Yuan Chonghuan's execution scene can be described as "boiling people's grievances" and "group anger", and the people at that time did not think that Yuan Chonghuan was wronged. On the contrary, everyone recognized him as a traitor and hated him very much. In the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan's status increased.
Is it really because Yuan Chonghuan was a great hero of the founding of the Qing Dynasty? No, it was because Qianlong ordered that a period of secret historical facts was made public that Yuan Chonghuan was able to regain his innocence.
I. The beginning and end of the Yuan case
Although Yuan Chonghuan had a problem, what made Chongzhen kill was "the collusion between Yuan Supervisor and Emperor Taiji". It turned out that this was huang taiji's counter-plan, which buried Yuan Chonghuan.
Many readers are relatively familiar with this history, so I will not expand on it here. But this history was unknown to many people in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Even with the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, historians were secretive.
Mainly because in the early days of the Qing Dynasty, anti-Qing uprisings appeared in an endless stream everywhere, and the Qing Emperor was afraid that once this historical case was announced, it would once again "boil over the people's resentment" and "the masses were indignant", which would lead to a larger-scale anti-Qing uprising.
Until the development of Kangqian's prosperous life for several decades, Qianlong specially ordered the ministers who repaired the history of Ming to write the relevant records in the Records of the Emperor Taiji into the "Biography of Ming Shi Yuan Chonghuan".
First, the society is stable, and the public and dusty historical facts will not have any political and public opinion impact on the people.
The second is Qianlong's attitude toward "loyalty." He wrote the "founding heroes" of the Qing Dynasty, such as Li Yongfang, Hong Chengzuo, Qian Qianyi, and the like, into the "Biography of the Second Minister" to illustrate the attitude. He believes that Yuan Chonghuan's innocence should be returned.
The three, and most importantly, are to highlight the wisdom and divine martial arts of the ancestors. The ability of Emperor Taiji and Chongzhen was compared, and the judgment was made from top to bottom.
From another point of view, before Qianlong, this historical document belonged to the top secret level and was absolutely not allowed to be leaked. Qianlong had his own mature ideas for the use of confidential documents.
Second, how Qianlong kept secrets
Qianlong can make top-secret documents public, so it is also very important to keep secrets of top-secret documents. For example, his edict.
After the "Nine Dragons Conquest" during the Kangxi Period, Yongzheng decided to secretly establish a reserve. As the beneficiary of the Qing Dynasty's first secret reserve, Qianlong also decided to emulate his father. According to historical records, Jiaqing was made crown prince in the 38th year of Qianlong.
At that time, the emperor did not disclose the matter in front of any princes and ministers, and in order to prevent someone from forging a false edict, he also wrote a backup and hid it in a small box for later verification.
For Jiaqing, who had become the crown prince, Qianlong did not raise the first rank, and the daily education, living treatment, and even participation in government affairs were no different from other princes.
What can be corroborated is Qianlong's 43 years of "the disaster of Jin Congshan". This benevolent brother was a student of Jinxian County, which is now a member of Jinzhou and Linghai. In the process of Qianlong's visit to Shengjing (present-day Shenyang) to pay homage to his ancestors, he criticized the emperor for delaying the establishment of the throne, which could easily reproduce the chaos of the Kangxi period.
The angry emperor did not explain, but executed the student, which shows Qianlong's determination to secretly establish a reserve, and also reflects the importance he attaches to confidential documents.
Qianlong can be said to be unrelenting in handling the leak case, firstly because of the strict legal system and second, because of political influence.
III. The Case of Leaking Secrets during the Qianlong Period
The famous leak cases of the Qianlong Dynasty can be divided into two categories, one is called external troubles, and the other is called internal thieves.
Let's start with external problems.
The "Two Huai Salt Citation Case" should be said to be an indelible stain on the Qianlong Dynasty. The two Huai salt governments, Yu Bashi, did not succeed in blackmailing the salt merchants, and in anger, reported to the emperor the inside story of the collusion between several predecessors and salt merchants.
This big case involved several previous salt officials, and they basically rose to prominence and served as officials in the center. From the beginning of Qianlong 10 years to the occurrence of the case, more than 20 years of accumulated more than 26 million silver involved.
Annoyed and angry, the emperor decided to raid the homes of the people involved in the case, and the military planes at that time, Zhang Jingwangchang, Xu Buyun, Zhao Wenzhe and others each had friends in the circle involved in the case, and after their "cryptic reminders", many people quietly transferred their property before raiding their homes. After the incident, Qianlong held the above personnel accountable and punished.
Wang Chang was the first in Qianlong's 22-year civil servant selection (ancient called the summons examination), and the interviewer was Qianlong, who had a promising future, but because of the leakage of secrets, his career was broken, and he was assigned to serve in the army.
If Qianlong hadn't really loved him, Wang Chang might have died in the army. However, for a talented person who can become a cabinet scholar in the future, it is indeed a pity to retire from the position of the right attendant of the Punishment Department.
Also convicted was Ji Xiaolan, who had fully developed his wisdom in a message to Lu Jianzeng, the person involved in the case, and did not write a text on the letter, but sandwiched in a little salt and tea. Clear-eyed people can understand its deep meaning at a glance: salt leads the case, and the case is investigated (tea).
But this little cleverness did not hide from the eyes of the emperor. Ji Xiaolan was exiled to Shubian, Urumqi, and only returned to Beijing 3 years later.
Let's talk about the thieves. The "internal thief case" was often raised by the Qianlong Emperor and served as a warning material within the imperial family.
The plot of collusion between internal and foreign ministers is shown in "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan", such as the eunuch reporting to He yan what books the emperor read, and He Yan guessed the title of the imperial examination.
However, the facts are more straightforward than in the TV series, and a eunuch in the Great Inner Archives Department can directly leak out the latest appointment and dismissal of officials, The Zhu Approval of Qianlong and officials at the prefectural and provincial levels, and even the duty table of the Great Inner Guard.
And it was Yu Minzhong, the chief military aircraft minister and a university scholar, who carried out the content docking. He was the first powerful courtier of the Qianlong Dynasty before Hezhen. From this, we can imagine how terrible it was, and the emperor had almost no secrets in front of the prime minister.
After the incident, Gao Yun was beheaded and paraded in public, and Yu Minzhong was dismissed from his post. The emperor did not punish the latter for his hard work, but his political life was already over, otherwise the time for he to take control of the throne would be postponed for several years. Officials who had news exchanges with Gao Yuncong and Yu Minzhong were severely punished.
4. Confidentiality system
Qianlong had a mature set of ideas for the use of the secrecy system, and with the exception of special matters, he opposed excessive secrecy in the exchange of official documents. For example, some officials wrote the folds of please and loyalty as secret folds, and Qianlong generally reprimanded them severely.
It is also not possible for household officials to write the national treasury figures into the secret fold, because the state finance is a major national affair, and the revenue and expenditure must be documented and must not be classified.
There are also higher-level officials impeaching subordinates, which belongs to the local public service within the system and cannot be written into the secret fold. To this end, relevant decrees have also been issued to the governors of the provinces.
Author: Our special guest author Kan Dashan
References: "Qing Dynasty Folding System", "Qianlong: The Emperor of the Prosperous World who Pursued Perfection"