Not wanting to go to work, being late and leaving early, is a real daily state in many people. I'm just afraid of being deducted from my salary and don't dare to do it.
Back in ancient times, those ministers who had heavy responsibilities did not want to go to the court. Taking the Qing Dynasty as an example, there were many places where ministers arrived late and left early, so how would the powerful emperor punish them?
The early dynasties of the Qing Dynasty handled government affairs in two forms, one was to listen to the government at the royal gate, and the other was to take turns to play things. The former participated in a large number of people, and high-ranking officials and middle- and lower-ranking officials of all yamen had to come, which was highly ceremonial; the latter participants were military ministers and senior officials of various yamen, and the scope was small, which was convenient for discussing major events.
Qianqing Gate, the place where the Imperial Gate listens to the government.
Regardless of the form, the early dynasty highlighted a "early" word. How early is it? The kangxi emperor set the following rules: officials gather outside the noon gate every day, in the spring and summer at the moment of the first day (6:15), in the autumn and winter at the beginning of the day (7:15), into the middle and left gate to wait.
Assembling at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning meant that the ministers had to get up before dawn, and some people lived in or outside the city, and the road to the palace was twenty or thirty miles away, and even had to get up at 1 o'clock in the morning.
All year round, the ministers were miserable. In 1682, Zhao Shikai, the secretary of the Dali Temple, said: "The ministers get up three times a night earlier, and their vitality is exhausted, so it is inevitable that they will do things during the day, and it is difficult to be precise." He asked the principal and deputy posts of each court to take turns in the early dynasty, or to reduce the number of times the early dynasty.
The Kangxi Emperor replied: No! In order to prevent the ministers from arriving late, he often urged Yushi to attend the noon gate at dawn every day, "if there are lazy and avoidant officials of the Manchu Han Dynasty, they will be inspected."
Later, the ministers could not stand it and kept asking for a postponement, and the Kangxi Emperor reluctantly agreed to postpone it for an hour.
During the yongzheng emperor and the Qianlong emperor, the time of the shang dynasty was advanced to the time of the emperor (5:00-7:00 a.m.), and even the situation of Yinshi (3:00-5:00 a.m.) listening to the government was even seen. Fortunately, the number of times the imperial gate listened to the government was reduced, and the number of rotations was increased, so that the ministers would not get up at three o'clock in the middle of the night every day.
Portrait of the Yongzheng Emperor.
Nevertheless, the phenomenon of ministers being late became more and more intense, and eventually it became the emperor and other ministers who came to work. At the beginning of 1740 (the seventh day of the first month of December in the fourth year of Qianlong), the Qianlong Emperor reprimanded his subjects:
"Whoever obeys the government and distinguishes between the colors rises." Each dispatcher asked if the courtiers would gather? After a few times, the clouds gathered. This is true even today. The courtiers played at the imperial gate, and it was still late, so they entered the office every day, which is even more conceivable. ”
The Qianlong Emperor said, every time the imperial gate listens to the government, I get up early in the morning to wait for you to go to the court, and as a result, you are late every time, I let the eunuch ask over and over again, and after many times you have arrived, which is very excessive!
However, it can also be seen from this that although the ministers were often late, the Qianlong Emperor did not give a substantial punishment except for reprimands. But he wasn't always.
On December 17 of the fourteenth year of Qianlong, another day when the imperial court was listening to the government, Shangshu Sanhe of the Ministry of Works was unexpectedly absent, and the Qianlong Emperor was greatly angry, believing that he was not doing his best and incompetent, and demoted him from Shangshu to a waiter.
A painting depicting the scene of the previous dynasty.
After the Jiaqing Emperor ascended the throne, the princes and ministers no longer had the industrious and efficient state of the early Qing Dynasty, but he still struggled to maintain the order of the early dynasty. In 1806, he clearly stipulated: "If there is a delay in arriving at the shift and a mistake in the shift, the penalty shall be six months; for those who do not arrive at the shift, the penalty shall be one year." ”
A penalty is a deduction of wages. If we are deducted from 50 yuan, 100 yuan of wages, it is very painful. However, during the Qing Dynasty, the deterrent effect of punishment on the ministers was too small. The annual feng lu of a pin of civil officials is only 180 taels of silver, and they do not live on this money at all, they rely on raising incorruptible silver (a pin of civilian officials raise 16,000 taels of incorruptible silver a year) and various gray incomes. The penalty is half a year, a year, and it is almost like scratching an itch.
This has led to an increase in the crooked wind of late arrivals.
On the tenth day of the first month of December in the 26th year of Daoguang, the Daoguang Emperor listened to the government, and an incredible scene occurred at the scene, the officials were collectively late, and many of the officials of other ministries and courtyards did not arrive. The Daoguang Emperor was furious and imposed heavier punishments, sentencing more than twenty officials for one to two years.
Portrait of the Qianlong Emperor.
In addition to being late, there are also early departures, and the phenomenon of not leaving early is not as serious as being late.
In February of the sixth year of Yongzheng, Yushi Eqishan and Zeng Yuanmai left early during their rotation, and the Yongzheng Emperor, believing that the two were lazy and had no "intention of being diligent and respectful", ordered the two to "serve in the Yuanmingyuan every day, and hand over all the disrespectful places to the Yi and the two for inspection", and stipulated that they "go to the palace gate when the sun is not out, and retreat and disperse when the sun enters".
Don't want to go to work, right? Then force you to be on duty every day, come early and leave late every day.
On March 18 of the eleventh year of Qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor issued an edict saying that he had finished talking to the ministers in front of him in the court and was going to call the ministers behind him, but found that someone had quietly slipped away. He was so angry that he sent a reprimand and made it clear that he could leave so that the officials could leave.
Late arrivals, early departures, and absences are punished, and those who should not arrive at work are also punished. In the twelfth year of Jiaqing Dragon Boat Festival, more than 30 princes and ministers, such as Prince Zhaozong of Li and Prince Wuergong'a of Zheng, should not have participated in the rotational duty, but they came on their own initiative and were "punished by the Jiaqing Emperor for three months each."
【References】
Li Wenjie, "The "Early Dynasty" of the Qing Dynasty: The Development and Decline of the Imperial Gate Listening to the Government", Qiu Mengyu's "Research on the Imperial Gate Listening to the Government in the Qing Dynasty", "Qing Shilu Jiaqing Dynasty Record"