In the late Qing Dynasty, the officialdom was known as the secret of "prostrating more and talking less". Indeed, "the more you say, the more you lose," the more you say, the more you are wrong. Those who are officials are still the safest to "prostrate their heads more and talk less."
However, if you encounter a situation where you have to speak, the six-word mantra of "prostrating your head more and talking less" will not be used. What to do at this time? The response is to try to say what your boss likes to hear. Even if it is a lie, it is true; those things that make the boss unhappy, even if they are true, must not be said.
Here's a true story.
In 1867, a famine occurred in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, coupled with the impact of years of war, resulting in corpses strewn across the field. The Inspector of Jiangsu and the Governor of Jiangsu issued a document asking all counties to bury the exposed corpses as soon as possible. After receiving the order, Chen Qiyuan, the acting county of Nanhui (now part of Shanghai), Jiangsu, personally collected and disposed of the corpses of various places near and far between the urban and rural areas to which Nanhui belonged. After three months of busyness, more than 30,000 corpses were collected and buried. However, due to the large number of remains exposed everywhere, more than 10,000 remains have not been buried.
Chen Qiyuan was an honest man, and he reported these actual situations to the clan division.
At the same time, another county buried only more than 1,700 corpses, and many remains were not buried, but the county's county order boldly claimed in the report materials that "all the bodies were buried within the territory."
Apparently, Chen Qiyuan told the truth, and the county order of another county told a lie. Unexpectedly, when the clan division went down, he made a reprimand to Chen Qiyuan and commended the county order of another county.
In fact, before Chen Qiyuan reported truthfully, some staff members suggested that they might as well tell some lies in the report materials and tell their superiors that the corpses had been "buried and cleaned up." Chen Qiyuan felt that this was inappropriate, and he was worried that if he did so, the remaining 10,000 or so corpses would not be buried in the next year and would eventually be exposed.
"Eat a trench, grow a wisdom." After the lessons of this incident, Chen Qiyuan understood that "public affairs must not be deceitful", that is, when it is time to tell lies, you must say so many words.
Another late Qing official had a deeper understanding of the dangers posed by telling the truth.
This official's name was Guo Songtao. Guo Songtao was a native of Xiangyin, Hunan, and was a fellow and good friend of Zuo Zongtang, a major minister of the late Qing Dynasty. In that year, Zuo Zongtang was involved in the "Fan Xiejing Prosecution Case", and when he was in danger, Guo Songtao rescued him with righteousness and said the famous words that "the world cannot be without Hunan for a day, and Hunan cannot be without Zuo Zongtang for a day", which touched the Xianfeng Emperor and saved Zuo Zongtang's life.
Guo Songtao was also a prominent diplomat. In 1875, on the recommendation of Wen Xiang, the Minister of Military Aircraft, Guo Songtao entered the Prime Minister Yamen and was sent by the imperial court to be a British minister. Guo Songtao thus became the first envoy in Chinese history to be stationed abroad.
The Qing Dynasty had been closed to the outside world for too long and knew nothing about the outside world, so it also wanted to understand the real situation in Western countries through sending envoys to various ministers, and asked the ministers of various countries to "consult with diaries and other documents at any time" and "whenever there are related negotiations and the customs and customs of various countries, the envoys should record them in detail and report on the matters as they please." After Guo Songtao set out from Shanghai, he immediately followed the requirements of the imperial court and insisted on writing a diary every day, recording in detail what he saw, heard and thought.
After arriving in Britain, Guo Songtao summarized and sorted out a diary of more than 20,000 words for 51 days into a "Journey to the West", which was sent back to prime minister Yamen and published publicly. This book not only records Britain's great achievements in science and technology, industrial production, etc., but also introduces the operation mode of the British parliament and other political systems, hoping that the imperial court, after understanding the real situation in Britain, will no longer be self-contained and self-deceitful, but will catch up with Western civilization like Japan did with the Meiji Restoration.
Unexpectedly, after the publication of "Envoy To the West Chronicle", it aroused a wave of opposition, attack, and insults from the government and the public. Some scolded Guo Songtao for "sincerely not knowing what kind of lungs and livers it is", and some scolded Guo Songtao for "having two hearts in Britain and wanting Chinese subjects to do things". Even Guo Songtao's old friend Liu Kunyi, the governor of Huguang, questioned him about "why he returned to Hunan with his face, and even more so to the future generations of the world." In the face of surging opposition, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered that the "Ji Cheng of the Western Dynasty" be destroyed and its circulation banned. At the same time, an edict was issued to severely reprimand Guo Songtao.
Later, when Guo Songtao returned to China, the imperial court also planned to punish him. Under the opposition of Li Hongzhang, this was the end.
You see, that's the price of telling the truth.
What if an official doesn't want to tell the truth or tell a lie? Then you have to say "today's weather hahaha".
For this point, the British who has been the British plenipotentiary minister to China for 13 years has a deep understanding of it.
Wei Tuoma often went to the Prime Minister Yamen to do business, and he found an interesting phenomenon, the ministers of the Prime Minister's Yamen, Zhang Jing, never dared to easily publish their views.
Once, Wittoma greeted prime minister at the door: "The weather is very good today. "But no one spoke. After a long time, Shen Guifen, who was also the minister of the prime minister as the minister of military aircraft and the minister of the prime minister, felt that it would be very rude not to talk anymore, so he replied: "Today's weather is good." Shen Guifen's voice just fell, and the ministers and Zhang Jing replied one after another: "Today's weather is good." ”
Wittema couldn't help but laugh.
[References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Unspoken Rules of the OfficialDom in the Yamen of the Qing Dynasty, Ji Cheng of the Western Dynasty, Bamboo Sawdust of the Qing Dynasty, etc.]