foreword Although the name Heshen is not well-known to Chinese people, at least everyone will not feel unfamiliar.When Heshen is mentioned, people will immediately think of him as a famous treacherous minister and the number one corrupt official in Chinese history. Arrogance, greed, arrogance, cunning, and extravagance seem to have become people's fixed evaluation of him. He Shen has been an official for more than 20 years, and has accumulated tens of millions of taels of silver in his family, which is close to the annual financial income of the imperial court in Qianlong.But why did Emperor Qianlong, who was a generation of enlightened rulers and created the prosperous age of Kang and Qianlong, always favor him, making him so prosperous and soaring?

He Shen was able to call the wind and rain during Qianlong's reign, and he also collected so much wealth for himself. It can be seen that he is not just an opportunistic and flattering person, but a hardworking, intelligent and capable person; Proficient in four languages: Manchu, Han, Mongolian and Tibetan; he has the strategy of a politician, the wisdom of a strategist, and the shrewdness of a big business He Shen almost created a miracle in the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty. He started as a bodyguard. Bachelor of Wenhuadian University, concurrently official, householder, and minister of the Ministry of War; at the age of forty-seven, he became the second emperor under one person and above ten thousand people.

The reason why Heshen was able to be favored by Emperor Qianlong alone, for twenty years like a day, has its own many advantages.In the late Qianlong period, Emperor Qianlong was already an octogenarian.Rather than saying that the old and tired Emperor Qianlong was smug and taking care of everything, it would be better to say that He Shen was working day and night and taking care of everything. He Shen's conduct as an official is quite different.He has many virtues, the most important of which is that he has mastered the secrets of human nature.Although he was well-versed in poetry and books, he did not accept the red tape of Confucianism. It was precisely by virtue of the well-known Chinese principles of life and work that he was invincible in the government and the opposition.

Of course, He Shen is not a public servant.Heshen combined state administrative power, financial power, military power, and personnel power in one body, and became Emperor Qianlong's financial master and strange man, but at the same time he managed a lot of property in his own home.After Qianlong's death, Heshen's family property was confiscated by Emperor Jiaqing, and he was bestowed with death.The amount of his family property is so huge that there is a folk saying that Heshen fell and Jiaqing was full. He Shen was undoubtedly the winner and loser of that era.Regardless of Heshen's success or failure, it is by no means accidental.Finding out the reasons for Heshen's success and failure and discovering the secrets of human nature will bring endless enlightenment to those who are in various chess games and cannot escape.

Times have changed, ancient and modern are very different.The story of He Shen has become farther and farther away from us. When we stand in the smoke of history and look back, some people may respect his ability, and some may dismiss his despicable behavior.These are actually not very important, as long as we look at his success with historical common sense, learn lessons, and avoid similar failures, we will achieve our goal.