History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
"Sun Jiagan is too stubborn, but he doesn't love money." This was something that the Yongzheng Emperor had once told his ministers, and this was an evaluation of a chancellor, and soon after the evaluation, Yongzheng asked his younger brother Prince Guo to go to the chancellor's place to investigate, and the result was really as Yongzheng said. Do things in a down-to-earth manner, and there is nothing wrong with the accounts managed. As a result, this minister became Yongzheng's punishment department attendant and official department attendant. He was Sun Jiagan, who was also one of the Qing officials in history, and even the emperor said that he was too humble to love money. In fact, it is also true that Sun Jiagan was born in 1683.
In his early years, his family was poor, and in the fifty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1713), he was admitted to the jinshi, and from here he began to enter the official field. Although the Yongzheng Emperor has always been industrious, he also has a stain, and this stain is the original nine sons and wives. Many ministers have discussed it, but they dare not tell the emperor directly, Sun Jiagan is different, he directly said that he hopes that the emperor will be close to his brothers and collect troops in the northwest. Maybe he was just kind enough to advise, but in the eyes of the emperor, this was an insinuation. So Yongzheng was angry, or the assistant minister Zhu Shi said good things to him very gently next to him.
Such an upright and powerful minister, not the Emperor would naturally reuse him. In October of the third year of Qianlong (1738), Sun Jiagan became the governor of Zhili. He was very concerned about the people and had dealt with several unjust cases. For example, there was once a person named Jiao Tao who was falsely accused of being the leader of a cult and was caught. He was sentenced to death after a severe torture, and many innocent people were implicated. Like the murder case was to be handed over to the governor, Sun Jiagan looked at it particularly seriously, and found that the case was not right, and Jiao Tao was wronged.
Another time, there was a civilian named Ji Huairang, who was eating and accidentally spilled small bean juice on his body. The clothes looked blood red, and coincidentally, just when a small child in the village was killed, Ya Gong caught Ji Huai Rang and said that he was the murderer. Under a torture, Ji Huairang could only confess. On the day of the execution, the prefect Chen Hao told Sun Jiagan that he had a grievance, so Sun Jiagan personally dealt with it, and the wrong case was corrected.
And he was an official all his life, through the three dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, he always loved the people like a son, and never embezzled a penny from the imperial court. In the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747), he was really old, so he told the emperor that he was going to resign and leave, and the emperor agreed when he saw that he was really old. Sun Jiagan's hometown was in Xingxian County, Shanxi, and he suddenly thought that he had been an official all his life and had little money at all. It is often said that when I return to my hometown, I still look poor and sour when I go back, how embarrassed. Moreover, it is not to lose the face of the imperial court.
Thinking about it, he asked the next person to buy a dozen heavy wooden boxes. Put bricks in it and pretend you're rich. Unexpectedly, someone thought that he had caught his pigtails and sued the emperor. It is said that Sun Jiagan was extremely clean and incorruptible, but in fact he was a corrupt official, and after resigning from the government, he revealed his original form and returned to his hometown with several boxes of gold and silver. The emperor was angry when he heard it, good you Sun Jiagan, usually no less behind my back to embezzlement. At the emperor's order, Sun Jiagan, who was halfway there, was stopped and inspected the wooden box.
The people who examined it were stunned, all bricks, and the emperor was very touched to hear it. Thinking that he was indeed honest and honest with the officials, he asked the officials along the way to replace the bricks in Sun Jiagan's box with real money and silver, which was considered to be a retirement fee for him. Of course, he did not succeed in retiring, and was later summoned back by the emperor to continue his work. It was not until December of the eighteenth year of Qianlong (1753) that the seventy-one-year-old Sun Jiagan died.