A Provincial Legacy of Autocracy: Shandong’s Luoyuan Academy in and beyond the Yongzheng Reign

Abstract

In 1733 the Yongzheng emperor ordered the establishment of academies (shuyuan 書院) in every provincial capital. To a certain extent, this edict constituted an intellectual component of the emperor’s autocratic approach to governance, as it facilitated greater control over a type of educational institution that had in the past operated with autonomy from the court. Using the history of Shandong’s Luoyuan Academy as a case study, this article demonstrates how the management of academies and hence the provincial operation of autocracy hinged on the participation of a range of local actors. Rather than simply restricting local agency, this characteristic Yongzheng policy depended on it. This perspective raises questions about the degree of rupture between eighteenth- and nineteenth-century state-building and demonstrates a need to define concepts like ‘autocracy’ and ‘centralization’ more precisely with reference to Yongzheng-era governance.