This Date Was Reached In 1796, When On New Year's Day (6th Of
February) Of The Chinese Calendar, He Publicly Abdicated, And Assigned The
Imperial Functions To His Son, Kiaking.
He survived this event three
years, and during that period he exercised, like Charles the Fifth of
Germany, a
Controlling influence over his son's administration; and he
endeavored to inculcate in him the right principles of sound government.
But in China, where those principles have been expressed in the noblest
language, their practical application is difficult, because the official
classes are underpaid and because the law of self-preservation, as well as
custom, compels them to pay themselves at the equal expense of the
subjects and the government. Even Keen Lung had been unable to grapple
with this difficulty of the Chinese civil service, which is as formidable
at the present time as ever. One of the ablest and most honest of Keen
Lung's ministers, when questioned on the subject, said that there was no
remedy. "It is impossible, the emperor himself cannot do it, the evil is
too widespread. He will, no doubt, send to the scene of these disorders
mandarins, clothed with all his authority, but they will only commit still
greater exactions, and the inferior mandarins, in order to be left
undisturbed, will offer them presents. The emperor will be told that all
is well, while everything is really wrong, and while the poor people are
being oppressed." And so the vicious circle has gone on to the present
day, with serious injury to the state and the people.
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