The Qianlong Emperor's reign in his lifetime created many historical maxims, among which the economic culture of China's feudal dynasty was pushed to the top, which is a side of him worthy of recognition by future generations.
In the early years of Qianlong, in order to ease the tense political atmosphere, adjust contradictions, and improve relations in various fields, he also made major changes and adjustments to Yongzheng's policy.
In the poems of the Qianlong Emperor in his later years, it was also said that "government should be lenient and fierce", but on most occasions, leniency and strictness were always mentioned at the same time, and the two were regarded as different from time to time and complementing each other, "leniency with prosperity, strictness with leniency, and government with peace", which Qianlong identified as the only way to rule.
However, the Qianlong Emperor was also one of the most criticized feudal emperors by posterity, and he actively expanded to create glory, but also destroyed the glory because of Yelang's arrogance and resting on his laurels.
Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty loved Xinjuelo Hongli (September 25, 1711 - February 7, 1799), the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the master of Changchun and Xintian, the late son of ancient heaven and the old man of Shiquan. The year name "Qianlong" means "Heavenly Dao Changlong". He reigned for 60 years, trained for three years after the Zen throne, and actually exercised supreme power for 63 years and 4 months, making him the emperor who actually held the highest power in the country for the longest time in Chinese history, and the longest-lived emperor.
Hongli was a famous emperor in Chinese feudal society. During his reign, the Qing Dynasty reached its highest peak since the Kang Qian dynasty, and on the basis of the martial arts of the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, he further completed the unification of the multi-ethnic country, and further developed its socio-economic culture.
Hongli attached great importance to social stability, cared for the people, and exempted the world's money and grain five times, and exempted eight provinces from grain three times, which reduced the burden on peasants and played a role in protecting agricultural production, making the Qing Dynasty's treasury increasingly enriched.
Hongli made great achievements in quelling the rebellion in the border areas, perfected his rule over Tibet, and once again incorporated Xinjiang into the Chinese territory, thus maximizing the territory of the Qing Dynasty, and officially laying the territory of modern China.
However, in the later period, the rule of the officials was corrupted, and uprisings broke out in many places. Strictly resist the aggressive actions of Britain and Russia, and reject the unreasonable demands of trade and sovereignty made by the British Macartney Mission. But at this time, the gap between China and the West also widened, and China was on the eve of modern times.
Speaking of the closed country during the Qianlong period, we can't help but ask why the Qianlong Emperor closed the country?
After Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty began to implement a comprehensive policy of closing the country to the country, at first it was four ports for trade, and later only opened Guangzhou to foreign trade, and the thirteen lines monopolized its import and export trade, and there were many restrictions on the types of exported goods.
Isolation from the country refers to a national policy of being closed off from the outside world, which is typical isolationism. Strictly restrict foreign economic, cultural, scientific and other exchanges. The idea that China practiced a policy of "self-isolation" or "isolation from the country" in the early Qing Dynasty stemmed from British merchants who tried to market their goods, especially opium, to China.
In the 22nd year of Qianlong (1757), the Qianlong Emperor decreed that Western merchants could only trade in Guangdong on the grounds that foreign merchants were regulated by the coastal defense area.
But in fact, some Western colonists in Nanyang at that time were still allowed to trade with Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu customs, especially Fujian customs.
For example, in the forty-sixth (1781), forty-eighth (1783), fifty-first (1786) years of Qianlong, and the twelfth year of Jiaqing (1807), and fourteen years (1809), Spanish merchants traded from Luzon in Nanyang to Xiamen.
In foreign trade, the Qing government also implemented the commercial bank system, that is, the Guangzhou Thirteen Banks, to monopolize. The Qing government allowed only a few wealthy businessmen to set up "public banks" to engage in import and export trade with foreign businessmen and negotiate with foreign businessmen on behalf of the Qing government.
Guangzhou 13 Lines was a dental company specializing in foreign trade in the Qing Dynasty, and was a monopoly institution designated by the Qing government to specialize in foreign trade. During the period of "one-mouth trade", the development of the "Thirteen Elements" reached its peak, becoming the "Son of Heaven Nanku", and had direct trade relations with major countries in Asia, Europe and the United States.
After the "one-mouth trade", in the twenty-fourth year of Qianlong (1759), Li Gongyao, the governor of Liangguang, promulgated five articles of the "Regulations on the Prevention of Foreign Destruction", and in the 14th year of Jiaqing (1809) and the fifteenth year of Daoguang (1835), the "Regulations for the Trade of Minyi" and the "Eight Articles of Defense" were promulgated respectively.
The main contents are: (1) Do not allow Yi people to spend the winter in Guangzhou. (2) Yi people can only live in various merchant halls in Guangzhou, and if the houses of the merchants are not enough, the merchants will rent the houses and assign people to guard them. No traitors are allowed to enter or leave the Yi Pavilion. It is not necessary to order the people of Panjiao to go out and wander, and if the merchants have to travel, they must be bound by the general affairs and merchants. In the last years of Qianlong, he was allowed to visit the Chen Family Garden (later changed to a flower field) and Haitong Temple three times a month, but he had to accompany him on business. (3) It is forbidden for inland residents to borrow capital from abroad. (4) It is forbidden to hire people from the Interior to transmit information for them. (5) Dispatch troops to strengthen inspections at the entrance of foreign ships, and only after they are exported can they be withdrawn. It is also strictly forbidden to enter the Chinese mainland, and the Yi people are not allowed to bring Fanwu and Sentinel to the province, and the Yi merchants are not allowed to carry more than five Fanjiao. It is forbidden to bring murderous firearms to the province, smuggle guns and guns, buy or sell prohibited goods, travel in sedans, hire Chinese envoys privately, limit the number of people employed in commercial halls, and prohibit direct contact with Chinese businessmen other than those who trade.
There are also strict management measures for Chinese businessmen and citizens to trade overseas. For example, it is required to register merchants and citizens going to sea, obtain a guarantee bond, receive a ship guide (ticket, license) and waist plate, indicating the ship's ruler, the name of the merchant, the age of the person on the ship, the place of origin, the reason for going to sea, what goods to carry, trade to a certain place, date of return and return, etc. Merchants and people who have gone to sea are required to return on time, and those who fail to return in time are punished or restricted from returning.
Before the Opium War, the total tonnage of ships of the two seafaring powers, the United States and Britain, was once inferior to that of the Qing Dynasty, when the total number of merchant ships along China's coast was between 9,000 and nearly 10,000, or about 1.5 million tons. Together with other types of ships, there are more than 200,000 large and small river and sea ships in the country, totaling more than 4 million tons. In 1814, there were more than 21,500 ships of all sizes in Britain, totaling 2.4 million tons; The United States had 1.35 million tons of ships in the country in 1809.
Six Xia Jiangnan consumed the country's manpower and material resources, and corruption began to prevail again
After middle age, the Qianlong Emperor gradually rejoiced, not only built a large number of civil works, but also consumed the country's manpower and material resources in the south of the Jiangxia River, corruption began to prevail again, and the entire Qing Dynasty also turned from prosperity to decline in the late Qianlong period. The life of the Qianlong Emperor himself was extremely luxurious, and he toured various places many times, touring the mountains and rivers. He built a lot of construction and squandered it arbitrarily, spending a lot of national money. On the 80th birthday of the Empress Dowager and the 80th birthday of the Qianlong Emperor himself, the "Jingshi Grandmaster Ceremony was prosperous", which was more than the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager. Big bureaucrats, big landowners, big businessmen rushed to follow suit.
After the middle of the Qianlong period, the high concentration of land and cruel feudal exploitation forced the vast number of peasants to a corner. In sharp contrast to the vast number of peasants, who were crying out for hunger and had nothing to live on, the feudal rulers lived in extreme luxury, drunken dreams and death. The corruption of feudal rule heralded the decline of the imperial dynasty. The corruption and decline of feudal rule intensified class and ethnic contradictions in the country, and after the end of the Qianlong Dynasty, the fire of peasant uprisings quickly spread throughout the country.
Epilogue:
As a decision-maker and even an advocate of the closed country, the Qianlong Emperor was rightly criticized by posterity. Facts have proved that the isolation of the country has brought completely negative effects to the Qing Dynasty.
In order to control the minds of the people, the Qing government had to implement a policy of "closing off the country". The Qianlong Emperor could not abandon his own rivers and mountains for economic development, and maintaining the rule of the Qing government was the primary goal. Economic development was insignificant in the face of maintaining the rule of the feudal dynasty, and for the Qianlong Emperor, the policy of "closing off the country" was imperative.