Qianlong

Emperor of China (r. 1735-1796)

• Born: September 25, 1711
• Birthplace: Beijing, China
• Died: February 7, 1799
• Place of death: Beijing, China

Qianlong presided over an empire unprecedented in size and power. Under his rule, China reached its apex and enjoyed a long span of peace, order, and prosperity.

Early Life

The Manchus, a vassal tribe of China situated on its northeast border, rose against China as early as 1616, seizing control of all Manchuria by 1621. Between 1610 and 1640, there was much unrest in China itself, with various factions (the gentry, the literati, the eunuchs, and the military) competing for power. Some rebellious generals defected to the Manchus, and, in April, 1644, the beleaguered Ming Dynasty emperor killed himself. The new emperor failed to gain sufficient support for defense of China, and in June, 1644, Manchu troops captured Beijing. It took them another forty-plus years to bring the entire country under their rule, but by the 1680’s the Qing Dynasty was in complete control of all China.

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was nearly a century old when Qianlong took the throne. Grandson of Kangxi, considered the greatest of the Qing rulers, Qianlong modeled himself upon this vigorous ruler, successfully blending Chinese and Manchu traditions. As a youth, Qianlong studied Confucian ethics and Manchu military arts, his teachers being a mixture of Chinese and Manchu scholars. The required curriculum included the classics, history, literature, philosophy, and ritual performances.

Under the Qing Dynasty, all important decisions came from the emperor. This centralization of power placed a great burden on the emperors to keep abreast of events in their vast empire. Succeeding his father, Yung-cheng, a harsh but able ruler, Qianlong depended upon a smooth-running administrative machine to help him in decision making.

The chief government organ in Qing times was a grand (later, privy) council, whose members met with the emperor daily to advise him on overall policies; the grand secretariat handled routine business. Below these organs were the six ministries, each having a Manchu and a Chinese minister, along with two Manchu and two Chinese deputy ministers. At all levels of government, Chinese officials were present in large numbers. This was a major factor in the success and long rule of the Qing Dynasty. Conscientious and responsible, Qianlong was assisted by competent statesmen in the first half of his reign. He made several inspection tours of the country, acquainting himself with many areas while satisfying his taste for grandeur.

Life’s Work

Militarily, Qianlong’s armies pacified Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang) between 1745 and 1749. Burma was subjugated between 1766 and 1770. Outer Mongolia, long considered a security threat, was also subdued so that, by 1759, the Qing Empire extended from Outer Mongolia in the north to Guangdong in the south to Central Asia in the west. Taiwan, too, acknowledged Qing overlordship, and neighboring counties sent tribute missions regularly to Beijing, recognizing their dependence on China’s goodwill.

Economically, Qing China outstripped any previous dynasty with growth in three particular areas: commerce, agriculture, and manufacturing. Internal trade provided much revenue, with foreign trade gaining fast by the late eighteenth century. China traded worldwide, and the maritime provinces benefited in particular. Western traders were tightly controlled during the Qing Dynasty—until the nineteenth century. Even before Qianlong’s reign, they were confined to southern China, and, by government decree in 1757, all foreign trade was conducted in the port of Guangzhou (Canton). Here, all foreigners were treated alike, as inferiors, bearing tribute to China.

Great Britain was the greatest seapower and trading nation of the world by the eighteenth century, and it continually pressured China for more trade rights. Yet the Chinese had little knowledge of England’s power or of international law as it was developing in Western Europe. Qianlong exemplified this ignorance in his decree (1793) addressed to King George III, in which he informs the king that “as to your entreaty to send one of your nationals to be accredited to my Celestial Court and to be in control of your country’s trade with China, this request is contrary to all usage of my dynasty and cannot possibly be entertained.” He goes on to state that “we possess all things… and have no use for your country’s manufactures.”

As in previous dynasties, China was a Confucian state, following strict Confucian principles. Among these was stratification of peoples by class and by nation. Within China, there was a huge gap between superiors and inferiors (upper and lower classes). In foreign relations, this same stratification showed itself in the Chinese term for foreigners, which meant “barbarians.” Some forty years after Qianlong’s death, England and other European nations would no longer tolerate what they saw as Chinese arrogance and would open Chinese ports all along the coast by military force.

Agriculture provided the greatest share of Qing revenue, reaching highest development during Qianlong’s reign. Traditionally, Chinese farming was a precarious occupation. It was labor-intensive (dependent on human power), applied to small plots of land. Recurring problems were those of absentee landlords and high taxation. Yet conditions improved considerably by the eighteenth century. New crops were introduced (such as sweet potatoes, sorghum, and maize) that could be grown even on poor land. Diet improved and, with the widespread practice of irrigation and the use of better fertilizers, many peasants were prospering. Until the last twenty years of Qianlong’s rule, peasants were only moderately taxed. Manufacturing reached a peak, also, in the eighteenth century with the textile industry, the largest, most productive of them all. The cotton-goods industry, tea plantations, and porcelain factories filled orders for the court and for wealthy families as well as for exports worldwide. The decorative arts were especially prized in foreign markets, exemplified by a European craze for chinoiserie.

As a patron of the arts, Qianlong collected paintings and porcelains, and himself produced many poems and much calligraphy (not held in high repute). He sponsored a mammoth work entitled Siguquanshu (1782-1787; complete library of the four treasuries), containing more than thirty-six thousand volumes, with four main categories of literature: classics, history, philosophy, and belles lettres. Scholarship flourished with contributions on statecraft and philosophy. The function and evaluation of literature were debated, and original writings came under careful scrutiny, their historicity being challenged. Qing writers produced many works—poetry, essays, short stories, and novels. There is a dark side to Qianlong’s interest in and sponsorship of learning. Imperial control was strong, and so-called heretical, subversive authors were punished. Unacceptable books were burned; records list 13,862 works being destroyed between 1774 and 1782.

The last twenty or so years of Qianlong’s reign were years of dynastic decline. Ironically, part of this was the result of agricultural growth and overall peace and prosperity: China underwent a population explosion. From 1741 to 1796, the population nearly doubled. Production failed to keep pace, and new strains developed on the economy, state, and society. Distant wars in Central Asia, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), and Western Sichuan, as well as the upkeep of a luxurious court, further drained the state’s resources. Administrative laxity and corruption made the government less effective and increasingly costly. As a taste for wealth spread through the upper classes, myriad new taxes burdened the lower classes, the peasants in particular.

In his later years, Qianlong became increasingly autocratic. During the mid-1770’s, he bestowed his favor on a young general of the imperial body guard, Heshen, who exerted an all-powerful influence in government. Heshen appointed relatives and henchmen to high positions and amassed for himself a large fortune. Organized resistance to government inefficiency and corruption flourished in secret societies, among them the White Lotus Sect, which led an open rebellion in 1793. Another, more extensive revolt erupted in 1796, taking nine years to suppress. Qianlong abdicated in 1796, while continuing to rule behind the scenes. Upon his death in 1799, his protégé Heshen was arrested by the new emperor, Jiaqing, and was allowed to commit suicide that same year. Yet the dynastic decline was well in motion, and Jiaqing was unable to restore the former glory.

Significance

There is much to admire in Qianlong’s long reign. Certainly, in the first forty years, he strove to be an enlightened ruler, well grounded in the arts of emperorship. Qing China prospered, not unfit to be mentioned with the Han and Tang Dynasties as a golden era. Highly centralized, the Qing Dynasty of the eighteenth century thrived through a combination of military, economic, political, and social adaptations, and, under a benevolent despot such as Qianlong had been in his early years, China reached its apex of power and prestige.

In his old age, Qianlong failed to keep the reins of government firmly in hand, and he must bear the blame for much of China’s subsequent weakness as it faced the onslaught of a new enemy, the encroaching Western nations. A major cause of the Qing decline by the late eighteenth century was the lack of competent officials at all levels of government. Many were ignorant of the country outside the state and provincial capitals; many were underpaid and, therefore, were caught up in the struggle for wealth to achieve security for themselves and their families. Worse, Qianlong, like his predecessors and successors, failed to reform an antiquated civil service examination system. The examination system stressed Confucian values, rewarding humanistic achievements rather than science, technology, and industry. Its narrow scope and impractical nature did not help develop administrative ability. Free expression was stifled while orthodox thought was encouraged. Not until the late nineteenth century was the system challenged, and only in 1901 was reform actually implemented. By then it was too late, and the dynasty fell in 1912.

Bibliography

Fairbank, John K., Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig. East Asia: Tradition and Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973. Chapter 9, “Traditional China at Its Height Under the Ch’ing,” is very helpful. Covers the rise of the dynasty, its administrative structures, military expansion, culture, and population growth. Includes fine pictures, maps, and a detailed index.

Gernet, Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. There are three chapters on the Qing Dynasty. Chapter 23, “The Enlightened Despots,” is most valuable. Includes maps and charts, a chronological table, and a helpful index and bibliography.

Ho, Chuimei, and Bennet Bronson. Splendors of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong. London: Merrell, 2004. Published to accompany an exhibition with the same name at the Field Museum in Chicago. This beautifully illustrated book describes the art and artifacts created during Qianlong’s reign, a great flowering of Chinese imperial culture. Focuses on the emperor’s personal life as well as his public life at court, discussing how he met the challenges inherent in administering a large and diverse empire and how he appreciated and patronized the arts. Paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, bronzes, and bamboo and jade carvings are among the artworks featured.

Hsü, Immanuel C. Y. The Rise of Modern China. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. Chapters 2 and 3 are on the Qing Dynasty with five pages on Qianlong’s reign. Special concern is taken with political, intellectual, social, and economic history. Includes helpful tables and charts of statistics, and extensive bibliographies after each chapter.

Latourette, Kenneth S. China. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964. Includes one brief chapter on the Qing Dynasty but covers the great emperors up to 1800 with particular emphasis on military campaigns, economics, and foreign relations. Contains a bibliography after each chapter, an appendix of proper names and Chinese words used in the text, and an index.

Millward, James A., et al., eds. New Qing Imperial History: The Making of the Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde. New York: Routledge, 2004. The authors describe how the Qing Dynasty ruled over a large empire and was involved militarily, culturally, and politically in the affairs of Inner Asia and Tibet. The book focuses on Qianlong’s reign to illustrate the nature of Qing rule in the Chinese empire.

Rodzinski, Witold. The Walled Kingdom: A History of China from Antiquity to the Present. New York: Free Press, 1984. Contains brief but concise chapters covering all the dynasties and into the post-Mao era. Chapter 7, “China Under Manchu Rule,” is most pertinent. Covers foundation, culture, and decline of the dynasty, and is critical of the Manchu emperors. Includes excellent maps, suggested readings, and an index.

Schirokauer, Conrad. Modern China and Japan. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. Chapter 1, “China Under the Manchus,” is brief but thorough. Covers geography, the reign of Qianlong, politics, economics, and the arts. Includes a fine map and illustrations, brief chapter notes, an annotated bibliography, and an index.