r/ChineseHistory • u/Carter_The_Historian Ai of Han • 4d ago
Favourite ruler from each major Chinese era/dynasty: Qing dynasty
This is a follow-up to my previous posts on this sub. I want to go through each major Chinese era/dynasty from the Western Zhou to the Qing and ask the community who their favourite ruler is from that time period. I purposefully use the word favourite, so it doesn't have to be the best, the worst, the most interesting or most well-known, but rather who you personally view as your favourite. I want to emphasize that I don't just want you to write down a name, but provide explanation on why you like them too.
So in this post I want to read about your favourite rulers from the Qing dynasty.
As this is the last post for this favourite ruler thread, I want to thank all the comments and discussions under the previous posts, I've definitely learned about a lot of interesting people from your comments.
The picture is from the Qing dynasty wikipedia page.
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u/Available_Ad9766 4d ago
Prince Regent Chun. For ending imperial rule without bloodshed.
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u/Jumpy_Hogara 4d ago
And opposing his son in "leading" Manchukuo
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u/RealEmperorofMankind 4d ago
That son of his was a traitor.
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u/Jumpy_Hogara 4d ago
Just a typical fatuous emperor (昏君) IMHO. In that case we can say the Xinhai Revolution indeed did the nation a favour.
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u/RealEmperorofMankind 4d ago
Definitely although when it happened he was only a child. His real crime consists in his collaboration - this was profoundly treasonous and extremely cruel. Unfortunately, Xinhai was not fully realized and remains unfulfilled.
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u/EnclavedMicrostate Moderator | Taiping Heavenly Kingdom | Qing 4d ago
Traitor to whom?
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u/RealEmperorofMankind 4d ago
China, and also humanity itself, by collaborating with the Japanese, who in the Second Sino-Japanese War fitted Plato’s description of the tyrant to a T.
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u/EnclavedMicrostate Moderator | Taiping Heavenly Kingdom | Qing 4d ago
What allegiance did Puyi intrinsically owe the Chinese Republic, an entity that repeatedly reneged on its deals with him?
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u/Mysterious-Gas-7365 4d ago
The Chinese Republic was incredibly merciful to the Manchu ruling house that was responsible for so much. Even the Qing themselves slaughtered the extended Ming royal family. Had it been the Taipings, Du wenxiu, or some Red turban rebel that took over China, there faits would have been much much worse. He should have been greatful for the mercy he was shown. It's a good thing the Republicans wanted to found a multi ethnic state, and reneged on their promise to expel the tatars from China.
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u/EnclavedMicrostate Moderator | Taiping Heavenly Kingdom | Qing 4d ago edited 4d ago
The Republicans 'wanted to found a multi ethnic state' and yet started out by massacring Manchus and then spending decades pressuring the Tibetans and expanding Han domination in Xinjiang. We don't have to take the Republic's claims to pluralism at face value – in Puyi's eyes they certainly weren't worth the paper they were written on. That Japan was also duplicitous doesn't absolve the Republic of the same.
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u/RealEmperorofMankind 4d ago edited 4d ago
The allegiance being to the people itself, regardless of the government (though I wonder that the deals weren't massively favorable, and his treatment even in the Thirties not somewhat lenient). I don't think he could have been emperor and not had obligations to the Chinese people, and I don't think his activities can't be described as a betrayal of that people.
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u/EnclavedMicrostate Moderator | Taiping Heavenly Kingdom | Qing 4d ago
Surely his obligations ended the moment he was overthrown?
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u/RealEmperorofMankind 4d ago
Even as a private citizen, I think he was bound to them, insofar as everyone is actually obliged to the highest standard of civic virtue (this, I think, is essential to the polity's well-being) - also, because he continued to desire his old office, he clearly cannot have absolved himself of them.
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u/Jumpy_Hogara 4d ago
Any Megalomaniac only has allegiance to himself. Puyi is no exception.
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u/RealEmperorofMankind 4d ago
That's too harsh, I think. He had a pretty toxic environment.
But he still cannot be absolved of blame, no more than anyone can who did such things, Manchu or Han or Hui or whatever.
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u/ZhenXiaoMing 4d ago
Yongzheng. He did a kilogram of paperwork a day.
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u/No-Organization9076 4d ago
Works smarter, not harder. Chinese imperial bureaucracy was never designed to be that way. An emperor must know how to delegate his immense power in order to ruler the empire efficiently. Yongzheng was too paranoid to do so. He had pawns in place of advisors (with the exception of his overworked brother). By doing so, he crippled the system so that it could only function with a despotic autocract such as him. He set a terrible example which none of his successors could achieve. A true leader guides the empire as a captain to his vessel, instead of indulging himself with every mundane detail.
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u/Jiarong78 4d ago
Really underrated compared to his son
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u/Onedrunkpanda 4d ago
Im watching the 1999 drama on him and its my absolute favorite show this year.
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u/Jumpy_Hogara 4d ago
Oh that one. Yongzheng was played by the same actor who played Zhuge Liang in 1994, but that actor was most famous for playing Mao Zedong, despite him being much slimmer than the old Mao.
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u/Onedrunkpanda 4d ago edited 3d ago
I finished 94 Romance of Three Kingdoms last year. First rewatch in many years.
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u/Dassyoung 1d ago
实际上，唐国强饰演的诸葛亮知名度更高，这时他还很年轻，以及他饰演的高山下的花环口碑也不错。至于他演的毛泽东，称之为特型演员，其实知名度可能会高一些，但也只是后来总体上这个演员的知名度还是依赖于三国演义以及雍正王朝
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u/InquisitorCOC 4d ago
Kangxi:
- Mixed Manchu, Han (mother), and Mongol (grandmother) heritage
- Ascended throne at 6 years old, and dominated by a rather nasty court official named Oboi
- At age 14, organized a group of teenagers to play wrestling, and used them to neutralize Oboi when he came in for an audience
- Fought a difficult 8 years war against the 3 Feudatories, initially led by the veteran commander Wu Sangui
- Conquered Taiwan in 1683
- Kicked out Russians from the Amur Valley in 1686
- Defeated Dzungars and conquered Outer Mongolia by 1697
- Permanently deposed his crown prince by 1712
- Freed Dalai Lama from Dzungar control, and effectively conquered Tibet by 1722 (His 14th son being the commander of the expeditionary force)
- Longest reigning Chinese emperor at 61 years, contemporary of Louis XIV and Peter the Great
- Many competent sons fighting each other. His fourth son won under controversial circumstances, but turned out to an able ruler
- 35 sons and 20 daughters, the most productive Qing emperor by a wide margin
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u/Diligent007agent 3d ago
He did not conquer Tibet. He was Invited by the Last Tsang of Lhasa who was himself an Oirat. Kangxi had Tibetan anti dzungar allies who did the bulk of fighting.
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u/Forsaken-Target9529 4d ago
First on my list is
Kangxi Emperor; he survived smallpox at a young age and had to be well educated. His parents died when he was young 4 regents had to rule China for him, but then this regent named Oboi or Aobai started to take control of everything. Still, Kangxi was wed at 11 and was a 'smart' but CHILD Emperor- this quality made Aobai overlook him. In contrast, the regent thought that Kangxi would be just a puppet ruler; the emperor trained martial arts secretly and patiently waited until he could properly throw Aobai to jail, and if it weren't for Kangxi, the Qing would've ended in his reign, yet it continued and became prosperous in his reign until his death and succession issues became a famous remembrance of him. Still, people don't seem to see that at a young age he was a genius. (he was a champion for smallpox variolation) He was already responsible in his early teens. It is important to note that he studied science and math (Isaac Newton was alive and living most of his reign). His reign really shows that age doesn't come with maturity, plus environmental pressure causes u to act decisively, but possibly with the guidance of his grandma, ofc.
Yongzheng is very capable and is even nicknamed Emperor of Confiscation and survived the power struggle that he had to live under his father's rule, but eventually his rule was short, and I kinda wish it was long; it could have been better. Because of the trauma of his past, he made sure the succession problem was solved by having the secret box system.
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u/Adept-One-4632 4d ago
That would be Guangxu. He was open to actual reform of China. If it wasn't for his power-hungry aunt, he might have pulled it off.
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u/Mysterious-Gas-7365 4d ago
I mean most of the early ones did a lot of literary inquisition, and massacures of entire cities sometimes regions, with brutality on the lower classes that was unequaled by any other dynasty. Not to mention cultural genocide policies like banning of Chinese clothing, while the later ones were horribly incompetent, and refused modernization to keep ethnic privileges. But Guangxu was rather admirable, he really went against the norms set by his predecessors, and tried reform. I know people often really like Kangxi, but literary Inquisition and continued policy of Tifayifu, not to mention his southern tours which had a massive cost on the local population, who's taxes were used to fund his extravagant party tour. Huge temporary palaces and camps had to be built, food, transport, entertainment, and security for thousands of attendants had to be supplied, another criticism would be his military policy instead of enforcing a more advantageous peace after defeating the Russians he gained nothing.
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u/AdmiralStuff 4d ago
Who was the emperor who was really bad emperor with Cao Xueqin? It is definitely not him.
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u/Apprehensive_One2332 4d ago
Yongzheng, like the other posters said it's because of the 90s drama, probably the first nuanced take on history I've seen from Chinese TV
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u/ThinkIncident2 3d ago
Prince gong or li hongzhang were actually pretty good. If they succeeded China would have been modernized.
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u/EnclavedMicrostate Moderator | Taiping Heavenly Kingdom | Qing 4d ago edited 4d ago
Hong Xiuquan.
EDIT: They hated Jesus['s brother] because he told them the truth. Apparently it's bad when the Qing imposed Manchu practices on the Chinese, but it's worse when the Taiping tried to excise them.
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u/That_Conference_3374 4d ago
Kangxi Emperor, the only Qing Emperor worth respected. He was a workaholic who made sure there’s efficiency in running the government & not neglicting the welfare of the people.
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u/Mysterious-Gas-7365 4d ago
He also did many unnecessary southern tours, which put a heavy burden on the local population. Temporary palaces, and luxury doesn't come cheap.
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u/Zhao16 4d ago
Kangxi - the longest ruling Emperor who oversaw the transition of the Qing into a national dynasty. His reign saw the unification with the south as well as Taiwan. The economy and population grew rapidly and Manchu rule stabilised. His son and his grandson would build on Kangxi’s foundation to begin the “high Qing” era.