The History of China - #267 - Qing 12: The Four Regents of Kangxi

Episode Date: March 23, 2024

After the untimely death of Shunzhi, a regency will be established for the 8-year-old newly-enthroned Kangxi Emperor. These four powerful Manchu lords will each be vying with power for themselves, and the last thing they'll be expecting is a 13-year-old kid to outwit them all. Time Period Covered: 1661-1669 CE Major Historical Figures: The Kangxi Emperor (Xuanye) [r. 1661-1722] Prince-Regent Oboi of the Gulwgiya Clan [c. 1610-1669] Prince-Regent Soni of the Heseri Clan [1601-1667] Prince-Regent Ebilun of the Noihori Clan [d. 1673] Prince-Regent Suksaha of the Nara Clan [d. 1667] Grand Empress-Dowager Xiaozhuang [1613-1688] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to the History of China. Episode 267, The Four Regions of Kangxi.

Have you not seen the lady of the inner chamber arising from a night of love? The lady of Yue is like a flower one can never see enough. Along the perfumed path, buried now in dust, birds sing each to each. The veranda of musical sandals is gone to moss, empty and emerald green. Altering the first note, changing the final note. Ten thousand li of sorrow. Wu Weiye, the Yuan Yuan Qu, circa 1657. In all my life, my lot has been such that in all things there was anxiety and dread.

There was not a single moment when I was not experiencing distress. There was not a single place where I did not taste hardship. Truly, I am the most unfortunate man under heaven. After I die, I want you to dress me as a monk and bury me near the Dengwei and Liangyang mountains. Set up a round stone in front of the tomb with an inscription that says, The tomb of Wu Meitun, the poet. Do not make this a shrine. Do not solicit subscriptions from others. Wu Weiye again, writing from his deathbed, 1671. My birth was nothing miraculous, nor did anything extraordinary happen when I grew up.

I came to the throne at eight, fifty-seven years ago. I've never let people talk about supernatural influences of the kind that have been recorded in the histories. Lucky starts, auspicious clouds, unicorns and phoenixes, chili grass, and such-like blessings. Or burning pearls into jade in front of the palace, or heavenly books sent down to manifest heaven's will. Those are all empty words, and I don't presume so far. I just go on each day in an ordinary way, and concentrate on ruling properly. The Kangxi Emperor, from his Valedictory Edict, 1717. We left off last week with the sudden and mysterious death of the young Sun Tzu Emperor at just 23, apparently succumbing to a bout of smallpox in February 1661. Thus it was that the dragon throne sat, for the moment, vacant, and it was truly up in the air as to who would fill it. All of the imperial heirs were, of course, only small children, ranging from eight years old to as young as only a few months. There was no question as to the necessity of yet another

extended regency, but who exactly would serve in that role, and to what ends? Who was this Kangxi emperor who would replace Xunzhe? What were his circumstances and upbringing? Just what kind of a man and a ruler would develop from such an environment, such a boy? Well, today, we're going to begin looking at all those questions for what will be the longest and perhaps most important reigning emperor in just about all of Chinese history. However, before attempting to answer those questions, it behooves us to take one more look at the circumstances surrounding the Xunzha Emperor's sudden demise. Indeed, shortly after Shunzha's death, rumors began swirling around the capital that he may have not actually died at all,

but instead spirited himself away from Beijing under highest secrecy and retired to a monastery to live out the rest of his days as a Buddhist monk, perhaps voluntarily out of grief over the death of his favored concubine, Dongguo, or perhaps forced from the throne by a cabal of powerful Manchu nobles who longed for a younger and more pliant emperor for them to puppet than the increasingly self-reliant Xunzhe. These rumors were almost certainly untrue, as evidenced by the fact that not only a senior officer of the imperial bodyguard,

but another ranking imperial concubine, likewise from the Dongguo clan, had committed suicide in order to join their lord in the afterlife. And the idea that these deaths were staged in order to lend credence to the emperor's quote-unquote fictional death while he actually retired a monkdom rather more than strains credulity. So, assuming that we take his death as actual, that still does leave the question, was it an unfortunate but natural twist of fate brought on by certainly one of the most dangerous diseases around? That's definitely possible, as smallpox was a constant risk throughout the premodern world,

regardless of rank or title. On the other hand, it is likewise possible, and significantly more fun from a historical story perspective, to suppose that there may have been some dirty work afoot leading up to the emperor's untimely demise. Let's face it, for all his positive qualities, as we discussed last episode, the Sunja emperor wasn't exactly the platonic ideal of a Manchurian warrior's high chieftain. As Jonathan Swift puts it, quote, physically weak, intellectually inclined, strongly drawn to mystical Buddhist practices and to Catholic missionaries, passionately attached to a few chosen concubines, and willing to delegate wide powers to his eunuchs, the young Xunzhi emperor clearly

conjured up to his anxious nobles visions of effete Ming emperors rather than memories of Nurhaci and Hong Taiji. By 1660, his policies and behavior had alienated important people at court, among them several chamberlains of the imperial bodyguard and even his own mother. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that these powerful figures in the inner ring within the palace may have decided that Shunzhi was more trouble than he was worth, and that a new and far more pliant child emperor would be worth the risk of his disposal. Two days before his death, on February 4th, 1661, the emperor, quite suddenly feeling too ill to carry out his official duties, instead summoned two secretaries to his personal chambers and directed them to take down his will. Yet after they'd completed this dictated document, it was

brought to the Empress Dowager and quote-unquote certain princes and high officials from which it officially was to be promulgated after Xunzhe's demise. Yet the documents that the Empress and princes would publish is rightly described as incredible. From Spence, quote, In this extraordinary document, which scholars now generally regard as being a blatant forgery, the Xunzhe emperor chastised himself for a variety of faults—idleness, extravagance, neglect of the military, bias towards eunuchs and civil officials, distrust of senior manchus, and rejection of the empress dowager's advice. After listing his faults, he then named his third son, the heir apparent, and listed four regents who were to rule during the new emperor's minority, namely Soni, Shubshaka, Abelun, and Oboi. End quote. Pretty much exactly the kind of document

that you would never, ever find a 23-year-old writing. I was wrong about everything, and my advisors and mother were totally correct. Having been 23 once upon a time, yeah, right. Of course, it is possible that the four regents and the Empress Dowager had no direct hand in the death of Xunzhe, but may have, realizing the severity of his illness and the likelihood of his imminent death, just quickly moved to secure their own positions and security in the regime that would follow. We will, in all likelihood, never know for certain. Regardless, as soon as they were in power, they initiated a sweeping review of virtually all Qing government institutions and quickly abolished the majority

of those that had been so favored by Xunzhe and so despised by his Manchu courtiers. Singled out for particular treatment was the 13 offices established by the Xunzhe emperor, including the summary execution of some of his very favorite Yaman officials. Over the subsequent half-decade, they would install their own counter-institutions to be heavily dominated by the Manchu elites, including the Imperial Household Department, the Court of Colonial Affairs, and the Council of Princes and High Officials. They restructured and downgraded the Censorates and the Hanlin Academy, Bannermen were barred from taking the civil examinations, and the eight-legged essay was abolished. The values of military efficiency and military

men's paramount roles were declared in the provinces as in the capital. They sanctioned savage punishments of tax delinquency, as in the Jiangnan Tax Arrears Case of 1661, when 18 Han Chinese were beheaded after a lengthy trial. Further south, across not just Fujian but many other coastal provinces such as Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangnan, and even as far north as Shandong, the lingering threat of Koxinga and his revanchist army on Taiwan led to even further strictures. In the first of a series of government acts designed to strip the pirate lord of his access to the populace or its wealth, the entire coastal population of these regions was ordered to move en masse as far as 25 kilometers inland,

with obviously devastating effects on both the populace forced to relocate, as well as those that they were now crowded amongst. Forced to settle wherever they could, these people, who up until now had based nearly their entire lives and occupations around seafaring and fishing, were suddenly and completely banned from even basic access to the sea, under penalty of death. One such record from Hsien An County, the area that surrounds modern Hong Kong and Shenzhen cities, noted that the area's entire recorded population of more than 16,000 people had been driven out, leaving the region a virtual wasteland. When the stricture was temporarily lifted in 1669, only 1,669 people were recorded as having even bothered to attempt to resettle the region, only for it to immediately face the full wrath

of a typhoon that same year and then again in 1671, all of which is to say, not nice, not nice at all. In a further attempt to enforce their will on the Han population, the four regents reissued a decree from the initial conquest era of 1645, ordering that all families must cease their ever-controversial practice of foot binding for female children. The Manchus, who had never adopted the practice and considered it, understandably, a horrible, barbaric act of torturous cruelty, threatened steep punishments against those who were caught clandestinely binding their daughter's feet. From Spence, quote,

Han Chinese soldiers whose families were binding their daughter's feet were to be given 40 blows with the bamboo by the Ministry of Punishments. The heads of commoner households were to receive a similar beating and then forced to wear the punitive heavy wooden collar, or the kang, for a month, end quote. The four regents who ordered these policies in the name of the boy emperor all had extensive military experience at the time of the Qing conquest, and had all been involved in the factional battles under the Dorgon regency in the late 1640s. All four of the main chamberlains of

the Imperial Bodyguard by the Shinja Emperor in the 1650s were enrolled in one of the three most prestigious banners, that being Bordered Yellow, Plain Yellow, and Plain White, respectively, and were from the great Manchu clans. Soni from the Hesiri, Suksaha from the Nara, Abilun from the Niohuru, and Oboi from the Gualgia. And I'm sure I'll have somebody in the comments correcting me on the pronunciations of those clan names, but I'm giving it my best shot here. They were all ambitious men who, it must be emphasized, were not mere officials. They were baronial leaders whose titles of office and ranks and nobility were reinforced by family and military connections. Each of them had personal control over large

numbers of armed men, they had banner companies or a zoling under their direct command, and relations serving as officers in the imperial bodyguard that patrolled the precincts even of the Forbidden City itself, as well as other loyal followers in the various guard divisions that garrisoned all over the capital. Had they been duly appointed regents, pledged in total fealty to the boy Kangxi Emperor, this, of course, would have been relatively unimportant. But their motives were rather ambiguous, and it was by no means clear that they intended to ever let their young charge take over in his own right. The new Kangxi Emperor clearly had been a mere pawn in the events of 1661. At his death, the Sununzhi Emperor had left

six surviving sons ranging in eight from eight years to two weeks, but only Xuanye was the son of a senior concubine from a great clan. His mother was a Chengjia, daughter of Duke Tongtulai. His other brothers had either Chinese mothers, which made them obviously unacceptable to the regions, or were from Manchu clans which had been disgraced, which made them obviously unacceptable to the regions, or were from Manchu clans which had been disgraced, such as the Dongguo, or insignificant, such as the Muktu. And so it had been he who was chosen, a choice that was also reinforced by the fact that he had survived a childhood attack of smallpox, which again was the at least nominal cause of his father's death. As a child, he had never spent any time at all with his father, but had been raised outside the palace altogether. Despite his imperial title, the boy had no clear

base of power on his own unless others chose to build one for him. That base building and initial push on behalf of the eventual Kangxi Emperor seems to have come from his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xiao Zhuang, in whose palace he was living. For some reason, perhaps because of the regent's arrogance, she became his fervent supporter, a role made the easier by their shared residences and, of course, blood ties. It was she who consoled him in March 1663 when his mother, the Empress Xiao Kang, died and, in a curious incident, forbade him to accompany his mother's coffin to the northern mausoleum. Xi may either have feared that the experience would be too much for the

grief-stricken child, or perhaps that the regents would use this occasion to do the young emperor harm. It was also Xi who apparently masterminded the first key political act in the Kangxi Emperor's public career, his marriage to Gabala's daughter. The significance of this marriage was that Gabala, a chamberlain of the imperial bodyguard, was the eldest son of Soni. The marriage, strongly opposed by Oboi, split the united front of the regents and brought the powerful Heseri clan firmly into the young emperor's camp. An ally of great importance obtained at this same time was that of Songotu, an officer in the imperial bodyguard and younger brother of Gabala.

Though all the ramifications of this marriage could not then be known, we should note that Songotu's younger sister was the concubine of Prince Yolo. This Yolo was a prince of the first class and grandson of Nurhaci. He had been president of the imperial clan courts in 1653 and was an energetic voice in the council of princes and high officials, as was his young colleague, Prince Giesu. The Empress Dowager and Sony's family acted so fast that no successful opposition was marshaled by the other regents. Gabala's 11-year-old daughter was betrothed to the Kangxi Emperor in August 1665, and on October 16th was formally named Empress.

By this point, the young emperor was himself 11 years old, and as such he was approaching a critical milestone in his life and reign. His father, after all, the Sunjja Emperor, had been deemed to have reached the age of majority and thereafter ended his regency when he was 13. Thanks to the machinations of his grandmother and others in his corner that we had just discussed, he by this point had indeed developed a faction of his own strong enough to begin planning to choose the proper time to press his own claim for personal rule. In a rather bold move, the following August, 1666, saw a censor file a memorial citing the boy king's upcoming 13th birthday and the precedent set by Xunzhe. It was filed without comment. Meanwhile, Prince Regent Oboi had been growing ever more bold

and with increasing independence from both the other regents as well as the throne itself. He'd launched a campaign to seize prized tracts of land on behalf of his supporters in the bordered Yellow Banner army, and had brutally punished anyone who dared to speak out against his brash actions. Moreover, he packed every agency that he could with his loyalists, including the metropolitan bureaucracy and the military posts within the palaces. It seemed that Oboi was in a prime position to lock himself into a permanent position of power, and perhaps even dispose of the Kangxi Emperor altogether if he opposed him. It was likely this danger that caused Kangxi and

his backers to decide that the time had come to move. In the spring of 1667, another of the regents, Sony, took ill and his health began to fail. The Kangxi faction either knew of or at least feared that the death of Sony would destabilize the regency's precarious tetrarchy, either resulting in the three remaining regents each solidifying an even larger share of the power base, or worse yet, Oboi outmaneuvering them all and claiming sole regency. How carefully the ground had been laid can be seen by the sequence of events that 1667. Sony died on August 12th. On August 21st,

lengthy discussions took place between the three remaining regents, the Kangxi Emperor and the Empress Dowager. The Emperor explained that Sony had urged him to take over the government in person, a claim that Sony, being, you know, dead and all, was in no position to confirm or deny, but that he felt himself still too young to rule outright. The Empress Dowager concurred, pointing out that the Regents should continue to rule for one or two more years. Afraid of pressing their claims too bluntly, the Regents said that the Emperor should be allowed to rule in person, but that they should, of course, continue to assist him. At this, the Empress Dowager suggested that the Ministry of Rights be told to choose an auspicious day for the Kangxi

Emperor's personal rule to begin. The regents agreed to this, since the implication was clearly that no actions would be taken for a couple of years. The Ministry of Rights, however, promptly named that very August 25th as the auspicious day, and thus, only four days after this great debate, the Kangxi Emperor formally took over the reins of government and held audience himself in the Taihe throne room. The Minister of Rights, Huang Zhi, was presumably the key agent in this geomantic coup. And as a reward, the Kangxi Emperor subsequently made him Minister of Revenue, Minister of Civil Office, and a Grand Secretary. His regency now officially dissolved. The Emperor's first official independent

act on August 28, 1667 was to ennoble the wife of the deceased Prince Husa. In this roundabout way, he acknowledged where a crucial part of his support in the August intrigues had come from, for the lady in question was the mother of Prince Giesu, a leader of the Council of Princes and High Officials. The next day, August 29th, a special edict ordered that the council decide on suitable honors for the three surviving regents, Oboi, Ebalun, and Suksaka. Reading the wind, Suksaka memorialized on August 31st that he had been seriously ill for some years, had never wanted to be a regent,

and now begged permission to retire and become a guardian at the Shunzhi Emperor's mausoleum. The emperor, or his advisors, it's impossible to determine exactly who made this decision, pounced on this injudicious memorial in order that the council of princes and high officials investigate Suksaha's motives. The speed with which matters had moved over the previous 10 days was maintained. On September 2nd, the council recommended that Suksaha, all his sons and grandsons together with the other members of his clan in the plain white banner, should be arrested and then interrogated. Two days later, the council, acting under Gyus' guidance, found Sukhsaka guilty on 24 counts.

Claiming to have received conclusive testimony from a dozen witnesses that Sukhsaka had resisted the decision to allow the Kangxi emperor to rule in person and had been guilty of numerous acts of arrogance and disloyalty, the council recommended that Sukhsaha and his son, Chakiran, who had also been a chamberlain in the imperial bodyguard, should be executed by slow slicing, or death by a thousand cuts. Two other sons, a nephew and a grandson, were to be beheaded, even though some of them were minors, as should a number of senior military officials who'd connived at his schemes. All the family of those involved were to be enslaved, and 17 other officers of the imperial guards were reduced in rank. The emperor approved these penalties, with the exception of Shukzaha's execution by slicing. Instead, he was executed

by strangulation. On September 8th, the two surviving regents, Oboye and Abeloun, were made dukes of the first rank. History isn't black and white, yet too often it's presented as such. Grey History, the French Revolution, is a long-form history podcast dedicated to exploring the ambiguities and nuances of the past. By contrasting both the experiences of contemporaries and the conclusions of historians, Grey History dives into the detail and unpacks one of the most important and disputed events in human history. From a revolution based on hope and liberty, to its descent into the infamous reign of terror, there's plenty to discuss,

and plenty of grey to explore. One can't understand the modern world without understanding the French Revolution. So if you're looking for your next long-form, binge-worthy history podcast, one recommended by universities and loved by enthusiasts, then check out Grey History, The French Revolution today, or out Grey History The French Revolution today, or simply search for the French Revolution. Thus, the young Kangxi Emperor gained political experience in this harsh world. We may read through the glosses put on these events by later official historians and offer up this interpretation. Oboi, as the most dangerous of the regents, had to be isolated. He'd been getting on badly with Shuksaha since maneuvering for reallocation

of banister lands the previous years, and his vanity and jealousy made it certain that he would strike at Shuksaha the first moment that he felt he had the chance. And that chance had finally come. So, the Council of Princes and High Officials gave an appearance of legality to these proceedings. In order to remove Shugsaha and lull Oboi into a sense of security, the Kangxi Emperor ratified the unusually savage penalties, fully aware that many of the charges had been trumped up. Abelun could be discounted as a threat. He was a cautious man, and, though completely under Oboi's thumb, had not followed Oboi's example in trying to carve out a territory for himself and his family. It may have been at this time that the emperor, following the successful Sony precedent, took

Evelyn's daughter as a concubine, but this remains speculative as the specific date that she entered the palace is not recorded. The girl would become the Kangxi Emperor's second empress in 1677, three years after the death of Emperor's second empress in 1677, three years after the death of Sony's granddaughter. From the summer of 1667, the Kangxi Emperor began making his own decisions, although he was still only 13 years old. He'd emerged from his first major crisis successfully, even if without honor. His first son was born in November of that same year to a junior concubine of the Magia clan, and there's no good reason to doubt

that the child was in fact his. She would bear him five other children, advanced in regular promotions up the hierarchy of palace women, and actually outlived the Kangxi emperor himself by five years, which is no mean feat. True here to the martial traditions that had been emphasized by the regents, he was already an accomplished archer and rider, and led his own hunting parties in the game reserves of the Nanyuan outside the capital. However, Kangxi had at this point rather limited experience with the written word. His main teacher of Manchu script was one of his grandmother's female retainers, a woman named Sumara, who held the young emperor's hand as he learned to write. His knowledge of written Chinese came from two eunuchs named Chang and Lin,

who had lived in the palace since the Ming dynasty. Much later in his life, the Kangxi Emperor told his old confidant, Gao Shichi, that the Chinese language lessons he had with his two eunuchs had to be conducted in secret. It's possible that the regents had tried to prevent him from learning Chinese at all in order to preserve the image that the new emperor was a Manchu warrior at heart. Those around the emperor ignored Assensio's request that, now that he was taking over the government in person, he might take his father's Manchu translations of the Confucian classics out of storage in the imperial household and begin to study them. The emperor only began a regular intensive course of study and reading and writing in 1673. Kangxi told his children that it was late in the 1660s that he had become determined to understand Western mathematics so that he could understand

the quarrels over calendrical techniques that rocked the court following the attack on Verbiest and the official staff of the Bureau of Astronomy. A scattering of unofficial contemporary sources supply a few other details concerning the young emperor's character. Observers in the Van Hoom embassy of 1668 from the Netherlands noted his curiosity and eagerness. The Kangxi emperor hurried them through the rituals so that he could go out and personally inspect the horses that they'd brought. He carefully checked over the glass lamps, had some of his servants test out one of their carts, and asked the Dutch who was responsible for sending this embassy and what the distance was of the Netherlands from Batavia. Van Chung Mo, in the autobiography that he wrote in jail prior to his death at the hands of the rebel Gung Jing Jong in

1676, recalled being at court with his father before 1666 while the Kangxi Emperor was still a young child. The Emperor asked a string of questions. Whose son are you? What rank did your father have? Is he still alive? What is his age? At a later meeting with Fan's father, the emperor recalled the earlier conversation and showed considerable knowledge of the family's background. The story seems credible. Fan's father, Fan Wancheng, had been one of the earliest key Ming defectors to Naraqi and was a Hanjun bannerman who was appointed to the Council of Princes and High Officials before retiring in 1654. The emperor would have known him, but would not have met him. Just as a minor aside here, it is noted that the Kangxi emperor was known to smoke tobacco as a child while in the company of his nurses. In the last month of 1667 and into 1668, a shifting battle was fought between the

Kangxi Emperor and Prince Oboy. Some of the clashes can be seen in the official sources, as one side or the other made executive decisions that reflected its own views. In October 67, Grand Secretary Bomberson was made editor of the veritable records for the Shunzhi Emperor's reign. This would enable Oboi to control what was written, for Bambasan was one of his closest confidants. Also that October, Manchu, Mongol, and Hanjun Bannerman were again authorized to sit for the regular Jinzhi degrees. This might have been seen as a decision by the young emperor

to encourage traditional learning, as was the restoration in August of 1668 of the Eight-Legged Essay, which had been abolished by Oboy. In January 1668, Marsai was named as the third co-president of the Ministry of Revenue. Presumably, this move was also made by Oboy, as there were usually only two presidents and Marsai was close to Oboy. In February 1668, an effusive eulogy to the deceased Shunzhi Emperor was issued. Implicitly, this was an anti-Oboi gesture that repudiated the Shunzhi will. Then came a flurry of the Kangxi Emperor's initiatives.

The new Grand Secretary Doikana went to replace Bomberson as chief editor, re-evaluation of the Southern Coastal Removal Program, as well as the restoration of the Jesuit astronomers to imperial favor. That last action was a direct attack on Oboy, who had been responsible for the other regents in removing Adam Schall and his Christian astronomer colleagues from all their posts in 1664 and imprisoning them on charges of incompetence and treason, even though Schall had been favored by the Xunzhe Emperor. By this point, Schall himself had died, but in December of 68, the Kangxi emperor ordered Verbiest to review the accuracy of the calendars submitted by the regent's appointees who had

initiated the charges against Shaul and his contemporaries. In January of 69, Verbiest formally impeached them for serious errors in their calculations. The commission named to investigate Verbiest's charges later that month was packed with the Kangxi Emperor's supporters. This commission backed Verbiest, who after some further checking by the Ministry of Rights, was named the Assistant Director of the Bureau of Astronomy that April. Even if all this was very humiliating to Oboi, and it certainly was, it still didn't make his removal any easier. Oboi's power stemmed from his control of troops and the large number of his nominees in senior official positions, and Oboy controlled the Forbidden City. As the Kangxi Emperor explained in an edict after Oboy's fall, Oboy had been able to treat the Emperor with contempt and act in

whatever reckless manner he chose because the members of his clique, that is, the officers of the Imperial Bodyguard and other troops loyal to him, were in control of the key roads and gates. This situation explains the significance of an apparently innocuous edict by the Empress Dowager. In February of 1669, she announced that the Kangxi Emperor, as he was now ruling in person, should leave her palace, the Qingning Gong, and move to the Qinqing Gong. But, as the latter palace was in need of extensive refurbishing, he should live in the meantime at the Wuying Palace. The Wuying Palace, to which the Emperor moved that spring, was outside the central palace compound, to the southwest, near the offices of the Imperial Household. It must have been here that the Emperor laid his final plans, specifically with the help of his grandmother, Songgotu, and other carefully chosen guards such as Garu, who was made director of the imperial household and later entrusted with the upbringing

of the emperor's eldest son. On June 14th, 1669, the Kangxi emperor struck. There was no attempt to proceed judgment by judicial investigation. In an angry edict, he accused Prince Oboi of insulting behavior, making rigged appointments to the bureaucracy, blocking the passage of memorials to the emperor, and organizing a clique for the purposes of privately discussing government matters. The Kangxi Emperor named 14 members of the clique, which was composed of senior military officers, foreign ministers, and other high-ranking civil officials. The second regent, Abelun, was censured for his failure to oppose Oboi. All were to be arrested immediately

and examined by the Council of Princes under Giesu. The entire trial took only 12 days. Oboi, Abelun, the clique listed by the emperor, and ten other principals were found guilty of various degrees of arrogance and treasonous behavior. The presiding investigator, Giesu, recommended that they all be executed, in many cases with their families as well, that their properties be confiscated and their women and children enslaved. But the Kangxi Emperor wanted a limited purge, not a general bloodbath. After ratifying the death sentences of nine on his original list, he sentenced the remainder to a hundred lashes or pardon them altogether. Oboi was imprisoned and died in confinement.

Ebelun was reprieved. A general amnesty was issued to all other officials, military and civil, who had been involved in the Oboi clique, conditional to their sincere repentance and moral regeneration. And so it was that the Kangxi Emperor was now, at the age of 15, in charge of his own government. As if to compensate for all the stress of the previous two years, the public imperial style that he adopted was portrayed as relaxed and compassionate. In a number of edicts, he expressed concern for the slaves who were often driven to suicide by their master's cruelty, for the poor peasants evicted when the new banner lands were enclosed, for the harsh lot of prisoners banished to Manchuria who died on the road,

and for suspects in criminal cases savagely tortured without due cause. The emperor repeated the general post-Oboi amnesty and appointed commissions to review the cases of officials and imperial clansmen who had been dismissed by the regents. He moved to end inequalities of rank or salary between Manchu and Chinese officials, who were incumbents in parallel posts. He boosted the pay of ordinary soldiers and ordered the roundup of gangs disrupting the area around Beijing. These were conventional actions for a new emperor, proving before heaven and before the people his right to the title. They do not reveal much about the emperor as a man. The administrative records

reveal how carefully he brought in men whom he knew and trusted. In the first months after Oboi's fall, he often gave senior appointments to first-rank officers in the imperial bodyguard, not to career bureaucrats. Occasionally, the sound of the Kangxi emperor's voice breaks through the officialese of the records. There are snatches of it in the edict condemning Oboi and in two edicts that report his views on various magistrates and junior officers encountered near Beijing. The first edict that gives the impression of being written entirely by the young emperor is one as of late August 1669, dealing with a problem that was to concern him for the rest of his reign, the maintenance of security concerning important policy discussions. Probably drafted by

the emperor in Manchu and then translated by a secretary into simple Chinese that the Kangxi emperor was just beginning to understand, it made a straightforward point without any literary or historical allusions or flourishes of any much kind. It read, quote, All matters that are sent to the Council of Princes, Bela, and high officials for discussion are of dynastic importance and of a confidential nature. Secrecy must be maintained in these discussions. Now I have learned that even before a report has been drawn up on the matters discussed, outsiders have heard all about it. This is caused by inadequate secrecy during the discussions

and by a failure to properly control the various loafers who accompany the principals, so that rumors circulate and there are leaks on matters of dynastic importance. This is grossly improper. End quote. The Kangxi Emperor, accordingly, forbade attendance at these discussions to anyone but the principals. From this time on, the Emperor sought to be the one who would control information and the manifold uses that could be made of it. Next time, with the Kangxi Emperor now firmly in command of his own empire and government, he will pivot to face some of the most pressing problems facing his realm, namely those fragments of it which still refuse to yield to his will. He'll face the likes of old enemies such as

the Scions of Koxinga on Taiwan, but also new foes, many of whom who'd once been friends, such as those already twice-traitorous former Ming lords who'd pledged to serve Great Qing, only to allow their endless ambitions to put them on the hunt for yet more. They are, of course, the princes of the Three Feudatories. All that and more next time. Thanks for listening. 400 years ago, a trio of tiny kingdoms were perched on some damp islands off the coast of Europe. Within three short centuries, these islands would become the centre of an empire

which ruled a quarter of the globe and on which the sun never set. I'm Samuel Hume, a historian of the British Empire, and my podcast Pax Britannica follows the people and events that built that empire into a global superpower. Learn the history of the British Empire by listening to Pax Britannica everywhere you find your podcasts, or go to pod.link slash pax.