Author: Our special guest author Jinlingwu
Ancient kings employed people with different principles, for example, some people pay attention to both ability and political integrity, some people are meritocracy, and although the Qianlong Emperor's employment principle is not only to look at talent, not to look at morality, but in his eyes, talent is indeed far more important than morality. Therefore, he tolerated the talented corrupt officials and the generations of Yan and Li Shuyao, and had good credit, but he was more harsh on ministers with average talent, such as Shangshu Peng Qifeng, whom he called "incompetent".
I. Rectify the rule of officials
In fact, Peng Qifeng is very talented. In 1727, Peng Qifeng participated in the imperial examination and won the third place in the temple examination. But it was precisely in Yongzheng's eyes that this third place was the best, so Peng Qifeng was hand-picked as a champion and naturally became a Hanlin Academy cultivator. During the Yongzheng period and the early Qianlong period, Peng Qifeng mainly served as an examiner for the township examination and the examination, and there was no outstanding performance until 1742 AD, when Peng Qifeng served as the zhejiang governor of the school and managed the Zhejiang academy examination and official school. It was also during this period of office that Peng Qifeng, relying on his many years of experience in presiding over the imperial examination, put forward four rather insightful reform plans for the imperial examination at that time: First, the examination questions for selecting students of the State Supervision Department should not be repeated, so as not to prepare the candidates later; second, they would no longer ask questions to explain the Confucian scriptures after the annual examination and the examination; third, they would strictly investigate the phenomenon of impersonation for the examination; and fourth, they would copy and check the papers separately to prevent cheating.
These measures have been recognized, which has further improved the examination system. At that time, he studied hard for more than ten years for the imperial examination, and later served as an examiner for the imperial examination for more than ten years, and I have to say that Peng Qifeng's understanding of the imperial examination is very thorough.
After proposing four constructive suggestions, Peng Qifeng was appointed as the left deputy capital of Yushi, and his appointment fully demonstrated his selflessness. Once, when passing through Suzhou, Anhui Province, during the flooding of heavy waters and the officials were derelict in their duties, Peng Qifeng wrote a letter to impeach the Suzhou officials: Xu Chaodong of Suzhou Zhizhou allowed his subordinates to accept bribes, and the household registration of the victims was untrue; Mei Yujian, the prefect of Fengyang, was quite derelict in his duties. After this song was loosened, Qianlong ordered a strict investigation and punishment.
After that, Peng Qifeng served as a waiter in the Punishment Department and made four accusations against current affairs in Zhejiang: First, the hangzhou traitorous officials diao min invaded Tianhu Lake, seriously affecting the irrigation of paddy fields in Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huiji; second, when officials in Hangzhou and Huzhou were transporting grain and rice, they took the opportunity to steal grain and rice, used public interests for personal gain, and arbitrarily charged fees; third, they suggested that the officials under their command should be given a quota for their errands, so that The Hangzhou officials would not ask for more silver in the name of the servants; fourth, the zhejiang area produced a lot of salt, and some corrupt officials and corrupt officials took the opportunity to search people's houses and extorted money in every way when they encountered salt. If he did not comply, he was falsely accused of smuggling and selling salt, and was sentenced to prison.
Peng Qifeng explicitly stated that the corruption and corrupt behavior of officials in the Zhejiang area was deeply critical, and as soon as this was done, the officials of the government and the public, especially the officials in Zhejiang, were shocked and did not dare to play adultery and bribery anymore, and the government affairs were purged.
Second, he was despised by Qianlong
Such a talented courtier should have been reused, but at this time two things happened, causing Peng Qifeng's fate to take a one hundred and eighty-degree turn and be despised by the Qianlong Emperor.
First, during his tenure as an official waiter, he just happened to be an official assessment, and Peng Qifeng gave the officials Langzhong, Shangshu, and Shilang the results of the assessment were all first-class, and he was a second-class person. This was originally a sign of humility, but it made Qianlong very unhappy: Are you not selling your reputation and appearing to be high?
The second thing made Qianlong even more despised. After that, Peng Qifeng served as the Shangshu of the Bingbu, Shi Yi'ang, the son of Shi Yizhi, served as the Servant of the Bingbu, and the Shi family was a minister for generations, and Shi Yi'ang himself was also very trusted. In Qianlong's eyes, this Shi Yi'ang was obviously more talented than Peng Qifeng. It is precisely because of this that Shi Yiang was very rude in front of this boss, and even "rebuked Qi Feng in the face and did not call Him Shangshu". After this matter was known to Qianlong, Peng Qifeng behaved very well and vigorously denied it, but several people in the military department testified about this matter, which could not be denied. Qianlong was very angry and punished Shi Yiang, and at the same time showed extreme disappointment in Peng Qifeng, fiercely criticizing "playing correctly and not being truthful, losing the dignity of a minister", and demoting him to a waiter.
In Qianlong's eyes, Peng Qifeng had no outstanding talents, and even some were incompetent. In an official appraisal in 1768 AD, Qianlong even directly issued an edict that "Peng Qifeng's talent is limited, his work is ineffective, and he is ordered to retire with the original product", showing no mercy.
In fact, this is not the first time that Qianlong has explicitly expressed his contempt. As early as 1755 AD, Peng Qifeng and the water conservancy expert Ji Huang applied for retirement at the same time, and as a result, Qianlong tried his best to keep Ji Huang and decisively let Peng Qifeng go home to support his elderly mother.
Peng Qifeng's grandfather, Peng Dingqiu, was also born in Zhuangyuan, and from an early age he taught Peng Qifeng to know how to advance and retreat, Peng Qifeng was young at the time, and asked "What is the knowledge of progress and not knowing retreat", Peng Dingqiu replied, "Those who know the advance, they want to reach it because they have not reached it, so it is easy; those who retire, who have reached and are proud, do not want to lose it, so it is difficult." This sentence affected Peng Qifeng's life and had a huge impact on his idyllic disposition.
Although Peng Qifeng was not very talented, he was by no means as incompetent as the Qianlong Emperor said. It can be seen from the rectification of Zhejiang officials that Peng Qifeng's iron face is ruthless enough to make the world's corrupt officials change their color; he has performed very well in the offices of examiners, officials, ceremonial departments, and the left deputy capital Yushi, but the military department's ministry is not his strength, coupled with his idyllic temperament and knowledge of advances and retreats, which has led to Peng Qifeng being despised by Qianlong; or on the other hand, Qianlong is also too harsh and completely likes to employ people.
The Qianlong Emperor's two clever ways of making money pushed the Qing into the abyss of corruption
The three gifts of the British, which were supposed to awaken China's self-improvement, were made into a joke by Qianlong