Qianlong Emperor

The Qianlong Emperor, grandson of Kangxi, reigned for most of the eighteenth century and brought the Qing to its largest territorial extent through the campaigns he called the Ten Great Campaigns, including the conquest of the Dzungars in the northwest, which involved massacres that nearly wiped out that people. He sponsored huge cultural projects, including the vast Siku Quanshu library, while also censoring texts hostile to Manchu rule. He rebuffed the British Macartney Embassy in 1793, insisting China needed nothing from foreign trade. His late reign saw corruption under the favourite Heshen and rebellions that signalled the dynasty's coming troubles.