During the Qing Dynasty, official corruption became the norm. However, there are still a few officials who maintain a clean and self-sustaining discipline. For example, the protagonist of this article, Meng Chaoran.
Meng Chaoran, also spelled Chaoju, was a native of Minxian County, Fujian (present-day Fuzhou), born in 1730. Meng Chaoran is talented and intelligent, diligent and studious, 16-year-old Zhongxiucai, 28-year-old Zhongshengren, 29-year-old Zhongjinshi. He was then elected as the chief of the Military Selection Division of the Military Department, the chief of the Civil Selection Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs, and the chief of the Bureau of Literature selection, and the chief of the Bureau. Immediately, he was sent out to preside over the Guangxi Township Examination. In 1768, Meng Chaoran was once again released to study Sichuan.
Beijing officials are released, and it is inevitable that "the spring breeze is proud of the horseshoe disease.". Meng Chaoran was also very rich and powerful, and naturally planned to do something in Sichuan to live up to the trust of the Qianlong Emperor.
At that time, the governor of Sichuan was Altai. Altai was a Manchurian Zhenghuangqi man, and because of the favor of the Qianlong Emperor, he was promoted to the governor of Shandong and the governor of Sichuan. During his tenure as governor of Sichuan, Altai built the Luding Bridge, dredged the waterway, opened up fertile land, resettled Yicang, mined sulphur ore, and built water conservancy, and did a lot of practical things, which was fully affirmed by the Qianlong Emperor.
However, Altai also had a weakness: he was greedy for money and liked to accumulate wealth in the name of cleverness. "What is good at the top will be worse at the bottom." The governor of Sichuan held a high position of power, and officials at all levels below would naturally find opportunities to send him money and gifts. No, in the blink of an eye, Madame Altai's birthday is approaching. During the Qing Dynasty, the birthday of the official's wife was also included in the "three festivals and two birthdays". The three festivals are the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival; the two birthdays refer to the birthdays of the officials themselves and their wives. Everyone still has to send money and gifts according to the custom.
Altai greets everyone in advance and asks everyone not to send money and gifts - of course, this is just a routine statement, and everyone will not be serious. On the day of the governor's wife's birthday, how to send it, how to send it.
However, Meng Chaoran became serious. Not only did he just send a couplet on the day of the governor's wife's birthday, but he also came to the door of the governor's gate with a pen and paper, and whoever dared to send money and gifts was registered. Officials at all levels saw this battle and could not help but be hairy. Although Meng Chaoran was only a Zheng Wupin official, he was a Beijing official after all, and who knew what big people stood behind him? They had to retreat one after another, looking for a new opportunity to give gifts to the Governor-General.
After Altai knew, he was angry and blew his beard and stared, but he could only be in a hurry.
Obviously, Meng Chaoran did this in the official arena, which was easily hated by his superiors and ostracized by his colleagues, and "promotion and reuse" was always out of touch with him. In 1772, Meng Chaoran was recalled to the capital. Soon, under the pretext of "pro-aging", he resigned from his official post and returned to his hometown in Fujian. At that time, he was only 42 years old.
Meng Chaoran studied behind closed doors in his hometown in Fujian and did not ask about the world. Xu Si, the inspector of Fujian, knew that he was a talent and planned to invite him out of the mountains to preside over the Aofeng Academy. However, Xu Si went to ask for it three times, and Meng Chaoran resigned on the grounds of illness. The fourth time, Xu Si took officials at all levels to visit Meng Chaoran again. Meng Chaoran agreed to this and went out of the mountain to preside over the Aofeng Academy.
During his presidency of Aofeng Academy, Meng Chaoran trained a large number of talents for the country, such as Chen Shouqi, Liang Zhangju, Lin Zexu, etc. Lin Zexu's name is very familiar to everyone, Chen Shouqi is a famous scholar of scripture, Liang Zhangju to Guangxi Inspector, Jiangsu Inspector, the first in the national governor to put forward "the collection of Hong Kong as the first priority."
Meng Chaoran had excellent relations with inspectors from Fujian and envoys. Wang Qingchang, an envoy from Fujian Province, even went to the door to listen to lectures and performed disciple ceremonies to him.
Once, a rich man in southern Fujian was arrested and imprisoned for committing a crime. After he heard that Meng Chaoran had a very good relationship with Wang Qingchang, the envoy of Fujian Province, he sent someone to find Meng Chaoran and expressed his willingness to give 100,000 taels of silver to ask Meng Chaoran to dredge up the relationship.
Meng Chaoran listened and said to everyone, "Have I done something bad recently that you have discovered?" Why do these kinds of words reach my ears? ”
As soon as these words came out, the people in the audience were terrified.
[References: "Meng Chaoran's Life and Writings Examination", "For the Official's Honest Meng Chaoran", etc.]