As we all know, the monarchical centralization in ancient China reached its peak during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor, coupled with the efforts of the three emperors of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty also entered its peak period, known in history as the "Prosperous Era of Kang Yongqian". However, everyone understands the principle that prosperity and extreme decline are inevitable, and by the Qianlong period, various accumulated shortcomings were prominent, and officials at all levels were even more corrupt, and in such a big environment, there was an official who used his life to interpret the word "clean and honest" to the extreme, which was praised by the people of the time and future generations.
Statue of a Qing Dynasty official
This person was Sun Jiagan, a famous minister of the Qing Dynasty. Sun Jiagan, a native of Xingxian County, Shanxi, grew up in a poor family. In the fifty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1713 AD), Sun Jiagan zhongjinshi, through the three dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, was known for his courage to speak out. In the 61st year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1722 AD), the Kangxi Emperor died and was succeeded by the Yongzheng Emperor. At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, the ministers were well aware of the emperor's moody personality and did not dare to speak out, only Sun Jiagan, who was then a reviewer of the Hanlin Academy, advised him to "get close to his brothers, stop collecting donations, and collect troops from the northwest." I have to say that Sun Jiagan's shangshu just poked at the yongzheng emperor's sore spot, and the yongzheng emperor was furious after reading it, and reprimanded the hanlin academy for this matter: "The hanlin academy is allowed to be crazy? ”
Stills of the Qianlong Emperor
At that time, Zhu Shi, a scholar of the Wenhuadian University, was next to him and said euphemistically: "Jia Gan is sincere and crazy, but he surrenders to his guts." The Yongzheng Emperor heard the words and pondered for a moment, and also laughed and said, "Shuo Yi obeys his guts." As a result, the Yongzheng Emperor immediately announced Sun Jiagan's entry into the palace and promoted him to the position of Guozi Supervisor. What needs to be pointed out is that in addition to daring to speak out and give advice, Sun Jiagan also has quite remarkable points in terms of serving as an official. As we all know, the productivity in ancient times was relatively low, and the grain output was often insufficient to feed the people of the whole country, especially in the face of natural disasters, hunger was everywhere, so once special circumstances were encountered, the imperial court would prohibit the use of grain by the people to make wine. In the early days of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, various places suffered from war and chaos, production order had not yet been restored, and there was a shortage of grain, so the official order strictly prohibited folk brewing.
Folk use traditional craftsmanship for winemaking
After Sun Jiagan became the governor of Zhili, he visited and investigated the people and found that most of the folk wines used raw materials such as sorghum, grain bran, and bean skins, and these corner materials could not be used to fill the stomach of hunger, and the rational use of winemaking was actually beneficial to the lives of the people. Therefore, Sun Jiagan formally proposed to lift the ban on folk brewing in the recital, which was approved by the emperor, and the people praised him for a while. However, such a clean official who loves the people like a son also has his own difficulties. In the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747 AD), Sun Jiagan begged for bones on the grounds of old age, but after he was approved, he made a mistake - he had successively served as the viceroy of direct subordination, the governor of Huguang, the left deputy capital of the Duchayuan, and other important positions, which was also a high power, but he could not save much family property, and now when he returned to his hometown, he was so shabby, wouldn't he be ridiculed by his neighbors?
Qing Dynasty carriage objects
After some thought and thought, Sun Jiagan finally came up with a solution that was not the way to go. He summoned domestic servants and asked him to buy a dozen large wooden boxes overnight, and then took advantage of the night to load bricks into them. The next day, Sun Jiagan ordered his servants to find a few carriages, and then commanded the minfu to carry the heavy wooden boxes to the carriages and set off to return to their hometown in a mighty way. Who knew that Sun Jiagan had just left on his front foot, and his back foot had been taken by political enemies —some people said that he usually pretended to be incorruptible, but in fact he was a corrupt official, and now as soon as he returned to his hometown, he showed his stuffing, and there were several carriages carrying the family's wealth. The Qianlong Emperor was displeased, so he ordered someone to chase after Sun Jiagan and check his family wealth. Who knew that after Chincha stopped the carriage, he was shocked to find that the wooden box was full of bricks.
At this time, Sun Jiagan confided his actions and thoughts to Chincha. After Qin Cha returned to Beijing to report to the Qianlong Emperor, the latter was touched by his incorruptibility, so he ordered people to draw up a decree requiring the government along the way to replace the bricks in the wooden box brought by Sun Jiagan with gold and silver ingots as a reward for his clean and honest behavior, which also made Sun Jiagan famous. Two years later, Sun Jiagan returned to Beijing at the request of qianlong's edict and entered the study, and since then he has successively served as a soldier's attendant, a shangshu of the Ministry of Works, a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, a shangshu of the official's department, and a scholar of the co-founding university, and can also be regarded as an extremely popular minister. In December of the eighteenth year of Qianlong (1753 AD), Sun Jiagan died of illness at the age of seventy-one, and the Qianlong Emperor gave him the title of "Wending" to praise his noble character of "loving the people and loving the people, and pure behavior".
Resources:
Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Biography of Sun Jiagan