The household department of the Qing Dynasty was not as prominent as the official department among the six ministries, but it was the most complicated and trivial department. Officials at all levels of the household department are also the most professional compared to other departments, and they face chai rice oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea all day long, as if they are a mr. accountant. In the Qing Dynasty Hubu Shangshu, there are three more famous people, namely He Yan, Weng Tonggong and Yan Jingming.
He Yan was in charge of the household department for many years, and on the occasion of the prosperous qianlong era, the national treasury was full. Therefore, he did not have to worry about the silver, the only trouble was how to spend the silver. However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the home of the Qing Dynasty was not so good, and Weng Tonggong felt too much pressure when he first took over the hubu Shangshu, afraid of failing to live up to the heavy trust of the imperial court. However, Weng Tonggong's dead pig was not afraid of boiling water, except for Li Hongzhang, who asked for money and did not give it, Cixi never skimped on money, and when he served as Hubu Shangshu, the account of the state treasury was basically a negative number.
If you want to say that you will be in charge and will be in charge when it is difficult, you have to count Yan Jingming. This person was a famous "financial expert" in the history of the Qing Dynasty, who served in the eight years of Hubu Shangshu's tenure, but none of the silver that passed through his hands was not used on the blade, and what he was most unaccustomed to in his life was extravagance, waste and corruption.
Yan Jingming, a native of Shaanxi Dynasty (present-day Dali County, Shaanxi), later moved to Linjin, Shanxi. His ancestors were quite honest, and they were diligent and studious from an early age, working in calligraphy. In the twenty-fifth year of Daoguang (1845), Yan Jingming was admitted to the Jinshi Examination and served in the Hubu Department as a Hanlin Yuan Shujishi. When he was the head of the household department, he showed extraordinary financial skills. Wen Qing, a university scholar in charge of the household department at that time, often condescended to consult him.
In the fourth year of Xianfeng, Yan Jingming moved to be a foreign minister of the household department. In the ninth year of Xianfeng, Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei, played the imperial court, hoping to send Yan Jingming to Hubei to assist him in handling grain and salary matters. After arriving in Hubei, Yan Jingming generally handled the grain and salary of the former enemy rear of Hubei, and Hu Linyi admired his talent, and soon after the imperial court said that he was "just and honest, solid and conscientious, and the only talent seen in Hubei." Two months later, Yan Jingming was promoted to hubei envoy, still concurrently handling grain and salary affairs. Although he was not on the front line, he was also a behind-the-scenes hero in the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.
In the first year of Tongzhi (1862), the new governor of Hubei, Yan Shusen, also praised Yan Jingming, saying that he was "really the first sage in Hubei", but he was extremely strict when doing things, and was often hated by villains. In August of that year, Yan Jingming's return to his hometown because of the loss of his father, the honest and honest Yan Jingming did not accept the funeral subsidy rewarded by the imperial court, and paid for the funeral himself, with debts of more than 1,000 taels, and many people were touched by his upright and honest style.
Because it was at the time of national calamity, the imperial court did not agree to Yan Jingming's request to return to his hometown to guard filial piety for three years, but let him act as the governor of Shandong, and the next month he was granted. During his tenure in Shandong, Yan Jingming achieved great results in suppressing peasant uprisings such as the Black Flag Army and the Twist Army. At the same time, he also managed the canal, opened mines and factories, and made great contributions to Shandong. When he left office, he also recommended Ding Baozhen, who was then the envoy of Shandong Province, to take over as the inspector.
In the third year of Guangxu (1877), a drought occurred in Shanxi, Yan Jingming was ordered to go to the disaster area with Zeng Guoquan to investigate the disaster area, in order to solve the problem of food for the victims, he went to the imperial court to mobilize money and grain from the surrounding provinces, especially from Jiangsu and Hubei to allocate 6 million stones of rice to comfort the victims.
During his inspection in Shanxi, Yan Jingming discovered that Duan Dingyao of Zhizhou had embezzled public funds for disaster relief and brought him to justice. Shang Shu Encheng and Tong Hua were also impeached by Yan Jingming for being ordered to inspect Sichuan and harass the people passing through Shaanxi. After the completion of the six-year disaster relief mission, Yan Jingming sought medical treatment in Xiezhou, Shanxi Province, due to illness.
In the eighth year of Guangxu, Yan Jingming was promoted to Hubu Shangshu, and in the first month of the ninth year, he gave the Forbidden City horseback riding and signed the Shangshu of the Army. In November, due to the difficulty of paying salaries, Shangshu stated the matter of Tuntian in Xinjiang and asked for the reduction of courage to save military expenditure, and his proposal was adopted and implemented in Xinjiang.
When she was serving in the household department, every time Cixi consulted Yan Jingming about the way to manage his finances, he was able to give a satisfactory answer in great detail, thus winning the trust of the empress. At that time, the imperial court consulted with Yan Jingming on the reduction or deletion or merger of military salaries, salaries, military grains, and the funds of the provincial manufacturing bureaus, and then made a final decision.
In addition, Yan Jingming also carried out a relatively vigorous reform of the household department, that is, the appointment of Han Chinese to manage the north file. The North Archives are the prime minister's institutions of state financial endowment, which has always been in the hands of the Manchus, but most of the Manchus do not understand financial management, and the financial power is mostly controlled by their subordinates, xu officials, who are becoming more and more rampant, and the financial problems are becoming more and more serious. With the support of Cixi, Yan Jingming's proposal was implemented.
In the tenth year of Guangxu, Yan Jingming was appointed minister of military aircraft, prime minister Yamen Walk, and promoted to assistant university fellow. For eleven years, he was awarded a fellow of Dongkaku University and was given a yellow coat. Later, because Cixi wanted to build a large number of civil engineering and rebuild the Yuanmingyuan, Yan Jingming was dismissed from his post and retained in his post, and in the fifteenth year of Guangxu, Yan Jingming requested to go home to recuperate due to illness. After that, Weng Tonggong succeeded Hubu Shangshu, and what was surprising was that during the financial and severe period of the Qing Dynasty, Yan Jingming actually accumulated eight million taels of silver without Cixi.
Yan Jingming is a legendary figure, it is said that he is short in stature, with eyes high and low, but his eyes are bright and bright. But throughout his life, he was honest and honest, not afraid of the powerful, meticulous and conscientious in his work. People said that he was "the first person in the Great Clearance Department." In the eighteenth year of Guangxu, Yan Jingming died of illness, and the imperial court gave the crown prince Shaobao, "Wen Jie".