China's ancient history is very wonderful, each dynasty can be written into an epic, and the Qing Dynasty because it is a minority to unify China, the meaning in history is even more different.
Moreover, in the nearly three hundred years of rule of the Qing Dynasty, a number of shrewd and capable emperors appeared, so that the economic and social development at that time reached its peak, and the "Kangqian Prosperous Era" was the most prosperous period of the Qing Dynasty.
However, when everyone praises Kangxi and Qianlong, they often ignore the other emperor in the middle: Yongzheng.
What role did this emperor, who was not highly regarded in history, play in the development of the Qing Dynasty?
Without him, the Qing Dynasty might have perished long ago.
Image: Yongzheng Emperor cartoon
One
Is Yongzheng really ruthless?
Kangxi's Kowloon conquest was really cruel, and people would disregard the affection of fathers and sons and brothers when chasing power, which was actually not news in the feudal dynasty. Tang Taizong Li Shimin also killed his eldest brother and younger brother to be able to sit on the emperor's throne.
Most of the reasons Yongzheng has been criticized is that he is not doing enough. Kangxi had many sons, and he himself lived a long life, and he had not yet withdrawn from the political stage, and his sons had grown up and began to actively prepare for the throne.
These preparations led to a serious division of the political landscape during the Kangxi period, and the ministers had privately built different gangs for their own interests and the princes, and began a cold exclusion and expulsion between them. In this case, the survival of the Fourth Master Yin Chan was also extremely difficult.
If Yin Chan did not attach himself to the crown prince and did not defect to the eighth son of the emperor who was more influential at that time, then Yin Chan was doomed to be suppressed, and Yin Chan used his own forbearance to laugh to the end among the twenty-four princes.
Although some means were also used in the middle to let their imperial brothers and brothers fall from power, but in the case of your death and my life, I have to say that this is also the only way for Yongzheng to live, so the historical evaluation of Yongzheng is cold and ruthless, in fact, there are still some overs, and Yongzheng is owed a more fair evaluation.
It is also more unjust to say that Yongzheng mutilated his brothers and sisters, and if Yongzheng did not rise up and fight a bloody road for himself, then he could only disappear into this bloody war.
Image: Stills of the Fourth Master Yin Chan
Two
How did Yongzheng ascend to the throne?
There are actually two versions of Yongzheng becoming emperor. Some of the reasons why Yongzheng succeeded to the throne were that at that time, Kangxi was the fourteenth son of the Chinese Emperor Yinyu, that is, Yongzheng's brother to succeed to the throne, but Yongzheng joined forces with Longkeduo to tamper with the holy will and changed "ten" to "Yu".
But there are many loopholes in this statement, because historically, although Yin Yu had great military advantages, even if Kangxi was in poor health, there was no sign of wanting Yin Yu to return to the dynasty.
Moreover, Yin Yu and the eighth son of the Emperor, Yin Yu, were closely related, and as early as when Yin Yu was defeated, Kangxi was already unlikely to make Yin Yu the successor, and he was still very jealous of these sons who blatantly wanted to let themselves step down.
And in the implementation of the Manchu Han is a family of the Qing Dynasty, the issued holy will is written by the Manchu and Mongolian at the same time, even if the "ten" character is changed, how to change the Manchu and Mongolian languages?
Image: Stills of the Divine Will released
Another theory is that Kangxi valued Yongzheng's son: Qianlong. In the case of his sons not being able to do anything, Kangxi set his sights on his grandchildren, which is also very likely.
Moreover, it is recorded in history that Qianlong was loved by Kangxi from an early age, and also lived with Kangxi for a period of time, so Kangxi would pass the throne to Yongzheng before his death.
Either way, there is actually an implicit meaning: Yongzheng was not Kangxi's most satisfactory successor, he was not good enough, and he only let him succeed to the throne for last resort.
This subconscious made Yongzheng's path after becoming emperor extremely difficult, because he had to use all his strength to prove his "righteousness".
Image: Yongzheng becomes emperor still
Three
Yongzheng, who is diligent in government and loves the people
After Yongzheng ascended the throne, the imperial court was actually facing a situation of wind and rain. Kangxi's decision to the imperial court in his later years was no longer as clear and bold as before, and the war between the princes had spread to the imperial court.
The crown prince and the court officials colluded with each other, and political and economic corruption was inevitable, and the emptiness of the national treasury at that time was beyond the imagination of ordinary people. It can be said that Yongzheng ascended the throne and did not enjoy its success, and the Qing Dynasty, which Kangxi ran in the early years, only had 8 million taels of silver in the treasury in the early days of Yongzheng's ascension to the throne.
This is even worse for Yongzheng, because he called the emperor too suddenly, the imperial court has many non-subjects, and natural and man-made disasters need a large amount of silver to relieve, so Yongzheng has not been easy since the day he became emperor.
Image: Stills of the Yongzheng Emperor who is not easy
Faced with internal and external troubles, Yongzheng boldly used Li Wei, Tian Wenjing, and other pragmatic officials, and began to implement the system of dividing the land into acres and collecting grain from officials and gentry, and these reforms effectively filled the national treasury and made the economic situation in the Yongzheng period begin to reverse.
However, for the voices against himself, Yongzheng was not soft at all, he adopted extremely cruel methods such as literal hell, so that the voices opposing himself became smaller and smaller, although the imperial court began to move on the right track, but his popular comments in the folk were getting worse and worse.
And Yongzheng from the day he ascended the throne began to be self-disciplined and diligent, there are historical records, in the 13 years that Yongzheng was in power, he personally wrote a red letter to correct the folds reached 360 volumes, he slept less than 4 hours a day, it can be said that Yongzheng used his "diligence" in exchange for the prosperity and development of the Qing Dynasty.
Moreover, Yongzheng was also a very frugal emperor, who reigned for thirteen years, and Yongzheng did not build any special palace for himself except for special events such as sacrifice and rain prayer, and the need to build an ancestral hall.
Therefore, during the thirteen years when Yongzheng was proclaimed emperor, capital wealth accumulated rapidly, and in the Qianlong period, it reached the peak of the people's prosperity and national strength.
Yongzheng paid for his health for many years in exchange for the steady development of the Qing Dynasty, and in August of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng, Yongzheng was in poor health, but he still insisted on working, and suddenly died two days later, Qianlong succeeded to the throne, and the Yongzheng Dynasty ended.
Photo: Yongzheng self-discipline and diligence stills
Therefore, some historians have commented that Qianlong was the most leisurely emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and there are also very historical reasons: Kangxi's efforts to govern, the accumulation of bits and pieces, the diligent development of Yongzheng, and the elimination of the corrupt phenomenon of the division of the imperial court and the king of the clan, so that Qianlong enjoyed the fruits of kangqian's prosperous life after he ascended the throne.
In history, many people will directly skip Yongzheng, believing that Yongzheng's short thirteen-year reign cannot bring any development to the Qing Dynasty, which is really the biggest insult to Yongzheng.
Because without Yongzheng's thirteen years of hard work and multi-faceted development, the speed of the Qing Dynasty's demise is estimated to be several decades ahead.
It can be said that Yongzheng's indifference and ruthlessness do exist, but without his diligence and strictness, Kangqian's prosperous life would not have been possible.
Therefore, the historical comments on Yongzheng are still relatively one-sided, and everyone sees the surface and ignores the internal factors inside.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!