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Heshen (Chinese language|Chinese: 和珅 ; pinyin: unicode|H??shēn ; other transliteration: Hoshen) (1750 - February 22, 1799), from the (Manchu) Niohuru clan, was a Manchu official of the Qing Dynasty. Born Shanbao (??????), his given name was later changed into Heshen. His Chinese style name#Zi|courtesy name (???) was Zhizhai (??????). He was a member of the Eight Banners|Plain Red Banner. Heshen was born as the son of a Manchu military officer and received a basic education in a Qing government school. He obtained the lowest examination degree in the Chinese civil service system. In 1772, he began work in the Imperial Palace, assigned as an imperial bodyguard and was stationed at the gates to the Forbidden Palace. At the age of 25, Heshen was noticed by the Qianlong Emperor. Heshen was reportedly feminine and attractive in appearance, with very fair skin and long, red lips. This invoked a rumour of the reasons behind the emperor's fascination with this man. It was whispered that when the Qianlong Emperor was still a young prince in the Forbidden Palace|palace, one day, he had accidentally ran into the room of a consort, just as she was putting on her make-up. As a young prince with a childish nature, the future Emperor decided to play a prank on the consort, tiptoeing from behind her and scaring her with fright. The consort jumped at the sudden shock and whilst turning around, touched the future emperor. This was a direct breach of Imperial Protocol, and to some dismay, the action was witnessed by another court lady who was passing-by. The witness then went on to report the incident. The consort was then demoted, and in face of sudden humiliation, committed suicide by hanging. This incident had a profound impression on Hongli, and it was said that he found Heshen to be very similar in appearance to the consort. It had been hypothesised that perhaps Gaozong thought Heshen was the reincarnate of the consort, and thus he attempted to overcome his guilt through indulging Heshen with gifts and promotion. Within a year, Heshen was promoted to vice-president of the Board of Revenue, and two months later was made a grand councillor. Within three month after, he was promoted even further to a minister of the Imperial Household, a post usually filled with the most meritorius officials. In 1777, at the age of 27, Heshen was given the privilege of riding a horse within the Forbidden City, a prestigious privilege given only to high ranking officials of elderly age. It was not long before Heshen was given control of the both the Boards of Revenue and the Civil Council, allowing him to control the revenue of the entire empire, and appoint his own henchmen to important posts with in the officials. Heshen's hold on the Emperor was further strengthened when in 1790, his son was married to Gaozong's tenth and favourite daughter. Once secure of the Emperor's favour and approbation, Heshen enjoyed almost complete freedom of his actions. He became openly corrupt and practiced extortion on a grand scale. His henchmen within the imperial system followed his lead, and his military associates prolonged campaigns inorder to continue the benefits of additional funds. He abrogate|abrogated powers and official posts, including that of Grand Councillor, and regularly stole public funds and taxes. Taxes were raised again and again, and this lead to the suffering of commoners. Unfortunately, their suffering was compounded by severe floods of the Yellow River - an indirect result of the corruption where dishonest officials pocketed funds that were meant for the upkeep of canals and dams. Rising prices of rice lead to many that simply starved to death. This widespread corruption and nepotism was the start of a century that lead to the downfall of the Qing Dynasty, and the imperialism|imperial rule of China. Image:P522.jpg|thumb|px150|The Xijin Study was built from nammu wood. Its architecture followed the imperial style, which made it one of Heshen's 20 crimes as listed by the Jiaqing Emperor. The shame of Heshen's corruption came to play when the emperor abdicated in February 1796, the full damage of the corruption was now in wide view. However, Gaozong continued to rule China behind the scenes under the grand title of Taishang Huang. It was not until his death on February 7, 1799 that the Jiaqing Emperor was able to prosecute Heshen. On February 12, Heshen was arrested along with military officer Fu Chang'an (?????????). Declared guilty by Imperial Edict, he was condemned to slow death by dissection. The Jiaqing Emperor spared Heshen this horrible death and allowed him to commit suicide in his home on February 22nd, sparing his family, largely thanks to the pleading of Renzong's sister, Heshen's daughter-in-law who was married to Fengshen-Yingde, Heshen's sole surviving son, while Fu Chang'an was beheaded. From the 24 years that Heshen caught The Qianlong Emperor's attention and favour, he had amassed an incredible fortune. In Renzong's (The Jiaqing Emperor) confiscation of Heshen's property, his wealth were as thus: 3,000 rooms in his estates and mansions, 8,000 acres (32 km²) of land, 42 bank branches, 75 cash converter branches, 60,000 taels of copper alloyed gold, 100 large ingots of pure gold, (1,000 taels each), 56,600 medium silver ingots, (100 taels each), 9,000,000 small silver ingots, (10 taels each), 58,000 livres/pounds of foreign currency, 1,500,000 copper coins, 600 lbs of top-quality Jilin jinseng, 1,200 jade charms, 230 pearl bracelets, 10 large pearls (each the size of apricots), 10 large ruby crystals, 40 large sapphire crystals, 40 tablefuls of solid-silver eating utensils, (10 per table), 40 tablefuls of solid-gold eating utensils, (10 per table), 11 coral rocks, (each over a metre in height), 14,300 bolts of fine silk, 20,000 sheets of woolen fabric, 550 fox hides, 850 raccoon dog hides, 56,000 sheep and cattle hides of varying thickness, 7,000 sets of fine clothing, (for all four seasons) 361,000 bronze and tin vases and vessels, 100,000 porcelain vessels made by famous masters, 24 highly decorative solid-gold beds (each with eight different types of inlaid gemstones), 460 European clocks, 606 servants, 600 women in his harem. His total property was ultimately estimated at around 1,100 million taels(Ounces), reputedly estimated to be an amount equivalent to the imperial revenue of the Qing government for 15 years. In his chief servant Liu Quan's quarters, a large quantity of treasures including 240,000 silver ounces were also discovered. The Jiaqing Emperor labelled Heshen with 20 crimes, of which "defiance of imperial supremacy" and "power transcendence" accounted for half. The influence of Heshen however did not end with his death, as corruption continued to spread through different levels in and out of the capital, among both civil and military personnel. Bannermen developed habits that made them useless as a military force. The Chinese Green Standard Army was beset with irregular practice and had lost much of its fighting spirit shown in early Qing Dynasty. The habits of luxury and big spending led to moral degradation and the general decline of the dynasty. The Qianlong Emperor's Ten Great Campaigns were completed at the cost of 120 million taels, against an annual revenue of some 40 million taels. The result of these massive spendings and increasing trend towards luxury set the path towards financial instability within the latter part of the Qing Dynasty. Image:2005021815171.jpg|thumb|150px|Wang Gang as Heshen For hundreds of years, and right through to the present, Heshen has been the stock villain role in theatrical, film and Television|TV productions. It is probable that the most famous portayal of Heshen is that played by Chinese actor Wang Gang.
lived|b=1750|d=1799|key=Heshen Category:History of China Category:History of Manchuria Category:Qing Dynasty de:Heshen zh:?????? This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Heshen".
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