Speaking of Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto ruler of the late Qing Dynasty, who ruled China for half a century through the four dynasties of Xianfeng, Tongzhi, Guangxu, and Puyi, had a profound and extensive impact on the direction of modern China, but most of her iron-blooded political means were used in the balance of power between pro-noble courtiers to maintain their absolute authority, especially several Qing emperors all became puppets in the hands of Cixi, and the invasion of the great powers faced by the Qing Dynasty at that time was about to collapse. Three hundred years of inheritance and the honor and disgrace of the people were destroyed at the hands of this woman, and because of this, the evaluation of her by the world and future generations at that time was always more demeaning than praised, and only a small number of people could give a fair and just evaluation of Cixi's deeds from an objective point of view.
Although the process and results of Cixi's reign could not be objectively evaluated, why did the Qing Dynasty let a woman take power in the first place? In ancient history, were there fewer harem women interfering in the affairs of the dynasty and then controlling the affairs of the dynasty? Let's say that Empress Lü of the Han Dynasty, she was the first woman to claim the title system since the implementation of the emperor system, the historical evaluation of Lü Hou is also mixed, her means are equally vigorous, but in the feudal dynasty she did make a contribution to the benefit of the people, but she did almost let Liu Jiajiangshan change to the surname of Lü, after Lü Yan's death, Liu Jiazong's relatives and ministers seized power. But after that, there were also Empress Dou and Empress Wang who had assisted the young Emperor Wu of Han, and Emperor Wu of Han learned a lesson, he belonged to Liu Fuling, but Liu Fuling was young, and Emperor Wu of Han was afraid that there would be another matter of empress dowager taking power in the future, so he killed Liu Fuling's birth mother Lady Hook Yi, and there have been many cases of sons killing their mothers in history since then, especially in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
History has gone through thousands of years, the early Qing Dynasty also did not allow birth mothers to raise their sons to grow up, such as the Yongzheng Emperor, after the full moon he was transferred to Empress Xiaoyiren Tong Jia to raise, it seems that the Rulers of the Qing Dynasty will also prevent the Emperor's birth mother from controlling the government, but why did the Xianfeng Emperor not solve the problem of Cixi before he died, and it is said that when he was dying, he did effectively imitate the practice of Emperor Wu of Han killing Lady Hook Yi, to kill Cixi, but why did the Xianfeng Emperor not do that in the end? First, let's talk about Xianfeng's situation at that time, and everyone can understand why Xianfeng didn't do that.
To say that Puyi was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, then the Xianfeng Emperor was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty to secretly establish a crown prince to inherit the throne, not long after he took the throne, there was a peasant uprising in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were great powers outside the tiger, the situation was turbulent, the war was continuous, in the face of such a dilemma of the national situation, the Xianfeng Emperor has been diligent in political affairs, carried out drastic reforms, tried to revitalize the imperial program, reused the Han official Zeng Guofan, that is, relying on the Xiang army trained by Zeng Guofan to successfully suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, but the civil unrest can be calmed. However, external problems are not so easy to solve, and the great powers have been harassing the Central Plains. Faced with such a difficult and difficult problem, Xian Feng did not have the original pride and ambition, and he began to indulge in wine and women.
At that time, the young and beautiful Cixi soon got the favor of the Xianfeng Emperor after entering the palace, and the beauty was destined not to last long, but Cixi had culture, could read and hyphenate, and could also sing some small songs, knew how to judge people's hearts, knew the measure, so Xianfeng loved her even more, and Cixi's luck was very good, in the case of no heirs in the palace, Cixi gave birth to Zaichun for the Xianfeng Emperor, and after the mother relied on her son, Cixi mother and son were even more favored. Cixi was not a harem woman who would only compete for favors, she was more talented than those vases, and when the Xianfeng Emperor did not want to deal with the sonata, Cixi got permission from the Xianfeng Emperor to approve the recital on her behalf. Cixi's learning ability and receptivity were particularly strong, she soon participated in state affairs, and could also advise the Xianfeng Emperor, and zeng guofan, Li Hongzhang and others were used by the imperial court under her persuasion in the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.
At this time, although the courtiers believed that Cixi had broken the ancestral system of "the harem must not interfere in politics", the Xianfeng Emperor insisted on going his own way, and he approved Cixi's behavior, so that the ministers could only dare to be angry and dare not speak out. Cixi grew up quickly during these days, and after her experience in running the government, she knew everything about the operation of power, which laid the foundation for her to listen to the government in the future. Emperor Xianfeng's health was weakening day by day, and at this time Cixi's ambitions were even more inflated, and Emperor Xianfeng also detected it, and once he said to the military minister SuShun that Concubine Yi guifei was not a fuel-saving lamp, and that in the future, for the sake of the emperor, he was bound to emulate Emperor Wu of Han.
But before Xianfeng could implement it, in 1860, the Anglo-French coalition army soon attacked Beijing, and the burning of the Yuanmingyuan occurred at this time, and the Xianfeng Emperor fled directly to Rehe with his ministers and concubines to take refuge, completely without thinking of defending his homeland and dying. After arriving at Rehe, the Xianfeng Emperor forgot that the situation was critical, he still indulged in sex, and finally tired of his body, lying sick in bed, knowing that the time was not long, so he began to consider the matter behind him, at this time he also had two princes, the second son also died prematurely, still only Prince Zaichun, so the six-year-old Zaichun became the heir without accident. After the heir was chosen, the Xianfeng Emperor began to hesitate how to deal with Cixi, he could not bear to kill the women who had been with him for more than ten years, and the Xianfeng Emperor had not experienced maternal love, so he wanted his young son to enjoy the maternal love.
Moreover, if he killed Cixi, then the powerful minister Sushun in the middle of the court could not be contained, Empress Dowager Ci'an was soft in nature, and empress dowager Cixi had to listen to the government, and in order to prevent Cixi's power from being too large, Xianfeng gave two seals and seals to Cixi and Ci'an respectively, and the two palaces divided their powers, and then added the auxiliary ministers to eight, so that the power of the former imperial harem could be contained by each other. Xian Feng also revealed to Cixi that Su Shun proposed to kill Cixi, thus achieving the effect that Cixi and Su Shun hated each other, xian feng thought that he had done a seamless job, and as a result, this balance was quickly broken by Cixi.
Shortly after Xianfeng's death, Cixi joined forces with Prince Gong Yixuan, who had always been unusable, to launch a coup d'état and kill the 8 ministers of the Auxiliary Government, and since then he has single-handedly assumed great power and listened to the government, after which Cixi began his decades-long rule, and the darkness of modern China was officially opened.