Heshen (和珅) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Heshen as an aristocrat, official, and statesman. This record brings together 32 passages from 8 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Heshen	和珅	Héshēn
Personal name	Heshen	和珅	Héshēn
Personal name	Heshen	和珅	Heshen
Personal	Heshen	和珅	Heshen
Personal name	Heshen	和珅

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · qingshigao:335:s0117, qingshigao:340:s0022, qingshigao:352:s0024, qingshigao:353:s0009

Roles

Aristocrat
Official
Statesman

Life and dates

Death

Manner: executed / 伏誅 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 嘉慶四年春 · Western Year: AD 1799
Explicit · qingshigao:340:s0118

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 乾隆五十一年 · Western Year: AD 1786
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:340:s0018, qingshigao:340:s0022
Source Date: Text: 乾隆四十九年 · Western Year: AD 1784
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:362:s0063, qingshigao:362:s0066
Source Date: Text: 乾隆末 · Western Year: AD 1785
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:335:s0117
Source Date: Text: 乾隆間 · Western Year: AD 1775
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:351:s0076
Source Date: Text: 嘉慶中 · Western Interval: Start: AD 1796 · End: AD 1820
Explicit · qingshigao:377:s0044
Source Date: Text: 嘉慶四年 · Western Year: AD 1799
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:353:s0019, qingshigao:355:s0011, qingshigao:355:s0034
Source Date: Text: 四年 · Western Year: AD 1799
Explicit · qingshigao:352:s0026

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Parent of Fengshen Yinde (丰紳殷德)
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son

Career and standing

Status: execution · Action: executed · Date: Source Date: Text: 嘉慶四年 · Western Year: AD 1799
Explicit · qingshigao:353:s0019
Status: dominant minister · Action: wielded-power
Explicit · qingshigao:335:s0117
Label: executed / 伏誅 · Action: suffered · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 嘉慶四年春 · Western Year: AD 1799
Explicit · qingshigao:340:s0118

Places and affiliations

Polity: Qing / 清 · Relation: served
Explicit · qingshigao:335:s0117, qingshigao:352:s0024

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Speaker Person Id: Heshen (和珅)
Explicit · qingshigao:362:s0067

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: fallen-minister · Action: downfall
Explicit · qingshigao:352:s0026

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 335Volume 335 Biographies 122: Fu Senga, Yi Leitu, Hu Gui, Yu Jin Ao, Yin Dexi, Gang Ta · 1 passage

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官湖廣，和珅已柄政，欲納交焉。 While serving in Huguang, when Heshen already dominated the government, Heshen sought his friendship.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 340Volume 340 Biographies 127: Wang Jie, Dong Gao, Zhu Gui · 12 passages

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和珅勢方赫，事多擅決，同列隱忍不言，傑遇有不可，輒力爭。 Heshen's power was then at its height; he often decided matters on his own, and his colleagues endured it in silence—but whenever Jie found something unacceptable, he would argue vigorously.

上知之深，和珅雖厭之而不能去。 The emperor knew this well; though Heshen disliked him, he could not remove him.

一日，和珅執其手戲曰：「何柔荑乃爾！」 One day Heshen took his hand in jest and said, "What a soft, delicate hand you have!"

和珅赧然。 Heshen flushed with embarrassment.

屬稿未竟，和珅取白高宗曰：「嗣皇帝欲市恩於師傅。」 Before the draft was finished, Heshen told the Qianlong Emperor, "The heir apparent wishes to curry favor with his tutor."

逾年，葬母畢，詣京師，和珅遏不上聞。 After more than a year, when his mother's burial was complete, he went to the capital; Heshen blocked the report from reaching the emperor.

四年春，高宗崩，和珅伏誅，命誥复直軍機，晉太子太保。 In the spring of 1799 the Qianlong Emperor died; Heshen was executed; Gao was ordered back to regular Grand Council duty and promoted to Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.

當和珅用事，與王杰支柱其間，獨居深念，行處幾失常度，卒贊仁宗殲除大憝。 When Heshen held power, he and Wang Jie held the line between them; alone he brooded deeply, and in walking about he nearly lost his composure—yet in the end he helped the Jiaqing Emperor destroy the great villain.

和珅忌之，授受禮成，珪進頌冊，因加指摘，高宗曰：「陳善納誨，師傅之職宜爾，非汝所知也。」 Heshen envied him; when the succession rites were completed Gui presented a eulogy booklet and was criticized for it; the Qianlong Emperor said, "To present good counsel and accept admonition is a tutor's proper duty—this is not for you to understand."

會大學士缺，詔召珪，卒為和珅所沮。 When a Grand Secretary post fell vacant, an edict summoned Gui, but Heshen blocked it in the end.

王杰、董誥、硃珪皆高宗拔擢信任之臣，和珅一再間沮，卒不屈撓。 Wang Jie, Dong Gao, and Zhu Gui were all ministers the Qianlong Emperor selected and trusted; Heshen repeatedly obstructed them, yet in the end they did not yield.

一旦共、驩伏法，眾正盈朝，攄其忠誠，啟沃新主，殄寇息民，苞桑永固。 Once Heshen was executed, the upright filled the court; they poured forth their loyalty, nourished the new sovereign, exterminated bandits and gave the people rest, and secured the realm like deep-rooted mulberry.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 351Volume 351 Biographies 138: Shen Chu, Jin Shisong, Zou Bingtai, Dai Liankui, Wang Yixiu Son: Zong Cheng, Huang Yue · 3 passages

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和珅為掌院，訪時望傅其子丰紳殷德，或薦晉涵及聯奎，晉涵移病歸，聯奎亦堅辭。 When Heshen headed the academy he sought tutors for his son Fengshen Yinde; Shao Jinhan and Liankui were suggested, but Jinhan pleaded illness and went home and Liankui firmly refused.

時和珅管部務，鉞不欲趨附，乞假歸，不出。 Heshen then controlled the ministry; Yue refused to court him, took leave, went home, and stayed out of office.

黃鉞以不附和珅，特邀殊遇，改授館職，馴參機務。 Huang Yue, for refusing to follow Heshen, won special favor, was transferred to Hanlin service, and eventually joined the Grand Council.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 352Volume 352 Biographies 139: Jiang Cheng, Jin Guangti, Zu Zhiwang, Han Feng · 3 passages

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布政使鄭源鸘附和珅，以貪著，需索屬吏，必多金始得赴任。 The provincial treasurer Zheng Yuanluan, a follower of Heshen, was notorious for corruption. He extorted his subordinates and would not let them take office until they paid him heavily in gold.

四年，和珅敗，為言官論劾。 In 1799, after Heshen's downfall, censors brought charges against him.

詔「晟平日居官猶能自守，因畏和珅不敢參劾，尚非通同舞弊」，命逮訊源鸘，籍其貲財，澈底根究，具得源鸘加扣平餘、蓄養優伶、眷屬多至三百人諸罪狀，論大辟； The throne ruled that "Cheng had generally kept his hands clean but, fearing Heshen, had failed to denounce him—yet this was not treated as outright collusion." Yuanluan was arrested, his goods confiscated, and a full inquiry pursued. He was found guilty of skimming surplus grain accounts, keeping a troupe of actors, and maintaining a household of nearly three hundred dependents, and was sentenced to death.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 353Volume 353 Biographies 140: Da Chun | Son: Sa Bin Tu, Tie Bao Younger Brother: Yu Bao, He Ying, Jue Luo Gui Fang · 3 passages

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達椿直內廷，不附和珅，數媒孽其短，以曠直褫職，仍留上書房效力行走。 Da Chun served in the inner court with integrity and refused to align with Heshen, who repeatedly spread slander against him. Cited for absenteeism, he was stripped of rank but kept on in the Southern Study to perform duties.

和珅既伏法，仁宗不欲株連興獄，而薩彬圖屢疏言和珅財產多寄頓隱匿，有嘗管金銀使女四名，請獨至慎刑司訊鞫。 After Heshen's execution the emperor did not want a widening purge, but Sa Bintu repeatedly memorialized that much of Heshen's wealth had been hidden away and that four maidservants who had managed his bullion should be interrogated separately in the Imperial Prison.

會上欲用為巡撫，為和珅所阻，鬱鬱卒，年甫四十。 The emperor was about to appoint him governor when Heshen blocked the move. He died in low spirits at barely forty.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 355Volume 355 Biographies 142: Kui Lun, Guang Xing, Chu Peng Ling · 2 passages

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伍拉納為和珅姻戚，當按治時，上切責長麟瞻徇，罷去，以事由魁倫舉發，特寬之，代署總督，嚴捕海盜，屢獲其魁。 Wula Na was related by marriage to Heshen. During the prosecution the emperor sharply rebuked Chang Lin for partiality and dismissed him. Because Kui Lun had brought the matter to light, he was treated with special leniency, made acting governor-general, waged a vigorous campaign against pirates, and repeatedly took their ringleaders.

嘉慶四年，首劾和珅罪狀，擢副都御史。 In the fourth year of Jiaqing he led the impeachment of Heshen’s crimes and was promoted to vice censor-in-chief.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 362Volume 362 Biographies 149: Fang Ji, Zhu Erhan, Yang Hu, Liao Yin, Chen Changqi, Zhu Ergenge, Cha Chonghua · 7 passages

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和珅方總刑部，意有所徇，駁詰之，頀面爭。 Heshen then headed the Ministry of Justice and wanted the case bent his way. He sent the draft back with objections, and Hu argued with him to his face.

和珅叱曰：「司員敢爾！」 Heshen snapped, "How dare a junior clerk behave like this!"

和珅不能奪。 Heshen could not budge him.

及珅敗，擢員外郎。 After Heshen's downfall he was promoted to vice director.

大學士和珅欲羅致之，昌齊以非掌院，無晉謁禮，不往。 Grand Secretary Heshen tried to draw him into his circle, but Changqi, not being head of his academy, had no formal occasion to pay a courtesy call and refused to go.

兩江總督蘇凌阿閽人為和珅舊奴，恣睢用事，廉得其狀，白而逐之。 A gatekeeper of Liangjiang Governor-General Su Ling'a, formerly a slave of Heshen, abused his power. Ergenge uncovered his misconduct, reported it, and had him removed.

和珅奴劉全之婿號檳榔蔣者，倚勢奪民產，訟於部，刑責不稍貸。 Betel-nut Jiang, son-in-law of Heshen's slave Liu Quan, used his connections to seize commoners' property. When the case came before the ministry, Ergenge punished him to the full extent of the law.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 377Volume 377 Biographies 164: Bao Guixing, Gu Chun, Wu Xiaoming, Chen Hong, E Mushune, Xu Faji · 1 passage

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先是嘉慶中蓴在史館，撰和珅傳，及進禦，經他人竄改，和珅曾數因事被高宗詰責，並未載入傳。 Earlier, during the Jiaqing reign, Chun had been in the Historiography Office and drafted Heshen's biography. By the time it reached the throne others had altered it, omitting the many occasions on which Emperor Gaozong had censured Heshen for misconduct.