In the forty-fifth year of Qianlong, Zhuang Zhaokui, a Daoist member of Yunnan Province, was on a business trip to the Yuanjiang River and personally went to the front line to handle disaster relief matters. At this time, a group of great internal guards suddenly came, and after reading the edict, they took Zhuang Zhaokui back to Pu'er Province (迤南道), and raided his home.
What crime did Zhuang Zhaokui commit?
Zhuang Zhaokui, a native of Xiushui County, Jiaxing Province, Zhejiang Province, was born into a traditional family of scholars. His father was a former governor of Pingqing Province, Gansu Province, and had four sons who were all famous. Zhuang Zhaokui was talented and intelligent, and he was selected in the eighteenth year examination of Qianlong, but his luck was not good, and he would try to be named Luosun Mountain several times.
During the Qianlong period, it was already very difficult to raise people into the army, and the only way was for the imperial court to raise people once every six years. Fortunately, Zhuang Zhaokui stood out in the big pick and was awarded the position of teaching. Since then, he has successively served as a county, tongzhi, prefect, and taoist.
According to the relevant documents, Zhuang Zhaokui was a clean and honest official, and the places he held were loved by the people, and he was a rare clean official and a good official. As for what crime Zhuang Zhaokui committed, there are not many records in the historical records, only in the "Jiaxing Fu Zhi", there is a vague description: "To use the case of the government to lead the offense, to send Ili for several years ... Seek promotion according to the envoy, then promote the envoy, and die in the official. ”
Based on the clue that "the case of the government was implicated in offending", Yushi further examined and found that in the forty-fifth year of Qianlong, a major case had just occurred, that is, the embezzlement case of Li Shiyao, the governor of Yungui. Zhuang Zhaokui served in Yunnan, was a subordinate of Li Shuyao, and the reason why he was implicated was roughly inseparable from Li Shuyao.
This is indeed the case, through further understanding, after Li Shiyao was dismissed, he confessed to accepting a bribe of 2,000 taels from Zhuang Zhaokui. The Qianlong Emperor attached great importance to Li Shiyao's case, so he ordered Zhuang Zhaokui to be dismissed from his post and his family property confiscated.
Zhuang Zhaokui was also an unlucky egg, he was promoted from prefect to Nan province less than a year ago, the chair was not yet hot, he was involved in The case of Li Shuyao, ruining a great future. And this year, he was 49 years old.
How many properties does Zhuang Zhaokui have?
Zhuang Zhaokui, as a local intermediate official, was also in the prosperous stage of Qianlong, and his family property was relatively representative, which allowed us to understand some of the income of local officials in the Qing Dynasty.
Zhuang Zhaokui's family property, at that time, had two lists, one for Zhejiang and one for Yunnan Renshou. The two lists add up to a total of 533 items, including cash silver, antique calligraphy and painting, real estate, field property, etc., totaling 12359.14 two.
The Daoist members of the Tangtang Sipin only had more than 10,000 family properties, which not only surprised Qianlong, but even ordinary people also thought that this number was really outrageous. Because the Qing Dynasty was known as "three years of Qing prefect, 100,000 snowflakes of silver", Zhuang Zhaokui was an official for more than twenty years, that is, he did not eat more and occupy more, just by relying on bad rules, let alone have more than 100,000 taels of savings.
From this point of view, Zhuang Zhaokui is a poor official, but this also proves that he is a clean and honest official. When the government raided the family property, his neighbors were also very surprised, and once made this confession:
"Zhuang Zhaokui did not have real estate, and it was not until forty-one years that he bought a house and bought more than 300 acres of land, which is what we know." He had only two nephews in his house to guard the house, and his ordinary life was also poor, except for this room and field, he had not heard of any other business property, nor had he heard of the hidden things in advance. If there is any other kind of evil, how can we hide it for him? ”
Zhuang Zhaokui recovered after more than 20 years of hard work after his father was raided, but unexpectedly the situation just improved but was raided again. Judging from the records of the "Jiaxing Fu Zhi", Zhuang Zhaokui cleaned himself and served the people diligently, and was implicated in the case of Li Shuyao, and there were not many wrongs in it.
Perhaps the reader thinks that Zhuang Zhaokui's bribery of Li Shiyao has violated the great qing law and cannot be said to be wronged. Zhuang Zhaokui's bribe of 2,000 taels of silver to Li Shiyao is indeed not false, but this is not a bribe in the strict sense, and he did not seek his own personal interests through this move.
We know that there were many unspoken rules in the official field of the Qing Dynasty, and it was considered natural for subordinates to be filial to their superiors, which was an ugly rule and was allowed by the imperial court. In the forty-fourth year of Qianlong, Zhuang Zhaokui was promoted to a Taoist official, and it was customary to give filial piety to Li Shiyao, the governor of Yungui, which was an official practice that could not be blamed.
However, the bad rules belong to gray income, and the imperial court can acquiesce or pursue. Zhuang Zhaokui's bad luck was just bumped into the muzzle of the gun, and after the Li Shiyao case, Qianlong intended to rectify the atmosphere of the Yunnan officialdom, and although Zhuang Zhaokui was a good official, he still could not escape this disaster.
Paradoxically, Li Shiyao, as the main offender, was convicted and beheaded and imprisoned after being tried by the Three Laws Division. However, Qianlong drove high and low, bent on sheltering Li Shiyao. After a year, Li Shiyao made a comeback and was once again entrusted with the heavy responsibility of sealing the territory. Zhuang Zhaokui, an "accessory" who was unaware of the name of bribery and whose career had just begun to improve, was issued with Yili.
Ten years later, in the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong, Zhuang Zhaokui was pardoned and appointed as the prefect of Huizhou, Guangdong, and died seven years later as an envoy to Guangdong at the age of 67. Although Zhuang Zhaokui was slightly promoted in his later years, he suffered for ten years in a remote place and did not return to his hometown until his death.