Who is qualified to be a slave in the Qing Dynasty? Why do the Manchu and Han ministers like to look down on themselves?

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, only Manchus could call themselves slaves. Han officials who called themselves slaves would be reprimanded and punished. At first, Qianlong's intention was to preserve the ancient Manchu culture of "slave", but it became a title used by the court's civil and military officials to highlight their status. Calling yourself a "slave" to the royal family means you are a "retainer" of the royal family, which means you are more loyal.

Slaves first appeared among marginalized ethnic minorities, which means those who are useless and are the products of slavery with backward social civilization. Later, as the Manchus entered the country and established the Qing Dynasty, this old custom was slowly abandoned.

The person who mentioned the title "Slave" again was a governor of the Qing Dynasty. He was raised by the royal family in his childhood, so he called himself "Slave" in his usual memorial documents to show that he had no Forget the royal nurturing grace. Later, some officials and ministers trained by the royal family also used this title, and it gradually became popular among civil and military officials.

The first minister called himself "slave" in the memorial. A large part of the reason may be that he has lived in the Manchu culture since childhood and is not particularly sensitive to the title "slave". It just expresses his identity. low. But because the word "slave" contains another meaning, everyone is rushing to call themselves this. That is "loyalty", as a royal servant, to show that the world belongs to the royal family, and that you are the emperor's servant and serve the emperor.

So at this time, the word "slave" that civil and military officials called themselves was not a self-deprecation, but a title used to express loyalty to the emperor. Later, due to the large number of users, it attracted the attention of the emperor. At first, the emperor felt that the title "slave" was too despicable and inconsistent with the status of the civilized society of the dynasty, so he did not encourage everyone to use it. However, there was no special strict prohibition, so the effect was very little. Therefore, the emperor gradually stopped caring about it. It was just A title, and everyone vying to show their loyalty is very conducive to the consolidation of imperial power.

It was not until the Qianlong period that, in order to strengthen the imperial rule, restrictions were placed on the use of the title "slave", so that some people could use it and some people could not, thus extending the identity. gap. That's why all the civil and military officials in the dynasty were vying to be "slaves".