The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, personal name Hongli, was the fifth emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. He reigned officially from 1735 until his abdication and retirement in 1796, but retained ultimate power subsequently until his death in 1799, making him one of history's longest-reigning and longest-lived monarchs.
The fourth and favourite son of the Yongzheng Emperor, Qianlong ascended the throne in 1735. A highly ambitious military leader, he led a series of campaigns into Inner Asia, Burma, Nepal and Vietnam and suppressed rebellions in Jinchuan and Taiwan. The most significant of the campaigns conquered Xinjiang from the Dzungar Khanate. He ordered the Dzungar genocide. He was given the honorific title Emperor Manjushri in Qing Tibet. Domestically, Qianlong was a major patron of the arts and a prolific writer. He sponsored the compilation of the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries), the largest collection ever made of Chinese history, and oversaw extensive literary inquisitions that suppressed some 3,100 works.
In 1796, Qianlong abdicated after a 60 year reign to allow his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, to remain the longest-reigning Qing emperor at 61 years. Even after being succeeded by his son, the Jiaqing Emperor, Qianlong continued to rule as Emperor Emeritus until dying in 1799 at the age of 87.
Qianlong ruled at the end of the High Qing era, the zenith of the dynasty's power, influence, and prosperity. At the same time, military weakness after constant warfare, endemic corruption, inefficiency in the imperial court and a stagnating civil society ushered in the gradual decline and ultimate demise of the Qing empire.
Early years
Hongli was the fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor and was born to Noble Consort Xi. Hongli was adored by both his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, and his father, the Yongzheng Emperor. Some historians argue that the main reason why the Kangxi Emperor appointed the Yongzheng Emperor as his successor was because Hongli was his favorite grandson.
After his father's enthronement in 1722, Hongli was made a qinwang (first-rank prince) under the title "Prince Bao of the First Rank" (). Like his many uncles, Hongli entered into a battle of succession with his elder half-brother Hongshi, who had the support of a large faction of officials in the imperial court as well as Yunsi, Prince Lian. For many years, the Yongzheng Emperor did not designate any of his sons as the crown prince, but many officials speculated that he favoured Hongli. Hongli went on inspection trips to the south and was an able negotiator and enforcer. He was also appointed as the chief regent on occasions when his father was away from the capital.
Accession to the throne
Hongli's accession to the throne was already foreseen before he was officially proclaimed emperor before the assembled imperial court upon the death of the Yongzheng Emperor. The young Hongli was the favorite grandson of the Kangxi Emperor and the favorite son of the Yongzheng Emperor; the Yongzheng Emperor had entrusted a number of important ritual tasks to Hongli while the latter was still a prince, and included him in important court discussions of military strategy. In the hope of preventing a succession struggle from occurring, the Yongzheng Emperor wrote the name of his chosen successor on a piece of paper and placed it in a sealed box secured behind the tablet over the throne in the Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing Palace). The name in the box was to be revealed to other members of the imperial family in the presence of all senior ministers only upon the death of the emperor. When the Yongzheng Emperor died suddenly in 1735, the will was taken out and read before the entire Qing imperial court, after which Hongli became the new emperor. Hongli adopted the era name "Qianlong", which means "Lasting Eminence".
In 1739, the Prince Hongxi (son of Kangxi's deposed crown prince, Yunreng) plotted a coup with five other princes to overthrow Qianlong and replace him with Hongxi. They planned to initiate their coup during an imperial hunt on the Mulan hunting grounds. Hongxi was proclaimed Emperor, but the plot was exposed by Prince Hongpu and the princes were arrested. The rebels were tried; the most prominent conspirators were imprisoned, while lessor offenders were stripped of their titles or demoted. In 1778, the Qianlong Emperor restored the original names to Yunsi, Yuntang, and Hongxi and allowed their descendants to be recorded in the imperial genealogy. However, the emperor did not revoke the decrees depriving those princes of their titles. In 1783, when the imperial chronicles were commissioned, the historians were ordered to emphasise the role of the emperor in quelling the rebellion and to mention that "Hongxi and others wanted to usurp the throne".
Frontier wars
The Qianlong Emperor's military record was mixed. Immediately after ascending the throne, he sent armies to suppress the Miao rebellion. He greatly expanded the territory controlled by the Qing Empire through the Ten Great Campaigns. The Qing empire expanded to twice the size of the prior Ming state, incorporating vast swathes of Inner Asia into its domain. Some scholars consider Qing expansionism to be colonial in nature.Millward 2024 Teng, Emma Jinhua (2006). Taiwan"s Imagined Geography, Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683–1895. Harvard University Press.
Under the Qianlong Emperor's reign, the Dzungar Khanate based in Dzungharia was defeated by the Qing state as the climax of the Dzungar–Qing Wars. The Qing state would subsequently conquer the neighbouring Turkic oasis states of the Tarim basin as a byproduct of said conflict.Perdue, Peter C. (2005). China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. . The two regions of Dzungharia and the Tarim basin, which historically were separate geographies and cultures, would be conjoined and renamed as Xinjiang, while to the west, Ili was conquered and garrisoned.
The incorporation of Xinjiang into the Qing Empire resulted from the final defeat and destruction of the Dzungars (or Zunghars), a coalition of Western Mongol tribes. The Qianlong Emperor then ordered the Dzungar genocide. According to the Qing dynasty scholar Wei Yuan, 40% of the 600,000 Dzungars were killed by smallpox, 20% fled to the Russian Empire or Kazakh tribes, and 30% were killed by the Qing army, in what Michael Edmund Clarke described as "the complete destruction of not only the Zunghar state but of the Zunghars as a people".. Historian Peter Perdue has argued that the decimation of the Dzungars was the result of an explicit policy of genocide launched by the Qianlong Emperor..
The Dzungar genocide has been compared to the Qing extermination of the Jinchuan Tibetan people in 1776, which also occurred during the Qianlong Emperor's reign. When victorious troops returned to Beijing, a celebratory hymn was sung in their honour. A Manchu version of the hymn was recorded by the Jesuit Amiot and sent to Paris.
The Qing Empire hired Zhao Yi and Jiang Yongzhi at the Military Archives Office, in their capacity as members of the Hanlin Academy, to compile works on the Dzungar campaign, such as Strategy for the pacification of the Dzungars (Pingding Zhunge'er fanglue). Poems glorifying the Qing conquest and genocide of the Dzungar Mongols were written by Zhao, who wrote the in "brush-notes" style, where military expenditures of the Qianlong Emperor's reign were recorded. The Qianlong Emperor was praised as being the source of "eighteenth-century peace and prosperity" by Zhao Yi.
Khalkha Mongol rebels under Prince Chingünjav had plotted with the Dzungar leader Amursana and led a rebellion against the Qing Empire around the same time as the Dzungars. The Qing army crushed the rebellion and executed Chingünjav and his entire family.
Throughout this period there were continued Mongol interventions in Tibet and a reciprocal spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia. After the Lhasa riot of 1750, the Qianlong Emperor sent armies into Tibet and firmly established the Dalai Lama as the ruler of Tibet, with a Qing resident and garrison to preserve Qing presence. Further afield, military campaigns against Nepalese and Gurkhas forced the emperor into stalemate where both parties had to submit.
On 23 January 1751, Tibetan rebels who participated in the Lhasa riot of 1750 against the Qing were sliced to death by Qing Manchu general Bandi, similar to what happened to Tibetan rebels on 1 November 1728 during his father, the Yongzheng Emperor's reign. Six Tibetan rebel leaders plus Tibetan rebel leader Blo-bzan-bkra-sis were sliced to death. The rest of the Tibetan rebel leaders were strangled and beheaded and their heads were displayed to the Tibetan public on poles. The Qing seized the property of the rebels and exiled other Tibetan rebels. Manchu General Bandi sent a report to the Qing Qianlong emperor on 26 January 1751 on how he carried out the slicings and executions of the Tibetan rebels. The Tibetan rebels dBan-rgyas (Wang-chieh), Padma-sku-rje-c'os-a['el (Pa-t'e-ma-ku-erh-chi-ch'un-p'i-lo) and Tarqan Yasor (Ta-erh-han Ya-hsün) were sliced to death for injuring the Manchu ambans with arrows, bows and fowling pieces during the Lhasa riot when they assaulted the building the Manchu ambans (Labdon and Fucin) were in. Tibetan rebel Sacan Hasiha (Ch'e-ch'en-ha-shih-ha) was sliced to death for murder of multiple individuals. Tibetan rebels Ch'ui-mu-cha-t'e and Rab-brtan (A-la-pu-tan) were sliced to death for looting money and setting fire during the attack on the Ambans. Tibetan rebel Blo-bzan-bkra-sis, the mgron-gner was sliced to death for being the overall leader of the rebels who led the attack which looted money and killed the Manchu ambans. Two Tibetan rebels who had already died before the execution had their dead bodies beheaded, one died in jail, Lag-mgon-po (La-k'o-kun-pu) and the other killed himself since he was scared of the punishment, Pei-lung-sha-k'o-pa. Bandi sentenced to strangulation several rebel followers and bKra-sis-rab-brtan (Cha-shih-la-pu-tan) a messenger. He ordered the live beheadings of Man-chin Te-shih-nai and rDson-dpon dBan-rgyal (Ts'eng-pen Wang-cha-lo and P'yag-mdsod-pa Lha-skyabs (Shang-cho-t'e-pa La-cha-pu) for leading the attack on the building by being the first to go to on the staircase to the next floor and setting fire and carrying the straw to fuel the fire besides killing several men on orders from the rebel leader.
In 1762 the Qianlong Emperor came close to war with the Afghan Emir Ahmad Shah Durrani because of Qing China's expansions in Central Asia. While Qing and Durrani Empire troops were sent near the frontier in Central Asia, war did not break out. A year later, Durrani sent an envoy to Beijing gifting four splendid horses to Qianlong, which became the subject of a series of paintings, Four Afghan Steeds. However, the Afghan envoy failed to make a good impression to Qianlong after refusing to perform the kowtow. Qianlong later refused to intervene in the Durrani Empire's killing of the Sultan of Badakhshan, who was a vassal of Qing China.