Manchu Emperor Yongzheng / Yung Ching / Yung Cheng - 1722-1735
K'ang Hsi had not been altogether without his anxieties as to the succession. The eldest son was suspected of using unholy arts to prevent the throne from descending to any but himself. The second son, the favorite of his father, was regarded as the victim of these arts and was, in consequence, out of his mind. It was not till the last day of his life that the Emperor could bring himself to nominate an heir. This was Yung Cheng, a man of good ability and mature years, being forty-four at the time of his father's death. The story has been circulated that the new monarch was really the fourteenth and not the fourth son and that the fourth, then in Mongolia, was arrested and imprisoned, but the report is probably without foundation. Yung Cheng in any case took pains at the outset to make good his title to the throne-name he had chosen - Stable Peace.
The most serious difficulties to be encountered by Yung Cheng, difficulties which unfortunately increased during the succeeding reigns, sprang out of the multiplication and spread of Secret Societies. Anti-dynastic movements had ceased to make open insurrection, but, in concealing themselves from the notice of the authorities, they became "hidden fires," and the anti-Manchu spirit succeeded in organizing itself in manifold ways.
The capacity of the Chinese for organization along these lines has been frequently noted, yet possibly no one has really succeeded in getting to the bottom of a very special and complex subject. The best known of these associations into which the "esprits forts" of anti-Manchuism gathered themselves are those named the White Lotus, the Triads and the Heaven and Earth society. The White Lotus society is said by some to go back to the fourth century, but seems really to have been organized in the first years of the Mongol dynasty. The founder of the Ming dynasty is said to have been affiliated. It reached the height of its influence at the end of the 18th Century. The Triads were possibly founded in Mongol times by the so-called "boxing monks" of Chaolinsz. The Heaven and Earth society was perhaps founded by the pirate Coxinga. There was an extensive employment of literature to further the aims of these secret orders. Especially was this the case with novels. "The Dream of the Red Chamber" is a work of this character, one of the most widely read novels in all Chinese literature.
Antagonism to the dynasty, or at least to Yung Cheng, showed itself not only in the sapping and undermining work of secret societies, but also in the open insurrections in more than one quarter. One of the earliest of these was that under a chief named Lo-puh, in Tsinghai. Over two hundred thousand men, largely Buddhist monks, were induced to throw in their lot with the movement, but General Nien so vigorously pushed the campaign against the rebels that it was in the course of a short time completely crushed. The rebel leader was once surprised in bed and only succeeded in escaping by disguising himself in a woman's clothes. The crushing of the rebellion was followed up by an imperial edict to the effect that from henceforth no monastery should contain more than three hundred monks and that these should not be permitted to carry arms.v A second and more serious rebellion broke out in AD 1726 in the southwest provinces of Kweichau, Szechwan and Yunnan. It was brought about mainly by the independent attitude of the aboriginal tribes, and the chief purpose of the three years' campaign of subjugation was to establish more completely the Imperial rule over these semi-barbarous clans. This was accomplished through the skill and valor of the Chinese generals and soldiers, though not without the expenditure of much treasure and human life.
With the outside nations the relations of China continued much as in the preceding reign. With Portugal matters made little or no advance. Pere Magaillans, who had in the previous reign been "loaden for four whole months together with nine chains, three about his neck, his arms and his legs," but who had, like the Apostle Paul, been delivered by a great earthquake, an earthquake which shook all Peking, returned to China about AD 1723 with a letter from the Pope, and was permitted to have an audience with the Emperor. The only result was the humiliation of the envoys who were represented as belonging to "the subject nations." Moreover, the citizens of Macao were not too well pleased with the necessity of paying for the thirty chests of presents which had been graciously accepted by the Emperor.
In spite of the severe measures adopted against the propagation of Christianity, the missionaries themselves are loud in their testimony to the general justice and beneficence of Yung Cheng's reign. He was, they said, indefatigable in work, and was ever ready to recognize merit and reward virtue. Among the reforms he introduced was one to limit to the Emperor himself the right to sign a sentence of death. Like T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, he desired the greatest possible deliberation in a matter of such importance and required that the case should be presented to him three times, lest in the first instance he should be tempted to act impulsively.
To encourage agriculture he made a law that in future the taxes should be paid by the proprietors, instead of by the tenants of the land. Still more significant was the remarkable order given in 1732 that in future the city governor should annually supply him with the name of the peasant who had been most diligent in cultivating the soil, in preserving the unity of the family and in frugality and temperance of life. Such model peasants were to be made mandarins of the eighth class, with a right to wear the mandarin's robe, to sit in the presence of the Governor and to take tea with him. On their death, moreover, they were to be awarded the crowning glory of having their names inscribed in the Halls of the Ancestors.
Yung Cheng died Oct. 5, 1785, after a " highly creditable " reign. He had just given audience to his ministers when he was taken ill. He died so suddenly that he had no opportunity to nominate his successor.
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