In the fifty-sixth year of Kangxi, Huang Bai, the governor of Jiangxi Province, reported the income of local bad regulations to the emperor in his memorial. Huang Bai specifically listed five bad regulations in Jiangxi Province: First, the money paid by subordinate officials during the New Year holidays is about 5,200 yuan per year. Second, the grain Cao Gui provided by the yamen costs 4,200 yuan every year. Third, according to the customs regulations, it is dispatched by two tax customs within the jurisdiction, with an annual fee of 2420. The fourth is the salt gauge, which is issued by the salt government, with an annual income of 12 thousand. Fifth, money and grain are equal to silver, and it is 8,200 yuan a year.
It can be clearly seen from this list that the courtesy received by Huang Bai consists of two parts: etiquette and etiquette. The so-called rules are the money sent by subordinate departments in the name of departments, while the so-called gifts are sent by officials in their personal capacity.
Where does the money for rules and ceremonies come from? The source of laws and regulations, in today's words, is the arbitrary charges of various departments, which used to be called consumption envy or collection.
In the Qing dynasty, state officials and county officials had the right to collect taxes directly. Because there is no strict supervision system, when they collect taxes from the people, they usually charge more than the amount stipulated by the state. For the overcharged part, you should give your boss some fat meat, which is called money, grain and silver.
In addition to state and county officials, some power departments also have large incomes. For example, customs and tax authorities will receive a large amount of tax revenue. The same is true of them, charging more money under various excuses. Among them, those handed over to the superior are called customs regulations, those handed over by the grain supply house are called Cao regulations, and those handed over by the salt supply house are called salt regulations. In short, as long as there is oil and water in the department, it is necessary to give the superiors some fat. Otherwise, the superior will be cut off.
As for gifts, it refers to the gifts given by officials to their superiors during the Chinese New Year holidays. In the officialdom of Qing dynasty, there were many kinds of gifts that grass-roots officials had to give to their superiors, so they had to set up special account books for statistics. They give at least five kinds of gifts a year.
First, the meeting ceremony, the boss has just arrived, and the subordinates are going to pay homage and send a meeting ceremony.
The second is the festival ceremony, that is, giving gifts on holidays. In three important traditional festivals, namely Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, subordinates must give gifts to their superiors.
The third is the gift money, that is, the gift money given by the boss's family at weddings, funerals and birthdays, such as the birthday of the official's wife and parents, and the gift money of the official's son and grandson.
The fourth kind is a thank-you gift, which is a gift to thank the boss for his promotion, which is what we are talking about now.
The fifth is the departure ceremony corresponding to the inauguration ceremony, which is sent when the boss is promoted and transferred.
Together, rules and rituals are the so-called bad rules. Over time, these regulations and gifts have formed a fixed amount and become a disguised financial system. Every official has to accept it, and if he doesn't accept it, he will have no money to work.
Even the famous upright official Lin Zexu openly accepted the bad rules. In the twenty-sixth year of Daoguang, there was a great famine in Shaanxi, and the local tax revenue was greatly reduced, which led to the closure of the national commissary. However, Zhang, a grain merchant in Shaanxi Province, said in the Record of Dao County Officials' Sea that the governor's regulations were delivered as usual this year, and the governor of Shaanxi was Lin Zexu. How much did Lin earn this year? Zhang said that every quarter, 1,322 taels of silver, three birthdays, table gifts, water gifts, door bags, miscellaneous fees, etc. are all over ten thousand years. Zhang's yamen route for providing foodstuff gives Lin Zexu twelve thousand pieces of silver every year.
No matter how serious the natural and man-made disasters are, Lin Zexu's bad rules ensure drought and flood. It is hard to imagine that Lin Zexu would put people's lives at risk for himself. This case can only be interpreted as: without this bad rule, Lin Zexu's personal life and the daily operation of the governor's office could not continue. This example shows that bad rules are actually an indispensable fixed income to maintain the operation of local governments.
The emperor also showed a rare tolerance for bad rules. Because the law is not clear, bad regulations are of course illegal. However, because the state finance does not leave room for local expenditures, it is actually impossible to severely punish this established behavior.
In September of the forty-eighth year of Kangxi, the emperor expressed a high degree of understanding for officials to accept bad rules. In an imperial edict to the governor of Henan, he said:
The so-called honest official does not mean taking nothing. If you have nothing to give, then you will often live in daily life and work with your family. How do you make a living? If the state and county officials stop taking a point of fire consumption and don't take it, they are called good officials. If all are corrected, it will be difficult for officials to participate.
Since there was no financial review system in the Qing Dynasty, it was entirely up to the conscience of officials to decide how many bad rules to collect. But conscience is unreliable, and bad rules bring great convenience to corruption. For example, Governor Liangjiang collected 40,000 bad rules a year, which was enough to spend, but it was much more than the last time, and finally collected182,000. 42,000 yuan was used for office work, and the extra142,000 yuan went into the pocket.