The Legitimacy of the Early Qing from the Perspective of Confucian Political History

With the Kanxi emperor as the focus, this paper seeks to examine wherein the Qing dynasty derived its legitimacy to rule China. First, during the reign of the Shunzhi emperor, no clear account was provided of its legitimacy to rule China. During Kanxi’s subsequent reign it was decided to position the Qing dynasty in the context of traditional theories of legitimacy, and thus secure legitimacy for the dynasty. However, Kanxi’s plan was frustrated before it had been executed. Finally, the Yongzheng emperor identified receipt of the absolute authority of “heaven’s mandate” (tianming) as underpinning the legitimacy of the Qing dynasty, and thus provided a formulaic conclusion to the matter. The paper also investigates how, in the process leading to this final conclusion, various officials affiliated with “dao learning” (daoxue) brought forth theories of legitimacy that accorded with Kanxi’s views while combining these theories with new political ideas that had been developed.