The concept of honest government in the ancient official proverb culture: one grain at a time, my name festival; one centimeter and one millimeter, the people's fat ointment...

The ancient Chinese official motto is popularly said to be the basic code of being an official. There are many types and numbers of official proverbs, the most famous of which is the "Jieshi Ming" of the Song Dynasty. It was originally an official proverb issued by the Shu monarch Meng Chang to local officials five generations later, with a total of 24 sentences, and Zhao Guangyi, emperor Taizong of Song, chose four of them with 16 characters - "Erqi Erlu, the people anointed the people." The people are easy to abuse, and the heavens are difficult to deceive" promulgated the world. Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty also made these 16 characters written by the famous calligrapher Huang Tingjian, "Mingzhou County Governor Inscribed On the Right", the motto of the Yamen officials.

Most of the contents of the ancient official proverbs were some of the basic requirements for being an official, such as being honest and honest, loving the people, promoting profits and eliminating harm, enforcing the law justly, and so on, and honesty in performing official duties is undoubtedly the common and most basic requirement of all officials. The earliest surviving official proverb should be regarded as the "Way of the Official" in the "Yunmeng Qin Jian". At the beginning of its chapter, it proposes that "all who are officials must be pure and upright", and uses the "five good" and "five mistakes" as the criteria for distinguishing between good officials and bad officials. The second article of the "five virtues" is "honesty and no slander"; the third article of the "five losses" is "to live in the official and take good". In the "Outline of Prefectures and Counties" of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Xiang also clearly put forward that "those who are officials should take honesty as the first", and specifically pointed out that honesty is the basic requirement of an official: "Officials do not speak honestly, and those who live in honesty and cover officials are divided into internal affairs." In the Southern Song Dynasty Lü Benzhong, in his "Official Proverbs", he proposed that "the law of being an official, there are only three things, namely Qing, Yue Shen, and Yue Qin", which was called "inaccessible through the ages" by later generations. In the famous "Political Training of The Western Mountains", zhen dexiu of the Southern Song Dynasty put forward four basic requirements for being an official, the first of which was "self-discipline and honesty", and pointed out: "All famous scholars and doctors are extremely honest, and only a little good is a small good, and a little corruption is a great evil." An unclean official, if he is unclean, though he has his beauty, cannot redeem himself, so he regards this as the first of the four things. ”

Of course, integrity involves many requirements. Judging from the content of the ancient official proverbs, in order for officials to truly be honest and honest in government, in addition to the general requirements, the most basic thing is to strengthen self-discipline from two aspects.

First, officials must "clean themselves," to put it bluntly, that is, they have high requirements for their own character and low requirements for their lives. In the Qing Dynasty's "Record of Merits and Virtues without Costing Money", "clean oneself for the people" was regarded as a "merit" for being an official. Chen Xiang of the Northern Song Dynasty put forward in the "Outline of Prefectures and Counties" that "thriftiness and honesty" and "do not seek false reputation" in this regard. The so-called "thrifty use and raising honesty" is to live out according to their actual economic conditions, do not excessively pursue a luxurious life, "therefore want to cultivate honesty, do not measure what they enter, save what they use, although coarse clothes and food, thrifty life", so that you can "bow down to the shame, live in peace, follow the way, its heart rests, is not happy!" The so-called "do not seek false reputation" means not to covet and pursue false reputations, to sell one's reputation and reputation for one's honor and face, to covet one's reputation and toss one's name at all costs: "Those who live in officials who want to sell false reputations and covet beautiful positions, the people are quiet, and they will want to change their deeds in order to pray for the knowledge of the superiors; when they are ruled by treacherous people, they will want to bend the law to protect them, so as to please the will of the villains; so that they will embellish the food and pass by, and even if they are arrogant and ruthless." Therefore, those who serve as officials should not excessively pursue personal fame and face, but should put the interests of the people first, "Knowing that the official position has its own share, can it be sold to gain fame?" Right and wrong, over time and self-determined, to do their best in me, and the people are affordable enough! ”

Hu Taichu of the Southern Song Dynasty also put forward the requirement of "self-purification" in the "Introduction to the Day Curtain". He confessed: "No one knows what is incorruptible and internal affairs", but because of "the compulsion of material relations, immersion is not free". In terms of life, "the poor and the lowly, the disturbed by the cry of their wives, the rich and the noble, have the need for oral support"; in the spiritual aspect, "the reputation of the good is passed on to the cook to entertain the guests, and the knot is thick and thick to be good"; in this way, "although you want to be incorruptible, you get it?" "How do you solve this problem? This requires starting from "clean self-purification", as Chen Xiang said in the "Outline of Prefectures and Counties": "Life is inherently fixed in rich and poor, and the more you divide and take, the more you gain, the other will lose." There are three feet in the situation, and a trap of greedy ink cannot be washed for life. Therefore, it is possible to be hungry, cold, killable, and killable, and it is not to be taken in the slightest. ”

The key to achieving "cleanliness" lies in the word "thrift". Wang Huizu, a famous official of the Qing Dynasty, said in the "George Medicine": "Frugality to cultivate honesty." Xu Bang of the Ming Dynasty proposed in the "Eunuch Diary": "Frugality has four benefits". He believes that "mere mortals are greedy, and there are those who are not born of luxury, and frugality is not greedy or adulterous, and they can cultivate virtue and benefit oneself"; in addition, frugality can also nourish life, nourish the gods, nourish the qi, and be very beneficial to the people.

Second, officials should take good care of the people around them. In some ancient official proverbs, this point is particularly emphasized. In ancient times, officials all served as officials from other places, on the one hand, they brought their own relatives with them when they took office; on the other hand, they had to rely on the Xu officials in the local yamen when doing things. Therefore, officials must not only be honest and honest in performing official duties themselves, but also have to take good care of the entourage of Xu officials around them to prevent them from relying on power and embezzlement. Chen Xiang specifically put forward the requirement of "preventing officials from gaining power" in the "Outline of Prefectures and Counties," holding that these people "originally wanted to be bribed to favor their families," and whenever they had the opportunity, they would play with power and accept money from the chief officials, which not only harmed the interests of the people, but also ruined the reputation of the officials themselves. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly control the subordinate Xu officials and not give them the opportunity to gain power and profit. Of course, it is more important that officials themselves lead by example. Hu Taichu pointed out in the "Introduction to the Day Curtain": "Those who plan for the present are only the ears of honesty and honesty. He is upright and does not act. ”

In addition to personally following Xu officials, managing one's relatives and children well is also an important aspect of managing the people around them. Chen Xiang specifically proposed in the "Outline of Prefectures and Counties" to "prevent idle children" and "to prevent relatives from selling fish." Xie Jinluan, a Qing dynasty man, also said in the "Juguan Zhiyi": "Relatives are happy to entertain servants and servants, and this phrase is the first mistake when Juguan starts." If you don't make up your mind here, you will be incurable in the future", "Cause bad reputation, lose shame, openly violate the criminal law, secretly accumulate injustice, and all sins and sufferings are only borne by one's own family", and it will be too late to regret it!

The concept of honest government expressed in the ancient official proverbs is the essence of China's honest government culture, and it still has its practical significance. It is particularly worth mentioning that the authors of many official proverbs are themselves famous clean officials and honest officials. They have taught by example and left a good story in the history of China's honest government. For example, Zhang Boxing, who was praised by the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty as "the official Qingzheng, known to the world", was a more famous Qing official in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and the "Forbidden Gifts and Gifts" he made when he was the governor of Fujian was a famous official proverb that was passed down to later generations:

"One grain, my name; one millimeter, the people's fat; one point wide, the people receive more than one point; take one article, and I am worthless of a man." Who is sociable, honest and hurtful, and who is not ill-gotten wealth, where does this thing come from? ”