Author: Zhao Libo, our special guest author
<h1>First, the can be official</h1>
In the second year of the Neng official Daoguang, (1822) Lin Zexu was summoned by the Daoguang Emperor for the first time, and in the conversation, Daoguang gave a high evaluation to his past work: "Although Ru has not been in Zhejiang Province for a long time, and the official reputation is quite good, there is nothing wrong with doing things, and there is nothing wrong with it, so I told Ru to go to Zhejiang again, and if there is a shortage of Dao, I will give Ru a good job, and after Ru makes up for the lack, it is a good inspection of the officials and people." ”
Lin Zexu then asked the Daoguang Emperor for instructions on future work, and Daoguang replied, "Just do as you used to." ”
When Lin Zexu was young, he fell behind because of the examination, and had to work as a master to earn a living. In the sixteenth year of Jiaqing (1811), the 26-year-old Lin Zexu finally ranked fourth in the second division of the temple examination, was elected as a Shu Jishi, and was taught Hanlin to edit, embarking on the road of career. In the following seven years of The Jingguan years, suffering from poverty, due to his upright personality, Gengjie's Lin Zexu was not accustomed to all kinds of officialdom, and resigned and returned to his hometown because of the incident.
After Daoguang succeeded to the throne, Lin Zexu's teacher Cao Zhenyong repeatedly recommended his student to the emperor, so the Daoguang Emperor heard his name before he saw him.
After that, Lin Zexu served as an envoy to Jiangsu, clarifying the rule of Jiangsu officials during his tenure, personally adjudicating cases, and even participating in autopsy and other work. In just four months in office, he has dealt with many old cases. Not only that, at that time, Jiangsu encountered a flood disaster that had not been seen for decades, and the crops were destroyed, lin Zexu was responsible for the relief of the disaster victims, on the one hand, he distributed the millions of relief funds allocated by the state treasury to the victims of the disaster, and did not allow the officials, life supervisors, and soil sticks to encroach on them.
A few years later, regardless of his personal gains and losses, he resolutely decided to ask for tax relief and grain relief for the flooded people in Jiangnan. Just when he was asking for a reprieve, he received a telegram from the minister of military aircraft, with stern wording: "Recently, Jiangsu and other provinces have been almost all year old, no year, no relief, and the state funds are numbered, how can it become a common practice to default year after year?" ”
At the same time, he received a daoguang edict criticizing Lin Zexu for "refusing to complain for the country, but only knowing to win reputation." Under this condemnation, Lin Zexu wrote to Daoguang to cry out for the people: "More leniency and one point of pursuit, that is, more than one point of vitality" At his insistence, Daoguang finally approved the proposal to slow down the levy, which won the people's vitality.
In addition, Lin Zexu is the first to pay attention to the construction of water conservancy for people's livelihood in all localities, believing that this is the foundation of people's livelihood: "The rise and fall of water conservancy, farmland is in the field, and humanities are also related." ”
In 1820, he built the Haitang "Shimin Dezhi" on hangjiahu Road, and since then, the places where he worked have been like water to nourish the people's livelihood.
After Humen sold tobacco, Lin Zexu was degraded to Xinjiang, and vigorously advocated the development of people's livelihood in Xinjiang: "20,000 miles north and south of the Zhou Li Tianshan Mountains, eighteen cities in the east and west, dredging water sources, digging ditches, and teaching the people to cultivate." At the busiest time in southern Xinjiang, he was "always on the road day and night, traveling more and resting less", and sometimes he did not even send letters to his home in time.
Lin Zexu can be said to be a person who can make achievements wherever he is placed, and he can get the wide support of the people wherever he goes, if he is a capable official, it is better to say that he is more like a "people's official", that is, a conscientious civilian official in the feudal period who took the lead in working for the people.
<h1>2. Honest officials</h1>
Lin Zexu also has this incorruptible word on his body, not only his own incorruptibility, but also requires his family to be honest, and he painstakingly carries out "distance education" for his sons every day in his family letters: "Although there are many people in the Beijing officials, the people I have befriended may not be all bandits, but I must not be careless, and my words must also be cautious." Opium is a thing, and it must be screened, otherwise it is not my son. ”
For himself, his requirements were even more stringent, and at that time, officials sent to welcome, feasts, and squandering had become commonplace, and some banquets could not end for three days and three nights.
Although Lin Zexu's promotion and change of position were very rapid, every time he took office, he issued a "pass card" in advance, informing local officials that all reception supplies were refused.
In the "Pass", Lin Zexu clearly stipulates: "The hired ships, according to the local increase in payment, are not allowed to pay water feet along the way, do not need to add artemisia to help fiber, eat everything, also buy all their own, do not send wine and food and other things along the way." Finally, he said: If a local official violates the requirements, the local official will immediately take a severe punishment and must not be slightly indulgent.
In 1841, Yan Botao, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, was dismissed from his post for the loss of Xiamen, and he returned home to pass through Zhangzhou, so he went through 600 or 700 men and horses, and walked for more than 10 days in succession, with 3,000 servants such as military service and carrying men, and more than 400 tables shared between wine and food.
Lin Zexu's life, on the other hand, is like a clear spring, not stained with dust. Whenever he went to a local government as an official, he immediately posted a "Notice on Customs and Defense" and solemnly announced to the people: "I personally handle all things, without interference from others, serve the public and honesty, and assure the people that if they are discovered: "If they find any kinds of malpractice, they will come to me immediately to report them, or they will be investigated by the nearest magistrate and punished." ”
At the same time, please supervise all your own consumption, all of which are purchased by yourself, do not collect local supplies, buy flat and sell flat, and are not allowed to extort credit.
In this way, he also put forward strict restraints on the staff around him and his relatives: "If there is a false claim with the relatives and friends of the division, it can be said on behalf of the guan, and the servants shine outside, and those who are mixed up and called to take care of the attention, regardless of the size of the matter, will be punished immediately, and if they can be reported, once it is confirmed, they will be given a heavy reward." ”
For more than 40 years as an official, Lin Zexu's family business was very meager, and even his pension fees for his father were still saved, so Zeng Guofan sighed with his brother in his family letter: "I heard that Lin Wenzhong's three sons were separated from the family, each with six thousand strings, supervising for twenty years, the furniture is so, it is really out of reach, my generation should think of the law." ”
<h1>3. Loyal officials</h1>
Although the Daoguang Emperor encountered "changes unprecedented in three thousand years" during his term of office and became the biggest person responsible for the Opium War, he tried to cheer up during his term of office, vigorously promoted qingliu officials such as Lin Zexu, Tao Shu, and Zhang Jixuan, and spared no effort to support the official style, so that these subordinates did not hesitate to cry from the bottom of their hearts after hearing of Daoguang's death.
When the Daoguang Emperor continued to use him, he also said more frank words: "It is difficult to know people, it is especially difficult to win people, Ru Dang knows the hardships of Yuan, everything is hard to do, do not live up to the appointment, and have high hopes." ”
After seeing Daoguang's strength, Lin Zexu was moved to "kneel and recite repeatedly, and the feeling was extremely zero", so the only thing he could do was to "work hard and sincerely, and handle everything seriously, in order to look up to Hongci." ”
Lin Zexu had a deep sense of gratitude to the Daoguang Emperor from the bottom of his heart, if it were not for the reinstatement of the Daoguang Emperor after his resignation and the continuous promotion of his reuse, Lin Zexu would definitely not have made a major achievement, although in the Opium War, Lin Zexu was deposed in Xinjiang, which was really a helpless measure of the Daoguang Emperor, which also explained the main reason why Lin Zexu was later reinstated and served as an important governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the governor of Shaanxi, and the governor of Yungui.
Shortly after Daoguang's death, the Taiping Army revolted in Guangxi, and Lin Zexu was seriously ill. At this time, he was extremely weak, the street edict immediately set off, on October 12 to Zhao'an, the condition took a sharp turn for the worse, a few days later when he arrived in Puning, Guangdong, he was "dizzy", had to dictate the will, and the second son who accompanied him wrote a letter to Xianfeng.
Immediately, he died without healing. A few days later, the Xianfeng Emperor, who did not know that he had died of illness, also sent him to serve as the acting inspector of Guangxi. If he had not been seriously ill, so sick that he had not been able to govern and deteriorated, if he had been in a state of leave, with his power, experience, fame, and prestige, he might have disintegrated before the worship of God would have become the climate.
In his later years, Lin Zexu could have been idle and sick for the elderly, but at the moment of major national crisis, he abandoned his self-strength, regardless of personal misfortune and life and death, and interpreted his life creed of "profiting from the life and death of the country, and avoiding it because of misfortune".
Historical sources: "Lin Zexu's Diary", "Daoxian Eunuch Sea Observations"
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