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 Chêng, 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. In 1732
he thought of expelling them altogether; but finding that they were
enthusiastic teachers of filial piety, he left them alone, merely
prohibiting fresh recruits from coming to China.

These domestic troubles were followed by a serious rebellion in Kokonor,
which was not fully suppressed until the next reign; also by an outbreak
among the aborigines of Kueichow and Yünnan, which lasted until three
years later, when the tribesmen were brought under Imperial rule.

A Portuguese envoy, named Magalhaens (or Magaillans), visited Peking in
1727, bearing presents for the Emperor; but nothing very much resulted
from his mission. In 1730, in addition to terrible floods, there was
a severe earthquake, which lasted ten days, and in which one hundred
thousand persons are said to have lost their lives. In 1735, Yung
Chêng's reign came to an end amid sounds of a further outbreak of the
aborigines in Kueichow. Before his death, he named his fourth son, then
only fifteen, as his successor, under the regency of two of the
boy's uncles and two Grand Secretaries, one of the latter being a
distinguished scholar, who was entrusted with the preparation of the
history of the Ming dynasty. Yung Chêng's name has always been somewhat
unfairly associated by foreigners with a bitter hostility to the