Why was Yongzheng able to refresh the civil service, but Jiaqing was not?

Because reforming officialdom cannot be achieved by simply fighting corruption, relying on Shang Fang’s sword to fight corruption has always been a joke.

Yongzheng’s anti-corruption campaign was successful because he successfully implemented several major political reforms, which brought institutional dividends; while Jiaqing was unable to make any targeted institutional reforms due to various reasons. Anti-corruption has naturally become a joke.

This is the biggest difference between Yongzheng and Jiaqing.

Let’s take a look at the five things that Yongzheng did: returning the fire to the public, returning the land to the locals, dividing the land into acres, establishing the Military Aircraft Department, and establishing the Integrity Silver System. The Military Aircraft Department It was to centralize power and seize power from nobles such as the Eight Lords and the Manchu banner lords; to return the land to the locals was to strengthen unification; and to return the fire to the public, to raise the honest silver, and to share the land with the peasants was to rebuild the national financial system in Yongzheng, and anti-corruption could The key to success.

Corruption has two roots: desire and lack of supervision. Lack of supervision will inevitably lead to corruption. However, during the Yongzheng and Jiaqing eras, and even for five thousand years of China's history, it relied on reports and revelations between the Yushitai and officials, and the effect was not obvious.

Yongzheng was able to successfully fight corruption, and the foundation for success was to return the money to the public and share the land with the family. Of these two things, the former nationalized the profit space in tax collection and expanded the tax base. This was the most important reason for the success of the Yongzheng Dynasty's anti-corruption campaign.

Those who spend money on fire will be added to the regular amount of money and food. Because of the original nature of the silver, the sales were not without loss, and the transportation and transportation fees were levied by the prefecture and county, so a slight surplus had to be taken to make up for the loss. The more severe ones, the less money, and the less severe ones, the remaining money. As it went on for a long time, the prefectures and counties focused on the people, and the superiors were harsh on the prefectures and counties. When there was official business, they sent additional private expeditions. They had many names and colors, and it was not just a heavy waste.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the so-called fire consumption means that the Qing government collected taxes and returned them to the treasury in silver taels. However, the common people did not have silver taels, so they could only pay in kind or copper coins or even miscellaneous silver. If they were escorted to the central government, they would have to be exchanged for coins. Official ingot. Cast silver must suffer wear and tear. This loss leaves room for manipulation. Because the country had not clearly stipulated before, there were one point, two points, and even seven or eight points. The heavier the fire consumption was, the heavier the burden was on the people, but the country did not get any benefits. The fire consumption was levied by local governments and officials. Greedy.

Returning fire consumption to the public means that this part of the investment and income will be directly returned to the central government, without giving local governments the opportunity to operate in secret, which is equivalent to an increase in central tax revenue.

It is easier to understand the concept of dividing a small portion into an acre. Before that, all Chinese dynasties collected capitation tax, or head tax. There are many detailed rules on how many people should be taxed, so I won’t list them here.

This creates several problems. First, the peasant families were destitute, but they had to pay taxes because they had people, and they forced countless people to death; while the big families had a lot of land and property, and even if they paid taxes on a per capita basis, they could not pay much; in addition, in many dynasties, officials and gentry (those with meritorious titles) They can all be exempted from taxes according to various conditions. Many ordinary people were forced to have no choice but to take the initiative to hand over their land to the officials and gentry, and changed from self-cultivating farmers to tenants, just to pay less tax and have a way to survive.

However, they are hidden in the big households, which do not pay taxes. Now the taxes of the farmers have been turned into rent and given to the big households, resulting in a huge waste of national tax revenue, and the head tax has magnified the injustice. .

So Yongzheng established this system of "tenants per mu", which meant that if there were only one person in the family, there would be no need to pay taxes; large families had more assets and more land, so paying taxes per mu was of course more fair, and the tax revenue would naturally increase greatly.

Don’t think I’m going too far here.

Everything you do requires money, and Yongzheng’s anti-corruption campaign also requires money. The national treasury is full, and both the imperial censor and the anti-corruption agency can afford to support it; depriving the officials of their troubles in dealing with fire expenses, the Yanglianyin came into being. After all, a slap in the face still has to be given a date, and they have to rely on them to do things.

Being big and small is the key to the success of Yongzheng’s anti-corruption campaign.

It is equivalent to the money obtained through corruption and fire consumption in the past, and now it has become fire consumption and silver. Although it is not as much as before, it is now taken openly and honestly. Coupled with Yongzheng's high-pressure policy and the confiscation of the emperor's family, It can be said that the trend of corruption has been stopped.

In other words, Yongzheng's anti-corruption campaign was not only successful by relying on iron and blood, but also relying on substantial policy adjustments. This is also the reason why Yongzheng's reputation among the people has been getting better and better over the years.

But by the Jiaqing Dynasty, Jiaqing had no room for maneuver.

Looking back, Yongzheng’s anti-corruption campaign was actually about increasing revenue and diversion, turning part of the gray income into integrity-supporting silver, increasing the enthusiasm of officials, and cooperating with the anti-corruption campaign.

In the Jiaqing period, how will he open up the flow?

He had no choice. His father, Yongzheng's son, Qianlong, through the operation of Heshen's genius class, did a lot of work on mining (Gejiu Copper Mine) and other aspects, mainly on the criminal silver and donation system. Increasing his father's income was a major event that benefited both the people and the officials. Qianlong's donation was a public statement to the world that he could go directly to the court to buy an official position; the crime banker said that corruption was okay, and if he was corrupt, he would give out part of it. Give your income to the court and you will be cleansed.

Having already made money to this extent, how else can Jiaqing make money?

Not only was there no way to make money, but his father’s two genius policies of collecting donations and paying for crimes made it impossible for him to fight corruption even if he wanted to. It's a serious matter. The worst case scenario is that I'll pay for my crime. What can you do to me?

Therefore, if Jiaqing wants to fight corruption, it must first abolish the donation system and the crime settlement system, but the "ancestral family laws" cannot be touched. Those with vested interests will never let Jiaqing cancel these policies, and Jiaqing has always Known for his filial piety, it was impossible for him to brave the world to change the policies of his emperor.

As for open source, there is actually a good way. After all, Magerni has been coming to see his father for decades. By relaxing the maritime ban and strengthening international trade, the income that tariffs can bring is far greater than that of the stallholders. Enter acres. It's a pity that Jiaqing doesn't have this insight, let alone the courage.

The Qing Customs was created by foreigners, and the first customs chief tax officer Hurd was a product of the British and French forces.

Of course, the introduction of public opinion supervision tools such as newspapers and the reform of the political system, such as the introduction of a parliamentary system like the late Qing Dynasty, will all help Jiaqing's anti-corruption campaign. But neither Jiaqing nor his son, Daoguang, had this talent, insight, or courage.

So we can only indulge in corruption and be helpless, and the government is achieved through bribery. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Opium War, and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 are the most direct results.

It’s hard to get back, it takes great courage.