Heshen

Hey Shen

He Shen (chin. 和 珅; * 1750 ; † February 22, 1799 ) was a Manchurian official of the Qing Dynasty . His family was a member of the Red Banner . The officer's son first attended a Qing school, then joined the imperial palace as an officer in 1772.

Discovery by Qianlong

At the age of 25, Heshen caught the attention of Emperor Qianlong . His feminine charisma, his beautiful figure with the smooth skin and the narrow, red lips caused rumors about the motives for the imperial interest in the young man. It was also rumored that, due to visual similarities, Qianlong mistook Heshen for the reincarnation of a concubine whom he had once surprised while applying makeup in his youth and thereby compromised so much that she had committed suicide. The awakened feelings of guilt would help explain the benefits with which the emperor was to shower his favorite.

Ascent

Heshen soon made an astonishing career, being appointed Deputy Lieutenant General of the Blue Manchu Banner and Commanding Officer of the Beijing Forces, then Minister of the Palace Directorate, Deputy Minister of Finance and State Councilor. As a result, he dressed u. a. the offices of finance minister, chief of the civil servants' ministry and grand secretary. Eventually he was even made a baron. At times he was responsible for the imperial compilation project of the "Four Great Treasures". In 1777, at the age of 27, he was granted the privilege normally reserved for old and specially deserved officials to ride horses within the Forbidden City . In 1780, Qianlong sent him to Yunnan Province as the imperial special envoy to fight corruption , and a year later to put down a Muslim rebellion in Gansu . In 1790, Heshen was able to further strengthen his ties to the emperor by marrying his son to Qianlong's youngest daughter.

corruption

Conscious of the imperial favor, Heshen enjoyed almost unlimited freedom of action and abused his position of power to enrich himself and his clan. In particular, he was instrumental in the growing corruption towards the end of Qianlong's tenure . Assuming almost imperial powers, he exploited the people, practiced extortion on a large scale, embezzled state funds and had his obligations and services paid for. His doings withdrew u. a. the necessary funds for important infrastructure projects such as the construction of dykes, ultimately leading to natural disasters such as the flooding of the Yellow River . Above all, however, it raised large sections of the population against the imperial court and contributed to the unrest and uprisings that shook the Qing Empire towards the end of the 18th century. But he also used their suppression for further enrichment. In the campaigns against the White Lotus rebels alone, he is said to have earned several million silver tael in his own pocket by accounting for expenses that were not incurred.

Heshen's end

After his formal abdication in 1796, the emperor made use of his favorite in order to effectively keep power in his hands and, in particular, to carry out his will against his successor Jiaqing . After Qianlong's death in 1799, however, Heshen fell out of favor. The new Son of Heaven had his unlawfully amassed fortune, estimated at 800 million silver tales, confiscated and thus returned the equivalent of the imperial income of 14 years to the state budget. He also charged him with 20 crimes and eventually forced him to commit suicide.

See also

• Qing Dynasty

literature

• Jacques Gernet : The Chinese World. The history of China from the beginning to the present time (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch 1505). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-38005-2 .
• Jonathan D. Spence: China's Path to Modernity. Hanser, Munich et al. 1995, ISBN 3-446-16284-4 .

Web links

Commons : Heshen  - collection of images, videos and audio files