Young people are always frivolous, and when we think of frivolity, we always think of those talents. For example, Wang Bo is in "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion", Li Bai is in "Will Enter the Wine", and Li He is in "The Bitter Day is Short". Among the dynastic successors, there are very few young arrogants, especially in the Qing Dynasty, the descendants of the emperor are always implicit and introverted, after all, too arrogant, will lose the trust of the old emperor and lose the qualification to succeed to the throne. Qianlong, on the other hand, was an exception; he was a man of letters, a lover of poetry, and even more an arrogant man, who not only wrote his theories into books in a high profile.
After Qianlong ascended the throne, he pointed out that there was something wrong with Yongzheng's hobbies
Yongzheng believed in Taoism and Buddhism, and loved auspicious omens throughout his life. During his reign, all the Varieties of Xiangrui in Chinese history were basically out of place, such as Jiahe, Rui Cocoon, Lingzhi, Qilin, Phoenix Bird, Five-Star Lianzhu, Huanghe Qing, etc. During the reign of Yongzheng, these Xiangrui appeared in the same way in the Yongzheng Period. And Yongzheng himself also said: "Respect for sincerity, benevolent people are generous", these are his own governance success, rule legitimate.
Qianlong, on the other hand, believed in Confucian orthodoxy and had no interest in heretical cults, so he did not believe in yongzheng's auspicious omens at all, and in Qianlong's view, these were all pediatric tricks, useless and ridiculous. As soon as he ascended to the throne, he said: "If the people can live and work in peace and contentment, although there is no auspicious rui, it will not harm the image of taiping"; on the contrary, if the country is not well governed, even if xiangrui appears every day, it will be of no use. To this end, he also made a special decree to warn his ministers:
Solid and honest government to maintain the great cause of peace, must not be the false name of Ruiying, to the praise of the praise of the adornment also, all Qingyun, Jia Gu all the auspicious things, are not allowed to be played. --Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty
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Qianlong's education should be the best and most complete of all the emperors since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, he was 6 to 25 years old, spent 19 years in the study, studied more than 10 hours a day, and he was extremely talented and never forgot. His Complete Works of LeshanTang contains a large number of articles from his student days, which show that Qianlong was a very orthodox Confucian believer, who was full of confidence in the future, and in his eyes, the most perfect emperor should rule the world with "benevolence" rather than force to implement policies. To govern the world, we should use virtue rather than strength, so those with high moral character succeed, and those with poor virtue fail--"The Complete Works of Leshan Tang"
When he was a student, Qianlong read a lot of books, and he conducted an in-depth study of the emperors in history, such as Emperor Wu of Han, Tang Taizong, Tang Suzong, Song Taizu, Song Renzong, etc., and he had to write a thought on each emperor; not only emperors, but also famous ministers, such as Li Duan, Han Qi, Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang, etc., all of which were included in the "Complete Collection of Leshan Tang". After in-depth research, he believes that there are only three qualified emperors in Chinese history, namely Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Taizong of Tang, and Emperor Renzong of Song.
After taking the throne, he exerted great efforts to cure the losses and benefited others, loved the people from the advice of benevolence and righteousness, and used Fang Xuanling and Wei Huizhi to be the king, and the subjects did not dare to slack off... Or on the theory that Emperor Taizong had Wei Zheng and was proud of the state, Wei Zheng was neither proud nor proud, but he was not the only one who had the king of Emperor Taizong, and then there was Wei Zheng's subjects who made Emperor Taizong the lord of the people, then although there was Wei Zhengqi, he was also like He Zhao, he had the idea of having a good name in his own mind and not knowing the truth, and he was obedient to the advice and could not help but control people with power, so he could not cause the world to be in Xi'er, and then there were those who rebelled against the advice and the evil sages were arrogant and arrogant, and Fang Zhi Taizong was nothing less than a multiplier. --The Complete Works of LeshanTang. Volume V- Treatise of Emperor Taizong of Tang
Qianlong believed that only Tang Taizong could be called a benevolent king, and although Emperor Wen of Han was very virtuous, he did not know how to employ people, nor did he know how to select talents to assist himself. And what he wanted to do was an emperor like Tang Taizong, even to surpass him. His father, Yongzheng, was not the most perfect monarch he considered.
First: Yongzheng is too mean to people and too cruel to his own brothers.
Second: He was too strong in power, and liked to use tough and cruel methods, which offended almost all social classes at that time.
Third: He was very strict with officials, and in the management of corruption, he was never tolerant, and he confiscated family property at every turn, which made him a notorious name of "emperor of family raiders", and because he advocated strictness, officials were also very strict in governing the localities, resulting in four social cases at that time, misdemeanors were severely punished, and there were many unjust, false and wrong cases, which increased the responsibility of the people.
Qianlong not only did not approve of Yongzheng's way of governing, he also wrote a "Theory of The Wide And the Many" to express it as the way of the king:
The heart of the sages, the desire to abandon the way of Yao Shun, and the desire to be born non-desolation, is not enough to embody the heart of heaven and earth and fulfill the way of the master, and the master is on the order of Yao Shun Yu Tang Wu King and then the wide is won by the public... Sincerity can be indifferent to the things to pack the desolate and dirty people, so the people who have become a great devotion are also grateful to him, and the heart is sincerely convinced, Gou is not anxious to think, and although he is diligent in his work, such as the Shi Huang's Cheng Shi Guan Shu, Sui Wen's pro-official position is also he beneficial. --"Wide is the Theory of the Crowd"
From this passage, we can know that Qianlong believes that if we can tolerate the small mistakes of others and achieve our own great virtues, then everyone must be grateful, if we are anxious and mean, even if we are diligent like Qin Shi Huang, what is the use?
The young Qianlong was full of hope for the future, and he judged China's emperors for thousands of years from the perspective of a saint, commenting on their gains and losses. From the perspective of a latecomer, it is too easy to judge the merits of others, but what about being in it? After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he did make some political achievements, from the perspective of the history of the Chinese emperor, he was indeed excellent, but put him in the perspective of the times, he had many problems, he inherited the achievements of the efforts of the Second Emperor KangYong for 70 years, when the times put forward higher requirements for him, he did not make due efforts at all. Even after 1840, everything that the Qing Dynasty faced was created by him.
It was easy to judge others, but when posterity evaluated Qianlong again, the conclusion he came to was that Qianlong was also a not very qualified emperor like he evaluated those great places such as Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Renzong of Song.
References: The Complete Works of Leshan Tang, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty