Altogether, it may be said that he was a just and public-spirited ruler, anxious for his people's welfare.

He hated war, and failed to carry on his father's vigorous policy in Central Asia; nevertheless, by 1730, Chinese rule extended to the Laos border, and the Shan States paid tribute.

He was a man of letters, and completed some of his father's undertakings.
Yung Cheng's successor was twenty-five years of age when he came to the throne with the year-title of Ch`ien Lung (or Kien Long = enduring glory), and one of his earliest acts was to forbid the propagation of Christian doctrine, a prohibition which developed between 1746 and 1785 into active persecution of its adherents.

The first ten years of this reign were spent chiefly in internal reorganization; the remainder, which covered half a century, was almost a continuous succession of wars.

The aborigines of Kueichow, known as the Miao-Tz{u}, offered a determined resistance to all attempts to bring them under the regular administration; and although they were ultimately conquered, it was deemed advisable not to insist upon the adoption of the queue, and also to leave them a considerable measure of self-government.