Introduction:
"Qing officials are hard to find, corrupt officials are easy to obtain, as a prefect, you can accumulate 100,000 taels of silver in three years. This proverb, which circulated in the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty, conveys a thought-provoking phenomenon. Even a prefect who is as incorruptible as water can accumulate an income of 100,000 taels of silver. Another proverb describes the situation in Zhixian: "No greed, no abuse, 30,000 a year." This folk slang phrase was widely circulated and widely recognized in Qing Dynasty officialdom. The Criminal Department cited other materials and made it clear that 30,000 taels of silver a year would be the standard for the county's additional income. In other words, if a county magistrate's annual income is less than 30,000 taels, it is difficult to easily call him a corrupt official.
However, we need to delve into the rationality of "30,000 a year", and we cannot just take corrupt officials as an example. In the process of consulting relevant materials, I found that the situation of Dong Zuodong, the magistrate of Lushan, Henan Province, during the Qianjia period, was quite representative.
According to the "Lushan County Chronicle", there was a Qing official with a good reputation named Dong Zuodong, who left countless praises in the history of Lushan. So for such a clean official, what about his annual expenses and income?
What is the income of Dong County?
In the Qing Dynasty, the income of local officials could be divided into two main parts. We estimate the value of silver in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, and one tael of silver is equivalent to 300 yuan.
Part of it is calculated according to the Qing Dynasty civil official system. The annual salary of Qipinzhi County should be 45 taels. However, this is not the case, and the more than 1,300 counties in the country do not get all the money, and their actual income is usually between 41 taels and 5 yuan and 43 taels and 8 yuan.
This involves a system called "equal sharing of silver", which was introduced in the second year of Qianlong, so I will not go into much detail about it, just understand that there is this system. In addition to the regular salary, the magistrates also have the maintenance of incorruptible silver, and the economic level of each province is different, and the standard of raising incorruptible silver is also different.
In Henan Province, for example, it is at a medium level. According to the records in the "Qing Huidian", the governor of Henan raised 15,000 taels of incorruptible silver, the political envoy was 8,000 taels, the prefect was 4,000 taels, and the county governor was 2,000 to 1,000 taels. Among the counties in Henan, Lushan is also at a medium level, and the incorruptible silver in Lushan Zhi County is 1,400 taels. What I understand as honest money is performance bonuses.
Based on this, we can calculate that Dong Zhixian's visible income includes a salary of 43 taels and a performance bonus of 1,400 taels, totaling 1,443 taels.
The other part is extrajudicial income. The concept of extralegal income is very broad, including grey income, which is ambiguous between legal and illegal, as well as black income, which is completely hidden, can be classified as extralegal income.
Obviously, Dong Chok Dong will not record extrajudicial income in the clear account, and it needs to be estimated according to the specific financial revenue of Lushan County. Fortunately, there was an unwritten rule in the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty that when a new official took office, the master of the accounting office was required to prepare a booklet called the "Book of Instructions" in advance.
In the "Book of Notices" of Lushan County, the county's various tax revenues are recorded in detail. More than 24,000 taels of land are expropriated from the land every year, and 1.64 taels of silver are levied for each tael. After deducting the part handed over, there are about 8,000 taels left, and more than 2,000 taels of rice are collected from the private sector every year, and 4.26 taels of silver are levied on each stone. In fact, about 4.2 taels were paid, and more than 1,600 taels of rice were collected from the tuntian land every year, and 3.25 taels of silver were levied per stone. In fact, about 3.2 taels were paid, and the annual tax contract was about 4,000 taels, and 0.8 taels of silver were levied for every 1 tael of output value. In fact, it was 0.6 taels.
The above items are part of the extrajudicial income of Lushan County. Taking the first item as an example, the tax revenue alone is 15,360 taels more than that of the household department, half of which is handed over to the provincial level according to regulations, and the remaining 7,680 taels is the extralegal income of Lushan County. This money does not need to be recorded on the ledger and is no different from legitimate income.
According to comprehensive calculations, during Dong Zuodong's tenure in Lushan, the total annual improper income was about 32,420 taels, equivalent to more than 20 times the statutory income. It is worth noting that during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, the annual income of a family of five was less than 50 taels.
What are the expenses of Dong County?
While Tung's income may seem lucrative and enviable, his expenses are also shocking. The first is the repair money paid to the staff. As a politician diligent in government affairs, Tung Chok Tong hired a chief staff member to take charge of financial and criminal affairs, spending 880 taels of silver a year as his salary. In addition, he also hired three masters to take care of finance, taxation and the education of children and grandchildren, and the salaries of the three masters totaled 600 taels of silver.
In addition to paying the salaries of the officials, there were other expenses. According to the statistics of Lushan County, there are a total of 12 officials, and each person's annual salary and food expenses are 11.8 taels of silver, totaling 129 taels of silver. In addition, there were 74 servants, with a total annual salary and food expenses of 444 taels of silver, and a total of 5 men and cooks of the county school, with a total annual salary and food expenses of 50.4 taels of silver. In addition, it was necessary to pay for the recruitment of the regimental members and the office expenses of the yamen, all of which added up to more than 12,200 taels of silver.
In addition, there are entertainment expenses. The exact amount is uncertain, as a considerable part of the expenses are "fees" in the name of entertainment, that is, gifts to superiors.
According to Lu Shan's "Fee Account Book", Dong Zuodong needed to spend silver on various occasions to give gifts. For example, a gift of 300 taels was given to each Taoist member, and a gift of 200 taels was given to the prefect, and the subordinates of the superiors at all levels should also be dealt with. It costs at least 4,000 taels of silver in a year.
In addition, there are some expenditure items, such as Dong Zuodong needs to go to the provincial capital every year to meet with senior officials such as the governor of Henan, the political envoy, and the envoy, which alone will cost at least more than 3,000 taels of silver. In addition, there are also assignments from higher authorities, extortion by relatives of powerful people in the capital, and donations to participate in public affairs. Although Dong Zuodong's record does not specifically mention it, it can be seen in the notes of Du Fengzhi, the magistrate of Sihui County, Guangdong during the Tongzhi period, that these expenses together cost at least more than 6,000 taels of silver in a year.
In addition to these "public" expenses, Tung Chok Tong also needs to pay for huge household expenses. His family of 12 people lived a relatively simple life, and according to the average standard of three stones and six buckets of rice per person at the age of one year, the annual expenses also reached 400 taels of silver.
In addition, there are some sporadic expenses, such as sending money back to their hometown, personal contacts, supporting relatives, etc., which are roughly about 2,000 taels of silver.
On the whole, Dong Zuodong's expenses are roughly around 30,000 taels of silver (the actual figure may be more), and his income is only 32,200 taels of silver, and there is not much left in a year. If you want to live a decent, luxurious life, it is obviously not enough. Therefore, the phrase "no greed, no abuse, 30,000 a year" can be said to be a fairly objective and fair description.
Epilogue:
However, this story also makes us think deeply about the lifestyle of Qing officials. At that time, even honest officials could hardly get rid of the heavy burden of official duties, entertainment, and various expenses. The gray area between the legal and the illegal makes it difficult for the Qing officials to be completely innocent and selfless, and even if they act according to the standard of "no greed, no abuse, 30,000 yuan a year", it is difficult to ensure economic prosperity. This may reflect the shortcomings of the officialdom at the time, and also give us a deeper understanding of the complexity of the livelihood of Qing officials.