On July 25, 1820, the Jiaqing Emperor suddenly died at the summer resort. The emperor's second son Mianning inherited the throne, which was the Daoguang Emperor, and after he ascended the throne, he changed his name to Min Ning. After Daoguang ascended the throne, he wanted to change the trend of the continuous decline of the Qing Empire since the late Qianlong Dynasty and strive to restore the glory of the "prosperous era of Kangqian". But at this time, the Qing Empire was already in ruins, and it was difficult to return to the accumulated shortcomings. Daoguang was not reconciled, he wanted to revitalize his ancestral business and start with frugality. Before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, there was always a simple and frugal custom, but after entering the customs, it was lost. From top to bottom, it became extravagant, the treasury was empty, and Wen Tian was martial. In the long run, not only will the great cause of the ancestors not be reproduced, but the empire will also move towards the road of no return. Thinking of this, the Daoguang Emperor made up his mind, starting with correcting people's hearts and customs, advocating frugality, so that the subjects could return to their true nature, so as to make the national treasury full. Soon after he ascended the throne, he promulgated the "Theory of Imperial Sound and Color Goods", which clarified that the benefits of sound and color goods were great, which was a major event related to the life and death of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, officials must strictly restrain themselves, practice frugality, and not be tempted by profits and profits.
Daoguang himself's exemplary role in advocating frugality and eliminating extravagance can be described as a rare number of emperors in the past.
According to the custom, the Qing emperor had to have more than twenty dishes per meal, which the Daoguang Emperor considered too extravagant. He ordered cuts, and could make up to four dishes a day, sometimes even a bowl of tofu roast pork liver. He was so frugal that the officials who managed the imperial dining room cried bitterly. The more extravagant the emperor, the more oil and water they could extract. The emperor ate so little at each meal that he could not falsely report it. The emperor was so frugal in his diet that at first the imperial court officials did not believe it, but after the emperor invited two guests, they were completely satisfied.
In the early years of Daoguang, he once feasted on the courtiers twice. Once was the empress's birthday, and the Daoguang Emperor set up a banquet for the ministers of the inner court. However, they never dreamed that the Daoguang Emperor had previously issued a special edict to the imperial dining room: The Empress Qianqiu Celebration Feast could only slaughter two pigs, and the other ministers should be cut off by beating brine noodles.
On another occasion, when the university sergeant Ling quelled the rebellion in Xinjiang, he escorted the leader of the rebellion, Zhang Gelbanshi, back to the dynasty, and the Daoguang Emperor himself went to noon gate to be captured and held a grand ceremony for capture. Subsequently, the overjoyed Daoguang Emperor set up a celebration feast at the Yulan Hall of Wanshou Mountain. The officials thought that this time the emperor was so happy, he must have greatly celebrated. However, after the opening of the table, none of the ministers dared to move their chopsticks. It turned out that there were only a few plates in front of them, and the number of small dishes was pitifully small.
It was only after these two occasions that the ministers believed that the emperor was not playing dumb. In order to keep up with the pace of the leadership, the ministers each pretended to be frugal when they went to the court. Daoguang asked the university scholar Cao Zhenyong how much silver it would cost to eat eggs at home, and Cao Zhenyong lied that he had suffered from bloating since childhood and had never eaten eggs. The Daoguang Emperor actually believed this.
In terms of clothing, the Daoguang Emperor reversed the tradition of the emperors who paid attention to clothing, practicing frugality and not luxury.
After Daoguang ascended the throne, the Shangyi Supervisor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs specially prepared a black fox skin overcoat for the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty because he often wore a precious sweater overcoat in winter. The black fur is embellished with a good satin fabric, which is very elegant and luxurious. The Daoguang Emperor saw this cloak and felt that the fox skin was the result of catching prey, and the satin was made by the people, so the satin should be more valuable than the fox skin, and the part of the coat that exposed the satin around the outside was only for beauty and not practical, so he ordered the ministry of internal affairs to be restructured, and no excess satin was allowed to be exposed around. This frugality frustrated the officials of the Ministry of the Interior, who had long relied on corruption to enrich themselves. They wanted to take advantage of this change of the blouse to get some oil and water. So they said that it would take silver to change the tunic. When the Daoguang Emperor heard that he needed so much silver, he felt reluctant to do so, and immediately changed his mind, saying that the cost of restructuring was too much and was temporarily exempted, but in the future, the newly made smocks were not allowed to have the satin part of the wind. As a result, the burqa fur worn by officials large and small in the capital no longer has the windy part.
The costumes of the Qing Dynasty were generally covered in the form of robes, and the pants were rarely exposed. In order to save money, the Daoguang Emperor wore old pants for many years, and the knee area was worn out, so he ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to send someone to patch up a round patch. When the Korean officials saw that the emperor was so frugal and felt that he could not be left behind, but to seize the good opportunity to show himself following the steps of the leader, there was such a ridiculous scene: the court officials deliberately made a hole regardless of whether their pants were really torn, or even if they were not broken. Then do a make-up job at the knee. The hall of the golden hall was filled with a group of people in tattered clothes.
Once, when a minister revealed a patch while bowing to the emperor, the Daoguang Emperor chatted with him in the main hall and asked him how much silver the patch had spent. The minister tentatively said that he had used three pieces of silver. The Daoguang Emperor was greatly moved after hearing this, and he said: "Folk patches, really cheap." In the inner house of Yuan, a patch actually needed five or two pieces of silver. The ministers below listened and knew that most of the five taels of silver had been coveted by the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, no one wants to offend people, so they do not take the initiative to tell the mystery.
In terms of the use of the harem in the inner court, the Daoguang Emperor was also very economical. Just in place. The Daoguang Emperor ordered governors and generals to break the old practice and stop paying tribute. It had become a rule for local officials to offer tribute to the emperor, and officials at all levels could reap substantial benefits from it each time. They thought that the new emperor's behavior was only to invite people's hearts and minds, so they deliberately said so. Therefore, local officials at all levels continued to send tribute to Beijing in a steady stream to offer to the emperor. The Daoguang Emperor had no choice but to issue another edict that those who had already made offerings could enter the offering, while those who had not made offerings did not have to be bound by the old practice. He strictly forbade officials, large and small, to take the opportunity to increase tribute at will. Tributes that are dispensable or merely used for viewing and entertainment are strictly prohibited.
In order to show his determination to be frugal, the Daoguang Emperor ordered that while stopping the tribute, he took a series of other measures. For example, he no longer imitated the emperors who toured the north and south to avoid disturbing the people and increasing the burden on the people. Those long-distance trips that are difficult to cancel, such as the northern tour of Shengjing to worship the ancestral tombs, have repeatedly asked the responsible officials to save money. Once it is found that someone is wasting, it must be severely punished. The Daoguang Emperor released a large number of palace women from the palace, and ordered the concubines to remove the prosperous makeup and eat frugally. For his own children, he also strictly requires, such as the wedding of the crown prince and princess, and the dowry of the Fu Jin family cannot be luxurious. If the dowry is found to be in violation of the law, the original property will be returned, and even handed over to the relevant departments for strict punishment.
The Daoguang Emperor was very determined to cut down luxury things, and his royal supplies were no exception. After he ascended the throne, the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared for him forty square meters inscribed on the back with the words "Daoguang Imperial Use" on the back. When the Daoguang Emperor learned of this, he thought that he could not use so many yantais, leaving only two parties, and gave other rewards to a number of inner court ministers. He knew that the imperial yantai had special places to prepare for the whole year, so he decreed that there was no need for perennial preparation in these places. The royal brush is made of the world's rare purple rabbit hair, called "Purple Milli", which is very precious and rare. After the Daoguang Emperor knew, he felt that this purple milli was so precious, why not use the pure sheep milli or sheep rabbit and the sheep rabbit commonly used by ordinary people. Therefore, he also issued an edict saying that in the future, zihao would no longer be used as a royal brush, and it was enough to use a folk brush.
The Daoguang Emperor became more and more frugal in his old age. To put it mildly, it is getting more and more stingy. Once, when the Daoguang Emperor wanted to eat slices of soup, he asked the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to do as he said. However, in order to catch some oil and water, the Ministry of Internal Affairs deliberately said that if according to the emperor's practice, it was necessary to build another kitchen and send special personnel to take charge, so that the emperor would need to allocate sixty thousand taels to handle the matter, and fifteen thousand taels of maintenance costs would be needed. When the Daoguang Emperor heard this, his eyebrows tightened, and he said, "I know that there is a restaurant outside the front door that can make this kind of soup, and a bowl is only forty yuan." Forget it, let people buy it every day from now on. "
The treachery of the Ministry of the Interior is overwhelming. After a few days, I don't know what means they used to force the restaurant to close. Then came to report to the Emperor that the restaurant was closed for unknown reasons. Where did the Daoguang Emperor know the mystery of this, he sighed: "Shuo has never abused the state treasury for the sake of appetite, I didn't expect that Yougui was the Son of Heaven, and if you wanted to eat a bowl of soup, you couldn't do it, it's really a pity!"
Daoguang reigned for thirty years, and his frugality ran through the whole process, but the effect was slightly flat. At that time, the Qing Dynasty, the ruling class
It has become extremely corrupt, officials at all levels from top to bottom have been extravagant and eroded, and the Qing Empire has begun to corrupt from its foundations. This is not something that the supreme ruler can change. The Qing Dynasty also inevitably moved towards the fate of history.