In ancient times, most of the officials were born in the imperial examination, had a certain level of education and literacy, could write poetry and good literature, and mostly regarded themselves as cultural people. Among the officials with good relations, they often wrote poems and sang harmony, and produced many excellent works and achieved a period of good stories in the literary world.
The ancient literati sang and
However, if during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, officials sang poetry and harmony among themselves, they should be very careful, because this matter would lose their heads if they were not done well. In this regard, Inspector Echang of Gansu and Hu Zhongzao of Hunan Xuezheng have a bloody lesson.
Echang was a Manchurian man with a blue banner, his father was named Eshan, the governor of Huguang and the governor of Yungui, and was the brother of the powerful minister Ortai during the Yongzheng period, so Echang was the nephew of Ortai. Echang was born in a popular background, and successively served as the head of the household department, the envoy of Gansu Province, the inspector of Shaanxi, the governor of Sichuan, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the inspector of Jiangxi, and the inspector of Gansu.
Hu Zhongzao was a new person in Jiangxi, who was admitted to the jinshi in 1736, entered the official field, and was appointed to the post of Hunan Scholar.
How did Echang and Hu Zhongzao meet? The reason is simple, Echang is Ortai's nephew, and Hu Zhongzao is Ortai's protégé, so they have a close relationship. When Echang was the governor of Gansu, Hu Zhongzao served as the governor of Hunan. Although the two were far apart, they often wrote poems and sang harmony, which caused the qianlong emperor to be dissatisfied.
Ortai
Why was the Qianlong Emperor dissatisfied with Echang and Hu Zhongzao? This has to start with Ortai.
Ertai was an important courtier during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, and had a bad relationship with another important court minister, Zhang Tingyu, and the two formed two factions in the imperial court, attacking each other and chattering endlessly. After the Qianlong Emperor succeeded to the throne, Ertai and Zhang Tingyu were still full of contradictions, fighting openly and secretly. The Qianlong Emperor hated this kind of partisan struggle very much, and came forward to reconcile them several times, but to no avail, he wanted to find an opportunity to clean them up.
Ertai and Zhang Tingyu were too old, and the Qianlong Emperor was not good enough to directly attack them, so he retreated to the second place and cleaned up the people close to them. Echang and Hu Zhongzao wrote poems and sang peace, suspected of being partisans, and just bumped into the gun of the Qianlong Emperor.
The Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor was a cultural man who was good at writing poetry, writing more than 40,000 poems in his lifetime, equivalent to a Quan Tang poem. The cultural people understood the weaknesses of the cultural people the most, and the Qianlong Emperor cleaned up Echang and Hu Zhongzao and made good use of the poems they created to find "incriminating evidence".
In February 1755, the Qianlong Emperor issued an order to Wei Zhezhi, the governor of Guangxi, to submit all the examination questions and poems that Hu Zhongzao had written when he was studying politics in Guangxi. At the same time, he ordered Liu Tongxun, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, to conduct a secret investigation of Echang.
The Qianlong Emperor phi-starred Dai Yue and carefully read all of Hu Zhongzao's poems. After some searching, the problem was finally found.
In Hu Zhongzao's "Jian mo Sheng Poems", there is a poem called "A Handful of Hearts and Intestines on Turbidity". Is this problematic? Big problem. The Qianlong Emperor believed that Hu Zhongzao deliberately added the word "turbid" to the qing dynasty's national name, which was an insult to the Great Qing Dynasty. ”
Hu Zhongzao wrote some poems: "The South Dipper sends me the South, and the Big Dipper sends me the North." In the middle of the South and Beidou, we can't be broad" "Although the north wind is good, it is difficult to use how to use it", "Take the cloud to expose the Big Dipper, anger gives birth to the south wind", etc. In the view of the Qianlong Emperor, Hu Zhongzao repeatedly emphasized the topic of the north and the south, which was deliberately creating Manchu-Han antagonism.
Hu Zhongzao has a poem called "The old Buddha is now disease-free, and the door cannot be opened", and he was caught by the Qianlong Emperor and angrily rebuked: "If you listen to the government every day and summon your ministers, why is there a saying that the door of the dynasty is not open?" ”
Hu Zhongzao's poems include "there is no sun and moon in one life" and "another summer, autumn and winter", which made the Qianlong Emperor furious and scolded, "Is it still the people who have the heart of the people?" ”
When the Qianlong Emperor was busy looking for stubble for Hu Zhongzao, Echang was also found to have a problem (nonsense, the emperor wants to find a minister's problem, how can there be no problem?). ）。
Echang wrote a poem called "Sai Shang Yin", in which he referred to the Mongols as "Hu'er". The Qianlong Emperor scolded that Mongolian Manchuria is a family, and saying that the Mongols are "Hu'er" is tantamount to cursing the Manchurians. The Qianlong Emperor therefore rebuked Echang for forgetting his ancestors, simply being a scum among the Manchurians.
The Eight Banners of Manchuria ride and shoot
Coincidentally, Echang had previously accepted the request of Shi Yizhi, a scholar and official of Wenyuange University, to recommend Shi Yi'ang, the second son of Shi Yizhi, to serve as the administrative department of Gansu. The Qianlong Emperor punished him for several crimes and issued an edict saying: "Echang bears the favor of the party and rebels, and the crime should be wanton." However, he was still able to convict himself of the crime, and he was able to confess his guilt by pleading with him, and he was able to commit suicide with leniency. ”
Echang was treated leniently and granted suicide. Hu Zhongzao's luck was not so good. Hu Zhongzao was initially sentenced to Ling Chi, and the Qianlong Emperor, in order to show his benevolence and forgiveness, changed Ling Chi to abandon the city.
As a result, both Hu Zhongzao and Echang lost their lives.
Afterwards, in order to put an end to future troubles, the Qianlong Emperor specially issued an edict to the Eight Banners of Manchuria, saying: "We must take the Qing language and riding and shooting as the regular duties, such as singing peace with the Han people, compared with those who came and went in the same year, once discovered, they will never forgive loans." After that, the Manchurian ministers no longer dared to easily associate with the Han ministers.