The Yongzheng Emperor was the third emperor after the Qing Dynasty entered the capital of Beijing, reigned for 13 years, 13 years of reign, among the ancient emperors is not long, but by no means short, because emperors who reigned for a short time abound, far from it, the Ming Dynasty before the Qing Dynasty, there were October Tianzi Mingrenzong Zhu Gaozhi who reigned for only ten months, and Zhu Changluo, the January Tianzi Mingguangzong who reigned for barely a month, and further afield, there are even shorter, the late Jin Emperor Yan Chenglin died in battle after reigning for less than a day, as for the emperors who reigned for only a few years Therefore, like the Yongzheng Emperor, who reigned for more than ten years, it is by no means a short reign.
But today when we mention the Yongzheng Emperor, we generally think that his reign is very short, and even Song Anzhi once thought so, but if you think about it carefully, the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor is not short, and it is just right and lucky, first of all, why he is considered to have a short reign, there are mainly the following two reasons.
First, the Yongzheng Emperor was sandwiched between two emperors with a long standby time, before the Kangxi Emperor, who reigned for the longest time in Chinese history, who reigned for 61 years, and then there was the Qianlong Emperor, who actually reigned for the longest time, who reigned for 60 years, and after the Zen throne, he became the Emperor Taishang and actually held the highest power for 3 years, which was equivalent to the actual reign of up to 63 years.
In such a comparison, the 13 years of the Reign of the Yongzheng Emperor are indeed not enough to see, the upper is not better than the father, the lower is not than the son, and the gap is huge.
Second, of course, the most critical reason, the Yongzheng Emperor during his reign carried out a series of reforms, and quite effective, in the Kang Yongqian prosperous era played an important role in carrying forward the upper and lower levels, if he did not clean up the shortcomings left by the Kangxi Emperor in the last years, lay a solid foundation for the Qianlong Emperor, with the Qianlong Emperor's good and great achievements, the Qing Dynasty will definitely decline faster, and even immediately decline.
To make a simple analogy, for people who have the courage to do things, can make achievements and contribute, the public likes this kind of person, all feel that this kind of person lives as long as possible, can change more, can have better results, on the contrary, if someone has nothing to do every day to eat and lazy, let alone live 50 years old, is to live thirty or forty years old, many people will feel that this kind of person is redundant, is living too long.
It is obvious that the Yongzheng Emperor belongs to the kind of person who has the courage to act, so although the 13-year reign is not short, it always gives people the feeling that the time is too short, especially the Qianlong Emperor who is still a loser in the back of the 63-year reign, which is even more lamentable, if the reign time of the father and son is reversed, then with the yongzheng Emperor's behavior, the Qing Dynasty is likely to have a better direction, presumably this is also the idea of those who think that the Yongzheng Emperor reigned for a short time.
Finally, objectively speaking, in fact, the Yongzheng Emperor's 13-year reign is also a kind of luck, which can be said to be just right.
First, throughout the ancient emperors, there were many emperors who worked hard to rule, but they insisted on making great efforts to rule for decades, and they were not deceived, and the emperors who were not old and confused could be said to be very few, or even none.
Either like Emperor Wu of Liang and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, he tried hard to govern in the early days of his reign, but he was tired of government in the middle of the way, or he was sluggish in political affairs and delegated power to the hands of traitors, which eventually led to a catastrophe.
Or like Emperor Wu of Han, although he was not tired of the government, he was somewhat old and confused, blinded by the traitors, and turned against his son Liu Zhao, and finally Liu Zhao's death was simply a tragedy.
The Kangxi Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor were slightly better, but in their later years there were also problems of one kind or another, the Kangxi Emperor in his later years was brewing nine sons to seize concubines, and he was also sluggish in political affairs, and he was too lenient with his courtiers, resulting in corruption in the administration of officials; the Qianlong Emperor in his later years was a good and happy gong, the so-called perfect merit, which did have a positive side, but there were also some that were over-the-top and poor soldiers, increasing the cost of military expenses, as well as the rule of officials that had been vigorously rectified by the Yongzheng Emperor, and also because of the connivance of the Qianlong Emperor, they were corrupt again, and there were like the White Lotus Sect Uprising, although it broke out during the Jiaqing period. But in fact, it was brewed by hand during the Qianlong period, and broke out during the qianlong emperor's actual reign as emperor Taishang.
Therefore, if the Yongzheng Emperor reigned for a long time, whether he could persist in his efforts to rule to the end should be a big question mark.
Second, during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor, it was not a lenient politics, it can be said that it was a high-pressure politics, not to mention a series of reforms that offended the bureaucratic clique and the vested interest groups such as the readers at that time, and the longer such politics lasted, the more likely it was to be rebounded by vested interest groups.
Why in history, the implementation of the New Deal is often a failure, even if it is successful, but the implementers can not get a good end, like the Warring States period of the Shang Martingale Transformation Law, although successful, but fell into the defeat and death of the car split, and the Northern Song Dynasty's Wang Anshi, the change of law is not successful, not to say, although in today's evaluation is very high, but in the Northern Song Dynasty Wang Anshi's evaluation is not high, and even once was stigmatized, it is because they touched the interests of vested interest groups, so whether successful or unsuccessful, often the implementation of the New Deal is not good, Even the end is tragic.
The Yongzheng Emperor's successful implementation of the New Deal itself touched the interests of vested interest groups, in fact, he also sat on the stove, if he reigned for a long time, exceeding the bottom line of tolerance of vested interest groups that were violated by interests, then it would definitely break out in a coup and other ways, and it was likely that the name of the first generation would be destroyed.
Therefore, the Yongzheng Emperor's 13-year reign is actually just right, not only avoiding a long time, being old and confused, being deceived by people, and being tired of political affairs and no longer exerting efforts to govern, but also avoiding being eaten by vested interest groups that violate interests, from this point of view, this is also his luck!
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