The Corruption Of Yikuang And The Political Situation In The Late Qing Dynasty

Suffered from the dual crisis and social agitation, Qing Dynasty had experienced the degeneration, especially the corruption at the end of its period. As an important official of late Qing the Prince Yikuang had run the interior authority for eight years. He presided over the foreign affairs for many years, when experienced Xin Chou treaty negotiations, participation the foundation of the new government, been appointed as the first prime minister. He was man with great political influential. As such a historical figure, he was treated as a corrupt. Because of corruption, most of people think that Yikuang was fatuous, seeking nothing but profits, appearing mean nothing. But in fact, Yikuang was an extremely complex guy, out of our common knowlege. In external, Yikuang was a corruption, was incompetence, but in internal, he was a political trickery, know how to be modest, to preserve the power in various political struggles.Censor had the responsibility of impeaching official for their corruption. For Yikuang’s corruption, out of fear of his power, nearly no one dared to point out. But there were still censors dare to challenge the cutting edge. On2ed March1904, the Censor Jiang Shixing impeached that Prince Yikuang deposited in HSBC. After the impeachment, the government dealt it immediately, because of the "false" impeachment Jiang Shili was ordered to the original office. Behind the impeachment, there were many doubts, whether Yikuang was corruption, Yikuang was smart and the Qing government trusted on him and put him on an important position, the impeachment lacked of conclusive evidence, which determined the trend of impeachment. After Jiang Shixing, the censor Zhao Qilin impeached Yikuang for corruption again. On25th March1907, Zhao Qilin impeached Yikuang for corruption and bribery, impeached his sun for vibration, which became the official case. Zhao Qilin pointed out, Duan Zhigui gave Yikuang100thousand Yinyuan and gave Zaizhen the Tianjin courtesan Yang Cuixixian to load vibration, because of this Duan Zhigui was offered the position of the governor of Heilongjiang. When the case was exposed, public opinion was surprised. The Qing government sent Zaifeng, the Scholar Sun Jiading to investigate the case, according results of the investigation, it showed that Zhao Qilin had not reported truly, for which Zhao was resigned. After Zhao Qilin was punished, the press, the officialdom, the scholars gave great support to Zhao. Many newspapers reported this affair, officials, scholars showed their sympathy to Zhao Qilin. There is a close relationship between the impeachment amounted by Zhao Qilin and political struggle, which further reflected the details of this corruption in the late Qing dynasty. After the failure of the impeachment amounted by Jiang Shixing and Zhao Qilin, there were other impeachments for Yikuang’s corruption. On16th of January in1910, the Censor Jiang Chunlin accused Yikuang had corrupted, banded together for selfish interests and so on, but finally he was resignated for slandering, which was a climax for impeaching of Yikuang. Since then, facing the corruption and bribery, the Censor had no sound to make. From the three impeachments, we can see the attitudes to Yikuang’s corruption of officials, scholars, and public medias. Yikuang’s corruption showed that Yikuang was a political veteran with rich experiences and trickery, which also exposed the corruption and declination of ruling mechanism in Qing.The corruption of Yikuang occered in a specific historical period, which reflects the defects of the late Qing dynasty. Centralized authoritarian system is the main source of corruption. In this system, both the supervisory system and the law were unable to curb corruption. In addition, the corruption was a result of rampant social decay, slender salary and reform confusion and other factors. Corruption maked the ruling mechanism eroded, which accelerated the extinction of Qing.The corruption of Yikuang had a profound influence to the political situation in the late Qing dynasty. In general, the corruption is an illegal behavior of an individal. But in the late Qing Dynasty, corruption was deemed involving the power growth and declination and become the invisible for power tools. The corruption related to the late Qing authority and its development trend directly or indirectly and had a close relationship to political imbalances and power competition. In Dingwei Political Trend, Yikuang and his men beated Qu Hongji and other opponents, the "Qingliu Pai" without a place to live in, which Yikuang’s power lost its balance and had a far-reaching influence on the political development trend. In late Qing, Yikuang advocated new deal, promoted the process of constitution, but because he corrupted, discriminated against those who hold different views, appointed relatives, which made negative effects on the constitutional reform. In addition, the corruption of Yikuang and political fate of late Qing also had close relationship. After Xinhai Revolution broke out, Yikuang advocated to put Yuan Shikai in an important position. With the development of the situation, Yikuang turned to support the Qing emperor to abdicate, which influenced the political development in the late Qing dynasty to some extent.