| Transcript |
- position, but instead was compelled to pay a considerable fine of 20,000 taels and in addition was forced to give up 8,000 taels of his yearly income of 12,000 taels. His punishment was particularly severe because he had been lax in allowing this jade smuggling incident in Suzhou, which was under his jurisdiction, to go unhin�dered for about six months.
Another example of self-imposed fines involved Bi Yuan, the Governor of Shaanxi. He offered to pay a fine of 30,000 taels and to show his diligence he cap�tured seven people, who were transporting 1,367 catties of illegal jade through his territory. However, this only seemed to prove that there had been a great deal of jade smuggling passing through Shaanxi and that Bi Yuan had not always been so active in his investigations.
Some officials received less severe punishments. For example, the Governor General of Liangjiang, Gao Jin, who had been directly involved with giving Li Fu travel permits, came off with a light punishment, as he was a favourite of the emperor.
However, the main characters in the illegal jade trade were executed to set an example. On November 25, 1778 Gao Pu and a high Moslim official, Yishenhan Beg, were led bound from Yarkand to a place outside the city, where they were executed before a group of Moslims of various social positions. It had been ru�moured that Gao Pu had not observed the traditional 27 months of mourning for the death of the Empress Xiaoxian, but instead had been watching plays and lis�tening to musical performances. Emperor Qianlong had sent an order to investi�gate this, but his message arrived a day after Gao Pu had been sentenced to death. Because of this, the emperor ordered that Gao Pu�s body could not be transported back to China. This was a particularly harsh punishment in those days.
Others involved in the case, like Li Fu and Chang Yong, were decapitated, while Zhang Luan, Zhao Junrui and Xiong Jian were sentenced to death by strangulation.
The officials who were instrumental in breaking the case, like Yong Gui and Siti- baerdi, were praised and rewarded for their work. Yong G ui was reinstated as pre�sident of the Bureau of History and allowed to return to Beijing. Sitibaerdi and his eldest son were given official titles by the emperor. In addition, the emperor be�stowed the peacock feather upon Sitibaerdi. It was a decoration granted for out�standing merit in the public service, and was to be attached to the hat.
NOTE
1 See Fu Lezhi, �Examination of the Case Involving Jade Smuggling by Gao Pu during the
Qing dynasty,� The National Palace Museum Quarterly, Vol. XIII, No. 3, Spring 1979
pp. 67-80, and No. 4, Summer 1979, pp. 85-102.
50
|
|---|
