The Yongzheng Emperor was probably the most diligent emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who stabilized the prosperity and prosperity created by his father and left enough capital for his descendants. As for the extent to which Yongzheng worked diligently, there is such a legend, it is said that he had to write more than two thousand words a day just by reading and reading the recital, and accumulated it in the long run, afraid that he would use up a lot of pen and ink alone, and it can also be seen from it that Yongzheng is indeed a good emperor who works diligently for the people.
Some people may ask, when we see the emperor on TV, when approving the recital, we only need to use the Zhu pen to outline and circle the key points, at most, it is to approve a "reading" word, no matter how many folds there are, it is impossible to have thousands of copies that need to be approved by the emperor himself every day, right? In fact, for the emperor, in addition to the folds, there are also some "secret folds", and these secret folds are personally preserved by the emperor. In the Yongzheng period, because there were too many secret folds, it was necessary to pack up a lot of boxes, and then put the keys of those boxes together, only need to carry one with them, which also made the hundred officials very awe-inspiring.
China's feudal dynasty system has undergone thousands of years of evolution, and the hierarchy of officials has become more and more perfect, especially in the Qing Dynasty, which should be regarded as the culmination of predecessors. Although the emperor at the top level delegated power, the major events and small things in various places also needed to be understood, but if all the graded officials' performances were approved by the emperor alone, it was really difficult to complete the waste of sleep and forgetting to eat, which required a way.
The initial method is to manage one level at a time, and after layer by layer, the most important content can be presented in front of the emperor, which was originally a good way to help the emperor "reduce the burden", but there are also some drawbacks. If an official at any level received unfavorable news to himself, or favoritism in the process of decentralization, it was not conducive to the emperor's rule, so the "secret fold" system came into being.
Originally, at the beginning of this secret fold, it was also the responsibility of the emperor's trusted courtiers, who screened the folds presented below, selected the most important ones and handed them to the emperor, and this fold was confidential, locked in a box, and the key was only his own and the emperor's possession. This would have been the best way, but as we said earlier, Yongzheng is a diligent emperor who serves the people, and in today's terms, he is a workaholic, and he is certainly not satisfied with a few simple secret folds.
So under the efforts of Yongzheng, more and more dense folds, the number of boxes that need to be used has also increased exponentially, from more than a hundred at the beginning to thousands later. With so many boxes, the emperor can't go with so many keys! So he locked all the keys in a box and took one with him. When officials see his key, they can also think of those secret folds that can appear in their own names at any time, so they usually be cautious in their words and deeds, and dare not move their undeserved thoughts.