In the literature of the Qing Dynasty, whenever it comes to the assessment of local officials, the term "year-end secret examination" will appear. Perhaps many readers are not very clear about the concept of the year-end secret examination. Yushi specially compiled the information and shared it with you.
The year-end secret examination is only for high-level officials
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the court's assessment method for local civil servants was mainly based on the "big plan" once every three years. The implementation of the plan is very strict and it is also a relatively scientific system. However, as any system develops over time, it will inevitably leave behind some drawbacks.
There are two main disadvantages of the Grand Plan. First, the three-year period is too long, and the court cannot grasp the performance and abilities of officials at any time; second, the Grand Plan is mainly an assessment of governors, which is highly subjective and easily breeds political corruption.
Therefore, starting from the Qianlong Dynasty, there was a new system of "year-end secret examination".
In the first year of Qianlong, Qianlong issued an edict to the provincial governor Ming:
"When I came to the throne, none of the officials in the provinces and governments knew who he was. You can tell him Each member's meritorious deeds must be reviewed impartially for my use. "
This edict can be understood as the origin of the year-end secret examination system, but it was in the 49th year of Qianlong's reign that the custom was truly formed. It can also be seen that the main subjects of the year-end secret examination are high-level officials such as the chief envoys, envoys, Taoists, and prefects of each province. Prefectural and county officials are not included in the assessment targets.
Why did Qianlong implement a year-end secret examination?
The year-end secret examination is limited to each year, which is conducive to the emperor's control of local officials. Since it is a secret test, the importance of "secret" must be reflected.
The emperor attaches great importance to secret examinations and will point out any mistakes in time. For example, in the twenty-sixth year of Daoguang's reign, Emperor Daoguang once said in his edict:
"At the end of each term, the governors of each province will actually take the exams for the provincial ministers and other officials, seal the reports, and I will personally review them. Even the minister of military aircraft will not issue them for reading. , so the assessment should be carried out carefully to prevent leakage. "
Since the year-end secret examination is so strict, can this single line of contact between the emperor and the governor ensure that the situation reported to the emperor by the feudal officials is true?
In fact, there is a big discrepancy. For example, in the ninth year of Daoguang, Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou Ruan Yuan and Yunnan Governor Ibri participated in the year-end secret examination of Yunnan Chief Envoy Wang Chutang "The official reputation gradually deteriorated and public opinion was inconsistent."
Daoguang was a careful emperor, and he had a good impression of Wang Chutang himself. He always felt that there might be concealment in the governor's assessment. So, he secretly sent people to Yunnan to investigate, and the conclusion reached was completely opposite to the governor's assessment.
Ruan Yuan and Ibri were severely reprimanded and were demoted one level and fined for half a year.
Another example is that in the 23rd year of Guangxu's reign, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the governor of Guangxi secretly examined Zhou Tianlin, the prefect of Si'en, but they gave different test terms.
The governor said that Zhou Tianlin was "honest and honest, and he was prudent in handling matters." The governor's testimonial was "his reputation is ordinary, but his ethics are hard to describe" . The governors insisted on different opinions, which made the Empress Dowager Cixi very angry. She ordered the governor of Guangdong to investigate Zhou Tianlin. Soon, the governor of Guangdong presented a memorial, saying that Zhou Tianlin was "honest, honest and capable, and capable of leading the way."
There are many similar examples. Although the year-end secret examination is helpful for the emperor to control senior local officials, it also tests the emperor's ability to control the governor. Once problems arise, it will affect an official's career.
The impact of the year-end secret examination on the career of local officials.
As a supplementary method for the assessment of local major plans, the year-end secret examination made up for the shortcomings of the routine program. The governor provided the emperor with detailed information about local officials and gave screenings. It was precisely because of the implementation of the year-end secret examination that the career prospects of local officials were firmly in the hands of the governor.
The year-end secret examination is a matter of future, so local officials do not dare to offend the governor, and bribery by subordinates is inevitable, which in turn expands the prevalence of bad local regulations.
In other words, local officials must please the governor at all times, otherwise they will face the consequences of being bribed. Regardless of whether the governor is wise or not, bribery by subordinates has become an unspoken rule in the officialdom.
For example, there was a severe drought in Shaanxi in the 26th year of Daoguang's reign. Under very tight circumstances, the inspector Zhang Jixin had to hand over bad regulations to his superiors. At this time, the governor of Shaanxi was Lin Zexu.
Lin Zexu is a well-known honest official, and Zhang Jixin is also a rare capable official. Even if Zhang Jixin did not give him any money, he might not say bad things about him in the year-end secret examination. But even so, Lin Zexu still followed the old official rules and accepted Zhang Jixin's bad money.
It can also be seen from this point that the secret examination of governors has a great influence on the career of local officials.
The quality of the year-end secret examination is extremely important for officials. In the second year of Tongzhi , the governor of Guangdong, Guo Songtao, secretly reported to the court and assessed 15 senior officials of Guangdong Province in one go. Fortunately, these 15 officials had all received gifts in advance, and their career had thus reached a new level.
In March of the following year, Jiang Zhizhang, the salt transport envoy from Guangdong, was promoted to the governor of Sichuan, the chief envoy Wu Shouchang was promoted to the governor of Hubei, the inspector Li Hanzhang was promoted to the chief envoy, Chaozhou prefect Li Futai was promoted to Taoist priest, and other officials were also promoted.
Judging from relevant literature, all officials who receive favorable reviews in the year-end secret examination will generally be promoted, while those who fail to do so will be punished by demotion, transfer, or even dismissal.
The introduction of the secret examination at the end of the year has made senior officials above the provincial level seem insignificant in the overall assessment, and most of them are routine.
The Great Plan is more aimed at middle and lower-level officials. This is why when we study the literature, we often find that titles such as "outstanding" are often easily obtained at the level of state and county officials. Of course, most of the people who are punished in the Great Plan are state and county officials. Therefore, the big plan has little impact on local officials.
