Inventions of ancient emperors' anti-corruption strategies

Introduction: Corruption is a chronic disease accompanied by feudal society, and it is also a problem that successive dynasties tried to solve. Although the governance of corruption is difficult and complicated, there are profound internal contradictions with the ancient anti-corruption system and mechanism itself. However, in the long historical process, the ancients also provided us with a lot of rich anti-corruption experience, of which the success and failure still have reference and warning significance.

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Emperor Gaozu Xuan Di's "Raising Salary and Advocating Honesty"

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is the great-grandson of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the grandson of Prince Li. After the witch disaster in the second year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Prince Li and his children were killed. Only Liu Xun survived as a baby, but he lived among the people from then on until he was crowned emperor by Huo Guang at the age of 17. Xuan Di, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, was born among the people, and he knew well the difficulties of the people, the disadvantages and gains and losses of official management, and the people's expectations for political clarity. During his reign, he made great efforts, especially in rectifying official management. In history, he was called "officials do their jobs and the people enjoy their achievements", and later generations praised him as "Xuan Di Zhongxing". Many historians believe that the Xuan Di period was the most prosperous period of the Han Dynasty.

So, how did Xuan Di manage officials in the Han Dynasty? Surprisingly, one of the important means of Xuan Di's administration is to "raise salary" for grass-roots officials. In the third year of the reign of God, Emperor Gaozu Xuan Di issued an imperial edict: "If the official is not cheap, he will govern the Tao." Today's petty officials are diligent, and their salaries are thin, so it is difficult to invade fishermen! Its advantage is less than 100 stone, 15 stone. "

The salaries of officials in the Western Han Dynasty, from the so-called "Ten Stones" to county officials, are all above 20 levels. The more grassroots, the lower the position, and the thinner the salary. In particular, a large number of junior officials, unlike senior officials and etiquette, can get rewards from the court from time to time. If you only rely on wages to support your family, you will inevitably have food and clothing worries. Therefore, it is not surprising if there is any phenomenon of "fishing invasion".

As mentioned above, Xuan Di, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, grew up among the people and knew the sufferings of the people. During his growing up, I'm afraid he didn't rarely see people being exploited and blackmailed by grassroots officials. At the same time, he is soberly aware that these petty officials and petty officials who directly deal with the people, with meager salaries, bear a lot of heavy daily affairs, and it is "difficult" to fundamentally solve the corruption problem only by moral preaching or severe punishment in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty! As the saying goes, you know how to be polite and quick, and you know more about honor and disgrace. To make these grass-roots officials clean and honest, in addition to severely punishing corruption, they must also be given enough living security so that they don't have to try their best to make money from the people and seek returns.

Starting from the people's feelings and ending with the "salary increase" of grass-roots officials, it seems to run counter to each other, but it profoundly embodies the calm and realistic attitude of Xuan Di, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. In particular, the salary increase is limited to grass-roots officials, which shows that Xuan Di, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, has a clear judgment on this, rather than abusing the state's financial resources.

Of course, Emperor Gaozu had many ways to manage officials in Xuan Di. In addition to salary increase, salary increase may not be clean. Systematic supporting measures are needed for official incorruptibility, which cannot be solved simply by raising wages. The reason is that there is only high salary and no other supervision and restriction measures. Over time, officials with high salaries have long forgotten the original intention of the state to implement high salaries and took it for granted. The early Qing dynasty continued the policy of low-paid officials in the Ming dynasty. Until Yongzheng I

After Wang Mang proclaimed himself emperor, because the throne was not very glorious, and he "wanted to shock his power and fear his death", there was a system of war and civil strife, and the officials were suspicious and the people were in trouble. In just a few years, the industry of Chengping in the Western Han Dynasty became riddled with holes, and the people were constantly displaced. Faced with the chaotic situation, Wang Mang ordered that "all officials and petty officials should not pay their salaries", that is to say, all officials' salaries should be stopped. Then he issued an imperial edict and put forward his idea of reforming the official salary system: "In ancient times, when the harvest was good, the salary was increased, and when the harvest was bad, the salary was reduced. Now it is advisable to set a standard and pay official salaries according to the quality of the season. "

Wang Mang's idea coincides with the suggestion made by some people today, that is, the salary of civil servants should be linked to the indicators of economic and social development, which is in line with the ancient system and quite modern. Unfortunately, under the technical conditions at that time, especially through statistical means, it was impossible to formulate such a standard for calculating the amount of money. As a result, officials at all levels did not get paid in the end.

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So, what if officials don't get paid? It is conceivable that "all officials in the world do not receive salaries, which is profiteering" and "all official positions are traitors, and they all take bribes and recruit themselves". Seeing that officials, big and small, simply don't understand their own good intentions, don't pay attention to state affairs, and don't share weal and woe with the people, Wang Mang is even more angry, so he ordered officials who took bribes to "take out four-fifths of all their property to help the border" and mobilized and encouraged small officials to report their superiors and handmaiden owners, hoping to put an end to corruption through severe punishment and severe law. Who would have thought that corruption was getting worse and people were worried. Finally, the situation got out of control and the brief Xin Mang dynasty collapsed.

Wang Mang's abolition of official salaries, like many measures to "help the crisis and reform the system", is not just a farce. What is reflected behind it is actually a strong moral color. Seriously, isn't this measure just in line with people's moral expectations: as a state official, isn't it called serving the people? Then we should not only share joys and sorrows with the people, but also suffer hardships first. Even if we get little or no pay, why not? However, the reality also gave Wang Mang an answer to this effect.

In fact, as a system, wage arrears for officials did exist in history. In the early Northern Wei Dynasty, officials were unpaid, and the state only gave them irregular classes. Because there is no stable source of income, officials at all levels have to "take it from the people", "officials are greedy for money", "scholars have no moral integrity" and "the greedy have to cheat, and the incorruptible cannot protect themselves", and the management of officials has fallen into total corruption. Although the government severely punished many times, it had little effect. It was not until Emperor Xiaowen's reform that the salary system was fully implemented, and the official salary system in the Northern Wei Dynasty became an episode in the history of the official salary system in ancient China.

Zhu Yuanzhang's "Ruling Officials with an Iron Hand"

In the history of China, Zhu Yuanzhang was probably the emperor with the lowest background and the most bumpy experience. Born in a poor peasant family, he was a herdsman since childhood. /kloc-When he was 0/6 years old, his parents died of plague, so he had to go to the temple to be a little novice monk. Who knows that in the famine years, even the temples have no food to eat, so they have to run around begging and spend their due youth. Later, he joined the uprising team. He started as a soldier and reached the peak of his life step by step. It is precisely because of this bumpy road of life and the hardships of riffraff that Zhu Yuanzhang has a heartfelt resentment against corrupt officials, which can be called the most severe emperor in history. How harsh are Zhu Yuanzhang's ruling officials? Punishment such as ending the year and abandoning the city can no longer satisfy his anger. Zhu Yuanzhang even invented the chilling torture of "stripping grass". Under such a high-pressure policy, some scholars, for fear of being officials, do not hesitate to cut their hands and hurt themselves to avoid being recruited. ignore

It should be said that in ancient China, the punishment for official corruption was not completely absent at least in the system design, and even on the whole, the punishment for official crimes was heavier than that for ordinary people. Even in the case of Amnesty, it is often clearly pointed out that corrupt officials are not among them. However, extreme measures like Zhu Yuanzhang are unprecedented. Perhaps because it was too harsh, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the later emperor abolished most of his policies.

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If you say that you have worked so hard, but you can't even understand your own children and grandchildren, and you can give a few generous wry smiles, but your enthusiasm has not brought the clarity of official management, then you can't help but feel wronged for Zhu Yuanzhang. It can be said that Zhu Yuanzhang has been persistently fighting against corrupt officials since the day he ascended the throne. However, until his death, corruption never disappeared, so that Zhu Yuanzhang once said helplessly, "I want to get rid of corrupt officials, but I have to kill them!" " "

Zhu Yuanzhang established two basic concepts of governing officials in Ming Dynasty: low official salary and high pressure against corruption. The low salary was finally proved to be a joke by the widespread corruption of officials in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. After the death of political strongmen such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Judy, high pressure also turned into smoke. Looking back at Zhu Yuanzhang's exclamation of "killing at dusk", we seem to see the helplessness of a hero, a helpless dilemma.

Looking back at the anti-corruption modes of Xuan Di, Wang Mang and Zhu Yuanzhang, it is difficult to give a simple comment. However, these anti-corruption measures of the ancients still have reference significance.