Acting in court, Hoa Than still had to be shocked because of a word?

Hoa Than (1750-1799) was a great mandarin of the Manchu Dynasty of the Qianlong Dynasty. Originally a Manchurian son, when he was 10 years old, he was sent to the palace to study.

When he first joined the court, Hoa Than held the position of bodyguard. After being favored by Emperor Qianlong with his own ability, Hoa Than held many important responsibilities in the court.

Over the past 20 years, Hoa Than has been promoted 47 times. “The Department of Literature” wrote: “During the Qing Dynasty, Cao Tong Qian Long, Hoa Than became an official, the power overturned the world. Forming factions, forming parties, deviating from the right path, but the scholar in the court dared not stop.”

Hoa Than’s career rose like a kite in the wind, from a bodyguard to a prime minister, under one person, but over ten thousand people, power prevailed everywhere.

Tolerated and covered by the Qianlong emperor, Hoa Than became increasingly greedy, constantly plundering and manipulating, accepting bribes and corrupting state property.

Later, folk also passed on the saying: “If the Qianlong has Peace, what the Qianlong does not have is not necessarily Hoa Than”, to refer to the wealth and terrible influence of Hoa Than. .

In addition to accepting bribes and stealing money from the court, Hoa Than’s fortune was also multiplied daily by buying and selling mandarins. During his 24 years in power, Hoa Than pocketed about 40 million taels of silver just by buying and selling this title.

Not only stopping there, in order to earn more money, Hoa Than also devised all measures to plunder assets from the national treasury. In particular, in 1788, because he loved Hoa Than too much, out of 3,000,000 taels of tax money, Qian Long let Hoa Than freely pay for all activities of the court.

In this time, with his talent in changing books, Hoa Than pocketed no less than a few thousand taels. Although “calling rain to call wind” in the court, Hoa Than sometimes had to “green face” by a word of Qian Long.

Legend has it that during a court session, Emperor Qianlong suddenly wrote a word “Good” in front of all the officials. At that time, everyone laughed because they thought that the word “Good” here is goodwill. However, only Hoa Than immediately changed his face, became scared and panicked.

As it turned out, only Hoa Than understood that the word “Goodness” written by Emperor Qian Long did not mean goodwill, but good taste – ie ceding the throne. The reason was that Mr. Hoa Than’s relationship with the princes was not good.

Accordingly, even if any of Qianlong’s princes ascended the throne, Hoa Than still had to face many turbulence and difficulties, unable to act like before. And indeed later, when Emperor Qianlong died, his son Gia Khanh ascended the throne and decided to try the crime of visiting Hoa Than.