In the thirty-fourth year of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Guangxu became more and more ill, and Empress Dowager Cixi was already at the time when the oil was about to run out, but the Guangxu Emperor had no heirs under his knees, and who would inherit the throne became a problem.
In the end, Empress Dowager Cixi took the initiative and made Puyi, the son of Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol, who was only three years old at the time, the heir emperor.
As the old saying goes, the state has the blessing of changjun Sheji, not to mention the precarious situation of the Qing Dynasty at that time, why did Empress Dowager Cixi let a three-year-old doll as the heir? It seems very strange to look at.
According to the ancient rules, the inheritance of the throne is naturally the inheritance of the father's business, and the same is true of the Qing Dynasty, but in the late Qing Dynasty, things went wrong, and the Tongzhi Emperor, who was born to Empress Dowager Cixi, had no children under his knees and died directly.
Because the Tongzhi Emperor was childless, it was natural that he should inherit a child from the clan to the Tongzhi Emperor as an heir, but Empress Dowager Cixi did not do so, but adopted Zai Xiang, the son of Yi Zhen the Prince of Yixian, who was the same generation as the Tongzhi Emperor, as the heir.
Because Zai Xiang was not a nephew of Emperor Tongzhi, but his cousin, this was even the inheritance of his brother and brother, so that Emperor Tongzhi would have no heirs, and many people felt that this was because Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to continue to hold power and refused to establish an heir for her own son.
In fact, this was not necessarily the case, because according to the situation in the Qing Dynasty at that time, Empress Dowager Cixi could not establish an heir for her own son.
In the Qing Dynasty's Aixin Jueluo population was divided into near and far, in the near branch clan at that time, the descendants of the Kangxi Emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor, and the Qianlong Emperor belonged to the far branch, and only the descendants of the Jiaqing Emperor and the Daoguang Emperor were considered to be close branches.
If you want to choose an heir, you can only choose a suitable person from the descendants of the Daoguang Emperor and the Jiaqing Emperor to inherit, and you cannot cross the clan relations of the near branch.
At the time of the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, there were three more branches of the descendants of the Jiaqing Emperor, namely the Three Branches of the King of Hui, the King of Rui and the King of Hui, and the Daoguang Emperor also had five branches of the Hidden King, the King of Gong, the King of Alcohol, the King of Zhong, and the King of Fu, but the two branches of the King of Qi and the King of Rui had been extinct, and the descendants were actually the heirs of the Daoguang Emperor.
In this way, in addition to King Hui, several other close clan relatives were the bloodline of the Daoguang Emperor.
The Xianfeng Emperor of that year belonged to the second-in-command, and the Tongzhi Emperor was also the older of his peers.
When the Tongzhi Emperor died, only Pu Lun, a descendant of the Hidden King, was alive, and it was only three months, and at that time, such a small child could easily die, so that no one else could establish an heir for the Tongzhi Emperor.
Because it was impossible to find a suitable candidate for the Tongzhi Emperor, empress dowager Cixi eventually made Prince Shuo's son Zai Xiang the new emperor, in fact, Zai Xiang's birth mother also happened to be the sister of Empress Dowager Cixi, and Zai Xiang was the later Guangxu Emperor.
Zai Xiang's succession made the Tongzhi Emperor extinct, and Empress Dowager Cixi promised at that time that in the future, if the Guangxu Emperor had a prince, he would inherit the Tongzhi Emperor as an heir and inherit the ancestral rank, but unfortunately, the Guangxu Emperor also did not leave children for various reasons.
The two emperors of the Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangxu Emperor did not have children, which meant that both of them had died, and when Empress Dowager Cixi was dying, this matter could no longer be dealt with, and in ancient times, the extinction of incense was a very important issue.
If Empress Dowager Cixi made the elder Zaifeng the heir, it would mean that both the Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangxu Emperor had cut off the incense of the sacrificial Sect and cut off the veins of the Xianfeng Emperor, which was not what Empress Dowager Cixi was willing to see.
Therefore, it is necessary to find a successor of the Puzi generation, as the heir emperor, not only to inherit the imperial throne, but also to inherit the ancestral emperor Zongqi.
As Zhang Zhidong said: The emperor (The Guangxu Emperor) has been in the imperial palace for more than thirty years, and he must not be left without a queen.
After weighing it over and over again, Empress Dowager Cixi selected Zaifeng's son Puyi as Emperor Si and inherited the emperors of The Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangxu Emperor, one person and two rooms, which was also a necessary choice made by Empress Dowager Cixi out of private feelings.
Not only that, but there were other considerations, Empress Longyu was the niece of Empress Dowager Cixi and the empress of the Guangxu Emperor, if Puyi only inherited the Tongzhi Emperor's ancestral lineage, in terms of etiquette, Empress Longyu, as the empress of the Guangxu Emperor, became an aunt.
According to the rules, the identity of Empress Longyu will become very embarrassing, and only by letting Puyi be the heir of the Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangxu Emperor, so that Empress Longyu can continue to listen to the government as the empress dowager as the empress dowager.
Puyi's father Zaifeng was close to Empress Dowager Cixi, and her birth mother, Su Wanguarjia Youlan, was the daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi's favorite courtier Ronglu, so Puyi could be regarded as "his own person", compared to other heirs of the clan, Puyi was of course suitable.
Empress Dowager Cixi was indeed able to make Zaifeng the new monarch, but in doing so, it would be equivalent to cutting off the heirs of the two previous emperors, the Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangxu Emperor, and also allowing the Great Commander to transfer from the Xianfeng Emperor's branch to the Yizhen's side.
Zaifeng was an adult, and if he ascended the throne, Empress Longyu, as the Yehenara clan, would of course be very embarrassed, becoming a decoration, and naturally could only hand over the power, and the Yehenara clan would withdraw from the court from then on.
Only by letting Puyi ascend the throne, letting Empress Longyu hang the curtain and zaifeng regent, this is the best choice for the former dynasty and private feelings, Empress Dowager Cixi has mastered the Qing Dynasty for decades, naturally considering many problems, and it is also the most appropriate at that time.