The Qing emperor who waited three years to rule, then toppled his father's favourite
The Jiaqing Emperor took the throne in 1796, but for three years his retired father kept making the decisions. Days after the old man died in 1799, Jiaqing turned on Heshen, the notoriously corrupt court favourite, stripping him of everything and ordering him to take his own life. Historians still disagree whether his reign began the dynasty's decline.
Born Yongyan on 13 November 1760 at the Old Summer Palace outside Beijing, he was Qianlong's 15th son. His mother, Noble Consort Ling, came from a Han Chinese family long absorbed into the Manchu banner system. Two brothers his father preferred died of illness, so in December 1773 Qianlong secretly named Yongyan heir. Even the prince's name was adjusted: one character was swapped for a rarer form, because Qianlong thought an emperor's personal name should not use a common character.
The handover was unusual. In October 1795 Qianlong announced he would abdicate, unwilling to reign longer than his grandfather Kangxi, who had ruled for 61 years. Prince Jia adopted the era name Jiaqing in February 1796, yet remained a figurehead while his father governed as emperor emeritus. Once free, he dealt with Heshen, spared the scholar Hong Liangji, who had criticised the old regime, and launched reforms of the court, civil service and treasury. Jonathan Spence judged that he leaned on rhetoric more than concrete policy, and other factions soon filled Heshen's place.
Trouble crowded the reign. The White Lotus rebellion of 1796 to 1804 and the Miao uprising drained an already empty treasury. In 1813 a millenarian sect called the Eight Trigrams attacked the Forbidden City in a failed bid to kill him. The British ambassador Lord Amherst came in 1816 seeking better trade terms but left empty-handed after refusing to kowtow. Jiaqing also told the Vietnamese ruler Gia Long he could not name his country Nam Viet, but could call it Viet Nam.
A devoted student of the Confucian classics, he is credited with 15,267 poems. He died on 2 September 1820 at the summer palace in Rehe; official history gives no cause, and stories range from lightning to a stroke. His son Mianning succeeded him as the Daoguang Emperor.
Source: Jiaqing Emperor
