Editing Qing dynasty (section)

===Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors===
[[File:Budala5.jpg|thumb|The [[Putuo Zongcheng Temple]] in [[Chengde]], built during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor on the model of the [[Potala Palace]] in [[Lhasa]]]]

The reigns of the [[Yongzheng Emperor]] ({{reign|1723|1735}}) and his son, the [[Qianlong Emperor]] ({{reign|1735|1796}}), marked the height of Qing power. However, the historian Jonathan Spence notes that the empire at the end of Qianlong's reign was "like the sun at midday". Despite "many glories", "signs of decay and even collapse were becoming apparent".{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=97, 101}}

After the death of the Kangxi Emperor in the winter of 1722, his fourth son, Prince Yong ({{lang|zh|雍親王}}), became the Yongzheng Emperor. He felt a sense of urgency about the problems that had accumulated in his father's later years.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|p=72}} In the words of one recent historian, he was "severe, suspicious, and jealous, but extremely capable and resourceful",{{sfnp|Hsü|1990|p=35}} and in the words of another, he turned out to be an "early modern state-maker of the first order".{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p=68}} First, he promoted Confucian orthodoxy and cracked down on unorthodox sects. In 1723, he outlawed Christianity and expelled most Christian missionaries.{{sfnp|Hsü|1990|pp=35–37}} He expanded his father's system of [[Official Communications of the Chinese Empire#Memorials|Palace Memorials]], which brought frank and detailed reports on local conditions directly to the throne without being intercepted by the bureaucracy, and he created a small [[Grand Council (Qing dynasty)|Grand Council]] of personal advisors, which eventually grew into the emperor's de facto cabinet for the rest of the dynasty. He shrewdly filled key positions with Manchu and Han Chinese officials who depended on his patronage. When he began to realise the extent of the financial crisis, Yongzheng rejected his father's lenient approach to local elites and enforced collection of the land tax. The increased revenues were to be used for "money to nourish honesty" among local officials and for local irrigation, schools, roads, and charity. Although these reforms were effective in the north, in the south and lower Yangtze valley there were long-established networks of officials and landowners. Yongzheng dispatched experienced Manchu commissioners to penetrate the thickets of falsified land registers and coded account books, but they were met with tricks, passivity, and even violence. The fiscal crisis persisted.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=80–83}}
[[File:Battle of Oroi-Jalatu.jpg|thumb|Campaign against the [[Dzungar Khanate]] in the [[Dzungar–Qing Wars|Qing conquest of Xinjiang]] (1755–1758)]]

Yongzheng also inherited diplomatic and strategic problems. A team made up entirely of Manchus drew up the 1727 [[Treaty of Kyakhta]] to solidify the diplomatic understanding with Russia. In exchange for territory and trading rights, the Qing would have a free hand in dealing with the situation in Mongolia. Yongzheng then turned to that situation, where the Zunghars threatened to re-emerge, and to the southwest, where local [[Miao people|Miao]] chieftains resisted Qing expansion. These campaigns drained the treasury but established the emperor's control of the military and military finance.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=83, 86}}

[[File:LordMacartneyEmbassyToChina1793.jpg|thumb|[[George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney|Lord Macartney]] saluting the Qianlong Emperor]]
When the Yongzheng Emperor died in 1735, his son Prince Bao ({{lang|zh|寶親王}}) became the Qianlong Emperor. Qianlong personally led the [[Ten Great Campaigns]] to expand military control into present-day [[Xinjiang]] and [[Mongolia]], putting down revolts and uprisings in [[Sichuan]] and southern China while expanding control over Tibet. The Qianlong Emperor launched several ambitious cultural projects, including the compilation of the ''[[Siku Quanshu]]'', the largest collection of books in Chinese history. Nevertheless, Qianlong used the [[literary inquisition]] to silence opposition.<ref>{{Cite news |script-title=zh:康乾盛世"的文化專制與文字獄 |url=https://big5.china.com.cn/city/txt/2007-03/08/content_7927803.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105193242/http://big5.china.com.cn/city/txt/2007-03/08/content_7927803.htm |archive-date=5 January 2009 |access-date=2008-12-30 |work=china.com |language=zh}}</ref> Beneath outward prosperity and imperial confidence, the later years of Qianlong's reign were marked by rampant corruption and neglect. [[Heshen]], the emperor's handsome young favorite, took advantage of the emperor's indulgence to become one of the most corrupt officials in the history of the dynasty.<ref>Schoppa, R. Keith. ''Revolution and its Past: Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History''. Pearson Hall, 2010, pp. 42–43.</ref> Qianlong's son, the [[Jiaqing Emperor]] ({{reign|1796|1820}}), eventually forced Heshen to commit suicide.
[[File:Xu Yang - Commerce on the water.jpg|thumb|''[[Prosperous Suzhou]]'' (1759) by [[Xu Yang (Qing dynasty)|Xu Yang]]]]

Populations in the first half of the 17th century did not recover from civil wars and epidemics, but the following years of prosperity and stability led to steady growth. The Qianlong Emperor bemoaned the situation by remarking, "The population continues to grow, but the land does not." The introduction of new crops from the Americas such as the potato and peanut improved nutrition as well, so that the population during the 18th century ballooned from 100&nbsp;million to 300&nbsp;million people. Soon farmers were forced to work ever-smaller holdings more intensely.

In 1796, the [[White Lotus Society]] raised open rebellion, saying "the officials have forced the people to rebel". Others blamed officials in various parts of the country for corruption, failing to keep the famine relief granaries full, poor maintenance of roads and waterworks, and bureaucratic factionalism. There soon followed uprisings of "new sect" Muslims against local Muslim officials, and Miao tribesmen in southwest China. The [[White Lotus Rebellion]] continued until 1804, when badly run, corrupt, and brutal campaigns finally ended it.{{sfnp|Spence|1990|pp=112, 114, 116}}