Heshen

He Shen (Chinese:和 珅; * 1750, † February 22, 1799 ) was a Manchu official of the Qing Dynasty. His family belonged to the Red Banner. The officer's son first attended a Qing school, then joined in 1772 as a Guards officer in the service of the Imperial Palace.

Discovery by Qianlong

At the age of 25 years Heshen Emperor Qianlong came on. Its feminine charm, its beautiful shape with smooth skin and the narrow, red lips made ​​for rumors about the reasons for the imperial interest in the young man. There were also rumors, Qianlong had Heshen held due to optical similarities for the reincarnation of a concubine, he had once surprised in his early days applying makeup and thus so compromised that she had committed suicide. The awakened feelings of guilt would help to explain the bounties with which the Emperor was to overwhelm his favorite.

Rise

Heshen soon caught an amazing career, was appointed Deputy Lieutenant General of the blue Manchu Banners and commanding officer of the Beijing troops, then as Minister of Palastintendantur, Deputy Minister of Finance and the State Council. Subsequently, he held, inter alia, the offices of the Finance Minister, the Chief of the Ministry officials and the Grand Secretary. Finally, he was even appointed Baron. At times, he was responsible for the imperial compilation project of the " Four Great Treasures". 1777, at the age of 27 years, it is normally only old and particularly deserving officials was granted reserved privilege to ride within the Forbidden City on horseback. 1780 sent him as a Qianlong imperial envoy to the fight against corruption in the province of Yunnan, a year later to quell an uprising by the Muslim Gansu. 1790 was able to consolidate Heshen his connections to the emperor by marriage of his son with Qianlong's youngest daughter even further.

Corruption

Aware of the imperial favor Heshen enjoyed almost unrestricted freedom of action and abused his power to enrich himself and his family. In particular, he was instrumental in the increasingly to rampant towards the end of the term Qianlong corruption. Under presumption almost imperial powers he exploited the people out, practiced extortion on a grand scale, embezzled state funds and settled the obligations incumbent upon him and pay services. His goings withdrew et al major infrastructure projects such as dikes, the necessary resources and thus ultimately led natural disasters such as the flooding of the Yellow River brought about. But above all, it brought to wide public attention to the imperial court and contributed to the end of the 18th century the Qing Empire shocking riots and uprisings in. But their crackdown, he used to further enrichment. So he should not arising on settlement alone in the campaigns against the rebels of the White Lotus expenses gewirtschaftet several million Silbertael into his own pocket.

Heshens end

After his formal abdication in 1796 served the Emperor his favorite to continue effectively to keep the power in the hands and enforce his will in particular against his successor Jiaqing. After Qianlong's death in 1799, however Heshen fell out of favor. The new sky son, confiscated his illegal piled, valued at 800 million Silbertaels assets and thus led back the equivalent of the imperial revenues of 14 years in the state budget. Moreover, he did charge him with 20 crimes and eventually forced him to commit suicide.