Qianlong was young and promising, breaking prejudice
Emperor Qianlong was an important monarch of the Qing Dynasty, and during his reign, he made great contributions to the development of the Qing Dynasty. He attached great importance to the rule of officials, punished corruption, rectified the atmosphere of officialdom, and severely punished those who violated the regulations, so that the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty was greatly improved.
At the same time, Emperor Qianlong also noticed the contradictions between the governor and the governor, and he tried to coordinate the relations between all parties to ensure the smooth progress of local government affairs. Emperor Qianlong's contribution is indelible, and his historical status and influence are far-reaching.
Emperor Qianlong's punishment for ** was very strong. In the second year of Qianlong (1737), Shanxi Xuezheng Khalqin and the political envoy Sahaliang were exposed, and after the Qianlong Emperor immediately ordered Kharqin to be beheaded, and Sahaliang was beheaded.
The Khalqin case has not yet been concluded, and in March of the sixth year of Qianlong (1741), Liu Wu Longyi, the imperial history of the left capital, revealed that Lu Zhuo, the governor of Zhejiang, was handling the case of the separation of the Wang surname in Tongxiang County, Jiaxing Prefecture, **50,000 taels of silver, and the prefect Yang Jingzhen **30,000 taels of silver.
In September, the governor Na Sutu participated, and Jing Yi Shidao Jiang Shaoxiang was wanton in managing Jingguan's taxes, leviing and collecting a large amount of taxes. There are more than 30,000 taels of silver left in the Jing Customs Office every year, but Jiang Shaoxiang embezzles half of them every year.
Then, the ** case of Chang'an, the governor of Zhejiang, occurred.
In the Qianlong era, despite the serious problem, the Qianlong Emperor was not merciless in punishing the corrupt officials, whether it was a local official or a court, as long as it was involved, he would be severely punished.
In feudal society, the phenomenon of lifelong system, capable officials but not the people, and being able to go up but not down is very common, but Emperor Qianlong successfully curbed and changed this atmosphere, and it was difficult for his eunuchs to ensure the stability of their positions.
One day in October of the fifth year of Qianlong (1740), a shocking incident occurred in Beijing. A stonemason named Yu Junbi died unexpectedly, and his life was very difficult, with the loss of his son at an early age, his grandson at a young age, and his life in his later years was bleak.
However, what is surprising is that his funeral was very spectacular, the cabinet bachelor Xu Wangyou personally presided over the funeral, Zhan Shi Chen Hao took care of it everywhere, the university scholars Xu Ben and Zhao Guolin went to pay tribute, Zhang Tingyu also sent people to send condolences, the whole city was a sensation, and there were many discussions in the streets and alleys.
However, it wasn't long before the matter caught the attention of the government. Yu Junbi was a chisel in the former filling department and accumulated a large amount of family assets. He died of illness and had no children, and his son-in-law Xu Bingyi tried to occupy his family property, but he mourned in the name of his son-in-law.
Emperor Qianlong, in the eyes of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, regarded these people as "ministers who bowed their heads and bowed to those of humble origins, did not form a national body, and wrote a decree to strictly apply for punishment" (Records of the Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, vol. 129).
However, it didn't end there. In March of the following year, Zhong Yongtan, who was "straight Chen Wuyin", further secreted, pointing out that this was a major *** case, the secretary of the military department and the commander of the Nine Gates, Eshan** to ten thousand gold (self-confessed** thousand taels), and the squire Wu Jiaqi also got 2,500 taels of silver surnamed Yu, and so on.
Qianlong initially had doubts about Zhong Yongtan's performance, but after investigation and verification by Prince Yi, Prince He, scholars Ortai, Zhang Tingyu, Xu Ben, Shang Shuneqin, Lai Bao and others, Qianlong finally sentenced Eshan to death, Xu Bingyi punished according to the law, and Xu Wangxian, Wu Jiaqi, and Chen Hao were dismissed.
In addition to them, Fu Nai, the secretary of the Criminal Department, was also involved. Fu Nai's official fortunes were complicated, he was prosperous in the Kangxi Dynasty, and he was hit in the early Yongzheng Dynasty, but he was good at power tricks, which made the emperor think that he was fine.
In Yongzheng's later years, the political situation was stable, and Yongzheng began to use the ** that had been cold or attacked, and Fu Nai was also among them. However, in the Qianlong Dynasty, Fu Nai was reused in the first year of Qianlong, and he was promoted to the secretary of the military department and concurrently served as the secretary of the criminal department.
However, in the third year of Qianlong, Fu Nai had a problem. Qianlong dismissed him from his official position and threw him into prison. In the first year of Qianlong, his family asked for a bribe of 2,500 taels from the merchant Wang Shende, which triggered the outbreak of the case.
During the 20 to 40 years, the Qianlong Emperor had zero tolerance for corruption and severely punished more than ten prominent leaders, including Hengwen, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Qian Du, the political envoy of Yunnan, Guotai, the governor of Shandong, Leerjin, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and Wang Kangwang, the governor of Zhejiang, who were all sentenced to death.
Not only that, even Emperor Huizhe's brother Gao Heng and nephew Gao Pu were exposed because of ***, and they did not receive any forgiveness, Gao Heng was removed from the post of head of the Internal Affairs Office, and Gao Pu was removed from the post of the right attendant of the Ministry of War.
This shows Emperor Qianlong's determination and actions to punish corruption and safeguard social justice.
Emperor Qianlong's attention to the rule of officials is not only reflected in the anti-corruption and anti-corruption actions, but also in the rigorous attitude towards the selection of officials. He firmly believes that officials should be young and promising, so officials over the age of 55 need to be screened in detail, and those over 65 years old need to personally lead the introduction to determine whether they are competent for the job.
In addition, Emperor Qianlong also divided incompetent officials into 8 categories, including old age, illness, impetuousness, lack of talent, weakness, imprudentness, greed, and coolness, and gave different treatments according to different categories.
During the Qianlong Dynasty, more than 60,000 officials were demoted or punished for failing to pass the performance appraisal. Emperor Qianlong also attached great importance to performance appraisal, using "Jingcha" and "big plan" to evaluate officials, and even for the feudal lords (Buzheng Shi and according to the judges) who did not need to be evaluated in the past, they also had to evaluate their performance, and at the same time required Beijing officials to report the virtue of their subordinates through secret folds.
These measures all reflect Emperor Qianlong's strict requirements and rigorous attitude towards the rule of officials.
For the reform of the rule of officials in feudal society, it is not enough to simply punish **, and it is necessary to severely crack down on friends. The phenomenon of pundos is an important feature of Chinese feudal society, and the social roots behind it lie in the establishment of a patriarchal society.
Patriarchal society emphasizes the close connection between individuals and various relationships, such as relatives, village party members, classmates, teachers and students, comrades-in-arms, colleagues, friends, gangs, comrades, etc. Smart people know how to use these relationships to expand their social resources and thus achieve better development.
Therefore, to crack down on friends is to break these networks of relationships, eliminate the abuse of power, and achieve just and equitable governance.
Whether in the court or in the rivers and lakes, you can see that the Chinese are busy forming parties and running private interests. They are like industrious spiders, weaving their own web of relationships.
The bigger and stronger the net, the more you will gain, and you may even be pushed to the forefront and ascend to the throne of power. To punish, we must first understand how big the protective umbrella behind ** is, and how strong the relationship between the left and right is.
Otherwise, ** may not be brought down, but will anger the swarm and cause more trouble. Therefore, the scourge of friends has always been a headache for the emperors of all dynasties. In order to prevent friends, Yongzheng Dynasty has launched many major cases, such as Yun Xu, Yun Yu, Long Keduo case, Nian Qianyao case, and Zha Siting, Xie Jishi, Lu Shengnan case, although each has its own point, the specific content of the case is different, and sometimes other names such as *** are used, but the common point is that it was launched in the name of prohibiting friends.
Of course, it's one thing to ban friends, it's another thing to keep forming friends. Therefore, even if Yongzheng died and Qianlong ascended the throne, the friends still existed. When the ministers clashed with the imperial power that monopolized power because of their alliances, Qianlong launched a series of campaigns against his friends.
Yunlu is the sixteenth son of Emperor Kangxi, and was appointed as the heir of Prince Zhuang Bo Guoduo in the first year of Yongzheng, inheriting the throne, which was regarded as Yongzheng's deep benevolence and favor for him at that time.
With the accession of Emperor Qianlong, Yunlu and Yunli, the seventeenth son of Emperor Kangxi, were appointed as auxiliary ministers by Yongzheng's will. After Yunli's death in the third year of Qianlong, Yunlu's status among the princes of the clan was even more unmatched, so that many princes of the clan came to curry favor.
Although Yunlu unscrupulously bought people's hearts, in Qianlong's eyes, he was just a mediocre person with limited ability and nothing to do. In dealing with political affairs, he was always ambiguous and did not pose much of a threat to the imperial power, so he always turned a blind eye to his actions.
However, when Yunlu formed a small group with Prince Li Honghui (son of the abolished prince Yunchu), the firearms battalion capital Hongsheng (son of Prince Heng Yunqi), Hongchang, Hongjiao (son of Prince Qia Yunxiang), Hongpu and others, Qianlong had to be vigilant and strengthen precautions.
1.Honghui once thought that he was the concubine of the old East Palace, but his mind was incredible. Hongsheng was imprisoned in the Yongzheng Dynasty, and was later released to go home to reflect.
However, after Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he was appointed as the commander of the firearms battalion, but he did not repent, but wanted to secretly form a party and skillfully drill the battalion. 2.Hongchang is stupid by nature, he disobeyed discipline since he was a child, and caused trouble everywhere, and his father Yunxiang had to ask him to be confined at home to avoid trouble.
After Yunxiang's death, Hongchang was released from captivity, and Qianlong named him Baylor. 3.Hongjiao is a person with no knowledge, but his ability to follow the trend is very good.
Hongpu is the son of Yunrok, and of course he will follow his father's actions.
During the Qianlong period, a group of restless clan princes surrounded Yunlu, forming a posture of being unstoppable, threatening the stability of imperial power. In September of the fourth year of Qianlong, he arrested Hongsheng and handed him over to the Zongren Mansion for interrogation on the grounds that Hongsheng had instigated an incident and caused disharmony in the clan.
After further investigation, a month later, Qianlong dismissed Yunlu's prince, the minister of parliament, and the secretary of the Liluo Yuan for the crime of forming a party for personal gain. Honghui, Hongchang, and Hongpu were respectively removed from the titles of Prince, Baylor, and Beizi.
Later, one of Honghui's cronies, Funing, accused Honghui of committing a mortal crime because he had listened to Antai's evil art and falsely claimed that the ancestor had appeared. Qianlong was furious and ordered to continue the investigation, and Antai confessed that Honghui had asked whether Dzungaria could come to Beijing, whether the world was peaceful, what the emperor's life expectancy was, and whether he would be able to rise in the future.
These are signs that Honghui is not only forming a party for personal gain, but also trying to restore and has already begun to act. After the interrogation of Pingjun Wang Fupeng and others, Honghui had already managed the affairs of the palace in imitation of the Internal Affairs Office, as if he was the emperor.
This made Qianlong's worries come true, so he permanently imprisoned Honghui in Jingshan East Orchard, and Yunlu was reprimanded again. After this blow, Yunrok no longer dared to bother with politics, and he began to focus on the study of mathematics and music, and eventually became an expert in ancient music.
Most of the princes of other clans also devoted their energy to the creation of calligraphy, painting and poetry.
Qianlong had long discovered the partisan problem between Ortai and Zhang Tingyu. The Ortai family was so powerful that it almost monopolized the position of governor of the Manchus, while Zhang Tingyu controlled the six cabinets and the governors of the Han people.
Despite this, Qianlong did not take immediate action because he needed their support to stabilize the overall situation. In addition, he also has an emotional factor for the two old ministers, because they were his chief master in the upper study and gave him the grace of education.
However, Qianlong did not ignore their partisan issues, but waited for an opportunity to punish them. When he found out that Ortai had mishandled Miaojiang's affairs, although he did not directly express his position, he actually acquiesced to Zhang Zhao's statement.
He also instructed other ministers not to fully believe the statements of Ortai and Zhang Tingyu.
After the country was stabilized, Emperor Qianlong set out to solve the problem of Hubei and Zhang Pengdang. In April of the fifth year of Qianlong, the governor of Henan, Yaertu, demanded that Tian Wenjing be withdrawn from the Xianliang Temple in this province.
Qianlong took this as a breakthrough and publicly exposed Ortai and Zhang Tingyu planting private parties and interfering in government affairs. He said that Ortai and Zhang Tingyu were the ministers of the imperial examination, and they were relied on by him, so he should think about how to protect them.
He warned Ortai that if he dared to sow right and wrong, he would be punished and punished, and that he would be loyal to the country in the future and not harbor private parties. He also sounded the alarm to the Manchu and Han ministers who were attached to Ortai and Zhang Tingyu, and looked up to his heart and respected, so as to become the beauty of my monarch and ministers.
In Qianlong's crackdown on his friends, Ortai and his henchmen were the first to be punished. In December of the seventh year of Qianlong, the left deputy capital Yushi, before Zhongshui Tan left, told the university scholar Ertaizi Erong'an about the secret performance.
Qianlong ordered a strict interrogation and found that Ortai and Zhong Yongtan were suspected of leaking confidential affairs. Qianlong re-interrogated Ortai and demanded that he be dismissed from his post and questioned, albeit demoted because he was a bereaved minister.
Erong An was also dismissed for the same incident, but showed a lenient attitude. Compared with Ortai, Zhang Tingyu is more cautious and will not easily expose flaws, so he has received a good evaluation.
However, Qianlong also issued a warning to Zhang Tingyu, asking him to maintain a modest and cautious attitude, and quoted Liu Tongxun, the imperial historian of the left capital, to remind Zhang Tingyu that he should be more cautious to avoid similar problems.
After decades of ups and downs in the Huan Sea, Zhang Tingyu is well aware of the fear of people's words, and tries to avoid showing his head as much as possible in order to keep a low profile. However, in the fourteenth year of Qianlong, he broke out into a head-on conflict with the emperor.
Zhang Tingyu's request to Qianlong to have his name written into Sejong's edict as the basis for his enjoyment of the temple seemed rude, but Qianlong did not refute it, but immediately agreed.
However, when Zhang Tingyu's son Zhang Taocheng entered the court to thank him, Qianlong expressed his dissatisfaction with this, and became angry in front of Fu Heng and Wang Youdun, the ministers of military aircraft, and asked to interrogate Zhang Tingyu in person.
However, Zhang Tingyu had already thanked him at the imperial court, and it turned out that Zhang Tingyu's protégé Wang Youshu had revealed the news to him in advance. When Qianlong learned of this, he was very angry and issued an edict to dismiss Wang Youshu from his position as a co-organizer of the university and ordered him to atone for his sins while he was still in office.
Emperor Qianlong was dissatisfied with Zhang Tingyu and took the opportunity to humiliate him, saying that his merits were not comparable to that of the father of Taimiao. Later, the Qianlong Emperor ordered Zhang Tingyu's uncle to be cut off and given a retirement with the original rank of scholar, although he was still allowed to enjoy the temple, but the Qianlong Emperor still said that he should not be worthy of the temple.
Soon after, the emperor's eldest son died suddenly, and the Qianlong Emperor was dissatisfied with Zhang Tingyu's indifference at the time of the emperor's eldest son's death, and took a grudge. In the same year, Zhang Tingyu's father-in-law Zhu Quan was exposed for **, and Zhang Tingyu was punished for this.
In the end, Zhang Tingyu died at the age of 84, and the Qianlong Emperor ordered that he should still be allowed to "enjoy the Taimiao Temple and be in harmony with Wenhe" to show respect for his death. History teaches us that no matter how difficult it may be, we should be strong and show everyone that we are not as vulnerable as they think.