Since Emperor Jiaqing succeeded to the throne, he has taken "advocating real government" as his top priority, and has repeatedly made it clear in his edicts that "no false stories should be answered" and "no more words".
Emperor Jiaqing advocated that "there should be no deception and no concealment for the government, and the monarch and the ministers should encourage them together", emphasizing that both the monarch and the minister should strengthen their own principles and put an end to the style of deception and concealment.
Emperor Jiaqing attached great importance to the authenticity of the report, and when handling government affairs, he paid attention to proceeding from reality, deeply hated and hated officials who were not pragmatic in government and were accustomed to whitewashing the promotion of peace, and tried to reverse the distorted and unhealthy atmosphere of officialdom.
In the thirteenth year of Jiaqing, Wu Long'a, the chief soldier of Taiwan Town, participated in the Taiwan Prefecture Governor Zou Wei avoided extravagance and did not pragmatic politics.
Therefore, Emperor Jiaqing appointed Alin Bao to investigate in detail impartially.
Soon after, Alin Bao, who had ascertained the situation, reported to Emperor Jiaqing: "Zou Han rushed to Huwei in Zhuqing's bandit ship, and did not go to the camp in person to block it, and after the thieves retreated, he reclaimed that he hired merchant ships to be brave and mobilized Tunfan, and the monthly value of the hired ships was 89,000 yuan of silver, and the rations of the volunteers were more than 4,600 taels of silver.
As a matter of fact, "there are only five merchant ships hired by the general Ben and others in the department, and less than 600 volunteers have been hired to collect volunteers." There is a huge disparity in the number of merchant ships and volunteers reported by Zou Han, the governor of Taiwan, and Zou Han, the governor of Taiwan, has covered up his merits.
In this regard, Emperor Jiaqing was furious and ordered severe punishment to show vigilance.
The occurrence of natural disasters is a test of the ruler's ability to rule.
Emperor Jiaqing was well aware of the fact that the handling of the disaster was a matter of whether the people's trust in the imperial court would rise or fall, thus affecting the stability of his rule.
Therefore, after succeeding to the throne, whenever there were earthquakes, floods, droughts, locusts, snow, tides, hail, winds and other disasters, he would always be concerned about the disaster situation, feel the suffering of the victims, actively carry out disaster relief and relief, and use manpower and material resources as much as possible to save the lives of the victims.
For example, in the ninth year of Jiaqing, Funing, Tongshan, Feng, Pei, Suining, Suqian, Taoyuan, Shanyang, Qinghe, Yancheng, Andong, Haimen, Xinghua and other places suffered floods.
After Emperor Jiaqing learned of the disaster, he ordered the postponement of the "old and new levies, and the difference in relief" in the affected areas, and intercepted the grain of Xiao, Dangshan and other seven counties under Xuzhou Prefecture for this year's relief. ”
In fact, throughout the Jiaqing Dynasty, if a local disaster occurs, in addition to the above-mentioned deferred levy of new and old taxes, Emperor Jiaqing will also take measures such as reducing or reducing the current year's payment, the old arrears, and the new and old amounts in the affected areas according to the actual situation of the local disaster, distributing one month's rations to the victims free of charge, and providing money, food and other material support for post-disaster reconstruction, so as to alleviate the disaster situation and relieve the victims.
The pragmatic Emperor Jiaqing was disgusted with the hypocrisy of officials to whitewash the disaster.
Since the later years of Qianlong, the corruption of the Qing Dynasty officials has intensified, and the officials have mostly ignored the people.
During the reign of Jiaqing, due to the troubles of folk sects and bandits, Sichuan suffered from wars and fires for many years.
In July of the second year of Jiaqing, when Jiaqing went out to patrol the Rehe River, large-scale rainfall swept through Beijing, and the water depth of the flat land could reach two or three feet.
However, the ministers of the king of Beijing and others reported to Emperor Jiaqing: "On the second day of the first month, the sun will soon open, that is, or because of this, the crops have all grown, and the high places will not be hindered by the complete disappearance of the water potential after the sunshine, and the low-lying places will be flooded very little and will not cause disasters."
The ministers of the king of Beijing did not report the truth, and even the officials of Kedao were silent, and "did not hear a word" about the truth of the disaster.
After Emperor Jiaqing learned of the incident, he made it clear that the ministers of the king of Beijing had neglected their duties and whitewashed the peace, so that the despicable acts of the people who had no reason to be reported "must not be punished".
Therefore, Emperor Jiaqing ordered the relevant people to find out the disaster as soon as possible, and according to the truth, "Is there any obstruction to Tianhe in the Beijing area?" and whether the low-lying premises are flooded?" In addition, all the ministers involved in the incident, such as the ministers of the King of Liujing, the ministers of the Suncheon Prefecture, and the ministers in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were handed over to the ministry.
Emperor Jiaqing advocated that "those who have a country in the world are still cautious", taking prudence and prudence as the top priority, and striving to "be cautious until the end." ”
In the fourth year of Jiaqing, Emperor Jiaqing summoned Xiong Mei, the squire of the Criminal Department, and said: "The size of the crime, the law is clear, and the facts of the case should be investigated, and the citation should be appropriate, so as to ensure that the law is sufficient to cover the innocent, and not to cause abnormalities and severity, so as to be the fairness of the law."
Advocate "the state is cautious in the name of the penalty, because there is a system of three legal divisions of the meeting of all criminal departments of each case, the Dali temple officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate should be carefully considered, and those who have not cooperated, or change the light to the heavy, or change the heavy to the light, but the peace of the law, the unity of the public to become one, if there is no denial, blindly with the promise, but also with more than this meeting for yes."
Emperor Jiaqing took such great lengths to persuade and admonish his ministers to urge and admonish officials of all sizes to be cautious in handling cases, abide by the provisions of the law, and not abuse punishment.
Emperor Jiaqing was by no means a moody tyrant.
He believed that a wise emperor should use the law carefully in order to rule the world with a combination of leniency and gentleness.
Punishment is a matter of human life and should not be taken lightly. Emperor Jiaqing firmly believed that "the cultivation of education and the correct customs all start with prudence," and regarded prudence as an important matter related to the promotion of education and the correction of customs.
"Prudent use of punishment" is not just a theoretical one.
During the reign of Emperor Jiaqing, he repeatedly proved his cautious attitude towards punishment with practical actions.
Since the end of Qianlong, the White Lotus rebellion has been surging, continuing to spread to several provinces, and the dynasty has spent huge military and military expenses, and it took Emperor Jiaqing nine years to quell it.
The rebellion of the Tenrikyo religion became a major problem for the Jiaqing Emperor's governance.
Emperor Jiaqing hated the thieves from all walks of life and those who were actually party evildoers, and ordered that all the thieves who were captured "must be dealt with strictly".
However, for a large number of people who were coerced by thieves among the bandits, Emperor Jiaqing opened his eyes and believed that "those who can still be lenient should be spared from death and distributed to Ili, Huijiang, Heilongjiang and other places as slaves." If they can tie up the head of the thief, repent and make meritorious contributions, and do not blame for their past sins, "or sneak away, or surrender in battle, they will also be released and returned to the village, so that they can live in peace" and have a good death.
Emperor Jiaqing "himself is accustomed to frugality," "he does not like pearls and jades by nature", "when he is in the domain, everything is simple in his life", he does not fight for his appetite, he is not proud of working for the people and hurting money, "he is silent and entertaining, and he is self-disciplined in advocating thrift and luxury".
After the pro-government, Emperor Jiaqing "admired frugality and luxury, advocated the world, and hoped for hundreds of millions of trillions of Fukang, and the customs were pure," and "all precious and beautiful things are not taken" to lead by example, bow to frugality, and was recognized by the academic community as a thrifty emperor.
In view of the lessons of the emperors in the middle and late Ming Dynasty who were passive and neglectful of government, resulting in eunuchs indiscriminating with power, the emperors of the Qing dynasties, regardless of their personal ability, fulfilled their duties, worked diligently, and were stricter.
Emperor Jiaqing has been diligent in governance all his life, self-disciplined, and strict, but he is diligent and does not dare to take a moment of self-leisure.
Emperor Jiaqing was a well-known diligent emperor in the history of the mainland.
In the fourth year of Jiaqing, the minister repaired the palace of Shengjing Summer Garden.
Jiaqing believes that Shengjing is the land of Longxing, which is used to pay homage to the mausoleum and to worship the ancestors.
In order to avoid the repeated increase of palaces in the future and the flooding of extravagance, Emperor Jiaqing ordered all the palaces of the summer garden not to be over-repaired, so as to increase the cost of flowers.