The deference and diligence of a royal heir

In Emperor Qianlong's 60 years on the throne he looked to his mother, his late father and his grandfather as guiding lights

Emperor Qianlong was unlike most emperors in Chinese history, and in particular his father Emperor Yong Zheng, who had to wait for 44 years before ascending to the throne, with bitter political struggles that ultimately ended in the demise of more than one of his brothers.

For Qianlong, the road to power could not have been smoother. When he was 12 he met his grandfather, the revered Emperor Kangxi, for the first time. (Little surprise there, given that Kangxi had 24 adult sons and 97 grandsons.) Endearing himself with the old man through a composed disposition rare in a teenage boy, Qianlong, by then known as Hongli (Qianlong was his reign title, and his birth name was Hongli Aisin-gioro, with Aisin-gioro being the royal family's surname), became the de facto crown prince after the coronation of his father, Emperor Yongzheng.