In 1799, four years after the Qing Dynasty's Jiaqing Dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor died after sitting on the throne for four full years, ending his 64-year reign. The Jiaqing Emperor finally gained the right to rule, and after the Jiaqing Emperor came to the throne, his first goal was to get rid of Hejun.
The Jiaqing Emperor quickly launched an investigation and interrogation of Hejun, hoping to convict him as soon as possible. In order to accomplish this task, he entrusted it to three honest and firm loyalists, Liu Yong, Wang Jie, and Dong Xu. The three quickly identified Hekan's crimes and listed twenty of his crimes.
However, there was disagreement over how to dispose of Wakan. The Jiaqing Emperor believed that Hejun's crime was so heinous that he should be punished with Ling Chi, while Liu Yong offered a different view.
He believes that although Hejun's crime is unforgivable, after all, he was a favored courtier of the emperor, and in order to protect the reputation of the emperor, it is better to let Hejun commit suicide in prison.
In the end, the Jiaqing Emperor accepted Liu Yong's advice and decided to let Helong commit suicide. Liu Yong was suppressed by Helong for decades, and no one expected that before Hejun died, Liu Yong would be able to give him a trace of face.
So, what kind of person is the real Liu Yong in history?
1. Glory family lineage and brilliant studies
Liu Yong, born in Zhucheng, Shandong, his family is an outstanding representative of a famous family with an outstanding family tradition. For a long time, his family has been proud of the tradition of "five generations and five jinshi", which means that between the five generations of his family, five outstanding jinshi have emerged, which is the glory of the family.
However, Liu Yong did not slacken because of his outstanding family lineage. In the sixteenth year of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, he was admitted as a junior scholar in the capacity of a graceful scholar. At that time, everyone thought that he relied on family connections in the exam, but in fact, after he was admitted, he also needed to pass the strict examination and the palace examination, which was completely on his own.
In the end, he achieved an excellent result in second place, an outstanding achievement that not only proved his academic talent, but also laid a solid foundation for his political career.
Subsequently, Liu Yong was appointed as the Hanlin Yuan Shujishi and served as an editor in the Sankan. He showed great ability and serious work attitude, and soon after he was promoted to the rank of attendant, dedicating his talents to the cultural cause of the country.
Second, the truth of "Liu Luo"
Liu Yong was jokingly called "Luo Guo" by everyone, and the story of "Liu Luo Guo" was also widely praised by the world. It is rumored that because he has a protrusion on his back, shaped like a Luo pot, coupled with his short stature, he does look a bit like a cute Luo Guo image from a distance. This nickname is said to have been given by the emperor, and others dare not call it easily. But is Liu Yong really a "Luo pot" as rumored?
In the Qing Dynasty, the selection of officials has always paid attention to the four criteria of "body, speech, writing, and judgment", of which "body" refers to appearance, requiring correct facial features and dignified appearance to show official prestige. "Speech" requires clear and fluent eloquence in order to effectively handle government affairs. "Books" require neat and beautiful handwriting. "Judgment" requires quick thinking to avoid misjudgment.
Of the four requirements, physical appearance is considered to be the most important, because the first impression of appearance is crucial.
Liu Yong is from a Ke Jia background and must be qualified in all four aspects to succeed, so it can be made clear that Liu Yong can never be a person with obvious defects in appearance. In addition, there is an indirect evidence to illustrate this.
According to the regulations at that time, if a person failed in the three examinations, he still had the opportunity to take the "big challenge", which was an examination that did not involve essays but mainly assessed appearance. The standard is the eight characters of "Tongtian through the Japanese body armor qi", where "Tong" refers to a rectangular face, "Tian" refers to a square face, "Guan" refers to a large body length, and "Ri" refers to a straight and moderate body. These four words represent good physiognomy characteristics, and those who match these characteristics have a chance to be selected.
On the other hand, "body" refers to improper body, "jia" refers to the large body and small body, "qi" refers to the different height of the shoulders, and "by" refers to the small body of the body. These four words all indicate deficiencies in appearance, and once they are assessed as these four words, it is difficult to pass the exam.
It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty selection officials attached great importance to appearance, so even if Liu Yong could not be regarded as dignified, he could never have obvious physical defects. So the folklore about "Liu Luo Pot" is just a wild history joke.
Third, the bumpy and honest official road
Although Liu Yong was born into a famous family, his road to officialdom was tortuous and bumpy, but he was still a good official who adhered to his integrity, but such a good official was demoted five times during his time in Qianlong.
In 1755, the twentieth year of Qianlong, Liu Yong was arrested and imprisoned for being implicated by his father and demoted. After his release from prison, he served as a scholar and government officer many times, responsible for the local imperial examination, and his outstanding performance was praised by the Qianlong Emperor.
In the 30th year of Qianlong (1765), Liu Yong was promoted to Jining Daotai. However, he was dismissed for misappropriating funds from the treasury by his subordinates and committing negligence, and was not pardoned until the following year. Later, while he was the prefect of Jiangning, he exposed the corruption of Ye Guotai, the governor of Jiangsu, for which he was commended by Qianlong and appointed as an official attendant, responsible for the promotion and transfer of officials.
At that time, there was an official named Wen Guokai, who was no longer young but had never been used, so he bribed Hejun in the hope that he could persuade Liu Yong to transfer him to the Ministry of Officials, but Liu Yong adhered to the principle of honesty and refused to conspire, which made Hejun hold a grudge.
In order to take revenge on Liu Yong and frame him for secretly storing royal items, the Qianlong Emperor, in order to verify the authenticity of Hejun's words, personally went to Liu's mansion to check it, and sure enough, he saw his most cherished golden lion paperweight on Liu Yong's desk, and in a fit of anger, he removed Liu Yong from his official post and exiled him to a stone factory in the capital.
In the forty-seventh year of Qianlong, Liu Yong was appointed as the imperial historian of the left capital. At this time, he began to have a head-on conversation with Hejun, who at that time had a great power in the capital, so Liu Yong had been ostracized by Hejun. During this time, he began to behave very smoothly. For His Majesty Qianlong's orders, he was not as dedicated as before.
Qianlong handed over all the examination papers in the capital to Liu Yong, which shows that Liu Yong already has a certain understanding of the political darkness. He knew that at that time, Qianlong valued Helong the most, and it could even be said that Helong was the "second emperor of the capital", and many people were cleaned up by Helong at that time, and thanks to Liu Yong's cleverness, he survived.
In the forty-eighth year of Qianlong, Liu Yong was promoted to the position of directly subordinate governor, equal to the official Shangshu of the second rank. However, because he leaked his conversation with the emperor, he was removed from his bachelor's position. In the fifty-third year of Qianlong, during Liu Yong's supervision of Guozijian, some candidates bribed officials, so he was punished again.
In the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong, due to the long-term absence of the masters in the study, Liu Yong, as the chief master, did not correct it and was demoted to Shilang.
Demoted five times, these bumpy experiences underscore Liu Yong's persistence as an incorruptible man and his hardships in officialdom.
4. A model of honest officials
Although Liu Yong's career was bumpy, he was an outstanding official. Whether he was demoted or promoted, Liu Yong adhered to the principle of high integrity and fairness, and his work style has always been resolute, not only rectifying unhealthy tendencies in the officialdom, but also actively doing practical things for the people.
"Liu Luoguo" in the film and television drama vividly shows Liu Yong's life. He inherited the family's tradition of incorruptibility, and his grandfather Liu Di served as a fourth-grade official, but when his mother died, he had no money to bury him and had to sell his property. Although Liu Yong's father had been a high-ranking official for a long time, he did not hoard his property and donated all the silver he received to his fellow villagers. Liu Yong has also always insisted on thrift and thrift, and even wore tattered clothes when he went to Taiyuan to take office, which is deeply admirable.
The incorruptibility of the Liu Yong family contrasted sharply with the luxury of the Qianlong era. Although they were both courtiers, Liu Yong's family was poor, while Hejun was insatiable and regarded as the biggest corrupt official of the Qianlong era, so the two men have always looked at each other badly.
During the Qianlong period, Helong was a favored red man around the emperor, so Liu Yong rarely clashed with him head-on, but chose to avoid it. He would rather offend a gentleman than a villain. Once, Qianlong asked Liu Yong how many people would die in the Qing Dynasty within a year, and Liu Yong's answer was praised by Qianlong, which also showed Liu Yong's smooth way of dealing with things.
He knows that a companion is like a tiger, so he knows exactly what happened to his father when he was imprisoned for a trivial matter. During his years working with Hejun, Liu Yong mainly focused on his own work and rarely directly impeached others. Because of the large number of supporters of Hekan, when Qianlong asked him how those people were, he usually gave a more restrained answer.
After Jiaqing took the throne, Liu Yong's upright style was once again manifested. He actively collected unfavorable evidence against Hekan and his henchmen, and finally presented twenty pieces of ironclad evidence, making Hekan powerless to resist. This time, Liu Yong did not hide his position, decisively expressed his suggestions, shared the emperor's worries and difficulties, and finally successfully completed his mission.
On December 24, the ninth year of Jiaqing, Liu Yong died peacefully at home at the age of 85. When he died, "the nose drooped more than an inch", which seems to imply the liberation meaning in Buddhist thought, and can also be seen as the fulfillment of his life's merits and his peaceful passing away.
After his death, he was posthumously given the nickname "Wen Qing", although not as prominent as his father Liu Tongxun's "Wen Zheng", but also ranked first, but also worthy of Liu Yong's bumpy road and officialdom for more than half a century.
Conclusion
Liu Yong took his temperament in his battles with Helong and his henchmen, and at the same time, skillfully handled his relationship with the emperor. Whether in handling complex affairs or in official struggles, Liu Yong performed well, and even at the age of eighty, he was still able to handle Hejun's case, a talent that can be called the jewel of the Qing officialdom.
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