The official motto, which is discussed as the way of officials, has a long history in China, starting from the Western Zhou Dynasty and becoming a grand view in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Among them, the influential one is the 16-character precept stone inscription of "Erqi Erlu, the people anointing the people, the people are easy to abuse, and the heavens are difficult to deceive" (taken from the 4 sentences of the 24 official proverbs of the Later Shu Emperor Meng Chang) set up by Emperor Taizong of Song. What we are more familiar with is the "Official Proverbs" written by Lü Benzhong of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the opening is clear and clear, and the words are concise and concise, and the viewpoint that "the law of being an official is only three things: qing, cautious, and diligent", making the three words of "qing cautious and diligent" the goal pursued by honest officials.
In fact, the most popular in ancient times and the present is the 36-character official proverb: "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. "It can be described as short and concise, and the meaning is far-reaching. Its author is difficult to define, but in the later process of finalization, the Ming Dynasty officials Cao Duan and Nian Fu made great contributions.
Cao Duan, a theorist in the early Ming Dynasty, served as a "xuezheng" in Huozhou, Shanxi. According to historical records, Cao Duan taught HuoZhou, "all the students obeyed his teachings, and the people of the county were all transformed, and they were ashamed to fight." Later, Cao Duanding worried about returning to his hometown of Shichi Shouxiao, huozhou students still came to ask for advice. At the end of the period of filial piety, Cao Duan supplemented Puzhou To learn, and after the expiration of his term, the people of Puzhou and Huozhou competed to request Cao Duan, and since Huozhou was one step ahead of Puzhou, the imperial court requested it from Huozhou.
In the twenty-second year of Yongle (1424), Cao Duan's student Gao Sheng taught Xi'an Fu Tongzhi, and specially visited the teacher to ask for advice on the way of officials, and Cao Duan replied: "His publicity is incorruptible!" The ancients were cloudy, the officials were not afraid of my strictness but feared my honesty, the people did not obey my ability and obeyed my father, the public did not dare to slow down, and the honest people did not dare to deceive. This record is derived from the Cao Duan chronology, and the three words "ancient people's cloud" indicate that this official proverb was not created by Cao Duan, and it is difficult to trace which ancient person was clouded. It is just that compared with the 36-character official proverb quoted by Cao Duan, except for the six words of "Gongsheng Ming, Lian Shengwei", it is only the difference between the last sentence of "official, people".
The six words that put the finishing touches on "GongShengMing, Lian Shengwei" were added by Nian Fu. Yu Qian, who was rich and "not afraid of shattering his bones and not being afraid, and wanted to leave his innocence in the human world", was an official in the same dynasty, and because of his upright personality and easy to offend the powerful, Yu Qian often defended it. In the first year of Jingtai (1450), Nian Fu was promoted to the post of left deputy capital of the Metropolitan Chayuan, "specializing in correcting the hundred divisions, clarifying the wrongs, and supervising the various provinces". Nian Fu was ordered to go to Datong to sort out military affairs, but he did not want to be falsely accused by Xiao Xiao, saying that he was "exclusively in charge of the government" and "sat in the official documents" with The Commander-in-Chief of Datong and Dingxiang Bo Guo Deng. Yu Qian then defended Nian Fu, saying that since "Du Yushi is an official of the wind and discipline, and has no subordinate to Hou Bo, and is the viceroy of Qin Ming, when he is on the left side of the general soldiers, how can he not sit together?"
Although the young and rich have encountered many obstacles in Datong, they have not done much to promote the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages and punish corrupt officials. In the second year of Tianshun (1458), Nianfu patrolled Shandong, and the people of Shandong were already familiar with the prestige of Nianfu, so Haoyi relented. Therefore, during his tenure in Shandong, Nian Fu erected a stone stele in a corner of the Office of the Imperial Household and engraved these 36-character proverbs.
In the fourth year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (1824), Yan Botao, who was then the Daotai of Yansui in Shaanxi, proposed that the 36-character proverbs of Cao Duan and Nian Fu be carved into a "Guan Zhen" stele and erected in the Forest of Steles in Xi'an, because it expressed the expectations of the people, and Yan Botao also became famous. At that time, Yan Botao may have also wanted to be a Qing official, but in the Qing Dynasty's "three years of Qing prefect, 100,000 snowflakes of silver" in the big dyeing vat, how can he "get out of the mud and not stain"?
According to Zhang Jixin's "Records of the Observations of the Eunuch Sea of Daoxian", in the twenty-second year of Daoguang (1842), because of his defeat in the first Opium War, he was dismissed from his post as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang by the Qing court for the crime of "failing to advance and suppress", and returned to his native Lianping, Guangdong, passing through Zhangzhou, "The former marshal (referring to Yan Botao) had nearly three thousand military service, his husband, his family, and his servants, who were stationed in the examination hall and in various closed shops, and more than 400 tables were shared around the banquet"... After staying for five consecutive days, the hospitality cost more than 10,000 taels of silver. This is undoubtedly a heavy burden on the people. This is only in Zhangzhou, how many counties do you need to pass through to his hometown? How much more silver will it cost?
It seems that Yan Botao proposed to carve a 36-character official motto in that year, just to decorate the façade and self-proclaim.