Natural disasters occurred frequently in the early Qing Dynasty, but Emperor Kangxi achieved great achievements!

Disasters achieved Kangxi’s great achievements

◇ Yang Dongxiao

Natural disasters have destroyed prosperous dynasties and destroyed countless human civilizations, but during China’s Xia and Yu periods, the Han Dynasty As well as the frequent natural disasters in the early Qing Dynasty, they sharpened the spirit of self-improvement and national cohesion. The Communist Party of China overcame the difficulties and rejuvenated the country through many difficulties, which became a huge spiritual wealth left to China by the disaster.

Internal strife and foreign aggression continued

The period of Kangxi's rule in China was an era of continuous territorial expansion and wars stretching from east to west. Yang Zhen, a researcher at the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that in terms of civil wars, there were the battles to regain Taiwan in the southeast, and the long-term war against the rebellion of Galdan of the Junggar Khanate in the west and northwest borders (in 1720, Kangxi returned to pacify the Junggar tribe to Tibet, and in the 59th year of Kangxi's reign, a "stele for the imperial pacification of Tibet" was erected in Lhasa); externally, it was a war with Tsarist Russia. In the war against Galdan, Kangxi personally conquered three times. He wrote in his "work diary" of his first western expedition to Galdan in 1696: In the first battle of Galdan, I got up for the fifth time before dawn to observe, walked on horseback, and crossed the camp. On this day, he came back to camp at about 11 o'clock in the evening, so he only ate some leftovers from the day.

In addition, there was the "War of the Three Feudatories" that broke out in 1673 (the three vassals were Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi and Geng Zhongming), which was a protracted and destructive war. Extremely powerful war.

A benevolent monarch

In the early years of Kangxi, in order to restore the economic situation destroyed by war, the Communist Party of China implemented many benevolent policies to encourage reclamation of wasteland and development of production. As a monarch, Kangxi's tolerance and kindness were not only reflected in the measures to restore people's lives, but also reflected in the harsh wars.

Yang Qilong, the leader of the anti-Qing armed forces, conspired with Huang Ji, Chen Yi and more than 30 people in Beijing to raise an army in the twelfth year of Kangxi's reign, falsely calling himself Prince Zhu San. The Eight Banners Army severely suppressed Yang's uprising. Many people fled outside the city during the war, and some people even followed Yang Qilong.

After the rebellion was quelled, Kangxi granted amnesty to everyone except the rebel leaders. He knew very well that the Qing court would never be able to calculate how many people were involved in the case; nor could it be blamed on the common people. He issued an order to the Minister of War, requiring officers at all levels to use more appeasement methods to govern. His reason was that people in backward areas who followed the rebels instinctively cherished their lives because they were unable to resist. If the Qing army killed them, it would go against the emperor's wish to save the people and deprive them of the opportunity to reform. Kangxi required officers and soldiers that if they encountered rampant bandit resistance or refused to surrender, they could kill people, but their children and women must be taken in and comforted, and they must not kill innocent people indiscriminately, nor arrest anyone without reason.

One thing that made Kangxi proud was that he was reminded many times by his ministers that he could not send Navy Admiral Shi Lang to command the war against Taiwan - Shi Lang was a minister of the Ming Dynasty. If he was given troops and ships, He is likely to take the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty. Kangxi sent Shi Lang to see him and said frankly: Some people expect you to rebel as soon as you arrive in Taiwan, but in my opinion, only you can conquer Taiwan, and I can guarantee that you will not rebel.

Kangxi was right, Shi Lang quickly stood up and proved himself a loyal general. His entire family was loyal to the Kangxi dynasty.

In Mengxia 1697, Kangxi heard the news that Galdan was forced to commit suicide in the northwest camp far away from the capital. He truthfully recorded his thoughts: In the past few years, I have been on three personal expeditions, crossing the desert in the wind and rain, and eating the sun. In this desolate desert, people think that they are suffering hardship, but I don't think so. Everyone can avoid these things, but I can't avoid them. Continuous marching and fighting and diligent work have enabled me to achieve great results - if it were not for Galdan, I would never have realized these.

The master of anti-disaster policies

This is an emperor who has been tested throughout his life. Even if there is no war, there will be frequent disasters. He Zhiqing said that disasters were too frequent during the Kangxi years, so "famine policy" (policies and laws on how to provide disaster relief) almost became a basic national policy. On the basis of the "Qing Dynasty and Ming Dynasty", Emperor Kangxi formulated a new disaster relief system, which became a masterpiece of disaster relief measures in China's past dynasties.

In order to fully grasp the disaster situation in various places, Kangxi changed the Ming Dynasty's annual disaster reporting in the fifth lunar month, to the summer disaster reporting period in June, and in the autumn disaster reporting period in September. During the Kangxi rule, the territory expanded northward. A lot, so the actual situation of late summer grain harvest in the northern region is taken into account. After receiving the report, the central government will send people to investigate the disaster, and then exempt (tax exemption). The national grain depot allocates grain to disaster areas to stabilize and contain grain shortages to prevent post-disaster food price increases.

Those who have collapsed houses will be given maintenance fees, those who have lost relatives will be given pensions, and they will be given porridge and medicine for several months or even half a year, but this is not always a long-term solution. For the long-term resettlement of disaster victims, Kangxi adopted the method of immigration, and Sichuan was a major province where disaster victims immigrated. After having a place to stay, the government began to introduce money, grain and seed loan policies to ensure that the victims would have a harvest in the coming year.

As for Kangxi himself, he paid great attention to the reports about normal and abnormal weather coming from various places. He Zhiqing said that Kangxi was a king who was good at learning. He learned some common sense about weather observation from Western missionaries and understood the importance of recording weather conditions, so he arranged for trusted followers across the country to help him observe and record. In the summer of the 32nd year of Kangxi's reign, a severe drought hit Huaixu and Jiangnan, and it did not rain until the middle of the sixth lunar month. Because the weather is always closely related to the grain harvest and the price of rice, Kangxi always asks for details when he sees people coming from the south, "sleeping and eating restlessly".

Kangxi also studied the weather himself. He excerpted regular phenomena from the Qingming Wind and Rain Record, which recorded daily precipitation in the Qing Dynasty, and believed that weather forecasts could be made from it. At that time, Kangxi roughly summarized: It rains on the eighth, eighteenth, twentieth, twenty-second, and twenty-fourth days of each month in the lunar calendar; the moonlight can be seen on the ninth to fifteenth days of each month, and if there is cloud cover In March, there will be a storm that will last for several days. In order to accurately judge the direction of the wind, Kangxi also erected a small flag at his residence. He recorded his observations and thoughts and compared them with weather reports from various places. This can be regarded as a special way of diligence for the monarch of a large agricultural country.

The years when Kangxi was in power were also decades when people of all ethnic groups in the country jointly resisted natural and man-made disasters. Neither he nor his people were defeated. He Zhiqing commented on the disaster-ridden Kangxi era in this way: The central government created a clean government project during disaster relief and worked hard to establish an image of an honest government; Kangxi attached great importance to the "kaocheng" (government affairs evaluation) system for officials, and he himself It was also an excellent "success" in the eyes of the Manchus, Han people and people of all ethnic groups, which played a key role in the reconciliation of social conflicts and social harmony in the early Qing Dynasty. Through constant fighting against disasters, personal expeditions to quell chaos, and taking the lead in regulating the Yellow River, Kangxi gained a huge spiritual wealth, which was the cohesion of various ethnic groups, the sense of identity and centripetal force of the country.

This article was originally published in "New Century Weekly"

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