In ancient feudal society, the throne has always been the dream of many people, and the resulting competition is innumerable. However, according to common sense, if there is no coup d'état, the succession to the throne of the imperial family pays attention to the succession of fathers and sons. Simply put, the quality of the emperor's sons determines the future development and destiny of the country. But looking back at China's last feudal dynasty, the development of the Qing Dynasty in the last years was unexpected.
The three emperors of Tongzhi, Guangxu, and Xuantong were all extinct, not only that, but the ascension of these three emperors also surprised many people, and Tongzhi ascended the throne at the age of six.
This also belongs to the eldest of the three, Guangxu ascended to the throne at the age of four, and Puyi was only three years old, and it was precisely because of this situation that Empress Dowager Cixi took power, leading to chaos within the country and eventually towards the road of destruction.
If you don't talk about Tongzhi first, after all, his succession is in line with the principle of father and son, but the succession of Guangxu and Xuantong is very outrageous, which has caused many people to wonder.
Why did it happen that there were two small children who had a more suitable choice when they first became emperors? At the age of three or four, or when they are crying, what can they bring to the country when they succeed to the throne?
Obviously, nothing can be brought with it, and if it is said that their succession is good for anyone, it is Empress Dowager Cixi, and as we all know, all these developments are the hands of Empress Dowager Cixi, and these two so-called last emperors are just the cover for Cixi. Today we will analyze the reasons for this and find out why the emperor is getting smaller and smaller.
The reason why several emperors of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne at a young age
First, the Guangxu Emperor "stood out", and Pulun regretted that he had failed
The heir apparent of the Tongzhi Emperor was the beginning of Empress Dowager Cixi's administration of government affairs, and although the Xianfeng Emperor had two sons, the second son died prematurely at birth.
Therefore, only one son remained of the Tongzhi Emperor, and after the Tongzhi Emperor, he could only choose the person who would inherit the imperial throne among his cousins or cousins who were farther away.
At that time, everyone thought that Pulun was the best choice, as the great-grandson of the Daoguang Emperor and seventeen years older, all the conditions were in line, but in the end it was the Guangxu Emperor who stood out among the many brothers, partly because of the light of his mother, whose birth mother was the sister of Empress Dowager Cixi, but this was not the root cause.
Empress Dowager Cixi was of the highest status at the time, stubbornly clinging to her own choices and pushing her nephew to the so-called heir to the throne.
It should be noted here that Empress Dowager Cixi did not care about family affection, and it may be that in the heart of this woman who regards power as everything, family affection is worthless.
The real reason why she chose Guangxu was that he was only four years old, Cixi could justifiably bow to the government, coupled with the blood relationship between the two, she could gradually cultivate the Guangxu Emperor into her own puppet emperor in the future, use it for her own use, and firmly grasp the imperial power, if it was Pulun, she would lose all the benefits brought by the Guangxu Emperor's succession.
In addition, when Empress Dowager Cixi chose Guangxu, in addition to seeing that he was young and manipulative, she still used this opportunity to draw the Guangxu Emperor's family together as a force to support herself.
Cixi is a woman with a very strong desire for power, and although her talent in governing the country is not excellent, her ability to calculate people's hearts is indeed very strong. Every move she took, even if it was the throne, was also under her plan.
Second, the last emperor Puyi succeeded to the throne, and the Qing Dynasty was gradually approaching its demise
I thought that after the Guangxu Emperor succeeded to the throne, this absurd situation could be stopped, but no one expected that he would have no heirs and follow in the footsteps of the Tongzhi Emperor, but fortunately, he had brothers, so he solved a lot of unnecessary troubles.
But at this time, Cixi began to operate again, not so much because the brother of the Guangxu Emperor was not born to him by a mother and was not related to Cixi by blood, but because Zaifeng, Zaixun, and Zaitao were all adults and had their own ability to think independently, which would pose a threat to Cixi after succeeding to the throne.
In the eyes of all people, the most suitable is Zaifeng, who is rich and energetic, as the most capable of the royal heirs, has the strength to assume the responsibilities of the emperor, but it is because of his ability that he cannot enter cixi's eyes.
Cixi set her goal in the "Pu" generation, even so, it should not be Puyi's turn, Puwei is the most suitable candidate, twenty-nine years old, is the most capable of loving Xinjue Luo's descendants, but Empress Dowager Cixi naturally ignored this person, in her heart already had the best candidate.
Puyi had already been locked, according to the bloodline there was no problem, he was the nephew of the Guangxu Emperor, and it was reasonable to inherit, but the age stunned everyone.
Puyi was only three years old, not only became the last emperor, but also the youngest in the history of the Qing Dynasty, and had no ability to reverse the situation in the late Qing Dynasty.
However, these advantages all became the reason why Cixi chose him, drove the ducks to the shelves, and insisted on pushing Puyi to the emperor's position despite opposition.
However, before cixi did these things, she only considered whether the succession to the throne would affect her position of power, and did not objectively consider their qualifications and whether they could be worthy of great responsibilities the day after tomorrow.
Under the lust for profit, Empress Dowager Cixi has reached the point where she can't care less, as long as this person's ascension to the throne is good for him, anyway, the future power is also in her hands, so honest obedience is the most important.
epilogue:
All of this can feel the ambition and desire of Empress Dowager Cixi, in order to meet her own power needs, she did not hesitate to put the entire country in a dangerous position, and in the end it was precisely because of her repeated absurdity that the Qing Dynasty was doomed.
If she had focused on the overall situation, maybe the ending would not have been like this, but without if, the ending has already been doomed, which is the sadness of the times.