Nian Gengyao

Nian Gengyao (simplified Chinese: 年羹尧; traditional Chinese: 年羹堯; pinyin: Nián Gēngyáo; 1679 – January 13, 1726), courtesy name Lianggong (亮功), was a Chinese military commander of the Qing dynasty. He was born a member of the Han Chinese Bordered Yellow Banner and had extensive military experience on the western frontier of the Qing Empire. Nian became commander-in-chief of the Qing armies in the northwest; and helped to incorporate the region of what is now Qinghai into the Qing Empire.

Nian's father, Nian Xialing (年遐齡), served as Viceroy of Huguang from 1692 to 1704. Nian himself was a jinshi in 1700 and was selected a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. In March 1709, the Banner company to which the Nian family belonged was assigned to serve the prince Yinzhen, who later became the Yongzheng Emperor. About the same time a sister of Nian Gengyao became a concubine of Yinzhen.

In October 1709, Nian was appointed Governor of Sichuan and gradually came to the notice of the Kangxi Emperor. During the 16 years of his administration, he quelled several uprisings of the aborigines west of Sichuan. In 1718, he was made Governor-General of Sichuan and was given power to direct military affairs. Following the appointment of Yinti, another of the Kangxi Emperor's sons, as Border Pacification General-in-chief, there were suggestions about Nian's loyalty to Yinzhen. As General Who Secures the West (定西將軍), Nian Gengyao took an active part in supplying Yinti's campaign in Tibet against Tsewang Rabtan. In June 1721, he was granted an audience with the elderly Kangxi Emperor at Rehe and subsequently raised to the rank of Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi.

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