Zhengda is bright and honest, and this should be the consciousness of an official. Ancient scholars thought this way when they read books, but the eunuch sea was up and down, and in the end no one could get out of the mud without staining. Many Qing officials are cloudy or even dirty when they are clean. It is shocking that the Qing official I want to share today invited six thousand porters to move his property when he returned home from his post.
This Qing official was named Yan Botao, and he was the Sui Daotai of Yanyu, Shaanxi. Why is he a clean official? It was because he had done a great thing, and he once made an official stone tablet to restrain himself and his subordinates. The stone stele is engraved with 36 big characters: The officials are not afraid of my strictness, but fear my honesty; the people do not obey my ability, but obey my father. The public and the people do not dare to be slow, and the honest officials do not dare to deceive. Gongsheng Ming, Lian Shengwei.
Yan Botao put this 36-character stone stele in the yamen, the content is simple and easy to understand, I believe that his people can understand it. This stele is still preserved, at the Forest of Steles Museum in Shaanxi. People who saw this stele all felt that Yan Botao was a righteous person and an absolute clean official. However, the facts are very different.
Yan Botao was born into a family of official eunuchs, his grandfather was the governor of Yunnan, and his father was the governor directly subordinate to him. He himself is also a very powerful 18-year-old who won the lifting and 22-year-old. He first entered his career as a member of the Hanlin Academy, and it took many years before he officially became a magistrate. Maybe he was young, maybe he was naïve, but when he first became a magistrate, he wanted to uphold the integrity of his life and be a good clean official who served the people.
However, the bureaucracy is an absolute dye vat. If you refuse to accept the inherent routine, you will become clear and fishless. Therefore, Yan Botao later went with the flow and learned to work in the official field with ease. Eventually he gave up his beliefs and ideals. It is precisely because of the change of his attitude that his officials are getting bigger and bigger.
Yan Botao's official fortunes were very good, and he soon became the governor of Shaanxi Province, and then became an envoy. After that, he went to Gansu as a political envoy, and came back to be the inspector of Shaanxi. He also served as the governor of Yunnan, the governor of Yunnan, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and so on. Later, Yan Botao, who was deeply trusted by the emperor, also became a feudal official in charge of the military, government, and people's power in many provinces. It's the pinnacle of life.
Yan Botao has been so smooth since entering the official field, sitting on the glory and wealth. However, the Opium War broke out at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the great powers shattered the nobles' dream of happiness. Yan Botao participated in the First Opium War, but was punished by the imperial court because of his defeat in the war. This time the punishment was particularly severe, and it was directly dismissed from his post and beaten back to his hometown.
After being dismissed, Yan Botao could only silently return to his hometown of Lianping, Guangdong. However, his return to his hometown did not look discouraged at all, but on the contrary, he returned to his hometown in glory, and the style and posture were still very large. The incident was recorded by an official in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province at the time.
Records say that Yan Botao carried thousands of retinues, and the gold and silver were even more numerous. Because there were so many things, he hired six thousand porters alone. He and his family members were also very pompous, sitting in four large sedan cars, all protected by guards. Because he was a high official, when passing through Zhangzhou, Fujian, the local official of Zhangzhou had to come out to greet him.
Just to receive Yan Botao, the local government of Zhangzhou spent more than 10,000 taels of silver. He brought too many people, and he occupied the Zhangzhou station, and he had to arrange more than four or five hundred tables of banquets for dinner. Therefore, the local officials of Zhangzhou felt that the burden was very heavy, and finally recorded this real historical fact.
Yan Botao, as a clean official who flaunted integrity, eventually became such a corrupt official who lived for his own selfish interests. Ironically, after the Xianfeng Emperor ascended the throne, the Qing government summoned him back and continued to serve as an official.