In August of the 14th year of Qianlong (1749 AD), the 38-year-old Qianlong Emperor received a letter from local officials in Jiangnan requesting Emperor Qianlong to visit Jiangnan.
This proposal just hit Qianlong's heart, when the Qing Dynasty was strong, the Qianlong Emperor was in his prime, and the beautification of the Jiangnan by the literati and writers of the past dynasties, the picturesque scenery of the Jiangnan, made the Qianlong Emperor fascinated by this, and had already made Qianlong move the idea of going to the south of the Yangtze River.
So, on the fifth day of October of that year, Qianlong announced that he would hold a southern tour two years later.
According to historical records, on the thirteenth day of the first month of the sixteenth year of Qianlong, the time was ripe for the southern tour, and after two years of preparation, Qianlong officially left the capital to start the southern tour, and Qianlong at that time had just turned 40 years old, which was the first southern tour.
Six years later, that is, in the twenty-second year of Qianlong (1757), Qianlong couldn't wait to start the second southern tour.
Qianlong's southern tour tasted the sweetness, for him who had lived in the Forbidden City for a long time, he had long been tired of the relatively narrow and stuffy space of the Forbidden City, at first glance to the south of the Yangtze River, the scenery of the water town and the scenery of the capital was completely different, the scenery was elegant and refined, which made Qianlong Longyan happy, overjoyed.
With the first and second tours, there will definitely be a third one, so in the twenty-sixth year of Qianlong, Qianlong organized the third southern tour, and in the thirtieth year of Qianlong, there was a fourth southern tour.
The outside world is really exciting, the palace high-walled compound, the golden splendor, the brocade clothes and jade food, and the beautiful women like clouds, can't stop Qianlong's yearning for the south of the Yangtze River.
In the forty-fifth year of Qianlong, Qianlong began the fifth southern tour, in the forty-ninth year of Qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor at this time was 73 years old, already faltering, and no longer as vigorous as in his prime.
During the 60 years of Qianlong's reign, he actually toured the south of the Yangtze River six times, and the route of each tour was basically the same, and the content was roughly the same, with a time span of 33 years.
What is the purpose of Qianlong's southern tour?
The reason why Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, in the eyes of today's melon-eating masses, is to enjoy the mountains and rivers, however, Qianlong was able to go down to the south of the Yangtze River six times, and there will not be more than one factor that prompted him to go on patrol, the charm of the south of the Yangtze River is endless, so it is worth going to Emperor Qianlong again and again, however, Emperor Qianlong is not an ordinary tourist tourist, he also has a hidden purpose behind it.
1. Solve the flood
Jiangnan is an important water conservancy and flood town.
Qianlong knew very well that in the Qing Dynasty, where the people regarded food as their heaven, ensuring a bumper harvest in agricultural production was a major matter, and in order to ensure the agricultural foundation of the Central Plains, the first priority at that time was to control the floods of the Yellow River and the Huai River.
Historically, the Yellow River has burst its banks many times, and there have been more than ten recorded floods since Kangxi to Qianlong in the 60 years. Therefore, Qianlong wrote: "The matter of the southern tour is no greater than that of the river workers."
This is probably the direct reason for Qianlong's six southern tours.
Fortunately, during Qianlong's southern tour, he issued hundreds of orders to control the water, and indeed inspected the Yellow River control project five times, inspected the sea pond project in Zhejiang four times, and also made many important instructions on river control, and agreed to increase the dams.
2. Rectify the rule of officials
Jiangnan was the richest area during the Qing Dynasty, and it was also the most important source of taxes in the Qing Dynasty, and the prosperity and stability of the Jiangnan area were directly related to the fate of the entire Qing court, so the emperors of the Qing Dynasty regarded the rule of Jiangnan as the top priority of the whole country.
For Qianlong, he wanted to use the southern tour to rectify the rule of officials in the south of the Yangtze River.
Therefore, Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, everywhere he went, it seemed to be a tour, but he actually carried out investigation and research, and he also visited the front line of officialdom through the southern tour, and it was most reliable to understand the situation in person.
Third, the people in the Jiangnan area are unstable and win the hearts of the people
In addition to the rule of officials, Qianlong has always been worried about Jiangnan, because Jiangnan is a place where outstanding people and talents are produced.
Among the 114 champions produced in the Qing Dynasty, there were 49 people from Jiangsu, and the Jiangnan Gongyuan in Nanjing was also the largest imperial examination venue in the country at that time, and more than half of the champions in the Qing Dynasty came from the Jiangnan Gongyuan.
The culture of Jiangnan is developed, literati gathered, there are many literati students, and most of the champions, jinshi, and prime ministers of all dynasties are also from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
This has always been Qianlong's heart disease.
For this reason, Qianlong went to Jiangnan with a far-reaching intention, that is, to stabilize the country, discover talents, integrate the culture of Jiangnan, and co-opt the literati of Jiangnan.
For this reason, Qianlong tried his best to win the hearts of the people in the process of his southern tour, and every time he went to a place, he would communicate with the local parents and officials and local celebrities, and rewarded the officials who came to pick up the car, especially for some old ministers, and also rewarded precious ginseng, mink, etc.
Moreover, Qianlong visited the Confucian temples in various places many times during his southern tour, and also worshiped the Ming Tombs, and personally gave exams to the literati who came to visit, and the literati who achieved good results were given the title of "lifting people", and immediately awarded official positions, in order to win famous people and preach holy grace.
During the six southern tours, Qianlong did find a large number of well-educated people and scholars from the south of the Yangtze River.
Fourth, enjoy the mountains and rivers
Qianlong made six southern tours, although he always said that he wanted to learn from his grandfather Kangxi's petition and the rule of officials, it is undeniable that he spent a lot of time and energy on the mountains and water.
Qianlong must have been to countless places in the south of the Yangtze River, but later generations have concluded that the most classic routes of Qianlong to the south of the Yangtze River are Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Haining, etc.
And these places are "prosperous places of flowers and willows, gentle and rich townships".
Qianlong enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River along the way, enjoyed the sounds, colors, songs and dances and delicacies of the mountains and seas, he watched the plum forest in Yangzhou, climbed Zhongshan in Jiangning, visited Qinhuai, visited Tianping Mountain in Suzhou, and enjoyed the West Lake in Hangzhou.
Everywhere he goes, Qianlong also has to pretend to be elegant, compose poems to help fun, inscribe inscriptions for local scenic spots, and let people carve monuments to commemorate, so there are many "imperial tablet pavilions" in the south of the Yangtze River.
The scenery of the south of the Yangtze River is beautiful, there are many beauties of gold powder, coupled with the small bridge and flowing water, the pink wall and the tile, full of poetry and picturesqueness, the Qianlong Emperor came to the south of the Yangtze River, he saw it happily, played hard, ate deliciously, of course, he was tired of it, and he visited it frequently.
Qianlong would accompany a painter on every southern tour, copying and painting his favorite scenery of the south of the Yangtze River, and imitating them in the Old Summer Palace and Chengde Summer Resort.
Of course, there are still people who think that Qianlong went south of the Yangtze River to find beauties, and as for whether Qianlong went south in order to find beauties in folklore, I am afraid that only he knows, because there is no record of Qianlong taking concubines during his trip to the south of the Yangtze River in the official history, and what the truth is, I am afraid that it has long been lost in the long river of history.
Therefore, Qianlong's trip to the south of the Yangtze River is not just as simple as eating, drinking and having fun, there are deep political intentions behind it, and now the TV series describes it very romanticly, but the real history has its deep background.
Six times to the south of the Yangtze River, labor and money
Under the historical conditions at that time, the Lower Jiangnan was nothing more than a huge project.
Each southern tour is generally the first month from the capital departure, the route of the southern tour is like this: first through Zhili to Shandong, in Shandong to worship the Confucian Temple, to Jiangsu, and then from Jiangsu into Zhejiang, just by land there are 1,758 miles, waterway 1,346 miles, back to the capital in late April of that year, each round trip to the distance has to take 5,840 miles.
At that time, there was no modern means of transportation, and it all relied on cars to be loaded and shipped, and horses were carried, and it took at least three or five months to make a round trip.
Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River and said that it was for "tolerance", but Qianlong's eating, drinking, lazing and pomp along the way were indispensable, and the pomp and circumstance of each patrol were amazingly luxurious.
Every time Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, he had to start preparations a year in advance, and there were two or three thousand imperial relatives, civil and military officials, and guards and attendants under his leadership, and five or six thousand horses and four or five hundred cars were used.
The river soldiers who pulled the fibers of the royal boats alone required 600 men per shift, a total of 3,600 men in six shifts, and a fleet of as many as 1,000 boats, in addition to a large number of camels and mules carrying grain.
Such a luxurious and huge fleet of ships marched on the canal, end to end, with flags covering the sun, which was very spectacular.
Qianlong passed through the imperial road is also very particular, Qianlong southern tour, an official donated to repair the Suzhou imperial road, on the cost of 300,000 taels of silver, the degree of luxury can be seen.
In addition, the land royal road should be built straight and spacious, and in order to please Qianlong, the local officials will tear down the house all the way, and the grave will be flat, and the road surface should be solid and stable.
In addition, on the way from Beijing to Hangzhou, more than 30 palaces were built along the way, and the cost was innumerable.
During Emperor Qianlong's first southern tour, he lived in the Jiangning Weaving Department in Nanjing, but Qianlong was dissatisfied with the residence, so he ordered people to build a palace in Qixia Mountain.
When Qianlong paraded to Zhenjiang, he built the Jiaoshan Palace on Jiaoshan, and in Yangzhou, the palace built for Qianlong was in the beautiful Daming Temple.
According to statistics, the ruins of the Qianlong Palace have been found in Xuzhou, Suzhou, Suzhou, Zhenjiang and other places in Jiangsu.
According to the record of "Yangzhou Palace Scenic Spots", in order to welcome Qianlong's southern tour of Yangzhou, the two Huai salt merchants have raised funds to build and rebuild 5,154 palace corridors and 196 pavilions.
Although it is a palace, the conditions can not be bad, all are magnificently arranged, although Qianlong asked all over the country not to be extravagant and wasteful when building palaces, but in fact, the local officials built the palace quite luxuriously, Qianlong was happier.
When Qianlong toured the south, the living conditions and facilities were no different from those in the palace, although he also invited southern cooks, but the southern cuisine and cooking Xi were not quite in line with Qianlong's taste, after all, the taste of eating was not changed at will.
For this reason, every time Qianlong on the way to the south to bring a large number of cattle and sheep, the food is still the palace set, each patrol, the tea room with more than 75 cows, 1000 sheep in the dining room, 300 cattle, all have to be transported from the capital to Zhenjiang and Suzhou and other places in advance.
The imperial dining room sometimes has the help of Suzhou chefs, and officials from Jiangsu and Zhejiang will also bring dishes such as delicacies from the mountains and seas.
Moreover, Qianlong is even more picky about drinking water, Qianlong has always had an obsession that the spring water is excellent, for this reason, no matter where he goes, the requirements for water will not be compromised at all.
Qianlong drank the best spring water from Yuquan Mountain in Zhili and Beijing, Jinan Pearl Spring Water in Shandong, Jinshan Spring Water in Jiangsu, and Hangzhou Hupao Spring Water in Zhejiang.
Just transporting this water requires a lot of manpower and material resources.
Although Emperor Qianlong has repeatedly declared that he wants everything to be simple, where the palace is well built, where the driving ceremony can be done, and where the pomp and circumstance is big, he can get the emperor's favor.
Originally, Qianlong preached that the important purpose of his southern tour was to control the river, and originally under the banner of inspecting river works, for the sake of the people, he also repeatedly ordered the prohibition of extravagance and waste, but in order to curry favor with him, officials in various places racked their brains to compare their thoughts, pomp, and expenses.
In particular, some local officials, in order to win the favor of Emperor Qianlong, all kinds of greeting methods are extremely luxurious, and the equipment for traveling is also magnificent.
"Six degrees of southern tour, he dreamed of traveling". This is a poem written by Qianlong during his sixth southern tour, and he even dreamed of reminiscing about the scene when he went down to the south of the Yangtze River, full of infinite nostalgia.
Qianlong was immersed in the splendor of the prosperous era and was self-satisfied, but he did not know that he went to the south of the Yangtze River six times, and the expenses were huge, and the national strength of the Qing Dynasty had already been overdrawn, and the rule of officials was even more corrupt, and the burden of the common people was getting heavier and heavier.
Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, although the people said that they could watch the excitement, but it was the people who really suffered.
For example, the royal road should be straight, and when it comes to a place that is not straight, the house has to be demolished, and every place where it goes, the guards must clear the road, although Qianlong said on the surface that he would not avoid the people, but in fact, preventing the people is like a thief, and the people have been far away.
Therefore, the people could only see the mighty patrol team, and they could not see what Emperor Qianlong looked like.
Every time Qianlong toured the south, there were countless ministers, guards, and servants accompanying him, which made him complain.
For example, every time Qianlong toured, almost all the palaces and scenic spots were built by wealthy merchants, because merchants were calculating and unwilling to be exploited, and they must do everything possible to increase the exploitation of the people afterwards.
In order to welcome the holy driver, officials from all over the country extorted and drove the people away, and on the other hand, they desperately tried to curry favor with the emperor.
For example, Yangzhou officials heard that the Qianlong Emperor loved plum blossoms, and immediately transplanted dozens of acres of plum forests on the flat bottom.
According to the statistics on the books, Qianlong spent more than 20 million taels of silver on his six visits to the south of the Yangtze River, but it is certain that the actual amount is much more than this.
Qianlong went south six times, each time more than one pomp and circumstance, the patrol consumed a lot of financial and material resources, resulting in the Qing Dynasty's treasury empty, although it also achieved a certain political purpose, but he spent a lot of silver taels on each tour to the local people, has long exceeded the well-being he brings, labored the people and lost money, and brought a lot of unnecessary burdens to the people.
Many upright officials had spoken to persuade Qianlong to stop the southern tour, but they were all reprimanded by him, among them, the squire Yin Ling really couldn't stand it, after returning from the south of the Yangtze River, he said: "Your Majesty's southern tour, the people are suffering, and there are many complaints. ”
When Qianlong heard this, he couldn't help but get angry, and scolded him sharply: "You said that the people are suffering, can you tell me who is suffering?"
But Yin Ling faced Qianlong's questioning, but he was speechless for a while, and he couldn't answer, so he could only be disposed of by Qianlong.
Later, many officials were punished and dismissed for this, so that the whole court formed a culture of flattery and favor, and no one advised Qianlong not to tour the south.
Epilogue:
In his prime, Qianlong was complacent about his southern tour, and it was not until his later years that he realized the mistake of his southern tour.
According to the "Biography of Wu Xiongguang" in the "Qing History Manuscript", Qianlong said: "I have been the emperor for 60 years, and I think that I have not made any mistakes, but I have only made six southern tours, working the people and money, and doing good things into bad things." ”
For this reason, Qianlong once said to Wu Xiongguang: "In the future, if there is an emperor who wants to tour the south, if you don't stop it, you will have no face to see me underground!"
Later, when Jiaqing also wanted to emulate his father's southern tour, Wu Xiongguang, who was the governor of Zhili at the time, immediately thought of Qianlong's entrustment during his lifetime, and in order to live up to the will of the emperor, he immediately came out to stop and used Qianlong's words to persuade Emperor Jiaqing before his death.
After Emperor Jiaqing heard this, he knew that his father had already regretted the matter of the southern tour, so he dispelled the idea of the southern tour, and the emperor of the Qing Dynasty never visited the southern tour again, at most he went out to visit the Chengde summer resort.
Because the Qianlong Emperor's southern tour cost a huge amount of money, the treasury has long been empty, so that the emperors of later generations dare not follow suit, and it is really unbearable, therefore, although the Qianlong southern tour left the world is a "prosperous Kangqian era" gorgeous back, but it can only be reproduced in the memory, after that, the Qing Dynasty began to decline step by step.