As the last feudal dynasty in China, Qing dynasty has always been the most sad dynasty for people today .
Of course, this is not to say that the demise of the Qing Dynasty is sad, but a series of unequal treaties signed by the corrupt and stupid Qing government in the late Qing Dynasty made people indignate.
In order to protect the interests of the royal family, wants to sell its territory and dignity. Such a dynasty will eventually perish, and no one will be sad.
Fortunately, in terms of the development of the early and mid-Qing Dynasty, it was also considered a rare moment of heyday in ancient Chinese feudal history. The emergence of , especially , the Kangxi and Qianlong eras became a plus point for the comprehensive assessment of the Qing Dynasty.
So who were the three emperors, Kangxi , Yongzheng , and Qianlong, the greatest heroes in the Kangxi and Qianlong era?
The answer is Emperor Yongzheng who connects the past and improves the national ruling system. If it weren't for his connection, Kangxi and Qianlong would probably have developed their own developments.
Not only that, while Emperor Yongzheng was governing the country, also showed the world what the real emperor's art is .
In ancient times, the ancient emperors wanted to govern their own country well. In addition to making efforts in government affairs, the more important thing about is how to handle the balance between talents, the country, the imperial power and the power of the ministers.
And Yongzheng's following three aspects are enough to make the emperors of the Qing Dynasty far beyond the reach. If they could do one or two of them, how could they lose power and humiliate the country?
Centralized
Among all the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Yongzheng may not be the most famous emperor, , but he is definitely the most controversial emperor .
For example, in Nine Sons Fighting the Throne , when everyone thought that the inheritance of the throne should be decided between the prince and Eighth Prince , Yongzheng quietly "stealed" the fruit of victory , which made most people at that time not expect it.
Even Kangxi never thought that the final winner of turned out to be his fourth son .
After the Nine Sons fought for the throne, Emperor Yongzheng used practical actions to tell everyone why he was able to succeed. is just because he is more tolerant than other princes and is more ruthless than other princes .
And this personality also allowed him to successfully complete centralization, allowed the imperial power to completely crush the ministers' power .
This advantage even affected Qianlong's rule. As the happiest emperor in ancient Chinese history, Qianlong only needed to continue Yongzheng's rule to easily build an extremely powerful country.
. Emperor Yongzheng only did two things and it was easy to complete. The first is to consolidate the throne and eliminate dissidents , and the second is to establish the Military Affairs Office and secret payment system to make the imperial power more effective.
In terms of consolidating the throne, although Kangxi passed away in 1722 AD and passed the throne to Yongzheng, the other princes were not willing to fail. To this end, Yongzheng has been in power and will completely differentiate his prince group.
There are still power and the princes who have not exceeded the rules, Emperor Yongzheng arranged them to some insignificant positions . Over time, their power was removed bit by bit by bit by bit by bit.
The prince who has exceeded the rules and has a handle in his own hands is easier to deal with. only needs to be under house arrest . Of course, the princes had thought of resisting, but unfortunately they really had no advantage in fighting at Yongzheng's home court.
As for the Military Affairs Office and the secret copying system, it was the masterpiece of Emperor Yongzheng. As early as the reign of Kangxi, specially established South Study Room to strengthen the imperial power and disperse the power of the meeting of the royal ministers.
Kenan Study Room, the institution, had very limited access to military affairs, which also led to Kangxi's efforts to win the meeting of the royal ministers on his own power.Yongzheng placed military and government affairs in the Military Affairs Office. seems to be inconsistent, but in fact it has undermined the meeting of the King and Ministers of the Political Consultative Conference .
In contrast, the secret fold system is actually the improved version of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei . Zhu Yuanzhang In order to better control the ministers and the Zhu family, a special Jinyiwei supervision officials were established.
can be secretly copied but different. It weakens supervision of officials, and attaches importance to the observation of officials' political achievements and the people's .
Whether an official does a good job depends on how the people under his rule live. This direct management method has officially reached its peak.
Reform and innovation
After all state power is concentrated, The next thing to do is naturally reform and innovation .
Many of the innovations made by Yongzheng at this point also led to the learning of all the Qing emperors later. It’s a pity that these emperors only learned the basics, and did not understand the importance of reforms that need to keep pace with the times.
also led to the overall development of the Qing Dynasty. Since Yongzheng and Qianlong, seems to have stalled . So much so that when facing other countries in the world, there was no advantage.
Economic, one of the things that Yongzheng was most concerned about was the fiscal deficit in the late Kangxi . Originally, during the Kangxi period, the national economy was always thriving. Even though the Three Feudal Affairs and the Tsarist Russians used up a lot of funds, the Qing Dynasty's treasury was also very rich.
But in the late Kangxi period, the treasury suddenly became anxious, which made Yongzheng very puzzled. To this end, he started from the central government and first-rank ministers to investigate the deficits of officials from layer to layer. The method looks stupid, but the final result is very obvious.
In addition, after the deficit problem was gradually resolved, Yongzheng proposed to increase national income such as allocation of calculating , fire consumption, and government and gentry's grain payment, which allowed the overall economic development of the Qing Dynasty to be unprecedentedly improved.
Why was Emperor Qianlong able to travel to Jiangnan for six consecutive times? The reason is that Yongzheng accumulated a lot of wealth for him. According to modern discourse, Qianlong is truly an unprecedented prodigal son .
Military, Emperor Yongzheng continued to implement the Qing Dynasty's policy of external expansion. By the fifth year of Yongzheng, Cewang Arabtan died, and his son Galdan Celing succeeded to the throne of Khan. There was turmoil within Junggar , so Yongzheng found the right opportunity to use troops to the northwest to increase the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
Although the Qing army was still defeated after four years, Yongzheng's persistence affected Qianlong, which also laid a solid foundation for the Qing Dynasty to completely incorporate the northwest into the border.
In terms of social development, Emperor Yongzheng proposed a complete disaster relief system, immigration policy and exemption from low-class households . This made the Qing people more acknowledge the Qing Dynasty's rule.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, it has been facing the same problems as in the past: Many people in the Central Plains do not recognize the minority regime. Although during the Kangxi period, people attached great importance to the absorption and learning of Han culture, after the reform and changes of Yongzheng, people's resistance to the Qing Dynasty gradually decreased.
Finally, it is reform in cultural development. The reform here has not played a big role in promoting the development of the entire Chinese culture. However, cultural autocracy, broad edicts, and promotion of mandarins, etc. have really made more people have a deeper impression of the emperor.
People have to admit that when Yongzheng used his unique "scheming" and "means" to deal with the people, he was destined to benefit greatly.
Use all-in-one talents
In addition to the above two aspects, Yongzheng's choice and judgment on talent appointment has made many people sigh at the emperor's mind, deep and domineering.
More importantly, the final result also proves that the talents selected by Yongzheng were really successful, and made outstanding achievements. This also made more and more officials devote themselves to him. was thinking about how to show themselves, so that they had the opportunity to enter the sight of Emperor Yongzheng, and thus were promoted.
. Among all the people promoted and reused by Yongzheng, Nian Gengyao and Li Wei are typical .
First of all, for Nian Gengyao, is a Han army in the white flag of the Han army. Although he also has military achievements and his personal abilities deserve recognition, it was obviously inappropriate to let Han people be the only general in the Qing Dynasty.
But Yongzheng doesn’t care about that much. After the rebels Luobuzang Danjin launched a rebellion, Yongzheng directly promoted Nian Gengyao to the Northwest General .
For this reason, the Qing Dynasty court, which had been quiet for a long time, was opposed one after another. But Emperor Yongzheng not only did not compromise, but instead gave Nian Gengyao greater power - the privilege of "exclusive" in the northwest .
Simply put, the troops are handed over to you. After going to the northwest to fight, you can make decisions on all decisions in by yourself. Just imagine, if Nian Gengyao chose to rebel and establish his own business at that time, the development of the Qing Dynasty would have been seriously affected.
Fortunately, Nian Gengyao did not disappoint Emperor Yongzheng's hope in the end, and suppressed the northwest in one fell swoop, which made Emperor Yongzheng extremely grateful.
Historians don’t know if he is afraid of his decision, but in the entire ancient Chinese history, there are definitely not many people who have the courage to delegate power to the generals.
, especially compared with , Song Dynasty , founding emperor , Zhao Kuangyin , , , is completely different extremes. Of course, people will not say much about different choices in different histories.
followed by Li Wei, many people may not be familiar with him, , but he was indeed one of the three favorites in the Yongzheng period . And his promotion path will surely shock everyone.
is nothing more. Li Wei was an official and did not come to take the imperial examination based on his own ability. is donated for money. There are even folk rumors that when classical Chinese was popular at that time, Li Wei could not even write a simple classical Chinese.
is such a "unaware" person. eventually became the first chief official in the Yongzheng period , which makes people wonder.
It is precisely because of the two previous lessons of Nian Gengyao and Li Wei. No matter what the background of other officials are, they will naturally think of making outstanding political achievements , which will make Emperor Yongzheng look at him with admiration.
is not bound by traditional employment standards, and it is easy to obtain the "passion" of all officials. Such an imperial technique seemed simple, but it stumped most Qing emperors in later generations.
Conclusion
In fact, Emperor Yongzheng still has many achievements in his life. He was sinister and cunning to the prince, but he made no contribution to the development of the Qing Dynasty.
After the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the emperors such as Jiaqing , Daoguang , Xianfeng , Guangxu , etc. actually had one problem, , that is, the emperor was too honest .
seems to be diligent, but it turns out that it is not beneficial to the development of the country .
If they could seriously think about the difference between themselves and Yongzheng, perhaps the entire country would not have perished in warm water.
