Kangxi (1654-1722), whose full name is Ai Xin Jue Luo Xuan Ye, was the second emperor after the Qing dynasty conquered the central plains. "Kangxi" is his Chinese era name. He was in power for as long as 61 years, being the emperor who reigned for the longest period in the history of China.

Kangxi ascended the throne at the age of eight and, when he was 14, he rooted out the Prime Minister Ao Bai and began to take over reign of the political affairs. During his reign, he got rid of the power of three Feudatories such as Wu Sangui, reoccupied Taiwan, suppressed the revolt of Galdan Khan at Junggar, and resisted the Russia's invasion to Northeast China and signed the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk, thus delimiting the borderline of northeast China. He gave much emphasis in dealing with the relations with the northern nomadic minorities and thus stabilized the country of multi-nationalities. Economically, Kangxi adopted a series of policies conducive to the well-being of a nation, such as actively encouraging and rewarding the people to reclaim the wasteland, rehabilitating the hydraulic engineering of the Yellow River, Huai River, and channels, and reforming the tax system. With these policies, he greatly lightened the farmers' burden and finally boosted the development of the agriculture economy, thus preliminarily recovering the social economy destroyed by the wars and slaughters during the early days of the Qing Dynasty. Culturally, he gave special treatment to the intellectual of Han nationality and actively learnt and advocated the Han culture conducive to the feudal reign, thus promoting the culture autarchy of Chinese feudal society to its crest. Yet, in the later years of Kangxi, his inappropriate handling of throne-inheritance issue led to twenty years' combat and clique among his sons. During this period, the administration of officials was neglected and a great number of clans emerged, which in turn directly jeopardized the social stability.

In the history of China's feudalism, Kangxi is undoubtedly an outstanding emperor in both military glory and civic achievements. He stabilized the regime during the early days of the Qing Dynasty and greatly strengthened the centralization of monarch power, propelling China's feudal system to its zenith. He quickly recovered the war-destructed economy and initiated a period of great prosperity in history.