Research On The Silver Honesty System In Qing Dynasty

After ascending the throne,Emperor Yongzheng adopted various of measures to rectify the officials.The silver honesty system was the most remarkable measure.Having noticed that officials' meager treatment had a lot to do with corruption and slack of locals governments,the Emperor initiated the silver honesty system on the combination of existing ideas and the actual situation.The system was aimed at easing national financial restrain,tackling corruption and resolving social conflicts.Before the silver honesty system was carried out,Haoxian was imposed by local officials' own and the standard of Haoxian was set on the basis of regional situation.Therefore,local officials and officials at higher levels had turned Haoxian into financial resource to enrich themselves and corrupt.To improve such situation,the silver honesty system was initiated.The system fixed the levy of Haoxian and submitted all the money received to Chief Secretary.After this,officials were paid dozens of times of their original salary on the basis of officials' ability,regional situation and other factors,which highly increased officials income.Through satisfying officials' life needs,the silver honesty system was expected to make officials do not have illegal motive and finally achieve the effects of clean officials and corruption suppression.Initialed by Emperor Yongzheng and perfected by Emperor Qianlong,the silver honesty system was finally formed as a relatively systematic system.In the early stage of practice,the system had achieve some results.After getting substantial increase of their income,officials' lives were settled and their office expenses were sufficient.Benefited from this,corruption had improved,and the silver had positive results on rectifying the code of conduct and improving local politics.However,with time passed,neither being strictly implemented nor being adjusted with the development of social situation,the silverhonesty system gradually became a mere formality.At the end of Qing Dynasty,due to the changes of internal and external crisis and changes in the economic situation,as well as the inherent disadvantages of the feudal society,the silver honesty system became formalized and gradually collapsed.