Qing Dynasty servants
If it is said that "Han chengqin system", then in the Qing Dynasty can be regarded as "Qing Chengming system". In particular, the political structure and institutional settings are most similar, except for the different names of internal institutions and the different titles of posts, and the lessons learned from and abolished the Ming Dynasty system such as the setting of eunuchs and twenty-four yamen, the rest are roughly equivalent.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs was the most influential yamen of the Qing Dynasty, equivalent to the "Great Interior" of the Ming Dynasty, with as many as 3,000 officials in the interior alone, and if you add craftsmen, soldiers, and eunuchs, there are tens of thousands of people in the Interior Ministry. The emperors of the Qing Dynasty paid more attention to the enjoyment of the court, especially Yongzheng and Qianlong pursued the ultimate in various literary games, and then distributed this matter to local institutions, such as the "Jiangnan Three Weavings", so that the "vertical" management scale of their internal affairs offices was even larger.
In the Qing Dynasty, the yamen at all levels from large to bottom, from top to bottom, from the number of settings to the personnel organization, all set a record high. According to Guangxu's "Great Qing Huidian" and "Qing History Draft", by the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 2,200 yamen set up by the main administrative organs at the provincial, provincial, prefectural and county levels alone, and if we continue to refine and count the branches of yamen, the total number of yamen is not less than 4,000 at the lowest. On average, there are more than 130 yamen in each province, and there are more than two yamen in a county, which is the most indiscriminate yamen.
Qing Dynasty county officials
As early as the Qianlong period, Chen Hongmou, a local official, expressed his opinions on the establishment of too many institutions: "The imperial court should not set up too many officials, but not take civil affairs as a matter, stop trying to 'self-help', thinking that if you have a plan, the people will not benefit from the officials, and everyone who feels that more officials are tired." There is no conscience to be said to be true. That is to say, there are so many officials and institutions set up now, but these officials do not do things for the people, and only hope that the purpose of their own promotion and wealth will be achieved. In his family letter, he also rebuked: "The habits of the officialdom have been deep, and every day from top to bottom, they are busy and busy, although there is a pomp and circumstance of governing the people, there is nothing to do with the people." Not only that, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty were very powerful and arbitrary, because most of the small officials below them were hired by their own small treasury, so the Qing Dynasty people often said: "The current officials rule, three kinds of people, namely the curtain friend, the long follower, and the scrivener", which is a bit of "power contracting".
"Everything under the heavens begins in the prefectures and counties, and all ends in the prefectures and counties", the most popular position in the Qing Dynasty was not the "prefecture and county" official, which meant that when the state and county officials were in control of the local population and financial power. According to the records in the "Guangxu Huidian" book, there are a total of 1342 county taiye in the country, and there are also departments and prefectures with higher ranks than the counties, and there are 78 departments and 129 prefectures in the country, which belong to the zhengwupin and zhengliupin officials. At that time, there was a proverb that said: "Be a high point for the name of Hanlin." Principals can also show talent. In the Qing Dynasty, although some high-ranking officials were only a name, the officials of the imperial examination were relatively more concerned about fame and etiquette, and there were many ethics to speak of, and those who spent money to buy officials in Zhixian were in order to get rich and maximize the interests of this "political transaction" through various means.
County orders and xu officials
At that time, there was a vivid story that a Shaoxing person surnamed Jiang had been deficient in Zhixian for a long time, but was suffering from not being able to come up with too much money, so he and a few friends discussed that everyone should pool money and donate officials, and it was agreed that the surname Jiang would do the county order, and the rest would be the criminal name master, the money and grain master, and stipulated that all income should be put together and the blood covenant oath was taken. Not long after, the plan of these people was successfully implemented, and they performed their duties and cooperated with tacit understanding, until the three-year assessment, Jiang was dismissed for corruption, but he was already full of pots and pans with others. In addition, in addition to the money, Zhixian also had to make friends with higher-level officials in order to obtain power protection, which was an indispensable official "amulet". At that time, the Qing Dynasty allowed a way to send money called the Ugly Rule, which is now called the unspoken rule, which cannot be too bright, but it is not illegal. Its names are also different, such as what "charcoal respect", "don't respect" and so on dozens of kinds of money to send money and collect money in name. In the eyes of the county order, the highest access to the feudal officials, as if there is no emperor in the eyes, for the local governors, the state capital superiors of the demand and various receptions are very cooperative, and gradually become the overseers' cronies and minions.
In the Qing Dynasty's "Notes on Yong Xianzhai", a more vivid thing is told, during the Qianlong period, the governor of Yunnan called the magistrate Chen Xi," and once the governor asked him to buy two hundred taels of red gold, chen did not dare to refuse, so he went to the market to buy it, and sixteen taels of silver were used for every two red gold. When the magistrate Chen Xi sent the gold, he also listed the purchase costs, which made the governor furious and refused to accept it, and not long after, Chen Xi was excluded and had to resign and return home.
In fact, there are too few officials like Chen Xi, and most of the county orders are too late. During the Jiaqing period, the fat shortages of the local yamen were clearly marked with the price of "the lack of money, the big shortage of fifteen thousand" The feudal officials used the power in their hands to firmly control the officials of various prefectures and counties in their own hands, and became the "team" for serving and transporting money and goods.
Snowflake silver
In the increasing corruption of the Qing Dynasty, the local officials' encroachment on the people became more and more serious, in addition to wantonly looting the people's fat and people's ointment, favoritism and fraud were everywhere, and there were many proverbs that hated the prefectures and counties: "The Zhizhou who kills people, the Zhixian who destroys the door, to make the fortune, to estimate the family, to eat, to be a Zhixian, to be a Zhixian, to wear silk." Therefore, when the higher-level organization department wants to promote the county order to become a Beijing official, it is often rejected by the county order or the Zhizhou euphemism, and even tries to send money many times to continue to be a local official.
Among them, "to make a fortune, it is necessary to estimate the family" means that when encountering a lawsuit, you must first estimate how many family foundations your family has. As a result, there was the phrase "not a word can enter the public door, and once you enter the public door, you will fall", and even the emperor of the Qing Dynasty at that time had to admit that the reality of the case handling rules: "The thickness of the family road is the increase or decrease of the silver number, and it is almost as good as the provinces", but it is powerless to change.
State and county trials
On the surface, it seems that the local officials are becoming increasingly corrupt, but on this issue, Qianlong's setting of the standards for officials has caused a certain bad influence. He once said: "There are no famous ministers in this dynasty, and there is no need for famous ministers." From top to bottom, there was no moral model of honored by officials, and in its place was all kinds of unspoken rules, and Cao Zhenyong, the most able official of the Three Dynasties who was successfully re-elected, had several words to learn "more prostrations and less talking", and this kind of officialdom blew through every corner of the ancient Qing Empire, and finally caused local governors and county orders to only seek to be officials and get rich, from the local to the whole, and also led to the final outcome of the Qing Dynasty's "heart-wrenching".
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of the Observations of the Eunuch Sea of Daoxian