Abstract

This article examines the Kangxi emperor’s response to the Rites Controversy during his late reign.<BR> From the late 1690s to 1710s, while the emperor was struggling to consolidate the Qing rule over the Han world, he encountered a severe challenge, i.e., some Xiyang people’s denial of seminal Chinese rites. Moreover, in 1707, the Xiyang legate Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon proclaimed a full-scale ban on those Chinese rites in Nanjing, the symbolic place for the Han tradition. What did a series of challenges mean to the Manchu ruler?<BR> Noticing some subtle changes among the Xiyang people, in fact, Xuanye had already kept his eye on Xiyang affairs through his diverse intelligence channels since the end of 1700. And in July of 1705, reported about the papal legate’s sudden visit to the Qing Empire, the emperor immediately decided to wage a ‘battle’ with the legate. During that ‘battle’, however, Xuanye’s primary concern lay more on the Han constituents of its empire than the Xiyang people. Much conscious of the Han elite, the emperor, for example, controlled the legate’s attire on the way through China Proper, the Han world, and let his imperial orders be delivered only in Manchu and be carried out by only a small circle of his close people.<BR> Despite diverse efforts, the Rites Controversy continued unsolved. Moreover, from August 1706, the Kangxi emperor began to recognise that the Rites Controversy issue had already been disturbing the Han elite across the provinces. Therefore, the emperor launched secret investigations throughout the empire. Simultaneously, he suspended his imperial mission to Rome, which had already left for Rome, and arrested Luigi Antonio Appiani on his way to the southern provinces. In the end, the emperor announced the imperial judgement on the Rites Controversy and decided his sixth Southern Tour to Jiangnan, the Han centre.<BR> In early April 1707, however, the emperor became more shocked after knowing that Tournon had recently proclaimed the full-scale ban on the Chinese Rites at Nanjing. From then on, his response became more active and swift. Privately, he wrote a series of imperial letters to Xiyang missionaries. Publicly, in Nanjing, where de Tournon’s ban had been proclaimed lately, the Manchu emperor as well proclaimed an imperial edict, in which he notably portrayed himself as the guardian of Chinese culture. At the same time, he removed the ‘uncontrollable, heterodox’ elements from the Han elite’s sight by expelling Tournon and those who refused to accept the permit.

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