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The Royal Family And The War Of Three Military Governors

Posted on:2015-02-17Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y Y LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2266330428968438Subject:History of Ancient China
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The royal family of Qing Dynasty is considered to be one of the important forces to put down the Central Plains because of their remarkable performance in the war after the Qing Dynasty entering the Shanhai Pass and pacifying Jiangnan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hubei and Hunan and Yunnan. When military governor Wu Sangui rebelled, Emperor Kangxi appointed members of the royal family as officers to crush the insurgency. As for their performance at the front, there were a variety of official and civil claims. When reading some historical literature, I found instead of being playboys as some experts and scholars stated, they were quite progressive and made great efforts to safeguard their motherland on the battlefield. This paper mainly touches upon the reason why many of them were not awarded but got punished despite their remarkable contributions on the battlefields.Based on the phenomenon that the royal families’performances at the front of putting down the three military governors’ rebellion are not matched with the evaluation of them given by the imperial court, this thesis mainly explores the image of royal families and the change of their political role during the reign of Emperor Kang Xi, Emperor Yong Zheng and Emperor Qian Long. Though their performances were not as outstanding as those of their forefathers, they were still positive and generally promoted the imperial court’s pacification of the rebellion. Through interpreting the Qing Dynasty’s official evaluation system, we can know that in order to restrict the royal families’ power, the emperors’evaluation of members of the royal families participating in these wars are dominated by punishment. With the strengthening of the emperors’power, the royal families’right of participating in military actions from Emperor Kang Xi to Emperor Qian Long were gradually restricted. During the reign of Emperor Kang Xi, the royal families still played important role of commanding and many royal family members still had the chance of experiencing wars in battle fields. Whereas during the reign of Emperor Yong Zheng, they almost lost their power of leading the military force; and during the reign of Emperor Qian Long, they were completely replaced by the Eight Banners royal nobles as commander of the royal families. Emperor Qian Long wanted to appeal to the royal family members to make military contributions to the country through vindicating and praising Prince Rui Qin Duoergun by building temple for him, reevaluating the contributions of royal clan members in their biographies and epitaphs.
Keywords/Search Tags:Qing Dynasty royal family, clan, three military governors’ rebellion, State Official Parliament
PDF Full Text Request
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