Zhihua talks about history, and history talks about itself. Welcome everyone to [follow] me, talk about the past and the present, and discuss the general trend of the world
Emperor Ling implemented a series of measures aimed at eliminating maladministration, but it was difficult to achieve results, and this is of course the most important relationship with the accumulation of excessive and deep malpractices, and some of the economic measures taken by Emperor Ling to expand fiscal revenues fundamentally contradicted the measures of political reform, which is an important reason why political measures have had little effect.
1. The origin of selling officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty
Cui Lie, the court captain, was born in a famous family in the north, and successively served as the county guard and the court secretary. In the early years of Zhongping (184-189), he paid 5 million yuan to Mrs. Cheng, the servant of Zhongchang, through Emperor Ling's nanny, that is, Cheng Huang, and bought the official position of Situ.
One day in March of the second year of Zhongping (185), Cui Lie, the court captain, was promoted to Situ, and the palace held a grand worship ceremony.
Looking at Cui Lie's proud appearance, Emperor Ling suddenly felt that Cui Lie's position as Situ was too cheap, and couldn't help but say to his entourage cronies with regret: "I really regret that it's too refreshing, I could have asked Cui Lie to give 10 million!" ”
The middle attendant next to him interjected and said:
"He's got five million, which is pretty good. How can a famous person in Jizhou like Cui Gong buy an official easily? Your Majesty, you don't know how much work I've done out of it! ”
The sale of officials has been sold to the highest official position of the imperial court - the three dukes, and the dignified emperor is greedy to discuss the price of the three dukes like buying and selling goods, which is the only phenomenon in the history of the country!
The emergence of this unprecedented phenomenon is not simple if it is only attributed to the mediocrity and decay of the emperor in the last days.
Since the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, not only the people have become increasingly poor, but also the treasury has gradually become impoverished.
Although the imperial finances were so poor, the expenditure on national defense and military affairs, the expenditure on maintaining the operation of the bureaucracy, the expenditure on the organization of social production by the dynasty, and the huge expenditure of the royal family were all indispensable.
In such a situation, either the dynasty must open up its financial resources, or the dynasty's rule will be paralyzed in the economic crisis.
The high concentration of social wealth in the hands of a few people and the extreme poverty of small peasants determined that the objects of the imperial court's open source and expropriation could only be dominated by the rich.
During the Western Han Dynasty, when the small peasants went bankrupt and went into exile and the state treasury was empty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took advantage of the strength of the Central Dynasty to implement a series of monopoly industrial and commercial excess profits centered on the official sale of salt and iron, as well as financial measures to desperately loot industrial and commercial owners, thus greatly alleviating the financial crisis of the Central Dynasty for a certain period of time.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the central dynasty's control over the wealthy and powerful clans, including the wealthy merchants, no longer existed, so since the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, although the central dynasty has fallen deeper and deeper into the quagmire of financial crisis, it can no longer rely on the power of the central power to forcefully ask the rich for money.
As a result, since Emperor An, the central dynasty had to expand its financial resources by pretending to be the prince's tax, reducing and borrowing official salaries, redeeming sentences, and selling official titles.
This series of means of expanding financial resources basically embodies the spirit of asking the rich for money in a more moderate way.
On the whole, the sale of officials and lords during the period of Emperor Ling was a continuation of the helpless financial and economic policies of the central dynasty since Emperor An, but compared with the period of An and Huan, the sale of officials and lords during the period of Emperor Ling has undergone major changes.
During the period of Emperor Ling, the selling of official beards showed obvious characteristics of expansion and continuity.
In terms of scope, the officials sold during the An and Huan periods mainly included: Guannei Hou, Hu Ben, Yu Linlang, Five Doctors, Government Officials, Ti Cai, Camp Soldiers, etc., and the Central Dynasty did not betray the official positions of the Minister and the local county magistrate who were responsible for handling government affairs; However, during the period of Emperor Ling, the scope of selling officials was expanded to the important ministers of the imperial court, the first minister, and gradually expanded to local orders.
From the point of view of time, the selling of officials in the An and Huan periods were all temporary emergency measures; The Emperor Ling's official mantle began in the first year of Guanghe (178) and lasted until the sixth year of Zhongping (189), which lasted for more than ten years.
The money from the sale of officials during the An and Huan periods was returned to the treasury for the urgent use of the country, but the money from the sale of officials during the period of Emperor Ling flowed to Emperor Ling's own treasury.
In the first year of Guanghe (178), Emperor Ling publicly sold Guanneihou, Huben, Yulin and other officials in the West Mansion, and in the fourth year of Zhongping (187), he publicly sold Guannei Hou. According to the custom, the money from the public sale of officials should be put into the treasury. In the first year of Guanghe (178), while openly selling official titles, Emperor Ling ordered the left and right to privately sell official positions such as ministers, and set different prices according to the size of the official positions. The private sale of the secretary of state began in the first year of Guanghe (178) and lasted until the sixth year of Zhongping (189).
2. Why is the public sale of the Minister?
In the continuous buying and selling, it gradually became an open secret that officials had to pay according to the price for promotion, and the buying and selling of official positions such as ministers was also institutionalized. The scene where Emperor Ling openly discussed the price of Cui Lie's promotion to Situ was just an episode of Emperor Ling's sale of the official system. The money from the sale of official positions such as ministers flowed into the treasury of Emperor Ling's "West Garden" from beginning to end, and became Emperor Ling's private money.
Why did this series of important changes occur during the Emperor Ling period?
Compared with the An and Huan periods, the treasury was empty during the Lingdi period, and the degree of poverty of the people was deepened day by day, which should be an important reason.
During the more than 20 years of Emperor Ling's reign, natural disasters occurred frequently, but the Central Dynasty basically did not take disaster relief measures. As one of the basic functions of the state, the "waste government" was finally abandoned in the Lingdi Dynasty due to the emptiness of the treasury.
The level of implementation of the "wasted government" of the central dynasty is closely related to the financial and economic strength of the dynasty. With the increasingly serious emptiness of the treasury, the decline in the implementation level of "waste government" has shown a clear decreasing trend since the beginning of the Andi Dynasty.
Therefore, from the perspective that the Lingdi Dynasty was no longer able to implement the "waste government", we can peek into the extent of the emptiness of the treasury during the Lingdi period.
During the Xiping period (172-177), natural and man-made disasters were intertwined, which undoubtedly added to the overstretched economy of the Central Dynasty. During this period, it suffered from severe locust plagues from time to time, and earthquakes occurred frequently. In the sixth year of Xiping (177), another severe drought occurred.
The vast disaster area is withered and there is no grass in the wild. Not only are natural disasters raging, but Xianbei has been on the border for many years. In order to resist Xianbei, the Eastern Han Dynasty expropriated the county state due to the depletion of the treasury, which increased the servitude of the people. The people of the northern border counties were overwhelmed and had to flee in all directions, and the northern border areas were depressed for thousands of miles.
Although the economic crisis of the Lingdi Dynasty was extremely serious, the open source measures used to pretend to be princely rents in the past could no longer be implemented.
During the An, Shun and Huan periods, the imperial court often used the pretense of princely rents as an important measure to alleviate financial difficulties.
During the reign of Emperor Ling, the method of pretending to rent princely taxes was useless, because the dynasty lacked the actual ability to repay. Emperor Ling, who was forced to do so, once changed "pretending to rent taxes" to "cutting taxes". However, the reduction of the princely rent has raised new problems, and the actual economic status of the princes has fallen to the point of "poverty and confusion".
In the first year of Guanghe (178), people of insight in the imperial court pointed out this grim reality to Emperor Ling. The clan's "confusion" is what Emperor Ling fears the most. In this case, can Emperor Ling not give up the trick of "reducing rent" to search for princely money?
Under the pretense of the princely rent, the court was unable to repay it; Cutting without compensation will lead to a rebellion of the princes.
Under such circumstances, the open-source policy of the Lingdi Dynasty to ask for money from the rich was limited to a very narrow scope, and selling the official beard became almost the only viable option.
3. The desire of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty
What led to the expansion and sustainability of selling official titles was not only the above-mentioned objective reasons, but also the expanding appetite and private desire of the Spirit Emperor were more important factors.
Emperor Ling already owns Xiyuan, Xianyang Garden, Pingyang Garden, Shanglin Garden, and Hongde Garden, but he is not enough.
In the second year of Guanghe (179), he sent people to occupy a large area of fertile land in the south of the city, and wanted to build a garden again.
Situ Yang Ci wrote to Emperor Ling for this reason, saying: Now there are five palaces, which are more than the Han dynasty, which greatly exceeds the regulations of the etiquette system, and it is not appropriate to work the people and waste money and build a large number of buildings.
Yang Ci's book made Emperor Ling feel very troubled. Yang Ci is not only the teacher of Emperor Ling, but also a highly regarded minister in the imperial court, what he said in the book obviously represents the opinion of most courtiers, and there are enough gardens, and he really can't find the slightest reason to build a garden.
As a last resort, Emperor Ling had no choice but to give up the plan to build a new garden. Although he planned to give up, the Spirit Emperor was very unbalanced in his heart.
He felt that his uncle Emperor Shun could build a new Xiyuan, and his uncle Emperor Huan had built Xianyang and Hongde Gardens in the early years of Yanxi (158-166), so why couldn't he build them again?
Emperor Ling's cronies Ren Zhi and Zhongchang Servant Le Song understood Emperor Ling's depression from his heart disease, so they quoted scriptures to introduce a crooked truth for Emperor Ling that he could build a garden again, and Emperor Ling's only remaining concerns disappeared.
Therefore, he immediately built a large number of buildings, and finally built the Jongyu and Lingkun Gardens in the third year of Guanghe (180 years).
Yang Ci and other courtiers would definitely be deeply disappointed and resentful by Emperor Ling's excessive desire for poverty and luxury. They may not have imagined that when it comes to the pursuit of luxury and pleasure, the Spirit Emperor has already formed his own unique opinion.
Emperor Ling's descendants have thousands of palace maids, and their food and clothing costs hundreds of dollars every day.
Maybe when the country is rich and the people are strong, it is not a big problem to raise a few thousand people in the harem, but in the period of Emperor Ling, when the country is poor and the people are poor and the people have reached the limit, thousands of palace maids have become an overwhelming burden on the treasury.
In the early years of Guanghe (178-183), the eunuch Lü Qiang pointed out in a letter:
The people of the world have fallen into a situation where they dare not wear clothes and are hungry and dare not eat, but the court is not sympathetic to the small people at all, and in order to support thousands of useless palace maids, they have to frequently give the people a lot of money. The people have a deep grudge against this.
Lu Qiang's book touched the Spirit Emperor a lot.
At least, Emperor Ling theoretically understood that in order to maintain his rule, he must not do everything he could to the small people.
Therefore, he did not dare to take lightly the grievances of the extremely poor people pointed out by Lu Qiang. However, in terms of enjoyment, the Spirit Emperor did not want to wronged himself no matter what.
Although the extravagance in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty was only increasingly popular in the upper class, the repercussions caused by the increasing luxury were the whole society, and "the rich competed with each other, and the poor were ashamed", which has become a deformed social consumer culture psychology in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
In those years between the rivers, against the backdrop of blazing luxury. Emperor Ling's Hou family, which is no longer wealthy, has a very strong sense of shyness in his pocket. For a long time, Emperor Ling and his family lived in the shadow of consumption that "the poor are out of reach". The Spirit Emperor, who was once "ashamed of it", once he had the opportunity to "catch it", of course he would firmly grasp it, and even use his extraordinary poverty and luxury to make up for his lack of enjoyment and consumption in the past.
The poor people can no longer bear more oppression, their own luxury can not be suppressed at all, and the cost of satisfying their desires cannot be less, so the best way to solve this contradiction is to try to ask the rich for money, but the way to ask for money can only be wishful thinking, so in comparison, only selling the official mantle is the best choice.
Because Emperor Ling was poor and wanted to need a lot of money, most of the money from the sale of officials flowed into Emperor Ling's private treasury, but this did not conform to the system. During the Western Han Dynasty, the Central Dynasty had two sets of financial institutions, Dasi Nong and Shaofu, Dasi Nong belonged to the imperial court, and Shaofu belonged to the imperial family, both of which had their own economic resources and expenditure systems.
At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu carried out financial reforms and transferred all the income of the Shaofu to the Dasi Nong to be in charge of the unified management, and since then the financial function of the Shaofu has been mainly in charge of the expenses of the imperial family, and the expenses required by the imperial family are allocated by the national treasury.
By the time of Emperor Ling, it had been a long time since the imperial family no longer had a separate financial income.
Therefore, the courtiers did not understand Emperor Ling's move to use the money from the sale of officials as a private possession. Cai Yong, the speaker of the "Yi", quoted the "Yi" "Ministers have no home" rule to persuade: "If there is a world, what is a private family!" Other courtiers also wrote to advise that the wealth of the world "belongs to His Majesty, how can there be public or private", "the body of the Son of Heaven has no selfish accumulation".
However, on the issue of "private collection", Emperor Ling's attitude was as solid as a rock, and he was not moved by any opposition and persuasion. It is no wonder that Emperor Ling is extremely poor and needs a lot of money, if the money from selling officials is put into the impoverished treasury, and then a large amount of money is transferred from it, it will definitely be very difficult.
What's more, the money in the Spirit Emperor's private treasury needs to be stored in addition to being squandered by himself.
The Spirit Emperor was especially obsessed with storing money. Not only did he have a large amount of money privately, but he also accumulated the local products, rare jewels, and silk silk contributed by the county that should have been uniformly controlled and distributed by Dasi Nong in the Zhongshang Fang and Zhongyu Mansion under his control.
Emperor Ling's penchant for accumulating a large amount of money is probably not comparable to any emperor in Chinese history. It is incomprehensible that the rich emperor has such a strong "private habit"!
4, Empress Dowager Dong's penchant for money
Perhaps the answer to this question can be found from the Spirit Emperor's biological mother. When Emperor Ling first entered the palace, due to the Empress Dowager Dou, his biological mother Dong was left in the river.
In the palace coup d'état in the first year of Jianning (168), Dou Wu was killed, and the Empress Dowager Dou was placed under house arrest. The following year, Emperor Ling welcomed the Dong family into Kyoto and lived in Yongle Palace, where she was called the Empress Dowager of Yongle.
Soon, Dong's fame was embroiled in a nursery rhyme that was once circulating in Kyoto:
“… The car class, into the river, the female workers in the river count the money, take the money as the room gold for the hall, and the stone is sad and the spring yellow beam. ”
The nursery rhyme ridiculed the Empress Dowager Dong (this person is the Empress Dowager Dong at the beginning of the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"), saying that she is the best at accumulating money, and she is extremely stingy, so that the house is full of gold, and she is still suffering from insufficiency, so that people can eat and drink yellow rice. As a relative of the emperor, it is not surprising that she is as greedy as the Dong family, but it is rare to be as stingy as her.
In the first year of Jianning (168), the moment the Baigai convoy galloped into the river, the Dong family was dizzy by the sudden great changes.
It was also from that moment that the shadow of "gaining and losing" quietly grew in the depths of Dong's psychology. Later, with the increase of the court years, the shocking palace tilt and sinister not only made the shadow more deeper, but also made it more and more clear.
The past of poverty in the river is so unbearable to look back on against the background of the glory and wealth of the royal family, and the indescribable fear of the past poor times also swells in his heart from time to time, and the Dong family is even more afraid of the glory and wealth of the royal family, as if it was suddenly lost.
Dong, who is troubled by the extreme mood of "fear of poverty" and "fear of gaining and losing", can only be balanced and down-to-earth by frantically accumulating money and storing the accumulated income.
As the mother of Emperor Ling, Dong's influence on Emperor Ling was huge. When Emperor Ling left Hejian, he was already 13 years old.
This is an important age stage for the influence of mothers. The years between the rivers are enough to leave deep or shallow traces in the depths of the hearts of teenage children.
The common experience of the past years is also like an invisible bridge, which can communicate the hearts of the Dong family and the Ling Emperor; After entering the palace, Emperor Ling, although he is the Son of Heaven, he is still a child in his teens after all, and his consciousness, independence and discrimination ability are relatively poor, so his plasticity is greater.
In this way, the Dong family, with the special status of the biological mother, has an influence on the Spirit Emperor that is incomparable to anyone. The reality that the son of the Marquis of Hejian Pavilion was ascended to the Ninefold Venerable in an instant, which had already inevitably caused the Spirit Emperor to breed a mentality of fear of the sudden loss of the throne and the glory and wealth he had, and under the deliberate and subconscious influence of the Dong family, the inherent worries of the Spirit Emperor were greatly strengthened. Emperor Ling often lamented that he was poor in the past, and complained that Emperor Huan would not live and did not leave him rich property.
From the "sighs" and "complaints" that often occur in Emperor Ling, we can feel that Emperor Lingdi is as afraid of poverty as his mother, afraid of gaining and losing. It's just that in the way of balancing and regulating the "scared" mentality, the mother and son are not the same, the Ling Emperor has to store a lot of money for the future, and at the same time seize the luxury and pleasure in front of him.
Emperor Ling and his mother had a common psychological foundation, so they were obedient to the Dong family in terms of accumulating and hiding money. The Dong family not only asked Emperor Ling to send a large number of eunuchs to various places to search for countless gold and silver treasures, and transported them directly back to Emperor Ling's private treasury, but also came up with the idea of looting money by selling official beards.
5. The consequences of selling official positions
Emperor Ling expanded and sustained the sale of official beards, and indeed amassed a lot of money, but the large amount of money accumulated did little to alleviate the economic crisis of the imperial court except for satisfying his selfish desires.
Not only that, but Emperor Ling's betrayal of officials directly exacerbated the corruption of the officials.
In the sixth year of Zhongping (189), Emperor Ling planned to appoint Taishan Pingyang Renyang as a lieutenant.
At that time, as the third duke, he had to send tens of millions of "gift money" to Emperor Ling's "private treasury" in the West Garden, and he also had to give a generous "tip" to the "guide" eunuch who went to the West Garden, but Yang Xu couldn't get this "gift money".
During the Zhongping period (184-189), Yang Xu served as the Taishou of Lujiang and Nanyang counties.
Yang Xu is not only good at reform, but also honest and honest. He used military forces to suppress the rebels and pacify the local people, but he never accepted gifts from his subordinates and people.
When he first arrived in Nanyang, a man from a mansion saw that his three meals a day were coarse tea and light rice, so he sent some fresh fish to him to improve his life. But he hung the fresh fish. A few days later, Nafu Cheng sent fish and meat again, but Yang Xu pointed to the hanging fish and said, "I haven't eaten what I sent before!" ”
In this way, the euphemism of putting an end to the gift of others is eliminated. As soon as the news spread, no one sent anything to Yang Xu.
When the eunuch who guided the tour wanted to take Yang Xu to the West Garden to give gift money, Yang Xu picked up the old robe he was wearing and said to the guide: "My wealth is only this robe." The eunuch who guided the tour immediately told Emperor Ling that he couldn't afford to give "gift money". Emperor Ling was very unhappy because of this, so he found an excuse to change his original intention of appointing Yang Xu as the captain.
During the reign of Emperor Ling, there were too few officials like Yang Xu, and it was these few people, with their loyalty to the central dynasty and their own practical talents, who struggled to support the rule of the dynasty that was about to collapse. However, just because they could not afford to give the tens of millions of "gift money" needed for promotion, they were turned away from important departments of the ruling apparatus.
Correspondingly, those mediocre officials and corrupt officials were promoted by giving "gift money" to the West Garden, and even squeezed into the ranks of the three princes and nine secretaries.
Those who use money to buy officials will generally not engage in loss-making business, and after taking office, they will inevitably intensify their search for profits and exploit the people in various ways, and squeeze more wealth than tens of millions of "gift money."
For the rule of Emperor Ling, selling officials is tantamount to drinking doves to quench thirst, and the rule of Emperor Lingdi will inevitably become more corrupt.
(End of text)
If you have other topics or opinions about the field of history, you can [follow] me for a private chat, or you can leave a message in the comment area below and reply as soon as possible.