Although we have always said that the Han Dynasty was a unified dynasty, in fact, the Han Dynasty was also divided. Wang Mang's new policy divided the Han Dynasty into the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty. These two periods belong to the same line in terms of blood relationship, and there is also a succession relationship in the political and economic system. However, during the Western Han Dynasty, officials were honest and the social atmosphere was simple, but in the Eastern Han Dynasty, corruption occurred many times, and the entire officialdom was shrouded in bad habits, and even the emperor personally accepted bribes. Why did the Han Dynasty, which shared the same roots, present such different social faces in the two periods?
1. The source of incorruptibility in the Western Han Dynasty
In the fifth year of Qingyun in the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang drove away the chaos of the division of the heroes and officially unified the world. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he knew that in order to consolidate his rule, he must attach importance to the appointment of officials and put an end to corruption. To this end, he promulgated a realistic system of high salaries.
Under this system, officials are paid differently according to their status. Those with high power can receive relatively high salaries; The grassroots officials can only get a lower salary. Although it seems unfair, this approach is in line with the actual national conditions of the early Han Dynasty.
At that time, the state had only recently been founded, and the country's finances were very tight. If all officials were to be given high salaries, it would inevitably increase the financial burden on the state. And the power of senior officials is high, and their corruption often leads to a national culture of corruption. Therefore, Liu Bang gave priority to meeting the needs of high-ranking officials in order to maintain the purity of the government.
In addition, he ordered a comprehensive punishment of corruption, regardless of rank. All officials suspected of embezzlement will be severely punished without exception once they are verified. For high-ranking officials, they were dismissed from office and exiled, or beheaded for public display, as an example.
Under the constraints of these effective measures, the officials of the Western Han Dynasty established an atmosphere of diligence and frugality. Even if the number of grassroots officials is limited, they do not dare to engage in corruption under high pressure. The spread of corruption has been fundamentally curbed.
However, this positive atmosphere did not last long. In the late Western Han Dynasty, due to successive wars, the national strength gradually declined. This was followed by a series of problems such as financial shortages and social unrest. In this environment, coupled with the dictatorship of the eunuchs of the dynasty, the wind of corruption has returned again.
Until Sun Jian abolished the autocracy of eunuchs, although the bureaucratic system was temporarily relieved, the corruption problem throughout the Western Han Dynasty was not completely cured. However, compared with the later Eastern Han Dynasty, the level of corruption in the Western Han Dynasty was relatively mild, and the occurrence was concentrated at the end of the reign.
2. The turmoil of Wang Mang's New Deal
In the twenty-fourth year of Jianwu, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty died without an heir. As a eunuch, Wang Mang actually usurped the throne, changed the name of the country to "Xin", and established a new dynasty. This was the first regime change in the Han Dynasty since its founding.
At the beginning of Wang Mang's rise to power, in order to stabilize his power, he promulgated a series of shocking reform measures, including economic, political and other changes. These new policies had a huge impact on the system established in the early Han Dynasty and seriously disrupted the social order.
In the economic sphere, Wang Mang artificially manipulated the value of the currency and tried to cope with the fiscal deficit by increasing the denomination of the currency. He ordered the copper coin to be directly weighted, and the weight of the five-baht coin (half a tael) was raised to one tael. In this way, the old five-baht coin is equivalent to two new coins, doubling the nominal value of the currency in circulation.
However, this practice is tantamount to rebuilding the old system by force, and has greatly affected social production and life. As a result of nominal deflation, prices in the market skyrocketed, but ordinary people's real incomes did not increase, and they could not afford to consume at all, leading to hyperinflation.
In order to cope with inflation, Wang Mang also ordered households across the country to migrate to the southeast and divide their fields for farming, intending to alleviate inflation by increasing agricultural output. However, this move not only caused great suffering to the people, but also caused serious damage to local agricultural production, which in turn exacerbated the agricultural depression.
In addition to the changes in the economic field, Wang Mang also made adjustments to the political system. He added the Jiuqing system, expanded the scale of the central bureaucracy, and abolished the county-state system to strengthen the centralization of power. The implementation of these systems has undoubtedly increased the country's fiscal expenditure.
At the same time, Wang Mang strongly advocated the restoration of the ancient code system, demanded the observance of rituals and sacrifices, and advocated a return to simplicity in the way of life. But his approach was contrary to reality, unpopular, and instead caused discontent.
The New Deal eventually led to a catastrophe. In order to make ends meet, people everywhere have had to turn to the underground economy to make a living. In order to maintain their own interests, officials turn a blind eye to the illegal business activities of the people, and even act as a protective umbrella. It can be seen that Wang Mang's new policy completely disrupted the social order.
Finally, in 25 AD, Wang Mang died of illness after being exiled to Wo County. The rule of the new dynasty was interrupted, and the Han dynasty was restored by the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu. Since then, the Eastern Han Dynasty has opened a new chapter in history.
3. The root causes of corruption in the Eastern Han Dynasty
At the beginning of the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu set out to sweep away the remnants of Wang Mang's new policy and tried his best to restore the old political and economic system of the Han Dynasty. With the consolidation of the new dynasty, social order has gradually improved, and people's livelihood has improved. However, the reshaping of the officialdom has fallen into a hover.
After the establishment of the new dynasty, in order to restore the continuity of political power, the court had to renew the system of the Western Han Dynasty. Among them was the embezzlement that was brewing in the late Western Han Dynasty. Although Emperor Guangwu intended to eradicate corruption, he lacked effective supporting measures and failed to curb the development momentum of corruption.
Most of the reigning emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty had a literati temperament, and lacked a new understanding of government affairs, making it difficult to fundamentally change the status quo. In addition, years of war and turmoil have stretched the country's finances, and several generations of kings have had to tighten their expenditures and reduce the financial burden of officials.
At the same time, according to the selection criteria of the imperial examination system in the Han Dynasty, most of the people who entered the official system at that time were scholars from scholars from scholars' families. They are accustomed to a privileged living environment, and once their income declines, their quality of life plummets, and they will inevitably become dissatisfied.
In order to maintain the existing standard of living, some officials have begun to turn to other means to seek profits. Some use their power to collect heavy taxes from the people, some accept bribes to give the green light to businessmen, and even more directly participate in commercial activities to reap profits.
These acts undoubtedly violated the ethics of officials, but due to the lack of strong supervision and the deliberate blindness of the upper echelons of rulers, similar acts gradually became a habit in the officialdom and became out of control.
At the same time, gray economic activities have also begun to emerge among the private sector. Under the heavy taxation caused by the long-term war, in order to maintain the basic life, some places developed underground handicraft industries and small businesses. These activities are considered illegal, but they are not severely punished.
4. Completely corrupted during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty
In the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the atmosphere of corruption in the government and the opposition reached its peak. This is not only due to the failure of successive rulers to address the root cause of corruption, but also directly related to the lascivious lifestyle of the royal family itself.
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was fond of sound and entertainment, and built a large-scale Shanglin Garden in Chang'an City, which was specially designed for royal amusement. Rare birds and beasts are raised in the park, and ponds and lakes are built for the emperor to chase horses and deer. There are more than 3,000 beauties in the palace, half of whom are talented wives. Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty and his favorite concubines indulged in wine and enjoyed themselves day and night, living an extravagant and obscene life.
With such luxury, the expenses are naturally enormous. In order to meet the bottomless expenses of the imperial family, the imperial court had to levy heavy taxes, increasing the burden of local servitude. However, the taxation came together to no avail, and the royal expenses remained excessive.
As a result, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty turned his greedy eyes to officialdom, and even put his official position on the stall publicly, turning him into a businessman who traded power for money. Those who want to be a high-ranking official can buy an ideal official position by taking out the corresponding gold and silver goods.
Once the buying of officials is established, the factor of corruption will be pervasive. What's more, in order to raise funds, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty relied heavily on the wealthy families with the surname Quan and connived at them to do everything they could to abuse the people in the local area.
In order to obtain more benefits, the powerful families colluded with the royal family, and set up a series of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes in the local area, such as catching people, selling plates, and selling children. They use the power of officialdom as a talisman to run rampant and domineering among the people, harassing and brutalizing ordinary people.
Even the royal clansmen and nobles have been involved in the whirlpool of corruption. They relied on their status as royal relatives to bribe and solicit bribes from outside the world, regardless of right and wrong. Inside, it should cooperate with the royal family, accept heavy bribes, and make huge profits. People of insight denounced the government and the opposition for trading power and money, and being insatiable.
This ugly phenomenon has completely corrupted the atmosphere of the government and the opposition. It was a foregone conclusion that the Eastern Han Dynasty would turn from prosperity to decline, and the social order was becoming increasingly chaotic, and the people of Li were miserable. Power is self-defeating in the face of money, officialdom has been completely corroded, and since then it has plummeted and collapsed.
5. Lessons from the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties
Looking at the evolution of officialdom in the Eastern and Western Han dynasties, it is not difficult to find that policy choices were crucial to the corruption and clarity of a dynasty.
At the beginning of the founding of the Western Han Dynasty, in order to consolidate the foundation of rule, Liu Bang promulgated the policy of high salaries and honest maintenance and severe punishment of corruption. These measures directly curbed the occurrence of corruption, enabled officials to serve the country without distraction, and thus laid the tone for the government to be clear.
However, this virtuous cycle is not sustainable. The wars that broke out in the late Western Han Dynasty exhausted the national strength, leaving the country's finances stretched. In order to reduce expenses, the imperial court had to lower the remuneration packages of officials. Coupled with the lack of an effective regulatory mechanism, corruption has recurred with impunity.
The system restored by Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty inherited the accumulated shortcomings left over from the late Western Han Dynasty, and it was difficult to fundamentally solve the problem of corruption in officialdom. Moreover, the rulers of the Eastern Han Dynasty lacked the determination and courage to rectify the rule of officials, and failed to take effective measures to eradicate it, allowing the corruption to become more and more intense.
By the time of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the trading of power for money and the buying and selling of official positions were already open secrets, and the government and the opposition were corrupted. The royal family was directly involved, monopolizing the supreme power of corruption, making the government completely degenerate and obscene.
The fate of the two Han dynasties teaches us that the policy choices of one ruler will directly affect the level of officialdom. Although the high-pressure measures at the beginning of the founding of the Western Han Dynasty curbed corruption, it was difficult to resist it forever. However, blindly tightening spending without a supporting regulatory mechanism will eventually repeat the mistakes of the late Western Han Dynasty.
Therefore, in order to fundamentally solve the problem of corruption in officialdom, it is necessary to establish a set of effective systems of checks and balances on power, so that power can be supervised and restrained in different links and prevent problems before they occur. At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure that the level of remuneration of officials is commensurate with their status, so as to avoid going down the road of breaking the law and committing crimes because of embarrassment.
The use of power also needs to be rationalized to prevent a situation in which one person has a monopoly on power. It is only under collective restraint that power is not abused. The Eastern Han Dynasty royal family monopolized power and used power above the law, which led to the eventual degeneration and decline. This is a profound lesson that deserves our vigilance.