The last years of K`ang Hsi were beclouded by family troubles.  For some kind of intrigue, in which magic played a prominent part, he had been compelled to degrade the Heir Apparent, and to appoint another son to the vacant post; but a year or two later, this son was found to be mentally deranged, and was placed under restraint.  So things went on for several more years, the Emperor apparently unable to make up his mind as to the choice of a successor; and it was not until the last day of his life that he finally decided in favour of his fourth son.  Dying in 1723, his reign had already extended beyond the Chinese cycle of sixty years, a feat which no Emperor of China, in historical times, had ever before achieved, but which was again to be accomplished, before the century was out, by his grandson.

CHAPTER V—­YUNG CHENG AND CH`IEN LUNG

The fourth son of K`ang Hsi came to the throne under the year-title of Yung Cheng (harmonious rectitude).  He was confronted with serious difficulties from the very first.  Dissatisfaction prevailed among his numerous brothers, at least one of whom may have felt that he had a better claim to rule than his junior in the family.  This feeling culminated in a plot to dethrone Yung Cheng, which was, however, discovered in time, and resulted only in the degradation of the guilty brothers.  The fact that among his opponents were native Christians—­some say that the Jesuits were at the bottom of all the mischief—­naturally influenced the Emperor against Christianity; no fewer than three hundred churches were destroyed, and all Catholic missionaries were thenceforward obliged to live either at Peking or at Macao.  In 1732 he thought of expelling them altogether; but finding that they were enthusiastic teachers of filial piety, he left them alone, merely prohibiting fresh recruits from coming to China.

These domestic troubles were followed by a serious rebellion in Kokonor, which was not fully suppressed until the next reign; also by an outbreak among the aborigines of Kueichow and Yuennan, which lasted until three years later, when the tribesmen were brought under Imperial rule.

A Portuguese envoy, named Magalhaens (or Magaillans), visited Peking in 1727, bearing presents for the Emperor; but nothing very much resulted from his mission.  In 1730, in addition to terrible floods, there was a severe earthquake, which lasted ten days, and in which one hundred thousand persons are said to have lost their lives.  In 1735, Yung Cheng’s reign came to an end amid sounds of a further outbreak of the aborigines in Kueichow.  Before his death, he named his fourth son, then only fifteen, as his successor, under the regency of two of the boy’s uncles and two Grand Secretaries, one of the latter being a distinguished scholar, who was entrusted with the preparation of the history of the Ming dynasty.  Yung Cheng’s name has always been somewhat unfairly