Emperor Kangxi Visited Shandong To Study In The South

The Kangxi Emperor(4^th May,1654-20^th December,1722)made six southern tours in his reign.Surprisingly,Shandong region is included in all of these twelve different routes.The emperor travelled along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal?Shandong Section?for eight times,stopping at water-gate of the canal and staying in towns and villages on the coast.And he chose overland lines as the other four routes,mostly travelling down south the post road of the Shandong East Circuit.His choice of routes was mainly restricted by his goals of southern tours and activities in Shandong area,There were many activities during Kangxi's southern tours.Political activities he did include the events at the country level such as rituals on Mount Tai and ceremonies of Confucius,which declared the ruling regime of Manchu rulers against Han scholar-officials and represented the worship of Confucianism and Taoism.He also interacted with the ruled as an emperor,caring for the livelihood of people,exempting tax and corvee and relieving people in disaster to improve people's life and officials'governance,thus easing the class conflicts and consolidating the domination.Furthermore,he received and rewarded the bureaucratic class and also focused on grassroots group like scholars who passed the imperial examination at the county level.In addition,the emperor kept an absolute vigilance against the ideology represented by Catholicism during his southern tours.Cultural activities he did include visiting natural and cultural landscapes,writing many poems personally,giving plaques with his handwriting to officers as well as ordinary people,and holding poetry conferences.The Kangxi Emperor improved transport network as well as people's life and cleaned up bureaucracy in Shandong area through his six southern tours.But on the other hand,during the tours,it was inevitable to waste money and labor,and it also provided opportunities for official corruption.