? Qing Dynasty ? Three Respects ? Bad regulations: Ten thousand taels of silver sent to officials in the capital
A major political flaw in the Qing Dynasty was the issue of bad regulations. The so-called bad rules refer to the bad gift-giving practices that have always been followed in the yamen of the Qing Dynasty. Among them, the most important ones are the bad rules accepted by central-level yamen and officials. What was the status of the bad regulations in the Qing Dynasty? He Degang, a Jinshi during the Guangxu period, worked for a long time as a minister in the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the late Qing Dynasty, and later he was released to the government. His long-term life as a Beijing official made him familiar with the internal affairs of various central ministries in the Qing Dynasty. After the Republic of China, he recalled the past and wrote a "Chunming Dream Record". The book records the author's personal experiences, including detailed and detailed descriptions of corruption, waste, and malpractice by officials in various treasuries of the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing. It especially records the "Three Respects" and bad rules, which provides us with valuable historical materials.
The book "Chunming Menglu" records: Before Dao and Xian Dynasties, foreign officials gave gifts to officials in the capital. In summer, there was ice respect, in winter, there was charcoal respect, and when leaving the capital, there was special respect. The bad rules for receiving gifts from central government offices and officials in the Qing Dynasty referred to here include "Bing Jing", "Tan Jing" and "Farewell Jing". The so-called "ice gift" is a gift given to relieve the heat, and it can be regarded as a cooling fee; the so-called "charcoal gift" is a filial piety gift given by local officials to ministers in the capital in winter, which can be regarded as a cold protection fee. Both Bingjing and Tanjing exist in the form of official conventions, and such conventions do not stop there. When a foreign official leaves Beijing, he must also give a "red envelope" to the Beijing official, which is called farewell. The so-called "farewell greetings" are gifts that local officials give to relevant officials when they are sent to Beijing or report to the central government before leaving Beijing. Students who have a teacher-student relationship also give gifts to their teachers and the same year.
What are the prices of "Bing Jing", "Tan Jing", and "Bie Jing"? According to historical data, there are no specific standards for Bingjing and Tanjing, but the basic principle is that local officials cannot be too stingy and must ensure that they share the blessings. Only if there is always good communication between capital and good news, can one be a good official and make a good fortune. According to "Chunming Menglu", after Tongguang, only Bingjing was sent by the governor when sending military aircraft, and Tanjing was the only one sent by other foreign officials to Beijing officials. The standard of Tan Jing ranges from eight taels to three hundred taels, basically arranged according to official rank. Although it seems that there are not many gifts, the dignitaries, compatriots, contemporaries, and friends of the current dynasty have to be sent one by one. Even all the officials in the capital whose native place is the province where they serve have to be sent. This cost is only for foreign officials. Not too small. When giving charcoal as a gift, officials are very concerned about face. They can't just say how much money is included in the red envelope, but they also need to make it clear who is receiving the gift. What should they do? If you are giving eight taels or ten taels, write a plum blossom poem with dozens of rhymes on the red envelope. If it is forty taels, write a poem about Forty Sages. For three hundred taels, write a Mao poem. This makes the gift that originally smells like copper become extremely elegant. .
As for disrespect, there is a clear price tag. Zhang Jixin, who successively served as prefect, Taoist minister, inspector, chief envoy, and acting governor in the Qing Dynasty, recorded in "Records of Daoxian Officials' Experience" that he served as an official abroad many times, and when he left Beijing to say goodbye, he sent flowers to see him off. A lot of money. He presented "farewell tributes" to the Minister of Military Machinery, Zhangjing of Military Machinery, Six Ministers of the Ministry of Finance, Du Yuli, Shilang, Dajiuqing, Tongxiang, Tongnian, Shihao, etc. In 1845, he gave 17,000 taels when he was appointed as the Shaanxi Liangdao; In 1847, when he was appointed as the inspector-general of Sichuan, he gave 15,000 taels; when he was appointed as the chief envoy of Guizhou in 1849, he gave 11,000 taels; in 1850, when he was appointed the chief envoy of Henan, he gave 12,000 to 13,000 taels. There are also records that during the Tongzhi period, when Zeng Guofan was the governor of Zhili, in a letter to his son Zeng Jize, he mentioned that he had sent 14,000 taels of farewell to officials in the capital of the three rivers, two lakes and five provinces.
There is an unspoken rule when paying farewell, that is, whichever Bodhisattva burns incense must be burned. The number of farewell gifts given by foreign officials in Beijing was limited, and the recipients were only a few hundred taels at most, and only dozens or a few taels at a minimum. However, it was not only given to one person, but the number of recipients was tens or hundreds of people. . "Chunming Menglu" records: "Biejing is more common. When the governor of a vassal comes to Beijing, in addition to the court nobles, there are many officials from the same hometown and the same year, as well as officials in the province who serve as officials, and they are all sent to the capital. The number of them is no more than ten gold coins." , and later some were reduced to six gold. However, the number of officials in the capital is increasing day by day, and the expenses of foreign officials are no longer affordable.
?If you are a powerful foreign official, you will see hundreds or even thousands of people in Beijing every year, which will be countless. The expenses will be huge. For example, people like Zhang Jixin and Zeng Guofan, who give gifts a year There are tens of thousands of taels of silver.
"Chunming Menglu" also records: In addition to the farewell ceremony, fellow villagers of the same year also have group worship items, which means that every year, fellow villagers of the same year have a group worship. ?Here is a "Group Worship". Every year, fellow villagers in the same year build relationships and warmly communicate, and red envelopes are also indispensable. In addition to the common "reverence" gifts given to Beijing officials by foreign officials, there are also a myriad of "red envelopes", such as new year's gold, festival tribute, Cheng Yi, Zhi gift, Zhi gift, Zhi gift, congratulation ceremony, etc. Some gifts of silver, some Some gave gifts of antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and some gave gifts of food and other things. Of course, if you have something important to ask of me, it won't be limited to these individuals. "Chunming Menglu" also records that someone asked Taobele (Zai Tao, the seventh son of Prince Chun Yixuan) to do something, and the four words "Thousand Buddha Face Sutra" were written on the envelope. Taobele was stupid and didn't know what it meant, so he opened it I opened it for everyone to see, and it turned out that there was a thousand-tael silver note inside.
Qing Dynasty? Three Jings? Bad rules: Send ten thousand taels of silver to officials in the capital
Old photos of luxurious living rooms in the homes of officials in the Qing Dynasty
Tan Jing, Bing Jing, Bie Jing There are profound social reasons for the prevalence of bad regulations. One of the reasons is that the income of Beijing officials is relatively low. He Degang described his situation in "Chun Ming Meng Lu": After Yu arrived in Beijing, his sources of income gradually became less and less, and his annual income was no more than a hundred gold, but it was not without some small supplements. ?The salary system of the Qing Dynasty generally followed that of the Ming Dynasty. The official salary quota in the Ming Dynasty was relatively low, but the amount of official salary at all levels in the Qing Dynasty was lower than that in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the first-grade civil servants who were highly respected officials had an annual salary equivalent to just over 40,000 RMB today. This salary was not very high even at the time. In order to stabilize the officials' morale, the imperial court gave Beijing officials a special income called "salary". Originally, the salary income of Beijing officials included salary and rice, while the salary income of foreign officials only had salary and no salary. In contrast, the salary income of foreign officials seemed even more unbalanced. Therefore, in order to stabilize the local cadre team, the imperial court introduced special policies to appease foreign officials and specially established a "Integrity Bank". The original purpose of the establishment of the Integrity Bank was to change the serious income inequality between officials in the capital and foreign officials. However, due to the huge amount of the Integrity Bank, a new imbalance arose. In this way, officials in the capital need other ways to make money, allowing foreign officials to share part of their income with the officials in the capital. Bingjing, Tanjing and Biejing are such measures.
Of course, foreign officials send red envelopes to Beijing officials. More importantly, Beijing officials can use the "characteristics" of the administrative system to influence the promotion and decline of foreign officials' evaluations. Their happiness and anger are directly related to the foreign officials' secret opinions. , who dares to underestimate the pros and cons? As a result, an economic adjustment was formed between Beijing and foreign countries. Officials in the capital, big and small, all admire the "bijing, charcoal and ice respect" given to foreign officials. These three respects are the main forms of this adjustment. We can get a glimpse of the darkness of the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty just from the relationship between Beijing officials and local officials in the Qing Dynasty. "There are people in the court who are good at becoming officials", "it's good to enjoy the shade under the big trees", the officials in the capital are in the imperial city, and they can always learn about any disturbances in the court by passing them from ear to ear. Compared with local officials, the information from the officials in the capital is much more accurate. , and most of the weights. "Qilu Leng" says: "The secret of this officialdom is all about the connection of voice and tone. There are clues in every officialdom, which is the rule of being an official." ?Beijing officials not only have this information, but also have the power to appoint, remove, and remove officials. In order to obtain this information and get the care of the officials in the capital, and to make the official road more accessible, local officials often gave gifts of money and objects to the officials in the capital. In this way, local officials use money and goods in exchange for the opportunity to be promoted, and the officials in the capital also have another way to gather wealth, so each can get what they need.
Where does the money for Tan Jing, Bing Jing, Bie Jing and other bad rules come from? In the Qing Dynasty, the bad rule of "three respects" was not "black money" for corruption and bribery. Its source was that local officials took advantage of many "characteristics" in the administrative and financial systems to suppress one level at a time, and the superiors reached out to ask for it from their subordinates. Semi-public channels. In the 49th year of Qianlong's reign, Hao Shuo, the governor of Jiangxi Province, sent seventy-one members of the Dao, Prefecture, Prefecture, and County Government to deliver more than 80,000 taels of silver in the name of a meeting with His Majesty in Beijing. What's more important is that local officials have set up a myriad of tax projects, which are called "invisible taxation and visible extortion".
In the forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign, the successive governors of Guangdong and Guangxi all used the salt merchants to provide them with money to go to Beijing to supplement public expenses, ranging from more than 30,000 taels to 50,000 to 560,000 taels.
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"Chunming Menglu" summarizes the history of "Three Respects" and says: During the Guangxuan period, public bribery was given, and the powerful were focused on it. At the end of the year, it became harder for idle Cao Cao to get involved with beggars. That’s it. ?In fact, after the reign of Daoguang in Jiaqing, due to the decline of national power, the "three respects" were in an increasingly serious state of control. Bad rules have played an indispensable role in social life and have actually achieved a semi-legal status. ?The subordinates regard the good relationship as their strength, and the superiors regard the flattery as their joy? The strict discipline actually exceeds the bad rules. ?Bad regulations have penetrated into the government activities and daily life of officials and government agencies. This has placed a heavy burden on society and has caused even greater harm to people's moral standards. All this shows that the Qing Dynasty has come to an end.