The Court Audience and the Manchu Masculine Ideal: The Yongzheng Emperor's Secret Personnel Files

Abstract

From the outset of his reign, the Yongzheng emperor [r. 1723–1735] asserted control over personnel appointments in officialdom and the military. He used the convention of the palace audience to interview candidates for hiring and promotion personally and to select those officials (including Manchu and Han candidates) who met his vision of masculine strength and power. While Yongzheng's political and cultural reading of appearance was shaped by his Manchu background, he also appraised candidates based on the concepts of Chinese physiognomy and the physical prototypes of his trusted officials. This article, by uncovering and analyzing the personal thoughts of a Qing emperor contained in the secret resumé dossier, extends scholarly understanding of the construction of Manchu identity and masculinity. Furthermore, this investigation sheds useful light on the two, intertwining strands of Yongzheng's political project, that is, the emperor's actions to gain more direct power over personnel selection, and his efforts to define and impose his conception of the required looks and qualities of a loyal, talented official fit for serving the Qing regime.