求民隐于京控的中挫:“广兴案”与嘉庆帝的吏治重估

A Set Back Halfway of Finding Hidden Grass-roots Realities Through The Capital Appeal System:The“Guangxing Case”and Emperor Jiaqing’s Official Governance Reevaluation

因认定白莲教起事实由地方官未能“勤求民隐”所激成,加之推行“广开言路”后官员上言往往不关国计民生,嘉庆帝于1799年9月下令都察院受理所有京控案件,以期“民隐得以上闻”。这一求民隐于京控的理念试图以公正审理京控案件来更准确地掌握闾阎疾苦,进而把脉官场积弊,并在数年实践后形成派遣钦差大臣前往各省审理重大京控案的模式。在此背景下,1809年2月发生的“广兴案”对嘉庆帝便具有浓厚的中挫意味。作为一位最具代表性的践行者,钦差大臣广兴在山东、河南审案期间的任意婪索不啻于对求民隐于京控理念的公然背叛。此外,案件暴露出的地方官员“逢迎取悦”和监察官员“相率缄默”之弊同样成为嘉庆帝获取民隐的障碍。这些打击促使嘉庆帝开始重新认识吏治废弛的严重程度,并直接影响着他对未来政治和社会危机产生根源的判断。

Due to the belief that the White Lotus Uprising was sparked by the failure of the local officials to“diligently seeking grass-roots reality”,as well as the reality that what officials reported were often irrelevant to the national economy and people’s livelihood after the implementation of“widely open the report channels”,Emperor Jiaqing ordered the Metropolitan Procuratorate to accept all capital appeal cases in September 1799,hoping to“get grass-roots realities”.This idea attempts to use a fair trial of the Capital Appeal cases so that to more accurately grasp folk sufferings and to control the officialdom’s abuses.After several years of practice,a model of dispatching imperial ministers to various provinces to hear major Capital Appeal charges was formed.In this context,the“Guangxing Case”that occurred in February 1809 had a strong sense of frustration for Emperor Jiaqing.As one of the most representative practitioners,the imperial commissioner Guangxing’s arbitrary greed during the trials in Shandong and Henan was nothing short of a flagrant betrayal of the idea of finding hidden grass-roots realities through The Capital Appeal System.In addition,the shortcomings of local officials’“greeting to please”and supervisory officials’“comprehensive silence”revealed in the case also became obstacles to the Jiaqing Emperor’s access to grassroots facts.These blows prompted the Emperor Jiaqing to re-recognize the severity of the neglection of official management,and directly affected his judgments on the root causes of future political and social crises.