Why didn't the "bus reform" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties go on?

A bus, as its name implies, is a car used by public officials. In ancient times, no cars were their means of transportation, such as carriages and sedan chairs.

This kind of "bus" is not only a means of transportation for officials, but also a symbol of official status and ostentation and extravagance. Generally speaking, the greater the power, the better the car; People with ordinary rights take ordinary cars.

Interested friends can learn about the development history of ancient buses in China. You will find that the cars used by officials of past dynasties, such as cars and sedan chairs, are not public or private. Once the vehicles are issued, they are completely used by the officials in charge and become absolute personal belongings, thus contributing to the corruption and extravagance of the officialdom.

Especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were not a few officials who took eight sedan chairs to soak in restaurants and visit brothels. At the same time, a large number of ancient buses have become an increasingly serious financial burden for the country.

On the occasion of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, a commoner, publicly declared war on "bus" corruption and formulated a series of regulations.

According to the four-year order of Jingtai in the annals of the imperial government of Ming Dynasty, those who are above the third class in Beijing have to take a sedan chair. In the seventh year of Hongzhi, the rule of civil and military officials was that four people would sit in a sedan chair. The fifth house is in charge of guarding the palace, officials, officials, officials, princes, etc. , regardless of age, are not allowed to sit in a sedan chair, illegally sitting in a sedan chair, people who make good use of the eight characters have heard about it. Gai didn't want to give up his riding and shooting. Although I went to the public, I would ride a horse when I went out. "

In other words, it is stipulated that only civil servants with three or more products are allowed to ride in sedan chairs carried by four people, and all other officials are allowed to travel by horse; Xun You, military attache, regardless of age, are not allowed to sit in a sedan chair; Those who illegally ride a sedan chair and use a sedan chair for eight people without authorization will be severely punished. This set of regulations was thoroughly implemented at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, but it didn't work later.

With the decline of the Ming Dynasty, the supervision in this area began to go from bad to worse, and some officials began to sit in sedan chairs again, and it was getting bigger and bigger. Not only traitors, but also loyal ministers. Take the first and second Zhang in Wanli as an example. He went home to attend the funeral, and the sedan chair he sat in was so big that you were amazed.

According to relevant historical records, Zhang's trip to his hometown can be described as magnificent: the recorded sedan chair was carried by 32 bearers and divided into bedroom and guest room, with two boys waiting on it. Among the guards who followed, the most striking thing was a group of shotguns, which were given by the company commander Qi Jiguang. The shotguns were still a fashionable firearm at that time.

Such a big sedan chair, I'm afraid it ranks high at home and abroad. Zhang struggled to get such a big sedan chair from Beijing to Jiangling unimpeded. In this journey of thousands of miles, "five steps and one well clear the road dust; Ten steps to prepare a tea stove ",widen the road, strengthen the bridge, try to move the crowd, and disturb countless officials and people at one time."

After the Qing dynasty entered the customs, it was also stipulated that Manchu ministers in Beijing were not allowed to sit in sedan chairs, regardless of military and political affairs, but only allowed to ride horses; If a civil servant can't ride a horse because of old age or illness, he must go through the examination and approval before taking a sedan chair; Han civil servants can take sedan chairs. However, because the capital is too big, officials live far away from their work places, so if they want to go to work by sedan chair, they have to prepare two classes of sedan chairs and replace them halfway, so the annual cost is huge.

Therefore, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties all devoted themselves to the "bus reform" and encouraged Manchu ministers to change to lighter and cheaper means of transportation, so the scene of Beijing officials getting off work by mule car soon appeared. However, the big sedan chairs of those senior officials can still be kept. When they need to show off their elegance at home, it is good to spend two yuan to hire a few sedan chairs to carry them temporarily.

However, according to the records in the General Examination of Qing Dynasty Literature, this ban was broken as early as Kangxi, and it became a common phenomenon to sit in a sedan chair during the Qianlong period. Emperor Qianlong reprimanded many times for this, but it didn't work at all.

On the whole, the "bus reform" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was basically tight before loosening, and it was anticlimactic, so it was impossible to carry out the reform to the end. Should we learn some historical lessons from this phenomenon now?