Rebirth of the Ming Dynasty: Sixth Generation of Glory, I don't want it

There was the Ming Dynasty.

During the reigns of Hongwu, Yongle, Hongxi and Xuande, the country's overall national strength was still strong.

Although wages are in arrears, they can still be paid.

Ming Renzong, also known as Zhu Gaochi, introduced many welfare benefits during the few months he was in power.

It has to be said that when salaries could barely be paid, there were still many honest officials and everyone still had some moral integrity.

It is recorded in the "History of Ming Dynasty: Biographies of Honest Officials" that the famous honest officials from the Hongwu period to the 60th year of Xuande accounted for five-sixths of the total number of honest officials in the Ming Dynasty.

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Roughly starting from the orthodox era, that is, the Ming Dynasty's God of War, greed has been on the rise.

Officials who adhere to their moral principles and do not want to engage in massive corruption all have a very difficult life.

Really, even if you become an official, you still have to survive——

What we are talking about here is just survival, not life.

During the Ming Dynasty, if an honest official did not have a wealthy family and a powerful wife or family, the money they earned could not even support themselves. They were truly incorruptible and had a poor appearance.

someone said:

"Corrupt officials are everywhere, both inside and outside the court, and they exploit people to the bone. Every time the court sends someone, he is fed. They are cruel and demanding, and there is no limit to their demands. Officials are willing to obey them, fearing that they cannot do enough. Sometimes there are honest and self-disciplined people who do not flatter others, and they will slander them and punish them without any way to prove themselves. Therefore, wherever the envoys go, officials openly bribe people, extort money from the lower classes to flatter the higher ones, as if they are doing business together. How much do the common people have, but they are punished like this by the people inside and outside the court."

"The salary system of our dynasty is much lower than that of previous dynasties. The salaries of officials in the capital and local governments have been slightly increased, but the salaries of other officials, big and small, are no more than two dan of rice per month, which is not enough to feed several people, support their parents, and pay for travel expenses. Where can we get the money? The greedy ones indulge in profit and do private things, while the honest ones are always poor and have no complaints."

"As for the salary, it is to maintain integrity. Now, all officials in the court are actually paid one dan of rice. If we calculate it for one person, his daily expenses are no more than ten days, let alone his parents and wife. I think it is impossible to expect them not to be greedy!"

"For example, if an official has a family of five or six people at the least, or more than ten at the most, their salary is insufficient, so the needs for food, clothing, utensils, and servants must come from the people, which is a great harm. ... Because the state expenditure is huge, the salaries of civil and military officials are reduced by six or seven out of ten, and the income is not enough to cover their expenses."

"The habit of corruption and bribery gradually developed, and by the Zhengde period it had become extremely harmful. Officials were promoted by bribery, and guilty were exempted by bribery. Bribery was rampant under the wheels of the imperial carriage, and counties and prefectures punished people without restraint. The common people suffered so much that it was almost unbearable to talk about it. The people were impoverished, thieves and bandits sprang up, and the country was on the verge of collapse."

"Nowadays, civil officials in various departments outside the capital are assigned to distant posts, and their wives and children accompany them. Those with high salaries receive no more than three dan of rice a month, while those with low salaries receive one or two dan, and many of them are also deducted from their banknotes. During the nine years, they have to pay for the expenses of supporting their parents, traveling, sending gifts to relatives and friends, and living expenses when they are fully rested. If their salaries are not enough, they will inevitably lose their jobs, and many of them will fall into crime."

"The reason why the trend of greed is so firmly ingrained in people's minds today and cannot be shaken off is that salaries are so meager that they cannot even support their families."

“The only thing that is raised is bribery, and everyone uses corruption to serve their superiors.”

"Rites and morals have been lost, and theft is rampant."

The above paragraphs include what officials said and later evaluations.

Extract the core, key words - two shi of rice, one shi of rice, no more than three shi of rice, and the thin ones are one shi or two shi.

All of this means that officials’ salaries are not enough to spend, which leads to corruption and exploitation.

By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, corruption had become the norm.

One is to survive, the other is to fit in.

After Gia Long, the officialdom had become a place where a group of parasites were entrenched. Even if one was a person with ideals and ambitions before becoming an official, once he entered, he would quickly be assimilated either passively or actively.

In addition to the rampant corruption among officials, the number of clerks also rose sharply.

Officials have low salaries and clerks have almost no salary.

As an unpaid temporary worker, the path to becoming an official is blocked.

You can only focus on money.

This article talks about a kind of gray income for officials - the top silver.

Hai Rui, a famous honest official, recorded the amount of silver that the six clerks in Chun'an County received as follows:

The official's salary is ten taels of silver.

The top payment for a household is fifty taels of silver.

The head of the gift room is fifteen taels of silver.

The top salary for the barracks is fifty taels of silver.

The top of the torture chamber is fifty taels of silver.

The workshop costs fifty taels of silver.

Chun'an County was just a small county town in Jiangsu and Zhejiang at that time.

In contrast, the clerks in various government offices in Beijing reported that their paychecks gradually reached hundreds of taels of silver, and the powerful officials in the capital all received thousands of gold.

In addition to the top salary, officials also have a lot of regular income called - regular salary.

Each of the six clerks had its own income. For example, candidates going to Beijing for examinations and transferring files had to pay the clerks' office for regular silver, the court had to pay regular silver to avoid serving in the army, the collection of money, grain, salt and silk had to pay the household office for regular silver, the rites office had to pay students who entered school, and the prison had to pay the criminal office for those who were locked up. The same was true for lawsuits and so on.

Basically, all matters that require dealing with government offices require the corresponding regular silver.

These are only half of the visible income, there is also the black income that is completely invisible.

For example, the Lifang, which appears to be a clean government office, actually often passes off inferior goods as good ones when purchasing materials related to examinations, sacrifices, commendations, and village banquets to make a profit from the price difference. It even helps candidates cheat by changing the appearance of their papers.

For example, in the military camp, you can recruit deserters and strong men, sell and release their true identities, and arrest those with the same name.

For example, in the criminal justice system, if you don’t make any contribution during a lawsuit, you will lose. After taking away the plaintiff, you will take away the defendant. In the end, the winner depends on who gives more.

For example, a construction workshop, which is responsible for various construction projects in the local area, can take the opportunity to extort money from the local residents and falsely report expenses to the higher authorities.

By the late Ming Dynasty, the word "official" had become a tiger.

The Ming Dynasty’s fall was not unjust.