Héshēn 和珅 (1750–1799), zì Zhìzhāi 致齋, of the Manchu Plain Red Banner Niǔhùlù 鈕祜祿 clan, was the dominant late-Qiánlóng-era court favorite and the most powerful Qīng minister of the 1780s and 1790s. From a bāoyī (bondservant) household, he came to imperial notice through his appearance, polish, and linguistic facility — Manchu, Mongol, Tibetan, and Chinese — and rose meteorically from the imperial bodyguard to Yùqián dàchén 御前大臣, Lǐngshìwèi nèidàchén 領侍衛內大臣, Hùbù shàngshū 戶部尚書, Jūnjī dàchén 軍機大臣, Wénhuádiàn dàxuéshì 文華殿大學士, and concurrent head of essentially every important Qīng central institution by the 1790s. He served as principal fèngchì compiler of the Qīndìng Rèhé zhì 欽定熱河志 (KR2k0035) with Liáng Guózhì 梁國治, and held leading roles in the editing of the Sìkù quánshū and the Qīndìng Mǎnzhōu yuánliú kǎo (KR2k0038). He married a daughter to Qiánlóng’s tenth daughter and his own younger brother Hélín 和琳 served alongside him in court and field. On Qiánlóng’s death (1799), the new Jiāqìng emperor moved against him within days; he was charged with twenty crimes (centered on corruption and accumulation of wealth allegedly equal to several years of imperial revenue), forced to commit suicide on the fourteenth day after Qiánlóng’s death, and his property confiscated — the so-called “Héshēn fell, Jiāqìng was full” (和珅跌倒，嘉慶吃飽). His role as the most powerful Manchu minister of the late Qiánlóng reign and his patronage of imperial-mandate compilations are central to late-eighteenth-century Qīng cultural-political history. Standard biographies: Qīng shǐ gǎo j. 319; Qīng shǐ lièzhuàn j. 30. CBDB has no entry.