biography
| name: |
Qianlong
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| |
also spelled Ch'ien-Lung
|
pronunciation:
[chyan lung]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1711–99)
|
| biography:
| Seventh emperor of the Manchurian Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty, and the fourth to rule China. He succeeded at the age of 24. Wanting to be thought the greatest ruler in China's history, he ordered (1773) a great literary catalogue by 15 000 scribes (36 000 vols), studied painting and calligraphy, wrote 42 000 poems, published notes on his studies (1736) and a prose/verse collection (1737), patronized the arts and scholarship, and built a sumptuous summer palace. After three major campaigns (1755–9) he annexed E Turkestan (re-named Xinjiang, ‘New Dominion’), conquered Burma (1769) and Nepal (1790–1), and suppressed revolt in Taiwan. This expensive foreign policy, allied to governmental corruption, provoked a rebellion which he was unable to suppress, and he abdicated in 1795. |
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