Everyone hates corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and it is precisely because of the existence of corrupt officials that the government's various policies have not benefited the people, especially in the era of war and famine, corrupt officials enjoy the taste of mountains and treasures and seas in the palace, while the hungry people are hungry and skinny, just in response to Du Fu's sentence "Zhumen wine smells of meat, and the road has frozen bones."
In the 5,000 years of China, there were a total of 559 emperors, and many emperors turned a blind eye to corrupt officials and corrupt officials, such as the Qianlong Emperor, who knew that He Yan was greedy, but entrusted him with heavy responsibilities, of course, some emperors treated corrupt officials very harshly.
Speaking of anti-corruption emperors in history, it is impossible not to mention Zhu Yuanzhang.
▲Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang statue
Zhu Yuanzhang was born into a poor family, when he was a child, he gave cattle to the landlords, he had to eat when he grew up, he became a monk, he really climbed up step by step from the bottom of the people, and because of this, Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well the harm of corrupt officials to the common people and how much harm to a country, he knew very well that the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed at the hands of corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and once a country was rampant, it was not far from extinction.
Zhu Yuanzhang was committed to the anti-corruption of officials at the beginning of his term of office, although the Ming Dynasty had just been established and was in ruins to be revived, but since ancient times there was an old saying that "no official is not greedy."
In order to deter corrupt officials, and to show his love for the people like a son, he said in the Book of Commandments after taking office:
From provincial-level officials to prefectural-level officials, if, outside the provisions of the state, they set up a clever name to collect the people's money, allow the elderly in the territory who are highly respected and respected to connect with the villagers in the vicinity, and jointly go to the capital to file a complaint, have evidence, punish criminals, change good officials, and raise the people. At the same time, officials from the provincial to the county level, if they are honest and capable and have outstanding political achievements, allow the people in the territory to come to Beijing to report, and I will reward them.
This is undoubtedly to let the people supervise the officials' every move, he supports the people behind his back, if there is an official who corrupts the law, he can know it at the first time.
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that relying solely on mass supervision was not enough, and if he wanted to keep officials throughout the country from being greedy, he had to engage in something with deterrence, that is, "killing."
Zhu Yuanzhang has commanded the army for more than 20 years, killing people, never being soft-hearted, even the brothers who were born and died with him can be exterminated, what other people can he not kill? Not to mention the corrupt official he hated the most.
▲Kinshiki Guard
During the decades of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, there are historical records that he killed at least 50,000 corrupt officials, and even sometimes he killed too many corrupt officials, so that officials could not be replenished, resulting in a shortage of talents.
Moreover, when Zhu Yuanzhang punished corrupt officials, he would not let them die, but would instead inflict capital punishment on them, such as skinning, Ling Chi and other tortures.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was not soft on corrupt officials and corrupt officials, in the face of the silver of white flowers, corrupt officials should be greedy or greedy, and did not effectively curb the greed of corrupt officials, but in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, almost to the extent that no officials were greedy, and the Ming Dynasty was finally doomed to extinction because of the corruption of officials.
There are many corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty, there are also many corrupt officials in the Qing Dynasty, and there are folk songs and rumors that "three years of Qing prefects, 100,000 snowflakes of silver", you can see how profitable the corrupt officials of the Qing Dynasty are, no wonder so many people have to go to be officials after squeezing their heads! In the face of the phenomenon of corruption among the officials of the Great Qing Dynasty, the fourth master Yongzheng also vigorously rectified corrupt officials after taking office.
▲ Yongzheng Chieftain
However, Yongzheng's means were much more benevolent than Zhu Yuanzhang's, and Yongzheng did not use his personal feelings to slaughter corrupt officials, but instead formulated two decrees in an attempt to curb corrupt officials through laws.
The first is to return the envy of silver to the public.
Before the Yongzheng Dynasty, the fire consumption silver in various places was formulated by the local governments, and there was no unified standard, some corrupt officials filled their own pockets with this fire-consuming silver, and after Yongzheng formulated this law, the silver was reused and returned to the public, which not only increased the government's financial revenue, but also cut off the idea that corrupt officials wanted to fill their own pockets, and they could also use this silver to increase the salaries of officials, that is, to implement the so-called "high salary and low price" Policies to prevent more officials from becoming greedy and corrupt.
The second is "immediate compensation", Zhu Yuanzhang's approach is to let the common people supervise the officials, while Yongzheng's practice is to let the alternate officials supervise the officials. After the Kangxi Dynasty, the number of disciples in the world gradually increased, and the number of people selected by the imperial examination gradually increased, but there were not so many official positions for them, so Yongzheng made a fuss about this and let these alternate officials supervise the current officials. Every time Yongzheng sent ministers to the following to check the accounts, a large number of alternate officials would follow, and when it was found out which official was corrupt, the corrupt official would be dismissed on the spot, and then a candidate of the same rank as the corrupt official would be immediately selected among the alternate officials to fill the vacancy after the removal of the corrupt official.
Yongzheng played this hand more fiercely than Zhu Yuanzhang, because of the concern for their own vital interests, these alternate officials all went to great lengths to provoke the officials who were investigated, hoping that they would be arranged to the official positions as soon as possible, so that although they caused a disharmonious situation between the officials, they also avoided the protection of officials and officials, and the benefits to the people were still great.
Moreover, this move can also avoid the corruption of his successor, because his predecessor fell in this way, and he will be cautious and more dedicated to the official when he becomes an official, otherwise, the fate of his predecessor is his future.
By promulgating these two decrees, Yongzheng effectively curbed the phenomenon of official corruption.
Therefore, during the Yongzheng Dynasty, which can be called the most lucid period of the Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng's anti-corruption and clean government not only made up for the deficit left by the Kangxi Dynasty, but also accumulated a large amount of wealth for the later Qianlong Dynasty, which contributed to the emergence of the Kangqian stable era. However, in the late Qianlong Dynasty, the qing dynasty gradually became corrupt, and finally like the Ming Dynasty, it was corrupted by the rule of officials.