Chapter 35 Buy Ming Lide for the Emperor

The reason why Heshen was able to obtain the supreme favor in front of Qianlong was that he was always thinking of Qianlong, seized the opportunity to exchange for Qianlong's good reputation, and established virtue for Qianlong.This was just the icing on the cake for Qianlong, who attached great importance to fame and festivals.In the 60th year of Qianlong (1795), the elderly Qianlong decided to issue an imperial decree to the world, to the effect that he wanted to sit in Jiaqing and be the Supreme Emperor himself.As a result, the imperial court began to prepare for the return ceremony of the Zen throne on New Year's Day of the second year.

Because there is no historical basis for the abdication ceremony, how to hold it grandly and solemnly and show the benevolent demeanor of Emperor Qianlong really troubled Heshen.A ceremony of this magnitude must be complemented by corresponding events, banquets and national celebrations.Among them, what satisfied Qianlong the most was the banquet for thousands of seniors proposed by Heshen. The banquet of thousands of old men is to gather officials and senior men over seventy years old among the gentry to hold a banquet in the palace to have fun with the emperor.There is an old saying that the benevolent live long, and many old men with white hair and hanging buns gather together to share the friendship between the emperor and his ministers.

On the fourth day of the first lunar month, the Banquet of Thousand Seniors was held as scheduled in Huangji Hall of Ningshou Palace according to Heshen's arrangement.The momentum was huge, and the government and the opposition responded enthusiastically.This spectacular scene alone earned Qianlong a lot of popularity and flattery.This action of He Shen won Qianlong a world-wide reputation, which made Qianlong see it in his eyes, take joy in his heart, and rely on him even more. Qianlong liked big money all his life. He not only wanted to be famous in the world, but also hoped to be immortal.He decided not only to surpass the great cause of his grandfather Emperor Kangxi in compiling "The Collection of Ancient and Modern Books", but also to surpass the merits of previous kings in compiling books.He imitated the styles of "Taiping Guangji", "Taiping Yulan", "Wenyuan Yinghua" in the Song Dynasty and "Yongle Dadian" in the Ming Dynasty, and compiled a "Siku Quanshu".

The "Siku Quanshu" was organized by Emperor Qianlong himself, and it is the largest series of books in Chinese history.Beginning in 1772, it was compiled over ten years.The series of books is divided into four parts: Classics, History, Zi and Ji, hence the name Siku.According to the Wenjinge collection, the book contains a total of 3,503 ancient books, 79,337 volumes, and is bound into more than 36,000 volumes, preserving a wealth of literature.The name Siku originated from the early Tang Dynasty. The official collection of the early Tang Dynasty was divided into four libraries called the Classics and History Sub-collection, known as the Four Libraries, or the Book of the Four Libraries.The four-point method of classics and history subsets is the main method of classifying ancient books. It basically includes all ancient books, so it is called the complete book.In the early years of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, the scholar Zhou Yongnian proposed the theory of Confucianism and Tibet, advocating that Confucian works should be collected together for people to borrow.

Because of the seriousness of the matter, the president responsible for compiling the "Siku Quanshu" must not only be a well-educated person, but also be able to make decisions on a series of matters such as the selection of books and the selection of editions.This matter is not enough for a university scholar who has read poetry and books and read classics and history extensively.During the compilation period, the president was replaced several times.In the forty-fifth year of Qianlong (1780), He Shen was appointed as the president. It was recorded in the files at that time: On October 15, the forty-five year of Qianlong, the cabinet issued an edict, and He Shen filled the one and four treasuries. Is the president.This is it.Of course, Heshen's knowledge will be criticized by people, but he is witty and shrewd, and he has always followed Qianlong's lead, so of course Heshen attaches great importance to this matter.He is conscientious and meticulous, and together with Ji Xiaolan, who is well-educated and well-educated, they are the golden partners to complete "Siku Quanshu".

After Heshen became the chief executive officer, he often checked the content of books more strictly, and wrote many times to suggest that Qianlong should strictly check and confiscate books.Books with offensive and rebellious words, disrespectful to the emperor, unfavorable to the Qing Dynasty, and anti-Qing and Ming Dynasty slogans were all destroyed.Even for the books compiled into the "Siku Quanshu", many of them have been deleted or modified a lot, and all the words and sentences that are unfavorable to the court and the emperor have been modified or deleted.Therefore, the various books in the "Siku Quanshu" that we see today are all clean books that have been modified to benefit the Qing Dynasty.

In any case, Qianlong's work in compiling the "Siku Quanshu" outweighed his mistakes. "Siku Quanshu" has indeed added a strong touch to Qianlong's achievements. Until today, "Siku Quanshu" is still often used by people.He Shen did put a lot of labor in it, and contributed to Qianlong's prosperous move. He Shen made a lot of cultural contributions throughout his life. In addition to serving as the president of "Siku Quanshu", he was also responsible for revising many books, such as "Founding Strategy", "Research on Old News in the Sun", "Three Links" in Qing Dynasty, "Rehe Zhi ", "The Book of Stones", "Unified Records of the Qing Dynasty", etc., played a great role in establishing Qianlong's historical achievements in literature.

Heshen's behavior of supporting Qianlong in the shadows really satisfied Qianlong and made great contributions to the emperor's virtue. At the same time, it also showed Heshen's well-behaved and good at winning people's hearts.