Three Impeachments: Guo Xiu and the Kangxi Court(Three Impeachments)

A probe into corruption in late Imperial China

At the beginning of China's long eighteenth century or "High Qing" era, a time of peace and prosperity when the foundations of Manchu rule under the Qing dynasty were established, a courageous official named Guo Xiu reported on corruption at court. Guo Xiu's findings resulted in the impeachment of five of the most powerful figures of his day: the director of river conservancy, the chief grand secretary, and three scholars who advised the Manchu emperor on matters of Chinese culture. Weighing the officials' accomplishments against their corruption and violations of Confucian norms, the emperor dismissed all five from office—only to reappoint all five within ten years.

Bringing together a rich trove of sources, including writings by the accused officials, Guo Xiu's impeachment comments, and court diaries, historian R. Kent Guy's Three Impeachments traces the process of impeachment, condemnation, and restoration to provide unique insights into the Kangxi golden age. Part 1 reveals that the highly lauded accomplishments of the Kangxi emperor were not his alone but the result of collaboration between Manchu elite, the newly formed Chinese Martial Banner Army, and Chinese scholars. Part 2, which focuses on Guo Xi's impeachments, sheds new light on dynastic history and political agency.

Three Impeachments is a rich and enticing portal into a key moment in late imperial Chinese history.



The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

DOI: 10.6069/9780295752945

R. Kent Guy is professor of history emeritus at the University of Washington. He is author of Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644–1796 and The Emperor’s Four Treasuries: Scholars and the State in the Late Ch’ien-lung Era.

"R. Kent Guy's Three Impeachments is the first English monograph on Kangxi-period high politics to appear in print in at least forty years. It is an essential reminder of how significant the early decades of the Kangxi reign were in establishing institutional norms that we take for granted for the rest of the Qing dynasty. The book offers a robust case study of the ever-present tensions between the throne and the civil service in Chinese politics. It highlights the unique problems of early Qing governance as power was shared between the conquest elite and the Han Chinese majority and gives readers a glimpse into how the Kangxi emperor consolidated his rule in the wake of the suppression of the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories."

"[An] exquisitely detailed study . . . . Three Impeachments deserve[s] our utmost praise and appreciation for its rich and fine-grained points of empirical detail as well as its illuminating insights into some of the major policies and key political developments of the 1680s, a critical and infinitely complex period in the politics of the Qing state and in the history of its formation"