Who was the most snubbed emperor of the Qing Dynasty?
The answer must be Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty.
Although the Guangxu Emperor was an emperor, his whole life was under surveillance and control, and even the last few years of his life could be described as "miserable". Even if it is such a promise, the Guangxu Emperor died young, and as for the cause of death, it is really regrettable to describe it as "unclear and unclear".
Regarding the death of the Guangxu Emperor, it can be said that it is the "first unsolved case of the late Qing Dynasty", which is really suspicious. The Guangxu Emperor died at the age of 38, which can be said to be in his prime, and according to many people who served in the Qing court, the emperor was still alive and jumping two days before his death, how did he suddenly die?
Moreover, another key figure who decided the fate of the Guangxu Emperor, the 74-year-old Empress Dowager Cixi, followed her adopted son, the Guangxu Emperor, with her adopted son, the day after the Guangxu Emperor's death, which undoubtedly made the already foggy death of Guangxu even more confusing. A few years after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, the Qing Dynasty also came to an end, and with the demise of the dynasty, many pre-Qing affairs were no longer forbidden to be discussed.
Above_ Emperor Dezong of the Qing Dynasty ai Xinjue Luo Zai Xiang (1871–1908), also known as the Guangxu Emperor
The death of the Guangxu Emperor became a "hot topic" in the former Qing Dynasty, so how did the Guangxu Emperor die?
Since the Qing Dynasty is at the end of its life and the topic of the former Qing Court's palace has also been lifted, there will be some people who will speak out about the death of the Guangxu Emperor.
One of the most influential was a work written by Yun Yuding, an official who recorded the Guangxu Emperor's living notes, "The Letters of Chongling", which was extremely influential, and this book bluntly mentioned that the Guangxu Emperor died unnaturally, and even insinuated that the person who killed the Guangxu Emperor was Empress Dowager Cixi. Because Yun Yuding has been serving as a living official for many years, he is the person responsible for recording the words and deeds of the emperor, and at the same time, Yun Yuding is meticulous in his work and is not a fraudulent person, the voice of such an upright insider is naturally extremely credible and causes extraordinary.
Above_ Yun Yuding (1862-1917), zi weisun, yizi chengzhai, Hebei Daxing people, ancestral home of Changzhou, Jiangsu
There is also a very influential figure who made a voice, she is the female official Deling of Empress Dowager Cixi, in her memoirs detailed many little-known things about Empress Dowager Cixi, and at the same time, she praised Empress Dowager Cixi more, but on the issue of the death of Emperor Guangxu, she clearly condemned Cixi's evil deeds, and she recorded in detail the process of Cixi's harm to Guangxu, describing in detail the change in Cixi's expression before and after harming Guangxu, entering the wood for three points, from anxious waiting to the dust settled. The difference in mood before and after was written on Empress Dowager Cixi's face.
The voices of these two extremely influential figures seem to have thoroughly exposed the cause of the guangxu emperor's death and the criminal acts of empress dowager Cixi, and coupled with the fact that the situation of the guangxu emperor at that time was not a little different from that described by the two, so the cause of death of the guangxu emperor had already been concluded: it was not a normal death, it was the death of empress dowager Cixi, and the cause of death was probably poisoning, which was also speculated from the memoirs of Deling and the record fragments of Yun Yuding, and the method of poisoning was also more "operable".
Yu Deling (1886~1944), pen name Princess Deling
However, the above-mentioned theory that the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned is, after all, an inference, although it is very logical and common sense, but the specific historical events, especially the major historical issues related to the cause of the Guangxu Emperor's death, cannot be speculated alone.
With the development of the times, the records of the inner court of the Qing Palace were made public, and scholars consulted the court documents on the health of the Guangxu Emperor. From these official sources, scholars have not found the cause of the Guangxu Emperor's death. Although the Guangxu Emperor was in his prime, he had been plagued by illness, and the Guangxu Emperor had been imprisoned in Yingtai for many years, although there was no shackles and locks, but it was recorded that the Guangxu Emperor was often hungry, and in the winter he was even more short of clothes and clothes, and his life was very miserable, to put it bluntly, Empress Dowager Cixi intended to torture the Guangxu Emperor to death. According to official documents, scholars have come to another conclusion, the Guangxu Emperor is likely to be due to years of illness, as well as physical and psychological torture, and eventually depressed, is a normal death.
Two completely different conclusions, each seems to have its own reason, each has its own strengths, which is right or wrong? Fortunately, modern technology has helped us to unravel the mystery.
Above_Empress Qing and emperor died, and the remains of Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu were in the Longevity Palace (Qing Dynasty recorded in the French Pictorial)
In the 21st century, the state has always attached great importance to the work of declassifying history, and the "death of Guangxu" is the most important thing in decryption, because the death of the Guangxu Emperor determines the historical trend of China's modern history to a certain extent, so the state has specially arranged experts from all walks of life to make a major investigation of the cause of the guangxu emperor's death, in order to use modern criminal investigation methods to find the real cause of death of the Guangxu Emperor.
This detection process is very cumbersome, the author in short is that the experts through the Guangxu Emperor's body and burial objects to carry out modern research and experiments, found that the Guangxu Emperor's body and burial with a large number of arsenic elements, which is the main component of arsenic, and further analysis, found that in the stomach this position, the body and burial clothes arsenic element content is particularly high, thus concluding that the Guangxu Emperor died of poisoning, as for the poisoned person or the person who referred to the poisoning is who is the person who?
At this point, the cause of the Guangxu Emperor's death was the truth, poisoned to death, as for who the mastermind and the perpetrator behind the scenes, there is no accurate conclusion, but the suspected object is there, and the spearhead seems to be obvious, that is, Empress Dowager Cixi. So why her? In addition, although the cause of death is determined, we still have to ask, why did the Guangxu Emperor end up like this?
Above_ Cixi (1835-1908) was Empress Xiaoqinxian
The first suspect behind the Guangxu Emperor's poisoning was Empress Dowager Cixi. After the failure of the Wushu ReformAtion, the last layer of window paper of empress dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor's barely maintained illusion of motherly kindness and filial piety was also shredded by facts.
Enraged, Empress Dowager Cixi imprisoned the Guangxu Emperor. In order to consider that the ancestral society will not fade for a long time", he "reluctantly" decided to go to the front desk from behind the scenes again, and the Guangxu Emperor, who was disloyal and filial piety in the eyes of Empress Dowager Cixi, became the "scum" of the Aixin Jueluo family, and such a person was not qualified to be emperor. She wanted to replace the Guangxu Emperor with a more obedient and manipulative person to be the puppet emperor. Although Empress Dowager Cixi made a lot of preparations, unfortunately the conspiracy did not succeed, because foreigners interfered in the internal affairs of the Qing Dynasty.
Above_ Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Longyu, Concubine Jin, Deling, Mother of Deling, Grandma Yuan, Three Grids, Four Grids, and Li Lianying toured the Middle Sea on a flat-bottomed boat
The emperor could not change and did not tighten, and there was a retreat to the second place - lifelong imprisonment, so that the Guangxu Emperor would never see the light of day. Perennial political struggles and lust for power, Empress Dowager Cixi has long cultivated an iron heart, not to mention the adopted son of the Guangxu Emperor, the only biological son of the Tongzhi Emperor died that year did not see her what happened, and even said that the death of the Tongzhi Emperor was promoted by Empress Dowager Cixi, this is gossip, not for the time being.
What did the imprisoned Guangxu Emperor think?
Depression and resentment were bound to exist, but the Guangxu Emperor understood that his greatest advantage was his youth, and when he relied on cixi to die, it would be the day he would see the light of day again. Therefore, after the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned, he showed extreme deference and only promises, and did not dare to resist Empress Dowager Cixi in the slightest, in fact, this was the Guangxu Emperor's Taoguang cultivation.
Empress Dowager Cixi, who had counted countless people, naturally knew the purpose of what the Guangxu Emperor had done. Empress Dowager Cixi knew very well in her heart that one day the Guangxu Emperor would assume power, and what it would mean to herself and her followers would really be blind at that time. Therefore, just before Empress Dowager Cixi was terminally ill and about to swallow her last breath, was it very likely that she would find a way to let the Guangxu Emperor die in front of her?
Above_ Running ice cars is one of the hobbies of the puppet emperor Guangxu
Whether the conclusion is consistent with our speculation or not, the Guangxu Emperor died with hatred is absolutely true, so what impact did the death of the Guangxu Emperor have on the Qing Dynasty and even the modern history of China? Although the Guangxu Emperor's life was short, his political life was even shorter, and many of the decisions and actions during his reign were not completely satisfactory, the Guangxu Emperor was after all an emperor with positive and advanced thinking, and if he could take power in the post-Cixi era, perhaps China's modern history could really be rewritten. I venture to speculate that perhaps a constitutional monarchy could really have a place in Chinese history.
After the death of the Guangxu Emperor, the honorable temple was Dezong, the emperor of "Jing", in fact, the Guangxu Emperor was really an emperor who was misunderstood by posterity.
Text: Wang Jinbai
Reference: "Qing Dynasty Character Research", Dai Yi (author) Palace Press
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author