Chapter 28 Officialdom

The setting of the bureaucratic system is the manifestation of human civilization. What it brings is order and norms, but it also brings something else, the most obvious being: hypocrisy and corruption. The creations of human wisdom go to the opposite side of human beings and become the shackles of human beings, which is the other side of progress. Therefore, Lao Zhuang's philosophy advocates stillness. In Lao Tzu's view, the establishment of regulations and systems leads to deeper chaos and stimulates the evil elements in human nature.A wise prince should rule by doing nothing.

This is a problem that can never be explained. The established fact we have seen is that the bureaucratic system is becoming more and more mature and complicated, and a world called officialdom has been formed. The scene has been wandering in three places: the official taste of the rivers and lakes, and the brothel.Among them, the most emphatic description is that the officialdom and the brothel, although one is noble and the other is low, are also places that extremely distort human nature, and they have many essential similarities. For example, the stripping of human dignity is the same in brothels as it is in officialdom.

Prostitutes and customers form a relationship of interdependence and mutual contempt.They use each other to realize their own desires, and despise each other morally.Although clients of prostitutes regard prostitutes as lowly, ordinary prostitutes seldom really think highly of clients. In officialdom, there are similar relationships, such as between bribe takers and bribe givers.The bribe-taker accepts the material benefits of the bribe-giver, but despises the personality of the bribe-giver in his heart; and what the bribe-giver values ​​is only the power of the bribe-taker, and is full of hostility and disgust for the bribe-taker as a person.

This kind of interpersonal relationship based on pure interests is the biggest specialty of brothels and officialdom. To be an official, one must first learn to lie, to flatter one's ass without blushing, and to deceive others. The reason why Wei Xiaobao got along so well with Kangxi is inseparable from his superb ability of lying and flattering horses.And his flattering was extremely clever, without showing any trace. Once, he inexplicably became a hero who killed assassins.When Kangxi asked him what trick he used to kill the assassin, he said: "For a while, I was flustered and I couldn't handle it. Suddenly I remembered that when you were fighting with me, you used a wonderful trick to throw me from the ground. It flew over your head, as if what you said was about the Wudang School's martial arts crane combing feathers."

What else did he say: "The tricks taught by the master are perfect when practiced. Once you really work hard with others, you don't know that they won't work at all; on the contrary, those tricks of yours suddenly came up from the bottom of your heart. Your Majesty, at that time he The edge of my palm has already hit my vest, I have already been scared out of my wits, how can I think about what trick to use!" Kangxi Dragon's heart was very happy.Because, ever since "Kangxi practiced martial arts, only pretending to fight Wei Xiaobao is not as enjoyable as fighting the enemy's life. Now hearing that Wei Xiaobao kills the enemy with his hands, all the tricks he used were learned from himself, so he is very happy I thought that if I did it myself, it would be ten times more exciting than Wei Xiaobao."

In the officialdom, you have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the inner thoughts of your boss, so that you can do everything possible to follow the boss's wishes, or express your inconvenient opinions for the boss. There is a passage in the novel that Kangxi intends to withdraw the feudal clan and summons the ministers to inquire. Unexpectedly, the ministers either benefited from Wu Sangui, or misunderstood Kangxi’s intentions, and eloquently argued the disadvantages of withdrawing the feudal clan, which angered Kangxi very much. not happy.At this time, Mingzhu, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, came out and said something, which was really brilliant.

This speech can really be listed as a classic of the way of being an official in the feudal officialdom.The logic in it is widely used in the officialdom, and it is always very effective. It has been tried and tested, and it is always beneficial. At least it will not cause trouble for yourself.Therefore, when Wei Xiaobao, who is as smart as Wei Xiaobao, heard it, he admired it, and felt that the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, and the ability to be an official were not as good as Mingzhu. Mu Dayan, Chief Secretary of Yangzhou, is another type of obedient person, a typical official literati.As soon as he heard that the imperial envoy didn't like the monk, he immediately quoted scriptures and told a story of slandering the monk in order to cater to Wei Xiaobao.He also flattered Wei Xiaobao as "a courageous and resourceful hero" with the story of "Four Phase Hairpin Flower Banquet".He figured out that the imperial court might be unfavorable to Wu Sangui, and from Wei Xiaobao's expression, he could see that he hated Wu Sangui, so he said: "Master Wei is a minister personally selected by the emperor, he is the confidant of the emperor, the pillar of the court, and the pillar of the country. King Pingxi is now Although the official title is high, it cannot be compared with Lord Wei." It is also found that the ancestor of Wei's ancestor was Wei Nie, the loyal martial king of the Tang Dynasty, who once defeated 480,000 Turpan soldiers, and was powerful in Xilong, etc.This person uses knowledge as a weapon to flatter horses, and it is easy to win the favor of his superiors.

This method of sycophancy is called "gold-sticking technique". It is fabricated out of nothing, far-fetched, and created for nothing, and it is forced to put gold on the boss's face.The stele presented by Fat Toutuo of the Dragon Sect a thousand years ago also belongs to this kind of flattery. He just made up a thousand-year-old inscription, saying that at that time, God had expected that the Lord Hong would come to the world to benefit the world, and that his life and death would be as long as the world. Tianqi looked for the historical basis for the "prestige" of Hong Jiaozhu, and painted it with mysterious colors.Master Hong actually knew in his heart that this was completely fabricated, but it was very useful.

Sometimes, courteousness can also be presented in a very subtle way, and the boss will be grateful when he notices it for a while.After Wei Xiaobao was favored by Kangxi, he went to the Prince Kang's Mansion to gather and gamble with others, but he always won for no reason, and finally realized: "Why did you lose to me on purpose? Naturally, because I have face in front of the emperor, everyone expects me to do it for them." Say good things. Even if you don’t say good things, at least you don’t mess with them.” Faces in the officialdom are all wearing masks, all words and deeds are based on the balance of interests, and sincere friendship between people is difficult to breed and maintain.The fate of an honest person in the officialdom is likely to be just bad luck, or even lose his head.Whistleblowers, conspiracies, calculations, these are the daily life of feudal officialdom.

What breeds in the feudal officialdom is greed and greed.People with power want to turn power into visible benefits. Therefore, money has become the most common weapon to break through the power system.But ordinary officials habitually use their position to seek wealth for themselves. Kangxi sent Suo'etu and Wei Xiaobao to raid Oboi's house, and Suo'etu immediately thought: "Oboi has been in power for many years, and the gold and silver treasures in his family are countless. The emperor sent me to raid his house, which is the largest Fat and lacking." During the search of the house, he tried his best to win over Wei Xiaobao, simply because "this little eunuch stays with the emperor day and night, as long as he can say a few good words for himself, he will benefit endlessly. Even if he doesn't say good words, as long as the emperor What do you like, what do you dislike, what do you want to do, usually reveal more, and you will get twice the result with half the effort when you do things yourself, which is exactly in the hands of the emperor."

So he became sworn brothers with Wei Xiaobao, and gave some of the treasures he copied to Wei Xiaobao.He found a total of 2,353,418 taels of silver in Oboi's mansion, which shows Oboi's greed.As for how the money was obtained, it is conceivable, but Suo'etu is also greedy.He said to Wei Xiaobao: "This time the emperor's kindness is great, the emperor sent us brothers this mission, originally to pick us to make a fortune." So, he unambiguously wrote down a word "one" on the list, swallowed one million, and Wei Xiaobao each got half a million.It didn't matter that he blocked Wei Xiaobao's mouth, he also gave fifty thousand and two thousand cents to the people below, everyone had a little bit of sweetness, and no one wentssip. Power makes money, it's that simple. In the book, Jin Yong also wrote about the officialdom's self-serving, disregarding human life, killing innocent people indiscriminately for the sake of face and authority, or turning a deaf ear to grievances and covering the sky with one hand. Jin Yong has seen through the truth of traditional Chinese officialdom.What is even more commendable is that he reveals the above-mentioned appearances of all beings in the officialdom, and his technique is very clever. , People not only turn a blind eye to it, but take it for granted. In the humorous style of writing, Jin Yong has a very serious and helpless sigh, and has a very sharp observation and analysis.