Why does Qianlong love Jiangnan?

Emperor Kangxi visited Jiangnan six times, and Emperor Qianlong followed the example of his ancestors and visited Jiangnan six times. Gan Long thinks that he has done two great things in his life: one is to "learn from the west", lead the army to the west and pacify the northwest; The other is "southern tour", which has visited Jiangnan six times in the past 30 years. It can be seen that Jiangnan has great significance to Qianlong.

Under the conditions at that time, it was a huge project for the emperor to go to Jiangnan. It's 6000 miles from Beijing to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. At that time, there were no modern means of transportation, all of them were loaded by car and transported by horse, which took at least three to five months. Every time the emperor went on patrol, he led two or three thousand people, including royalty, civil and military officials, guards and so on. He used five or six thousand horses, four or five hundred cars and thousands of boats, and spent twelve million taels of silver. Gan Long was 74 years old when he visited the South for the sixth time. It's not easy to travel for so long. Then why did the emperor take the trouble to make a continuous southern tour?

According to emperor Qianlong's own explanation, he went to Jiangnan for four reasons: first, the officials and people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang sincerely welcomed him; Second, the DPRK and China officials have repeatedly suggested; Third, Jiangsu and Zhejiang people are rich in production and important in position, so we should personally inspect the people's feelings and military affairs; Fourth, pay homage to mother and visit places of interest to show filial piety. These statements are just a kind of red tape. In fact, Qianlong has more important and profound intentions in his heart.

First, there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are China's famous land of plenty, fertile soil, industrial and commercial center and wealth town. It was the main "grain bag" and "cash box" in the Qing Dynasty, which maintained the economic lifeline of the imperial court. At that time, Jiangsu and Zhejiang paid 38% grain tax, 29% tax and 50% tariff. At that time, salt and silver were the second largest financial source after land tax. More than 60% of the salt silver comes from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the salt merchants in Yangzhou alone hand in as much as 6 million taels of salt silver every year. Two-thirds of the 4 million stone grains that Beijing needs every year are transported from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Beijing. Without the huge financial support of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it is impossible to create a prosperous and prosperous scene. During each southern tour, in addition to ensuring these normal treasury revenues, emperors and dignitaries also made a lot of private money from officials and wealthy businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces by means of apportionment, sponsorship, buying and selling officials, extortion and bribery. It can be said that firmly controlling Jiangsu and Zhejiang and fully mobilizing the local rich financial and material resources to support the huge Qing Empire are the primary reasons for the prosperity of Jiangnan.

Second, there are many talented people in Jiangnan, and there have been many affairs since ancient times. Jiangnan is a place with outstanding people and talented people. Among the top 1 14 in the Qing Dynasty, 49 were from Jiangsu, accounting for 43%. Jiangnan Gongyuan, located in Nanjing, is the largest imperial examination room in China, with more than 20,000 candidates. More than half of the top scholars in the Qing Dynasty came from Gongyuan in Jiangnan. An important purpose of Ganlong's trip to the south of the Yangtze River is to find talents for Anbang, cultivate scholars and win the hearts of the people. Qianlong's six southern tours did discover a large number of politicians, scholars, academic leaders and writers in the south of the Yangtze River. Every time on his southern tour, Gan Long met with scholars, celebrities and gentlemen, and personally put forward the examination. Those who performed well in the exam were specially awarded the title of "Juren" and were awarded official positions on the spot, so as to win over celebrities and spread the grace.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty were also places where there were many immigrants in the late Ming Dynasty, and the anti-Qing thought had a broad market. When Qianlong made his southern tour, on the one hand, he adopted the means of appeasement to win over the literati; On the other hand, we also strictly controlled our thinking, severely cracked down on intellectuals with different political views and launched a literary inquisition. The Qing dynasty was the most prosperous period of literary inquisition in history, and it was the highest peak when Qianlong was in power. The absurdity of the charges, the breadth of the involvement and the cruelty of the means far exceed Kangxi and Yongzheng. Gan Long's high cultural literacy has contributed to his cultural nervousness and paranoia. A typical literary inquisition is that after Qianlong first went to Jiangnan, someone pretended to be a minister and criticized extravagance, serious disturbance to the people, unfair rewards and punishments, and so on. Ganlong went to the south of the Yangtze River and was furious. He ordered to trace the producer and disseminator of this fake manuscript throughout the country. Countless people have been detained, dismissed and beheaded.

Third, Jiangnan is an important hometown of water conservancy and floods. Especially in northern Jiangsu, where the Yellow River, Huaihe River and canals meet, such as Hongze Lake and gaoyou lake are all "hanging lakes". Once flooded, Huai 'an, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong and Yancheng are all Wang Yang. Gan Long said in The Journey to the West: "Six trips to Jiangsu and Zhejiang are essential to people's livelihood, and nothing is more important than a levee. You must visit it yourself. " Repairing the bank every year and fixing the river works in the Qing Dynasty accounted for110 of the national financial expenditure, which was the largest capital construction project at that time. Every time he goes to the south of the Yangtze River, Gan Long will visit the Hongze Lake Basin to inspect the flood control project. During the six expeditions to the south, Qianlong * * * issued hundreds of water control orders, implemented a number of major water conservancy projects, and used tens of millions of silver, which played an important role in reducing floods and protecting rural life.

Fourth, Jiangnan is a "land of flowers and flowers, a gentle and rich town". Beautiful mountains and rivers, rich human resources, and many beautiful women. In the words of Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, it is: "Good mountains and good waters, good winds and good moons, and splendid land for generations to come;" Idiot, infatuation, infatuation for generations. " During the Qianlong period, the cities on both sides of the Yangtze River Canal were prosperous and popular. At that time, there were ten metropolises with a population of over 500,000 in the world, and Jiangsu occupied the third place ―― Nanjing, Yangzhou and Suzhou. Nanjing people call it "the land of beauty in the south of the Yangtze River, the home of Jinling emperors", with ten miles of Qinhuai, nine songs of Jinbo, six dynasties of gold powder, and a curtain of quiet dreams. Suzhou gardens are world-famous; Su embroidery is great. Coupled with small bridges and flowing water, white walls and tiles are full of poetry and painting. Yangzhou is full of wealthy businessmen, beautiful scenery, beautiful women and delicious food. "Rich, riding a crane to Yangzhou" shows that Yangzhou was a famous dream capital, leisure capital and consumption capital at that time. When the emperor came to Jiangnan, he enjoyed himself, enjoyed himself, ate delicious food and bought it with satisfaction. Of course he enjoys it and frequents it.

Gan Long has a soft spot for Jiangnan gardens. Every time he goes to Jiangnan, he will bring some painters to paint some famous gardens in Jiangnan. Then it was imitated in Beijing Summer Palace, Forbidden City, chengde mountain resort, Suzhou Lion Forest, Hangzhou West Lake Ten Scenes, Wuxi Chicken Farm Garden, Zhenjiang Jinshan Temple and other gardens.

Fifth, the emperor's patrol, safety first. Without Shan Ye in Jiangsu, it is difficult for thieves to hide. In particular, Jiangsu people are docile and obedient, not crazy, not unruly, enjoying themselves and living a relatively rich life. They belong to the kind of place where "the granary knows etiquette, food and clothing know honor and disgrace", and they are rare civic areas, docile areas and public security model areas. When the emperor comes here, the danger is less and the safety can be guaranteed.

People have different opinions about Qianlong's six trips to the south of the Yangtze River since ancient times. Even then, the ruling and opposition parties had many doubts about Gan Long's extravagance, pursuit of luxury, emphasis on ostentation and extravagance, and waste of people and money. Before abdicating, Qianlong said to the minister: I have been in the imperial palace for 60 years, but my virtue has not diminished, but I have made six southern tours, wasting people and money. In the future, you must stop the emperor from making a southern tour. But there is no doubt that if it were not for the prosperous times of peace, there would be no grand occasion for the emperor to visit Jiangnan six times. These six expeditions to the south have played a great role in stabilizing Jiangsu and Zhejiang, gathering financial resources, attracting talents, calming people's hearts, building water conservancy projects and controlling floods.