What was the "all-drama banquet" in Shaanxi officialdom in the Qing Dynasty?

Zhang, a native of Yizheng, Jiangsu Province, was born in Jiaqing for five years and died in Guangxu for four years. When Daoguang was thirty years old, he was admitted to Jinshi. He first compiled books for Jishi Shu and Wuying Hall in imperial academy. In May of the 16th year of Daoguang, he was appointed as the magistrate of Shuoping, Shanxi, and has been ups and downs for 30 years since then. He has served as magistrate, Taoist priest, provincial judge, political envoy and acting governor. Zhang Zhu has A Record of Officials in Daoxian County, which is an autobiographical chronicle. The content mainly records his fifteen years in the Hanlin Academy from Daoguang. Zhang's experience is profound and extensive, and his writing and pen and ink are very smooth. Although he is tactful, he still has a little conscience. His observation of the ghost domain of officialdom is profound and realistic, so the book Road flyover and the immortal ring record is of great historical value.

In the first month of the 25th year of Daoguang, 45-year-old Zhang became the governor of Shaanxi. At that time, there was officialdom? Shaanxi provincial government, is it lucky to have a route for providing foodstuff? In short, it can be seen that this is a beautiful job and a fat job. However, this fat difference? Is it hard to be fat? Zhang Ba is described as a supervisor who provides food in A Record of Taoist and Xianhuan Hai. Supervise the transportation of grain? The difficulty of this work and vividly described the Shaanxi officialdom at that time? Eat and drink? Various states.

At that time, Xi 'an was located in the main traffic road, which was the only way to * * *, Xinjiang, Gansu and Sichuan. What if passers-by provide food? Therefore, the reception task of officials in charge of sending off officials at the grain route is very busy. What is the reception task?

The first is a courtesy welcome, arrangement of accommodation, etc. ? A passer-by arrived at the border, and the route for providing foodstuff greeted the general and Zhong Cheng in Guanting. . Once people from the government come here, the grain route responsible for supervising the grain transportation will greet the governor, generals and subordinate officials in the government office, arrange for the guests to go back to their rooms to rest, write down an invitation and send it to the official residences.

The second is to prepare the banquet. Decorate lanterns, spread the play, prepare seats? . So-called? Western Sichuan? That is, two troupes and two plays at a time. So-called? Get your seats ready? Is to prepare the dishes, which is the most important link. As a guest, there are five tables of booze; As the middle seat, you have to prepare 14 table for the banquet. The dishes on the table must have high-grade treasures such as bird's nest and barbecue, and the dishes on the middle table should also have delicacies such as shark's fin and sea cucumber. The five tables on the table must not be short of fish. Xi 'an is located inland, and there are few live fish. A bigger fish costs four or five thousand pence. Other precious and rare foods, such as white eel and deer tail, must also be bought, otherwise they will be considered stingy by guests. Don't ignore other officials, such as deputy commanders, company commanders and people who don't have much contact. Generally, they don't need a big banquet reception, just send some tables and drinks. However, Zhang Jing, the camel, and Zhang Jing, the grain outside the mouth, although their official positions are small, will bring letters from senior officials of various cities, and they should be given four dishes and two snacks.

then what Will you eat with me? Okay, this is ... Live hard? . ? After the play is over, whether it is winter or summer, it will always be the end of the child and the ugly beginning. ? No matter spring, summer, autumn and winter, every banquet will not end until late at night or early in the morning. After the banquet, the accompanying host will send the guests out every time. After the guests get on the sedan chair, the host will bow to the guests one by one to say goodbye. Then, send someone to say good night to the guest's residence with the host's business card, and then to the official office with the business card of the route for providing foodstuff.

And finally? Send? Links in. One is? See the guests off? The next day, the guests set out, and officials such as Liangdao were going to the west of the city to see them off. And second? Send money? Every guest should pay some money for the trip. Its feed thickness depends on the rank of official position? The amount of money given depends on the size and status of the official. Even small officials like Thomas and Liang should give 10 to 20 gold or 40 to 50 gold gifts when they leave.

So? Every banquet, including the theater price, remuneration, catering and miscellaneous expenses, is always above 200 yuan and outside. ? Every banquet, including inviting a troupe, preparing dining tables, giving gifts, etc. It costs about 200 yuan, not including the money given as a gift. According to Wu Si's calculation in the book "Hidden Rules", more than 200 taels of silver is equivalent to about 40,000 RMB today. Such large banquets are held every month, while small social gatherings are held every day. There is no moon in the big banquet, and there is no day in the small dinner? ! Moreover, every spring and autumn, generals, deputy commanders and officials from all counties in Midtown, as well as foreign counties that want to enter the province, are invited to hold banquets and watch plays. The city's friendship and green camp's visit are also held once in the spring and autumn. If you are lucky enough not to be disturbed by passing officials within ten and a half months, Liangdao will invite officials from two companies and the management of Salt and Iron Company to have a small banquet at the official office to watch the play. Not as good as friendship. ? So, almost all year round? It's all a theatrical feast? No wonder Zhang joked that Shaanxi Governor Deng? Life is thin and embarrassing, addicted to entertainment; Passers-by, loitering, waiting for the host and guest to overlap, how many days without drinking? !

Shaanxi officialdom in Qing Dynasty? It's all a theatrical feast? Why?

Qing officials binge drink maps.

Actually? It's all a theatrical feast? This scene happened not only in Shaanxi, but also in the national officialdom at that time. According to the official experience of Daoxian County, in the twenty-seventh year of Daoguang, Zhang went to Beijing to see the emperor when he was transferred from Shaanxi provincial judge to Sichuan provincial judge, and stayed in Beijing all the time? Visiting guests in the city, trapped in wine and food? . Every time he is promoted and transferred, Zhang will listen to training, worship training and be entertained. ? Beijing officials earn little money and specialize in chewing foreign officials. Every time a governor comes to Beijing and invites a banquet, there is no empty day. ? In the seventh year of Xianfeng, when Zhang was appointed as the political envoy of Gansu, he personally met the sworn brothers such as Lanzhou Road, Alternate Road He Xiang, Provincial Judge and Supervisor Peng. Eating and drinking, swearing after drunkenness, nothing? The membership ratio is valid and everything is still floating. And the governor and the governor went on strike, but there was no empty month? . On the sixth day of the first month of the eighth year of Xianfeng, Zhang invited the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu to give a banquet. Ugliness began to dissipate. From then on, except for the anniversary, all departments were overlapped by guests and guests, and I really felt trapped in the dining room. ? In September of the eighth year of Xianfeng, Zhang and Ding You passed through Henan. Since then, you have become a disciple of the official, and the rewards should be varied, day and night, right? . Xianfeng nine years in September, Fujian Zhang, agent? Curtains are all the rage in Fujian province, and they spend all their time socializing outside. ? Fujian and Zhejiang Governor Qing Rui? Invite screen friends from the department to drink songs from time to time? , the QingRui governor? Once seated, are you afraid that people will not get drunk, and you are afraid that you will not get drunk? . The style of eating and drinking with public funds described by Zhang in Dao County Guanhai Record is very representative. Based on the observation and description of the eating habits of various places during Zhang's official period, it can be considered that the officialdom in Daoxian period was almost everywhere, with no officials and no food, and it was getting worse.

During the reign of Dao County, officialdom? It's all a theatrical feast? Why is the wind of eating, drinking and giving gifts rising? First of all, from the official route for providing foodstuff? Bad rules? Let's analyze it.

First, this kind of management between the superior and the subordinate is afraid that the superior will get in the way in completing the task of rations supply. Zhang Dui said that this route for providing foodstuff must entertain the general for fear that he would get in the way. According to the procedure, what is the main target of the canteen supply? Before the Eight Banners collect rice every month, the granary should send officials to send rice samples to the general for inspection. The general is the highest leader of the garrison in a province, and his attitude towards food quality has a great influence. If he is a little picky, the arrogant soldiers of the Eight Banners who receive food at the front can turn the sky upside down. The way to entertain the general has long existed. First of all, according to the regulations, the general and two lieutenants put rice and millet together, but rice is expensive and millet is cheap, so the general naturally doesn't want millet, so the route for providing foodstuff gave them all the rice. Secondly, the general and deputy commander-in-chief recommended their families to work in the route for providing foodstuff, even if they only received money in name, the route for providing foodstuff could only be collected as usual. Third, it is customary to give gifts to generals and other senior officials. At the same time, there are officers who have the right to speak on food issues, as well as officers such as deputy commander-in-chief and the Eight Banners Association. Every day when rice is released, a junior officer of the whole battalion leads the soldiers to collect grain. According to the rules, a banquet should be prepared on the food supply route. To the warehouse? Accompanied by the officials of the grain route, the meal was led by junior officers. There are eight banners in the camp, and you have to accompany them for eight days in a row. The route for providing foodstuff has regular entertainment in the army, and there is a banquet every spring and autumn festival. Middle-level officers stationed in Xi 'an, including Man Ying and green camp, also have a food feast every spring and autumn. The work of connecting feelings is obviously effective.

Second, please your superiors in order to get praise in the year-end secret exam. According to Zhang's records, even if the famine stops collecting rations, is the bad rule of the Governor's adult to distribute them as usual? . The governor refers to the governor of Shaanxi, and so do the governors of Shaanxi, Gansu and Shaanxi. The reason why the route for providing foodstuff has given them more bad rules than any other leader is because the governor of Shaanxi secretly reports the ethics, talents and performance of subordinate officials to the emperor every year, which is the so-called year-end secret examination. This has a great influence on the future of officials. Therefore, the rough rules for providing grain lanes to the governor are issued quarterly, each quarter 1320, and each year is 5220. In this way, including other bad rules, one year is equivalent to several million RMB. But so do dungans governor's official is a little bigger than Shaanxi governor's, but separated by layers, it is not directly led, and people don't live in xi 'an, so the number of bad rules is slightly lower than that of the governor. As for receiving superiors? Decorate lanterns, spread the play, prepare seats? Not to mention.

If we deeply analyze the official culture, as Mr. Wang said when discussing Zhang: Just as the competitive market has the trend of equalization of interests, judging from the prestige, relationship, security and popularity of competition, officialdom seems to have the trend of equalization of interests. ? Because the interests of officialdom flow towards the ability to create interests, if everyone has a little ability to create interests, it will present a situation of interest sharing, but the distribution of this ability is not so even. Generally speaking, every influential official in the officialdom has reason to think that we didn't speak ill of you, but we could harm you but didn't. We even said good things about you to get you such a good job. Can't you shed some blood and let everyone get some light? Unequally speaking, Beijing officials, generals, superiors and other officials have the greatest ability to benefit or harm, so naturally they should get more points. The intensity of this ability is decreasing like water waves, and so is the distribution of benefits. There is an autumn wind, inviting guests to dinner, showing gifts, water ceremony, rules, charcoal ice worship. Three quarters, two lives, etc. It is the official interest distribution mechanism dominated by this law. ?

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There is a couplet on the third hall of Shaanxi Liangdao Yamen, which shows the life of the governor of Liangdao. Ask the official what is the busiest thing, the crown is far away, wine and spring are all important; At the end of the year, laughter is marriage, and the oil is exhausted. Who knows the gratitude of friends, relatives and servants? ? In fact, it's not just Shaanxi's overseer of providing foodstuff, but also Shaanxi's officialdom. Why not the whole Qing dynasty's officialdom? Wine cellar spring? ,? It's all a theatrical feast? ? !