Abstract: Starting with a court debate which broke out in the spring of 1684， this essay explores the multivalent symbolism of the Kangxi emperor's first imperial tour( s) to Shandong and Jiangsu provinces in the fall of 1684. Some courtiers advocated treating the Kangxi emperor's touring activities as a rite of conquest，while others saw them as an exercise in benevolent civil governance. Here I suggest that this ritual controversy revealed a tension between civil and military values within the political culture of the Qing court. Furthermore，this ideological tension became increasingly apparent as the imperial procession proceeded farther southward during the Kangxi emperor's “eastern ” and “southern ” tours of 1684， especially as recorded in the Chinese editions of the Imperial Diaries. Thus，the legitimization and consolidation of Qing rule was never entirely smooth or complete，but was always in the active process of being constituted through ritual negotiations.