Yongzheng Emperor (1722-1735): Reform and Control in Qing China

The Yongzheng Emperor was the third Qing ruler of China, reigning from 1722 to 1735 between his father Kangxi and his son Qianlong. Coming to the throne after a bitter and disputed succession, he proved a tireless and demanding ruler whose reforms of taxation, administration and communication strengthened the Qing state, at the price of tighter control over officials and subjects alike.

A disputed succession

Born Yinzhen on 13 December 1678, the future emperor was the fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor. Kangxi’s long reign was troubled by quarrels among his many sons. He made his second son, Yinreng, crown prince, deposed him in 1708, restored him in 1709 and deposed him again in 1712, after which he refused to name an heir publicly.

Rival factions formed around the princes, especially the capable eighth son, Yinsi, and the fourteenth son, Yinti, who commanded the army in the west during the Qing expedition to Tibet. When Kangxi died at his villa near Beijing on 20 December 1722, the commander of the capital garrison, Longkodo, announced that he had named Yinzhen as successor.

Rumours soon spread that the will had been altered, for example by changing “fourteenth” to “fourth”. Historians generally reject this story: the will would have been written in Manchu as well as Chinese, and the alteration claimed is implausible. Yet the secrecy of the deathbed scene left lasting doubts, and the new emperor felt insecure throughout his reign.

Dealing with rivals

Yongzheng, as Yinzhen is known by his reign title, moved quickly against his brothers. Yinti was recalled from the frontier and confined. Yinsi and the ninth son, Yintang, were stripped of their titles in 1726, forced to take insulting names and died in custody that year. Yinreng died in confinement in early 1725. Senior officials who had helped him to power, such as Longkodo and the general Nian Gengyao, were also later disgraced, and Nian was ordered to commit suicide in 1726.

To prevent such contests in future, Yongzheng introduced a system of secret succession. He wrote the name of his heir on a document sealed in a box and placed behind the plaque reading “Upright and Bright” in the Palace of Heavenly Purity in the Forbidden City, to be opened only at his death.

Reforms of government

Yongzheng was famous for his capacity for work. He read and annotated thousands of reports in red ink, often adding sharp personal comments. He rarely left the capital region, gave up the long southern tours and northern hunts of his father, and worked late into the night on state papers.

He greatly expanded the system of palace memorials, confidential reports sent directly to the emperor by trusted officials in the provinces, bypassing the regular bureaucracy. This gave him an independent flow of information and a means of checking on his officials.

Around 1729, during preparations for war against the Dzungars, he set up a small office for military finance in the palace. Staffed by a few trusted ministers such as Zhang Tingyu, it developed into the Grand Council (Junjichu), which became the core of Qing decision-making for the rest of the dynasty.

Yongzheng also used moral instruction as a tool of government. In 1724 he issued the Amplified Instructions on the Sacred Edict, a long commentary on sixteen Confucian maxims issued by his father. Local officials and scholars were required to read it aloud to villagers at regular public lectures, so that the emperor’s view of duty, thrift and obedience would reach ordinary people across the empire.

Taxation and society

Local officials in Qing China were poorly paid and relied on informal surcharges, especially the “meltage fee” (huohao) added to tax payments in silver. From 1724 Yongzheng made these surcharges an official, fixed levy and used the proceeds to pay officials an allowance called “silver to nourish honesty” (yanglian yin) and to fund local government. The reform reduced corruption for a time, though surcharges gradually crept back after his reign.

He also completed the merger of the poll tax into the land tax, so that taxes depended on land owned rather than on the number of adult men. Between 1723 and 1730 he issued edicts freeing several groups of “debased people” (jianmin), such as the hereditary entertainers of Shanxi and the “lazy people” of Zhejiang, from their inferior legal status. In the south-west the governor-general Ortai replaced hereditary local chieftains with regular officials, a policy that provoked uprisings among the Miao and other peoples. A major Miao revolt in Guizhou broke out in 1735 and was suppressed only after Yongzheng’s death, early in the reign of his son.

Ideology and control

Yongzheng was intolerant of dissent. In 1728 a teacher named Zeng Jing tried to persuade a general to rebel, inspired by the anti-Manchu writings of the late scholar Lü Liuliang. Instead of executing Zeng, the emperor published a long rebuttal, Record of Great Righteousness Resolving Confusion (Dayi juemi lu), arguing that virtue, not ethnicity, made a legitimate ruler. Lü Liuliang’s corpse was exhumed and desecrated and his descendants punished.

In 1724 he banned Christianity in the provinces, though European Jesuits such as the painter Giuseppe Castiglione continued to serve at court. Abroad, the Treaty of Kyakhta (1727) extended the border agreement with Russia, while a Qing army suffered a heavy defeat against the Dzungars at Hoton Nor in 1731.

Death and legacy

Yongzheng died suddenly at the Yuanmingyuan on 8 October 1735, aged 56. The secret box named his fourth son, Hongli, who became the Qianlong Emperor. Yongzheng was buried at the Tailing, the first of the Western Qing Tombs near Yi County in Hebei.

Popular legend claims he was beheaded by Lü Siniang, a granddaughter of Lü Liuliang, but there is no evidence for this. Historians now regard his short reign as the vital link between Kangxi’s expansion and Qianlong’s prosperity, leaving a more efficient administration and a much fuller treasury. Estimates suggest that the central reserves grew from under 10 million taels of silver at Kangxi’s death to around 50–60 million taels by the early 1730s, before war costs reduced them.

He was also a devout Buddhist with a strong interest in Chan (Zen) teaching, and he wrote and edited Buddhist works. His former princely residence in Beijing was turned into the Yonghe Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, by his son in 1744, and it remains one of the city’s best-known temples.

Timeline

• 1678, 13 December: Yinzhen is born, fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor.
• 1722, 20 December: Kangxi dies; Yinzhen is proclaimed emperor.
• 1724: Meltage-fee reform begins; Christianity is banned in the provinces.
• 1726: Yinsi and Yintang die in custody; Nian Gengyao is forced to commit suicide.
• 1727: The Treaty of Kyakhta is signed with Russia.
• 1729: An office for military affairs is formed, the origin of the Grand Council.
• 1731: Qing forces are defeated by the Dzungars at Hoton Nor.
• 1735, 8 October: Yongzheng dies; his son becomes the Qianlong Emperor.

Why it matters

The Yongzheng Emperor turned the Qing into a more centralised and efficient state. His Grand Council, palace memorials, secret succession and fiscal reforms shaped Chinese government for the rest of the dynasty, while his harsh treatment of rivals and critics showed the authoritarian side of the High Qing.