KIA-K'ING, kya'keng, or chya"cheng, the 5th emperor of the last Manchu dynasty of China; began to resign 1796; d. 1820. It was probably to him more than to any one other ruler of his dynasty that the downfall of the Chinese imperial family was due. He showed little ability for government; he neg lected affairs of state in favor of the prosecu tion of his own dissolute pleasures and he con sorted with people of more than questionable morality in preference to those who might have enabled him to steer amidst the rocks of poli tics that threatened to wreck the ship of state. Not only did he neglect altogether the business of government but he managed, by his sense less conduct, to stir up family fends and he thus •estranged from him many of his best friends and those who had been supporters of the royal family through a long line of ances tors. This line of action weakened the power of the ruling classes over the masses of the Chinese people and prepared the way for the revolution which followed many years later. His actions and his conduct were imitated by subsequent rulers of China and thus the empire plunged headlong to her fate. The evidence of the decay of the influence and solidarity of the royal power was seen in the insurrections through the country, in plots against the em peror and the royal family and in the general unrest of the nation. The incompetency of the
emperor led to disorganization in the resources of the country and to the maladministration of its laws and affairs. Pirates and smugglers played havoc with the revenue of the crown which soon proved insufficient for the needs of the government and of the dissolute monarch, who was forced to use illegal means to increase his income. This led to further discontent and unrest on the part of the Chinese people and to further plots and insurrections. One of the acts of Kia-King which brought him to the attention of Europe perhaps more than any other movement of his reign, was his persecu tion of the Roman Catholic missionaries who had acquired a certain amount of influence during preceding reigns. He accused them of meddling in the political affairs of the country; and on this charge he expelled many of them from China. It may be that our opinion of Kia-King is too highly colored as our informa tion relative to his reign comes, for the most part, from his enemies. But even allowing for all this, the fact remains that he left to his successor, Tao-Kwang, in a thoroughly disor ganized condition a country which he found, on his accession to the throne, fairly prosperous and contented. Consult Giles, 'China and the Manchus' (Cambridge 1912).