"Three years of Qing dynasty, 100,000 snowflakes and silver" - "Scholars". In ancient China, making money became an essential skill for officials. As long as you are an official, you basically don’t have to worry about money. This is why the saying “Three years of Qing magistrate

"Three years of Qing magistrate, 100,000 snowflake silver " - "The Scholars".

In ancient China, making money almost became a necessary skill for officials. As long as you are an official, you basically don’t have to worry about money. This is why you say “Three years of Qing magistrate, 100,000 snowflakes”. Even , who had just entered the official career, Zeng Guofan, , was very old when he made money.

"Three years of Qing magistrate, 100,000 snowflakes and silver" (stills)

Zeng Guofan was born in Heyetang, Xiangxiang County, Changsha, Hunan Province in 1811. He finally successfully passed the ranking in 1838. He ranked 42nd in the palace examination and was awarded and was named . Since then, he entered the Qing government's civil service system and embarked on the path of officialdom step by step.

Before he embarked on the official career, let’s take a look at Zeng Guofan’s family background?

When Zeng Guofan was born, he had 100 acres of land in his family. At that time, his family was a big family with 8 people. If calculated per capita, it would be 12.5 acres per person. What is the level of the amount of land that this person owns per capita?

According to relevant historical records, in the late Qing Dynasty, China's per capita land ownership was about 2 or 3 mu, and Zeng Guofan's family's per capita land ownership reached four times that of this standard.

After 82 years of birth, Zeng Guofan was not far from his home, the home of a great man Mao Zedong. When Mao Zedong was born, his family had 4 people, 22 acres of land, with an average of more than 5 acres per capita. According to the standards at that time, Mao Zedong's family was considered a rich peasant.

So, according to this standard, the Zeng Guofan family should be considered a small landlord. But the little landlord we are talking about here is incomparable to the little landlords in movies and TV dramas. It was in the late Qing Dynasty, and Even the little landlords could only eat brown rice every day.

occasionally improve the food, that is, you can eat half a salted egg and drink. That's all, it's not like the ones played in movies and TV dramas, with a lot of wives and concubines, and a lot of fish and meat all day long. During the late Qing Dynasty, Chinese society was generally in poverty.

The Zeng family's family's background was gradually improved by Zeng Guofan's grandfather Zeng Yuping. Zeng Yuping worked hard all his life. Even after becoming a small landlord, his family hired long-term workers, but he still insisted on going to the fields to work, and he was too busy to stop from morning to night.

Even though Zeng Guofan became a Hanlin official and became a Beijing official, his grandfather Zeng Yuping still went to the fields to work. Under the influence of his grandfather, the Zeng family developed a family tradition of being thrifty and thrifty. When Zeng Guofan and his younger brothers were young, they often used their spare time to do farm work. Sometimes they even sold vegetable baskets at the market and helped push stele trucks in the quarry to make some money to supplement their household income.

From this we can see that before Zeng Guofan entered the official career, his family was an ordinary family in the countryside of Hunan, and his life was not very affordable. is precisely because of this that the expenses of Zeng Guofan's participation in the imperial examination brought a heavy burden to his family later.

1836, Zeng Guofan went to Beijing to take the imperial examination, but failed. When I went to Beijing the next year, my family couldn't even get the travel expenses. It was difficult for me to borrow 32 strings of copper coins with my relatives and friends before I got on the way. When I arrived in Beijing, I spent only 3 strings of money. Among these people who went to Beijing for exams, there were probably not many who were as poor as Zeng Guofan.

Zeng Guofan

1838, good news finally came from Beijing. The 27-year-old Zeng Guofan was awarded the same Jinshi, and was immediately awarded the Hanlin Shujishi, which means he was ordered Hanlin. The so-called "Everything is inferior, but only reading is high." The good news spread to Zeng Guofan's hometown, and the Zeng family immediately became rich.

Not only did a large number of high-quality wooden furniture be transported into the Zeng family, Zeng Guofan's grandfather Zeng Yuping and his father Zeng Linshu went out and were changed to sitting in a sedan chair. When the Zeng family treated her to a meal, she could already afford a high-end banquet like "sea dishes". This situation can be regarded as a standard "carp leaping on the dragon gate".

Perhaps, many readers will wonder, Zeng Guofan is not yet a serious official, so why did he "get rich overnight"? Indeed, Zeng Guofan passed the Jinshi and entered the official career, but at this time he did not immediately earn a large amount of money! At that time, the Hanlin Academy Shujishi had no salary within two years.

The mystery was at that time when everyone agreed on the officialdom. Zeng Guofan was a new Jinshi Hanlin Gong, and his future was limitless: if he did poorly, he could at least become a magistrate; if he did well, he would be a governor and a grand magistrate. This is the secret: many people are willing to invest in potential stocks, so Zeng Guofan's good news came to his hometown, which immediately caused a large number of people to come and climb.

The building is close to the water and get the moon first. First, the magistrate of Xiangxiang County came to Zeng’s house to visit him in an 8-carrying sedan chair. He affectionately called Zeng Guofan’s younger brothers, and stood shoulder to shoulder. He respectfully called Zeng Guofan’s father Zeng Linshu the “old grandfather”. Zeng Linshu felt very helpful.

Although Zeng Guofan has not earned a penny of salary income, it does not affect his three ways to generate income: First, accept gifts from clingers and receive gifts from others; second, borrow money from others, and now no one wants Zeng Guofan to borrow money from him quickly; third, Zeng Guofan has come forward to mediate various civil disputes in his new capacity and get a considerable reward from it.

Let’s see how good Zeng Guofan, a newbie who is just a newcomer who is just starting to the official career, is able to make money!

After finishing Hanlin, Zeng Guofan immediately asked for leave and returned home in glory and stayed in his hometown for a full year. This year has caused Zeng Guofan to be very busy! He went to visit various parts of Hunan and collected gifts from others to raise funds for his future official career. At that time, you could not become a Beijing official without money.

Going to Beijing from Xiangxiang, Hunan, , travel expenses alone cost at least 200 taels of silver, , the money cannot be reimbursed; the court does not provide housing and buses to Beijing officials, and even the official uniforms must be paid out for themselves. If you want to be a decent Beijing official, then you have to pay out all your own money for housing, travel, clothing, and servants. It can be imagined that the expenses of becoming a Beijing official are very large.

roughly estimates that if you want to go to Beijing to become an official, you must at least bring thousands of taels of silver before you dare to get up and take up your post. Because of this, although some people, although they were in high school, had to give up the opportunity to become a Beijing official because their families could not afford so much money. For example, Liu Guangdi, one of the " Six Gentlemen of Wuxu ", was helped by others and he barely became the head of the Ministry of Justice.

From this we can see that Zeng Guofan was very clear-headed and spent a whole year to raise funds for himself to become a Beijing official.

1Hanlin Shujishi Plaque in the Qing Dynasty

So, how did Zeng Guofan go to visit guests in various places in Hunan?

Starting from the 16th day of the first lunar month, Zeng Guofan officially visited the guests. Everyone in Hunan knows that Zeng Guofan is a hot potential stock, and everyone naturally has a great enthusiasm for investing in this potential stock. Therefore, whenever Zeng Guofan visited a place to visit, he was very grandly welcomed.

was first treated to the host's feast, and some even invited opera troupes to entertain themselves. Before leaving, the host of will enthusiastically give a considerable amount of funds. For example, Zeng Guofan’s first stop to visit his father-in-law Ouyang’s family. My father-in-law held a banquet at the ancestral hall and invited 8 tables of guests. Before leaving, my father-in-law gave me about 8 taels of silver.

Zeng Guofan’s first circle of visiting guests was his relatives and friends, and the second circle was officials from all over the country. These officials are much richer than their relatives and friends. Although it seemed that Zeng Guofan came to "fight the autumn wind", officials from all over the country were willing to give Zeng Guofan money. Who knows if one day people in the officialdom will one day rely on Zeng Guofan, a rising star in the political world?