The Jiaqing Emperor (13 November 1760 – 2 September 1820), also known by his temple nameEmperor Renzong of Qing, personal name Yongyan, was the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. He was the 15th son of the Qianlong Emperor. During his reign, he prosecuted Heshen, the corrupt favorite of his father and attempted to restore order within the empire while curbing the smuggling of opium into China. Assessments of his reign are mixed, either seen as the "beginning of the end" of the Qing dynasty, or as a period of moderate reform that presaged the intellectual movements of the 1860s.[1]
Yongyan was born in the Old Summer Palace, 8 km (5 mi) northwest of the walls of Beijing. His personal name, "Yongyan" (永琰), was later changed to "Yongyan" (顒琰) when he became the emperor. The Chinese character for yong in his name was changed from the more common 永 to the less common 顒. This novelty was introduced by the Qianlong Emperor, who believed that it was not proper to have a commonly used Chinese character in an emperor's personal name due to the longstanding practice of naming taboo in the imperial family during ancient China period.
Yongyan was the 15th son of the Qianlong Emperor. His mother was Noble Consort Ling, the daughter of Wei Qingtai (魏清泰), an ethnic Han Chinese official whose family had been long integrated into the Manchu Eight Banners as part of a Han Banner.
The Qianlong Emperor originally had two other sons in mind for succeeding him, but both of them died early from diseases, hence in December 1773 he secretly chose Yongyan as his successor. In 1789, the Qianlong Emperor instated Yongyan as "Prince Jia of the First Rank" (嘉親王; or simply "Prince Jia").
In October 1795, the 60th year of his reign, the Qianlong Emperor announced his intention to abdicate in favour of Prince Jia. He made this decision because he felt that it was disrespectful for him to rule longer than his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, who was on the throne for 61 years. Prince Jia ascended the throne and adopted the era name "Jiaqing" in February 1796, hence he is historically known as the Jiaqing Emperor. For the next three years, however, the Jiaqing Emperor was emperor in name and rite only because decisions were still made by his father, who became a Taishang Huang (emperor emeritus) after his abdication.
After the death of the Qianlong Emperor in the beginning of February 1799, the Jiaqing Emperor took control of the government and prosecuted Heshen, a favourite official of his father. Heshen was charged with corruption and abuse of power, stripped of his titles, had his property confiscated, and ordered to commit suicide. Heshen's daughter-in-law, Princess Hexiao, a half-sister of the Jiaqing Emperor, was spared from punishment and given a few properties from Heshen's estates. The Jiaqing Emperor commuted the death sentence of the scholar Hong Liangji who had criticised the policies of the Qianlong Emperor and Heshen, instead exiling him to a remote part of northern China and pardoning him altogether in 1800. [2]
Heshen was described as the 'primary evil' effecting the Empire, and after his removal the Emperor pursued a series of reforms of the court, civil service and treasury. [3] He was a traditionalist in terms of his role as an ethnic Manchu leader, taking parts in imperial hunts, inspection tours, and upholding strict court protocol. [4] As part of this traditionalist approach, the Jiaqing Emperor promoted ministers on the basis of their commitment to a 'purist' approch to Confucian rule. [5]
The impact of the Jiaqing Emperor's reforms are questionable, with the Emperor described by Jonathan Spence as having 'relied on rhetoric more than specific policies to cleanse his empire', with Heshen's clique soon replaced by other bureaucratic factions. [6]
At the time, the Qing Empire faced internal disorder, most importantly the large-scale White Lotus (1796–1804) and Miao (1795–1806) rebellions, as well as an empty imperial treasury. The Jiaqing Emperor engaged in the pacification of the empire and the quelling of rebellions, although this came at a steep fiscal cost.[7] He endeavored to bring China back to its 18th-century prosperity and power.
In 1813, the Jiaqing Emperor also faced the threat of the Eight Trigrams uprising, led by a millenarian Buddhist sect that launched a failed attack on the Forbidden City, with the intention of assassinating the Emperor upon his return from a hunting trip. The Jiaqing Emperor was intrigued by the leader of the rising, Lin Qing, and summoned him to a private interrogation.[8] Lin was later executed by slicing. [9]
In 1816, William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the court, intending to establish more satisfactory commercial relations between China and Great Britain. The Amherst Embassy proved a failure as a result of Amherst's refusal to perform a kowtow to the Emperor, but would prove to have a significant impact on British views of China and the Qing dynasty. [10]
The Jiaqing Emperor refused the Vietnamese ruler Gia Long's request to change his country's name to Nam Việt. He changed the name instead to Việt Nam.[11] Gia Long's Đại Nam thực lục contains the diplomatic correspondence over the naming.[12]
The Great Qing Legal Code includes one statute titled "Prohibitions Concerning Sorcerers and Sorceresses" (禁止師巫邪術). In 1811, a clause was added to it with reference to Christianity. It was modified in 1815 and 1817, settled in its final form in 1839 under the Daoguang Emperor, and repealed in 1870 under the Tongzhi Emperor. It sentenced Europeans to death for spreading Catholicism among Han Chinese and Manchus. Christians who would not repent their conversion were sent to Muslim cities in Xinjiang, to be given as slaves to Muslim leaders and beys.[13]
The Jiaqing Emperor commissioned printed compendia of courtly collections, which are an important source for our present understanding of Qing court art. [18] He was a keen scholar of the Confucian classics (to which he devoted much of his time in the early years of his reign when the Qianlong Emperor remained de facto ruler), with 15,267 poems attributed to him. [19]
On 2 September 1820, the Jiaqing Emperor died at the Rehe (Jehol) Traveling Palace (熱河行宫), 230 km (140 mi) northeast of Beijing, where the imperial court was in summer quarters. The Draft History of Qing did not record a cause of death. Some have alleged that he died after being struck by lightning, but others prefer the theory that he died of a stroke, as the emperor was quite obese. He was succeeded by his second son, Mianning, who became known as the Daoguang Emperor.
The Jiaqing Emperor was interred amidst the Western Qing Tombs, 120 km (75 mi) southwest of Beijing, in the Chang (昌; lit. "splendid") mausoleum complex.
^Ricarda Brosch, "The Jiaqing Emperor" in Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell (eds) Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796–1912 (Thames & Hudson, 2023) pp14 -16
^Jonathan Spence. The Search for Modern China (Norton, 1990), pp143-144
^Ricarda Brosch, "The Jiaqing Emperor" in Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell (eds) Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796–1912 (Thames & Hudson, 2023) pp14 -16
^Ricarda Brosch, "The Jiaqing Emperor" in Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell (eds) Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796–1912 (Thames & Hudson, 2023) pp14 -16
^Jonathan Spence. The Search for Modern China (Norton, 1990), p166
^Jonathan Spence. The Search for Modern China (Norton, 1990), p166
^Ricarda Brosch, "The Jiaqing Emperor" in Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell (eds) Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796–1912 (Thames & Hudson, 2023) pp14 -16
^Jonathan Spence. The Search for Modern China (Norton, 1990), p168
^Jonathan Spence. The Search for Modern China (Norton, 1990), p168
^Gao Hao. “The Amherst Embassy and British Discoveries in China.” History, vol. 99, no. 4 (337), 2014, pp. 568–87, here p.568
^Brunnert, H. S.; Hagelstrom, V. V. (15 April 2013). Present Day Political Organization of China. Routledge. pp. 493–94. ISBN978-1-135-79795-9.
^Ricarda Brosch, "The Jiaqing Emperor" in Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell (eds) Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796–1912 (Thames & Hudson, 2023) pp14 -16
^Ricarda Brosch, "The Jiaqing Emperor" in Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell (eds) Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796–1912 (Thames & Hudson, 2023) pp14 -16
This article incorporates text from China in the light of history, by Ernst Faber, a publication from 1897, now in the public domain in the United States.
This article incorporates text from The Chinese recorder, Volume 27, a publication from 1896, now in the public domain in the United States.
This article incorporates text from Life among the Chinese: with characteristic sketches and incidents of missionary operations and prospects in China, by Robert Samuel Maclay, a publication from 1861, now in the public domain in the United States.
This article incorporates text from China in the light of history, by Ernst Faber, a publication from 1897, now in the public domain in the United States.
Media related to Jiaqing Emperor at Wikimedia Commons
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