Jiaqing

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Emperor Jiaqing

Jiaqing (Chinese 嘉慶, maiden name: Yongyan , born November 13, 1760 in Beijing , † September 2, 1820 in Jehol, today Chengde ) was the fifth emperor of the Qing dynasty on February 9, 1796 .

Life and government

Yongyan was the 15th son of Emperor Qianlong . His mother was the Empress Xiao Yi Chun . Qianlong initially had two other sons as heir to the throne; but since they died early of illnesses, he secretly appointed Yongyan as his successor in December 1773.

Taking office; Fight against riots and pirates

In October 1795, which was his 60th year in office, Qianlong announced his intention to resign in favor of Yongyan, since he no longer wanted to rule Kangxi as his grandfather . In February 1796, at the age of 35, Yongyan ascended the throne under the era name Jiaqing. Although he was now formally at the head of the state, he was initially only able to perform ceremonial functions, as he was excluded from government business until his father's death in February 1799. The real decision-making power remained with his father and his corrupt minister Heshen .

In the meantime there was an uprising of the non-Chinese mountain people of the Miao in the provinces of Hunan and Guizhou in 1795 , as the land inhabited by the Miao was increasingly populated by Han Chinese and more closely integrated into the Chinese administration. The uprising was suppressed in 1797, but unrest continued in the Miao area for the next few years. In 1796, almost simultaneously with the Miao Revolt, a peasant uprising instigated by the religious secret sect of the White Lotus broke out in the western and central Chinese provinces of Sichuan , Hubei and Shaanxi . The government waged regular campaigns against the insurgents, but Heshen and his clique deliberately dragged out the campaign to exploit them for selfish ends.

One of Jiaqing's first independent decisions after his father's death in 1799 was the disempowerment of Heshen, his forced suicide and the confiscation of his assets in the amount of 800 million silver taels in favor of the state treasury. Now the government took energetic steps to suppress the peasant revolt, which, however, could not be completely put down until 1804 and which was a heavy burden on Chinese finances.

There were also other sources of conflict. In 1802, a year-long uprising of the Triassic Society broke out in Guangdong . In 1806/07 there were unrest in Shaanxi and Sichuan, and in 1807 a peasant uprising in Gansu . From 1800, Jiaqing also had to fight Vietnamese and Chinese pirates who plagued the coasts of the southeast Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Fujian , Zhejiang and Jiangsu as well as those of Taiwan for almost ten years . Secret society supporters often sided with the pirates. Local officials, on the other hand, often persecuted the pirates very carelessly because they wanted to get a share of their prey. The beach population, coastal shipping and maritime trade suffered from the pirate disaster. It was not until 1809 that the pirates led by Wu Zhu were almost completely defeated, more than 40 ships and 800 cannons were confiscated and what was left of them scattered the next year, so that the insecurity of the Chinese coasts ceased again.

Economic problems; Official corruption; Conspiracies against the emperor

The unrest mentioned was partly due to the increasing tax burden and the exploitation of the common population. Other causes included the consequences of the monetary economy and the effects of the considerable growth in the population, whose number rose by 100 million between 1802 and 1834 to just over 400 million inhabitants. The productivity of the Chinese economy, which continued to be mainly agricultural, could not be increased by far to the same extent, so that Chinese colonialism - as in the case of the Miao territory - now aimed at the development of new farmland.

Jiaqing tried to reorganize the state finances, but less by fighting the rampant corruption of the officials than by reducing the expenses of the court, which annoyed some members of the imperial family. While some success has been achieved with these policies, it has not addressed the problem of growing government inefficiency. In addition, the Chinese economy suffered from the increasing outflow of silver , which was used to pay for opium smuggled into China by the British (see below).

The emperor became less and less popular. In 1803 he was attacked by a mob in the streets. In 1811 the revolt of the Heavenly Order ( Tianlijiao ) sect began in Henan , Shandong, and Hebei . The sect found secret support from the court and from high officials who were angry about Jiaqing's austerity policy. Followers of the sect tried in vain to storm the Imperial Palace in Beijing in September 1813. In 1814 the uprising was finally put down in the provinces.

Relationship to Christianity

In 1807 the Briton Robert Morrison , the first Protestant missionary, came to Canton , who also first translated the Bible into Chinese, and was followed in 1813 by William Milne , who with Morrison founded the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca , in which young Chinese and Englishmen attended mutual languages ​​were taught. After the preaching of Christianity had been banned in 1810 and measures were taken against foreign Catholic missionaries in 1811, the emperor forbade Catholic priests to stay in China in 1815 on the penalty of death.

Trade relations with Great Britain

During Jiaqing's term in office, Britain continued its efforts to liberalize trade relations with China. The British East India Company , which had the monopoly of English trade with China, operated a lively exchange of goods with the Middle Kingdom and had a permanent base in Canton since 1786. The main English export products to China were tin , lead and cotton cloth . Conversely, the English mainly imported Chinese tea , as well as porcelain and silk , but had to accept a considerable trade deficit . They countered this by forcing the illegal importation of Bengali opium into China (1810: approx. 4000 boxes of 65 kg each compared to about 200 boxes in 1729).

The emperor issued strict bans on the import of opium. In 1808 the British occupied Macau , but soon had to vacate the city again. Jiaqing did not allow the English to be heard, whose trade he increasingly tried to prevent in Canton. In 1816 the so-called Amherst Mission from Jiaqing sent to the Beijing court was rejected, as was the Macartney Mission in 1793 by his father Qianlong. However, the opium import bans that were imposed remained virtually ineffective as they were evaded by smuggling . This flourished also because many Chinese officials secretly earned a lot of money from it. After the failed Amherst mission, the East India Company decided to further expand the import of opium to China.

Thanks to the massive increase in opium sales, English trade with China was no longer in deficit from the early 1820s. The drug smuggling not only harmed the health of addicts, it also increased general corruption and undermined the already weakened Chinese economy. The Beijing government and the Chinese authorities reacted increasingly violently. Under Jiazong's successor Daoguang , the conflict over the First Opium War (1839–42) was to intensify.

Death and succession

On September 2, 1820, Jiaqing died at the age of 59 in the Chengde Summer Palace and was buried in the Changling Mausoleum in the western Qing Tombs, about 120 km southwest of Beijing . He was followed by his second son Mianning, whom he had from his wife, Empress Xiao Shu Rui (1760–1797), and who ruled until 1850 under the name Daoguang.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jiaqing in the Encyclopædia Britannica , accessed on November 13, 2013 (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d e Jiaqing in the Encyclopædia Britannica online, accessed on April 13, 2017 (English)
  3. ↑ a b c Jacques Gernet: The Chinese World , p. 448; Herbert Franke and Rolf marriage slip : Fischer Weltgeschichte , Vol. 19: The Chinese Empire , Fischer Bücherei GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 1968, ISBN 3-596-60019-7 , p. 311 f.
  4. ↑ Jacques Gernet: The Chinese World , p. 638.
  5. ↑ Jacques Gernet: The Chinese World , pp. 448 and 638.
  6. ↑ China. In: Heinrich August Pierer : Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past , 4th edition, 4th volume (1857), p. 20; Jacques Gernet: The Chinese World , p. 638.
  7. ↑ a b c Jacques Gernet: The Chinese World , p. 449 ff. And p. 638; Herbert Franke and Rolf wedding slip: The Chinese Empire , p. 313 f.
  8. ↑ China. In: Heinrich August Pierer : Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past , 4th edition, 4th volume (1857), p. 21.
predecessor Office successor
Qianlong Emperor of China
1796 - 1820 		Daoguang
personal data
SURNAME Jiaqing
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yongyan; Ruidi; Renzong
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Emperor of China
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Beijing
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1820
Place of death Jehol (today Chengde )