The most famous emperors of the Qing Dynasty were Kang, Yong and Qian, who together created the only "Kangqian prosperous era" in the Qing Dynasty. In particular, the Kangxi Emperor, known as the "First Emperor of the Ages", ascended the throne at the age of eight, pro-government at the age of fourteen, reigned for sixty-one years, and was the longest reigning emperor in Chinese history. In everyone's impression, Kangxi seems to be a very accomplished emperor: capturing Aobai, Pingsan Fan, taking Taiwan, fighting Tsarist Russia, conquering Jungar, and so on. However, can this be called "the emperor of the ages"?
Kangxi is called "the first emperor of the ages", it seems that no historian has heard it, only remember that when Kangxi was dying in the TV series "Kangxi Dynasty", one of his old ministers said that Kangxi was an emperor in the ancient times, and he had not seen other historical records.
The so-called "one emperor in a thousand years" was given to Qin Shi Huang by the Ming Dynasty thinker Li Zhen, who completed the great unification of China, was the first emperor in Chinese history, and laid the basic pattern of China's political system for more than two thousand years. "An emperor in all eternity", yingzheng is truly deserved!
Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty vigorously expanded China's territory, contributed to the great integration of the Chinese nation, and formed the main ethnic group of the Chinese nation, the Han nationality, which had a far-reaching impact, and the language and writing we use now can be said to be Chinese and Chinese characters. "An Emperor of Thousands of Ages", Liu Cheshi deserves his name!
Tang Taizong destroyed countless small surrounding countries, but left a "Heavenly Khan" reputation, creating the tang dynasty, so that foreigners still respect Chinese as Tang people, and now there are many Chinatowns abroad. "An emperor through the ages", Li Shimin can also be regarded as well-deserved.
However, it is a bit difficult to call Kangxi an "emperor through the ages". For the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi's contributions and deeds were incomparable, but for the Chinese nation, Kangxi left behind an incomparable shame.
The kangxi emperor period was the period of the rise of the industrial revolution in the West, but he only saw the superficial prosperity of the Qing Empire, and always implied that he was a great power of the Heavenly Dynasty, and other countries were barbarians, believing that the so-called advanced technology of the barbarians was just a strange trick and a plaything, lacking a sober judgment on the world situation, implementing the policy of sea ban, and stopping foreign trade, so that China and the industrial revolution passed by, resulting in the overall backwardness of Chinese society. For the future invasion of foreigners, a hundred years of shame has laid hidden dangers!
During the Kangxi Dynasty, many high-yield crops were introduced, and the national grain production soared, more than double that of the Ming Dynasty Wanli Period, although grain production increased, but "the country is rich and the people are poor", and records of people eating chaff vegetables abound. Although the population was also double that of the Ming Dynasty, the total output of industrial products, which were two indicators of iron and cloth, never recovered to the level of the late Ming Dynasty.
We all know that the Qianlong Emperor was a master of engaging in word prison, in fact, the text prison in the Kangxi period was equally fierce. For example, in the famous "Nanshan Collection Case" of kangxi in the fifty-first year, Hanlin Dai Mingshi quoted the Nanming Yong calendar number in other people's works in the "Nanshan Collection", which was considered to be a great rebellion and punished lingchi, and the number of people involved reached more than 300. The prison of words has dealt a fatal blow to the people's freedom of thought and cultural innovation, and has directly hindered the progress and development of Chinese society.
During the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods, a large number of literati were brutalized and the people's minds were severely imprisoned, and China entered a lifeless and dim era, which was called "China's Middle Ages" by Europeans.
In his later years, Kangxi tolerated corruption. In his early years, Kangxi was cruel to corrupt officials, but in his later years, Kangxi seemed to have become benevolent, and he did not want to kill too many ministers, so as not to leave a tyrant's name, so his handling of corrupt officials was particularly benevolent, often just dismissing officials and dismissing them, and small corrupt officials did not deal with them. As a result of the connivance of corruption in Kangxi's later years, there were no officials and no greed, the treasury was empty, the people lived in poverty, and corrupt officials lived a life of spending time and drinking.
At the time of Kangxi's death, the national treasury was only a mere seven million taels. To tell the truth, fortunately, Kangxi's son Yongzheng had good ability, vigorously rectified and rectified, dried his ass, and gave Daqing a life. Otherwise, the Great Qing will be hanging!
One of the most criticized things about Kangxi in his later years was the "Nine Sons and Concubines", because the Kangxi Emperor reigned for too long, resulting in frequent conflicts between the crown prince Yinrong and Kangxi. For this reason, Kangxi twice abolished Yin Rong's position as crown prince, which led to the seizure of the concubine in Kowloon. Kangxi swayed from side to side in the Great War of Conquest, and eventually let his sons fight each other, killing each other, and fighting brothers, which was an avoidable human tragedy.
Generally speaking, the Kangxi Emperor also forged ahead and braved the wind and rain in the middle of the previous period, but in the later period of his reign, with the gradual prominence of the shortcomings and contradictions of feudal society, he began to escape from reality, tended to be conservative in his thinking, became the boss behind closed doors, became content with the status quo, vulgar and tired, did not seek merit but sought no fault, and everything was aimed at the smooth transfer of power. Given his exploits, it cannot be said that he was "faint", but he was at least "mediocre". Whether it can be called "an emperor through the ages" is still debatable.