Kangxi: sixty-one years on the throne of China

Kangxi comes to the throne in 1661 at the age of seven and reigns for sixty-one years—longer than any emperor of China. He crushes the revolt of the three feudatories in the south, annexes Taiwan, throws back the Dzungars in Mongolia and in 1689 concludes with Russia the Treaty of Nerchinsk—China’s first treaty with a European power, written in Latin through the mediation of Jesuits. The Jesuits at his court are in charge of the calendar, maps and cannon; the emperor learns geometry from them and permits the preaching of Christianity until Rome forbids Chinese Christians to honour their ancestors—then he cools. Under Kangxi the dictionary bearing his name, with forty-seven thousand characters, and a vast encyclopaedia are compiled; the country rests from war and the population grows. His grandson Qianlong will reign almost as long, and the eighteenth century becomes for China a time of peace and strength—on the eve of its meeting with the Europe of cannon and opium.