The Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799) was, by most accounts, China's greatest monarch. His reign, spanning more than six decades, was the longest in the country's history -- longer even than the rule of the current Communist Party -- and under his rule, China's territory expanded in an unprecedented way, securing for the first time Xinjiang and Tibet, reaching all the way into Mongolia and vast areas of Central Asia -- not to mention a strong influence in the affairs of the Korean peninsula and brief armed interventions in Burma and Vietnam. His impact on every aspect of life was astounding, from literature to the arts, from economics to religion to the relationship between the center and the peripheries of this vast empire, or even with the rest of the world. His ability to shape much in the Chinese landscape is still discernable today.

Yet, such a grand historical figure has had to wait until now for his first full-length English language biography. This gap has finally been filled by a slim, yet comprehensive, volume: "Emperor Qianlong; Son of Heaven, Man of the World," by Mark Elliott, a Harvard University historian. His highly readable study pulls together all the research that was scattered in numerous monographs, adding insights and a welcome cohesion. The result is a panoramic overview of Qianlong the military commander, the art lover, the Manchu traditionalist, the stern ruler, the passionate traveler -- a monarch torn between complete self assurance and a lingering need to prove himself "Chinese" to his subjects. Beneath it all, of course, was just a man, difficult to glimpse under the imperial paraphernalia and the gilded armor of court ritual and official historiography.

Qianlong's accomplishments are even more astounding considering that he was not, strictly speaking, Chinese, but a foreigner: a Manchu. Founders of the Qing dynasty (1636-1911), the Manchus were a warrior people from the vast steppes of Manchuria (today's northeast China) who were fond of hunting and horse riding, followed a shamanic religion, and whose women enjoyed a high social status. By the time Qianlong ascended to the throne, Qing rule was at its apogee, the coffers were bursting, the sporadic rebellions against foreign rule mostly under control, and China was looked upon as the most refined place on earth by many, both in Asia and in Europe. Its ruler welcomed at court missionaries and dignitaries from the four corners of the world, with a particular fondness for Jesuit artists and technicians -- even if the Chinese emperors, by then quite keen on Tibetan Buddhism, were never too impressed by the foreigners' religion.

Mr. Elliott's work provides some understanding of why it took so long to write this biography: Unlike the flamboyant lives of European monarchs, well described by courtiers and diarists of the time, the life of a Chinese emperor lent itself much less to a personal account. Protocol, which certainly stifled many royals elsewhere, reached suffocating proportions inside the red walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing (which Qianlong left as often as possible, traveling on horseback to Manchuria and the sophisticated southern lands, the cradle of Chinese culture), leaving little room for recording individuality, or small lively anecdotes of daily life. Still, in "Emperor Qianlong" Mr. Elliott manages to portray some idea of what Qianlong was like and how he evolved in the course of his long life. The emperor was fond of composing poetry with about 40,000 poems to his name of mostly mediocre literary value. By using this source, Mr. Elliott sketches an emperor intermittently melancholy, constantly concerned about posterity and how future generations would judge his rule and his position in Chinese history, and his never-ending passion for antiques -- which he inscribed with admiring verses, thus embellishing, or rather defacing, the precious artifacts. The emperor had a sensitive side, too: In spite of myriad concubines, he never recovered from the premature death of his empress, Lady Fuca, and took his adored mother along with him in as many trips as he possibly could.

Most of all, Mr. Elliott's biography allows readers to see a sovereign who wanted to be perceived as a legitimate universal ruler, equally interested in Buddhism, Shamanism and Confucianism, respectful of Islam and well versed in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and Manchu language and culture -- a feat that still eludes China's contemporary leaders.