The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, not only the longest-lived, but also considered to have developed the Qing Dynasty to the highest peak, and he was highly valued.
However, some people say that the Qianlong Emperor was the first sinner in the ages, and the evaluation of Qianlong was so polarized. In this article, I will discuss this problem with you.
What kind of person was the Qianlong Emperor in history?
It is said that he was one of the creators of the "Prosperous Era of Kangqian" and developed the Qing Dynasty to the highest peak, and some people said that he was the first sinner in the ages.
My deepest impression of him was his affection for Empress Fucha, which was also a hot topic in recent film and television dramas, when the Qianlong Emperor married Fucha at the age of seventeen.
The Fucha clan was beautiful in appearance, mild in temperament, and had a very good relationship with the Qianlong Emperor, and in the more than ten years of their time together, the Qianlong Emperor showed great respect and trust for Empress Fucha, and also wrote several poems to praise his wife.
However, the good times did not last long, and Empress Fucha died of illness while accompanying the Qianlong Emperor on his eastern tour, and the Qianlong Emperor was extremely sad, and even led to a major change in temperament. In the funeral of Empress Fucha, a large number of officials were deposed due to the grief and irritability of the Qianlong Emperor, and even several princes were judged by Qianlong to be "unsustainable unification" because they had no sincerity in their admiration for Empress Fucha.
After Empress Fucha's death, the polite and gentle Qianlong Emperor disappeared without a trace, and what remained was a harsh emperor with a violent temperament.
It can be seen that the influence of Empress Fucha on Qianlong is really great, Qianlong created more than 40,000 poems "without back" in his lifetime, has always relied on the history lovers to ridicule Qianlong's stems, poetry is really garbage, but there are indeed a few true feelings revealed, yes, it is about Empress Fucha, from the perspective of love, Qianlong is a very qualified male protagonist, and even after the death of Empress Fucha, every year to go to fucha's grave to sit for a while.
Shakespeare said, "A thousand Hamlets are in the hearts of a thousand readers." "Everyone understands and thinks differently, and the resulting understanding is also different. Therefore, for what kind of person the Qianlong Emperor is, everyone will have their own cognition in their hearts.
Of course, I still think that these do not fully represent Qianlong as a person, Qianlong's label is the ruler of the Qing Dynasty, and the evaluation of this task is not to see how he affects the people he loves, but what kind of impact he has on the whole society.
What were the exploits of Qianlong, who called himself the "Ten Perfect Old Men", during his reign?
The Qianlong Emperor ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five and reigned for a total of sixty years, but he actually held power for sixty-three years, and was a very outstanding emperor, and indeed made great achievements during his reign.
Qianlong also spoke highly of himself, calling himself the "Ten Perfection Old Man", which means that he has the ten perfections, which means that PingzunGar is two, Dinghui is one, Sweeping Jinchuan is two, Jingtai is one, Burma is descended, Andan is one each, that is, the second time he has been surrendered by Gorkha, combined into ten.
To put it simply, from the early days of Qianlong's ascension to the throne, he was sweeping away the threats around the Qing Dynasty in order to ensure national stability, and he first promoted the "return of land to the stream" in ethnic minority areas such as Xiang and Qian, abolished the toast system, and activated the system of exile officials, which solved the problem of excessive power of toast and contempt for imperial power.
Immediately afterwards, the civil unrest in the Dzungars was quelled and the forces of Choros Dawazi were swept away. Not long after, the great and small he Zhuo, who had originally submitted to the Qing Dynasty, led 100,000 people to rebel against the Qing court, and also controlled the southern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, and Qianlong sent troops to the southern Xinjiang area to quell the rebellion, successfully suppressed the rebels, and brought back the corpses of The Great and Small and Zhuo, ensuring the stability of the southern Xinjiang region.
Not only is the military Qianlong well managed, but also attaches great importance to agriculture. He encouraged the people to cultivate land, and also changed the normal state of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, began to encourage commercial development, and gave some preferential treatment to commercial activities, and a large number of silver trumpets and businesses appeared. Coupled with the fact that many high-yielding grains from other regions entered, the people were able to eat enough, so the population surged.
It should be known that in ancient times, the number of people was an important factor that determined the strength of the country, which also made the national strength of the Qing Dynasty reach its peak during the Qianlong period.
Of course, many of the contents of this have the suspicion of Qianlong's boasting, in fact, it is not as great as written in the book, many of them are still numbered, and Qianlong in his later years obviously has some good and great achievements.
Qianlong has performed so many feats, why do some people think that he is the first sinner in the ages?
Although Qianlong called himself the "Ten Perfection Old Man" and felt that he had done a lot of meritorious things, there were indeed many criticisms during his reign.
For example, Daxing character prison. Although the word prison was not founded by Qianlong, in the hands of Qianlong, the word prison has indeed reached its peak. During the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, the government was harsh, and he often used the literal prison to achieve his ruling goals.
Yongzheng is vigorously practicing the New Deal, and if he wants to make achievements, he must first settle down some stubborn intellectuals, and the literal prison is Yongzheng's more effective "political tool."
At the beginning of Qianlong's succession, in view of the harsh government of Yongzheng, he wanted to be an inclusive emperor like Kangxi in his later years, so he adopted a more moderate approach to governance, and the literal prison incident basically did not appear, and he was very lenient to officials.
However, this kind of rebellion against the Yongzheng Emperor's governing program soon gave Qianlong a glimpse of the "inferiority" of officials, resulting in corrupt officials everywhere and many attacks on him by public opinion.
In the fifteenth year of Qianlong, the occurrence of the "five incomprehensible, ten major transgressions" incident really angered the Qianlong Emperor. Some people pretended to be the draft of the imperial court officials and wrote out five incomprehensible and ten major transgressions, pointing out that the Qianlong Emperor was arrogant and lascivious, wantonly killed meritorious heroes, labored and hurt the people's wealth, and other faults. After that, it was the wrath of the Son of Heaven who ordered a search for the first rebel.
During the Qianlong period, the number of literary prison incidents was as high as one hundred and forty times, not only many people were implicated and lost their names, but also led to the destruction of many types of books during the Qianlong period.
This is why the Qianlong Emperor praised him so much, because the readers at that time were frightened by him, and even dared to say that he was not good at all.
In addition to the ideological confinement of the literal prison, the Qianlong Emperor disregarded the general trend of the world and continued to strengthen the policy of closing the country to a closed door, and although the policy of closing the country to a certain extent was conducive to the self-protection of the nation, the harm it brought was also very far-reaching, first of all, it led to The development of China's science and culture far behind the West, self-isolation, and isolation from the world, and finally caused the result of backwardness and beating.
It can be said that the Qing Dynasty under Qianlong was an era that was disconnected from the rapidly developing world, so it is not unfounded to say that he was the first sinner in the ages.