#乾隆六次下江南, what impact did it have on the Qing Dynasty #
From 1751 to 1784, the Qianlong Emperor made six inspections to the Jiangnan region. These 6 inspections had a great impact on the Qing Dynasty, and also made the people talk about it, and provided rich themes for today's literature, film and television drama creation. In film and television dramas such as "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan", "Huan Zhu Gege", and "Qianlong Lower Jiangnan", the plot of the Qianlong Emperor's 6 inspections of Jiangnan is shown in great color.
So, what kind of impact did the Qianlong Emperor's 6 visits to Jiangnan have on the Qing Dynasty?
Let's start with the positive impact.
The reason why the Qianlong Emperor made six inspections of Jiangnan was, of course, not mainly for sightseeing (which is of course one of the purposes), but to win over the gentry in the Jiangnan region and stabilize the basic disk of the Qing Dynasty.
For the Qing Dynasty, the area of Jiangnan, although small, was crucial. Since the Ming Dynasty, the Jiangnan region has gradually become the most prosperous and wealthy place in China, and it is the purse of the imperial court.
However, since the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the Jiangnan region has become the most fierce place to resist the Qing army, and anti-Qing actions have emerged in an endless stream. The famous "Three Massacres of Jiading" and "Ten Days of Yangzhou" all occurred in Jiangnan. It is hard for everyone to believe that those well-mannered readers and "mercenary" businessmen actually fought against the mighty Eight Banners Army, fearing life and death, going forward and writing a tragic plot. Even in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661), there was a well-known "Weeping Temple Case" in Suzhou, and the famous scholar Jin Shengsi was one of the victims of this case.
Therefore, from the beginning of the Kangxi Emperor, the Qing Dynasty continued to co-opt the gentry in the Jiangnan region, hoping to gain their favor and support. Only with the support of the gentry could the Qing Dynasty make full use of the huge human, material, and financial resources in the Jiangnan region to create the so-called "Prosperous Kangqian Dynasty."
After the Qianlong Emperor arrived in the Jiangnan region, he did a lot of work, which had a relatively positive impact on the Jiangnan region and even the entire Qing Dynasty.
For example, forgive money and food.
Every time the Qianlong Emperor inspected the Jiangnan region, he would pardon money and grain for passing through the localities. When he made his first inspection, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang had already owed 2.28 million taels of silver, more than 300,000 taels of silver, and 300,000 taels of silver respectively, and the Qianlong Emperor wrote off the nearly 3 million taels of silver with a big stroke. During the Qianlong period, the total annual income of the imperial court was about 40 million taels of silver. The Qianlong Emperor immediately sent away 3 million taels of silver, which was a big deal.
The pardon of money and grain will help reduce the economic burden on the people in the Jiangnan region. After all, if this money and grain are collected according to the truth, they will eventually fall on the heads of the people. At the same time, it will help to develop production, increase the total economic volume, and benefit the whole country.
For example, the construction of water conservancy.
As we all know, ancient China was an agrarian society, and one of the characteristics of the farming society was "watching the sky and eating". How to minimize the adverse factors of the weather on crops? The only way to do this is to build water conservancy. The Jiangnan area was originally the land of fish and rice, was the grain bag of the imperial court, known as "Su Changshu, the world is enough" reputation, but in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, the Jiangnan region has been through war for a long time, many water conservancy facilities have been damaged, and it is difficult to repair it with local strength alone. When the Qianlong Emperor came to the Jiangnan region, a very important part of his work was to inspect the water conservancy projects.
The Qianlong Emperor himself said many times: "The matter of the southern tour is greater than that of the river workers... Six patrols of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the most important thing to plan for the people's livelihood, such as river engineering and coastal defense... Linxing Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the reason is to remember the river gong haitang, personally visit to see. Under the personal supervision of the Qianlong Emperor, many water conservancy facilities in the Jiangnan region were repaired and rebuilt. They have played a huge role in irrigating farmland, storing drinking water for people, reducing floods, protecting people's idyllic houses and life safety.
For example, discover talent.
Han Yu said, "There is Bole in the world, and then there is a Maxima." Maxima is often present, but Bole is not. "The Jiangnan region is prosperous and rich, the people have a high level of education, and there are many talents. As the saying goes: "The talented son of the south, the general of the north, the loess of Shaanxi buried the emperor." "But in the early qing dynasty, the southern readers generally resisted the imperial examination system and were reluctant to come out to serve the imperial court. For the imperial court, this is also not a small loss.
Every time the Qianlong Emperor went to the south, he would personally organize examinations and discover and train a group of well-educated people, such as Qian Daxin, Wu Xie, Chu Yinliang, Sun Shiyi, and others.
Not only that, the Qianlong Emperor also took various measures to revitalize the education and cultural undertakings in the Jiangnan region.
Speaking of positive impacts, let's talk about negative effects.
The Qianlong Emperor visited Jiangnan 6 times, and the biggest negative impact was that he spent too much money, and each time he would spend millions of taels of silver. Local stealth spending is even more incalculable. The Qianlong Emperor himself was aware of this, and in his later years he said to the military aircraft Zhang Jing Wu Xiongguang: "Sixty years after his arrival in the imperial court, there is no loss of morality, but six southern tours, labor and hurt the people and money, doing no benefit, harming the benefits, in the future the emperor will tour the south, and if Ru does not stop it, there will be no way to deal with it." ”
By the way, Wu Xiongguang is a Jiangsu Zhaowen scholar, also from the Jiangnan region.