Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/315

 Conscious of the danger of this system to the stability of the throne, Yin-chên worked strenuously to reduce the power of these princes (see under, , and ) and make them more subservient to himself. In pursuance of these aims he compelled those princes who were young to attend a school inside the Palace, known as the Shang shu-fang 上書房, or Palace School for Princes. The tutors were select scholars who could be trusted to inculcate the virtues of obedience and lovaltv and who would frown on heterodox ideas. By such instruction the princes were kept in complete subservience to the throne for the remainder of the dynasty.

In view of the suspicions that surrounded his accession, it is natural that Yin-chên should have been greatly concerned about his place in history. One of his first acts as Emperor was to confiscate the manuscripts of the great encyclopaedia, Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'êng (see under ), in order to deprive his opponent,, of the name of having sponsored that monumental project. He suppressed so many documents concerning his brother, Yin-t'i (see above), that little is now known about the latter's expedition to Lhasa in 1720 (see under and ). Knowing that some official records of the latter part of his father's reign were unfavorable to himself and that some were favorable to his opponents, he decided to suppress or alter any records which he disliked. One of the revealing facts about the shih-lu, or "veritable records", of his father's eventful reign is that they occupy a smaller compass per year than the shih-lu of any other Emperor of the Ch'ing period. [The average number of volumes of shih-lu for each of the reign-periods is as follows: Shun-chih, 1.7 volumes per year; K'ang-hsi, 1.1; Yung-chêng, 3; Ch'ien-lung, 6.2; Chia-ch'ing, 4.4; Tao-kuang, 5; Hsien-fêng, 9; T'ung-chih, 10.7; Kuang-hsü, 3.2]. The chief editor of the shih-lu for the K'ang-hsi period was who, by Yin-chên's last will, was given the highest award ever granted by a Ch'ing Emperor to a civil official--namely, to have his name celebrated in the Imperial Ancestral Hall along with several generals who had helped to found the dynasty. It would seem that, in the opinion of Yin-chên, Chang's editorship of the shih-lu of the K'ang-hsi period was not less important than a military victory in support of the throne.

Yin-chên's policy towards the Jesuits and other missionaries in China was largely influenced by the question of his accession to the throne. He disliked the missionaries because some of them had taken the side of his opponents (see under and ). Those who had official posts in Peking he tolerated, but deported many others who worked in the provinces. Yet in 1727 he received with due courtesy a Portuguese envoy who came to Peking to ask for more lenient treatment of the missionaries. When in 1730 a severe earthquake reduced many of the buildings in Peking to ruins, be contributed to the reparation of the churches.

Yin-chên proved to be an able and conscientious ruler; he reformed the national finances; kept strict watch over officials: and tried to enforce the laws of the empire. He forbade officials to form cliques, and his 朋黨論 P'êng-tang lun, "Discourse on Parties and Cliques", published in 1725, was a warning on this matter. Because officials were often tempted to engage in corrupt practices, owing to inadequate salaries, he introduced the system of yang-lien 養廉, or extra stipends for "the cultivation of incorruptibility". In the last years of his aged father's reign many officials had lapsed into corruption, but Yin-chên's enforcement of the law rejuvenated the government and laid the foundation for the splendors of the succeeding reign (see under ).

Politically successful, Yin-chên was less fortunate in military affairs. In 1723 and 1724 Nien Kêng-yao and his aide,, suppressed an uprising of the Khoshotes of Kokonor and subjugated that region, but after Nien was removed (1725) the border campaigns ceased. In Yunnan tried to eliminate the hereditary rulers of the Miao tribes and for a time appeared successful (1728–31), but not long after he had left the region the Miao again rebelled and all his efforts were nullified. The attempt of Yin-chên to conquer the Eleuths suffered an even worse setback. As his father had done in the case of, he first made peace with Russia (1727, see under ). But despite extensive preparations, the Chinese forces were almost annihilated (1731) at the hands of the Eleuths (see under ). For a time he was uneasy about the effects of this defeat on the Mongols, but a victory over the Eleuths at Erdeni Tsu in 1732 (see under ) gave him confidence to make peace with them without undue loss of prestige (see under ).

One result of this war was the establishment, in 1729, of the Chün-chi ch'u 軍機處, or Grand Council. Prior to this time the Grand Secre- 917