Why would Wei Dongting prefer to commit suicide instead of letting Kangxi repay the debt of 350,000 taels of silver for him?
Wei Dongting, as one of the closest people in Kangxi's life, was sent to the palace from a young age to accompany Kangxi, and the two were both small and confidants, and they could be said to be the most knowledgeable people. But it was such a close relationship that in the end it was desperate because of Kangxi, and the last straw that overwhelmed the camel was really 350,000 taels of silver owed to the national treasury on credit.
Wei Dongting, as a fictional character in the novel "Yongzheng Dynasty", its character prototype should be Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Jiang Ning weaved Cao Yin, and the reason why it was named Wei Dongting may be that the author of the novel himself is playing word games. The word Cao Wei is popular throughout the north and south of the Great River because of the Three Kingdoms, so the author uses "Wei" to metaphorically "Cao", and because of the Cao Yin character Dongting, it has become dongting after a subtle transformation, so there is the name Wei Dongting.
As a figure who accompanied Kangxi from childhood, Wei Dongting and Kangxi had a very close relationship, and even after reaching adulthood, Kangxi still took Wei Dongting with him, even for the southern tour. In the later years of Wei Dongting,the status was not only prominent, but even the heirs in the family were highly respected by the world.
However, in the novel, Wei Dongting owes a huge debt of 350,000 taels of silver, and finally hangs himself, ending his life. So as the closest person to Kangxi, why did Wei Dongting go to the end of the road because of silver? To understand the reasons for this, one has to figure out how these debts came from. In the book, it is mentioned that Wei Dongting's huge debt mainly came from some expenses of Kangxi's southern tour, and Wei Dongting was not the only victim, at that time, officials at all levels in the Qing Dynasty basically signed huge debts because of Kangxi's southern tour.
So since the debt owed because of Kangxi, according to the relationship between Wei Dongting and Kangxi, it should be reduced as long as you say hello, right? Why did Wei Dongting choose to completely resist this pit that could not be changed? In fact, during the Kangxi period, the Qing Dynasty treasury had been exhausted, and when Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, the entire treasury was only 8 million taels of silver, and what caused the treasury to be empty, in addition to the emperor's wanton splurge, was also related to the borrowing of officials and nobles.
Since the Qing Dynasty fixed the world more recently, the country said that it was a place to use people and money, and for these things, Kangxi handed them over to the Eight Banners to handle. However, the Eight Banners disciples were not willing to pay for themselves, so Kangxi had to borrow money and lend the silver in the treasury to the Eight Banners disciples for use. However, due to some special reasons, most of the money lent out became bad debts, and some of them did not plan to return it, after all, this money was used on the emperor, and the situation of Wei Dongting was similar.
However, due to his special status and status, Wei Dongting was not willing to drag the Xiao Kangxi Emperor down because of the arrears, so he had been raising money to pay off debts in private, but for Wei Dongting's request, the princes and ministers and civil and military officials were unwilling to help him, and finally in desperation, the elderly Wei Dongting had to hang himself, and to tell those people that the money owed to the national treasury must be repaid. Wei Dongting's death not only offset his own debts, but also paved the way for the Kangxi Emperor to collect debts, but its ending was not only lamentable.
Wei Dongting was in a huge debt of 350,000 taels of silver, so why would he rather commit suicide than ask Kangxi for his relief?