A long life is a good wish, and almost everyone hopes that they or the people around them can live a long life.
But how many people can really live a long life?
Of course, longevity is not always a good thing, especially in ancient societies, and for a country, the longevity of a monarch was likely to lead the country's development astray.
This assertion is not imaginary, but has a factual basis.
For example, King Wei Hui, who lived for 81 years during the Warring States Period, became the first hegemon of the Warring States after the hard work of his grandfather Wei Wenhou and his father Wei Wuhou, but he forcibly brought Wei into a third-rate small country.
Another example is King Qin Zhaoxiang, who lived to be 74 years old, Qin did establish the strength to dominate the world under his rule, but if he hadn't lived for so long, and there were frequent wrong decisions in his later years, wouldn't it be the turn of the unifying six countries to win the government?
Speaking of which, some people may ask, do all older monarchs be confused in their old age?
Of course not, but most of the cases are like this, after all, as human beings get older, their memory will deteriorate, and their mental state will be bad, which will lead to errors in judgment when making decisions, which will affect the direction of the country.
This is also the disadvantage of the rule of man during the feudal imperial period.
This phenomenon was even more obvious in the Qing Dynasty, because when the industrial revolution was being vigorously carried out in Western countries, the Qing Dynasty successively appeared two super-long-lived emperors, Kangxi and Qianlong.
Kangxi lived for 69 years, Qianlong lived for 89 years, and Qianlong was Kangxi's grandson.
In order to make the story of the grandfather and grandson more legendary, there has always been a "legend" - Kangxi saw 10-year-old Qianlong for the first time and was so shocked that he put down his wine glass.
Two
Kangxi was so shocked that he put down the wine glass, which was passed down by later generations to be very magical, and even like it was clearly recorded in the official history, in order to match the status and identity of these two monarchs, multiple versions were derived.
But before we talk about these versions, we have to explain the background of this incident.
We have already mentioned above that Qianlong is the grandson of Kangxi, and there is also a short-lived emperor between these two long-lived monarchs, he is Yongzheng, who reigned for only 13 years.
It is precisely because of his short reign that when later generations talk about the prosperous era of Kangqian, they can't think of this benevolent brother at all.
But it can be said unceremoniously that if there was no Yongzheng, the Kangqian prosperous era would not have appeared at all, even if it was only a false prosperous era.
Kangxi lived a long time, and in the later years of his reign, various contradictions had emerged in the Qing government.
In order to stabilize his power, Kangxi suppressed his son again and again, so that the famous incident of nine sons seizing the heir broke out, father and son discord, brothers killed each other, this is the most appropriate description of the later period of Emperor Kangxi's reign.
Kangxi is very wary of all his sons, for fear that if he is not careful, his power will be snatched away, even for Yongzheng, who succeeded to the throne later, Kangxi does not like it, and even has been circulating that Yongzheng is not in the right position.
It doesn't matter whether Kangxi likes Yongzheng or not, the important thing is that Kangxi met his grandson, the future Qianlong, when he summoned Yongzheng once.
Three
In the spring of Kangxi's 60th year, Yongzheng invited his father to go to the Old Summer Palace to enjoy peonies.
It's just that Kangxi didn't expect that this would be the last time he would see peonies in his life.
Yongzheng also did not expect that the trajectory of his life would change.
And Qianlong, who was still a 10-year-old child at the time, didn't expect that he would be able to see his own grandfather in his lifetime.
Speaking of which, some people may want to say, isn't this, could it be that Qianlong has lived for 10 years and has never seen his grandfather?
The answer is, I haven't seen it.
Qianlong has not been abducted, he has been in Beijing, as his own grandfather, Kangxi, has not seen his own grandson for 10 years, do you think it is incredible?
But that's just the way it is.
Kangxi has lived a long time, his body is great, he eats well, and there are many harem concubines, Kangxi's sons have a total of 35 people, if you add her daughter, this number is estimated to be doubled.
When Kangxi's sons grow up, they will also marry wives and have children, of course, they don't usually give birth to one, because at that time, they didn't know what the four words family planning represented.
So how many grandsons did these sons give birth to Kangxi?
According to incomplete statistics, it is 97, not counting granddaughters.
If you calculate according to this number, Kangxi sees one grandson every day, and it takes more than three months to see all these grandchildren.
It is precisely because there are too many grandsons, even if they are relatives of the next generation, Kangxi can't kiss his grandsons at all, let alone spend time and trouble summoning and educating them, so Qianlong lived for 10 years and didn't see his grandfather, which is completely reasonable.
Four
Kangxi arrived at the Old Summer Palace as promised, and Yongzheng began to offer all kinds of courtesies, with all kinds of wine and delicacies, but there were too few topics to talk about between father and son.
In order to alleviate the embarrassment and increase the weight of his succession, Yongzheng moved out of his son, Yongzheng said:
Father, your two grandsons are very good, but they haven't had a chance to meet Long Yan yet.
Kangxi, who was on the rise, didn't think about it, so he replied:
I've heard the two of them mentioned by others, it's better to choose a day than to hit the day, so let the two of them come out and let me see.
The next exciting part is to appear.
And Kangxi was so shocked by Qianlong that he put down his wine glass, and he was about to make his debut.
This matter has been greatly exaggerated by later generations, which perfectly highlights the fact that after Yongzheng, Qianlong will become the emperor, and some people even say that the reason why Kangxi passed the throne to Yongzheng is precisely because he met the future Qianlong this time.
Not to mention, it's really true, so is there such a thing?
We continue to analyze.
Five
Let's take a look at the two explanations of this matter.
One of them: It is said that Qianlong and his younger brother Hongday, happily went to see their grandfather, just walked in front of Kangxi, and suddenly the clear sky turned into dark clouds, and then there was a thunderstorm, which scared Kangxi into a stagger, and the wine glass in his hand that was about to drink was immediately placed on the table.
Second: Although Qianlong was only 10 years old at the time, he was already extraordinary, and he directly calmed Kangxi, and the wine glass he was holding was also put on the table.
I have to say that these two explanations are really unconvincing, but they can't stand the scrutiny of facts at all.
First, Kangxi at that time had been the emperor for sixty years, what kind of formation had he not seen, what kind of person had not seen it, and he could still be surprised by a child?
Second, even if Qianlong was extraordinary, he was just a child at that time, and even if Kangxi became a fine, he could not conclude that he would become the emperor of the Qing Dynasty in the future.
So we can basically conclude that this matter was made up by Ye Shi, if Kangxi Quanxia knew about it, he would definitely say it unceremoniously, and Ye Shi would be nonsense.
So what's going on here?
Six
The fact that Kangxi put down the wine glass when he saw Qianlong was not necessarily made up, but Kangxi should not have been shocked at the time, and putting down the wine glass was also a normal action.
We all know that it's normal to drink with a wine glass, but have you ever seen a wine glass all the time when you drink?
Anyway, I haven't seen it, after drinking, put down the wine glass, and only drink a glass when it is full, otherwise he will not be tired if he keeps holding the wine glass and not putting it down?
Therefore, there is no fuss about this matter, I think Qianlong surprised Kangxi's friends, so let's wash and sleep.
However, one thing is certain, that is, after Kangxi saw Qianlong, he really liked this grandson very much, and the "Qing Historical Manuscript Gaozong Benji" recorded it like this:
Long Zhun body, the Holy Ancestor saw and loved, so that in the study palace, he was studied in Shu Ji Shi Fumin, passed the eyes and recited, resumed learning to shoot in Baylor Yunxi, and learned firearms in Prince Zhuang Yunlu.
This means that after Kangxi saw Qianlong, he liked it very much, so he took him into the palace, and sometimes taught in person, and later followed Kangxi to the summer resort in Rehe.
In the last period of Kangxi's time, Qianlong was always by his side, and later Yongzheng was able to ascend the throne, so to speak, it was the child's Qianlong who added a lot of points to him.
It can be seen that sometimes there is a certain amount of truth in the next generation, of course, you have to have your own talents, it is undeniable that Qianlong is such an outstanding person.