The fourth son of K`ang Hsi came to the throne under the year-title of Yung Cheng (harmonious rectitude).

He was confronted with serious difficulties from the very first.

Dissatisfaction prevailed among his numerous brothers, at least one of whom may have felt that he had a better claim to rule than his junior in the family.

This feeling culminated in a plot to dethrone Yung Cheng, which was, however, discovered in time, and resulted only in the degradation of the guilty brothers.

The fact that among his opponents were native Christians--some say that the Jesuits were at the bottom of all the mischief--naturally influenced the Emperor against Christianity; no fewer than three hundred churches were destroyed, and all Catholic missionaries were thenceforward obliged to live either at Peking or at Macao.