After Qianlong reigned for sixty years, he passed the throne to his son, Emperor Jiaqing. The main reason why he passed the throne to Yu Yan was that there were two reasons, the first was that Qianlong had few choices, which was also a matter of no way. The second is that the cheeks are generous and very suitable.
Qianlong has a lot of fun in his life, and there are many concubines, and the number of children will naturally not be less, reaching 17. He was the fifteenth in line, and he was neither a concubine nor the eldest son. Judging from his experience during the imperial period, he did not have any performance to get his hands on, and he did not have much chance of seeing him from anywhere.
Indeed, if put it in the past, Qianlong really did not look at him.
The Manchu Qing did not have the theory of the inheritance of the eldest son, but in the Qianlong period it was different, at this time the Qing Dynasty had been in power in the Central Plains for decades, and Qianlong was also effective in the practice of the Han people to establish a "concubine".
At first, he chose Yonglian as crown prince. But YongLian died, less than ten years old. Later, the second son born to the empress, Yong Chun, was made crown prince, and soon Yong Chun also died, only two years old.
Qianlong's heart was broken by the successive blows, and he ordered the chancellor not to mention the matter of Li Chu again. However, this is not a long-term solution, especially as Qianlong grows old day by day, and it is a problem not to choose a successor.
But at this time, he only had six sons, and there were only two of them that Qianlong had passed on to others, so there were only four sons to choose from. They were Yongxuan, the eighth son of the Emperor, Yongxuan, the eleventh son of the Emperor, Yongyan, the fifteenth son of the Emperor, and Yongxuan, the seventeenth son of the Emperor.
In fact, none of these four were Qianlong's true favorites.
But there was no way, and there was only one choice among these four people. However, the old eighth was eliminated, he had a sick foot, he was a cripple, and Qianlong could not let the cripple become the emperor. Besides, this person is more lustful, but it can be said that it is good not to learn bad learning.
The eleventh son of the Emperor, Yong Yao, this prince loved calligraphy and was an artist, but Qianlong did not like him too much. The Seventeenth Son of the Emperor often ran around and played around, and Qianlong did not like him.
Comprehensive comparison, Ying Yan is still an honest child, not to provoke, at least the character of others is very good.