That's an interesting question.
In many dynasties in ancient China, when the dynasty collapsed, most of them were beaten by the chickens and eggs of the ruling clique, and the royal family was exterminated by the successor regime, and it was difficult to have a complete egg under the so-called overthrow. Typical regimes such as the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.
However, the demise of the Qing Dynasty was an exception, not only the imperial family was preserved, the property was protected, and the qing dynasty widows and young people were also given special preferential treatment by the Republic of China government, breaking the historical curse of political death.
So, how did this "harmonious" situation come about? Why was the former Qing royal family able to receive such a standard of "courtesy"? The History of Quiet Night believes that there are the following reasons:
1. The environment of the times has changed
The biggest difference between the Qing Dynasty and all the previous dynasties is that the Qing Dynasty is not facing a change of dynasty, but the complete end of imperial power. That is to say, the Qing Dynasty is not facing the change of dynasty in the feudal period, but the arrival of a new period.
Therefore, whether the Qing Dynasty is happy or not, it has broken the laws of history and created history!
When the Qing Dynasty fell, it was no longer faced with a new landlord force with a fierce face, but a complex situation consisting of revolutionaries, speculators and the great powers of various countries.
Just as the so-called more people there are, the safer the place, although the situation faced by the Qing Dynasty is more complicated, it makes the Qing Dynasty really safer. Because the attitude of external forces, especially the great powers of various countries, towards the Xinhai Revolution ultimately determined the security of the Qing imperial family.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the great powers repeated the old tune and once again raised the banner of the "neutrality policy", the main consideration of the great powers was their own rights and interests in China, and after receiving the guarantee of Sun Yat-sen's new government to continue to protect the rights and interests of the great powers in China, the great powers began to watch from the sidelines and stopped Japan's interference in the Xinhai Revolution.
Taking Japan as an example, the great powers at that time were inclined to the Qing government in their hearts, not to have feelings for the Qing imperial family, but to fear that the new government was stronger than the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, Japan once wanted to preserve the Qing Dynasty, not for anything else, but to use the Qing Dynasty to achieve the purpose of grabbing more benefits.
It was precisely because of the influence of the great powers, especially when the great powers did not directly interfere in the Xinhai Revolution, that the weak and small revolutionary parties were able to form a situation of confrontation between the north and the south with the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, due to the neutral policy of the great powers, Sun Yat-sen's government once fell into a financial and diplomatic crisis, unable to exterminate the Qing Imperial Family, and finally had to carry out peace talks between the North and the South, and finally the Qing Dynasty was peacefully destroyed!
2, the Qing Dynasty has become smarter
All along, the qing dynasty's policy has been very "flexible", especially compared with the Ming Dynasty's rather than bending fierceness, the Qing dynasty imperial family's style of handling affairs is quite flexible, and there is no bottom line.
For example, when Wu Sangui fought in the San Francisco Rebellion, Kangxi once wanted to retreat to Guanwai, and the foundation laid by the ancestors said no; the Anglo-French coalition army came over, and the Xianfeng Emperor ran to the summer resort for the first time; the Eight-Nation Alliance army came, and Empress Dowager Cixi immediately fled to Xi'an.
Although the Kangxi, Yongzheng and other emperors repeatedly emphasized that they were the emperors of all China, judging from what they did, they really did not take the Jiangshan laid down by their ancestors very seriously.
After the Xinhai Revolution, this situation became even more obvious.
As the last feudal dynasty in China, the Qing Dynasty was also the dynasty that reached the pinnacle of autocracy and centralization. However, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with the rise of the Han bureaucracy, the Qing Dynasty's authoritarian centralization had to take a big step backwards. In 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, Li Hongzhang and other Han bureaucrats launched the "Southeast Mutual Protection" and directly left Cixi and other Qing Dynasty royal families aside.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, although the scale was small, it became the last straw that crushed the Qing Dynasty, and then more than a dozen southern provinces became independent, and the Qing Dynasty fell apart in an instant.
Under such circumstances, the Qing dynasty royal family once again judged the situation and handed over power, and then Yuan Shikai and the south reached a reconciliation and became the provisional president of the Republic of China.
Due to the compromise of the Qing imperial family, the Xinhai Revolution achieved the goal of eliminating the Qing Dynasty at a very small cost, so there was no reason for any force to attack the Qing Dynasty imperial family after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Not only can you not start, but you also have to carry out various preferential treatments!
It is precisely because of the treatment of the Qing Dynasty royal family that a large number of Qing Dynasty widows and young people have survived, until today!
I am "Silent Night History" and look forward to your attention!