The Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-1735)

The Yongzheng Emperor , or Aisin Gioro Yinzhen, was born on the thirtieth day of the tenth lunar month of 1678, the seventeenth year of the Kangxi reign. The fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor, he was born by Lady Uya, the Empress Xiaogong. Yinzhen was first raised to the position of “beile” (third-class prince) in the thirty-seventh year of the Kangxi reign (1698), and then in 1709 to “Yong the First-class Prince” (forty-eighth year). During this period of time, for the purpose of being chosen as the heir-apparent, princes built cliques around themselves bringing intense factional strife. Despite an inherent aloofness, Yinzhen never separated himself from court politics. On the one hand, he showed sincere filial piety to the Kangxi Emperor to gain imperial favor, but on the other hand, he cultivated members of the Manchu and Chinese elite in the capital whose friendships proved useful in the final struggle for the throne. 

  The Kangxi Emperor died in the chilly winter of the sixty-first year of his reign (1722). Yinzhen relied on the military escort led by his trusted subject Nian Gengyao (1679-1725), the Governor-general of Sichuan province, and on his relationship with Longkedo, the President of Court of Colonial Affairs. It was Longkedo who was at the bedside of the dying Kangxi Emperor and announced the imperial choice of sons – the fourth imperial son – to succeed as emperor. Yinzhen ascended the throne, and the following year, changed the reign name to “Yongzheng”. 

  During the early years of the Yongzheng period, those who lost in the struggle for the throne, led by the eighth imperial prince Yinsi, were not reconciled to Yinzhen’s succession. As an act of vengeance, they circulated rumors that the Yongzheng Emperor had forged his father’s will by changing the Chinese character for the number “fourteen” (shisi) as in “the fourteenth son” to “the fourth” (yu si). To fortify his newly gained authority, the Yongzheng Emperor eliminated princely cliques either by depriving them of powers or by putting them under confinement. To demonstrate his legitimacy of succession, he commissioned an extremely grand funeral for the late Kangxi Emperor and buried him in the Jing Mausoleum as the first ruler of the Manchu Qing dynasty to be buried in the ground rather than cremated. Claiming that mentally he could not afford to move anything that his father had used, the Yongzheng Emperor relocated the place where the Qing emperors dealt with state affairs from the Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing gong) to the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yangxin dian). Thereafter, the latter served as the virtual political center of the Qing empire. After taking the throne, the Yongzheng Emperor eliminated his enemies in the succession struggle. He even showed no mercy on Nian Gengyao and Longkedo, who had done much to help in securing his rulership. Both of them were tried for the crime of “arrogant out of past accomplishments and contemptuous of imperial power”. With their private properties confiscated, they were impeached, transferred, exiled, and finally sentenced to death.   

  The thirteen-year-long Yongzheng reign saw the modification of the Qing court bureaucratic structure and the personnel administration to ensure efficiency and probity of administration. In particular, he commissioned the reform called “changing the tusi (native chieftainships) to appointed officials” (gaitu guiliu) as a way to re-organize the governing pattern in southwestern border regions where non-Chinese native peoples constituted the majority. He also regularized surcharges to cover costs when raw silver received in tax payments was melted down and cast into bullion ingots for transport to thecapital, an implicit way for individual local official to profit. From the regularized surcharges, the Yongzheng Emperor supplied a sum of money to pay “bonuses to encourage incorruptibility” (yanglian yin) to compensate for the low official salaries which they could barely survived on. 

  In the seventh year of the Yongzheng reign (1729), the Emperor placed Nian Gengyao in command of the forces to put down the uprising of the Khoshote-Mongols under Lobzhan Dandzin in today’s Qinghai province. After the victory, to improve the efficiency of transference of military intelligence, the Yongzheng Emperor established the Council of Military Intelligence (Junji chu), whose office was located inside the Gate of Thriving Imperial Clan (Longzong men) in the Forbidden City, only a hundred steps away from his office - the Hall of Mental Cultivation. He formed the perpetuating power-centralization pattern under which the emperor or the empress dowager personally controlled military and political governance. 

  Drawing the bitter lesson from the cruel succession struggle in late years of the Kangxi reign, the Yongzheng Emperor modified the Manchu inheritance practice, which was called “secret designation”. None of the emperor’s sons was shown favor in education or grooming for the throne. Rather than openly designate an heir-apparent, the emperor concealed the name of his chosen successor in a locked box kept behind the tablet “Upright and Clearly Illuminated” (Zhengda guangming) in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.  Only upon the Yongzheng Emperor’s death was its contents revealed. The practice was instrumental in the orderly transition of imperial power in the following periods of the Qing dynasty. 

  The Yongzheng Emperor died on the twenty-third day of the eighth lunar month of 1735, at the Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuanming yuan). He died of an overdose of the longevity medications formulated by Daoist priests he patronized. His temple name is “Shizong” (Clan Ancestor). He is buried in the Peace (tai) Tomb, Western Qing Tombs, Yi county, Hebei province.