Person1711 – 1799

Qianlong Emperor (Gaozong of Qing)

Also called: Gaozong of Qing, Hongli

Sixth Qing emperor (r. 1735–1796), who destroyed the Dzungars and conquered Xinjiang, giving the Qing its greatest extent, and had the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries compiled

Hongli, fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, was a favourite of his grandfather Kangxi as a boy. Enthroned in 1735, he made six tours of the south, left over 40,000 poems and amassed a vast collection of paintings, calligraphy and antiques. Resolving not to outreign his grandfather’s 61 years, he abdicated in favour of his son the Jiaqing Emperor in 1796, yet kept real power as retired emperor until his death in 1799. His favourite, the minister Heshen, was executed by Jiaqing soon after.

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3 related events

1
1755 – 1782Qianlong’s Conquests and the Siku Quanshumonarch
The Qianlong Emperor destroyed the Dzungars and conquered the Tarim Basin, giving the Qing its greatest extent, and gathered the empire’s books into the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries.
2
1757 – 1842The Canton Systemmonarch
In 1757 the Qianlong Emperor confined Western shipping to Guangzhou (Canton), where only the licensed merchant guild, the Cohong, could deal with foreigners. The system ended with the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) after the Opium War.
3
1793Macartney Embassymonarch
In 1793 Britain’s Macartney embassy met the Qianlong Emperor at Rehe and asked for wider trade and a resident envoy; the emperor refused everything, declaring that the Celestial Empire “possesses all things in abundance”.

People who appear alongside

George Macartney1737 – 1806
British diplomat who led Britain’s first embassy to China in 1792–1794 and met the Qianlong Emperor at Rehe, but was refused wider trade

Themes this person appears in

Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800
The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning