Foreword: On March 15 last year, I published my first article about Tokugawa Keiki. Now, after a year, looking back at the article at that time, I felt deeply inadequate, so I checked for omissions and filled in the gaps, and after repeated proofreading, I had this new article in a refined version. It may be a bit long, about 20,000 words, suitable for reading slowly in leisure time. If you can read it patiently, I believe that you will definitely have a more three-dimensional understanding of the historical figure of Tokugawa Keiki, which will help you understand it.
When it comes to Tokugawa Keiki, this famous last shogun is almost universally known among Japanese history enthusiasts. However, he is generally understood, and a considerable number of people hold preconceived prejudices. Even among the fans of the history of the end of the shogunate, few people really know him.
Did he lead to the end of the shogunate?
Why did he abandon the army and return to Edo alone?
Is he indecisive?
Is he an out-and-out conservative?
Was he a vassal and a pro-vassal of the traditional shogunate system?
These are only a few of the controversies surrounding Tokugawa Keiki, so why are there any of the above questions? In addition to the fact that the domestic information is incomplete and there are few relevant documentaries, so that the public knows very little about him, the existing data is also deeply influenced by the sasagashi view of history, and is obscured by the legitimacy of the Meiji government. Through this article, I would like to give a different perspective and restore the real Tokugawa Keiki. Let more people have a fuller understanding of him, and be able to think independently, re-examine this historical figure, and give their own evaluation.
I will start with a brief introduction to this historical figure in several sections. For the sake of proper detail, this article focuses on the analysis of Tokugawa Keiki's behavior, using an overview of the characters' experiences. If you do not understand the content, you can consult the information, or leave a message in the comment area to inquire.
One. birth
Tokugawa Keiki was born into the Mito family, one of the three tokugawa imperial families, and the tenth generation descendant of Tokugawa Raijo, the tenth son of the first shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the seventh of many brothers, known as "Shichiro Koji".
Judging from his kinship:
His father was Tokugawa Kisaki, the ninth lord of the Mito Domain of Tokirikuni, and one of the three imperial families. At the end of the shogunate, the core figure of MitoGaku, Hirodokan was set up as a domain school, so Mito Domain became a place where The Noble King Shishi greatly aspired to and studied with his teachers. Even Saigo Takamori, one of the "Three Masters of the Restoration", was also sent to Mito Domain to visit Fujita Higashiko to study.
Her mother was King Noborimi Miyayoshi, the head of Qi Zhao's chamber. Born into the imperial family, she is the 12th daughter of Prince Orihito of Kikawa Palace. Closely related to the royal family, pushing up to the 3rd generation is the Reimoto Emperor, with a prominent status.
From his interpersonal point of view:
The twelfth shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, loved Shichirō so much that after the death of Tokugawa Masamaru, the head of the Hitotsubashi clan, and the frailty of his fourth son, Tokugawa Ieyasu, he resolutely overcame the public opinion and persuaded Tokugawa Kisaki to pass Shichiro to the Ichibashi family, who was eligible to inherit the shogunship, with the intention of paving the way for Shichiro to be a shogun after he became an adult. When Shichiro was 11 years old, on October 5, 1847, He met with Tokugawa Ieyoshi in Noboru Castle. On December 1, Yifu performed the ceremony and was given the word "Qing" by Jiaqing, renamed Hitotsubashi Keiki, and officially inherited the position of the lord of the Hitotsubashi family.
Prince Wakamiya was the sister of Emperor Takaaki Tōhito, and Emperor Meiji was her nephew. He later married Tokugawa Ieshige, and Keiki, as Ieshige's adopted son, was the brother of the Shogun Tokugawa Keiki on this level.
Since childhood, Keiki has been valued by his father and people of insight in the Mito Domain, and intends to cultivate himself as a talent with heroic spirit and independence. As a result, Many sages, including Akira Hosei, the author of the classic book "New Treatise", the chief professor of the "Hirodokan" of the domain school, the president of the "Shōkaokan" of the History Bureau, Andō Yoshinomi Aoyama, and Fujita Higashiko, one of tokugawa Kisaki's right-hand men and "Mito Ryota", and many other sages, had a relationship with Keiki as both a subordinate and a young lord, as well as a teacher and a student.
Combining his kinship and social ties, it is not difficult to find that Tokugawa Keiki was born into a prestigious family, his father occupied an important place in the samurai family, and his mother represented the noble imperial family. At that time, whether it was the shogun who held great power, or the people of insight in the opposition, or the founding faction and the nobles, they all sensed the dazzling existence of Tokugawa Keiki.
At a young age, he had a pivotal position, so that when he later entered the political arena, both friends and political enemies would fear him. Easily offending Tokugawa Keiki could easily attract unanimous hostility from the shogunate, the imperial court, the founding faction, the Shogi faction, the Samu faction, and the Shōgun faction, which were themselves opposed forces; at the same time, he was so dazzling that countless political enemies were secretly trying to kill him. It seems that Tokugawa Keiki was born at the center of the whirlpool of the struggle at the end of the curtain, destined to leave a heavy ink on history.
Two. Strategy
There are often people who say that "Qingxi does not understand politics", "has no ambition, is stupid and ignorant", and so on, most of which come from uninformed and vain statements about his deeds, or just because Qingxi himself ignores political affairs, he assumes so. In fact, Tokugawa Keiki's political methods were quite clever, and his strategic vision was far superior to ordinary people. This can be seen in the following three examples:
1. After the end of the shogunate period in the 1960s, the shogunate was uneasy about the movements of the imperial court, and the imperial court was very worried about the security of Kyoto, but there was an undercurrent under kyoto's calm appearance. Therefore, in 1862 (Bunju 2nd year), the shogunate set up a kyoto guard office to restore the prestige of the shogunate and restore law and order. The people who held this position were initially inconclusive, and the daimyōs of each clan resigned on the grounds of financial and military issues. In the end, Matsudaira Ronho of Aizu Domain was chosen to take office on August 1 of the second year of Bunhisa's leap year (September 24, 1862 AD). When the Aizu army arrived in Kyoto, the people of Kyoto were deeply impressed by the strict military appearance and strict discipline, and the problem of public security was immediately solved. He was highly praised by Emperor Takaaki and bestowed the imperial robes, the highest honor ever received since the Edo period. Subsequently, for expelling the Choshu rebellion, he was given a letter of thanks (letter of thanks) and imperial system (waka) by the emperor, which won the trust of the imperial court and the trust of the shogunate. Previously, when no one was willing to take over the position of Guardian of Kyoto, matsudaira Ryoho was appointed by the shogunate to this position, but in fact this order was issued by Tokugawa Keiki, who was then a shogun. Matsudaira Ryūho's request to Takeshikawa Keiki to be appointed as the guardian of Kyoto was initially the same as the opposition within the domain, so he repeatedly refused, and the other members of the shogunate could not persuade Ryūho that no one could appoint the daimyo to the hot potato of the "Guardianship of Kyoto". Tokugawa Keiki cleverly quotes the ancestral training left by the ancestor of the Aizu Domain, Hoko Masamune, the Tsuchine Duke (that is, the totsu deity who became the god after hokage's death): "The righteousness of a maharaja must serve the lord with all his heart and the greatest loyalty, and he must not execute the affairs of the kingdom by himself (loyalty to the shogun's family is the first priority, and must not emulate the actions of other clans) If you have two hearts, you must not obey his orders." Matsudaira Ronho could not refuse the shogun's request because of his ancestral training, and had to agree to immediately send troops to Shangluo, leaving a period of loyalty for future generations. If it were not for this plan, I am afraid that it would be difficult for anyone to persuade the two-minded Daimyo Shangluo to guard, and the position of guardian of Kyoto would not be abolished. It can be seen that Qingxi's unique vision and clever employment strategy.
2. Shortly after the start of the Second War of Conquest, which began on June 7, 1866 (Keiyo 2), the shogunate suffered heavy losses, and in the case of the death of the main warrior Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogunate fell into a dilemma: continuing to fight would only increase casualties, and the situation would be worsened by the cessation of troops for the shogunate by more clans, and a cursory truce would not only not be agreed to by the Choshu clan, but would also cause the shogunate's authority to plummet. In the midst of the crisis, on September 29, Tokugawa Keiki secretly manipulated the imperial court and issued an edict in the name of the emperor to unilaterally withdraw his troops, threatening the Choshu domain with the idea of "becoming an enemy if you ignore the edict", and in the end, although the Choshu domain won the victory, it had to withdraw its troops and could not continue to expand the results, and needed to pay tribute to the deceased shogun Ieshige. The shogunate did not announce the withdrawal of troops after the choshu army withdrew from the battlefield, and did not announce the withdrawal of troops to the whole country in this name until the death of Emperor Hyoming on January 30, 1867, and although the battle was lost, it ended in a justifiable manner. Although the monarchs of the Choshu domain won militarily, they were defeated by the political means of Qingxi, and their military hearts were shaken. Just as the Qing army won the Qing army in the Qing-French War and finally signed a treaty of mourning power and humiliation, France won the victory. In this move, Keiki did his best to save the shogunate's already bottomed strength and residual prestige, and exchanged the armistice for respite. If the main warrior faction such as Iehimo were allowed to continue to tumble in the quagmire of the war, the Satsuma domain, which secretly assisted the Choshu domain, would superficially fight against the shogunate, and the Saga, Anyi, and Uwajima clans who were watching the war would also join the ranks of the shogunate, and the southwestern clans that had originally supported the shogunate would inevitably turn against the shogunate, and there was a great tendency for the clans to betray the shogunate during the Battle of Toba Fushimi. It is not difficult to imagine that the Second Conquest War, which did not end until it was concluded, would turn into a war of collapse, and the demise of the Edo shogunate would be a year earlier.
3. In September 1867, the Two Clans of Sa and Chang signed a pact of joint troops, and then an Yi Clan joined in. In the early morning of October 14, Iwakura issued a "Secret Edict of Solicitation of Curtains" to sa and Nagato domains in the name of the emperor. Sensing the attempt of the fallen faction, Tokugawa Keiki preemptively went to the imperial court on the same day, requesting that the regime be "returned" to the emperor. The next day, the imperial court approved the request for celebration. When the Fallen Curtain Sect learned of this news, they couldn't help but beat their chests. Tokugawa Keiki's "great political service" deprived them of an excuse to raise troops. At this time, the situation was chaotic, all kinds of speculations were flying, and the daimyo took a wait-and-see attitude. Immediately afterwards, the senior officials of the old shogunate, such as Matsudaira Norimaru, began to gather troops in Kyoto and continue to maintain power by force. This method of rejoicing was to retreat into advance, and when he learned that the fallen curtain clan had raised troops under the pretext of taking over the power, it automatically relinquished the power, eliminating the legitimacy of sending troops to the fallen curtain to discuss the curtain. Not only did the old shogunate, which controlled the political situation by force, cause no actual damage, but according to the plan of the Shogunate (Gongbu Fusion Faction), which was dominated by tosa Domain Lord Yamauchi Toyonobu, it was decided that Tokugawa Keiki would also join the new government and take over real power as the speaker of the "Daimyo Council". If realized, Tokugawa Keiki could be said to take off the old robe of the shogunate and change into the cloak of the new government, and continue the Tokugawa family's rule over Japan, and the fall of the shogunate would face a major crisis. In addition, after the return of the great government, the old shogunate continued to meet with envoys from Britain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Prussia in Osaka in the name of the "shogunate (i.e., Japan)", and even the imperial court still appointed Tokugawa Keiki to continue to handle diplomatic affairs such as hyogo port opening, customs and trade as a Representative of Japan in order to prevent foreigners from visiting Kyoto. On the surface, Tokugawa Keiki's method of devotion was to bring the shogunate system to an end, but in fact it affirmed the legitimate position of Tokugawa Keiki and the Tokugawa clan. At the beginning of the War, the international community generally adopted an attitude of external neutrality, and did not recognize that the emperor and the new government were superior in name to the "enemy of the shogunate" they preached.
Through these few typical examples, it can be found that Qingxi's cleverness in strategy lies in his ability to judge the situation, do things that ordinary people cannot do in a clever way, and let ordinary people do things that they would not do, so as to achieve the purpose of surprise to others. Rather than following the previous method of coercion by force that the shogunate had often used to achieve its ends, it was the standard method of using the Jūkyō. Compared with the 14th shogun Tokugawa Ieshige, it is not difficult to see that Ieshige's way of issuing orders is straightforward and too tough, and it is difficult to achieve the expected results in the shogunate's late shogunate era, which is not as strong as before, but Tokugawa Keiki, who seems to be politically only promised, has always achieved fruitful results and made immeasurable contributions to saving the shogunate and reforming the country.
The fallen faction at the time acknowledged Thatogawa Keiki's character was strong, talented, and the castle government was deep and sharp. For example, Iwakura Kushi, a core figure in the imperial court who was praised as a hero of the Meiji dynasty, once wrote in his letter: "The behavior of The General Guanjin's celebration can be described as decisive, brave, and ambitious, and it is a fierce enemy that must not be taken lightly." Takayoshi Kido, who was hailed as one of the Three Masters of the Restoration, also said after the return of the Tokugawa Keiki Daisei: "Today, the Kanto government decree has been renewed, and the system of soldiers and horses is also considerable, and the courage of Ichibashi must not be insulted." If the opportunity to save the government is lost and the shogunate is preemptive, it will be like the rebirth of Ieyasu. ”
But as for Tokugawa Keiki's military command ability, I think the level is average at this point. After all, Tokugawa Keiki was not a professional military expert and had not received military training. His military performance is mostly in the use of generals, reform of the system and other parts that are closely integrated with politics, rather than in the specific combat deployment and front-line command. There are many politicians who do not understand military affairs who often want to show their talents in areas they do not understand and arbitrarily interfere in command and combat, and the behavior of Banmen axes not only causes trouble for the generals, but also causes unnecessary losses.
The above section talks about Keiki's origins and strategy, and many people will wonder: "Since he came from a noble origin and his strategy was so outstanding, why was he defeated in the Battle of Toba Fushimi?" Next, let's talk about Tokugawa Keiki's decisions based on his strategy, and analyze specific examples to answer this question in detail.
Three. decision-making
Tokugawa Keiki is known as "His Royal Highness the Two Hearts", which means that he often changes his already decided mind as if he had two hearts. Two of the most representative examples are the fact that during the Second War of Conquest, Keiki was given a sword by Emperor Hyomaki, who first encouraged his generals to swear to die in a crusade against Choshu, and then sent Katsukai to negotiate peace with the Choshu domain; after the Defeat of Toba Fushimi, he also showed his determination to fight to the end in Osaka Castle, but then returned to Edo by warship, greatly reducing morale. The prevailing view is that Tokugawa Keiki's suspicious personality led to behavioral indecision. Some people also infer that he is a cowardly and fearful person, and when he encounters some small situations, he seeks to protect himself. But is this really the case?
Not only was Tokugawa Keiki not a coward, but he was also quite courageous and resourceful, and acted vigorously. Why?
On August 20, 1864 (July 19, 19 July of the first year of the reign of Genji), the choshu clan army secretly approached Kyoto in three directions: Saga, Mt. Tenno, and Fushimi. At this time, all the soldiers were in a state of distress, and some generals, including Qingxi, were also sleeping. When Keiki's close attendant, Hara Ichigo, came to report that the Choshu army was approaching, Tokugawa Keiki quickly put on a neat robe and belt, jumped on his horse, and immediately entered the imperial palace to report on the situation of the battle, and received an edict to attack the Choshu Domain. Immediately afterwards, he rushed to the Kikuting Qing mansion opposite the Neutral Imperial Gate, where he took off his official clothes and changed into a military uniform transported by his attendants, "wearing a purple gradually dyed breast guard, a shawl embroidered with a black velvet sunflower-shaped family emblem on a white background, a tai knife decorated with a golden bear hair sheath on the waist, and a black lacquered hat wrapped around a purple pattern scarf." "With the golden flag in his hand, he looks like a majestic general posture." From the Gongqing Gate to the Clam Royal Gate, everyone else they met along the way was amazed. With a silver horse logo in front of his horse, he personally led ten close attendants, dozens of artillery teams, fifty small gunnery teams led by HaraIchijin, 100 other hand groups, 100 infantry teams, 150 guerrillas, and 200 miscellaneous soldiers, headed by HaraIchijin, to the Clam Gate, to encourage the generals and command the army to hold the main road of the Choshu Domain, so that the Choshu army could not break through. At the decision of Qingxi, after a fierce battle, the Choshu Army was defeated by the combined forces of the shogunate on the same day. In recent film and television works, the Aizu domain, which fought against the Choshu domain, and the Satsuma domain, which fought back with cannons, have often been emphasized in recent film and television works, while ignoring the role of the shogunate is a small loss.
In 1865, when the combined fleet of the five nations invaded Osaka Bay, the great powers took a tougher stance than the Black Ship Incident of 1853. Although the shogunate had signed treaties of commerce with the other countries, the actual implementation of trade was still seriously hindered, and the desired effect was not achieved. Western countries believed that it was the imperial court headed by the emperor who hindered the founding of Japan, so they deliberately chose a location closer to Kyoto to negotiate, which successfully deterred the imperial court. Britain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, and Russia forced Japan to open its Hyogo ports and achieve comprehensive trade. However, it was still the shogunate that was responsible for negotiating with the Western powers, who threatened to attack Kyoto by force if they could not trade; at the same time, the imperial court was resolute in its attitude of locking up the country and not allowing the shogunate to sign any treaties with the powers, otherwise it would be like Ii Naohiro who died and ended up "violating the imperial court" and deepening the confrontation between the shogunate. Even more, the southwestern strong clans that wanted to move would use this as an excuse to launch a civil war. At this time, although the shogunate itself hoped to open the port, it was powerless, and was caught between the great powers and the imperial court, with wolves and tigers in front of it, and a little carelessness would lead to the collapse of the shogunate and even the peril of Japan. In this predicament, Tokugawa Keiki was entrusted with the heavy responsibility of mediating with the imperial court, the shogunate, and the great powers, and won the trust of Emperor Takamitsu by first expressing his attitude to the imperial court, and gradually swept away the emperor's side of the fallen shogunate secretaries; then Tokugawa Keiki held a pre-imperial council when the great powers issued an ultimatum, proposing a plan to control the yi with the mastership of the shogunate after the first founding of the country, and to make clear the serious consequences of the lack of commerce to the secretaries of the imperial court, and asked the clan lords to attend the meeting to express their position. The pros and cons of the opponents were tirelessly stated until the majority of the secretaries of state and the clan members approved the proposal until the vote was passed; finally, after the reversal of the form, Emperor Hyomei personally issued the edict of opening the port, so that the imperial court had to agree to the shogunate's plan for the founding of the country, and achieved a result that the imperial court, the shogunate, and the great powers were all in favor of, defusing the tripartite crisis.
In this way, Tokugawa Keiki's bravery and strategy seem to contradict his "escape from battle" on the battlefield of Toba Fushimi, but this is not the case. First, before the Battle of Toba Fushimi, Tokugawa Keiki was not prepared for war for the following reasons:
1. The combined forces of the Shogunate amounted to 15,000 men, and they had the initiative in terms of strength and geography, which was more than enough whether it was a siege or an external confrontation. The combined shogunate army marched to Kyoto under the command of Tokugawa Keiki on only two routes, heading in the direction of Toba and Fushimi.
2. The shogunate's marching ranks are long arrays and are not suitable for combat. And the artillery, which should be protected, is also at the forefront of the team. In fact, at the beginning of the Battle of Toba Fushimi, the artillery of the Satsuma Domain fired at the shogunate's artillery team and made the first hit.
3. Although the shogunate's troops carried guns and cannons, the bullets were not actually loaded, and the amount of ammunition carried by the soldiers was very limited. Most of the generals wore dressed in ceremonial armor. The march was slow.
4. Although Tokugawa Keiki ordered the army to enter Beijing, the vanguard force consisted only of 70 or 80 men composed of Kyoto-cho Shōgun led by Ōmoku Futakikawa, or even unarmed. Wearing only leg guards and holding short guns, the group had only five rifles in total.
5. When Takikawa arrived at Kamika toba, the Satsuma army was descending from Toji Temple, and the two sides met near the ishibashi. The Satsuma army stubbornly stopped the march, and Takikawa decided to temporarily rest in the courtyard of a nearby farmhouse with a master named Muraoka, giving the Satsuma clan time to inquire about the will of the imperial court. Because before coming, Keiki had repeatedly told him to avoid conflict as much as possible. Takikawa thought that he had come to discuss the transfer of state power, and the imperial court would naturally approve the procession. However, he was immediately surrounded by Sachang and aimed his cannon at the courtyard, triggering a war.
So why did Tokugawa Keiki make such a decision that was not favorable to himself? Why lead an army without being prepared for war? It is not difficult to see from the above that Tokugawa Keiki did not intend to invade Kyoto by force, but let the army pass through the road in a parade-like lineup, hoping that Sasaga's army would naturally give way to the shogunate coalition army with a large number of troops, so as to enter the Kyoto Imperial Palace without injuring a single soldier. He met emperor Meiji, whom he had never met before, and petitioned the imperial court to resolve the conflict between the two sides that had arisen from a misunderstanding since the Kosho-shogunate meeting. Tokugawa Keiki knew that if he decided to break through Sasanagi's army by force and enter Kyoto, he would end up as enemy of Choshu as he did during the Forbidden Gate. Moreover, at that time, the imperial court in Kyoto had a lot of support for the secretaries of state of Choshu Domain, and at this time, the emperor and the imperial court were firmly controlled by the governor, and no one in the imperial court spoke for the old shogunate, and Tokugawa Keiki was very passive in name. If he did not lead the army, or only led a small number of troops to the imperial palace, he would be extremely vulnerable to being taken hostage, and even in combination with Saigo Takamori's behavior during the meeting of the small imperial palace (Saigo Takamori instructed his men to kill the opposition on the spot if the meeting was unfavorable to him), Keiki could be killed by the radical Satsuma clan before becoming a hostage. In the dilemma, in order to meet the new emperor before the imperial court pronounced the old shogunate as an "enemy of the dynasty", Tokugawa Keiki had to march to the imperial palace cautiously and at a gentle pace, without a hint of murder, so as not to make everyone mistakenly think that the shogunate army was coming to attack the imperial palace, alarming the young Son of Heaven and causing him to issue a crusade in panic. Such difficulties are much greater than taking Kyoto by force, like a negotiator who walks without any weapons to a gangster with a gun and a hostage in the other. Whether the gangsters would suddenly open fire on the unsuspecting negotiators was a bet made by Tokugawa Keiki.
On the other hand, the Sachang side:
1. At the end of December, ronin bandits under the command of the Satsuma Domain would break into Edo's wealthy merchants almost every day, claiming to "raise government funds" and kill people in their homes at will. The Shonouchi clan, who was responsible for defending Edo Castle, was furious, and the Satsuma clan deliberately exposed the Satsuma clan residence in the base camp of Mita to the clan soldiers, and the soldiers in the shonai could not bear it, so they joined forces with Yoshida, Nongsheng and other clans to launch a fire attack, annihilating the ronin bandits in one fell swoop, thus causing a war. The Satsuma clan hoped to provoke the shogunate and force it to resist, so that it would take the lead in the war and be named a thief army; in addition, by creating an incident between the two sides, the moderate faction within the Satsuma domain made up its mind to fight the curtain.
2. However, the old shogunate army, at the behest of Tokugawa Keiki, exercised maximum restraint and did not intend to use force, and did not declare war on it, nor did it leave a pretext for Sasaga to go to war. Eager to overthrow the curtain by force, the Satsuma clan, which was afraid of change, finally could not hold back, and forcibly intercepted the shogunate personnel who had come to negotiate on the grounds that "if they did not receive the orders of their superiors, even if they were ordered to enter the capital, they were not allowed to pass", and took the lead in shelling the shogunate army.
3. When Satsuma's gunfire involuntarily opened at The TobaGuchi, Fushimiguchi had not yet started the war. In addition to the samurai of Aizu, there are also many banners of the shogunate that have come from Fushimi-do. When these people came to The Kyobashi in Fushimi, they were also forcibly stopped by soldiers from Sa, Naga, and Tosan Domain. Then everyone heard the gunshots at The Mouth of the Toba, and they had to enter a state of combat.
4. While the two sides were engaged, Okubo Kazuzo (Ritsun) raised the matter of the curtain discussion into the imperial council and immediately appointed Prince Hitoji (Prince Kazaki, later Prince Akihito Komatsugu) as the general of the conquest, and raised a pseudo-pennant banner that had been prepared.
The whole process of Sachang's downfall is amazingly smooth. From this point it is clear that there is a gap in the preparation of the side that must not go to war and the side that will provoke the war in any case. How can an army that has been sternly admonished not to go to war be able to defeat an army that is emotionally charged with the name of a thief in any case? Moreover, the other side also held up the forged and legendary Imperial Pennant and shouted: "I は官軍わがは (吾乃官軍敌為贼)!" "Morale is naturally very different.
Later, Saigo Takamori made this comment about the war at that time: "The army entered Beijing from Osaka and joined together along the Yodogawa River. If the shogunate army is divided into many ways, I will not be able to defend it after all. ”
Judging by the results, Tokugawa Keiki was pushed by Sasaga to go to war. Although the first battle was frustrated, this did not mean that the shogunate army could not win the war. From the analysis of the casualty percentage after the end of the battle, it is conservatively estimated that the 15,000 troops of the shogunate coalition army have suffered about 890 casualties, accounting for 5.9%, and the 5,000 soldiers of the shogunate have suffered about 320 casualties, accounting for 6.4%, and the shogunate side is not inferior to the sasaga, and even a small victory. Although some officers and soldiers fled the battlefield, there was no major rout, the front was basically stable, and effective counterattacks were organized many times. At that time, the shogunate army was attacked and urgently responded, once the shogunate army gradually entered the state of battle after the previous few days of fighting, after strengthening the will to fight and launching the offensive, it was not difficult to achieve the final victory with a large and elite force, whether the clans rebelled or not. The shogunate army did not win, because on the one hand, Tokugawa Keiki was deeply influenced by Mitogaku, and it was unacceptable to fight against the pennant and become a thief army. Sa Chang did not play his cards according to the routine, whether it was the absurd "war against the imperial court" or the appearance of the pennant, it was far beyond the celebration and surprise. On the other hand, Tokugawa Keiki has reasons for having to keep the situation in peace, which is described in more detail below.
In the end, Tokugawa Keiki did not expect the war to develop in this way, and could not arrange for the withdrawal of troops in an out-of-control situation, so he had to lead his cronies, the important commanders of the shogunate alliance, back to Edo by boat. The intention was to affirm that the start of the war was the result of the indignation of the soldiers, and that the generals of the old shogunate had nothing to do with the decision to start the war, hoping to be in Edo to keep themselves out of the matter and be freed from the crime of the enemy, in the hope of making a comeback like Choshu after the change of the forbidden gate. The soldiers, on the other hand, will naturally retreat when they learn that the Lord will flee, which is the sound of celebrating this move.
Tokugawa Keiki never wanted to make enemies of the imperial court, and it was no less difficult for him to make up his mind to break the "concept of kingship" in the general code of conduct and fight the imperial court, no less difficult than getting the government of the lighthouse countries to change to communism and the Soviets to accept fascism. Therefore, after the battle, we saw that Tokugawa Keiki, after some inner struggle with himself and persuasion of his close courtiers, finally chose to be absolutely obedient to the imperial court, accepted punishment, and realized the good story of Edo's bloodless opening of the castle, and also went to Ueno Kanei-ji Temple to live in the house, never asking about political affairs.
Four. achievement
Tokugawa Keiki chose absolute obedience, achieved the bloodless opening of Edo, and handed over the shogunate's property and military power to the new government, which seemed to be a helpless move, but it was a complete failure, but it was not. Not to mention that the shogunate still has the strength to fight to the death, especially with Edo Castle, the center of the shogunate, as the main battlefield, and the heart of the sergeant to defend the homeland is enough to re-innovate the government army, and the victory or defeat is still unknown. If Tokugawa Keiki had accepted the proposal of Léon Roches, the second French minister to Japan, backed by France, to fight a decisive battle with the British-backed Sassau and Nagato to the end, Japan would have divided the world and greatly reduced its national strength, and the internal conflict would eventually turn into a proxy war between Britain and France, and the country would face the danger of splitting, and even in the wave of modernization, there would be no turnaround.
The peaceful transfer of power in the form of "retro monarchy" not only avoided the bloody conflicts caused by large-scale wars, but also enabled the accumulation of factors of social progress to continue smoothly, enabling the Meiji government to effectively make use of the achievements of the shogunate era, and some of the important ministers of the old shogunate were reused in the new government, and also alleviated the sharp contradictions and conflicts between the new and old forces in the rapid social changes. Therefore, it has to be said that Tokugawa Keiki's move was to abandon the old shogunate system in exchange for the future of the country, which was the best choice that could be made at that time. At this point, we can no longer judge victory or defeat purely from a military point of view, but we must realize that "war is a continuation of politics", and the political measures of celebration have finally saved Japan from the precipice of civil war. Some people say that Tokugawa Keiki was the greatest contributor to the Meiji Restoration, which is not an exaggeration.
It is worth mentioning that when studying the decision-making of historical figures, if we judge the ancients from the perspective and level of the present, it is blindly one-sided and absolutely undesirable. Because when we look at historical figures from the perspective of future generations, we already know the results of events, know how to do it is the best solution, understand what the measures taken by historical figures mean, but for us, "history" is their "future", just as you can't completely predict what will happen in the future, they can't; and we also have sufficient information channels to know the ideas, strengths, and where the characters of all sides are, just like paving the historical events of a certain period like a picture scroll. Historical figures, on the other hand, do not have such a sufficient source of information, and for them the environment is like a small area in the black fog that can only be seen in their own center, and when a major event occurs, they do not know who will be involved, as well as the psychological activities and specific positions of the participants. At the same time, the changes in thinking caused by the background of the times in which today's people live, the education they receive, and the changes brought about by the social environment are very different from those of the ancients, and judging the morality of the ancients with today's morality is historical nihilism and ignores the limitations of history.
Whether it was to save the shogunate or Kaesong in Edo, Tokugawa Keiki's decision may not be called the best plan, nor can it satisfy the views and aesthetics of people from different positions, but it was already a relatively satisfactory plan for him and the shogunate at that time. Many years later, Tokugawa Keiki and the old shoguns looked at Japan, which was on the rise under the Meiji Restoration, and said in their memoirs that they did not regret much, nor did they regret the decision at that time, at least for them, the "failure" in the eyes of some people was already "liberated".
The above article talks about Tokugawa Keiki's decision-making and achievements, briefly explains the reasons why the old shogunate army under Keiki's command was overall superior in strength and equipment to the new sasaga government but still lost the Battle of Toba Fushimi, and also analyzed the final results of Tokugawa Keiki. The other battles of the Pengchen War will not be discussed here, and I will publish a special article and video to explain it later. Let's take a closer look at Tokugawa Keiki, discuss his motivations for decision-making, and explain the reasons why Tokugawa Keiki had to keep the peace mentioned above.
Five. Tokugawa Keiki Conjecture (Personal Research Perspective):
Looking at Tokugawa Keiki's life, in addition to what has been mentioned above, there seems to be many puzzling points, and previous research on this has not been conclusive. Here, based on the available historical data, I will put forward some views that have not been conceived by previous researchers, and use reasonable assumptions to explain Tokugawa Keiki's behavior to fill the gap in history. Since there is still much to be done that has not been fully examined, and this view has not been unanimously agreed upon, please watch it with caution. Hereby declare, Zigu listens.
1. The unambitious authorities
It is well known that Tokugawa Keiki was the last shogun, but few people know that he was not a voluntary successor, but was elected.
As a teenager, he was a bohemian nobleman who was unwilling to study politics, much to his father's concern. When the Hitotsubashi faction and the Nanji faction debated the succession of the fourteenth shogun, a fierce struggle broke out between the two sides, including the "Ansei Daigura" initiated by Ii Naohiro, which was also aimed at fighting and retaliating against the Hitotsubashi faction, while Hitotsubashi Keiki himself was indifferent, as if the center of the Hitotsubashi faction's struggle was not himself. After the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was difficult for anyone in the Tokugawa clan who was closely related and could shoulder heavy responsibilities to succeed to the throne, whether it was the family such as Matsudaira Keinaga, Matsudaira Ronho, or other daimyōs such as Date Munjo, Yamauchi Toyonobu and others, Tokugawa Keiki repeatedly resigned from the Tokugawa clan and refused to succeed to the shogunate. Later, after persuasion, Tokugawa Keiki agreed to inherit the Clan, but still refused to become a shogun, and even said that the position of shogun could be abolished. Later, the imperial court had to appoint in the name of the emperor, and after the conditions for reforming the maladministration were met, he finally took office on December 5, 1866, and the shogunate had been vacant for three months.
In the face of the retrospection of the royal government, the imperial court asked to resign from the official land, and the attitude of celebration was refreshing, and there was no nostalgia for the official position. The reason why he did not accept it was that if the shogunate's nearly three million stones of land were returned, it would become a serious problem to feed the huge flag book and the imperial family system, and if the huge members of the old system suddenly lost their livelihoods, it would be easy to cause turmoil. At this time, Qingxi did not seek self-interest, but worried about the livelihood of his subordinates. On the other hand, the sasaga was unusually resolute, as if he regarded the shogunate's land as a celebratory personal property, and did not care about the social impact of the return of the land.
Before and after the return of the Great Government, Nishi-shu and others proposed a unified "public government system" modeled on the parliamentary system and the separation of powers system in Western countries, and they proposed that the head of government should be the shogun in the current system, which meant that they wanted Tokugawa Keiki to be appointed. It was blurred whether the head of state (general) after the separation of powers would follow the family succession. Tokugawa Keiki noticed this when reading the Draft Agenda, not only arguing that the family succession system was not conducive to the new system of government, but also making it clear that the head of the government could not be held by himself.
After Edo opened the city without blood, Keiki accepted punishment and gave up all assets and political rights. When someone offered to return to the new government after the lifting of the house, Kyung-hee refused. At the same time, try to avoid the old part. Instead, he devoted himself to life interests such as photography, hunting, and the study of folk songs, and focused on these tasks, paying little attention to politics. For the rest of his life, Tokugawa Keiki seems to have fulfilled his long-cherished wish of alienating himself from the bureaucracy and living a peaceful life as he had hoped for in his youth.
Qingxi's life is so indifferent to fame and fortune, so disgusted with official struggles, and has the ability to shoulder heavy responsibilities but is unwilling to show it. So much so that his courtiers were worried that the ambitions of the monarch would be inflated to harm the world, while the Qingxi subordinates were worried that he had no ambition and could not be swept around.
2. The enlightened in the conservative camp
In the modern history of the world, the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that lagged behind the times mostly failed in implementing modernization reforms, and may be fruitful for a while, but they will eventually be counterattacked by conservative forces or their ideas are too advanced to society to be accepted, and finally the reforms are declared to fail, until the armed revolution is ushered in. The same was true of the predicament faced by Japan at the end of the shogunate, as a long-established military government, the reforms implemented by the shogunate on many occasions were strongly resisted by vested interests under the shogunate system, and the conservative factions in the upper echelons and the private nobles united with each other to try to hinder the course of history, continue to maintain the shogunate system, and even return to the state of seclusion. Although a number of progressives also appeared in the cabinet, it still could not change the fact that the shogunate was the stronghold of conservative forces at that time. It was in this environment that Tokugawa Keiki began to govern.
Although he lived in a conservative and socially backward country, and held high shogunate positions representing the old forces, he was not corrupted by this, but instead worked hard to build Japan into a refreshing power. For this reason, he once said that the shogunate system was no longer suitable for Japan at that time and needed to be abolished. He was not a maintainer of the conservative shogunate system, but a reformer who promoted the centralization of state power and built a centralized state to cope with the development of modernization. However, he paid attention to the gradual process, unlike the radical Satsuma Domain's proposal to abolish the shogunate immediately, but relied on the old trunk of the shogunate to shield the seedlings of the new system from the wind and rain until the new regime grew into a towering tree that could take over the country.
Keiki is an enlightened person who also likes the products of Western civilization such as video cameras, and has been called a "foreigner" for this reason. He appointed many new talents and alienated the conservative shogunate. The firm reforms that he practiced, especially after the end of the Second Conscript War, were deeply touched by the decline of the shogunate, so he advocated the "Qingying Military Reform", increased the intensity of institutional learning from the West, translated and studied Western military works (such as the Dutch "Infantry Exercises", the American "Fire Gong Style", the French "Infantry Formula", etc.), vigorously dismantled the old army and added a new army, and the famous French new army "Transmission Team" was formed at this time. The training team expanded the class of recruitment, and joining the army was no longer a privilege of the samurai. From the equipment, training methods, and division of arms, the Western model has been adopted. The formation of the squadrons, brigades, squadrons, and squads was also formed at this time, and they were equipped with complete military trumpets, which showed the depth of Westernization. It is japan's real first new army.
Tokugawa Keiki accepted the West not only technically and institutionally, but also ideologically. Due to the appointment of new talents to teach him, Tokugawa Keiki was one of the few politicians in Japan at that time who had studied the Public Law of Nations. Therefore, he is well versed in the colonization and struggle for hegemony of the great powers, strives to safeguard national dignity when negotiating with Western countries, and hopes to make use of the contradictions between Britain, the United States, France, Russia and other countries to win space for Japan's survival and development. It is emphasized that when negotiating with Western countries, we must first pay attention to trustworthiness and avoid losing faith in foreign countries and leaving a pretext for armed colonial aggression to the great powers.
3. The farthest-sighted person in the late shogunate era
Tokugawa Keiki was one of the few people in the late shogunate who could see the country, knew the tide of the world, and was happy to serve the country. This is due to the fact that he accepted the idea of honoring the king and protecting the country in the "Mito Studies" in his youth, the thinking of the people cultivated by what he saw and heard in his youth, and after he came to power, he was assisted by progressive people such as the Western Zhou Dynasty, forming a unique concept with traditional culture and Western thought.
Who is the Western Zhou Dynasty? Western Zhou (にし あまね) was an enlightener and educator of the late shogunate period. When he was young, he learned Confucianism, and later learned Orchid, and was sent by the shogunate to study in Europe with Takeyoshi Yukimoto and others. Studied law, philosophy, economics, international law with Simon Fissering. He joined Freemasonry at that time. Proficient in foreign Chinese and etiquette, he was a "Japanese soul foreign talent" style figure respected in Japan at that time.
Western Zhou assisted Tokugawa Keiki in teaching him foreign languages, telling him about the Western political system and legislative spirit, which deeply touched Keiki, especially the separation of powers. Around the time of the reign of Daimyō, Tokugawa Keiki ordered the Western Zhou Dynasty to develop a political and legal system suitable for Japan modeled on the separation of powers, and repeatedly asked senior members of the old shogunate to read it, so as to inspire them to accept the reforms.
At a time when the pressure on military spending on shogunate reform was extremely high, Tokugawa Keiki refused to borrow money from the great powers by mortgaged land; in order to prevent the Japanese civil war from turning into a proxy war for the great powers, Tokugawa Keiki resolutely rejected the French proposal to send troops to aid the Bochen War. In the choice between family honor and the future of the country, Tokugawa Keiki did not hesitate to choose the latter, abandoning the war that could have been won and willingly accepting the punishment of the enemy.
With regard to the conflict in Japan's political situation, Tokugawa Keiki has long since jumped out of the dead cycle of "suppressing the fallen shogunate to continue feudal rule" of the conservative forces, "overthrowing the old shogunate and establishing a new shogunate" of the Choshu Domain, and "maintaining the old system by combining the public and military forces" of the Tosa Domain, and is outside the short-sighted political circle, looking forward to the future, joining hands with advanced civilizations, and making painstaking efforts for the country. Tokugawa Keiki was convinced that Japan at that time was in the most critical period of reform, as fragile as a silkworm pupae, and if it could not transform butterflies, it would be swallowed by predators. It is necessary to maintain the tranquility and stability of the country, and there can be no large-scale war, so he has tried his best to reconcile the forces of all sides and strive for peaceful change in Japan. However, Keiki's concerns were denounced as "scheming" by short-sighted secretaries such as Iwakura and radical dignitaries such as Katsura Kogoro, and rival forces such as Sasaga mistakenly believed that Tokugawa Keiki was to prolong the life of the shogunate forces, but strengthened their determination to fall.
At the end of the shogunate, no one was the only one who realized that the state needed to abandon the old system to learn new ideas, but it was rare to have such a visionary person, very few powerful people to carry out national reforms, and even fewer to practice it at the national level. It has to be said that this is the favor of fate for rejoicing, and it is also the reason that eventually leads to sadness, creating a generation of tragic last kings.
4. General Ai Min
Tokugawa Keiki came from a prominent background, but he was not averse to contact with people at the bottom. He often wandered among the city, although he was not on an equal footing with the people, but he was also a rare pleasure with the people.
Sympathetic to the suffering of the people, after the change of the forbidden gate, the fleeing Choshu clan army set fire to countless houses in Kyoto. Tokugawa Keiki, who was then the governor of the Imperial Guard of the Forbidden City, strongly supported the distribution of rice grain for disaster relief and the reconstruction of Kyoto.
When Tokugawa Iemo was a shogun, Tokugawa Keiki repeatedly advised him to stabilize prices and ensure people's livelihood in the form of decrees.
One of the reasons Why Tokugawa Keiki tried to prevent the outbreak of the Bochen War included not wanting to bring the suffering of war to the people, and Saigo Takamori's view was contrary to it, believing that the people needed to be awakened by the pain of war.
After the news of the defeat of the old shogunate army at the Battle of Toba Fushimi reached Edo, the price of rice in Musashi Sky soared for a time. Tokugawa Keiki, who had just returned to Edo, took a break and set about stabilizing the Edo market and stabilizing prices.
Before the opening of Edo Castle, the new government forces intended to take Edo Castle by force. Katsukai, the president of the army in charge of negotiations with the Governor's Office, was instructed by Tokugawa Keiki to go to the base camp of the new government army and ask Sasaga to stop the general attack on Edo on the grounds that "there are many houses under Edo Castle, and if the war starts, the lives will be ruined, please think about the people's livelihood.". In line with the concept of being the same imperial citizen and frying He Taixi, he finally won the recognition of the new government and contributed to the good story of bloodless opening of the city.
Qingxi's lack of greed for power, long-term vision, concern for the people, and moderation have made him very different from the radical sachang new government in terms of his expectations for the construction of the government and the future of the country. The following will talk in detail about Qingxi's vision of a unified regime, and explore his vision of a new government in a little depth, and the reasons for its failure.
5. Celebrate the conception of the restoration of the regime
At the end of the shogunate, there were many feudal states and daimyo were divided into one side, which was not conducive to the implementation of the policy of national unification, and it was even more unfavorable to concentrate on defending the country in the era of surrounded by great powers, and it was difficult to meet the needs of modern society. If Japan, which is backward in both system and technology, wants to achieve a rich country and a strong army in the process of modernization, the most urgent task is to change the status quo of decentralization of power and form a strong centralized restoration government. The meiji restoration in the future was the centralization of power through a series of policies such as "the return of the edition of the book" and the "abolition of the feudal prefecture". Therefore, some people will say that only the Meiji government can modernize Japan, and the reform of the shogunate without abolishing the shogunate system is a palliative rather than a cure. It is true that in the history that we are familiar with, it was indeed the Meiji government that reformed and completed the centralization of power, which promoted Japan's leap from a semi-colonial country to the only great power in Asia, and also laid the foundation for the suffering of the Asian people in the future. Now, let's look at the historical shogunate's actions, and the real thoughts of the last shogun, Tokugawa Keiki, who really turned a blind eye to the huge local feudal power and did not consider abolishing the domain system?
Historically, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had unified Japan since the Onin Rebellion, failed to completely resolve local forces. Its way of unifying Japan was not to achieve a total conquest of the archipelago by its own military power, but on the basis of its own military strength, it was combined with the strategy of pulling one faction to fight and one faction to strengthen its own camp, accepting the enemy's surrender and turning it into a blockade. Therefore, Japan is only nominally a temporary unification, and it is still far from unification in the sense of centralization. In this case, in order to consolidate its rule and ensure that its strength was always above that of the various domains, the Edo shogunate, in addition to occupying important territories as the heavenly lords, dividing the kinships and the daimyō of the lineage, also implemented the system of locking up the kingdom from 1633 to block the overseas trade of the various domains, and in 1635 introduced the service of the clans, and continuously improved over the next two hundred years to consume the financial resources and manpower of the daimyō. It can be seen that the shogunate was well aware of the importance of consolidating the power of the central government, but did not have the strength to directly eliminate the daimyo and instead used a weakening method. These measures were very effective in consolidating the shogunate's rule, but they could not cope with the violent shock from the outside, and the system quickly collapsed after the arrival of the black ship.
Toward the end of the Edo period, the loyal magi ministers Itakura Katsushizu and Ogasawara Nagayuki proposed a series of reform measures to maintain the authority of the shogunate, hoping to continue the rule of the shogunate and bring the whole of Japan together under the shoguns to achieve modernization reforms. Another example is the parliamentary system proposed by Oguri Tadashun to abolish the establishment of a central government by the various domains and the western Zhou suke. These ideas were eventually endorsed by the politically enlightened Tokugawa Keiki, as well as summarized and improved. This is his vision of a restoration regime, as follows.
In terms of structure, it is divided into two levels of management: central and local.
At the central level,
1. Drawing on the British parliamentary system and modeling on the United States, the separation of powers system is implemented, the house of parliament is the chief legislator, the principal executive of the principality, the judiciary of the grand monarch and has the right to be responsible for the control of the house of parliament and the government. The Maharajah and the House of Representatives supervise each other, and the House of Parliament enacts legislation to regulate the Principality, and the House of Parliament implements the decrees of the House of Parliament; the Maharaja sets the planning goals for the House, and the Government needs to report to the Maharajah. In this way, the mutual restraint of the legislature, the judiciary and the administration has been realized. Although the authority of the maharaja was great and there were many opportunities for arbitrariness, this form of government had been greatly improved compared with the traditional feudal government, and it would be further improved in a reasonable direction in the future.
2. In addition to the three powers, the Emperor, as a fictitious monarch, formally appoints the Maharajah and approves the decrees enacted by the House of Representatives. The Maharajah was the de facto head of government.
3. The House of Lords is divided into two houses, the Upper House is attended by daimyo of Manshi or more, and the Lower House is appointed by one of the clans.
4. The government is in charge of administrative work, with six major administrative offices under it, and manages the army.
5. The seat of government is in Osaka. And the central government sent officials to the various feudal states.
In this system of central bureaucracy, the head of government, the Maharaja, has the highest executive and military powers. He is also the Speaker of the Upper House and has the power to dissolve the House of Commons. The right to set goals for the government and to reward and punish them. The first was left to Tokugawa Keiki, and the way in which a successor was elected was blurred, either elected or held by the Tokugawa clan. Inconclusive.
The powers of the House of Councils include the issuance of municipal decrees, reward and punishment orders, and notification of violations of the law throughout the country; the formulation of the internal national system, program, the formulation of the High Taxation of the Gongfu and the Formulation of the Basic Law on Foreign Affairs; the initiation of provisional deliberations on matters other than the military; and the regulations relating to the affairs of the Gongfu.
The Gongfu is the central government, which consists of the National, Foreign, Guoyi, Duzhi, Temple, and Academic Affairs Offices, and is responsible for managing the national guards formed from the old flag book. Each ministry has a prime minister and several subordinates. Among them, the National Affairs Office is in charge of the personnel arrangements of officials and personnel in the whole country, the cashiers of the institutions, and the acceptance of lawsuits; the Foreign Affairs Office is responsible for negotiating with foreign countries; the State Interest Affairs Office, that is, the State Interest Affairs Office, is responsible for managing transportation, communications, minerals, currency, etc.; the Duzhi Affairs Office is responsible for managing the cashiers and accounts of the public office; the Temple and Social Affairs Office is responsible for managing the temple society, and then the Practice is responsible for managing religious affairs. The above offices are scheduled to be set up immediately, and the Office of Academic Affairs is scheduled to be set up again in the future when the country is stable, and is responsible for managing education.
The emperor's powers included the formal right to decide; the right to choose the era name (which was forbidden to be modified at will); the right to specify formal weights and measures; the right to administer the gods and Buddhism (which was actually administered by the temple and community affairs offices); the distribution of high taxes collected to armaments (limited to the mountain castle state, the actual expenses were determined by the house of parliament, and the national affairs office allocated funds), and the acceptance of tributes from daimyo.
At the local level,
1. The clans were divided between the lords and the forbidden (imperial domain) and the imperial domain (shogunate territory) and belonged to the daimyōs. The clans have only limited administrative powers and the power to elect the members of the clan. There is no legislative or military power.
2. Edo is owned by the Tokugawa family. It is divided into the city and the administration of the acting official, which is the same as the various domains, and has limited power. It is also not the seat of the Restoration Government.
3. Yamashiro Kingdom is a royal territory, which is mainly used to maintain royal expenses, hold festivals, and receive subjects.
4. The local clans are under central control, not a state of separation under the shogunate system, and adopt a transitional policy of first loosening and then gradually tightening. Domain power is limited and mostly exists on paper.
It should be noted that the present structure is a government structure for the transition from the shogunate system to a centralized system. It was not the final version, and the final version did not have time to design.
From the point of view of the execution steps (some steps are carried out at the same time),
One. First of all, he maintained the authority of the shogunate in the chaos at the end of the shogunate, in order to rule the various domains.
Two. Promote the integration of public and military forces, use the name of the imperial court to reconstruct the government, and allow the secretary of state and the samurai to participate in politics together.
Three. The shogunate held a meeting of the daimyōs, and the shoguns discussed the state of the country with the daimyōs.
Four. Gradually abolish the shogunate system and establish a three-power government system to achieve centralization.
Five. Carry out economic and cultural reforms, and eventually enrich the country and strengthen the army.
At first glance, there are seeming contradictions in the above plan, such as maintaining the authority of the shogunate and abolishing the shogunate, and there are also surprising points, such as the abolition of the shogunate and the shogun system as shogun (heir). It seems that the intuitive impression that the proposer should be the new government symbolizing the "advanced" side, and if the shogun Tokugawa Keiki mouth from the head of the old power always feels out of place. In fact, this is the long-term manifestation of Tokugawa Keiki's vision, he is not a defender of the old system, on the contrary, he wants to be the founder of the new system. Tokugawa Keiki understood that change did not happen overnight, but needed to give people a process of adaptation, otherwise it was easy to cause fierce resistance; the establishment of new systems often needed to rely on the old system to produce, and there was no shortage of people under the old system at the beginning of the formation of the new system. If this system continues, Japan may become a country that is close to a federal system, and even later scholars will create a new term for their whole. To be sure, Japan under such a polity would not be as aggressive as Japan under the new Meiji government as we know it. There will be no deplorable losses to asian countries or their peoples in the future.
However, this idea was not realized in the end, and only stayed at the draft stage.
6. The dilemma of rejoicing
We only see from the identity of an outsider that Tokugawa Keiki was from a prominent background, had unlimited scenery, but failed miserably, and finally spent the rest of his life, and we commented on his nonsense. But he rarely thinks from his own point of view, and he has not thought about what kind of thoughts he has as a flesh-and-blood, living person like each of us.
If we are familiar with the history of the end of the shogunate, it is not difficult to find that Tokugawa Keiki was a person who was deeply respected by the people around him and hated from the bottom of his heart: he was deeply influenced by Mito Studies and always respected the imperial court, so he was suspected by the samurai of the shogunate after he left the shogunate, and he became the "governor of the imperial guard of the forbidden castle" appointed by Emperor Takaaki but was suspected by the secretaries of state as a spy sent by the shogunate; the behavior of being born in mito domain but becoming a shogun was suspected by the elders as a conspiracy of Tokugawa Kiaki Serving as a shogun to maintain shogunate rule also attracted hostility from the radical yi faction in mito domain; After the return of the great government, Qingxi expressed his willingness to establish a new government, but was accused of plotting against the imperial court head-on, unwilling to confront the imperial court and ridiculed by the samuel forces for being weak and incompetent; his intention to implement the new policy was strongly resisted by vested interests in the shogunate, trying to persuade the old and middle to participate in the reform and being denounced by the radical reformists as stubborn conservatives.
Who knows who knows to whom Tokugawa Keiki tried his best to mediate between the two sides in the hope of preventing the Japanese from killing each other in the present moment of the great powers, but he was trapped in a dilemma that was not human inside and outside?
7. Shield and spear
When Tokugawa Ieshige was a shogun, Matsudaira Keinaga served as the chief of government affairs, Matsudaira Ronho served as the guardian of Kyoto, and Tokugawa Keiki served as shogun. The three are collectively called "three service positions". The general was responsible for assisting the general and serving as the general's guide and supervisor. At this time, Tokugawa Keiki was just beginning to emerge, but mainly relying on Tokugawa Ieshige, he used the name of Tokugawa Ieshige to implement government decrees, making it generally difficult for people to notice the existence of this think tank behind the shogun, and successfully diverted attention. When implementing the reforms, Tokugawa Keiki struck at the heart like a spear, and when opposed, he was covered by Tokugawa Iemo. Although this behavior often upset Tokugawa Iemo, tokugawa's celebrations during this period were fruitful. At the same time, Emperor Takamitsu, known as the "Emperor of the End of the Shogunate", opposed the overthrow of the curtain by force and advocated the combination of public and military forces, which coincided with Tokugawa Keiki's concept and admired Keiki, and appointed him as the governor of the Imperial Guard of the Forbidden Castle, becoming a spear for maintaining the authority of the Son of Heaven by force. He was also personally granted the sword of symbolic power and glory as a sign of trust. It was very difficult for the government and the public to openly oppose Tokugawa Keiki, and the authority of the Son of Heaven formed an invisible protective shield around Keiki. With tokugawa Ieyasu's samurai shield and Emperor Takaaki's public barrier, Tokugawa Keiki relied on the protection of both sides and became an invincible spear of reform.
However, in 1866, The sudden deaths of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Emperor Takaaki made Tokugawa Keiki's two major backings collapse almost at the same time, exposing them to the eyes of the public and leaving them in a helpless situation. At this time, Tokugawa Keiki became the chief figure of the shogunate, and the hostility suffered suddenly increased. The conservative forces inside and the Zunwang Yi faction on the outside all pointed the spearhead at him, and it became difficult to implement the reforms, and in the end, the reform of the shogunate was not successfully implemented. Many historians believe that the failure of this series of unexpected changes to reform the shogunate was a turning point for Japan, and if the celebration of the restoration were realized, Japan would embark on a very different path from the history we know today, which Takehiko Yoshimura called "unseen possibility." This means that the development of history has countless possibilities and contingencies, and the history we know as it is an inexorable road that follows the tide of history and advances along the countless possibilities. Although the general development trend of society remains unchanged, the path is diverse, and the path we have traveled is called "history"; then correspondingly, the detour is "what did not happen". There is a fundamental difference between "what didn't happen" and the historical taboo "if it would have happened"—to give a simple example, "history" is when an apple happens to hit Newton to cause reflection on gravity; "what didn't happen" is that the apple did not happen to hit Newton; "if something happens" is that the apple flies into the sky.
Six. gaffe
So looking at the entire article, full of positive images of Tokugawa Keiki, is he not at fault? Of course not, people are not sages, and Celebration is no exception. For example, he was born into a high-ranking samurai family, and he should take on the responsibility of inheriting the family business and taking care of the overall situation. However, in his youth, Keiki was a playboy, and he often led a few of his close attendants into and out of The Flower Street Willow Lane. Unwilling to participate in politics, indifferent to the family business to the point of rebellion, only want to live a life away from politics. Therefore, he often contradicted his father Tokugawa Kisaki, and some people commented at the time: "The most terrible thing about [Tokugawa Keiki] is that he has no ambitions, and his heart for fame and fortune is as clear as a morning dew." After the death of Tokugawa Ieshige, his reluctance to inherit the Tokugawa clan and shogunship was also related to his consistent style.
Some of the more obvious mistakes, including Tokugawa Keiki's fear of being held hostage during the Kogasho meeting, were one of the reasons why the distrust of the imperial court intensified and the conflict eventually intensified to the outbreak of the Battle of Toba Fushimi. In fact, among the participants was Matsudaira Keiei and Yamasan-do, and a considerable number of the secretaries of state, out of disgust for Iwakura's disdain and reluctance to offend the Tokugawa family, preferred to protect Tokugawa Keiki at the meeting. In terms of hardware facilities, the elite of Aizu and Kuwana at that time, the 1,000 soldiers of the shogunate, as well as the new selection of paramilitary forces responsible for maintaining law and order, and the Miko group were all stationed in Kyoto, and the possibility of the Satsuma clan trying to take the lead in this situation was very small. If he had led Ronho and Akiyoshi to the imperial council at this time, Sasaki's plan to exclude Tokugawa Keiki from the new government would have failed, not only would has sasaga lost his name as launching the Battle of Toba Fushimi, but would have brought a major opportunity for reform to the shogunate's restoration regime mentioned above, and history would likely be completely rewritten. Tokugawa Keiki's excessive suspicion and caution led to a misjudgment of the situation, which buried his political career.
Personally, I think that from a deep perspective, Tokugawa Keiki's biggest weakness is his unwillingness to take responsibility. In fact, this kind of behavior can be seen in many last monarchs, and Tokugawa Keiki is particularly prominent as a mourner of the era.
As the head of the Tokugawa clan, that is, the head of the family, Kaesong was able to protect himself and spend the rest of his life in peace, but he failed to shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting the members of the family, and finally put the suffering of carrying the crime of being accused of being a rival and accepting punishment on his clan relatives Matsudaira Ronho, Matsudaira Tsuneyoshi, and others, and Tokugawa Keitoshi, Tokugawa Akitake and others also nearly suffered. He also directed the war against the Northeastern clans, who were sympathetic to the shogunate, and was also a tragedy caused by his insufficient thinking.
While stationed in Osaka, he repeatedly stressed that he would avoid war but was forced to lead his army to Gora, and even when the conflict with Sasaga broke out of control on the way, he hoped to preserve his political position with Matsudaira Yōho and Matsudaira Tsuneyoshi by returning to Edo to create the illusion that he had nothing to do with the war, but the practice of abandoning the soldiers without leaving any news was really inappropriate, so that chaos immediately broke out in the shogunate's camp, and the soldiers' resentment towards Keiki reached the extreme. It can be said that before and after the Battle of Toba Fushimi, he regarded officers and soldiers as ordinary resources as weapons and equipment, showing the cruel thinking of politicians, in fact ignoring the will, emotions, and most importantly, life value of officers and soldiers.
From another point of view, the Battle of Toba Fushimi was not so much a rout and fled back to Edo as a revenge for the main warriors in the old shogunate army. The defeat at the Battle of Toba Fushimi was even more discredited. He blamed all this on the recklessness of the soldiers of the main war faction, so he returned to Edo safely by boat alone, leaving some of the soldiers who did not obey their orders to fend for themselves. This was confirmed by the fact that he had deposed many of the main warlords such as Oguri Tadashun after returning to Edo, and in the political situation at the end of the shogunate, he had been punished by the shogunate with his father and brother before he came to power, and he was also jealous of the "Ichiko-san" leader who had done his best to save the shogunate, until he became the shogun of the shogunate. It is difficult to say whether Tokugawa Keiki subjectively wanted to punish the opponents in the cabinet with the idea of breaking the jar together, we have no way to verify, but his behavior shows dissatisfaction with them, which can be described as a wordless confrontation.
However, as the de facto commander of the old shogunate, these deliberate actions are disgraceful. Judging from the above two points, the top generals of the old shogunate, who took the military as the foundation of their rule, did not fulfill their due responsibilities to the army and officers and soldiers, which was definitely a major failure of Celebration.
Tokugawa Keiki's wishful thinking in his quest for peace eventually pushed the loyal Samu forces into war, and a series of bloody conflicts broke out, including the North Vietnam War and the Aizu War. In the eyes of foreign countries, post-Meiji Japan was very belligerent and denounced their militarism. In fact, the first belligerent germs appeared in the First Year of the Meiji Dynasty during the Pengchen War. It would have only taken some time to negotiate to avoid conflict, but the new government forces, eager for quick success, personally spread the germ of turmoil and hatred throughout East Japan. Taking advantage of the capture of Ueno, they expanded their front to the northeast. Saigo Takamori once said, "The country has been peaceful for too long, and the people need the baptism of war." The ambition that allowed Keiki to win development opportunities in a peaceful way was not inherited by the new Meiji government, and the country was dragged into the abyss of war.
If the far-sighted generals of later generations of Japan, such as the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods, saw that provoking a war was like drinking and quenching thirst, and would eventually destroy the foundation that Japan had worked so hard to manage for many years, and wanted to stop the frenzy of shouting for war and were unable to do anything, they would feel the mood of celebration before the Battle of Toba Fushimi. In order to avoid secrecy, after the dismissal of the hijacking, I voluntarily refused all invitations to enter the new government, lived a life of my own and did not hear about the world, and categorically gave up the last chance to save Japan from the abyss of war. In this way, Tokugawa Keiki created a new Japan like a father, but abandoned the child. Not carrying out his beliefs and not being able to educate this stubborn son seems to be a mistake.
Seven. Summarize and reflect
All in all, the mainstream evaluation of Tokugawa Keiki in the past was wrong, which may be a one-sided conclusion caused by incomplete historical data, may be the result of hasty research, or may be the embodiment of Sacho's view of history. Tokugawa Keiki is not as bad as rumored, and his body is also full of shining points. The study of him needs to go deeper, first of all, to change the inherent impression.
The Tokugawa Keiki Complete Talk Series is coming to an end, and finally, it is stated that this series of articles is to provide a new perspective on the historical figure of Tokugawa Keiki, many of which are not yet widely recognized. Please watch with caution.
Honestly, in today's social context, most people are under pressure from studying, working, and living. People have become realistic, and everything looks to "money", which is not right or wrong, but just a fact. However, the knowledge learned by watching literary and historical videos is difficult to monetize, and it seems to be a good hobby after a busy time, but is that all? For me, the original intention of doing the Tokugawa Keiki series was to question authority. After this series is done, I don't expect the audience to learn much, and I am satisfied that you can confidently join someone when they talk about Tokugawa Keiki. And what I want to do is to tell my audience, my readers, and my supporters that when you read and learn, you have to be skeptical, including my work. Be able to think independently and study yourself, and remember not to pour out the contents of the book in one go. Some people will ask how to distinguish between facts and rumors that I am not familiar with these contents. It doesn't matter, everyone starts from scratch. Starting from the entry-level works, read some research works step by step, consult relevant scholars, summarize their views and compare similarities and differences, I believe you will definitely gain. To provide you with a new attitude of feeling life, to remind you not to give up your thinking when you are busy, is my ultimate goal.
The pleasure of reading the history of the end of the curtain, or learning all history, lies not only in appreciating the ups and downs of history itself, but also in the thinking process of seeing the essence through appearances, and the pleasure of breaking rumors and finding the truth. Just like panning for gold, you will eventually dig out precious treasures from the yellow sands of the times.
Many people's misunderstandings about certain historical events may originate from the nonsense of one or two people, disregarding the facts and using their own understanding to explain unfamiliar content, which is endlessly harmful! I believe you can give a few examples. Therefore, we must not follow the clouds of people and spread false rumors; remember that "to know is to know, and not to know is not to know."
Of course, in the future, I will continue to create new articles, still do historical videos that cannot be monetized, and still search for treasures in this historical ashes that still have residual warmth. Because this is my interest, I will stick to it forever.
If you have any comments, you are welcome to submit them. If there is any criticism, please point it out. Thank you from the bottom of your hearts for your continued support, we will see you in the next series!
Resources:
1. [English] Sa Daoyi, "Memoirs of the Meiji Restoration"
2. [Japanese] Tokugawa Keiki and Eiichi Shibusawa, Notes on the Former Dream Club
3. [Japanese] Western Zhou, Draft Topics
4. [Sun] Takehiko Yoshimura, Iwanami Nihonshi
5. [Sun] Takehiko Noguchi, Shogunate Soldiers
6. [Japanese] Takashi Ishii, "The International Environment of the Meiji Restoration"
Tokugawa Iejin
2021.3.15
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