Yongzheng

Emperor of China (r. 1723-1735)

• Born: December 13, 1678
• Birthplace: Beijing, China
• Died: October 8, 1735
• Place of death: Beijing, China

Yongzheng reigned between the two longest serving and most famous of the Qing Dynasty emperors, his father Kangxi and his own son Qianlong. Yongzheng’s reign was significant in that it extended the power of the central government and consolidated imperial rule throughout China.

Early Life

Yongzheng (yong-jehng) was the fourth son of the Qing Dynasty emperor Kangxi, one of the greatest rulers in China’s history. Yongzheng’s mother was Xiao Gong, a servant and the daughter of a palace bodyguard. The Qing were Manchus, not Chinese, but Kangxi, through a policy of inclusion, reconciled most ethnic, or Han, Chinese to Qing rule. The emperor also expanded Chinese influence over Tibet and expanded Chinese control through much of Central Asia. Where Kangxi failed was in the matter of the royal succession.

Of Kangxi’s fifty-six children, only one, Yinreng, his second son, was born to an empress. Immediately after Yinreng’s birth in 1674 he was named heir apparent, but Yinreng became erratic and violent and used both girls and boys for his sexual gratification. Kangxi removed Yinreng from the succession and placed him under house arrest in 1708, but he released him the following year. However, in 1712, after receiving evidence that Yinreng was plotting to assassinate his father, he was again arrested. Kangxi refused to name another heir. When the emperor died in 1723, Yongzheng announced that he was his father’s deathbed choice to succeed him, and since his brothers were absent—and inasmuch as Yongzheng was in control of the Beijing military guard—Yongzheng succeeded in becoming emperor. He had been one of Kangxi’s closest confidants, but Yongzheng was nevertheless accused of being a usurper.

Life’s Work

Unlike his father, who was a young child when he became emperor, Yongzheng was in his mid-forties when he ascended the throne. He quickly rid himself of most of his revivals. Yinreng and two other brothers died in prison, and most of the rest were kept under close surveillance. However, Yinxiang, Kangxi’s thirteenth son, became Yongzheng’s close adviser. Throughout his reign, Yongzheng remained fearful of sedition, concerned about possible alliances between his brothers and Qing military units. He wrote a treatise against all factions, stating that the emperor’s decisions were the only criteria for defining good or evil. Yongzheng was disciplined and hard-working in matters of government, rising at 4 a.m. and often working until midnight. A devout Buddhist in religion, he transformed the palace where he was born into a Buddhist temple. Yongzheng was fluent in both Chinese and Manchu in his writing, unlike his father. As emperor, he focused his energies on reforming the bureaucracy, improving the government’s financial resources, and strengthening the central government. These were not new problems and would continue to challenge Chinese rulers long after Yongzheng’s reign.

There were financial shortfalls in government income, partially because of the long-held philosophy that taxes should be low so that the country could prosper, but also because agricultural landlords were adept at avoiding their tax responsibilities. Reforms were instituted, including appointing new officials more honest and efficient than most local officials, who were often controlled by the landed gentry. There was an increase in the basic land tax, but many fees, subject to manipulation and corruption, were abolished. In northern China, where peasant farmers were the norm, the reforms made local government more responsive to local needs, but in the south and southwest, with a sparser population, the reforms were less effective. In central China, in the Yangtze River provinces, entrenched local elites remained as obstacles to tax reform.

Taiwan had come under Chinese rule during the reign of Kangxi, but it remained a somewhat lawless frontier society. Yongzheng encouraged limited emigration from the mainland and strengthened local government on the island. Relations with Russia also required the emperor’s attention. In 1689, the Qing and the Russians signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk, the first modern treaty ever agreed to by any Chinese government with a Western nation, establishing the border between the two states, which remained essentially unchanged. To deal with residual issues, including the discovery of gold in Siberia, the supplementary Treaty of Kiakhta was agreed to in 1727, furthering trade between the two large nations. During Yongzheng’s reign, the remaining Manchus were incorporated into the imperial armies.

Kangxi had initiated a system of private, or palace, memorials, wherein officials would send memorials directly to the emperor rather than through inefficient and corrupt bureaucrats. Yongzheng extended its use, dealing with between fifty and one hundred memorials each day, with more than twenty thousand still preserved. In addition to the private memorials, Yongzheng established the office of military finance, or the Grand Council, a secret group of three advisers, including his brother Yinxiang and two loyal Chinese grand secretaries, Zhang Tingyu and Jiang Tingxi. Among other responsibilities, the council planned for possible conflicts with the Dzungar Mongol nomadic tribes in western China. The Dzungars were defeated in 1696 in a campaign led by Kangxi, but tensions had increased again by Yongzheng’s reign. However, in spite of extensive preparations, the 1731 campaign against the Dzungars failed, leaving the problem to emperors who followed him.

The regime was more successful in the southwest against the indigenous Miao, Yao, and Lolo peoples. Han Chinese had moved into the region, and conflicts were numerous. E’ertai was appointed governor general of the area. In 1732, after subduing the Miao, E’ertai was summoned back to Beijing by the emperor in the aftermath of the deaths of Yinxiang and Jiang Tingxi, becoming one of Yongzheng’s chief advisers on the Grand Council, along with Zhang Tingyu.

Although the descendant of Manchus had committed to maintaining Manchu supremacy in China, Yongzheng envisioned himself as a moral Confucian emperor, but he was also the autocrat. Catholic Christian missionaries had been active in China for more than one hundred years, but they came under suspicion when the Papacy criticized the Chinese practice of filial piety and ancestor worship. After Yongzheng discovered that some missionaries were corresponding with one of his brothers, Christians were restricted to Beijing, Canton, and Macao. As a Buddhist, the emperor took part in a Buddhist study group, but when his interpretations clashed with those of two monks, he ordered their books burned. His father, Kangxi, sponsored a paternalistic Sacred Edict of sixteen points to be followed by his subjects. Yongzheng expanded on those points, requiring that they be read and discussed twice each month, even in local villages, an example of what one historian called national indoctrination.

Under Kangxi, Chen Menglei (Chen Mong Lei) had compiled a vast work called Gu jin tu shu ji cheng (pb. 1726-1728; the complete classics collection of ancient China). It was ready for publication when Kangxi died. Yongzheng removed Chen’s name as editor and issued the work as that of Kangxi himself, giving himself credit for its publication.

After reading the anti-Manchu writings of Lu Liuliang, who died in 1683, another scholar, Zeng Jing, attempted to inspire a rebellion against Yongzheng in 1729. The emperor had Lu’s corpse dug up and dismembered and his surviving family enslaved or exiled. However, Yongzheng pardoned Zeng Jing because he was young and impressionable. Opium addiction was another issue that attracted Yongzheng’s attention. Used medicinally since the eleventh century, the smoking of opium became widespread in the seventeenth century. Early in his reign, Yongzheng attempted to stamp out opium use, threatening the use of capital punishment, but he later concluded that opium for medicinal uses was warranted. His moralistic approach, combined with his desire to create a unified society, led him to emancipate China’s outcasts—singers, professional beggars, boat people, domestic slaves—and legally end the discrimination against them. These acts are examples of Yongzheng’s involvement in all aspects of Chinese government and society.

Significance

Because of his concern to gather information and make requisite decisions, Yongzheng was a more absolute and authoritarian ruler than his Qing Dynasty predecessors, but as a ruler of a large state that depended upon a vast bureaucracy, he was not all-powerful. Perhaps no emperor worked harder and with more discipline in governing China, and he did so with some sense of benevolence and justice. When he died he left to his chosen successor, Qianlong, his fourth son, a China more unified, with a greater population and more prosperous than ever. Yongzheng was the most skillful of the Qing emperors in administering the government, but the reforms he instituted, particularly in the field of taxation, failed to solve the long-term problems of largely agrarian China.

Bibliography

Huang, Pei. Autocracy at Work. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974. An examination of government practice and philosophy during Yongzheng’s reign.

Mott, F. W. Imperial China, 900-1800. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. An updated study of imperial China, ending with the reign of Yongzheng’s son and heir, Qianlong.

Paludan, Ann. Chronicles of the Chinese Emperor. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1998. A useful compendium of the Chinese emperors and their reigns, including that of Yongzheng.

Spence, Jonathan D. Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K’ang Hsi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. Reprint. New York: Vintage Books, 1988. This beautifully written and illustrated book makes Yongzheng’s father, Emperor Kangxi, come alive, but not simply as a grand historical figure. Spence presents Kangxi in his own words, describing his methods of ruling and his relationship to his sons, among other topics.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Search for Modern China. New York: Norton, 1990. An excellent work on modern China, beginning with the fall of the Ming and the rise of the Qing.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Treason by the Book. New York: Viking Press, 2001. An examination of Yongzheng’s actions in the Lu Liuliang affair, giving insights into eighteenth century China and the personality and aims of the emperor.