Biography of Qianlong (2 Volumes)

白新良Zhonghua Book Company · ChinaJun 2023

Word count

364K words

Chapters

19

ISBN

9787101162141

Tags

Summary

Qianlong's life can be summed up in one word: smooth. Imperial heir apparent at 12, enthroned at 25, he wielded supreme power for 63 years. His father Yongzheng left him a substantial inheritance. In his hands, centralization reached unprecedented heights and Qing power peaked to the highest level in ancient Chinese history—before declining rapidly. He struck down political rivals, developed the economy, and showed concern for the people, yet he was also vainglorious, extravagant, and presided over literary inquisitions. How should his life of merit and guilt be judged? As the ultimate controller, he had grounds for pride, yet in his later years he repeatedly lost control. Why? Could it have been avoided?

Drawing extensively on primary sources such as the Veritable Records of the Qing, palace archives, and memorials, this book recounts in detail Qianlong's extraordinarily long reign, the sources of his pride and the roots of his loss of control, revealing the complex psychology of the man and the logic of officialdom.

Editor's review

The book's most notable strength is its balanced historical perspective. The author neither falls into the traditional simple praise of Qianlong's Ten Great Campaigns nor adopts a postmodern wholesale deconstruction. Instead, through rigorous textual criticism, he carefully traces the concrete achievements of the Qianlong reign in perfecting political institutions, managing the frontiers, and promoting cultural undertakings (such as the compilation of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries), while objectively analyzing the policy failings of the later period, including corruption in officialdom and closed-door isolationism. The analysis of Qianlong's personality, ruling psychology, and decision-making is especially penetrating, situating him within the context of eighteenth-century global history and revealing the deep crises lurking beneath the splendor of the High Qing.

For readers, this book is a journey toward a deeper understanding of the political logic and social change of late imperial China. It is not merely a personal biography but also a political, institutional, and social history of the Qianlong reign. The narrative is calm and restrained, the argumentation dense; though it offers no dramatic plot twists, the historical insight and reflection between the lines provide readers with a cognitive framework that goes beyond surface-level narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

• Readers with a deep interest in Qing history, especially the politics, society, and culture of the Qianlong period
• History students, researchers, or teachers in need of a scholarly reference work with rich sources and judicious views
• Readers who prefer historical biographies grounded in primary archives and rigorous argumentation over novelized dramatizations
• Those seeking to understand the ruling model of late traditional Chinese society, the logic of imperial governance, and the turning point from prosperity to decline

Not a good fit for

• Readers expecting light, entertaining, story-driven popular history for quick reading
• Readers who only want a brief overview of Qianlong's life and are reluctant to engage with extensive detail and scholarly analysis

Reading tips

1. This book is highly academic; readers are advised to first read the table of contents to grasp the overall framework, then read chapter by chapter to avoid losing the main thread in the abundance of detail.
2. While reading, reflect on the key memorials, edicts, and other primary documents quoted in the book, and observe how the author draws conclusions from the sources.
3. Read certain Qianlong-era decisions (such as the closed-door policy and literary inquisitions) in comparison with concurrent developments in world history to gain a broader historical perspective.

About the publisher

Zhonghua Book Company is a publisher known for collating ancient texts and academic publishing, with its output centered on Eastern philosophy, culture, classic works, art, and historical reading. Its library contains 532 titles, including Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, Guo Qingfan's Collected Commentaries on Zhuangzi, the four-volume Chinese Literature: Four Great Classical Novels, and the two-volume Table of Seal and Clerical Script Forms from Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin. These titles span historical classics, commentaries on the philosophers, classical novels, and philological reference works. Representative authors include Chen Shou, Guo Qingfan, Wu Cheng'en, Shi Nai'an, Cao Xueqin, Luo Guanzhong, Xu Wenwu, and the Hanyu Dazidian character-form group, reflecting a focus on primary sources and scholarly editors. Its publishing character lies in combining authoritative editions and annotated texts with both accessible classics and specialized research. Public information on its fuller catalog is limited; this note describes only the directions evident in the library's holdings.

Contents

1. 版权信息
2. 再版说明
3. 上册
4. 第一章 禁苑柔荑
5. 第二章 雏凤清音
6. 第三章 锋芒渐露
7. 第四章 实干兴邦
8. 第五章 寰宇一统
9. 第六章 文治功罪
10. 第七章 对外关系
11. 下册
12. 第八章 反清星火
13. 第九章 赤日烈焰
14. 第十章 江河日下
15. 第十一章 禁城黄昏
16. 第十二章 乾隆一家
17. 第十三章 历史地位
18. 附录
19. 再版后记

FAQ

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Bai Xinliang is an author whose publicly available biographical information is limited; details such as his place of origin, year of birth, and educational background are not clearly recorded. What is known is that he works mainly on Qing dynasty history, both in research and in writing for a general readership. Four of his works are included here: the two-volume Biography of Qianlong, the two-volume Biography of Kangxi, the six-volume Biographies of Qing Emperors, and Textual Studies in Qing History. His subjects center on imperial biographies and on focused textual examination of Qing history, and his books are commonly categorized as general biography and history reading. His output suggests that he writes accessible lives of emperors while also engaging in source-based textual criticism, combining readable narrative with careful attention to historical evidence and offering readers a fairly systematic introduction to Qing figures and institutions.