"The Qing dynasty magistrate for three years, silver one hundred thousand snowflakes" has a long history. Literally, if you were a magistrate for three years in the Qing Dynasty, you could earn 100,000 taels of silver like snowflakes. Among them, the word "Qing" means clean and honest, not the Qing Dynasty.

First, judging from the historical official position, there has been a magistrate since the Tang and Song Dynasties. County magistrate, also known as magistrate, is the title of local officials in ancient China. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the county magistrate was formally established, at the same level as the county. The Yuan Dynasty abandoned officials to build roads, and the Song system was generally restored in the Ming Dynasty, and finally there was a local official position in the name of "magistrate". When talking about the political reasons for the decline from prosperity in the middle of Qing Dynasty, a famous saying circulated among the people at that time was often quoted: "In the third year of Qing Dynasty, there were 100,000 snowflakes. Silver ". What is serious is that people's lives are miserable, resistance is pouring in, and social contradictions are intensifying sharply.

Second, judging from the written materials left over, this sentence did only appear in the Qing Dynasty, but it does not mean that it was only in the Qing Dynasty. It is generally believed that this sentence should have originated in the Song Dynasty and also appeared in the Ming dialect. It appeared many times in the literary works of the Qing Dynasty, the most famous of which was the School of Diplomacy: Wang Taishou said with a smile: "It can be seen that' three years of Qing dynasty magistrate, 100,000 snowflakes and silver', but now it is not very accurate!" If it is, according to the meaning of "honest official", it means "honest official", so honest official can get 100 thousand in three years, so there is no honest official in this dynasty. The salaries of Qing officials were very low, and some local officials or social workers came up with ways to give gifts and pay bribes.

Thirdly, in writing habits, the Qing government should use the form-name structure instead of the coordinate noun structure for snowflake sounds. This proverb reflects that corruption was rampant in officialdom at that time, and officials robbed money wantonly. It is said that after being the magistrate of the Qing Dynasty for three years, he could scrape 654.38 million silver coins. With the increase of social wealth and the opening of new routes, foreign royal nobles used the looted gold and silver to buy a large number of exquisite silks and porcelains from China. Some of these gold and silver flowed into the hands of officials.

The "clear" magistrate in "three years to clear the magistrate, a hundred thousand snowflakes and silver" refers to a relatively innocent magistrate, not a particularly corrupt magistrate.