Chapter 83 Section 2 Low Salary System Is the Root Cause

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know that the root cause of this phenomenon lay with himself.It is said in history that "official salary is the thinnest" in Ming Dynasty.The official monthly salary of the first rank is eighty-seven shi, the fourth rank is twenty-four shi, and the seventh rank is seven shi and five dou. Synthetic silver taels, the monthly income of a county magistrate is no more than five taels, converted into the current currency value, about 1,000 yuan.Officials at that time did not enjoy the benefits provided by the state. Not only did they not enjoy villas, cars, and year-end bonuses, they also had no place to reimburse food and drink expenses.With more than 1,000 yuan to support a large family or even a family, the life of this county magistrate can only be at the level of the urban poor.How can officials live without corruption?

To deal with corruption, we must start with "don't be greedy", high salaries or at least reasonable salaries to support integrity, to support the moral realm of "don't want to be greedy" achieved by ideological education and the disciplinary requirements of "don't dare to be greedy" guaranteed by system construction.At all times and in all over the world, there is no exception. However, Zhu Yuanzhang never seemed to think of this.He always chooses the cheapest way to do things.On the issue of punishing corruption, he is quite stubborn as a "bandit". He knows that intellectuals are weak and timid, and he believes that violent intimidation can replace all other efforts.

On the one hand, there is the bizarre low salary system, and on the other hand, Zhu Yuanzhang's excessive demands on the work of punishing corruption, hoping to use swords to create a pure and pure world without corruption.He is strict and meticulous by nature, and he will never let go of embezzling even a piece of letter paper.Open the "Dagao Three Parts", and you will see that in the corruption case personally punished by the emperor, there are some stolen goods: "received one piece of clothing, two pairs of boots", "one piece of round neck clothing", "four books, A scarf and a pair of socks."

Using this standard to punish corruption, of course almost no official in the world is not a corrupt official.Therefore, his draconian laws are effective for a while, and it is impossible to eradicate corruption.No matter how Zhu Yuanzhang threatened, in order to survive and make a living, the bureaucratic system still had to operate according to its own laws.Therefore, he began to punish corruption not long after he came to the throne, and until the eighteenth year of Hongwu, in his opinion, the momentum of corruption continued unabated.Big corruption cases have disappeared, but small corruption cases are still emerging.The corruption cases reported by supervisory officials and the Jinyiwei newspaper piled up a whole table every day.

Due to excessive killings, none of the administrative officials in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian managed to complete their term of office from the first year of Hongwu (AD 1368) to the nineteenth year (AD 1386). to demotion or beheading.In Zhu Yuanzhang's own words: "Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, there has never been a single officer in all the officers in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian." , the dead body has not been moved but people continue to heal, the cure is serious but the crime is numerous!"