Qianlong Emperor
Encyclopedia
The Qianlong Emperor ' onMouseout='HidePop("85142")' href="/topics/Mongolian_language">Mongolian
: Tengeriin Tetgesen Khaan, Manchu
: Abkai Wehiyehe hūwangdi, Tibetan
: lha skyong rgyal po, born Hongli ' onMouseout='HidePop("12970")' href="/topics/Manchu_language">Manchu language
: ;Möllendorff transliteration
: hung li), 25 September 1711 – 7 February 1799) was the sixth emperor of the Manchu
-led Qing Dynasty
, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper
. The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor
, he reigned officially from 11 October 1735 to 8 February 1796. On 8 February, he abdicated
in favor of his son, the Jiaqing Emperor
– a filial act in order not to reign longer than his grandfather, the illustrious Kangxi Emperor
. Despite his retirement, however, he retained ultimate power until his death in 1799. Although his early years saw the continuation of an era of prosperity in China, his final years saw troubles at home and abroad converge on the Qing Empire.
and his father, the Yongzheng Emperor
. Some historians argue that the main reason why Kangxi Emperor appointed Yongzheng as his successor was because Qianlong was his favourite grandson. He felt that Hongli's mannerisms were very close to his own. As a teenager he was very capable in martial arts, and possessed a high literary ability.
After his father's succession in 1722, Hongli became the Prince Bao (宝亲王/寶親王). Like many of his uncles, Hongli entered into a battle of succession with his older half-brother Hongshi
, who had the support of a large faction of court officials, as well as Yinsi, the Prince Lian. For many years the Yongzheng Emperor did not appoint anyone to the position of Crown Prince, but many in court speculated his favoring of Hongli. Hongli went on inspection trips to the south, and was known to be an able negotiator and enforcer. He was also chosen as chief regent
on occasions, when his father was away from the capital.
(Qianqing Gong 乾清宫). The name in the box was to be revealed to other members of the imperial family in the presence of all senior ministers only upon the death of the Emperor. Yongzheng died suddenly in 1735, the will was taken out and read out before the entire Qing Court, and Hongli became the 6th Manchu Emperor of China
. He took the Calendar Name
of Qianlong (乾隆), 乾 means heaven, 隆 means prosperity, which mean "Heavenly Prosperity".
The Qianlong Emperor was a successful military leader. Immediately after ascending the throne, he sent armies to suppress the Miao rebellion. His later campaigns greatly expanded the territory controlled by the Qing dynasty. This was made possible not only by Qing strength, but also by the disunity and declining strength of the Inner Asian peoples. Under Qianlong, Dzungar Khanate was incorporated into the Qing dynasty's rule and renamed Xinjiang
, while to the West, Ili
was conquered and garrisoned. The incorporation of Xinjiang into the Qing empire resulted from the final defeat and destruction of the Dzungars (or Zunghars), a coalition of Western Mongol tribes. According to Qing scholar Wei Yuan
, 40% of the 600,000 Zunghar people were killed by smallpox
, 20% fled to Russia
or Kazakh
tribes, and 30% were killed by the army, in what Clarked described as "the complete destruction
of not only the Zunghar state but of the Zunghars as a people." Historian Peter Perdue has argued that the decimation of the Dzungars was the result of an explicit policy of massacre launched by the Qianlong emperor
(See Zunghar Khanate#Fall).
Throughout this period there were continued Mongol interventions in Tibet
and a reciprocal spread of Tibetan Buddhism
in Mongolia. After the Lhasa riot of 1750
he sent armies into Tibet and firmly established the Dalai Lama
as ruler, with a Qing resident and garrison to preserve Chinese sovereignty. Further afield, military campaigns against Nepalese, and Gurkha
s forced these peoples to submit and send tribute.
The Qianlong Emperor sought to conquer Burma to the south, but the Sino–Burmese War ended in complete failure. He initially believed that it would be an easy victory against a barbarian tribe, and sent only the Green Standard Army
based in Yunnan
, which borders Burma. The Qing invasion came as the majority of Burmese forces were deployed in their latest invasion of Siam
. Nonetheless, battle-hardened Burmese troops defeated the first two invasions of 1765–1766 and 1766–1767 at the border. The regional conflict now escalated to a major war that involved military maneuvers nationwide in both countries. The third invasion (1767–1768) led by the elite Manchu Bannermen
nearly succeeded, penetrating deep into central Burma within a few days' march from the capital, Ava
. But the Bannermen of northern China could not cope with unfamiliar tropical terrains and lethal endemic diseases, and were driven back with heavy losses. After the close-call, King Hsinbyushin
redeployed his armies from Siam to the Chinese front. The fourth and largest invasion got bogged down at the frontier. With the Qing forces completely encircled, a truce was reached between the field commanders of the two sides in December 1769. The Qing kept a heavy military lineup in the border areas of Yunnan for about one decade in an attempt to wage another war while imposing a ban on inter-border trade for two decades. When Burma and China resumed a diplomatic relationship in 1790, the Qing unilaterally viewed the act as Burmese submission, and claimed victory.
The circumstances in Vietnam were not successful either. In 1787 the last Le king Le Chieu Thong
fled Vietnam and formally requested that he be restored to his throne in Thanglong
(Hanoi today). The Qianlong Emperor agreed and sent a large army into Vietnam to remove the Tay Son (peasant rebels who had captured all of Vietnam). The capital, Thanglong, was conquered in 1788 but a few months later, the Chinese army was defeated and the invasion turned into a debacle due to the surprise attack during Tết
by Nguyen Hue
, the second and most capable of the three Tay Son brothers. The Chinese
gave formal protection to the Le emperor and his family, and would not intervene in Vietnam for another 90 years.
Despite setbacks in the south, overall the Qianlong Emperor's military expansion nearly doubled the area of the already vast empire, and brought into the fold many non-Han-Chinese peoples—such as Uyghurs
, Kazakhs
, Kyrgyzs, Evenks
and Mongols
—who were potentially hostile. It was also a very expensive enterprise; the funds in the Imperial Treasury were almost all put into military expeditions. Though the wars were successful, they were not overwhelmingly so. The army declined noticeably and had a difficult time facing some enemies: the Jin Chuan area took 2–3 years to conquer—at first the Qing army were mauled, though Yue Zhongqi later took control of the situation. The battle with the Dzungars was closely fought, and caused heavy losses on both sides.
At the end of the frontier wars, the army had started to weaken significantly. In addition to a more lenient military system, warlords became satisfied with their lifestyles. Since most of the warring had taken place, warlords no longer saw any reason to train their armies, resulting in a rapid military decline by the end of Qianlong's reign. This is the main reason for the military's failure against the White Lotus
Sect, at the very end of Qianlong's years.
The Qianlong Emperor was a major patron of the arts, seeing himself as an important "preserver and restorer" of Chinese culture. He had an insatiable appetite for collecting, and acquired much of China's "great private collections" by any means necessary, and "reintegrated their treasures into the imperial collection." Qianlong, more than any other Manchu emperor, lavished the imperial collection with his attention and effort:
His massive art collection became an intimate part of his life; he took landscape paintings
with him on his travels in order to compare them with the actual landscapes, or to hang them in special rooms in palaces where he lodged, to inscribe them on every visit there. "He also regularly added poetic inscriptions to the paintings of the imperial collection, following the example of the emperors of the Song dynasty
and the literati painters of the Ming
. They were a mark of distinction for the work, and a visible sign of his rightful role as Emperor. Most particular to the Qianlong Emperor is another type of inscription, revealing a unique practice of dealing with works of art that he seems to have developed for himself. On certain fixed occasions over a long period he contemplated a number of paintings or works of calligraphy which possessed special meaning for him, inscribing each regularly with mostly private notes on the circumstances of enjoying them, using them almost as a diary."
"Most of the several thousand jade items in the imperial collection date from his reign. The Emperor was also particularly interested in collecting ancient bronzes, bronze mirrors and seals," in addition to pottery, ceramics and applied arts such as enameling, metal work and lacquer work, which flourished during his reign; a substantial part of his collection is in the Percival David Foundation in London. The Victoria and Albert Museum and The British Museum also have good collections of Qianlong period Art.
"The Qianlong Emperor was a passionate poet and essayist. In his collected writings, which were published in a tenfold series between 1749 and 1800, over 40,000 poems and 1,300 prose texts are listed, making him one of the most prolific writers of all time. There is a long tradition of poems of this sort in praise of particular objects (yongwu shi), and the Qianlong Emperor used it in order to link his name both physically and intellectually with ancient artistic tradition."
One of Qianlong’s grandest projects was to "assemble a team of China’s finest scholars for the purpose of assembling, editing, and printing the largest collection ever made of Chinese philosophy, history, and literature." Known as The Four Treasuries project, or Siku Quanshu
(四庫全書) it was published in 36,000 volumes, containing about 3450 complete works and employing as many as 15,000 copyists. It preserved numerous books, but was also intended as a way to ferret out and suppress political opponents, requiring the "careful examination of private libraries to assemble a list of around eleven thousand works from the past, of which about a third were chosen for publication. The works not included were either summarized or—in a good many cases—scheduled for destruction."
or rebellious, that insulted previous "barbarian" dynasties, or that dealt with frontier or defense problems.
The full editing of Siku Quanshu
was completed in about ten years; during these ten years, 3100 titles (or works), about 150,000 copies of books were either burnt or banned. Of those volumes that had been categorized into Siku Quanshu, many were subjected to deletion and modification. Books published during the Ming dynasty suffered the greatest damage.
The authority would judge any single character or any single sentence's neutrality; if the authority had decided these words, or sentence were derogatory or cynical towards the rulers, then persecution would begin. In Qianlong's time, there were 53 cases of literary inquisition
, resulting in the victims being beheaded
, or corpses being mutilated, or victims being slowly sliced into pieces until death (Lingchi).
and commissioned the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione for the construction of the Xiyanglou (西洋楼), or the Western-style mansion, to satisfy his taste for exotic buildings and objects. He also commissioned the French Jesuit Michel Benoist
, to design a series of timed waterworks and fountains complete with underground machinery and pipes, for the amusement of the Imperial family. The French Jesuit Jean Denis Attiret
also became "Painter to the Emperor" Qianlong.
During his reign the Emin Minaret
was built in Turpan to commemorate his father.
(和珅).
As Heshen was the highest ranked minister and most favoured by Qianlong at the time, the day-to-day governance of the country was left in his hands, while Qianlong himself indulged in the arts, luxuries and literature. When Heshen was executed it was found that his personal fortune exceeded that of the country's depleted treasury, amount to 900,000,000 taels of silver, the total of 12 years of Treasury surplus of Manchu Qing court.
Qianlong began his reign with about 33,950,000 tael
s of silver in Treasury surplus. At the peak of Qianlong's reign, around 1775, even with further tax cuts, the treasury surplus still reached 73,900,000 taels, a record unmatched by his predecessors, Kangxi or Yongzheng both of whom had implemented remarkable tax cut policies.
However, due to numerous factors such as long term embezzlement and corruption by officials, frequent expeditions South, huge palace constructions, many war and rebellion campaigns as well as his own extravagant lifestyle, all of these cost the treasury a total of 150,200,000 silver taels. This, coupled with his senior age and the lack of political reforms, ushered the beginning of the gradual decline and eventual demise of the Qing dynasty and empire, casting a shadow over his glorious and brilliant political life.
During the mid-eighteenth century, Qianlong began to face pressures from the West to increase foreign trade. The proposed cultural exchange between the British Empire at the time and the Qing Empire collapsed due to many factors. Firstly, there was a lack of any precedent interaction with overseas foreign kingdoms apart from neighbouring tributory states to guide Qianlong towards a more informed response. Furthermore, competing worldviews that were incompatible between China and Britain, the former holding entrenched beliefs that China was the "central kingdom", and the latter's push for rapid liberalization of trade relations, worsened ties.
George Macartney
, was sent by King George III as ambassador extraordinary to seek a range of trade concessions. He was granted an audience with the Qianlong Emperor, and attended the Emperor's 80th birthday. There is continued discussion about the nature of the audience, and what level of ceremonials were performed. Demands from the Qing Court that the British Trade ambassadors kneel and perform the kowtow
were strongly resisted by Macartney, and debate continues as to what exactly occurred, differing opinions recorded by Qing courtiers and British delegates.
A description of the Emperor is provided in the account of one of the visiting Englishmen, Aeneas Anderson:
It is uncertain whether Anderson actually saw the Emperor, or repeated another's sighting, as he was not involved in the ceremonies.
A Dutch embassy arrived to the Qianlong court in 1795, and would turn out to be the last occasion in which any European appeared before the Chinese Court within the context of traditional Chinese imperial foreign relations.
Representing Dutch and Dutch East India Company
interests, Isaac Titsingh
traveled to Pekin
in 1794–95 for celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the Qianlong Emperor's reign. The Titsingh delegation also included the Dutch-American Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest
, whose detailed description of this embassy to the Chinese court was soon after published in the U.S. and Europe. Titsingh's French translator, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes
published his own account of the Titsingh mission in 1808. Voyage a Pékin, Manille et l'Ile de France provided an alternate perspective and a useful counterpoint to other reports which were then circulating. Titsingh himself died before he could publish his version of events.
In contrast to Macartney, Isaac Titsingh, the Dutch and VOC
emissary in 1795 did not refuse to kowtow. In the year following Mccartney's rebuff, Titsingh and his colleagues were much feted by the Chinese because of what was construed as seemly compliance with conventional court etiquette.
In October 1795, Qianlong officially announced that in the spring of the following year he would voluntarily abdicate his throne and pass the crown to his son. It was said that Qianlong had made a promise during the year of his ascension not to rule longer than his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor
, who had reigned for 61 years.
Qianlong anticipated moving out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City. The Hall had been conventionally dedicated for the exclusive use of the reigning sovereign, and in 1771 the emperor ordered the beginning of construction on what was ostensibly intended as his retirement residence in another part of the Forbidden City
: a lavish, two-acre walled retreat called the Ningshou gong, or "Palace of Tranquil Longevity", today more commonly known as the Qianlong Garden. The complex, completed in 1776, is currently undergoing a ten-year restoration led by the Palace Museum in Beijing and the World Monuments Fund
(WMF). The first of the restored apartments, Qianlong's Juanqinzhai, or "Studio of Exhaustion From Diligent Service," began an exhibition tour of the United States in 2010.
Qianlong resigned the throne at the age of 85, in the 60th year of his reign, to his son, the Jiaqing emperor in 1795. For the next four years, he held the title "Retired Emperor (太上皇)," though he continued to hold on to power and the Jiaqing Emperor ruled only in name. He never moved into his retirement suites in the Qianlong Garden. He died in 1799.
Qianlong was the son of Chen Yuanlong of Haining. Emperor Kangxi chose the heir to his throne based not just on his son's capability to govern the Empire, but also whether his grandson was of no lesser calibre, to ensure the Manchus' everlasting reign over the country. Yongzheng's own son was a weakling and he surreptitiously arranged for his daughter to be swapped for Chen Yuanlong's son, who became the apple of Kangxi's eye. Thus, Yongzheng got to succeed the throne, and his "son", Hongli, subsequently became Emperor Qianlong. Later, Qianlong went to the southern part of the country four times, he stayed in Chen's house in Haining, leaving behind his calligraphy and also frequently issued imperial decrees making and maintaining Haining as a tax-free state.
However there are major problems with this story being:
1) His eldest surviving son Hongshi was only 7 when Hongli was born far too early to make the drastic choice of replacing a child of royal birth with an outsider (and risking disgrace if not death)
2) Yongzheng had three other princes that survived to adulthood who had the potential of ascending the throne.
Indeed given the fact that Hongshi was forced to commit suicide, the story would have been far more logical if he was the adopted child of Yongzheng.
Stories about Qianlong's 6 visits to the Jiangnan
area disguised as a commoner had been a popular topic for many generations. In total, he has visited Jiang Nan for eight times, as opposed to the Kangxi emperor's 6 inspections.
Mongolian language
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
: Tengeriin Tetgesen Khaan, Manchu
Manchu language
Manchu is a Tungusic endangered language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus...
: Abkai Wehiyehe hūwangdi, Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
: lha skyong rgyal po, born Hongli ' onMouseout='HidePop("12970")' href="/topics/Manchu_language">Manchu language
Manchu language
Manchu is a Tungusic endangered language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus...
: ;Möllendorff transliteration
Transliterations of Manchu
There are several systems for transliteration of the Manchu alphabet which is used for the Manchu and Sibe languages. These include the Möllendorff transliteration system invented by Paul Georg von Möllendorff, BabelPad transliteration, the transliteration of the New Manchu-Chinese Dictionary, and...
: hung li), 25 September 1711 – 7 February 1799) was the sixth emperor of the Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
-led Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper
China proper
China proper or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history...
. The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor
Yongzheng Emperor
The Yongzheng Emperor , born Yinzhen , was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the third Qing emperor from 1722 to 1735. A hard-working ruler, Yongzheng's main goal was to create an effective government at minimal expense. Like his father, the Kangxi Emperor, Yongzheng used military...
, he reigned officially from 11 October 1735 to 8 February 1796. On 8 February, he abdicated
Abdication
Abdication occurs when a monarch, such as a king or emperor, renounces his office.-Terminology:The word abdication comes derives from the Latin abdicatio. meaning to disown or renounce...
in favor of his son, the Jiaqing Emperor
Jiaqing Emperor
The Jiaqing Emperor was the seventh emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1796 to 1820....
– a filial act in order not to reign longer than his grandfather, the illustrious Kangxi Emperor
Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor ; Manchu: elhe taifin hūwangdi ; Mongolian: Энх-Амгалан хаан, 4 May 1654 –20 December 1722) was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the first to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.Kangxi's...
. Despite his retirement, however, he retained ultimate power until his death in 1799. Although his early years saw the continuation of an era of prosperity in China, his final years saw troubles at home and abroad converge on the Qing Empire.
Early years
Hongli was adored both by his grandfather, the Kangxi EmperorKangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor ; Manchu: elhe taifin hūwangdi ; Mongolian: Энх-Амгалан хаан, 4 May 1654 –20 December 1722) was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the first to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.Kangxi's...
and his father, the Yongzheng Emperor
Yongzheng Emperor
The Yongzheng Emperor , born Yinzhen , was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the third Qing emperor from 1722 to 1735. A hard-working ruler, Yongzheng's main goal was to create an effective government at minimal expense. Like his father, the Kangxi Emperor, Yongzheng used military...
. Some historians argue that the main reason why Kangxi Emperor appointed Yongzheng as his successor was because Qianlong was his favourite grandson. He felt that Hongli's mannerisms were very close to his own. As a teenager he was very capable in martial arts, and possessed a high literary ability.
After his father's succession in 1722, Hongli became the Prince Bao (宝亲王/寶親王). Like many of his uncles, Hongli entered into a battle of succession with his older half-brother Hongshi
Hongshi
Hongshi was a Manchu prince of the Aisin Gioro clan, and the third son of the Yongzheng Emperor of China's Qing Dynasty...
, who had the support of a large faction of court officials, as well as Yinsi, the Prince Lian. For many years the Yongzheng Emperor did not appoint anyone to the position of Crown Prince, but many in court speculated his favoring of Hongli. Hongli went on inspection trips to the south, and was known to be an able negotiator and enforcer. He was also chosen as chief regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
on occasions, when his father was away from the capital.
Ascension to the throne
Even before Hongli's succession was read out to the assembled court, it was widely known who the new emperor would be. The young Hongli had been a favorite of his grandfather, Kangxi, and his father alike; Yongzheng had entrusted a number of important ritual tasks to him while Hongli was still a prince, and included him in important court discussions of military strategy. Hoping to avoid repetition of the succession crisis that had tainted his own accession to the throne, he had the name of his successor placed in a sealed box secured behind the tablet over the throne in the Palace of Heavenly PurityPalace of Heavenly Purity
The Palace of Heavenly Purity, or Qianqing Palace is a palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It is the largest of the three halls of the Inner Court , located at the northern end of the Forbidden City...
(Qianqing Gong 乾清宫). The name in the box was to be revealed to other members of the imperial family in the presence of all senior ministers only upon the death of the Emperor. Yongzheng died suddenly in 1735, the will was taken out and read out before the entire Qing Court, and Hongli became the 6th Manchu Emperor of China
Emperor of China
The Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of Qin Dynasty of China, united by the King of Qin in 221 BCE, and the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title that predates the Qin unification, the...
. He took the Calendar Name
Chinese era name
A Chinese era name is the regnal year, reign period, or regnal title used when traditionally numbering years in an emperor's reign and naming certain Chinese rulers . Some emperors have several era names, one after another, where each beginning of a new era resets the numbering of the year back...
of Qianlong (乾隆), 乾 means heaven, 隆 means prosperity, which mean "Heavenly Prosperity".
Frontier wars
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, while to the West, Ili
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture , in northernmost Xinjiang, is the only Kazakh autonomous prefecture of the People's Republic of China.-Geography and coordinates:The following figures excludes both Tacheng Prefecture and Altay Prefecture....
was conquered and garrisoned. The incorporation of Xinjiang into the Qing empire resulted from the final defeat and destruction of the Dzungars (or Zunghars), a coalition of Western Mongol tribes. According to Qing scholar Wei Yuan
Wei Yuan
Wei Yuan , born Wei Yuanda , courtesy names Moshen and Hanshi , was a Chinese scholar from Shaoyang, Hunan. He moved to Yangzhou in 1831, where he remained for the rest of his life. Wei obtained the provincial degree in the Imperial examinations and subsequently worked in the secretariat of...
, 40% of the 600,000 Zunghar people were killed by smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, 20% fled to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
or Kazakh
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
tribes, and 30% were killed by the army, in what Clarked described as "the complete destruction
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of not only the Zunghar state but of the Zunghars as a people." Historian Peter Perdue has argued that the decimation of the Dzungars was the result of an explicit policy of massacre launched by the Qianlong emperor
Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, he reigned officially from 11 October 1735 to 8 February 1796...
(See Zunghar Khanate#Fall).
Throughout this period there were continued Mongol interventions in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
and a reciprocal spread of Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
in Mongolia. After the Lhasa riot of 1750
Lhasa riot of 1750
The Lhasa riot of 1750 took place in Lhasa, and lasted several days. The uprising began on November 11 of 1750 after the regent of Tibet, Gyurme Namgyal, was assassinated by the two Manchu ambans....
he sent armies into Tibet and firmly established the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
as ruler, with a Qing resident and garrison to preserve Chinese sovereignty. Further afield, military campaigns against Nepalese, and Gurkha
Gurkha
Gurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
s forced these peoples to submit and send tribute.
The Qianlong Emperor sought to conquer Burma to the south, but the Sino–Burmese War ended in complete failure. He initially believed that it would be an easy victory against a barbarian tribe, and sent only the Green Standard Army
Green Standard Army
Green Standard Army is the name of a category of military units under the control of the Qing Dynasty in China. It was made up mostly of ethnic Han soldiers and operated concurrently with the Manchu-Mongol-Han Eight Banner armies...
based in Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
, which borders Burma. The Qing invasion came as the majority of Burmese forces were deployed in their latest invasion of Siam
Ayutthaya kingdom
Ayutthaya was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese , Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the...
. Nonetheless, battle-hardened Burmese troops defeated the first two invasions of 1765–1766 and 1766–1767 at the border. The regional conflict now escalated to a major war that involved military maneuvers nationwide in both countries. The third invasion (1767–1768) led by the elite Manchu Bannermen
Eight Banners
The Eight Banners were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed. They provided the basic framework for the Manchu military organization...
nearly succeeded, penetrating deep into central Burma within a few days' march from the capital, Ava
Ava
Innwa is a city in the Mandalay Division of Burma , situated just to the south of Amarapura on the Ayeyarwady River. Its formal title is Ratanapura , which means City of Gems in Pali. The name Innwa means mouth of the lake, which comes from in , meaning lake, and wa , which means mouth...
. But the Bannermen of northern China could not cope with unfamiliar tropical terrains and lethal endemic diseases, and were driven back with heavy losses. After the close-call, King Hsinbyushin
Hsinbyushin
Hsinbyushin was king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma from 1763 to 1776. The second son of the dynasty founder Alaungpaya is best known for his wars with China and Siam, and is considered the most militaristic king of the dynasty. His successful defense against four Chinese invasions preserved...
redeployed his armies from Siam to the Chinese front. The fourth and largest invasion got bogged down at the frontier. With the Qing forces completely encircled, a truce was reached between the field commanders of the two sides in December 1769. The Qing kept a heavy military lineup in the border areas of Yunnan for about one decade in an attempt to wage another war while imposing a ban on inter-border trade for two decades. When Burma and China resumed a diplomatic relationship in 1790, the Qing unilaterally viewed the act as Burmese submission, and claimed victory.
The circumstances in Vietnam were not successful either. In 1787 the last Le king Le Chieu Thong
Lê Chiêu Thống
Lê Chiêu Thống , born Lê Duy Khiêm and later Lê Duy Kỳ, was the last king of the Vietnamese Lê Dynasty.-Early life:Lê Duy Khiêm was the eldest son of Lê Duy Vĩ who was the first crown prince of king Lê Hiển Tông. After Khiêm's father was killed by the ninth Trinh lord Trinh Sam in 1771, he was jailed...
fled Vietnam and formally requested that he be restored to his throne in Thanglong
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
(Hanoi today). The Qianlong Emperor agreed and sent a large army into Vietnam to remove the Tay Son (peasant rebels who had captured all of Vietnam). The capital, Thanglong, was conquered in 1788 but a few months later, the Chinese army was defeated and the invasion turned into a debacle due to the surprise attack during Tết
Tet
Tet can mean:*Tết or Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese new year**Tet Offensive, a military campaign that began in 1968*Têt in Roussillon, France*Equal temperament, abbreviated as 12-TET, 19-TET and so on...
by Nguyen Hue
Nguyen Hue
Nguyễn Huệ, also known as Emperor Quang Trung , born in Bình Định in 1753, died in Phú Xuân on 16 September 1792, was the second emperor of the Tây Sơn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 1788 until 1792...
, the second and most capable of the three Tay Son brothers. The Chinese
gave formal protection to the Le emperor and his family, and would not intervene in Vietnam for another 90 years.
Despite setbacks in the south, overall the Qianlong Emperor's military expansion nearly doubled the area of the already vast empire, and brought into the fold many non-Han-Chinese peoples—such as Uyghurs
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
, Kazakhs
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
, Kyrgyzs, Evenks
Evenks
The Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527...
and Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
—who were potentially hostile. It was also a very expensive enterprise; the funds in the Imperial Treasury were almost all put into military expeditions. Though the wars were successful, they were not overwhelmingly so. The army declined noticeably and had a difficult time facing some enemies: the Jin Chuan area took 2–3 years to conquer—at first the Qing army were mauled, though Yue Zhongqi later took control of the situation. The battle with the Dzungars was closely fought, and caused heavy losses on both sides.
At the end of the frontier wars, the army had started to weaken significantly. In addition to a more lenient military system, warlords became satisfied with their lifestyles. Since most of the warring had taken place, warlords no longer saw any reason to train their armies, resulting in a rapid military decline by the end of Qianlong's reign. This is the main reason for the military's failure against the White Lotus
White Lotus
White Lotus was a type of Buddhist sectarianism that appealed to many Han Chinese, who found solace in worship of the "Unborn or Eternal Venerable Mother" , who was to gather all her children at the millennium into one family....
Sect, at the very end of Qianlong's years.
Cultural achievements
The imperial collection had its origins in the first century B.C., and had gone through many vicissitudes of fire, civil wars and foreign invasions in the centuries that followed. But it was Qianlong who lavished the greatest attention on it, certainly of any of the Manchu rulers.... One of the many roles played by Qianlong, with his customary diligence, was that of the emperor as collector and curator. ...how carefully Qianlong followed the art market in rare paintings and antiquities, using a team of cultural advisers, from elderly Chinese literati to newly fledged Manchu connoisseurs. These men would help the emperor spot which great private collections might be coming up for sale, either because the fortunes of some previously rich merchant family were unraveling or because the precious objects acquired by Manchu or Chinese grandees during the chaos of the conquest period were no longer valued by those families’ surviving heirs. Sometimes, too, Qianlong would pressure or even force wealthy courtiers into yielding up choice art objects: he did this by pointing out failings in their work, which might be excused if they made a certain “gift,” or, in a couple of celebrated cases, by persuading the current owners that only the secure walls of the forbidden City and its guardians could save some precious painting from theft or from fire.
His massive art collection became an intimate part of his life; he took landscape paintings
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
with him on his travels in order to compare them with the actual landscapes, or to hang them in special rooms in palaces where he lodged, to inscribe them on every visit there. "He also regularly added poetic inscriptions to the paintings of the imperial collection, following the example of the emperors of the Song dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
and the literati painters of the Ming
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. They were a mark of distinction for the work, and a visible sign of his rightful role as Emperor. Most particular to the Qianlong Emperor is another type of inscription, revealing a unique practice of dealing with works of art that he seems to have developed for himself. On certain fixed occasions over a long period he contemplated a number of paintings or works of calligraphy which possessed special meaning for him, inscribing each regularly with mostly private notes on the circumstances of enjoying them, using them almost as a diary."
"Most of the several thousand jade items in the imperial collection date from his reign. The Emperor was also particularly interested in collecting ancient bronzes, bronze mirrors and seals," in addition to pottery, ceramics and applied arts such as enameling, metal work and lacquer work, which flourished during his reign; a substantial part of his collection is in the Percival David Foundation in London. The Victoria and Albert Museum and The British Museum also have good collections of Qianlong period Art.
"The Qianlong Emperor was a passionate poet and essayist. In his collected writings, which were published in a tenfold series between 1749 and 1800, over 40,000 poems and 1,300 prose texts are listed, making him one of the most prolific writers of all time. There is a long tradition of poems of this sort in praise of particular objects (yongwu shi), and the Qianlong Emperor used it in order to link his name both physically and intellectually with ancient artistic tradition."
One of Qianlong’s grandest projects was to "assemble a team of China’s finest scholars for the purpose of assembling, editing, and printing the largest collection ever made of Chinese philosophy, history, and literature." Known as The Four Treasuries project, or Siku Quanshu
Siku Quanshu
The Siku Quanshu, variously translated as the Imperial Collection of Four, Emperor's Four Treasuries, Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature, or Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, is the largest collection of books in Chinese history and probably the most ambitious editorial...
(四庫全書) it was published in 36,000 volumes, containing about 3450 complete works and employing as many as 15,000 copyists. It preserved numerous books, but was also intended as a way to ferret out and suppress political opponents, requiring the "careful examination of private libraries to assemble a list of around eleven thousand works from the past, of which about a third were chosen for publication. The works not included were either summarized or—in a good many cases—scheduled for destruction."
Burning of books and modification of texts
Some 2,300 works were listed for total suppression and another 350 for partial suppression. The aim was to destroy the writings that were anti-QingAnti-Qing sentiment
thumb|[[Sun Yat-sen]], one of the leaders of the [[Xinhai Revolution]] which overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1912. Photo taken in 1907Anti-Qing sentiment refers to a sentiment principally held in China against the Manchu ruling during Qing Dynasty , which was often resented for being foreign and...
or rebellious, that insulted previous "barbarian" dynasties, or that dealt with frontier or defense problems.
The full editing of Siku Quanshu
Siku Quanshu
The Siku Quanshu, variously translated as the Imperial Collection of Four, Emperor's Four Treasuries, Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature, or Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, is the largest collection of books in Chinese history and probably the most ambitious editorial...
was completed in about ten years; during these ten years, 3100 titles (or works), about 150,000 copies of books were either burnt or banned. Of those volumes that had been categorized into Siku Quanshu, many were subjected to deletion and modification. Books published during the Ming dynasty suffered the greatest damage.
The authority would judge any single character or any single sentence's neutrality; if the authority had decided these words, or sentence were derogatory or cynical towards the rulers, then persecution would begin. In Qianlong's time, there were 53 cases of literary inquisition
Literary Inquisition
Literary Inquisition refers to official persecution of intellectuals for their writings in Imperial China. Wénzìyù took place under each of the dynasties ruling China, although the Qing was particularly notorious for the practise. Such persecutions could owe even to a single phrase or word which...
, resulting in the victims being beheaded
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
, or corpses being mutilated, or victims being slowly sliced into pieces until death (Lingchi).
European styles
Architecturally, Qianlong took personal interest in the expansion of the Old Summer PalaceOld Summer Palace
The Old Summer Palace, known in China as Yuan Ming Yuan , and originally called the Imperial Gardens, was a complex of palaces and gardens in Beijing...
and commissioned the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione for the construction of the Xiyanglou (西洋楼), or the Western-style mansion, to satisfy his taste for exotic buildings and objects. He also commissioned the French Jesuit Michel Benoist
Michel Benoist
Michel Benoist October 23, 1774 in Beijing, China of a stroke) was a Jesuit scientist, who stood in the service of the ChineseQianlong Emperor for thirty years and is most noted for the waterworks he constructed for the emperor.-Education:...
, to design a series of timed waterworks and fountains complete with underground machinery and pipes, for the amusement of the Imperial family. The French Jesuit Jean Denis Attiret
Jean Denis Attiret
Jean Denis Attiret was a French Jesuit painter and missionary to China.Jean Denis Attiret studied art in Rome and made himself a name as a portrait painter. While a Jesuit novice, he did paintings in the Cathedral of Avignon and the Sodality Chapel....
also became "Painter to the Emperor" Qianlong.
During his reign the Emin Minaret
Emin Minaret
The Emin Minaret or Imin Ta stands by the Uyghur Mosque located in Turfan, Xinjiang, China. At 44 meters it is the tallest minaret in China...
was built in Turpan to commemorate his father.
Later years
In his later years, Qianlong was spoiled with power and glory, becoming disillusioned and complacent in his reign, placing his trust in corrupt officials like Yu Minzhong (于敏中), and later HeshenHeshen
Heshen or Hešen , from the Manchu Niohuru clan, was a Manchu official of the Qing Dynasty, a favourite of the Qianlong Emperor. Born Shanbao , his given name was later changed to Heshen. His courtesy name was Zhizhai . He was a member of the Plain Red Banner, as well as one of the most corrupt...
(和珅).
Qianlong began his reign with about 33,950,000 tael
Tael
Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....
s of silver in Treasury surplus. At the peak of Qianlong's reign, around 1775, even with further tax cuts, the treasury surplus still reached 73,900,000 taels, a record unmatched by his predecessors, Kangxi or Yongzheng both of whom had implemented remarkable tax cut policies.
However, due to numerous factors such as long term embezzlement and corruption by officials, frequent expeditions South, huge palace constructions, many war and rebellion campaigns as well as his own extravagant lifestyle, all of these cost the treasury a total of 150,200,000 silver taels. This, coupled with his senior age and the lack of political reforms, ushered the beginning of the gradual decline and eventual demise of the Qing dynasty and empire, casting a shadow over his glorious and brilliant political life.
The Macartney Embassy
George Macartney
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, KB was an Irish-born British statesman, colonial administrator and diplomat. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's success in the Seven Years War and subsequent territorial expansion at the Treaty of Paris that Britain now controlled...
, was sent by King George III as ambassador extraordinary to seek a range of trade concessions. He was granted an audience with the Qianlong Emperor, and attended the Emperor's 80th birthday. There is continued discussion about the nature of the audience, and what level of ceremonials were performed. Demands from the Qing Court that the British Trade ambassadors kneel and perform the kowtow
Kowtow
Kowtow is the act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. An alternative Chinese term is ketou, however the meaning is somewhat altered: kòu originally meant "knock with reverence", whereas kē has the general meaning of "touch upon ".In Han...
were strongly resisted by Macartney, and debate continues as to what exactly occurred, differing opinions recorded by Qing courtiers and British delegates.
A description of the Emperor is provided in the account of one of the visiting Englishmen, Aeneas Anderson:
The Emperor is about five feet ten inches in height, and of a slender but elegant form; his complexion is comparatively fair, though his eyes are dark; his nose is rather aquiline, and the whole of his countenance presents a perfect regularity of feature, which, by no means, announce the great age he is said to have attained; his person is attracting, and his deportment accompanies by an affability, which, without lessening the dignity of the prince, evinces the amiable character of the man. His dress consisted of a loose robe of yellow silk, a cap of black velvet with a red ball on the top, and adorned with a peacock's feather, which is the peculiar distinction of mandarins of the first class. He wore silk boots embroidered with gold, and a sash of blue girded his waist.
It is uncertain whether Anderson actually saw the Emperor, or repeated another's sighting, as he was not involved in the ceremonies.
George Macartney's Manchu Qing observations
In George Macartney's memoirs, there were many passages describing what was, in his opinion, an overall poor quality of life for the Chinese under Qing rule. Macartney expressed opinions which were widely disseminated:- The Empire of China is an old, crazy, first-rate Man of War, which a fortunate succession of and vigilant officers have contrived to keep afloat for these hundred and fifty years past, and to overawe their neighbours merely by her bulk and appearance. But whenever an insufficient man happens to have the command on deck, adieu to the discipline and safety of the ship. She may, perhaps, not sink outright; she may drift some time as a wreck, and will then be dashed to pieces on the shore; but she can never be rebuilt on the old bottom.
The Titsingh Embassy
Representing Dutch and Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
interests, Isaac Titsingh
Isaac Titsingh
Isaac Titsingh FRS was a Dutch surgeon, scholar, merchant-trader and ambassador.During a long career in East Asia, Titsingh was a senior official of the Dutch East India Company . He represented the European trading company in exclusive official contact with Tokugawa Japan...
traveled to Pekin
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
in 1794–95 for celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the Qianlong Emperor's reign. The Titsingh delegation also included the Dutch-American Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest
Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest
Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest Dutch-American merchant who is mostly known for his participation in the last Dutch embassy to China under the tributary system.- Early career :...
, whose detailed description of this embassy to the Chinese court was soon after published in the U.S. and Europe. Titsingh's French translator, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes
Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes
Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes was a French merchant-trader, ambassador and scholar. He was the son of French academician and sinologue, Joseph de Guignes...
published his own account of the Titsingh mission in 1808. Voyage a Pékin, Manille et l'Ile de France provided an alternate perspective and a useful counterpoint to other reports which were then circulating. Titsingh himself died before he could publish his version of events.
In contrast to Macartney, Isaac Titsingh, the Dutch and VOC
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
emissary in 1795 did not refuse to kowtow. In the year following Mccartney's rebuff, Titsingh and his colleagues were much feted by the Chinese because of what was construed as seemly compliance with conventional court etiquette.
Abdication
Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor ; Manchu: elhe taifin hūwangdi ; Mongolian: Энх-Амгалан хаан, 4 May 1654 –20 December 1722) was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the first to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.Kangxi's...
, who had reigned for 61 years.
Qianlong anticipated moving out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City. The Hall had been conventionally dedicated for the exclusive use of the reigning sovereign, and in 1771 the emperor ordered the beginning of construction on what was ostensibly intended as his retirement residence in another part of the Forbidden City
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
: a lavish, two-acre walled retreat called the Ningshou gong, or "Palace of Tranquil Longevity", today more commonly known as the Qianlong Garden. The complex, completed in 1776, is currently undergoing a ten-year restoration led by the Palace Museum in Beijing and the World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training....
(WMF). The first of the restored apartments, Qianlong's Juanqinzhai, or "Studio of Exhaustion From Diligent Service," began an exhibition tour of the United States in 2010.
Qianlong resigned the throne at the age of 85, in the 60th year of his reign, to his son, the Jiaqing emperor in 1795. For the next four years, he held the title "Retired Emperor (太上皇)," though he continued to hold on to power and the Jiaqing Emperor ruled only in name. He never moved into his retirement suites in the Qianlong Garden. He died in 1799.
Legends
However there are major problems with this story being:
1) His eldest surviving son Hongshi was only 7 when Hongli was born far too early to make the drastic choice of replacing a child of royal birth with an outsider (and risking disgrace if not death)
2) Yongzheng had three other princes that survived to adulthood who had the potential of ascending the throne.
Indeed given the fact that Hongshi was forced to commit suicide, the story would have been far more logical if he was the adopted child of Yongzheng.
Stories about Qianlong's 6 visits to the Jiangnan
Jiangnan
Jiangnan or Jiang Nan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta...
area disguised as a commoner had been a popular topic for many generations. In total, he has visited Jiang Nan for eight times, as opposed to the Kangxi emperor's 6 inspections.
Family
- Father: the Yongzheng EmperorYongzheng EmperorThe Yongzheng Emperor , born Yinzhen , was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the third Qing emperor from 1722 to 1735. A hard-working ruler, Yongzheng's main goal was to create an effective government at minimal expense. Like his father, the Kangxi Emperor, Yongzheng used military...
(of whom he was the 4th son) - Mother: Empress Xiaoshengxian (1692–1777) of the Niuhuru Clan (Chinese: 孝聖憲皇后; Manchu: Hiyoošungga Enduringge Temgetulehe Hūwanghu)
Consorts
- Empress XiaoxianchunEmpress XiaoxianchunEmpress Xiaoxianchun was the first Empress Consort of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.- Family background :...
- Ulanara, the Step Empress
- Empress Xiaoyichun
- Imperial Noble Consort Huixian
- Imperial Noble Consort Chunhui
- Imperial Noble Consort Shujia (?-1755) was Korean of origin. She was the mother of four of Qianlong's sons.
- Imperial Noble Consort Qinggong
- Imperial Noble Consort Zhemin (?-20 May 1735), of the Manchu Fuca clan, died shortly before Qianlong ascended the throne and has never been and imperial consort during her lifetime.
- Noble Consort YingNoble Consort YingThe Noble Consort Ying was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled China from 1735 till 1796.-Biography:Noble Consort Ying née Barin was Mongolian from origin. She was the daughter of banner Lieutenant General Nachin . She was born in the ninth year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign on the...
- Noble Consort WanNoble Consort WanThe Noble Consort Wan 1716 - 1807, was the daughter of Chen Tingzhang .-Biography:Lady Chen was given to the Prince Hongli as a concubine, by the order of Emperor Yongzheng. When Prince Hongli ascended to the throne, Lady Chen was at first given the title Female Attendant Hai ...
- Noble Consort XunNoble Consort XunThe Noble Consort Xun , was the daughter of the Governor General Guilin . She came from the Manchu Irgen-Gioro clan.-Biography:Lady Irgen-Gioro entered the Imperial Court on November 18, during the forty-first year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, and was given the title Imperial Concubine with the...
- Noble Consort XinNoble Consort XinThe Noble Consort Xin , was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor, who rules China from 1735 till 1796.-Biography:Noble Consort Xin née Daigiya , Manchu of origin, was the daughter of Governor General Nasutu , who's family belonged to the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Corps.Lady Daigiya entered the...
- Noble Consort Yu (1714–1792) of the Manchu Keliyete clan.
- Consort DunConsort DunThe Consort Dun was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor who ruled Qing China from 1735 till 1796. She was the mother of Qianlong's favorite daughter, Kurun Princess Hexiao .-Biography:...
- Consort ShuConsort ShuThe Consort Shu , , was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled China from 1735 till 1796.-Biography:Consort Shu née Yehenara was Manchu of origin and was the daughter of Assitant Minister Yǒng Shòu...
- Consort Rong, The Fragrant ConcubineFragrant ConcubineThe Fragrant Concubine is a figure in Chinese legend who was taken as a consort by the Qianlong Emperor during the 18th century. Although the stories about her are believed to be mythical, they may have been based on an actual concubine from western China who entered the harem of the emperor in...
(?) likely amalgam of lore and reality, the story of Consort Rong, whose beauty and pleasing aroma was legendary, is still re-told today. - Consort Jin (?-1822) of the Manchu Fuca clan. She was given the title of Consort by Qianlong's grandson, the Daoguang Emperor, in 1820 for she was the last widow of Qianlong.
- Consort Yu (1730–1774) of the Mongolian Borjigit clan
- Consort Fang (?-1801) of the Han Chinese Chen clan.
- Worthy Lady ShunWorthy Lady ShunThe Worthy Lady Shun was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor who ruled China from 1735 till 1796.-Biography:Worthy Lady Shun née Niohuru was Manchu of origin...
Sons
- Eldest son: Prince Yonghuang (5 July 1728 – 21 April 1750), son of Imperial Noble Consort Zhemin
- 2nd: Prince Yonglian [永璉] (9 August 1730 – 23 November 1738), first Crown Prince, son of Empress XiaoxianchunEmpress XiaoxianchunEmpress Xiaoxianchun was the first Empress Consort of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.- Family background :...
- 3rd: Prince Yongzhang [永璋] (15 July 1735 – 26 August 1760), son of Imperial Noble Consort Chun HuiImperial Noble Consort Chun HuiThe Imperial Noble Consort Chun Hui was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor. Emperor Qianlong was emperor China from 1736 til 1795.- Biography :...
, bore the title Prince of the second rank Xun (循郡王) - 4th: Prince Yongcheng [永珹] (21 February 1739 – 5 April 1777), son of Imperial Noble Consort Shujia, bore the title Prince of the first rank Luduan (履端親王)
- 5th: Prince YongqiYongqi, Prince RongAisin-Gioro Yongqi was the fifth son of the Qianlong Emperor, and bore the title "Prince Rong" . His mother was Noble Consort Yu, a member of the Haigiya clan.-Portrayal In Dramas:...
[永琪] (23 March 1741 – 16 April 1766), son of Noble Consort Yu, bore the title Prince of the Blood Rong (榮親王) - 6th: Prince Yongrong [永瑢] (28 January 1744 – 13 June 1790), son of Imperial Noble Consort Chunhui, bore the title Prince of the first rank Zhizhuang (質莊親王)
- 7th: Prince Yong Zhong [永琮] (27 May 1746 – 29 January 1748), 2nd Crown Prince, initially bore the title Prince of the First Rank Zhe (哲親王), son of Empress XiaoxianchunEmpress XiaoxianchunEmpress Xiaoxianchun was the first Empress Consort of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.- Family background :...
- 8th: Prince Yongxuan [永璇] (31 August 1746 – 1 September 1832), son of the Imperial Noble Consort Shujia, bore the title Prince of the First Rank Yishen (儀慎親王)
- 9th: Prince ? (2 August 1748 – 11 June 1749), son of Imperial Noble Consort Shujia
- 10th: Prince Yongyue (12 June 1751 – 7 July 1753), son of Consort ShuConsort ShuThe Consort Shu , , was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled China from 1735 till 1796.-Biography:Consort Shu née Yehenara was Manchu of origin and was the daughter of Assitant Minister Yǒng Shòu...
- 11th: Prince Yongxing [永瑆] (22 March 1752 – 10 May 1823), son of the Imperial Noble Consort Shujia, bore the title Prince of the First Rank Chengzhe(成哲親王)
- 12th: Prince Yongji [永璂] (7 June 1752 – 17 March 1776), son of Ulanara, the Step Empress
- 13th: Prince Yongjing [永璟] (2 January 1756 – 7 September 1757), son of Ulanara, the Step Empress
- 14th: Prince Yonglu [永璐] (31 August 1757 – 3 May 1760), son of Empress Xiaoyichun
- 15th: Prince Yongyan [永琰] (13 November 1760 – 2 September 1820), son of Empress Xiaoyichun. created Prince of the First Rank Jia (嘉親王) in 1789, ascended the throne on 9 February 1796 as the Jiaqing EmperorJiaqing EmperorThe Jiaqing Emperor was the seventh emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1796 to 1820....
- 16th: Prince ? (13 January 1763 – 6 May 1765), son of Empress Xiaoyichun
- 17th: Prince Yonglin [永璘] (17 June 1766 – 25 April 1820), son of Empress Xiaoyichun, created a beile in 1789, elevated to Prince of the Second Rank Qing (慶郡王) in 1799, elevated to Prince of the First Rank Qing (慶親王) in 1820 but died that same year. His grandson was Yikuang, Prince QingYikuang, Prince QingYikuang, the Prince Qing , was a Manchu prince of the late Qing Dynasty, who was the first premier of China...
.
- Famous general Fu Kang'an (福康安) was rumored to be an illegitimate son of Qianlong but this has never been proven, however, he was the most favoured general in the Qianlong's reign.
Daughters
- Eldest: (1728–1729), daughter of Empress XiaoxianchunEmpress XiaoxianchunEmpress Xiaoxianchun was the first Empress Consort of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.- Family background :...
- Second: (1731) daughter of Imperial Noble Consort Zhemin
- Third: Kurun Princess Hejing [固倫和敬公主] (28 June 1731 – 15 August 1792), daughter of Empress XiaoxianchunEmpress XiaoxianchunEmpress Xiaoxianchun was the first Empress Consort of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.- Family background :...
. - Fourth: Heshuo Princess Hejia [和硕和嘉公主] (24 December 1745 – 29 October 1767), daughter of the Imperial Noble Consort Chunhui
- Fifth: (1753–1755) daughter of Ulanara, the Step Empress
- Sixth: (24 August 1755 – 27 September 1758), daughter of Noble Consort XinNoble Consort XinThe Noble Consort Xin , was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor, who rules China from 1735 till 1796.-Biography:Noble Consort Xin née Daigiya , Manchu of origin, was the daughter of Governor General Nasutu , who's family belonged to the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Corps.Lady Daigiya entered the...
- Seventh: Kurun Princess Hejing [固伦和静公主] (10 August 1756 – 9 February 1975), daughter of Empress Xiaoyichun
- Eight: (1758–1767) daughter of Noble Consort XinNoble Consort XinThe Noble Consort Xin , was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor, who rules China from 1735 till 1796.-Biography:Noble Consort Xin née Daigiya , Manchu of origin, was the daughter of Governor General Nasutu , who's family belonged to the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Corps.Lady Daigiya entered the...
- Ninth: Heshuo Princess Heke [和硕和恪公主] (17 August 1758 – 14 April 1780), daughter of Empress Xiaoyichun
- Tenth: Kurun Princess Hexiao [固伦和孝公主] (2 February 1775 – 13 October 1823), daughter of Consort DunConsort DunThe Consort Dun was a concubine of the Qianlong Emperor who ruled Qing China from 1735 till 1796. She was the mother of Qianlong's favorite daughter, Kurun Princess Hexiao .-Biography:...
and Qianlong's favorite daughter.
Adopted daughter
- Heshuo Princess Hewan [和硕和婉公主] (24 July 1734 – 2 May 1760), originally the eldest daughter of Hongzhou, Prince HeHongzhou, Prince HeAisin-Gioro Hongzhou, the Prince He was the fifth son of the Yongzheng Emperor of Qing Dynasty. His mother, Imperial Noble Consort Chun Yi of Geng, was the daughter of Kanrei Geng Dejin ....
, the fifth son of the Yongzheng EmperorYongzheng EmperorThe Yongzheng Emperor , born Yinzhen , was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the third Qing emperor from 1722 to 1735. A hard-working ruler, Yongzheng's main goal was to create an effective government at minimal expense. Like his father, the Kangxi Emperor, Yongzheng used military...
and therefore Qianlong's niece. Her biological mother was Lady Ujaku (乌札库氏), Hongzhou's principal wife.
Ancestry
See also
- Jean Joseph Marie AmiotJean Joseph Marie AmiotJean Joseph Marie Amiot was a FrenchJesuit missionary.-Life:Joseph Marie Amiot was born at Toulon. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to China. He soon won the confidence of the Qianlong Emperor and spent the remainder of his life at Beijing...
- Giuseppe Castiglione
- Manwen LaodangManwen LaodangManwen Laodang is a set of Manchu official documents of the Qing Dynasty, compiled during the late Qianlong period based on Jiu Manzhou Dang....
- Canton SystemCanton SystemThe Canton System served as a means for China to control trade with the west within its own country. Seen from the European view, it was a complement to the Old China Trade.-History:...
- Xi Yang Lou
- Long CorridorLong CorridorThe Long Corridor is a covered walkway in the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. First erected in the middle of the 18th century, it is famous for its length in conjunction with its rich painted decoration .-History:...
- Putuo Zongcheng TemplePutuo Zongcheng TempleThe Putuo Zongcheng Temple of Chengde, Hebei province, China is a Qing Dynasty era Buddhist temple complex built between 1767 and 1771, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor . It is located near the Chengde Mountain Resort, which is south of the Putuo Zongcheng. Along with the equally famed...
- Qianlong DynastyQianlong DynastyQianlong Dynasty is a Chinese television series based on the novel Qianlong Huangdi by Er Yuehe. The series was preceded by Yongzheng Dynasty in 1997 and Kangxi Dynasty in 2001, both of which were also based on Er Yuehe's novels.-Cast:*Jiao Huang as Qianlong Emperor*Chen Rui as Heshen*Zuo Xiaoqing...