As a fierce and powerful woman, Cixi controlled the actual power of the Qing court for almost fifty years, and after the death of her husband, the Xianfeng Emperor, she joined forces with Ci'an to launch a coup d'état, and from then on began to bow to the government. During the period when she was empress, both Tongzhi and Guangxu regarded Cixi as an object of their hatred, and Guangxu did not say that Tongzhi was still her own son, but she did not give her son a little real power.
Since the beginning of Tongzhi, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty has not given birth to a half-child, so this Guangxu Emperor is not a tongzhi relative, but Cixi has inherited from other princes, and similarly, after Guangxu's death, there is still no one who can inherit the throne, cixi plans to adopt a child from somewhere else, he is the last emperor Puyi. This matter was only handled when Cixi was dying, but at this time, Puyi was not the only choice in front of her.
At this time, Cixi's side also had a load that was more suitable in any way, but Cixi did not do so. First of all, this has a lot to do with the ancient rules of imperial succession, in general, it is necessary for the son to inherit the father's position, or after the brother dies, the younger brother accepts all his property, so it is a common practice to let the son take over this position of the disc, if there is really no candidate, then the younger brother can only inherit.
Although Tongzhi and Guangxu were two different emperors, Guangxu was nominally inherited to Xianfeng, so Guangxu did not inherit the throne of Tongzhi. Therefore, after Guangxu's death, Cixi wanted to find a suitable person to succeed Guangxu in order to take his place, so according to some consistent rules, Cixi chose the son of Guangxu's younger brother Zaifeng as the son of this successor, according to this kind of consideration, Cixi took a fancy to Puyi, who was only three years old.
But before this, some ministers had already considered this replacement candidate when Tongzhi died, and many people thought that Prince Gong had an adult son, and he was the most suitable in all aspects, but Cixi did not think so, because Prince Gong was a relatively powerful figure at that time, how could Cixi let his son become emperor again, so that her power would be easily threatened and loosened, so she did not take the suggestions of these ministers as a thing. Turn to looking for someone else.
And some people are more curious, anyway, zaifeng around her is also a person who listens to her, why Cixi will not choose him, this point Cixi also thought a lot, zaifeng at that time was a just right age, and he was Puyi's father, in fact, let him be an emperor, but it will better govern the country, probably because Cixi at that time has realized that the life of the Qing Dynasty is not long, if Zaifeng is allowed to be the emperor, if the Qing Dynasty really perishes at this time, then the most dangerous thing is Zaifeng.
Therefore, Cixi is also a powerful figure, after all, she has controlled power for so many years, if she can't even see this trend, it is really too wrong, in order to protect her brother-in-law Zaifeng, she did not make this plan, and she did not want the throne to fall into the hands of others, so she would rather find a child so small, even if there is any bad situation in the Qing Dynasty in the end, even if Puyi is involved, her own sister has a grandson, and her entire family will not have any big losses. Therefore, Cixi finally chose Puyi instead of Zaifeng.