Qing Ji's suicide in Jiaqing period.

In November of the seventh year of Jiaqing (1802), in Guangzhou, an important town in southern Xinjiang, the suicide case of Governor qiāng of Guangdong and Guangxi shocked the ruling and opposition parties. The tragic scene of Qing Ji's suicide is unheard of in the world.

Qing Ji, a native of Zhengbaiqi, Manchuria, was born in an official family. Father officer to general Jiangning, also a minister of rank, supplemented by cabinet officials and students, served as deputy commander-in-chief of Mongolia, an imperial adviser and assistant minister of the Ministry of War. After moving out, he served as the governor of Shandong and Zhejiang. In the first year of Jiaqing (1796), he served as governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. During this period, he made a contribution to the Prince Taibao and was appointed as the co-organizer of the university. Qing Ji's reputation spread far and wide. At that time, Guangdong was the most prosperous area in China, where officials were extravagant, searching for pearls and jade, and returning with a full load. Wei was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi for several years, and he was worthless. Zhao Yun, a contemporary writer, called Qing Ji a "gentle elder" in Xiao Ting Miscellaneous Notes, and recorded that his residence "was built three times in the department, without picking or cutting, only sheltering from the wind and rain. There are only a few chairs, dozens of chairs and some books by Song Ru in the room. All the judges, visitors, daily life and food are in the room, and his house is blocked. " Its reputation for honesty was praised by people at that time.

Qing Ji, the governor of Guangdong Province, committed suicide at the governor's yamen in Khootori. This case is naturally related to Khootori. Khootori and Qing Ji both belong to Manchuria Zhengbai Banner. They joined the Jinshi in Qianlong fifty-two years (1787), where they spent a lot of time reviewing, attending reading and offering wine. Because they came from Hakka in Manchu, they ranked first in the Korean War exam in Jingtang, and they were ordered to walk in the south study room. Since then, he has served as the examiner of the township examination, the marking officer of palace examination, and the vice president after the examination. In the fifth year of Jiaqing (1800), he was transferred to the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and in the seventh year, he was actually awarded the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Hu Tuli, who was born in the imperial examination, should have been elegant and knowledgeable, but he was violent. At that time, there was a joke circulating in the officialdom. When Hutuli was a governor in a certain place, his subordinates went to court and were reprimanded by him for something. Subordinates are scared to tell, and even call themselves confused, damn it. Who knows that the more subordinates call him stupid, the angrier Hutuli gets. He sternly reprimanded his subordinates for being "stupid and rude" and should bear great responsibility. The confused subordinate knew that he had made his name. A joke, look at its temperament. As soon as Hutuli was appointed Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, he fought with Qing Ji for power many times. Although Qing Ji has been tolerant many times, he still can't change his policy. Later, because Qing Ji rightfully turned over the customs tariff surplus of Guangdong Taiping Customs to the public, it benefited from its jealousy. Hutuli had ulterior motives and was afraid of being disintegrated by Qing Ji, so he took the initiative to disintegrate Qing Ji in order to deal with the weak and unfavorable government affairs and find opportunities to kill them.

The opportunity will come soon. In August of the seventh year of Jiaqing, the Heaven Emperor Association (a secret meeting party in the southeast of the early Qing Dynasty) broke out in Boluo County, Guangdong Province, and Qing Ji led the troops to suppress it. During the repression, Qing Ji was constantly condemned by Emperor Jiaqing. At first, the imperial edict accused him of recklessness in repeated reports, and he went to assist the university students; Then he was accused of not taking the lead in prevention as a government official on weekdays, which led to the accident of Tim's brother, and then he was negligent. Because he neglected the former and made the mistake of the latter, he ordered Hu Tuli to be removed from the post of governor of Qing Ji and handed over to Hu Tuli and Na Yancheng, a student from imperial academy, for trial, and Hu Tuli was ordered to be the governor temporarily.

Qing Ji knew Khootori very well and had a premonition of what was coming. In the memorial, he told Jiaqing Emperor, "I'm afraid I've been ill for more than a month, but I hope I can't recover after I get well."

On 1 1 month19th this year, Qing Ji returned to Guangzhou from Huizhou. At that time, Na Yancheng had not yet arrived in Guangdong. On the second day after Qing Ji returned to Guangzhou, Hutuli couldn't wait to spread Qing Ji to the governor's yamen. Qing Ji out of the praetorium, ordered his family to send the seal of the praetorium to the praetorium yamen, and also asked his family to escort his family back to Beijing. From Qing Ji to the governor's office, Hutuli sat in a high position, announced the imperial edict to him, ordered him to put on prison clothes, drank the servants, tied his neck with chains, and ordered his officials to vilify and humiliate him. Qing Ji was fearless and told Hutuli: "Although someone has no talent, he once served as a government. You shouldn't accept his humiliation, it will hurt the country. " Then he drew his sword and tried to kill himself. Hutuli ordered his family to hug him and take the knife down. In desperation, Qing Ji grabbed the snuff bottle on the table, stuffed it into his mouth, swallowed it hard, stopped breathing, and died after a while.

After Qing Ji committed suicide, Hu Tuli wrote a report to the court in the morning, saying, "Governor Qing Ji returned to the province from Huizhou on November 19th and arrived at the minister's office on the 20th. Seeing that he was haggard and mentally exhausted, I asked him if he was ill, but he was not well, so I ordered him to be cured quickly. After hearing the news of Iraq's return to the agency, the heir suddenly fell ill and could not speak, so he died that day. I immediately went to see him personally, passed the defense of the Governor and the Salt Department, checked and accepted all the documents, and acted temporarily. " This paper shows that Hutuli tried to cover up the truth of Qing Ji's death and disguised Qing Ji's forced suicide as a disease.

However, in the eyes of the public, after all, the death of government officials can not be painted casually. Hutuli knew that even in Guangzhou, where the sky was high and the emperor was far away, the truth of Qing Ji's death would one day reach the capital. Twenty days later, Hu Tuli had to report to the imperial court again and changed his name to: "Governor Qing Ji returned from Huizhou on 1 1 month 19, and I went to meet him again. Seeing that he was exhausted and haggard, he asked if he was still ill. I immediately ordered to go back to the department for emergency treatment in order to recover as soon as possible. The 20th has been carved, and the Governor went to the Minister's Office to look back. After chatting for a while, I suddenly fell into a trance ... I pulled out my knife and wanted to commit suicide. I ordered Yi to follow his family and my family, come forward to hold him and take the knife. Yi suddenly stuffed the snuff bottle on the table into his mouth, swallowed it hard and died. I waited with the governor's family. , there is no way to rescue them, is to send people to the department, road, government and county briefing, put them on the sedan chair and carried them back to the governor's office, and told them to find a rescue team quickly. ù (Jù, accident) treatment was ineffective until the day of death. " In this memorial, although Hutuli once again tried to conceal the real situation of his humiliation and abuse of Qing Ji, and distanced himself from this case, the main plot of Qing Ji's death still had to be told as it is.

There are obvious contradictions in the two compromises before and after Hutuli's death. The tragedy of suicide made Emperor Jiaqing "tremble with fear", so Zhu criticized this "strange thing" in the second memorial of Hutuli. Reminiscent of Qing Ji's previous memorial service, there is a saying that "I am afraid that Khootori is cheap and I hope I can't get well." He suspected that Hutuli had something to do with Qing Ji's suicide, so he ordered Na Yancheng to visit and investigate nearby. But under Hu Tuli's netting, Yan Yancheng repeated a piece of paper, making Hu Tuli an innocent person. Na Yancheng said that Qing Ji failed to bring the first offender to justice because of its handling of "bandits", and the families of the victims complained bitterly. Qing Ji was afraid of communication and confused after his illness, so he committed suicide. In the face of the repeated delay in the city, Emperor Jiaqing was still puzzled at first. He knows very well that Qing Ji is an official on weekdays, and he is clean and has a clean reputation. Handle local official business without delay. Even if there is a mistake in the handling of the gago incident, its crime will not be fatal. Qing Ji should know that he was criticized this time, but he was dismissed or sent to work in Xinjiang, and he will be used as the governor in the future. Why did he kill himself in this way? Although Emperor Jiaqing had doubts, he did not intend to find out the truth for a dead and convicted official. Emperor Jiaqing wrote to Qing Ji, "As a court official, the crime is unforgivable, but we must wait and see, and we must not commit suicide privately. It is a kind of self-punishment, that is, Qing Ji's crime, which cannot be pitied." He also said: "Na Yancheng has found out that Qing Ji committed suicide out of fear of sin and has nothing to do with Hutuli. His so-called meanness is a lie he told when he was sick, so there is no need to look it up again. " At the same time, regarding Qing Ji's "negligence" in dealing with the Canadian brothers' meeting, he said "there is no need to investigate his theory". Tell Yan Cheng to tell his family to help the coffin return to the flag. In this way, Emperor Jiaqing seems to have missed an opportunity to strengthen the body and eliminate evil spirits, confusing this "big event" that is not difficult to pursue in the end.

Emperor Jiaqing's confused conclusion on this case is based on the argument that Qing Ji has dealt with the fallacy of the congregation uprising and committed suicide. In fact, Guangdong has serious social problems. As the governor, Hu Tuli can't stay out of it. However, Hutuli's responsibility was investigated only after Qing Ji's death, and he received only a negligible punishment. In the first month of the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803), Na Yancheng participated in Hutuli's oversight of "bandits" in Boluo, causing trouble. Please give it to the Ministry for secret discussion. Emperor Jiaqing believed that Hu Tuli, as the governor, did not know about the uprising of the local congregation, which led to a huge injustice. Just checking the discussion was too light, so I ordered the Ministry to discuss it. Later, Hutuli was demoted and remained in office. In fact, the criminal name of Guangdong, then governor, was even more shady. In counties under Guangdong, local officials abuse the law to harm the people, take prison as punishment, set up private class halls and detain prisoners indiscriminately. There are 3 class libraries and 50 officers' private libraries in a county in Nanhai. Panyu county has a waiting area and an officer-only hall, telephone number 12. He was also allowed to listen to the soldiers and set up wooden fences around the museum to stop those who failed in extortion, resulting in innocent detention and many lives. Even the unfinished female prisoners in each case were sent to the official media collection management, and the name of the women's museum was set up. In the case of young women, the official media forced them to sell rape and get stolen goods. After these serious social problems in Guangdong were exposed, Emperor Jiaqing denounced the former governors, including Hutuli, who had no knowledge of what had happened in the same city recently and acted like a puppet. They were ordered to hand over to the Ministry for strict discussion. The Ministry recommended a fine of two years. Emperor Jiaqing was sentenced to three years' fine for Hutuli's longest reign and heavy responsibility. At this time, it was the tenth year of Jiaqing (1805), and Hu Tuli had been transferred to the governor of Hubei.

Hutuli is in Jiaqing, and his career is accessible. Although Emperor Jiaqing thought that he was not a courageous, knowledgeable and talented person, he still entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. He served as the official department, the household department, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Rites, and was transferred to Tibet. Until his death in December in the 19th year of Jiaqing (18 14).

The ending of Qing Ji's suicide case and the different fates of Qing Ji and Khootori during Jiaqing period show the real situation of official management during Jiaqing period. Those who are honest and self-disciplined are not protected, and those who strive for power and profit are thriving. It is inevitable that the corruption of official management in Jiaqing Dynasty can not be stopped.