Yin Zhuangtu(尹庄图), courtesy name Chuzhen (楚珍), was a Yunnan Mengziren (孟自人), who was admitted to the cabinet in the 31st year of Qianlong and a cabinet scholar in the 39th year of Qianlong. Although it could not be included in the military aircraft, it was not an important member of the imperial court, but this official position was not small.
Note: The Yongzheng Military Aircraft Department of the Qing Dynasty replaced the cabinet, and the university scholars also lost their real power and became honorary titles.
Due to the death of his father in the fifty-first year of Qianlong, Yin Zhuangtu returned to his hometown to worry about the system, and returned to Beijing three years later to resume his post. In the round trip between the north and south of China, Yin Zhuangtu saw the decline of the local area and realized the harm of "deliberating on the silver of sin". Out of his way of being a subject and worrying about the king and the country, it was only natural to advise Qianlong.
Yin Zhuang image
If the superintendents, under the pretext of the unscrupulous, use their gluttony, that is, the incorruptible have to look forward to the help of their subordinates, and in the future, in the case of serious cases of deficit and private interests, they cannot be allowed to be reprehensible as shelter, although the fines are severe, but they are not ashamed, and they are expected to be healed by the toys, please stop this case forever, the slaves are ordinary, or they are dismissed, or use their relatives, and there is no need to take on foreign posts.
However, Yin Zhuangtu could not imagine that his few words would cause an uproar, completely change his fate, and also nail his Junshang to the pillar of shame.
At this time, Qianlong, as an emperor who had been in the imperial palace for more than fifty years, if he did not know the situation of the officials under him, it was simply impossible. Qianlong's case of Wang Qiwang, who swept away the Gansu officialdom in 1946, was handled by Qianlong single-handedly.
For what Yin Zhuangtu said, to tell the truth, Qianlong should approve of it in his heart. Then why was Qianlong as angry as if he had been grabbed by the tail? It was because Yin Zhuangtu's few words should have been tacit words.
Qianlong, as an emperor with a high level of power and political level, certainly did not believe that the officials in the imperial court would be as dedicated to serving the king and the country as they said. Naturally, he also knew that they were in office for "rights," but a few were for "rights, and the vast majority were for "profit."
A portrait of Qianlong painted by court painters using Western techniques
What many people did not expect was that Qianlong and Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang were very disgusted with corruption, and part of the reason for their disgust was the same -- the world is mine, the emperor, how can you allow you to covet my things. Even qianlong's early treatment of corruption was the same as Zhu Yuanzhang's.
There were 27 or more senior officials executed by Qianlong for corruption, and except for Zhu Yuanzhang, no emperor could compare with him (most of the high-ranking officials executed by Zhu Yuanzhang were rebels). However, Qianlong also found a problem in the process of dealing with corrupt officials.
Cleaning up corrupt officials does not mean that all the wealth in the world is his. Although it is possible to confiscate the property of criminal officials, this is a one-time operation, and these officials will also transfer and hide. More importantly, the world's wealth needs these officials to help him collect it.
Qianlong realized that although the world was his, if he wanted to get the wealth of the world, he could not do without the assistance of these officials. What was even more embarrassing was that Qianlong also found that the taxes collected by the normal channels of the imperial court were not enough for him to spend. Therefore, Qianlong also needs officials to help him expand his financial resources, but if he does not give them benefits, how can they work and sell their lives?
The tax collected by the imperial court was not enough for Qianlong to spend, not only because of Qianlong's extravagance, but also because of the inherent problems of the agricultural dynasty -- it was impossible to expand the source of taxes. The amount of land in the dynasty will not grow again with the stability of the dynasty (due to mergers, the book number will become smaller), and the tax will naturally not increase. But the expenses of the imperial dynasty will only increase over time (the growth of the imperial family, the expansion of the bureaucracy), and soon the imperial court will not be able to make ends meet.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty was the same problem. Moreover, the time point of the two dynasties is similar, and they all begin to make ends meet in the middle of the period. However, the dramatic thing is that when the Qing Dynasty was about to end, due to the invasion of the great powers, it was forced to open ports, which increased the new commercial tax revenue led by tariffs, and the Manchu Qing government, which was already poor and destitute, suddenly became generous (foreign affairs movement, preparation for the navy).
Therefore, Qianlong chose to compromise and let the officials loot the world's wealth for him, part of it handed over, and some of it was left behind. The specific operation method is "negotiating guilty silver", and after officials make "small mistakes", they can pay high fines in exchange for exemption from punishment.
But to control the extent of the looting by the officials. Qianlong also always adhered to the principle of "not reducing the level after finishing the stolen goods" to prevent officials from abusing the "guilty silver" system to do more and more outrageous things (meaning that they can be greedy, not greedy).
In fact, we can also see that for officials who go beyond the scope of the "silver for discussion of crimes" system, Qianlong is not at all lenient, and his means are not gentle at all (in other words, a dead end).
No matter how we evaluate it, at least Qianlong himself believes that his method of carroting and sticking has greatly encouraged the enthusiasm of officials, curbed vicious corruption, and increased the income of the imperial court and himself. The only drawback is that it cannot be said openly, after all, this kind of dark moderation is contrary to the etiquette and shame that are shouted on the lips.
This was originally an unspoken rule that Qianlong and the officials tacitly agreed upon, but it was brought to the table by Yin Zhuangtu and placed in front of the people of the world, like a public slap. More seriously, Yin Zhuangtu's statement that once widely compared and recognized by his subjects, it was bound to destroy his image as a prosperous emperor and even shake the foundation of his rule.
Qianlong Southern Tour Map Volume Partial
Qianlong was angry, but he had to eliminate the influence that Yin Zhuangtu had brought to him. If Yin Zhuangtu is directly convicted of slander, it will not seal the mouth of the world. On the contrary, it will make the subjects of the world think that the emperor and the imperial court are deliberately shutting down and covering up.
Qianlong thought of two methods, one was to "stop the rumors at the beginning" and let Yin Zhuangtu eliminate the influence he brought; the other was to use the fact that it was difficult for various places within the imperial dynasty to exchange information to create an illusion, so that the subjects of the world thought that even if there was corruption and selfishness, it was only a problem in a few places where he was located, and other places were very good, so the Qing Dynasty as a whole was very good.
Therefore, Qianlong decided to handle the matter openly and with great fanfare. First of all, Qianlong formally approved Yin Zhuangtu's recital chapter: "Since Zhuangtu is played for this purpose, he must have seen and heard about it, and now he refers to the actual performance." ”
Qianlong's explicit meaning is that you can't just say it, you have to come up with evidence. In fact, he was digging a pit for Yin Zhuangtu. Yin Zhuang's level of power and stratagem was too much worse than Qianlong's, and he couldn't guess what his Junshang wanted to do, so his reply made him fall into the abyss.
The governors were infamous, and the officials were ruined. The ministers passed through the localities, observed whether the officials were virtuous or not, the merchants and the people cultivated all sighed, and the customs of the provinces were more or less the same, and asked The Minister of Manchuria to send the Manchurian ministers to the provinces to inspect and look.
This means that the things I reported were all things I actually saw, and the emperor sent someone to investigate them. This is a very conventional retreat in the official arena, as long as the imperial court sends people to investigate, then the follow-up is not his business.
Qianlong stopped talking nonsense with Yin Zhuangtu and appointed Hubu Shilangqing to become a Chincha to inspect the world, in order to prove whether what Yin Zhuangtu said was true. However, Qianlong also said that in order to make the inspection fair, it is necessary to bring Yin Zhuangtu with him, and Yin Zhuangtu will verify and supervise the inspection situation and inform the world. At the same time, in order to ensure fairness, this inspection must be made public, and the whole process must be clear to all the subjects of the world.
The imperial court openly and transparently handled the entire imperial court with great fanfare, which was the first time in more than two thousand years.
Qianlong's intentions were obvious, and it was necessary to tell the subjects of the world through the mouth of Yin Zhuangtu that the Qing Dynasty he ruled by Qianlong was corrupt or whether he lived and worked in peace and contentment everywhere. At this time, Yin Zhuangtu understood and quickly confessed and apologized, but it was too late.
For the officials of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor sent Chincha out not to investigate specific cases, but to inspect the world, which was clearly a show, a formality, simply to satisfy the commoners' fantasies of the blue sky. The reason is not complicated, because the Qing Dynasty had a formal supervision and management system (imperial history system, secret folding system), and the imperial court and the emperor relied on this to achieve local supervision and management.
The extravagant Qing officials in the picture
Under normal circumstances, if local officials concealed or became corrupt, the imperial court and the emperor learned of the relevant information through the supervision system, and then investigated and punished the relevant officials. In fact, many corruption cases sponsored by Qianlong were discovered and handled through this model.
If the emperor really suspected that there were widespread problems in the local area and needed to send chincha inspectors, it meant that there was a problem with the supervision system and that the local area could no longer be effectively supervised. If this is the case, we should first cure the root causes and rectify the supervision system. And without an effective surveillance system to assist, what can chincha inspectors find out?
Therefore, the officials all understood that the emperor wanted to play a big game of chess and a big drama, could the officials not cooperate?
Qingcheng first came to Shanxi with Yin Zhuangtu, and was greeted by flattery, banquets, and various filial pieties and gifts from local officials. Yin Zhuangtu was greeted by the wanton ridicule of the officials, the full treasury, and the piles of account books.
Let's not say whether Yin Zhuangtu has professional financial auditing ability and no professional supervision personnel to assist him, why should he alone verify whether there is a problem with the official warehouse account books of a government or a province? This was where Qianlong was thick and dark and sophisticated, and he knew very well that Yin Zhuangtu alone could not find anything.
Yin Zhuangtu, who had long wanted to understand, also looked at the warehouse and the account book procedurally, and hurriedly asked Qianlong to plead guilty, saying that after verifying that there was no deficit in the Shanxi Fu Treasury, he had listened to the rumors and asked the emperor to punish him.
The warehouse is neat, there is no deficiency, and it has been fully obeyed, can we please return to Beijing today to wait for sin?
Of course, Qianlong would not let Yin Zhuangtu go so easily, and the second purpose had not yet been achieved. Ordering Qingcheng and Yin Zhuangtu to only check one province is not enough to convince the public, and it is necessary to turn around more locally. And the correspondence between official documents and yin Zhuangtu's deeds and deeds of inspection were sent to all parts of the country like live text.
A province has no deficiencies in investigation, and I am afraid that it is not enough to convince him, so he is still going to Shandong and directly subordinate to Zhengding and Baoding
Later, in the process of Qingcheng and Yin Zhuangtu's inspection, Yin Zhuangtu not only had to endure the deliberate laughter and humiliation of his colleagues everywhere, but also routinely played a plea for guilt. However, Qianlong was still unsatisfied, and constantly asked Yin Zhuangtu what he had said in the original Yin Zhuangtu chapter, such as asking him, "Did you see the merchants on the way and sigh?" ”
What can Yin Zhuangtu say? He could only reply that "the people live and work in peace and contentment, and there is no regret in their hearts", and once again reflect on their sins and ask the emperor for their sins. In order to prevent Qingcheng from being persuaded by Yin Zhuangtu, he prematurely ended the patrol and returned to Beijing. Qianlong specially sent a message to Qingcheng, teaching him how to reject Yin Zhuangtu.
Yi (Yin Zhuangtu) if Xiang Qingcheng said that "the weather is cold, the horse is far away, and I can't return to Beijing immediately, all because I took the liberty of playing chen, which caused me to drag me down and deeply feel uneasy." Qingcheng replied with the words "Ru this is the word of ignorance." It is of course the subordinate's duties to serve in the service of the messenger, although he still does not resign when he goes to the soup and fire, let alone investigates and handles the incident! If the envoy was instructed to take Er to Ili and other places, I also went with peace of mind. If you are afraid to march on the road, why send troops to the enemy?" To understand the edict in this way, to see how it responds, is to know the recitation in detail.
Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, vol. 1368
After wandering around for a few months, Qianlong felt that the "just" inspection had been "made public," so he summoned Yin Zhuangtu back to Beijing to prepare for a "fair" trial of him.
Before the formal trial, Qianlong also issued a special edict summarizing it. The gist of it is that Yin Zhuangtu is a person who sells his reputation and reputation, deliberately makes trouble in order to seek the promotion of officials, and because he is greedy for the official position, he also throws his orphan mother in Yunnan, and does not pay attention to it, which is simply unfaithful and filial piety.
Qianlong's kung fu is indeed the first among the emperors in the past two thousand years, and the hat of "no filial piety" that he gave Yin Zhuangtu is really irrefutable.
After public consultation, the imperial court sentenced Yin Zhuangtu to death for the crime of "blackmailing and deceiving the public and arbitrarily disobeying the law". At this time, Qianlong began his final performance, showing his generosity to his subjects.
Qianlong said that although yin Zhuangtu's guilt was conclusive, as an emperor, there was no need to generally understand and entangle with such a villain, and after he was executed, his old mother would end up alone, which was contrary to filial piety. Therefore, it is specially intended to avoid death and be dismissed from office and retained. Yin Zhuang, who was squeezed out of the last drop of value, expressed his gratitude and asked him to return to his hometown to support his mother.
Through the Yin Zhuang motif, Qianlong preserved the face of the prosperous world under his rule. Let the subjects of the Qing Dynasty still believe that they are living in the prosperous world, although life is bitter, it is only because they have no ability, so they are miserable; although the officials around them are greedy, it is only the greed of the officials around them, and the members of the imperial court and the emperor are still qingtian.
But people outside the illusion can naturally easily see through the illusion, and in the second year after the end of the Yin Zhuang pattern (the fifty-eighth year of Qianlong), the British Magalni mission visited China, what did they see the prosperous dynasty look like?
"Poverty everywhere", "Degradation of civilization".