Corruption is a phenomenon that has been seen frequently in the past generations, and there is "Zhuangzi Qiushui" in which it is said: "Do not borrow people, do not eat much, and do not embezzle." In the Huainan Zi Qi ZhenXun, there is: "The saint of the husband measures the belly and eats, the form and the cloth, the frugality of himself, the heart of corruption Xi Yusheng?" The "Book of Han Feng Fengshi Biography" also has: "Han Counts sent envoys to the Western Regions, and many insulted lives, or embezzled, and suffered by foreign countries." ”
But why has the phenomenon of "corruption" never been eradicated and completely eradicated?
Here, let's take the Ming Dynasty as an example.
Zhu Yuanzhang was poor when he was young, and once herded cattle for Liu De's landlord. In the fourth year of Zhizheng (1344), he entered the Huangjue Temple, and at the age of 25, he participated in the Red Turban Army Rebellion led by Guo Zixing against the Yuan Dynasty. In the sixteenth year of Zhizheng (1356), Jiqing Road was captured and changed to Ying Tianfu. In the 27th year of Zhizheng (1367), Xu Da and Chang Yuchun were ordered to raise troops in the Northern Expedition to overthrow the rule of the Yuan Dynasty with the call of "expelling Hu Yu and restoring China".
At the beginning of the first year of Hongwu (1368), Zhu Yuanzhang was proclaimed emperor in Yingtianfu, with the name of Daming and the era name of Hongwu. In the autumn of that year, he captured Dadu, ending the yuan dynasty's rule in the whole country. After that, the southwest, northwest, eastern Liaoning and other places were pacified, and finally, the whole country was unified.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, because of his origin, hated corruption so much that he gritted his teeth, and even "cutting corners" in engineering construction was also a kind of corruption.
Nearly a hundred years later, the scholar Zhu Zhishan recorded such a story, saying: This emperor, when repairing the nanjing city wall, would come to the construction site from time to time to inspect. If he found that the filler in the wall was mixed with mud, the overseers and craftsmen in charge would become the filler. Because of this, the city walls were built incredibly strong.
However, the authenticity of this story remains to be examined, but the quality of the city walls is true. Including the ancient city walls of Changsha, the bricks used in these Ming city walls will be engraved with the names of the person in charge, the supervisor, the producer and the worker, as well as the production time. Once a problem is found, it can be held accountable accordingly. This is a common practice in the ancient construction industry.
In order to eliminate "deduction" in this regard and ensure quality, there have been strict management regulations throughout the ages. The imperial court would issue decrees such as the "Camp Order", which stipulated the size and form of the building, and of course, the quota of construction materials. However, although there is a system, if it is not implemented, it is empty. In the Wanli period, due to the "exploitation" of various links, the construction cost of the imperial palace far exceeded the same projects in the folk.
According to reports, the budget for the maintenance of a Qianqing Palace window is five thousand gold. As long as the people involved, whether eunuchs or foremen, have fattened their own pockets. What is even more powerful is that He was able to transport the materials for repairing the imperial palace home and repair his own house, which was done by Zhao Wenhua, the Shangshu of the Ministry of Works of Jiajing for thirty-six years. Since the oil and water are so abundant, everyone will try their best to take care of the royal decoration work.
In that year, the project of the GuiWangFu was taken over by a eunuch named Huang Yong for 50,000 taels, repaired for 5 years, and cost 500,000 yuan. In the Zhu Youjian period, first, the state really had no money, and second, corruption was even more severe. When he got married, he still believed in the king, but when he looked at the architecture of the palace and the items used, there was no "delicacy" to speak of, and this palace was not compatible at all. However, successive dynasties have strict rules for these.
It turned out that the eunuch had subcontracted the project and was just sitting and collecting money. Later, Zhu Youxiao became emperor, and there was no other way but to dispose of this eunuch. Therefore, it is enough to see from a few files of the Ming Dynasty's imperial affairs how prevalent the corruption was at that time, and even, under the eyes of the emperor, he dared to act arbitrarily.
Aren't these people afraid?
The reason still has to be found from the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang is not greedy, let alone allow officials to be greedy, so it is not okay, but also the salaries of officials are depressed, thinking that in this way, everyone can be honest and honest. Moreover, once it is found that there are embezzlers, if there are more than 60 taels, the heads are cut off directly. In his tenure, everyone was very careful. However, when it comes to his descendants, the rules of the ancestors must be observed, but everyone must also eat.
Here, there is a set of data:
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu (1392), Yue Fengmi, Zheng Yipin was 87 stones, ZhengSipin was 24 stones, and Zhengqipin was 7 stones and 5 buckets. Convert it, do a county order, the monthly salary is only more than 1,000 yuan. However, at that time, it was really a person working to support a family, and this little money was enough to spend? If you are not greedy, eating has become a problem. And these become: not the question of whether to be greedy or not, but how to be greedy and not to be discovered by others.
Just as officials take advantage of their work to take the materials for the construction of the palace home to repair their own house, everyone will take up the idea of their own position in office. The internal officials were in charge of the eunuchs, in charge of building the mansion of the king of the clan, and would use this position to make money. And the briber, of course, will also deduct all kinds of materials during construction to earn more "private money".
The Gui King's Mansion, which cost 500,000 yuan, actually collapsed in a few years. And of course the eunuch was beheaded, but the court had to spend more money to rebuild. However, those systems, as long as this phenomenon exists, basically lose their binding force. This is the first, and the second is that the emperor's own behavior later indirectly encouraged the practice of those around him.
In addition, the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun, for example, loved the son who did not become emperor, King Fu, and moved him to Luoyang for everything good, including his own enclosure. However, this kind of unruly approach will only make the people more indifferent to the state system. And the officials are also all in unison and greedy together. Then, if the provider of money is the deprived people, and if they are forced to have no way out, they can only do the opposite.
In the later period of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, famine and natural disasters were one aspect, but however, the inaction in agriculture was not a result of everyone's "slackness" under the phenomenon of corruption? Looking at the past dynasties, this phenomenon is often accompanied by the chaos of the government, and without a serious system of law-abiding people, how can there be a clear official style? However, if the emperor in a high position is not in good shape, how can he convince his courtiers?
Although the system is important, there must also be an environment for implementing the system, otherwise, a few more Hai Rui will only remove a few corrupt officials, not to eliminate this phenomenon.
Resources:
[Ming Shi Taizu Benji, Ming Shi Chronicle At the End of the Ming Chronicle, Ming Shi Vol. 22, Ben Ji No. 22]