As the imperial dynasty declined, so did the privileges and corruption of the royal family. During the Ming Dynasty, although the clan also enjoyed certain privileges, it did not seem to have caused a huge burden on the state in comparison. However, during the Qing Dynasty, the situation seemed to have taken a huge turn. The privileges and powers of the clans were far from comparable to those of the Ming Dynasty, and their unbridled plundering of the country's resources became a major bane for the fall of the Qing Dynasty. How did the Qing dynasty "eat up" this huge empire? How was the Ming Dynasty clan "wronged"? These questions deserve further discussion.
Comparison of the special rights and disadvantages of the Ming and Qing dynasties
During the Ming Dynasty, the power and privileges of the clan were still constrained to a certain extent. Although they enjoyed some land and land, the overall size was not huge. According to historical records, in the early years of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the actual amount of silver received by the clan was about 617,000 taels, which increased slightly to more than 1.25 million taels in the early years of Wanli, and the quota was more than 1.56 million taels during the Apocalypse. And the land occupied by the clan will not exceed 100,000 taels of tax income at any time. Compared with the huge military and financial expenditures of the Ming Dynasty, the income of the clan and the manor is obviously insignificant.
Even so, the power of the clan in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was still expanding. During the Wanli period, many children of the clan indulged in extravagance and indulgence, causing an uproar in the government and the opposition. People of insight such as Zhang Han, Yuan Hongdao and others have accused the clan of "tyranny" and become the bane of corruption in the government and the opposition. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, although the power of the clan was not completely out of control as in the later Qing Dynasty, it was beginning to take shape.
By contrast, the Qing dynasty's clan privileges and power were far more appalling. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the princes were divided and given land, which was nothing special. However, since the Shunzhi period, the number of clans has begun to surge, and the expenditure of Yulu has also increased day by day. According to historical records: "Recently, the annual expenditure is more than 3 million yuan", and in addition to the food expenses, the clan receives more than 6 million taels of silver from the state every year. In the Qianlong period, the prince's clan expanded to 30,000 or 40,000 people, and the state had to allocate hundreds of millions of taels of silver every year for them to squander.
What's even more terrifying is that the princes and clans of the Qing Dynasty not only received huge sums of money, but also expanded the princely estates everywhere, taking all the private land and wasteland for themselves. Zhuangwang's mansion alone occupies more than 550,000 acres of Zhuang land. The entire Qing Dynasty princes and aristocratic groups occupied a total of more than 8 million acres of land in Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning and other provinces. And the income of these estates is all privately owned by the king, and the state has no way to supervise and intervene.
Not only that, but the Qing Dynasty princes and clans also brutally exploited and oppressed tenant farmers and peasants by virtue of their privileges and force. They controlled the life and death of a large number of serfs (serfs) in the manor in disguise, and they were arrogant and arrogant to the destitute people, and repeatedly demanded taxes. It has been recorded in historical records that the rent collection of individual clan mansions in a year is equivalent to collecting taxes from the people two or three times a year. This kind of frenzied plundering of the country and the people is destined to lead to disaster.
In this regard, there is no doubt that the privileges and power of the Qing dynasty have reached the point of getting out of control and bursting the embankment. Compared with the Ming Dynasty clan, it is simply a world of difference, and it is completely two levels. This was one of the important hidden dangers of the eventual collapse of the Qing Dynasty, and it also caused the Ming Dynasty to be wronged and slandered.
The clan's expenditure on the state treasury
Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty's financial expenditure on the clan can be described as a huge disparity. Although the Ming Dynasty clan had a lot of land, the overall scale was not huge. According to historical records, the Ming Dynasty clan actually received more than 1.56 million taels of silver in the middle and late dynasties. The huge expenses of the Qing Dynasty clan are shocking.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, although the state's expenditure on the clan was acceptable, its scale soon increased exponentially over time. According to historical records, there were only more than 2,000 people in the clan during the Shunzhi period, but "nearly 30,000 recently, millions of years". For the clans above the rank of Bong'en Generals alone, the state will allocate more than 3 million taels of silver to them every year, and about 6 million taels of grain will be added to them.
The idle and untitled clan also has more than 28,000 people, and the state has to pay more than 3 million taels of silver every year, plus more than 6 million taels of grain. In other words, the expenses of the clan alone will cost tens of millions of taels of silver from the state treasury every year, which is only a conservative estimate.
After entering the Yongzheng period, the population of the Qing Dynasty clan showed explosive growth. According to historical records, in the 35th year of Qianlong (1770), the total population of the national clan was as high as 34,732, and by the 50th year of Qianlong (1785), it reached 49,358. According to this calculation, the annual financial expenditure of the state to supply the clan at that time was definitely an astronomical amount.
What's even more terrifying is that in addition to receiving a large amount of money, the clan also has the practice of embezzling the country's wealth. The first is to occupy a large number of manor fields that are exempt from taxation, and their income is privately appropriated by the clan. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the total land of the prince's manor was only more than 1.33 million acres. But soon, the royal palaces began to expand frantically, and by the middle of Qianlong, only in Hebei, Liaoning, and Shanxi provinces, the princely manor had reached more than 8 million acres.
The second is the exploitation of peasants and the embezzlement of a large amount of taxes and taxes. In the early Qing Dynasty, the princely estates adopted the system of encased serfdom, and the tenant farmers were nothing more than the private property of the princes. Even in the middle of the Qianlong period, it was necessary to levy tenant rents, and millions of taels of silver were forcibly plundered from the peasants every year as rent. It is estimated that the embezzlement of state property by the Zhuang Wangfu alone is as high as millions of taels of silver every year.
The third is the crazy expansion of land. During the period of Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, he arbitrarily gave a large number of nobles land, and once gave 240,000 acres of ripe land to a prince's mansion at one time. Prince Azig alone actually occupied more than 800,000 acres of private land in one go. This act of land granting undoubtedly increased the direct plundering of the wealth of the country by the princely clan.
From the comparison of the financial expenditures of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it can be seen that the clan expenditures in the Qing Dynasty have far exceeded a reasonable level. Even if the Qing Dynasty had a huge surplus in the central government, such a frenzied consumption and monopoly of national wealth by the princely clan would eventually hasten the decline of the dynasty.
The clan oppressed the people's fat and the people's ointment
The Qing dynasty not only possessed a large amount of national wealth, but also exploited the peasants excessively. Relying on their privileges and force, they brutally oppressed tenant farmers and commoners, which became a major cause of aggravated social contradictions in the late Qing Dynasty.
The first was the serious exploitation of sharecroppers and serfs. Before the middle of the Qianlong period, the princely estates of the Qing Dynasty had always followed the system of serfdom, treating tenant farmers as private property. The peasants in the manor are nothing more than the clothed servants of the prince's mansion, and the life and death are all controlled by the clan. They lived a worse life than serfs, and they were squeezed out of their labor force every day, and even the most basic personal freedom could not be guaranteed.
After the middle of the Qianlong period, although the coating system was banned, the life of the tenant farmers did not change much. Under the new tenant system of the Prince's Manor, tenant farmers had to pay more than half of the output of the land every year, and in some places it was as high as 80%. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, which only had to pay a meager 10% land rent, the tenant farmers of the Qing Dynasty were brutally exploited twice.
What's more, the Qing dynasty often imposed multiple taxes and exorbitant donations on tenant farmers. According to historical records, some estates squeezed more tax rents from farmers each year than the entire tax payment of villagers in a year. Sometimes, after paying the rent and tax on the estate, the tenant farmers will soon be forced to pay all kinds of unjustified "donations" by the clan. Refusal is met with force.
Second, the Qing dynasty was equally exploitative of ordinary peasants and commoners. They used to use indiscriminate force at every turn, ruthlessly suppressing the peasants who resisted them. In order to occupy more land, King Azig ordered his soldiers to kill thousands of peasants. The clan also disrupted local order and bullied the rural people. Specially hired horse thieves and hooligans harassed the villagers and forced them to pay high "ground rent". Those who disobey are ruined.
Coincidentally, many royal governments have even set up "corruption groups" in their estates, taking taxes and exorbitant donations for themselves. The officials of the manor followed suit, colluding with the local officials to extort heavy payments from the peasants repeatedly. In the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, this kind of violence and exploitation had reached outrageous proportions.
In the final analysis, the root cause of the clan's oppression of the peasants stems from their habits of extravagance, lasciviousness, and extravagance. In order to satisfy their own excessive consumption needs, they did not hesitate to launch a frenzied plunder against the peasants. This also confirms from the side that the Qing Dynasty, as the ruling class, has already reached a point of hopeless moral decay. They have done incalculable harm to the country and its people and are destined to pay for it.
The clan life is extravagant and corrupt
The reason why the Qing dynasty clan would cause such great harm to the country and the people was closely related to its extravagant and extravagant lifestyle. Their profligacy, corruption, and degeneration have become the bane of corrupt officialdom and declining social morality.
In terms of housing construction, the Qing dynasty clan is a typical representative of extravagance. According to historical records, Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty gave a large number of properties in Beijing to the princes and concubines, resulting in thousands of mansions for the royal descendants. Prince Gong's residence alone has tens of thousands of garden houses, which are more splendid and magnificent than some European royal palaces.
These palace houses are full of gold, silver, jewelry, precious antiques and expensive furniture. Some princes even went on a frenzy to collect all kinds of expensive works of art and curiosities, worth millions of taels of silver. The annual cost of repairing the palace is as high as more than one million taels. It was this extravagant lifestyle that made the clans increasingly ambitious to exploit tenant farmers and peasants.
It can be said that the extravagant and extravagant life of the clan is based on the frenzied exploitation of the people. And along with this, they are full of moral corruption and corruption in their lives. Many clans have indulged in prostitution, gambling, and fornication, violating ethics and morality, and have become the target of everyone's spittle.
According to history, Emperor Dezong, who was in a good situation, was "molested" by many princes and concubines. The famous Prince Gong was even more famous, not only for his corruption and oppression of tenant farmers, but also for his indiscriminate use of hired servants and pampering concubines. Emperor Qianlong's son, King Azig, was killed with a rod for occupying people's land and killing people. It can be said that in terms of eating, drinking, and having fun, the Qing Dynasty clan has been corroded to the point of hopelessness.
What's even more serious is that these princes and concubines even colluded with court officials to embezzle and corrupt together. For example, during the Yongzheng period, he was forced to leave Beijing because the eunuch Zhang Yu was not conducive to the interests of the Nalan Xingde group. In the middle and late Qianlong period, Prince Gong's Mansion became a super group of corrupt elements in the government and the opposition. Prince Gong not only shielded his cronies for favoritism, but also reported to corrupt officials many times.
It was precisely because of this collusion between power and money that corruption in the late Qing Dynasty became more and more serious, and even the royal family was contaminated with it. The corrupt life of the children of the clan is undoubtedly the main culprit, they not only squandered the wealth of the country and corrupted the social atmosphere, but also dragged the entire dynasty into the abyss of morality. From this point of view, judging the actions of the Qing Dynasty clan is indeed innumerable and shocking.
The influence of the clan and the country
The rampant privileges and corrupt life of the Qing dynasty had a profound negative impact on the rule of the entire dynasty and hastened its demise. This is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, the clan's frenzied plundering of the country's wealth seriously damaged the Qing court's financial strength. As mentioned above, the annual income of hundreds of millions of taels of clan and manor is a heavy burden. What is even more terrifying is that some royal palaces have even appropriated state property for private ownership and have become corrupt and corrupt. As a result, the Qing court's military expenditure and personnel expenditure were seriously insufficient, and it was unable to cope with the increasingly severe internal and external troubles.
Second, the arrogance and moral decay of the clan have contributed to the decline of the entire social atmosphere. Some princes and sons not only gamble on sex, but also indulge in lustful dogs and horses, corrupting the social atmosphere. This kind of bad demonstration of upward and downward effects undoubtedly exacerbated the decay and degeneration of the entire Qing Dynasty society.
Thirdly, the tyrannical tyranny of the clan intensified the exploitation of the peasants and intensified the class contradictions. The phenomenon of peasant "displacement" was mentioned many times in the edict of the historian, that is, a large number of tenant farmers were left homeless due to the unreasonable exploitation of the manor owners. The killing of King Azig triggered a regional peasant uprising, revealing that the clan had lost its most basic moral bottom line.
Finally, the rampant privileges of the clan also directly undermined the supremacy of the imperial power. Some princes not only possessed vast land wealth, but even had privileges such as pro-military and banknote bureaus. This undoubtedly weakened the authority of the emperor and exacerbated the contradictions and divisions within the dynasty. In his later years, Qianlong ordered the Prince Gong group to be severely punished because he was worried about the usurpation of power by the clan, which shows that the clan has become the biggest hidden danger to the stability of the dynasty.
In general, the various actions of the Qing dynasty were undoubtedly an important factor in accelerating the disintegration of the imperial dynasty. They indulged in corruption and lewdness, resulting in a massive loss of national wealth and a serious decline in social morals; They tyrannically oppressed the people, intensified social contradictions and class antagonisms; They weakened imperial power and deepened divisions and contradictions within the dynasty. From this point of view, although the Qing dynasty should bear the main responsibility for the collapse of the dynasty, as a lesson from the past, their various actions have also left us with valuable historical lessons.