How stingy was Daoguang, the stingiest emperor in history?
How stingy was Daoguang, the stingiest emperor in history? Two short stories make people laugh and cry
How frugal was Emperor Daoguang, who was always famous for his frugality? You will know after reading these two short stories about Emperor Daoguang’s frugality.
Emperor Daoguang mended his trousers
There is a story in "A Dream of Chunming": Emperor Daoguang had a hole in a pair of "Hu crepe royal trousers" he wore. To demonstrate frugality, he died. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will take it to make up for it. Later, the pants were mended and they looked perfect.
The emperor was overjoyed and asked casually how much silver was spent. The servant replied, "Three thousand taels of silver."
Daoguang was furious: "It doesn't cost thirty taels to make a new pair of trousers." Silver, it costs three thousand taels to repair a hole. What crime do you deserve for deceiving me like this?"
The Ministry of Internal Affairs hurriedly explained: "The emperor's royal trousers are made of flowered lake crepe fabric. We bought this kind of cloth and cut hundreds of pieces before we found a piece with just the right flower head. That's why it was so expensive to dismantle and build the Daoguang Mausoleum
After Daoguang's death
After Daoguang's death, Emperor Xianfeng determined the name of Emperor Daoguang's temple as "Xuanzong", and his posthumous title as "Emperor who serves as a symbol of heaven's fortune, establishes a middle body, is upright, is a saint of literature and martial arts, is wise, brave, benevolent, thrifty, diligent, filial and sensitive, and becomes the emperor".
Emperor Daoguang was buried in the Western Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty, and the mausoleum was named Muling.
There were many ups and downs in the site selection and construction of Muling, which was completely different from the original intention of Emperor Daoguang to strictly adhere to the ancestral system and advocate frugality.
In the early years of Daoguang's reign, the tomb-exploring team went to Dongling and selected a piece of "auspicious soil" in Baohua Valley. The mausoleum project started in the winter of the first year of Daoguang and was completed in September of the seventh year of Daoguang (1827). The construction cost was two million taels of silver.
During the construction process, due to the shallow water table here, water seepage problems occurred in the underground palace. Yinghe, the minister in charge of repairing the mausoleum, knew that if all his previous efforts were wasted and all the large initial investments were wasted, and it involved Feng Shui issues and royal taboos, Emperor Daoguang would definitely blame him and it would be difficult to escape the blame. Therefore, he decided to bite the bullet and go to the end.
After the mausoleum was completed, Emperor Daoguang came to the site for acceptance inspection in person, but he didn’t know anything about the project acceptance. When he saw the mausoleum’s grandeur, he was very satisfied and presided over the relocation of the coffin of Empress Xiaomu Niu Hulu. One thing.
In the autumn of the eighth year of Daoguang's reign, Emperor Daoguang went to Dongling to visit the mausoleum. On a whim, he decided to take a look at his mausoleum.
This is no trivial matter. The "tofu crumbs" project is full of loopholes. The underground palace has become a "pool of water". The coffin of "Queen Xiaomu" is like a boat in the water. The lower part is soaked in the water and is so wet with mold. Out of shape. Emperor Daoguang quickly ordered people to take out the coffin, and then cried and apologized to the deceased.
After returning to Beijing, Daoguang scolded the minister of repairing the mausoleums for "losing all conscience" and ordered strict measures to be taken. The ministers responsible for selecting the site for the mausoleum and presiding over the construction were all arrested and imprisoned, and their property was confiscated.
Afterwards, Emperor Daoguang sent people to the Qingxi Mausoleum in Yixian County to select a mausoleum site, and finally selected Longquan Valley as the site for the new mausoleum and started construction. One person cannot have two mausoleums. This "shabby" project carried out by Yinghe and others still needs to be demolished.
The demolition work alone took two years. The cost of demolition and construction of Emperor Daoguang's mausoleum was the highest among all mausoleums in the Qing Dynasty, and even exceeded the cost of the construction of Emperor Qianlong's mausoleum. This is really a great irony of Emperor Daoguang's advocating frugality and simplicity.
In the spring of the second year of Xianfeng (1852 in the Gregorian calendar), the Muling Underground Palace was opened for the last time, and the courtiers placed the coffin of Emperor Daoguang on the treasure bed...
So, for a period of time, The 30-year Daoguang Dynasty ended. In terms of length, this dynasty is second only to Kangxi, Qianlong and later Guangxu. But Daoguang's merits and demerits have been deeply engraved in the great changes that have not happened in a thousand years.