Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 1711 - 7 February 1799), was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty reigning from 1735 to 1796. He was the fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor. In 1796, he abdicated in favour of his son, the Jiaqing Emperor, out of filial piety towards his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, who ruled for 61 years, so that he not officially usurp him as the longest-reigning emperor. Despite his retirement, however, the Qianlong Emperor retained ultimate power as the Retired Emperor until his death in 1799, making him one of the longest-reigning monarchs in history, and, dying at the age of 87, one of the longest-lived.
The Qianlong Emperor was a capable and cultured ruler inheriting a thriving empire. During his long reign, the Qing Empire reached its most splendid and prosperous era, boasting a large population and economy. As a military leader, he led military campaigns expanding the dynastic territory to the largest extent by conquering and sometimes destroying Central Asian kingdoms. This turned around in his late years: the Qing empire began to decline with corruption and wastefulness in his court and a stagnating civil society.
The Qianlong Emperor was proud of his Manchu heritage and worked vigorously to preserve it. The Siku Quanshu was also the largest project of the Qianlong Emperor. He gathered an elite team of China's best scholars and tasked them with collecting, editing, and printing the incredibly large collection on Chinese philosophy, culture, history, and literature. The project didn't only want to show off the Manchu culture.
The Qianlong Emperor was a great writer himself. He was very productive when it came to poetry and essays. Between 1749 and 1800, he wrote over 40,000 poems and 1,300 essays, which makes him an incredibly productive author, even by modern standards. His poems were mostly odes, glorifying a place or a person. It is a Chinese literary tradition to praise a particular object, and the Qianlong Emperor used this tradition to link his name to certain places and events.