demoted, but in fact, states and counties are often overnumbered, some as many as dozens, and some even hundreds. A significant number of these ** act as lawyers for debtors, and their main area of activity is profit-making.
In the experience of Du Fengzhi and even a considerable number of prefectures and counties, the many shortcomings of the Qing Dynasty system made it difficult for him to be independent, and as a feudal bureaucrat, he was destined to become a Qing official from the day he took office.