"Donghualu" said: "There were Qing officials during the Kangxi period, but there were no Qing officials during the Yongzheng period. This statement is not unfounded, but roughly reflects the different ideas of the two monarchs and the official customs that come from it.

Kangxi vigorously commended Qing officials, and most of the famous Qing officials in the Qing Dynasty came from this time; Yongzheng changed the prosperity of honesty to the maintenance of honesty, and one-sidedly relied on punishment and prevention measures, although it had a temporary effect, but buried the hidden danger of the decline of officialdom.

The problem of corruption in the administration of officials was a chronic disease of the feudal dynasties of all dynasties, which not only made the people of Li feel embarrassed, but also the most headache for the supreme ruler.

They tried everything possible to prevent it, but the result was that they couldn't prevent it. For example, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, established heavy regulations and imposed severe punishments, but he could not eradicate corruption.

By the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi was still lenient and benevolent, and adopted quite a different approach. He believes that stepping up picketing and punishing corrupt officials is only a passive anti-blocking measure, and that it is wise to train clean officials.

Kangxi attaches great importance to the investigation of the moral character of his subordinates, and usually pays attention to understanding the reputation of officials at all levels through channels such as secret folds, and also takes advantage of opportunities such as patrols to listen to public opinion.

Kangxi knew that Qing officials were upright and upright, and they were easy to be killed by traitors, so they often protected them. Kangxi also deliberately publicized the deeds of Qing officials with great fanfare, intending to make officials all over the world follow suit.

For example, when Jackie Chan died of illness, Kangxi gave the prince Taibao, and ordered the local ancestral hall to be built, and the imperial book

The four words of "high line purity" and the couplet are given to his descendants. At that time, some officials forbade the people to erect moral and political monuments for Qing officials, but Kangxi disagreed.

He said: "If all local officials, big or small, are good at standing in official positions, they cannot stop even if they want to prohibit the people from erecting monuments. He believes that the gratitude of the people is an encouragement and reward for the Qing officials.

"As an official, honesty is the first priority. It is very happy to be a clean official, not only the people are admired for a while, that is, after leaving office, the people remember the corpse of the ancestral hall, isn't it a grand event? "Kangxi's thought and practice of Shangde and Xinglian's rule of officials have achieved certain results, and Qing officials have become a banner of their governance

"Swear not to take a single penny from the people", and strictly prohibit the donation of subordinates; Famous ministers Yu Jackie Chan was reluctant to eat meat for many years, and only ate vegetables, so he got a nickname

"Yu Qingcai"; Chen Ying is the governor of the country, but he is usually reluctant to eat meat.

"His hardship is unbearable for people's affection", Kangxi called him in front of the ministers

"Ascetic Old Monk"; At that time, Zhang Pengxi, Shi Shilun, Cai Shiyuan, Chen Pengnian, Guo Xiu and so on were also known for their incorruptibility.

Of course, there were many Qing officials in the Kangxi Dynasty, and officials who were corrupt and perverted the law also appeared from time to time, especially in the later period, for officials at all levels to neglect to inspect and punish corruption, and the officialdom atmosphere was quite criticized by later generations.

After Yongzheng ascended the throne, he changed his father's lenient style

"Strict" inspectors and fierce politics. He vigorously rectified the rule of officials, checked the deficit of money and grain, severely punished the corrupt officials who were verified, recovered the stolen money, and confiscated the family property; It also changed the prosperity of honesty to the maintenance of honesty and implemented it

"Exhaustion and envy return to the public", and officials extract from it according to their rank

"Keeping honest money" and giving officials reasonable remuneration will make it impossible to justify corruption. Yongzheng's genius lies in the fact that he not only punished a large number of corrupt officials and corrupt officials, but also resorted to institutional guarantees while increasing the punishment, which was quite effective in purging officials.

However, Yongzheng also made a mistake. On the issue of dealing with Qing officials, he ran counter to his father everywhere.

In his opinion,

"A clean official who cleans himself and does not serve the public is more harmful than a person with ordinary conduct." Kangxi hoped to advocate an honest officialdom atmosphere by supporting, protecting, and praising clean officials, and pay attention to identifying officials' integrity and achievements through public opinion.

Yongzheng believes that

"Public opinion is not credible", and even those who are praised by public opinion must be those who sell fame and reputation, deceive the world and treacherous; Those who are attacked by others and are isolated and helpless should be cared for.

Yongzheng is convinced

"The evils of corrupt officials are easy to eliminate, but the evils of clean officials are difficult to eliminate." In order to completely eliminate the habit of good names of officials, he changed the practice of the Kangxi period, forbidding the people to retain retired officials and build ancestral monuments for them.

Yongzheng relied too much on capable personnel and despised clean officials, and this overkill measure also had negative consequences.

Qianlong greatly strengthened Yongzheng's tendency to emphasize ability over virtue and talent over defense. He not only despised clean officials, but also hated all officials who were suspected of selling their reputations, and absolutely could not tolerate courtiers who used integrity and integrity to gain a clean name.

After the middle of the Qianlong period, the moral self-discipline of scholars and doctors became increasingly relaxed, and the Qing officials were not known in the world. Later, although the system of maintaining honesty has been used, officials at all levels no longer regard honesty and integrity as a discipline, and although they are afraid of strict laws for a while and dare not go out of line, they ignore the tempering and punishment of character, and have buried the hidden danger of the gradual decline of officialdom.

Many people think that the Qing Dynasty was too corrupt because of their low fortunes, but in fact, this only sees one side of the problem. Yongzheng was not able to solve this problem, and the Kangxi Dynasty, which did not maintain integrity, happened to have a lot of clean officials, which shows that the moral character and social atmosphere of officials are also very important, and only by combining the tempering and promotion of moral atmosphere with reasonable institutional guarantees can we achieve practical results.

(According to "Guangming Daily" Huhua/text)