Nian Gengyao
Chinese military commander
1679 CE to 1726 CE
Nian Gengyao (1679 – January 13, 1726) is a Chinese military commander of the Qing Dynasty.
He was born a member of the Chinese Bordered Yellow Banner and has extensive military experience on the western frontier of the Qing empire.
Nian becomes commander-in-chief of the Manchu and Chinese armies in the northwest; and helps to incorporate the region of what is now Qinghai into the Qing empire.
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The Far East
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Nian Gengyao’s father Nian Xialing had served as Viceroy of Huguang from 1692 to 1704.
Nian Gengyao himself had in 1700 become a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the imperial examination) and had been selected a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy.
The Banner company to which the Nian family belonged had in March 1709 been assigned to serve Yinzhen, later the Yongzheng Emperor.
A sister of Nian Gengyao became a concubine of Yinzhen about the same time.
Nian had been appointed Governor of Sichuan in October 1709 and had gradually come to the notice of the Kangxi Emperor.
During the sixteen years of his administration, he had quelled several uprisings of the aborigines west of Sichuan.
He had been made Governor-general of Sichuan in 1718 and had been given power to direct military affairs.
Following the appointment of Yinti, another of Kangxi's sons, as Border Pacification General-in-chief, there had been suggestions about Nian's loyalty to Yinzhen.
As General Who Secures the West, Nian Gengyao had taken an active part in supplying Yinti's campaign in Tibet against Tsewang Rabtan.
He had been granted an audience with the elderly Emperor at Rehe in June 1721 and subsequently raised to the rank of Governor-general of Sichuan and Shaanxi.
The new emperor displays a great amount of trust in Han Chinese officials, and appoints many of his protégés to prestigious positions.
After Yinzhen’s ascension to the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor, he grants an audience to Nian Gengyao early in 1723 and awards him a minor hereditary rank and the title of Grand Guardian, and makes his elder brother Nian Xiyao Governor of Guangdong.
As reward for his help in ejecting the Dzungars from Tibet, Nian is elevated z few months later to a duke of the third class.
The Emperor is uncharacteristically informal with him and promotes friendship between Nian and Longkedo, an eminent Manchu-Chinese official.
Longkedo, the third son of Tong Guowei and the younger brother of Kangxi Emperor's third Empress consort, Empress Xiaoyiren, Longkodo had been the Minister in charge of Lifan Yuan during the late Kangxi years, and, concurrently, the General Commandant of the Gendarmerie in Beijing, thus having the military power to control the capital region in times of crises.
His military power makes him an obvious scapegoat in conspiracies, and the Yongzheng Emperor is deeply suspicious of him.
The biggest mystery surrounding Longkodo is the exclusive attention given him by the late Kangxi Emperor during his dying days.
His military support had ensured a non-violent transfer of power between Kangxi and Yongzheng.
After Yongzheng ascended the throne, Longkodo had been given a position on the four-person imperial council, and is the President of the Board of Governance.
Nian becomes commander-in-chief of the forces sent in 1723, to quell the uprising of the Khoshotes of Qinghai under Lobdzan Dandzin.
With the help of the general Yue Zhongqi, Nian wins several victories over the rebels and in a few months quells the revolt, adding Qinghai to the Qing empire.
Nian is thereupon raised to a duke of the first class.
Yongzheng is a hardworking administrator who rules with an iron hand.
His first big step towards a stronger regime had come when he returned the State Examination System back to its original standards.
He cracks down in 1724 on illegal exchange rates of coins, which are being manipulated by officials to fit their financial needs.
Those who are found in violation of new laws on finances are removed from office, or in extreme cases, executed.
When Nian makes a visit to Beijing in late 1724, and pays his respects to the Emperor, he is given additional honors and privileges normally granted to a Prince of the Blood.
His attitude, however, arouses hatred and jealousy, and many officials submit reports hostile to Nian.
It is meanwhile discovered that Nian had engaged in secret correspondence with Yintang, the Emperor's brother and political rival.
His plea for leave being denied, Nian is, at the end of May, transferred to the post of Tartar General at Hangzhou.
The armies he once commanded come under the control of Yue Zhongqi.
As accusations accumulate from his former friends and officials, Nian is in a few months progressively degraded in rank until he becomes merely a bannerman-at-large.
In November, he is arrested and taken under escort to Beijing.
Nian’s crimes are enumerated under ninety-two headings, and early in 1726 he is sentenced to be executed.
The Emperor grants him the privilege of committing suicide but his eldest son, Nian Fu, is beheaded and his other sons are banished.
Nian Gengyao is credited with three works on military tactics: General Nian's Art of War among others, but all were apparently written by others and falsely attributed to him.
Sixty-six copies of the five thoisand and twenty-volume long Gujin Tushu Jicheng (Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times) are printed in 1726, necessitating the crafting of two hundred and fifty thousand movable type characters cast in bronze, spanning around ten thousand rolls.