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There has been a discussion in economics about such a problem:
This is actually a very interesting issue, involving both the effective transformation of economic resources and the existence of corruption in officialdom, as well as management, psychology, sociology and so on.
In fact, in ancient China's feudal dynasty, there was already a similar discussion about the management of corruption in the officialdom.
The ancient salary was called 俸禄, and the lack of 俸禄 gave birth to the existence of corruption, which is considered to be the root of the existence of the ancient corruption problem, is this conclusion objective and correct?
In fact, it is not correct enough, because although corruption is a management problem, it involves the subjective will of individuals and the objective laws of human nature, and it is very one-sided and not very scientific and rigorous to simply summarize it with economic management.
So, in the ancient feudal dynasty, was there a deficiency in the form of existence of Yulu? As well as the problem of corruption, in the ancient feudal dynasty, was there some effective restraint? Today we will discuss and discuss this issue.
Official's money bag: Yulu
The word "俸禄" can be traced back to the pre-Qin era.
The State of Qin was in the Warring States period, and in the Spring and Autumn before the Warring States, and even earlier in the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was no materialized Yulu.
In the Warring States period, because the major warring states were eager to strengthen themselves, the pursuit of talents became very strong, and in order to attract talents, the monarchs of various countries not only proposed rewards such as fiefdoms, but also the existence of agreed servants.
Specific to lower-level officials, they also have their own lilu, called "monthly routine" or "lu rice", and their whole life is to use specific food, rice grain, cloth cotton, meat, etc. as a lilu, which is converted to the recipient, and even more, they will also give oxen and horses and other means of transportation, which are also regarded as part of the lilu.
In the pre-Qin era, because cattle were an important agricultural tool, it was easy not to allow the privatization of cattle, basically belonging to state property, "cattle eater, staff fifty", was written in the Qin law, until later after the Shang Martingale change law, the Qin state became rich and strong, beef became popular.
In short, during this period, whether it was the Seven Warring States Seven Heroes, the large and small princely states, or the later Qin dynasty, the conversion of things was considered to be the form of most of the existence of Yulu.
So was corruption serious or not serious during this period? Objectively speaking, it is quite serious.
At the end of the Duke of Qin and the early period of the Duke of Qin Xiao, the State of Qin was weak, and the alliance of the six countries discussed the division of Qin, and the State of Qin was suddenly in danger.
However, Qin Xiaogong discussed with the minister and decided to let the envoy take the gold treasure and go around the world to lobby the envoys of the six countries, so that the alliance between the six countries could not be realized, and even if it was achieved, it would not be able to form a joint force.
As a result, the envoys of the Qin State took the gold treasures of the Qin State and threw money hard to bribe the envoys of the six eastern countries who held the actual right to speak, and successfully divided the plan of the six countries to divide Qin.
Accepting bribes is part of corruption, and the envoys of the Six Nations accepted bribes and committed corruption, and as a result, the opportunity to eliminate the Qin State was lost, I wonder if the later monarchs of the Six Kingdoms knew about this, what kind of mood would they feel in their hearts?
Later, with the development of the times and social structure, coupled with the changes in the system, the existence form of the feudal dynasty was also constantly changing.
But to be honest, in fact, the money bags of officials of previous dynasties are rarely full, so that although the officials of the six ministries and above are above 10,000 people, most of the officials are actually very poor, which has caused serious integrity problems.
Not to mention the honest and honest scholars, those corrupt officials can be said to have been "forced" by the "Yulu system".
The system of various dynasties and generations
This kind of Yulu system has actually been circulating since the pre-Qin period, to be precise, it is part of the legal system of the Qin state under the "Shang Martingale Change Law", which can only ensure the basic living needs of officials, but if you want to save money, you need to "use your brains".
Later, the Qin Dynasty fell and the Han Dynasty replaced, and the quality of life of Han Dynasty officials became better, because the Han Dynasty's Yulu became more interesting - land.
Compared with the Qin Dynasty, the territory of the Han Dynasty was larger, coupled with the large amount of reclamation at the turn of the Qin and Han dynasties, so that the Han Dynasty had a lot of vacant land, far higher than the actual population demand, so the Han Dynasty emperor also added land to the list of officials Yulu.
At the same time, the Western Han Dynasty also produced the so-called "Lu rank system" linked to the rank of Yulu and officials, artificially matching official positions with Lilu to a height, which was also one of the manifestations of the popular "strict hierarchy" in the Western Han Dynasty.
However, the addition of land to the official clan also gave rise to a more serious problem, namely the intensification of "land annexation".
As we all know, all dynasties have had land annexation problems, and the land annexation problem is particularly serious at the two time nodes of the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Weiwu. To put it bluntly, it is still the trouble caused by the family clan.
The Western Han Dynasty and Wei Wu had a similar thing in common, that is, there were many high-ranking families in both dynasties, and these families gathered together, advanced and retreated together, and shared prosperity and disgrace, which was nothing.
But these rich people have a lot of wealth in their hands, and these wealth are used as investment capital, taking advantage of the low land price, crazy to buy the bottom.
As a result, the more land in his hands, from a place, to a region, to a province, accumulated over time, in the end, a lot of the country's land was concentrated in the hands of individuals, and the wave of public anger caused by the excessive land annexation became a powerful knocking pillar against the Western Han Dynasty.
In addition to the Western Han Dynasty, other dynasties also had their own unique Yulu system and form of existence, as well as corresponding corruption problems, such as during the Tang Dynasty, the central government of the Tang Dynasty could begin to issue the "silver money system" in the form of specific amounts of silver money.
In the late Song Dynasty, the "grain and silver system" began to be implemented, and officials' salaries were uniformly distributed in the form of grain and silver money.
The necessity of combating official corruption
The above mentioned from the Qin Dynasty to the Song Dynasty has its own merits and strangeness, but there is only one purpose, that is, to improve the thickness of officials' wallets and the quality of life, so that they can "reach out" less.
But does it work? Specific to the effect, it can only be said that the benevolent sees the wise and sees the wise, only the appetite of the gentleman, not the eyes of the villain.
In fact, the corruption of successive dynasties is very serious, even if the Tang Dynasty has increased the specific value of Yulu, and there are various forms of salaries such as rest and mu, monthly routines, charcoal supplies, etc., which have increased the salary level of officials, but for officials, work and life are far more than work and life.
In addition to eating and drinking, ushering in monthly sendings, headaches and brain fevers, up and down, beating teeth sacrifices, etc., a little thing, you can scrape the purse, how can you not be corrupt?
But this is what it says, the wind of corruption should be killed or killed, because corruption is first "greed", then "dirt", if you do not have greed first, then how can you defile yourself in the end?
Moreover, the problem of corruption is not that the damage can be large or small, but if it is ignored, the damage will become larger and larger, threatening the country's social welfare, causing financial difficulties for the country, and affecting the future of the country.
Therefore, it is still very necessary to tie personal morality in the "cage of the system" and centrally control the moral level and official level of officials.