At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the empire had decayed, but the officialdom was still old and lifeless.
Take, for example, the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prince Yi Kuang of Qing was appointed Minister of Ministers. This gentleman only arrives once a year. Before the introduction of the new official system, he was the de facto chief military aircraft minister, and later the prime minister of the cabinet, and his official duties were really busy.
The Guanbu University Scholar and Shangshu is Na Tong, and this Junjun comes to the Ministry once a week. What to do at other times, people don't know.
The actual work was handled by the full-time Shang Shu Liang Dunyan, the waiter Hu Weide, Zou Jialai, and the counselor and director.
At that time, the official uniforms of the Beijing officials needed to be brought by themselves. That's a lot of money.
Official uniforms change according to the season, and there are many different types at four o'clock. There is a difference between single, clip, cotton, and leather. Single, jacket material, and yarn, kudzu, silk, satin, splendid embroidery, all kinds of differences.
There are also many types of fur official uniforms. There are sheepskin, fox skin, mink skin, gray rat, lynx, otter, sea dragon and so on.
Among them, there is one kind of fox skin, which is divided into large hairs and two hairs. Sheepskin is a kind, and it is divided into pearl hair, grass cream, purple lamb and so on.
Sewing is divided into fronts or no fronts. Dressed or flipped over, depending on the occasion of participation, there are different rules.
As mentioned above, if it is fully purchased, it is not possible to spend thousands of taels of silver.
Some petty officials who love pomp and pageantry also have to spend a lot of money and donate a false title. Because only in this way can you put a peacock feather on the official hat to show off.
Transportation to work is also a big expense. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, only officials to university scholars were eligible to provide palanquins by the authorities.
Take the official car, it is not majestic! Four sedans, shoulder to shoulder. The other four sedans were followed by mules so that they could be replaced by another shift on the way or on the way back.
Other officials of insufficient rank had to take care of themselves. Yan Huiqing, who returned from the University of Virginia in the United States, was humble, low-minded, and open-minded, and took a rubber rickshaw to the ministry every day. The concierge didn't even know that this was a "Sipin Kyodo" from which the Imperial Gift was born. When others entered the gate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the concierge shouted loudly: "A certain adult has arrived!" Yan Huiqing entered the door, and the concierge ignored it.
The Salaries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are not low, but because the cost is too large, almost all the staff members cannot make ends meet.
Fortunately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs only works in the afternoon (which is also a strange thing), and in the morning, everyone goes out to work part-time. Yan Huiqing went to the "Verification and Compilation Hall" opened by Mr. Yan Jidao in the Faculty to assist in the examination and approval work.
As for officials who are unable to earn money on their own merits, they will also find other ways to subsidize their families.
Mr. Lu Zhengxiang, a well-known diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, said: "All those who hold public office must first make their personal and economic independence, and then they can hope to be loyal to their faith and carry out their lifelong ambitions." Otherwise, if you are worried about your own food and clothing, you are bound to rely on people's noses and breathe, and you will eventually achieve nothing, or even lose your personality. ”
What Mr. Lu said is still very reasonable. Of course, more officials achieved economic independence for the sake of officials.