Since Jiaqing years, a proverb has been widely circulated in society: " Heshen fell, Jiaqing was full."
This is one of the most famous corrupt officials in modern history, and has a deep impression on the Chinese people.
"Iron-Toothed and Bronze Teethed Ji Xiaolan", which was once popular all over the country, fully reflects Heshen's villain's face.
And what exactly did Heshen in history?
is definitely outstanding in being able to become a military minister.
In another movie "Qianlong Dynasty", there is a plot: Heshen reported the trade terms of the British envoy to Qianlong , but was severely rejected by Qianlong.
Modern people often recall Qing Dynasty 's order to close the country. If the trade terms could be realized at that time, modern China might have been different.
The greedy person has worked hard all his life
Heshen, also known as Niuhulu Heshen, is a man of the Zhenghong Banner of Manchuria.
Heshen's origin was not a poor man. He was born in the Eight Banners of Manchuria, and his ancestors also made military achievements. In a dynasty where the family was equal, Heshen married the granddaughter of the Prince Taibao Yinglian , which shows the strength of the family.
and Arsenic were well educated since childhood. They were initially enlightened in the private school and later admitted to the Xian'an Palace Official School where he received rigorous training.
After adulthood, in addition to inheriting the post earned by his ancestors, he was appreciated by Emperor Qianlong of due to an accidental opportunity. Since then, he has been favored and promoted step by step.
In the 37th year of Qianlong's reign, Heshen was "appointed as a third-class guard to pick and repair the sticking rod."
sticking rod, also known as blood droplets, was a Qing Dynasty secret agency founded by Emperor Shizong of the Qing Dynasty. It holds the power of life and death, and those who can serve in it are people trusted by the emperor.
In the 40th year of Qianlong's reign, Heshen was promoted to the Imperial Guard and Deputy Chief of Manchuria of Zhenglan Banner. Since then, he has been successful in his official career for many years. He has served as the Minister of Revenue, the Minister of Personnel, and the Office of the Internal Affairs. As for the Prince Taibao, he was awarded the first-class Duke of Zhongxiang.
involves people, affairs, money, construction, food, weapons preparation, medicine...
This means that for many years, he has combined political, economic, cultural power and other rights. In his later years, Qianlong was powerful and famous.
Heshen lived in the second half of the 18th century. This period was a critical period when the Qing Dynasty declined from prosperity and decline. Various ills of feudal society emerged one after another.
Corruption is a common phenomenon among feudal officials, and Heshen is the most typical representative of a corrupt official.
He is good at greeting the superiors, and is good at fighting and framing the subordinates. He is skillful, full of tricks, and is sinister and vicious.
Heshen was an official and first seized power, and at the same time, the most important thing was to catch money.
When he was in power, in addition to being full of corruption, he was holding the banner of Emperor Qianlong, forming cliques for personal gain, and trapping dissidents.
Heshen had long controlled the fiscal revenue and expenditure of the entire Qing government and did his best to accumulate. The measures he took were to get in and out more. Many of the costs were asked by his subordinates to solve them themselves, flattering them from all kinds of things, and being very harsh to his subordinates.
Heshen and his wives, concubines and children lived an extremely luxurious life. The many maids, servants and servants in his family were not allowed to eat enough food and food. He had to look at the money he had entered and left his family and counted it himself.
But people are not simply black or white. Heshen is a corrupt official, but looking back on his life, he also made several great achievements.
Because Heshen had a set of skills in financial management and accruing wealth, he not only could meet Qianlong's excessive consumption, but also had a slight savings in the national fiscal revenue and expenditure every year.
Especially in the early years of Jiaqing, when he spent a lot of military spending to deal with the large-scale White Lotus Rebellion, the national treasury still had a small amount of treasury silver, which was indeed not easy, and this was one of the reasons why Emperor Qianlong favored Heshen.
Although Heshen held the important position of the chief minister and was above all officials, he did not value agriculture and suppress business, despise business and businessmen like most traditional Chinese feudal officials, and adhered to the preaching of "not doing business in literature, not managing finances in officials."
In Chinese feudal society, most officials were willing to buy houses and land, but were unwilling to engage in industry and commerce.
Heshen will invest his own funds to let his family, eunuchs and others run shops, workshops and mines in the Gyeonggi area. Although he is a high-ranking official, he ignored the constraints of traditional concepts and took it as a pleasure to engage in industry and commerce, lend usury to obtain high profits and carry out super-economic exploitation.
In this sense, he may be the predecessor of a group of bureaucratic compradors such as Li Hongzhang , Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang in the late Qing Dynasty.
Literature, during the Qianlong period, I wanted to compile a book called " Siku Quanshu " that exceeded " Yongle Ceremony ". The task was arduous, and people in the court dared not take responsibility easily.
This matter is mainly responsible for Heshen, and it is completed together with Ji Xiaolan and others.
" Dream of Red Mansions " is also one of the treasures discovered during the compilation process, and has a great impact on future generations.
During his time in power, Heshen unconsciously did some things that were beneficial to society and the poor people.
For example, in the 53rd year of Qianlong (1787), grain prices in Beijing were tight, and grain prices soared. Many grain merchants hoarded and took the opportunity to raise grain prices, and citizens complained.
Heshen once submitted a report to the emperor for this, requesting that hoarding be prohibited and grain prices be restricted.
Heshen's proposition is undoubtedly beneficial to the urban poor. Although it has not been thoroughly implemented, his thoughts and practices are worthy of recognition.
At the same time, Heshen is also an excellent diplomat.
In the later years of Qianlong, Qianlong was already old and forgot about his affairs.
British envoy Macarney While visiting China, Heshen used excellent diplomatic means to make the emperor feel at ease with the emperor, and gave the envoys decent to the outside world, demonstrating the demeanor of a great country.
It’s a pity that this exchange ended in failure. Even though Heshen was willing to trade, perhaps he was just seeking more benefits, China did miss an opportunity.
The two countries collided, and trade was denied
1793 In 201793, Macarney, the British King's special envoy, led an envoy to visit China, trying to establish normal bilateral political and trade relations with the Qing Empire.
As early as the 22nd year of Qianlong (1757), Emperor Qianlong decided to close several trading ports such as Ningbo , Zhangzhou and Yuntaishan (now Lianyungang City ), and only Guangzhou port will be left to trade with foreign merchant ships.
and also strictly stipulate the residence time, residence and scope of activities of foreign merchants in Guangzhou every year. It is also stipulated that only merchants in thirteen lines can contact foreigners, and ordinary people cannot communicate with foreigners.
This has greatly restricted the UK's trade with China.
For the 18th century Britain, trade with China is of course important.
At that time, tea from China had become a mass consumer product in the UK and an important imported goods in the UK.
By the 1790s, the UK had imported about 20 million pounds of tea from China, and in the next decade, that number reached 25 million pounds.
The taxes it pays to the British government account for 6% to 7% of the total tax.
In England, there are many people who are dissatisfied with trade with China.
British merchants can only enter China through Guangdong Port, and there are many local restrictions: there are also a lot of problems in paying for tea imports, mainly due to the loss of silver. For this reason, the UK must allow more of its own goods to enter the Chinese market.
British ministers were eager to resolve relevant issues through direct negotiations with the Chinese court, so in the letter from the British king to Qianlong, they expressed their intention for normal trade between the two countries.
Comparatively, what was China’s mainstream business concept at that time?
China-foreign trade has never been a simple economic exchange in the relationship between China and the "Chinese and Barbarian order" of various countries in the East Asian civilization circle for thousands of years.
It is a special economic and trade system with political affiliation - tribute system .
Under this system, one party of trade is a vassal state that "admires" and therefore "receives and pays tribute"; the other party is a "Celestial Dynasty" that "controls the world" and has the obligation to "give kindness and reward" such acts of loyalty and obedience.
This is actually the concept of international relations between the Chinese people before the Opium War.
For thousands of years, this "tributive" and "reward" interaction model has deeply imprinted the arrogance and pride of "Chinese-centricism" in China's national consciousness, shaping the external psychology of the Chinese people, and forming a behavioral pattern that is compatible with this consciousness and psychology.
, this time Macarney came to China, the first thing he had to face was the etiquette issue of the Qing Dynasty.
"Long live the meeting, I always kneel down and kowtow nine times." This made the British feel that I was greatly insulted.
"My national gift, bend one knee, stretch out your hand and mouth, hold the hand of His Majesty the King and kiss it."
The two sides argued and parted in disagreement.
Finally, Heshen came forward and decided to convince Emperor Qianlong, so he performed rituals according to the customs of the British country, but kissing the emperor's hands was absolutely impossible.
Emperor Qianlong agreed to Heshen’s request, and the two sides finally reached an agreement on the issue of etiquette.
The next day, the envoy of Macalny and the deputy envoy of Indians Dangdong each presented their own gifts.
Emperor Qianlong asked the Minister of Rites to accept it and gave him a gift.
Qianlong received the special envoy Bi and held a grand banquet to warmly entertain the special envoy of the special envoy of the English-Geely .
After that, Heshen had many talks with Macalny and others. Heshen accompanied the British envoy to visit the gardens of the summer resort and the outer Ba Temples and other scenic spots.
Although Macarni is a diplomatic veteran and refuses to expose his intentions easily, Heshen also happened to deal with it and refused to fall into his trap.
Macarney originally planned to ask China to set up a place near Guangzhou Zhongyi Island and a place near Guangzhou through consultation. China opened ports such as Ningbo, Zhoushan and Tianjin to trade with the British, allowing the British to hold permanent envoys in Beijing, establish houses, and free missionary British people across China, but they were all rejected one by one.
Heshen reported to Emperor Qianlong the idea of the British envoy, but Qianlong refused sternly with the words "the heavenly dynasty has abundant resources and no foreign goods are needed."
A person from the East India Company said in his writings: "Magarney's visit to China was the most polite welcome, the most attentive hospitality, the most vigilant surveillance, and the most civilized expulsion."
This visit to China ended in failure, and Macarney returned empty-handed.
Until forty-six years later, the British visited again, but this time, they knocked open the door of China with strong ships and sharp guns.
When signing an unequal treaty, it was found that most of the above listed were similar to the treaty discussed by Macalny on that day, which was a pity.
-tailed difficulty turning
Macarni Incident As a diplomatic event encountered by the Qing Empire at its peak of social and economic development, it indicates that the empire has faced the increasingly expanding capitalist world system of the West, and it has not made any due understanding and reaction to this major change in the external world.
Why, during the Qing Dynasty, we must insist on closing the country?
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou became the only port and window for Western information, forming the so-called "Guangzhou system".
Foreign businessmen come to China and only contact a few licensed merchants are allowed to take strict prevention and restriction policies against foreigners. They are composed of a series of rules promulgated one after another, such as "Five Things to Prevent the Barbarians", "Eight Things to Prevent the Barbarians", "Province of the Barbarians", "Province of the Barbarians", "Province of the Barbarians' Trading", etc.
To sum up, the core of the Guangzhou system is to implement isolation between Chinese and foreigners as much as possible in limited Sino-foreign trade.
This isolation policy implies several concepts and attitudes of the Qing court towards foreigners.
One of them is to establish "great defense between China and foreign countries". In the eyes of the Chinese people at that time, these "Western ghosts" with red hair and blue eyes, deep eyes but no politeness and integrity are indeed "not my race, their hearts will be different."
therefore intuitively feels the need to prevent it.
Secondly, the Qing court was based on the historical experience of Japanese pirates in the Ming Dynasty and early Western illegal merchant ships and pirates smuggling and harassing along the coast of China.
Ming Dynasty The "treatment of enemy forces" caused by Japanese pirates colluding with Chinese coastal merchants to smuggle and invade, the Chinese government and the opposition still remember it fresh in memory.
Based on such historical experience, the Qing Dynasty naturally had to prevent and isolate these merchant ships equipped with cannons, shotguns, , gunpowder, and the interactions between Westerners and the people.
In this sense, this policy has its reasonable side.
This policy also reflects the weak mentality of the Manchu aristocratic rulers to prevent the combination of "internal troubles" and "external troubles" from threatening their ruling order in China.
Marx made a deeper psychological guess about this policy, "...it is afraid that foreigners will support the dissatisfaction that many Chinese people embraced about the first half century after being conquered by the Tatars."
For this reason, foreign talents are prohibited from having any contact with Chinese people.
In the late 18th century, the Qing Dynasty also heard about the incidents of Portugal's occupation of Manchu and Britain's occupation of India.
Therefore, it is increasingly necessary to strengthen the dike of "banning the relationship between Chinese and foreign officers and soldiers" and to make far-sighted efforts to prevent foreign forces from reenacting an old drama of internal and external transformation with domestic anti-Qing forces.
The Qing Dynasty, which was self-sufficiency, had a strong economic development and would choose to close the country, based on political factors only.
In the face of the peak of power of the dynasty, it is not that important whether we can make more Gentile money.
This is by no means a thought that Heshen could change.
In the late Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty had reached its peak.
After Qianlong, Jiaqing came to power.
Just fifteen days after he ascended the throne, he issued an order to arrest and kill Heshen, and in the name of great corruption, he set the end of his career.
Unfortunately, Heshen was just a product of the backward feudal system. After Heshen was sentenced to death, the corruption of the Qing government officials and officials not only did not stop and eliminate it, but showed an intensified trend.
At the same time, due to the closure of the Qing Dynasty, the results of the first industrial revolution were missed, and the peace of this empire was finally completely shattered by the cannon.
to The failure of the First Opium War made it difficult for the Qing Dynasty to turn around any more.
References
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[2] Weisen. The cyclical rise and fall of China's market economy under the Qing Dynasty political system [J]. Research on financial issues, 2018( 03):14-27.DOI:10.19654/j.cnki.cjwtyj.2018.03.002.
[3] Zhang Li. Heshen's diplomatic performance during the Qianlong period [J]. Lantai World, 2011(09):22.DOI:10.16565/j.cnki.1006-7744.2011.09.015.
[4] Xiong Yaming. Heshen - A capable man and a sinner [J]. Procuratorial Storm, 1995(12): 55.
[5] Xu Qiya. On the Foreign Trade of the Qing government before the Opium War [J]. Ideological Front, 1988(02): 84-88.
