#heshen

Heshen (Manchu: ᡥᡝᡧᡝᠨ, Möllendorff: Hešen; Chinese: 和珅; pinyin: Héshēn; Wade–Giles: Ho2-shen1; 1 July 1750 – 22 February 1799) of the Manchu Niohuru clan, was...

For my history class on Modern China, we had to read a section about the Qing Empire. On a personal note, I used to find History a dry subject where one had to memorize as many dates as possible to pass a test. However, judging on how I love to read historical fiction (especially if its about romance), I think that speculating about historical relationships is pretty interesting.

Which brings us to Qianlong and Heshen. So the basic point is that Qing Emperors (Kangxi and Yongzheng) were really obsessed with making sure that there weren't any political factions that could become powerful enough to harm the imperial state. Qianlong should've gotten the same training, but weirdly enough he began to trust this guy called Heshen. 

Apparently it was because this Heshen dude was of Manchurian origins (and you know how the Qing Empire is actually the Manchus who are considered "invaders" that took over Han China), and I suppose he must have been a charming dude. Anyways, this Heshen dude would basically steal a lot of money from the Imperial treasury because he would say he needed it for the conquest of border areas. 

After Qianlong died, they raided his house and found all the stuff he stole. He had the option of hanging himself, and he did. I think this is interesting in how it points out that people can really delude themselves into believing what they want to believe. I'm sure Qianlong heard from his other officials what Heshen was up to, but just didn't want to believe it. And if we wanted to complicate this matter further, I'm sure a part of Heshen felt really guilty about lying to this person who trusted him against the odds. 

That leads to a multitude of questions: Should Qianlong, as emperor, attempted to find the truth even if it was one he didn't want to know? What motives did Heshen have that made him betray Qianlong? Or did he use Qianlong only as a means of amassing wealth?