Qianlong's six patrols south of the Yangtze River deterred the Han Chinese
Hello everyone, I'm Lantai. Today, Lantai will take you to understand the views of American historians on the Qing Dynasty's Qianlong Emperor's six visits to the south of the Yangtze River. Of course, Lantai does not think that the American historian's view is correct, but we may not be able to accept the views of foreign scholars in their entirety, but we must admit that their perspectives are indeed very different from those of our Chinese scholars, and their views can allow us to understand the Qing Dynasty from multiple perspectives.
Today, Lantai will introduce the views of Zhang Mianzhi, a Chinese-American Chinese historian and associate professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. Here, Lantai will give a brief introduction to Professor Zhang.
Professor Zhang Mianzhi, a Ph.D. in history who studied under renowned Chinese historians such as Zhou Xirui and Bi Kewei, has his own unique views on the purpose of Emperor Qianlong's six visits to the south of the Yangtze River.
Unlike domestic scholars who generally believe that Emperor Qianlong went to Jiangnan to entrap Han people and inspect river workers, Professor Zhang Mianzhi believes that the real purpose of Emperor Qianlong was to deter the Han people in Jiangnan by force and maintain the stability of the empire.
So, what is the basis for Professor Zhang Mianzhi's view? He believes that historically, the Liao, Jin, Yuan, and other non-minority regimes have a tradition of "patrolling the good fortune," and this is determined by their national habit of "living in pursuit of water and grass."
At the same time, the emperors of these regimes also had the purpose of armed parades to deter other nomads living in the steppes. Although the Yuan Dynasty did not need such a procession, as the Mongols had unified the steppe and there were no longer any henchmen, the precedent of the Yuan Dynasty also proved the importance of the patrol to deter and maintain the stability of the regime.
To sum up, Professor Zhang Mianzhi believes that the fundamental purpose of Emperor Qianlong's six visits to Jiangnan was to maintain the stability of the empire through military deterrence, which is also one of the common means used by minority regimes in history.
Qianlong's southern tour revealed Chinese politics under the Manchus of the Qing Dynasty, who had conquered the Mongol tribes in Inner Mongolia and the northeast and posed less threat to the Mongols in Dzungaria, Qianlong only had to appease the conquered Mongol tribes, while the Han people in the Jiangnan region posed a threat to Qing rule and needed armed marches to deter them.
Professor Zhang Mianzhi combed through the historical materials of Qianlong's six southern tours, and found that the ** and the army on the left and right of Hu Cong were mainly Manchus and Mongols, **There were few Han Chinese, and the army never used the green battalion.
Qianlong emphasized the martial tradition of the Manchus by staying in marching tents, inspecting the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners, riding horses, and practicing archery, believing that the world was "obtained" by the Manchus from their horses, and they should also be "governed" on the horses.
His criticism of Emperor Yuan Shun warned the Qing rulers not to forget the tradition of mounted archery, which could lead to the extinction of the sect. Professor Zhang Mianzhi's views are novel and provide a new perspective to interpret Qianlong's descent to the south of the Yangtze River.
Although when Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, the ** and the army on the left and right were mainly Manchus and Mongols, and he publicly reviewed the Eight Banners army with him many times, but this does not necessarily mean that Qianlong consciously used force to deter the Han people in the south of the Yangtze River.
Qianlong stated that the main purpose of going to Jiangnan was to inspect river workers, and he basically lived in the palace in the south, and his entourage lived in tents and walked by water, which shows that he was indeed not for the purpose of armed deterrence of the Han people in Jiangnan.
In addition, some historical materials show that at least part of the original intention of Emperor Qianlong to go to the south of the Yangtze River was just for tourism. For example, in the twelfth year of Qianlong, Dong Bangda, a cabinet scholar, returned to his hometown because of the death of his mother, and less than two months after he returned to his hometown, Hangzhou Weaving secretly conveyed Qianlong's edict and asked him to draw the whole map and album of West Lake.
This is a very strange thing, because when Emperor Qianlong asked Dong Bangda to paint a map of the West Lake, it was the time when Empress Fucha died, and it was said in the official history that Emperor Qianlong loved his queen deeply, but a few days or ten days after the death of the queen, he had already asked Dong Bangda, who was back in Hangzhou, to paint him a panorama of the West Lake, which shows that Emperor Qianlong did go to Jiangnan in part of the reason to go to Jiangnan to relax.
*The real purpose of Emperor Qianlong's visit to the south of the Yangtze River: to play, to encircle Han scholars or to deter by force? "