Yongzheng Emperor

Yinzhen (胤禛), who reigned as the Yongzheng Emperor, was the fifth ruler of the Qing Dynasty counting Nurhaci and Hong Taiji, and the third to rule China proper. He came to the throne on the death of his father, the Kangxi Emperor, in December 1722, and his era name, Yongzheng (雍正), ran from 1723 until his death in 1735. His temple name is Shizong.

His reign of thirteen years sits between the two longest in Chinese history, and it is easy to overlook. Yet Yongzheng was one of the most hard-working and effective administrators of any Chinese dynasty. He tackled official corruption, put state finances on a sounder footing and created the Grand Council, which remained at the heart of Qing government until the twentieth century.

Early Life

Yinzhen was born in 1678, the eleventh son of the Kangxi Emperor and the fourth to survive to adulthood. His mother, later honoured as Empress Xiaogongren, came from the Uya clan and had entered the palace as a maid.

Because of her low rank at the time of his birth, she was not permitted to raise him herself. He was brought up by Noble Consort Tong, a daughter of Tong Guowei, who was the Kangxi Emperor's maternal uncle and a senior official. She was made empress in 1689, shortly before her death, when Yinzhen was a boy of about ten.

Training as a Prince

The Kangxi Emperor trained his sons rigorously and took them with him outside the palace. Yinzhen accompanied his father on tours of inspection around Beijing and in the south, and in 1696, at the Battle of Jao Modo against the Dzungar Khanate, he held nominal command of the Plain Red Banner.

In 1698 he was made a beile, a prince of the third rank. In 1708 the Kangxi Emperor deposed his second son, Yinreng, who had been heir apparent since infancy, and the succession became an open contest among the princes. In 1709 Yinzhen was raised to prince of the first rank, with the title Prince Yong.

The Succession

When the emperor invited his officials to propose a new heir, many of them, and many of the princes, favoured the eighth son, Yinsi. Kangxi refused him, wary of the influence Yinsi had built up at court, and restored Yinreng instead. Yinzhen, sensing his father's wishes, supported the restoration and gained his trust. Yinreng was deposed a second time in 1712, and no heir was publicly named again.

On Kangxi's death in 1722, Yinzhen was declared emperor. Whether his father truly chose him has been debated ever since, and the doubt shaped the whole of his reign.

The Reign of the Yongzheng Emperor

Yongzheng's first task was to secure his position. Several of his brothers and their supporters were imprisoned, demoted or stripped of their titles, and some died in confinement. He relied on a network of informants and on confidential reports sent directly to him, and he is said to have had the records of his father's last years revised to remove material unfavourable to himself and favourable to his rivals.

The Rival Princes

The eldest prince, Yinzhi, and the former heir, Yinreng, were already under house arrest; Yinreng died in confinement in 1725. The more serious threats were Yinsi and the fourteenth prince, Yinti.

Yinsi

Yinsi's faction included the princes Yin'e and Yintang. Yongzheng dealt with it by keeping Yinsi close: on his accession he made him Prince Lian and put him in charge of the Lifan Yuan, the office that managed relations with Mongolia, Tibet and the frontier peoples. The appointment kept Yinsi busy and under observation, while his allies were posted away from the capital. In 1726 Yinsi and Yintang were stripped of their titles and imprisoned, and both died that year.

Yinti

Yinti, Yongzheng's full brother, had been commanding the Qing armies in the north-west and had expected to succeed. He was recalled to Beijing, accused of disrespect at their father's funeral, and ordered to keep watch at Kangxi's tomb, effectively under house arrest.

Control of the Eight Banners

At his accession the emperor directly controlled only three of the Eight Banners; the other five were in the hands of the princes. Yongzheng steadily reduced the princes' authority over the banners and brought them under the throne, removing a source of rival power that had troubled the dynasty since its foundation.

The Grand Council and Palace Memorials

Around 1729, during the campaigns against the Dzungars, Yongzheng set up a small military office that grew into the Grand Council (Junjichu). Its handful of members worked directly with the emperor, quickly and in confidence, and it soon replaced the Grand Secretariat as the real centre of government.

He also expanded the system of palace memorials, confidential reports that officials sent straight to the emperor. Thousands survive with his comments written in vermilion ink, and they show a ruler who read and directed the business of the empire in remarkable detail.

To avoid a repeat of his own contested accession, Yongzheng introduced secret succession. The emperor wrote the name of his chosen heir and sealed it in a box behind the plaque reading "Upright and Bright" in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, to be opened only on his death. His son, the Qianlong Emperor, succeeded in this way in 1735.

Reforms at Home

Yongzheng merged the old head tax into the land tax, so that the burden fell on land rather than on individuals, and he legalised the "meltage fee" that local officials had long charged when collecting taxes in silver. The proceeds were used to pay officials a supplementary salary called yanglian, "money to nourish honesty", which reduced the pressure to extort.

He freed several hereditary groups of "mean people", such as the entertainer households of Shanxi and the boat people of the south, from their debased legal status. He supported the repair of canals and irrigation, sent relief to famine areas and encouraged the founding of foundling homes and poorhouses.

On the frontiers, the rising of Lobsang Danjin in Qinghai was crushed in 1723–1724, and from 1727 the Qing kept resident officials, the ambans, in Lhasa. In the south-west, hereditary tribal chiefs were progressively replaced by regular officials.

Society, Religion and Culture

Farming and the Land

A growing population needed more grain. Yongzheng encouraged the reclamation of new farmland, rewarding local officials who opened land to cultivation and granting tax exemptions for several years on newly farmed fields. The campaign added a great deal of land, although some officials inflated their figures to win credit.

The Privileges of the Gentry

Under Kangxi, holders of examination degrees enjoyed tax privileges and a measure of protection from ordinary legal punishment. Yongzheng saw these privileges as a source of abuse and curtailed them. Much of the old system returned under his successor.

Religious Policy

Like his father in his later years, Yongzheng distrusted the Christian missions. In 1724 he banned Christianity, ordered missionaries in the provinces to leave for Canton, and had many churches turned into public buildings. The Jesuits who served the court in Beijing as astronomers, painters and craftsmen were allowed to stay.

Porcelain of the Yongzheng Reign

For collectors, the Yongzheng period is one of the high points of Chinese porcelain. From 1726 the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen were supervised by Nian Xiyao, assisted from 1728 by Tang Ying, and the emperor took a close personal interest in the designs.

The period is known for its restraint and precision: elegant, often slender forms; painted enamels of great delicacy, including the palace falangcai wares and refined famille rose; and faithful copies of the classic glazes of the Song, among them Ru, Guan, Ge and Jun. Potters also reproduced the doucai wares of the Ming Chenghua reign.

The standard imperial mark is the six-character Da Qing Yongzheng nian zhi (大清雍正年製), usually written in underglaze blue. The mark was much copied in later periods, so it is a starting point for study rather than proof of date. You can browse our Qing dynasty porcelain collection for pieces from across the dynasty.

The Death of the Yongzheng Emperor

Yongzheng died suddenly at the Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace, in October 1735, aged fifty-six. The official record is brief, and rumour soon filled the gap.

The best known legend holds that he was assassinated by Lü Siniang, a descendant of the scholar Lü Liuliang, whose family Yongzheng had punished severely in a literary inquisition. Many historians think it more likely that his death was linked to the Daoist elixirs he is known to have taken. The cause remains uncertain.

He was buried at the Tailing, the first imperial tomb in what became the Western Qing Tombs, and was succeeded by his son Hongli, the Qianlong Emperor. More on the dynasty as a whole can be found on our Qing Dynasty page.