Qian Gang's Arbitrary Decision: the Emperor's Mentality in the Prosperous Times of Kangxi and Qianlong

A book to understand the unfathomable imperial thoughts of the three prosperous emperors of Kangxi, Yongzong and Qianlong. The Qing Dynasty used minority ethnic groups to rule the huge Han population. The panic over the legitimacy of rule gave rise to the Qing emperors' ultimate desire for control. They transformed national conflicts and cultural anxiety into power for power, reaching the pinnacle and final success of China's feudal imperial power. 1. Kangxi's mind of checks and balances: maintaining stability through dynamic balance Emperor Kangxi tacitly allowed the two major groups, Mingzhu and Suo'etu, to attack each other. After the two groups threatened the stability of his rule, he successively ordered the imperial censor to impeach and remove him. For ten years after deposing the crown prince, Emperor Kangxi allowed many capable adult princes to fight and kill each other. While maintaining the sole authority of his power, he also conducted a stress test on the princes. Kangxi truly maintained a delicate balance between "competition" and "controllability". 2. Yongzheng's mysterious politics: using the "system black box" to resolve the crisis of legitimacy Emperor Yongzheng overturned the tradition of deliberation with the military aircraft department, and the major policies were locked behind the high walls of the palace; he implemented a secret system, built an all-weather monitoring network, and used Zhu Pi's murderous tactics to intimidate all officials; he secretly established the throne, cut off the dispute over the throne, and turned the inheritance of imperial power into Yongzheng's unilateral will. This system of institutionalized secret politics turns doubts about "incorrect position" into arbitrary capital. 3. Qianlong's psychological deterrence: using cultural terror to construct a master-slave relationship Emperor Qianlong used harsh literary prisons to turn the world into frightened birds; he arbitrarily manipulated the fate of Zhang Tingyu and other senior ministers, and the safety and dignity of the ministers depended on the emperor's thunder and rain; in the name of "Sikuquanshu", he burned and banned books. Qianlong's control skills were upgraded to hunting for the souls of scholar-bureaucrats, and he completely domesticated the Han tradition of "co-governance by monarch and ministers" into the master-slave relationship.