In the long river of Chinese history, Wei Zheng had a unique iron backbone, Bao Zheng was strict and fair, and Hai Rui dared to speak out, but the Qing Dynasty at that time seemed to lack such an iron backbone. It is inevitable that people will wonder: why did the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty have it, but the Qing Dynasty had less such ministers?
In ancient Chinese society, admonishing justice and checking and balancing power were glorious traditions that were carried forward by successive generations of admonitions. These high-spirited ministers stood on the edge of power and justice, and with remarkable courage and wisdom, they brought the country back on the right track.
Among them, Wei Zheng of the Tang Dynasty is the most talked-about one. In the face of the thunderous anger on the dragon bed, he not only did not flinch at all, but told the truth of the facts and the country's righteousness in a righteous and solemn manner. It was precisely with iron-clad ministers like him that the politics of the Tang Dynasty stood firm in the wind and rain.
In the Song Dynasty, when power was trapped in the quagmire of decay and could not extricate itself, it was an honest and honest figure like Bao Zheng who stepped forward and governed the township with righteousness and corrected the government. The people covered him as "Bao Qingtian", and it was his almost persistent sense of justice that made people awe-inspired.
In the Ming Dynasty, the status of the retainers reached the peak of the dynasties. Hai Jui is the most typical representative, he would rather be relegated to the common people than accept gold and silver bribes from the powerful. It was precisely by relying on such a group of ministers who were unswervingly loyal to justice that the politics of the Ming Dynasty maintained a clean and honest atmosphere.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, in the face of a turbulent and changeable political environment, the rulers urgently needed to strengthen their power. So they adopted a seemingly safe reform – to inherit and strengthen the Ming Dynasty's system of supervision. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the capital was Yanjing, and the banner people and the Han people were incompatible in this strange city. The rulers realized that force alone was not enough to effectively govern this historic country.
So they decided to inherit the "sharp weapon" of the Ming Dynasty's supervision system, which could not only check the corruption of hundreds of officials, but also convey public opinion to the emperor. As a result, the Qing Dynasty continued the imperial history system and increased the number of imperial histories from thirteen to fourteen in the Ming Dynasty.
However, there is a murderous motive behind this. The imperial power of the Qing Dynasty was far more concentrated than that of the previous dynasties, and there was no room for any contradictions and challenges, which doomed the ministers to be speechless. Even Sun Jiagan, who was a "sample of advice", could only stay at the outermost periphery of imperial rule, and failed to touch the real core of power at all.
This was unimaginable in the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial historians of the Ming Dynasty were bold and outspoken, and they were often able to cut to the heart of the times. In contrast, such a sharp and sharp scene had disappeared in the early Qing Dynasty.
It can be seen that this seemingly "strengthened" supervision is only a product of the self-protection of the power apparatus of the Qing Dynasty. Imperial power urgently needed to be strengthened, and any possible threat must be strangled in its infancy. To do this, they must sacrifice the spokesmen of justice, the iron-clad ministers.
In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the supervision system had already existed in name only, and any advisor who was full of ambition to challenge the powerful was doomed to failure. The tragedy of Cao Xibao and Yin Zhuangtu is a portrayal of this period.
Cao Xibao was originally just an ordinary imperial history. However, when he saw that the slaves of the Quan Chen and the Shen family were rampant in the countryside and oppressed the people, he was filled with righteous indignation and decided to stand up to stop their evil deeds. In the end, not only did he fail to hit He Shen and his henchmen, but he was relegated to the periphery.
Similarly, Yin Zhuangtu, as an honest and honest imperial historian, couldn't see the reality of corruption and decided to write to the emperor. However, the righteous words angered Qianlong, and he was denounced as "misleading the country by false words". In the end, Yin Zhuangtu could only keep silent far from the center of power.
In this way, once upon a time, those clanging voices of justice were forced to be silenced under the glory of the Qing Dynasty. Instead, the yoke of imperial power shelved all dissent and opposition, leaving only a false calm.
During the Yongzheng period, the reform of "integration of science and Taoism" merged the independent six departments into the Imperial Procuratorate, which meant that the supervision of the imperial history no longer had an independent status and became a puppet of the imperial power group. This reform wiped out the last threat to imperial power from the surveillance system.
After the reform, the inspectors could only check the mistakes of lower-level officials, but they had no right to intervene in the actions of the imperial power. The sword they once wielded had dimmed. He can only carefully protect himself in secret, and from time to time report one or two innocuous petty officials to complete his political tasks.
Those young imperial historians with ideals and ambitions are even more difficult to display their ambitions in this supervision system that is no longer worthy of the name. Most of them can only keep a low profile and carefully complete the work at hand in order to complete their careers. Only a very small number of people still cherish grand ideals and want to promote justice, but often after some painful suffering, they can only leave in the end.
When the Qing Dynasty came to an end, and external and internal troubles made this huge empire stormy, some ** finally mustered up the courage to try to restore the tradition of admonishing justice and reform the rotten politics. However, their insignificant efforts will inevitably fail in the end.
Unlike their predecessors, the words of these last ministers no longer have the power to change the core of power, and the content of their advice is limited to responding to crises such as external invasions. The tragedy lies in the fact that their courage to speak up is in the same vein as their predecessors, but because of the changes in the atmosphere and political structure of the times, they are unable to play a substantive role.
When we look back at the glorious and complex history of the Qing Dynasty, the figure of the ministers gradually drifting away is vivid. The disappearance of the iron-clad ministers was not only a tragedy of personal fate, but also a reflection of the unique political culture and changes in the entire social structure of the Qing Dynasty. In such a historical process, those individuals who once wielded the sword of justice in the political arena can only fall silent with the torrent of the times.
However, just as we cannot ignore the individuals who stood at the forefront of the era in history, we should also not turn a blind eye to those who did not give up the pursuit of justice in the Qing Dynasty. It is precisely with the testimony of these lonely acts that we can have a more three-dimensional and comprehensive judgment of that era.
Today, when we look back at those ministers who have long since been annihilated in the long river of history, we can't help but ask ourselves: should the future of a country be built on the silence of individuals who are selflessly dedicated to justice, or on the resonance of collective political wisdom?
History does not give a definitive conclusion, it is more like a mirror, reflecting the possibilities of different eras. But at the same time, it also reminds us that no matter how the times change, once the seeds of justice take root and blossom, they will be able to change reality and create the future.
So, let us remember history, but not be bound by it. In our own time, being an individual who dares to face up to problems and speak up is perhaps the most meaningful way to learn history. Just like Hai Jui said: "Not afraid of hardship, not afraid of death, only afraid of not smelling." No matter how bad the environment is, as long as there are still people who maintain the righteousness of distinguishing between right and wrong and seeing death as home, darkness will not completely envelop this hot land.