The Oboi regency edit
The reign of the Kangxi emperor started with a regency by four Manchu nobles
The child emperor edit
Overwhelmed with grief after the death of his beloved Consort Donggo a few months earlier, the emperor fell into dejection and contracted smallpox on 2 February 1661.[1] On 4 February 1661, officials Wang Xi (王熙) and Margi (the latter a Manchu) were called to the emperor's bedside to record his last will.[2] On the same day, his third son Xuanye, who was then less than seven years old, was chosen to be his successor, probably because he had already survived smallpox.[3] The Shunzhi emperor died on 5 February 1661 in the Forbidden City at the age of twenty-two.[1]
The return of the conquest elite edit
Controversial policies edit
The fall of the regents edit
Stabilisation of rule edit
Military challenges and foreign contacts edit
The Three Feudatories edit
Taiwan edit
European trade missions edit
Inner Asia: Russians and Mongols edit
Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689).
Khalkha Mongols, Dzungars, Galdan.
Managing the bureaucracy edit
Manchus and Chinese edit
Cliques edit
Court Jesuits edit
Western science edit
Policies on Christianity edit
The Rites Controversy edit
Social and cultural policies edit
The problem of succession edit
The Heir apparent edit
Factional politics edit
Denouement edit
Personality edit
Family edit
Mother edit
Consorts edit
Sons edit
Daughters edit
Notes edit
- ^ a b Dennerline 2002, p. 118.
- ^ Oxnam 1975, p. 205.
- ^ Spence 2002, p. 125. Note that Xuanye was born in May 1654, and was therefore less than seven years old at the time. Both Spence 2002 and Oxnam 1975 (p. 1) nonetheless claim that he was "seven years old." Dennerline 2002 (p. 119) and Rawski 1998 (p. 99) indicate that he was "not yet seven years old." Following East_Asian_age_reckoning, Chinese documents concerning the succession say that Xuanye was eight sui (Oxnam 1975, p. 62).