Kangxi Emperor

Kangxi Emperor the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty of China (1654-1722), who reigned for sixty-one years and is counted among the most capable and long-lived rulers in Chinese history. He consolidated Manchu rule over China proper, suppressed rebellion and invasion, patronised learning and the arts, and laid the foundation for the long peace and prosperity of the high Qing.

Accession and the Regency

The Kangxi Emperor was born in 1654 as Xuanye, the third son of the Shunzhi emperor and of a consort of Manchu and Chinese descent. His father died in 1661 when Xuanye was seven, and the boy was enthroned under the regency of four appointed ministers. The most powerful of these, Oboi, soon dominated the government and governed in an autocratic and conservative manner that the young emperor came to resent.

In 1669, then sixteen, the emperor took the decisive step of arresting Oboi and assuming personal control of the state. This bold act ended the regency and established him as the real ruler of China. He was to exercise power in his own right for more than half a century, and his long reign allowed him to pursue consistent policies and to develop a deep familiarity with the business of government.

He was a serious and hard-working monarch. He rose early, studied the classics and the histories, and examined the memorials and reports that came from every part of the empire. He took an interest in mathematics, astronomy, calendar reform, cartography and the practical sciences, learning from the Jesuit missionaries at court, and he patronised scholarship on a scale that few rulers could match.

Consolidation of Manchu Rule

The greatest military crisis of the early reign was the revolt of the Three Feudatories, the powerful Chinese generals whose semi-independent domains in the south had been created at the time of the conquest. Beginning in 1673 with the rebellion of Wu Sangui, the revolt spread across much of southern and western China and threatened the survival of the dynasty. The emperor's firm conduct helped him win the long and exhausting struggle, and by 1681 the rebellion had been crushed.

The defeat of the feudatories was followed by the consolidation of Qing control over the south and the securing of the coast. In 1683 the emperor's forces captured Taiwan, ending the resistance of the Zheng regime that had held the island as a base for Ming loyalism. Attention then turned to the northern frontier, where the Russian advance in the Amur region led to conflict and eventually to a negotiated settlement that defined the border between the two empires.

In the north-west the emperor campaigned repeatedly against the Dzungar Mongols and their leader Galdan, whom he defeated in the 1690s. These campaigns extended Qing influence over Mongolia and prepared the way for the later incorporation of Tibet and Xinjiang. The emperor also worked to bind the Mongol and Tibetan elites to the dynasty through patronage of Buddhism and through marriage and diplomacy.

Government and Reform

The Kangxi Emperor was an energetic and pragmatic administrator. He reformed the tax system, moving toward the fixing of the land tax and the poll tax in ways that reduced the burden on the peasantry and improved the collection of revenue. He paid close attention to water control, above all to the management of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, on which the transport of grain from the south depended, and he made repeated inspection tours to the south to see conditions for himself.

He cultivated a working relationship with the Chinese scholar-officials while maintaining the separate identity and privileges of the Manchu nobility and the banner system. He issued the Sacred Edict, a set of moral maxims for the instruction of the people, and he promoted education, examinations and the compilation of official works. His reign saw the completion of great scholarly projects, including dictionaries and compilations of the classics and histories.

He was careful to present himself as a Confucian ruler in the Chinese mould, patronising the cult of Confucius and the ritual life of the empire, while also preserving the Manchu language, customs and military organisation. This dual character of the Qing monarchy, at once universal Chinese emperor and Manchu lord, was largely shaped by his example and sustained by his successors.

Learning, Religion and the Court

The emperor gathered around himself some of the finest scholars of the age and sponsored an ambitious programme of scholarship and publication. He commissioned the great dictionary of the Chinese language and the comprehensive compilations of literature and history that bear his reign name, works that fixed the classical tradition for later generations. His court became a centre of learning, and his interest in the calendar, mathematics and astronomy encouraged the exchange of knowledge between Chinese scholars and Jesuit missionaries.

His attitude toward the foreigners at court was complex. He valued the technical and scientific skills of the Jesuits and employed them in the mathematical and astronomical bureaux and in diplomatic and cartographic work, yet he kept them under careful control and resisted their religious influence. His successor would later restrict Christian activity, but the scientific and cartographic labours of the Kangxi reign remained a notable achievement.

He made six great inspection tours to the south, partly to oversee water control and administration and partly to display the imperial presence to the wealthy and cultured provinces. On these journeys he visited the sites of the past, examined the state of agriculture and industry, and cultivated the loyalty of the southern elites. His visits did much to reconcile the Chinese gentry to Manchu rule and to cement the legitimacy of the dynasty.

Succession, Legacy and Death

The question of the succession clouded the last years of the reign. The emperor had many sons, and rivalries among them grew bitter and dangerous. His earlier heir was set aside, and the uncertainty over the succession left the court divided and uneasy. In the end the throne passed to his fourth son, who became the Yongzheng Emperor, though the circumstances of the choice were disputed and gave rise to persistent rumours.

The Kangxi Emperor died in 1722 after sixty-one years on the throne, the longest reign in Chinese history, and was succeeded by a competent and reforming ruler who built upon his achievements. Under him and his successors the Qing reached the height of their power, and the foundations he laid in administration, finance, frontier defence and culture enabled the dynasty to enjoy a long period of stability and growth.

He is remembered as one of the greatest of Chinese emperors, a ruler of ability, diligence and broad curiosity whose reign transformed a newly conquered dynasty into a stable and prosperous empire. Historians have praised his political skill and his patronage of learning while noting the absolutism and suspicion that marked his rule, and his name stands at the head of the high Qing alongside those of his grandson the Qianlong Emperor.

See also

• Qing dynasty
• Yongzheng Emperor
• Qianlong Emperor
• Three Feudatories