Summary based on the textbook, Spence The Search for Modern China
P72-79: Economic (compare with the provinces)
During the Yongzheng period, China had been divided to several different macro-regions. The first macroregion was located in Shaanxi and Shanxi. This included Xi’an. The second macro-region was located around Hebei, Shandong and Henan. It included Beijing. The third macro-region was located in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It included Nanjing. The forth macro-region was located in Hunan and Jiangxi. It included Hankou and Jingdezhen. The fifth macro-region was located in Sichuan. The sixth macro-region was located in Yunnan and Guizhou. The seventh macro-region was located in Guangdong and Guangxi. It included Canton. The last macro-region was located in Fujian included Amoy. Different macro regions had their own economy and different macro regions had different influences. For instance, the last macro-region is located in Fujian, very close to Taiwan. So, this macro-region played a very important role in economic and cultural communication between China (mainland) and Taiwan. There is one more good example. The second macro-region included Henan and Beijing. In Henan, the Yellow River often broke its banks and submerged a lot of land. In order to manage the Yellow River, the Qing government made this macro-region. So, if the Yellow River broke its bank again, the Shandong and Hebei provinces could send their help faster and Beijing could give the commands more easily. There were also some conflicts between different macro-regions, the Qing government should have paid more attention to manage them.
P79-83 Taxes
The Yongzheng emperor made a lot of changes to taxes. Before the Yongzheng emperor, depending on how many people were in your family, you should pay money in taxes. For instance, if a man had two sons and one wife in his home, he had to pay 4 “dollars” (1 dollar for each person per year). But the Yongzheng emperor changed this way to pay taxes. After his reform, how much taxes people should pay was decided by how much land you had, but not how many people were in your family. For instance, if a person had one acre of land, this person should pay 1 dollar for this land per year. If you had 2 acres lands, you had to pay 2 dollars per year. People’s payment for taxes was no longer decided by how many people (counted in Chinese in ding, “adults”) were in your home, but decided by how much lands (di) you have. Through his reform, many poor people got less pressure from taxes and some rich people had to pay more because they had more land. The Yongzheng emperor also made a lot of changes to taxes like this. The Yongzheng emperor started the reform in Zhejiang and Jiangsu. By this change, the population of China rose during the Yongzheng period. People could stop worrying about tax if they wanted to expand their family. And the change of taxes removed a lot of pressures from poor people. So they could have more money to feed a larger family. Also, there were fewer wars during the Yongzheng period.
P83-88: Concentrate the power in the emperor
The Yongzheng emperor made a lot of reforms to concentrate the power to the emperor (himself), because a lot of rebellions happened during the Yongzheng period. For instance, in Taiwan, Tibet and many other places rebellions happened. Russia also intended to invade Mongolia (then controlled by the Qing). In order to deal with those situations, he built an agency called Junjichu, concentrated power to himself and several officers. When the Junichu was first founded, it was an agency which was responsible to control the army. It controlled the food and money supply of army. After the wars which I mentioned, the Yongzheng emperor gave more power to this agency. Junjichu can decided everything for the Qing government. It became the power central of the Qing dynasty and this agency was totally controlled by the emperor.
P88-93: Moral Authority
During the Yongzheng period, some people believed the Yongzheng emperor was not the real successor of the Kangxi emperor. In order to destroy this rumor, the Yongzheng emperor limited the culture development. Some people even were sent to jail because the emperor believed that the poetry they wrote contained hints he was not the real successor. Yongzheng emperor even wrote a book to prove that he was the real successor of his father.
The Yongzheng emperor did not believe his brothers except Yinxiang. Yinxiang was the thirteenth son of the Kangxi emperor. The Yongzheng emperor suspected the rest of brothers would rebel against him and become the new emperor. Some of his brothers were arrested and they died quickly in jail. Many people believe the Yongzheng emperor killed his brothers but there was no evidence to prove this.
Author: LYJ
