It is now generally accepted that the Qing Dynasty began to decline since the middle and late Qianlong period, but I believe that the decline of the Qing Dynasty was not caused by Qianlong alone, but the common inaction of the two emperors of Qianlong and Jiaqing dragged the Qing Dynasty into the abyss .
Because of his great success and extravagant life, Qianlong put the Qing Dynasty’s finances and people’s livelihood into crisis. As a result, the Qing Dynasty’s treasury ran out of money, and the people also broke out like the Sichuan-Shaanxi White Lotus Uprising. The anti-Qing struggle throughout the southwest.
But after Qianlong's death, did the Qing Dynasty have a chance to pull up the downward trend? There should still be opportunities. At that time, the Qing Dynasty had only internal problems, unlike the end of the Qing Dynasty, because of the opening of the country, it also faced external pressure. Therefore, after the death of Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty had many problems, but the situation was far greater than that of the late Qing Dynasty. It's much better to mess around.
During the late Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty faced the greatest difficulties, nothing more than two points. Finance and government administration. The family property left by Yongzheng to Qianlong was tossed out very early. In order to relieve financial pressure and make money for itself Enjoy, Qianlong formulated the so-called silver system to encourage criminal officials to use money to atone for their crimes.
Most of the money obtained from this silver system went to Qianlong’s private treasury for his enjoyment. As a result, not only did the Qing Dynasty’s financial difficulties remain unsolved, but it encouraged the corruption of officials. Anyway, No matter how greedy, you can spend money to redeem your sins. Generally speaking, it is still profitable. However, the common people are even more bitter and are doubled down. This is how the White Lotus Uprising in Sichuan and Shaanxi emerged.
The Kangxi plus Yongzheng model can solve the crisis of the decline of the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period
The financial and administrative difficulties faced in the late Qianlong period are actually similar to those in the late Kangxi period. Kangxi The emperor’s relatively large-scale wars, such as the San Francisco Rebellion in the early and mid-term ruling, the recovery of Taiwan, the Guldan rebellion, including the Robzang Danjin rebellion at the end, also led to the imperial court’s financial deficit due to war costs.
Moreover, the Qing Dynasty was at the end of Kangxi’s reign, and because of the stability of the country and Kangxi’s reputation for his own reputation, he could not bear to be cruel to the former heroes. Corruption was also very serious, and the problem of official governance was quite serious.
However, Kangxi had a deep understanding of this, and the trouble must be solved, otherwise the Qing Dynasty would not grow up. When Kangxi was unable to solve the problem, he was very wise to choose the hard-line Emperor Yongzheng as the heir to help the Qing Dynasty return blood.
Just like what Kangxi said to Yongzheng before his death in the TV series "Yongzheng Dynasty": "Entrust the great burden to you", Kangxi understands what difficulties he left behind? What should the successors bear? It is to solve the problems of corrupt finances and government officials during his time in power, and choosing a suitable heir is what Kangxi has to do as a responsible sage.
Yongzheng did not disappoint Kangxi's expectations. During his reign, he worked hard to correct the mistakes of the Qing Dynasty in finance, taxation and administration of officials under the infamy of the gentry, and diligently completed the tasks and actions assigned to him by Kangxi. The mission of the Qing emperor.
It was precisely because Kangxi admitted that he was wrong and selected the right heir first, and Yongzheng had a strong ability to correct mistakes, it was able to reverse the decline that appeared at the end of Kangxi’s reign in one fell swoop. There is no civil strife and the people live in a good situation.
Because of Qianlong’s captivity, his heir Jiaqing did not have the ability and courage of Yongzheng, and could not solve the dilemma. Emperor Jiaqing could take pictures of cats and draw tigers, and he would finish studying Yongzheng, but Ke Jiaqing failed to achieve this. During his reign, it was only when Qianlong had just passed away that He Shen killed a He Shen, and even He Shen’s party feathers did not go too far.
Jiaqing’s signal is that, except for the first evil of corruption, everything is business as usual. His behavior when in power is also the same, and he did not make drastic corrections to the chronic diseases left over from the Qianlong period as Yongzheng did against Kangxi. .
This was the beginning of the decline of the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period, but it was not saved, which led to the continued decline of the Qing Dynasty.The main reason was that Jiaqing had undertaken the mission but failed to do well. The fundamental reason for his failure to do well was insufficient ability, which was also planted by Qianlong.
During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, because of the feelings of the bloody battles caused by the princes fighting for the right of succession to the throne in his later years in Kangxi, the princes began to be kept in captivity based on the continuous implementation of the Yongzheng Emperor's secret edict.
In the later years of Kangxi, the princes all had their own errands. Kangxi also allowed the princes to study politics and go to the battlefield to help them run the country.
Therefore, because of the long-term political practice and the cruelty of fighting for the throne, the sons of Kangxi have rich political experience. It can be said that even if it is not Yongzheng, if any one is selected, there will be no major problems in running the country. .
When he arrived at Yongzheng, in order to put an end to this cruel struggle between the royal clans, Yongzheng not only developed a system of secret edict and reserve, but also took the initiative to help Qianlong eliminate the threat of his brother Hongshi.
And Qianlong went one step further and had more sons, so he simply gathered the princes to educate them, and did not allow them to take the initiative to participate in state affairs, lest they would rise up to fight for the throne because of too much power. heart.
In this way, if the cruel struggle between the princes in the late Kangxi years is gone, but the princes are almost all cultivated into waste. Without fighting, there is no competitiveness. Without the experience of governance, how can we talk about governing the country?
Qianlong himself lived long enough. In front of Qianlong's longevity, most of his sons had lost confidence in the succession to the throne. They were willing to be a prince Baylor who was eating and waiting for death, and had no motivation.
Emperor Jiaqing was also cultivated in this way. Even though his ability belongs to the upper reaches among the princes of Qianlong, because of the lack of struggle and political experience, his ability is far inferior to the Kangxi period. The princes of the Qing Dynasty, the emperors of the Qing dynasty after him are also worse than generations, and the Qing dynasty finally fell to a woman to continue his life.
Therefore, in the face of the many difficulties of the Qing Dynasty after Qianlong’s death, Jiaqing, who was poorly capable, had no solution. He did not have the courage and determination of Yongzheng, nor the coldness of Yongzheng, nor did he dare to offend the hearts of the gentry of the world. Naturally, there is no possibility of change.
The only thing that Jiaqing can compare with Yongzheng is probably "respect for frugality and hard work." The "Drafts of Qing History" summarizes Jiaqing "and the style of appealing is not obvious, but it's sufficiency." Said that he gave up treatment or adopted conservative treatment for the difficulties of the Qing Dynasty?
Jiaqing’s inaction did not make him bear the name of his grandfather, Emperor Yongzheng, and even gave himself a posthumous title of “Ren Zong”, but the consequence of getting a good posthumous title is to make him a defect left over from the late Qianlong period. Continuing to develop, the Qing Dynasty was ultimately irretrievable.
Therefore, in summary, the downhill road in the Qing Dynasty appeared during the Qianlong period, but the complete downhill road was built during the Jiaqing period. Qianlong’s extravagance and Jiaqing’s poor error correction ability Inaction, combined with the actions of the two emperors, was the fundamental reason why the Qing Dynasty went downhill completely and could not turn back.
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