The
Qianlong Emperor ( ; Mongolian: Tengeriin Tetgesen
Khaan, Manchu: Abkai
Wehiyehe, Tibetan: lha
skyong rgyal po, born Hongli ( ), 25
September 1711 – 7 February 1799) was the fifth emperor of the
Manchu-led Qing Dynasty
, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over
China. The fourth son of the
Yongzheng Emperor, he reigned officially
from 11 October 1736 to 7 February 1795. On 8 February (the first
day of that lunar year), 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, making Qianlong the longest reigning
Emperor in Chinese history. Although his early years saw the
continuity of an era of prosperity in China, he was of
unrelentingly conservative altitude. As a result, the Qing
Dynasty's comparative decline began later in his reign.
Early years
During the first year of reign
There are myths and legends that say Hongli was actually a
Han and not of Manchu descent, while there were
some that say Hongli was only half Manchu and half Han Chinese
descent. Nevertheless, looking at historical records, Hongli was
adored both by his grandfather, the
Kangxi Emperor 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.
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 Purity
(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
4th Manchu
Emperor of China. He
took the
Calender Name of
Qianlong (乾隆), 乾 means heaven, 隆 means prosperity,
which mean "Heavenly Prosperity".
Frontier Wars
The Qianlong Emperor was a successful military leader, presiding
over a large expansion of 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,
Chinese Turkestan 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 that had caused trouble
to the Qing on its northwestern borders since the 1680s. Between
1755 and 1758, about 80% of the Dzungar population, or between
480,000 and 800,000 people, were killed in what "amounted to the
complete destruction of not only the Zunghar state but of the
Zunghars as a people." Although, according to a nineteenth-century
Chinese estimate, as much as 40% of the Dzungar population may have
been killed by
smallpox, historian
Peter Perdue has shown that the decimation of
the Dzungars was the result of an explicit policy of extermination
launched by the
Qianlong emperor.
(See also
Genocide in
history#Qing-dynasty China.)
Throughout this period there were continued Mongol interventions in
Tibet and a reciprocal spread of
Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia. Qianlong
again sent armies into Tibet and firmly established the
Dalai Lama as ruler, with a Qing resident and
garrison to preserve Chinesesovereignty . Further afield, military
campaigns against Nepalese, and
Gurkhas
forced these peoples to submit and send tribute.
The Qing Myanmar campaign (1765-1770) was the most disastrous
frontier war that the Qing dynasty had ever waged.
In the beginning, The
Emperor had envisaged winning this war in one easy stroke, as he
deemed Myanmar
no more than
a remote barbarian tribe without any power. After the Green
Standard troops in Yunnan failed to bring the Myanmar to their
knees, Qianlong sent his elite Manchu troops in. A regional
conflict was thus escalated into a major frontier war that involved
military maneuvers nationwide. At the front, the Manchu Bannermen
had to deal with the unfamiliar tropical jungles and swamps, and
above all, the lethal endemic diseases. Not only did one after
another commander-in-chief of the Qing dynasty fail to conquer
Myanmar, but the Qing troops also suffered extremely heavy
casualties. After a gruelling four-year campaign, a truce was
reached by the field commanders of the two sides at the end of 1769
with the Qing invading expedition failing to conquer Myanmar and
withdrawing in disarray. To rehabilitate itself, the Qing dynasty
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.
The circumstances in Vietnam were not as successful.
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
Tet by
Nguyen Hue, the second
and most capable of the three Tay Son brothers. The Chinesegave
formal protection to the Le emperor and his family, and would not
intervene in Vietnam for another 90 years.
Overall the Qianlong Emperor's military expansion captured millions
of square miles and brought into the empire 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. This may have been the cause of the later decline of
the dynasty—when faced with a Western threat, the army was unable
to develop and upgrade its weapons.
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.
Artistic Achievements
The Qianlong Emperor Viewing
Paintings
Qianlong's handwriting carved into a
stone tablet found in the remnants of Old Summer Palace
The Qianlong Emperor was also a major patron of the arts. The most
significant of his commissions was a catalogue of all important
works on
Chinese culture, the
Siku Quanshu (四庫全書). Produced
in 36,000 volumes, containing about 3450 complete works and
employing as many as 15,000 copyists, the entire work took some
twenty years. It preserved numerous books, but was also intended as
a way to ferret out and suppress political opponents.Some 2,300
works were listed for total suppressionand another 350 for partial
suppression.The aim was to destroy the writings that were
anti-Qing or rebellious, that
insultedprevious barbarian dynasties, or that dealt with frontier
or defense problems.
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. 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. They became part of
his life and he took them with him on his travels in order to
compare paintings with the actual landscape, or to hang them in
special rooms in palaces where he lodged, to inscribe them on every
visit there.
Pottery, ceramics and particularly applied arts, such as enameling,
metal work and lacquer work 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 reign
Art.
Burning of books and modification of texts
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 Manchu rulers used
literary
inquisition to silence opposition. The accusation of
individuals began with the authority's own interpretation of the
true meaning of the corresponding words, the necessary 'evidence'
needed to achieve a successful persecution would come from further
interpretation of the words. The authority would judge any single
character or any single sentence's neutrality; if the authority had
decided these words, or sentence were derogative or cynic 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, which may take a few days.(see Qing
)
European styles
Architecturally, Qianlong took personal
interest in the expansion of the Old Summer Palace
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.
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 Ming Zhong (于敏中), and later
Heshen (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
taels 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
Lord Macartney's embassy, 1793.
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 whether or not this occurred,
opinions being offered by Qing courtiers and British delegates
alike.
For a conventional account of the audience question, see Alain
Peyrefitte,
The Immobile Empire, translated by Jon
Rotschild (New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House,
1992.)
For a critique of the above narrative, see James L. Hevia,
Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney
Embassy of 1793.(Durham: Duke University Press, 1995).
For a discussion on Hevia's book, see exchange between Hevia and
Joseph W. Esherick in
Modern China 24, no. 2 (1998).
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. After the reign of Qianlong, China failed to keep in
pace with Western technology, allowing the Western nations to
become superior to China both through economy and military. This is
especially evident when Chinese forces, though far more superior in
numbers and enjoyed home advantage, were no match to the much
smaller Western forces, who were much better equipped with the
latest weapons during the
Opium
wars.
To many historians, the Qianlong reign marked the beginning of the
downfall of the Qing dynasty, and due to this, many historians
prefer to acknowledge the rise of the Qing dynasty more as
achievements of Qianlong's father and grandfather. It must be noted
that Kangxi, Qianlong's grandfather, had great interest in Western
technology, especially in Mathematics and Astrology, and was a much
better host to Western visitors.
George Macartney's Manchu Qing observations
In George Macartney's memoirs, there were many passages describing
the overall poor and suffering life of inhabitants of Qing dynasty.
Macartney expressed opinions which were widely disseminated:
The Titsingh Embassy
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.
Abdication
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.
These Imperial apartments had been
conventionally dedicated for the exclusive use of the reigning
sovereign, and the emperor ordered the beginning of construction on
what was ostensibly intended as his retirement residence in another
part of the Forbidden
City
. Despite the lavish attention devoted to
these new chambers, Qianlong never moved into what was called
Juanqinzhai or Studio of Exhaustion From Diligent
Service.
He resigned the throne at the age of 85, in the 60th year of his
reign, to his son, the Jiaqing emperor at 1795. For the next four
years, he held the title "Senior Emperor(太上皇)." He died in
1799..
Despite his voluntary abdication, from 1796 to 1799 Qianlong
continued to hold on to power and the Jiaqing Emperor ruled only in
name.
Legends
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.
Family
- Mother: Empress Xiao Sheng Xian
(1692-1777) of the Niuhuru Clan (Chinese: 孝聖憲皇后; Manchu:
Hiyoošungga Enduringge Temgetulehe Hūwanghu)
Consorts
"Empress Xiao Xian Chun", Qianlong's
first empress
Children
Sons
- Eldest son: Prince Yong Huang (1728 - 1750), son of Imperial
Noble Consort Che Min
- 2nd: Prince Yong Lian [永璉] (1730 - 1738), 1st Crown Prince, son
of Empress Xiao Xian Chun
- 5th: Prince Yong Qi [永琪]
(1741-1766), son of Noble Consort
Yu - bore the title Prince Rong of
the blood (榮親王)
- 7th: Prince Yong Zhong [永琮] (1746 - 1748), 2nd Crown Prince,
son of Empress Xiao Xian Chun
- 8th: Prince Yong Xuan [永璇], son of the Imperial Noble Consort Shu
Jia
- 11th: Prince Yong Xin [永瑆], son of the Imperial Noble Consort Shu
Jia
- 12th: Prince Yong Ji, son of The
Step Empress, Ulanara
- 15th: Prince Yong Yan [永琰] (born 1760) the (Jia Qing Emperor), son of Empress Xiao Yi Chun. In 1789 he was made
Prince Jia of the 1st rank (嘉親王).
- 17th: Prince Yong Lin [永璘], given the title as the 1st Prince
Qing Yong Lin. His grandson is Prince Yi Kuang, bore the title Prince Qing
[慶親王奕劻] (February 1836 - January 1918).
- 18th: Prince ?
- 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
See also
Notes
References
- Æneas Anderson, A Narrative of the British Embassy to China, in the
Years 1792, 1793, and 1794; Containing the Various Circumstances of
the Embassy, with Accounts of Customs and Manners of the
Chinese (London: J. Debrett, 1795)
- van Braam
Houckgeest, Andreas Everardus. (1797). Voyage de
l'ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales hollandaises vers
l'empereur de la Chine, dans les années 1794 et 1795.
Philadelphia: M.L.E. Moreau de Saint-Méry.
- _______________. (1798). An
authentic account of the embassy of the Dutch East-India company,
to the court of the emperor of China, in the years 1974 and
1795, Vol. I.
London : R. Phillips. [digitized by University
of Hong Kong
Libraries,
[http://lib.hku.hk/database/ Digital Initiatives,] "China Through Western Eyes." ]
- " In the Eye of Power: China and Xinjiang from
the Qing Conquest to the 'New Great Game' for Central Asia,
1759-2004." Doctoral thesis, Dept. of International Business &
Asian Studies, Griffith University, Brisbane.
- Crossley, Pamela."A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in
Qing Imperial Ideology." 10-ISBN 0-520-23424-3; 13-ISBN
978-0-520-23424-6
- de
Guignes, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph (1808). Voyage a Pékin,
Manille et l'Ile de France. Paris.
- Henss, Michael: The Qianlong Emperor as a Grand Lama. In:
Asian Art Gallery, Nov. 1998.
- China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of
Central Eurasia. Cambridge, Mass.; London, England: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
- Robbins, Helen Henrietta Macartney (1908). Our
First Ambassador to China: An Account of the Life of George, Earl
of Macartney with Extracts from His Letters, and the Narrative of
His Experiences in China, as Told by Himself, 1737-1806, from
Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence and Documents. London
: John Murray. [digitized by University
of Hong Kong Libraries,
[http://lib.hku.hk/database/ Digital Initiatives,] "China Through Western Eyes." ]
- Rockhill, William Woodville. "Diplomatic
Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question I," The
American Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Apr., 1897),
pp. 427–442.
- Rockhill, William Woodville. "Diplomatic
Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question II," The
American Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jul., 1897),
pp. 627–643.
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