We ordinary people can know Emperor Qianlong, on the one hand, from middle school history, and more from the current film and television works. There are specific images such as Qianlong, Princess Zhu Huan, Emperor Qianlong and Ji Xiaolan with iron teeth and copper teeth. These concrete images are directly printed in our minds.
Even though we think we are rational enough to correctly distinguish between film and television works and real history, there is still a big gap between the image of Qianlong and the real people formed in our ordinary people's minds because there is no suitable condition to contact the real history.
At least in my opinion, Gan Long is an arrogant, militaristic, cruel and self-righteous person. Because of his ignorance, he formed a closed-door rule, which eventually led to the result that the development of our Chinese nation lagged far behind the world powers in the late Qing Dynasty, so the Opium War failed, the Opium War failed again, the Sino-Japanese War failed, the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing, and Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, which brought endless benefits to the Chinese nation.
So much blood and tears are sad, and the general root is attributed to Qianlong's extravagance and waste, self-righteousness and closed door.
It is an indisputable fact that the development of the Chinese nation has stagnated or even regressed since Qianlong, but I am afraid it is wrong or distorted to blame this fact on Qianlong.
I can say this because I have heard a course taught by Liu Jiaoshou, a professor of Qing history at Renmin University of China: Biography of Great Men.
The achievements made by Qianlong were the highest among hundreds of emperors in feudal society for more than two thousand years. This is the highest, which means the real and effective establishment of a unified empire.
According to Liu Jiaoshou, the unified empire includes three key contents. One is the effectiveness of ruling power, the other is the effectiveness of ruling the territory conquered by force, and the third is the effectiveness of people's inner recognition of the ruling class.
If the emperor says "one" and the minister does "two", the emperor has no way of knowing or knowing, then the ruling power is invalid. If a place is conquered by force, but administrative orders cannot be executed normally in that place, and a de facto independent kingdom appears, then the effectiveness of state governance will be greatly reduced. Although nothing is said on the surface under the high-pressure policy, the people look down on the emperor and want to fuck him every chance they get. If they don't recognize the emperor's legal status, then the recognition effect of the ruling class is out of the question.
But it was in this unified three effects that Emperor Qianlong completely achieved it. You know, Qin Shihuang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Taizong, Song Taizu and Ming Taizu, including Comrade Kangxi, did not fully realize these three aspects.
If you want to accomplish something, you can't do it by yourself. You must have a group of capable men to turn your ideas into reality, and with such helpers, it is a major prerequisite to be able to seriously implement your ideas. Just don't rub the sand in your eyes at this time The "softness" in the early stage of his succession and the "rigidity" in the middle and late stage are not only the needs of his centralized rule, but also a series of actions taken to make his subordinates obey.
Transforming one's men into an invincible fighting team is the fundamental premise of unity, and Qianlong realized it through his own efforts and so-called bending.
The threat of nomadic people to the Han nationality has a long history. This is a headache for generations. The rulers of the Qing dynasty also faced this headache. Although Emperor Taizong of Han Dynasty and others were able to conquer with temporary power, they failed to form effective rule. As long as the troops of the central government leave or the central government is slightly uncoordinated, those comrades on horseback will not stop and will make a difference. Judy moved to Beijing for this reason, but one of his descendants is still a prisoner of Valla. Therefore, if this problem is not solved well, it will not be the establishment of a unified empire.
The Kangxi dynasty sealed lamas, levied Tianshan Mountains and allied grasslands, which laid a certain foundation for the establishment of a unified territory, but it was still unstable. As long as the front of the Qing army is mentioned a little, Zhungeer will not have any storms, and he will be the king, not only the king, but also the south of Ma Su and the Yangtze River. Gan Long is indeed far-sighted. He knew that if he wanted to establish a long-term and stable inheritance of the Qing Dynasty and did not completely solve the nomadic people's intrusion on the mainland, he could only return to the endless dead end of his predecessors.
Therefore, after the end of the war, the garrison troops entered, assisted and restricted with a lot of economic benefits, and finally made those places that had been unwilling to surrender completely lose the idea of continuing to resist rebellion. At the same time, don't be greedy and implement the concept of clear boundaries. I don't want your things, but you'd better not touch mine. It can be said that it was the strategy of Emperor Qianlong that really laid the geographical map of China today.
The unification of geographical boundaries was really established in Qianlong era.
The division between Manchu and Han has always been a pain in the hearts of Qianlong himself and his former emperors. The Eight Banners of Manchuria laid a solid foundation by taking advantage of various civil strife in the late Ming Dynasty. However, the idea of "alien rule" in the bones of the Han people is still deeply rooted. How to make all the people become obedient citizens from the ideological level is the ultimate standard to achieve long-term stability.
Therefore, cultural transformation has become an important part of the national policy of Qianlong. With the compilation of Sikuquanshu as the representative, Emperor Qianlong made a series of efforts, including after his death, such transformation continued, and finally basically achieved the expected effect of Qianlong.
At this point, emperor Qianlong realized three important aspects of realizing the unified empire, and the unified empire of the Chinese nation was finally established in the Qianlong Dynasty.
Although boastful, it is generally in line with historical facts. Among all feudal emperors, his achievement was the greatest.
Seeing this, many people will laugh at me, because I have been saying good things without criticism. Actually, I didn't mean that.
There is a historical environment problem in the evaluation of historical figures. We can't use modern people's world outlook, outlook on life and values as a yardstick to measure our predecessors. There is a saying that the XXX system is quite bad, but it is the least bad one that humans can find so far.
From the point of view of Qianlong, all the measures he took were also the least bad he could find. Of course, perhaps from that period, there may be a better way than the measures taken by Ganlong. However, Qianlong is a high-ranking emperor. If there is no way to persuade him, you can only listen to him. For example, the current business operation is the same. Even if someone's idea is really better than the chairman's, it's not the worst thing if the chairman can't accept it and has no ability to convince it.
It should be said that since the middle and late Qing Dynasty 100 years, or even nearly 200 years, all people with lofty ideals have realized that China has fallen behind the world powers, and they are also trying to find a way to strengthen the country and enrich the people. However, due to the inherent inertia of the development of things, it will take a long time for such a big country with a population of more than 400 million (now1400 million) to completely break away from the original development track.
Actually, we've been trying. Zeng Guopan, Hu Linyi, Zuo, Zhang Zhidong, Li Hongzhang and others in the late Qing Dynasty, from the Kang-Liang Reform to the Revolution of 1911, to the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC), until today, our efforts in reform and opening up are all for this effect.
Back to the original topic. No matter whether Qianlong was closed to the outside world or arrogant, these evaluations of Qianlong still have fatal loopholes in the face of historical materials.
One thing mentioned by Liu Jiaoshou is enough to prove this point. There was a court painter named Lang Shining, who was Italian himself. Every time the foreign war ended, Qianlong always asked Lang Shining to draw a battle map, and then sent it to Paris to make a bronze plate.
This historical data proves that Qianlong had a "full" understanding of the world at that time, and he knew that there was a broader world besides the territory he conquered. He also knows that in some respects, we are not as good as them.
Therefore, through this course, I have several aspects of cognition.
First, the evaluation method of historical figures must return to the historical space where historical figures live, so as to be as fair as possible;
Second, for the evaluation of Emperor Qianlong, we should first see his painstaking and unremitting efforts in running the Qing Empire, and then look at his historical limitations;
Third, the development of history is by no means controlled by one person, and the people are the original driving force that determines the direction of historical development. Although Qianlong has his unique influence because of his unique position, he can't completely blame the subsequent problems on him.
Fourth, the most important point is that all history is contemporary history, and there is no evidence to shake the correctness of this view at present. Therefore, when studying Liu Jiaoshou's curriculum, we should also pay attention to the angle of "Emperor Qianlong of Liu Jiaoshou".
Of course, I wrote so much, only "Liu's success."