I remember that in June of this year, the author visited the summer resort, and the tour guide was a man surnamed Zhang, who introduced himself as a native of Chengde. This tour guide is warm and cheerful, and at once we can let our foreign tourists feel the excellent folk customs of the simple and hospitable people of Chengde, and the sense of distance is suddenly eliminated into invisibility. At the same time, the professional quality of this tour guide is also very high, and when he explains to the mountain villa, he is also as loud as a bell, sparing no effort, and his knowledge can also be described as rich, and he is still deeply impressed. One of the explanations of the tour guide surnamed Zhang made a particularly deep impression on me, that is, under the gate of the Second Palace, there are portraits of the two generations of emperors of Kangxi and Qianlong on the left and right sides, and the tour guide pointed to the portraits of the two emperors and told us that this (referring to the Kangxi Emperor) was a businessman, and this (referring to the Qianlong Emperor) was a loser, which more or less reflected the image of the Qianlong Emperor in the minds of contemporary people.
In fact, although the Qianlong Dynasty was criticized by posterity for the great problem, it was indeed biased to make such a brief evaluation of the Qianlong Emperor.
Above_ Qianlong Emperor in old age
This article has no intention of "rehabilitating" Qianlong, and the people and events of history already exist objectively, and there is a comment on whether they are meritorious or not. The author just wants to briefly say that the Qianlong Emperor in his youth, measured by the standards of China's traditional feudal rule of the emperor, is definitely an emperor with great achievements, and all kinds of historical big data show that it is the Qianlong Emperor who has exhausted all his efforts to push China's feudal rule to the peak and reach the level of looking at the world.
However, in the later years of the Qianlong Emperor, especially in the later period of his reign, the entire dynasty quickly rose and fell, and the speed of decline was still so amazing, which is the source of the comments of the tour guide surnamed Zhang. I don't know if you have found a problem, China's feudal emperors, all those who have the privilege of entering the old age, their late reign will make some "low-level mistakes", and even destroy the foundation of their own youth, the Qianlong Emperor, the Han Wu Emperor, and even the Sui Wen Emperor, Tang Taizong or Ming Taizu, there are similar situations, as far as the Qing Dynasty is concerned, the Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi emperor in his later years of reign is also criticized.
Above_ Kangxi Emperor, Ai XinJueluo Xuanye (4 May 1654 – 20 December 1722)
So the question is, the same late years of governance appeared biased, why the Qianlong Emperor's "back of the pot" is much heavier than his grandfather the Kangxi Emperor? I will analyze and understand the reasons from the following three aspects.
First, the times are different
From the last year of the Kangxi Dynasty to the last year of the Qianlong Dynasty, the interval was 60 years. In this nearly two-thirds of a century, the Qing Dynasty underwent many changes, and the biggest change was the population explosion.
In the implementation of some preferential policies of the state such as the Kangxi Dynasty's "never increase the endowment" and the Yongzheng Dynasty's "spreading the land into acres", after the Qianlong Emperor succeeded to the throne, while adhering to the policy of benefiting the people of his grandfather and father, he also greatly reduced or reduced the taxes in the disaster areas, and the population showed a rapid growth trend. By the end of the Qianlong Dynasty, the population had surged to 350 million, and this population base was definitely the peak of China's feudal society. Population growth has increased traditional agricultural productivity while also placing a huge burden. If the country's economy can continue to grow, once the economy shrinks or the economic structure is unreasonable, it will inevitably lead to difficulties in the lives of some people, so social stability will be seriously threatened.
In the last years of qianlong, in the context of the decline of the prosperous world, under the background of the economic downturn, the abolition of officials and other shortcomings of the feudal dynasty, some people lived in deep trouble, social contradictions intensified, social stability was broken, and various non-governmental organizations (groups, religions, etc.) formed and began to attack the regime of the Qing Dynasty.
Above_Qing Dynasty painting
The population growth in the early Qing Dynasty
2. The gap in the ability of successors
No matter how bad the stalls are, someone can clean up, and the ability to turn the tide is not afraid, obviously the successor of the Kangxi Emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor, is going to throw out the Qianlong Emperor's successor, the Jiaqing Emperor, several streets. One of the reasons why the Qing Dynasty was able to create the "Kang Yongqian Prosperous Era" is that three generations of emperors had the courage to deny their predecessors and remove their dross.
At the beginning of the Yongzheng Emperor's ascension to the throne, the dragon chair was not yet hot, and even issued N Dao Shang edicts, while abandoning the maladministration of the previous dynasty, it also set the tone for the ruling of the current dynasty, and finally reversed the decline in the last years of the Kangxi Dynasty.
The Qianlong Emperor was even more powerful, and under the tight and tense ruling style, you can't figure out whether he wants to change the harshness of the Yongzheng Dynasty or "carry it forward", that is, to make the ministers feel like a spring breeze, and to make the Manchu Dynasty wenwu tremble and tremble, this ability to play with the group of ministers and the palm of the hand is not metaphysical.
And the Jiaqing Emperor, after beautifully eliminating Hezhen, his ruling deeds are few and far between in addition to diligent administration. Moreover, the Jiaqing Emperor's ideology was more conservative than that of all the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, and the handling of the imperial government was based on the transcripts of the previous dynasties. Although the Jiaqing Emperor had made unremitting efforts to increase the treasury of the dynasty much more than when it was succeeded, the excessive conservatism and conservatism in ideology had derailed the Qing Dynasty from the world, and the trend of backwardness and beating had already taken shape.
Jiaqing Emperor (1760–1820)
Above_ The Holy Will of the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing Dynasty
Third, the final result is different
It is precisely because of the changes of the times and the lack of ability of successors to turn the tide of the tide that the consequences of the corruption of officials at the end of the Kang and Qian dynasties were different.
The abolition of the kangxi government in the last years was well reversed by the successor, so it did not show any bad consequences, so the Kangxi Emperor was rarely criticized.
However, the Qianlong Emperor was not so lucky, and the mess he left behind, coupled with the inaction of his successors, eventually led to the tragedy of the "Opium War".
Above_ The situation in and around the Qing Dynasty before the First Opium War
Above_ Opium poisons the Chinese people
The "Opium War" was actually a collision between Western capitalism represented by Britain and the traditional feudal society in the East represented by China, and the result was that the "high-tech empire" crushed the traditional feudal empire in general. And I have always firmly believed that even if China's feudal history did not choose the Qing Dynasty, the collision between the East and the West would be inevitable, and the result would not change much, because this is caused by the difference in ideological concepts and the development of productive forces, and the formation of this difference is caused by the differences in geographical location, living environment and cultural traditions between the East and the West for thousands of years.
Although the Qianlong Emperor and his successors were the leaders and leaders of the times, they were not the trendsetters of the times, and not only did they not break through the limitations of the times, but instead regarded themselves as "heavenly kingdoms and kingdoms" that "sat on the world". This self-righteous mentality is not limited only to the ruling class, but also to the whole country, especially the intellectuals, who hold this mentality.
This mentality of self-sufficiency and pride and complacency is the root of the Suffering of the Chinese Nation, and the loss of this suffering still affects the Chinese nation today.
Above_The Qianlong Emperor's "Treasure of the Ten Perfect Old Men"
Above_ Various seals of the Qianlong Emperor
In any case, the transformation of China's feudal history from prosperity to decline was "beginning with the Qianlong Emperor", and as the leader of the times with absolute authority, the Qianlong Emperor had some unshirkable responsibilities, which is also the fundamental reason why the Qianlong Emperor was "put on the hat" of the defeated emperor.
Text: Wang Jinbai
References: "The Qianlong Emperor and His Era" Dai Yi (author), "The Age of Hunger" Zhang Hongjie (author)
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author