First of all, let's talk about the origin of the Tongzhi era name.
In 1861, the Xianfeng Emperor died at the Chengde Summer Resort, and the six-year-old Ai Xin Jueluo Zaichun became the successor of the Qing Dynasty, the Tongzhi Emperor. In fact, Zaichun's era name was not originally called Tongzhi, and the ministers' original era name was called "Qi Xiang", and they were ready to change the yuan the following year. However, before he could change the yuan, Cixi joined forces with Xianfeng's younger brother Prince Gong Yishi and others to launch a power grab and remove the auxiliary ministers entrusted by Xianfeng before his death.
Later, at Cixi's suggestion, the original era name of "Qi Xiang" was changed to "Tongzhi", implying that Cixi and Ci'an, the two empresses, jointly governed the imperial government, and 1862 became the first year of Tongzhi. After Tongzhi ascended the throne, whether from the domestic situation or the foreign situation, the Qing Dynasty was already in turmoil and was in a difficult struggle.
So what kind of era background does Tongzhi ZTE have?
First of all, from the domestic background
The internal chaos within the Qing government did decrease somewhat. Most people would think that after Xianfeng's death, Cixi immediately took power, but in fact, in the early days, although the eight ministers were overthrown, Cixi and the empress dowager of the two palaces of Ci'an balanced each other, Cixi gradually seized the highest power until 1865, and after about ten years, Cixi really began to rule in dictatorship, and the history of Tongzhi Zhongxing was about the decade before Cixi's dictatorship, about 1862-1874.
For more than a decade, the real power of the imperial court was controlled by a clique of civil officials headed by Prince Gong Yishi, whose ideas did not necessarily have much Western modernity, but they were indeed shrewd and capable, and they had been trying to reverse the decline of the Qing Dynasty, because the lessons of the two Opium Wars for China were indeed profound. During the Tongzhi Zhongxing period, the Tianping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was completely wiped out, and the war-torn Jiangnan region finally gained a respite, and many Jiangnan students began to resume the imperial examination. After Xianfeng's death, many of the original Manchu ministers in the imperial court were purged, which freed up many positions, and the Han heavy ministers came out of the situation, because in the case of manchu internal and external difficulties in the Manchu Qing, the Manchu priority policy became more and more unreliable. During this period, many policies of Manchu-Han estrangement were relaxed, or even directly abolished, except for the Eight Flags System and the Manchu-Han non-marriage, which remained unchanged, and other boundaries were basically eliminated.
Let's look at the foreign background
The reason why Tongzhi Zhongxing went smoothly was that the European powers' "favorability" for the Qing Dynasty increased, but this favorability was only considered based on their own interests. After the Second Opium War, the British suddenly realized that if they did not recognize the dominance of the Qing government, then the unequal treaties they signed with the Qing Dynasty would be invalid, especially when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement broke out, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom claimed to be sovereign and independent, and did not recognize the unequal treaties signed by the Qing government and European countries. Therefore, in order to safeguard their rights and interests in China, European countries have eased their attitude toward the Qing Dynasty.
For example, in 1869, when the people of Tainan destroyed the Local Church of the British, the Acting British Consul in Taiwan, Ji Bixun, and a naval officer used force, and the British handled it by demoting Ji Bixun to his post and returning the compensation claimed. All of this reflects a shift in British attitude towards the Qing Dynasty, from invasion to maintenance. As the number one power in Europe at that time, Britain's actions also affected other European countries, and they followed Britain's example, and their attitude towards the Qing Dynasty was very friendly, because they also realized that it was profitable to support the Qing court. When favorable conditions appeared at home and abroad, Tongzhi ZTE also appeared.
What achievements has Tongzhi ZTE achieved?
First, the domestic situation has been stabilized
During the period from Xianfeng to Tongzhi, there were four large-scale movements, namely Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Du Wenxiu's "Pingnanguo" movement, and the Twist Army in the north and the Shaanxi-Gansu People's Rebellion. The most influential was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which occupied almost half of China's territory in its heyday. Pingnan also declared independence in Dingdu, Yunnan. These movements made the country almost unstable for almost no time, and the destructive power of the war was also great, although these movements were pacified and did not fully restore the Qing Dynasty, but the overall situation tended to be stable.
Second, appoint sages
Tongzhi ZTE has a group of virtuous ministers with good ability, whether in the central or local government. The central government is represented by Prince Gong Yi bi, as well as the military ministers Guarjia Wenxiang and Shen Guifen. In the local area, there were Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Hu Linyi and others. These local ministers eventually also entered the central government. There is also Zhang Zhidong, a representative figure of the Western affairs movement, who was also a tanhua in the 1863 imperial examination, and later entered the imperial court. These people have abilities, but they have a commonality, or they can't get rid of the confinement of feudal ideas, in the final analysis, it can be called "the last resistance of conservative forces." This is also one of the reasons why Tongzhi ZTE has not been able to continue.
Third, the construction of industry
The Western Affairs Movement allowed the Qing Dynasty to add many modern enterprises, such as the Steamship Merchants Bureau, the Anqingnei Ordnance Institute, and the Hanyang Iron Works. China's first attempts to modernize rail transport, mining, and telegraph communications all arose during this period.
Fourth, establish a new army and a supporting military industry
Military reform is imperative, on the one hand, the Eight Banner Army and the Green Battalion Army, a regular unit of the central government, have long been corrupted and are really useless. On the other hand, the local army rose rapidly during the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Qing court was afraid that these local armies would support the army and respect themselves, forming a feudal town like the late Tang Dynasty. But fortunately, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and others did not have the intention of setting up another mountain, and they took the initiative to disarm after there were fewer domestic wars, so that the tense heart of the Qing court finally relaxed. At this time, the Qing government also had the energy to start forming a new army, hoping to enhance the military strength of the Qing court.
In 1865, the Yangtze River Marine Division was established, including 800 officers and 12,000 soldiers, and in the same year, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, a military enterprise supporting the military, was also established, and in 1866, Zuo Zongtang's Fuzhou Shipping Bureau was also established. The Shipping Administration Bureau was the largest shipyard in the Far East at that time, not only shipbuilding, but also offering some ancillary courses, such as industrial technology, driving, English, chemistry, and smelting, which cultivated many talents for the foreign affairs movement.
The above four points are the achievements of Tongzhi Zhongxing, we can see that the main "xing" of Tongzhi ZTE is technology, all kinds of modern factories have risen from the ground, but there are very few institutional and ideological reforms, so Tongzhi ZTE did not make the Qing Dynasty really strong, and the time of "xing" was relatively short, only about ten years. Therefore, Tongzhi Zhongxing is not worthy of the name according to strictly speaking, its reform is superficial, although it has certain results, but it cannot solve the essential problem, the Qing Dynasty is still living in struggle, so Tongzhi Zhongxing is more like a gimmick of self-praise in the late Qing Dynasty.