Person1678 – 1735

Yongzheng Emperor (Shizong of Qing)

Also called: Shizong of Qing, Yinzhen

Fifth Qing emperor (r. 1722–1735), who strengthened imperial power through the Grand Council and extended the merged land-and-poll tax across the empire

Yinzhen, fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor, was made Prince Yong. He took the throne on his father’s death in 1722, but the succession was so contested that rumours spread that he had altered the will, and he imprisoned or killed the brothers who had been his rivals. Hence he devised the secret succession system, writing the heir’s name in advance and hiding it behind the “Upright and Bright” plaque in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. A tireless ruler who read and annotated countless memorials late into the night, he died suddenly in 1735.

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1 related event

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1723 – 1735Yongzheng’s Grand Council and Tax Reformmonarch
The Yongzheng Emperor set up the Grand Council to handle state affairs at his side and extended across the empire the merger of the poll tax into the land tax, payable in silver.

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