If we talk about the last heyday of ancient China, the Kangqian era is undoubtedly the last recognized prosperous era. However, after only 40 years, the Qing Empire continued to fall in the middle of the road, and in the Xianfeng Dynasty, the empire was greatly injured by the Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion - the capital was breached, the emperor fled to Rehe, unequal treaties followed, and most of the country fell...
Xian Feng wanted to exert himself to rule the country, but he was on a variety of major events that were rare for thousands of years. Fortunately, however, in his efforts to turn the tide, the last generation of the Empire stood out as the "last" generation of talent, and it was a wealth of talents. With the efforts of these talents, the life of the empire once again showed a turning point for recovery, and this era was called "Tongzhi ZTE".
I. The empire is ruined and embattled
The decline of the Qing Empire began in the late 18th century, and the decline was fully demonstrated in the mid-19th century. The most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon is that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which broke out in Guangxi, conquered most of southern and central China in just two or three years, but the Qing government could no longer pay the front-line soldiers, resulting in ineffective suppression by the officers and troops.
At this time, the capital was also threatened twice by the British and French allies, which undoubtedly made it worse. The government and the opposition shook, Daqing's face was almost lost, and the decay of the Eight Banner Army and the officials was also fully revealed.
In this regard, in order to save the crisis, the Xianfeng Emperor tried to vigorously rectify the government, raise military funds, and implement the strategy of suppressing Yi'an. However, what history has handed over to Xianfeng can be said to be the biggest mess since the founding of the Qing Dynasty: peasant uprisings such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Twist Army have surged up, foreign tribes have attacked, and even in 1860, they were bloodied in the Yuanmingyuan...
However, it is gratifying that his diligence finally paid good results, for example, at the time of his death, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had gradually come to an end, and the Han courtiers he used during this period also became the strength of the late Qing Dynasty. But just as the so-called evaluation needs to be objective, XianFeng's lifelong efforts did not bring substantial salvation to the crumbling Qing Dynasty, and his measures before his death gave Cixi an opportunity to take power, laying the groundwork for the subsequent political structure and the cause and effect of a series of changes.
Second, just like the peace, reunion and vitality
After Xianfeng, it was the Tongzhi Emperor. Although Tongzhi's life was a little better, the situation in the late Qing Dynasty was much better than when Xian Feng was in power. Outside the palace, the domestic situation after the Battle of Anqing had begun to clear, and the victory of the Xiang Army undoubtedly made all The Chinese and foreign forces firmly establish that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was nearing the end of its way; internationally, the Leader of the Political Situation in the Far East, Britain, changed its policy toward China after 1860 and adopted a cooperative attitude to maintain diplomacy, and the Empire was given a short but precious buffer time.
The only misfortune may be that when he first ascended the throne, he caught up with the QiXiang Coup of 1861, the political situation of the imperial court was shuffled, the empress dowager of the two palaces bowed to the government, and the imperial power was also taken by Cixi because of Tongzhi's young age.
But the good fortune in misfortune is that Qi Xiang's matter still makes Prince Gong Yi? Promoted to the rank of King of The Council, Li Hongzhang, Shen Baozhen and other Han Chinese were reused, the central government of the imperial court unanimously recognized the importance of "shiyi long skills" and launched a self-improvement movement led by the Westerners, the dynastic crisis made the gap between the Manchu and Han tend to disappear, a joint group of officials was born, and the central and local officials represented by Wen Xiang and Zeng Guofan seized this crucial opportunity to actively promote various ZTE policies.
The "Tongzhi Zhongxing", the late Qing "self-rescue" action from the courtiers, was launched in such a context.
Third, reform and strengthen the government, and strive to turn the tide
Although Zhongxing is named after the Tongzhi Emperor, it is not dominated by the Tongzhi Emperor. He was only pro-government in 1873, but died less than a year later. The whole ZTE operation had almost nothing to do with him.
The main force that really took on the role of Zhongxing was led by YiXun, the Prince of Heshuo Gong, and a series of local forces, such as the Xiang and Huai clans represented by Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, which was the political pattern left by the Xianfeng Emperor to future generations. In his early years, Cixi did not monopolize power, and still had to rely on the local government during the Tongzhi Emperor's period, which was one of the reasons why Cixi reused the Westerners in that year.
With the assistance of the sages, the imperial court first served in Yi? At the proposal of the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs", the Prime Minister Yamen was established, which was equivalent to replacing the position of the Military Aircraft Division, the Prime Minister for Foreign Relations, under which the Minister of Trade and Commerce was set up to oversee the matter of commercial ports. At the same time, the civil and official government was restored, such as Zeng Guofan and other local generals were all scholars and soldiers, the phenomenon of selling officials and knights during the Xianfeng period was also curbed, the enrollment policy of the imperial examination was greatly expanded, a large number of Confucian talents were added to the imperial center, the recommendation system was also actively encouraged, and the imperial court was full of talents for a while.
Under the slogan of "self-improvement," the foreign affairs movement led by military reform was quickly launched, new production technologies and military industries were introduced in large quantities, and various kinds of ordnance factories such as the first arsenal, Anqingnei Ordnance Institute, were laid out, and the newly established Beiyang Naval Division was said to rank among the top six in the world in terms of naval strength, and modern industries such as railways, mining, and postal services appeared one after another, and the Xiang Army and the New Army gradually grew up and gradually became the pillar of the country's military strength.
Tongzhi New Deal also produced the first new style of school, which is also the predecessor of Peking University, the construction of the school is different from the traditional official school, almost copied the establishment of Western universities, the first batch of children studying abroad also in 1872 also crossed the ocean in 1872, to the United States to study for 15 years, during the Tongzhi years, a large number of Western books were translated, even shipyards and arsenals also made their own schools, education also began its modernization process.
The Qing government also tried to reform the economy, such as reducing the burden on peasants through the land tax reform, effectively encouraging everyone to reclaim land and cultivate, and began to incorporate the taxation system of commercial taxes into taxes, and inflation was briefly stabilized. After the war-torn areas were slowly rectified and restored, in addition to disagreeing with the merchants on the monopoly of salt trade, the outstanding politicians of the Qing government took the opportunity of modern commercial development to save the trend of the financial avalanche of the late Qing Dynasty.
Robert Hurd, in 1861, was appointed superintendent of the General Tax Department of the Department of Foreign Taxation
One of the most interesting is a foreign tax department jointly established by the great powers and the Qing government, which specifically helps the Qing government collect customs duties. This was originally an institution that the great powers wanted to balance each other, but did not want to help the late Qing government clear the system of customs tariffs, and in the 1880s, sometimes the annual income even reached 20 million taels, once accounting for more than 20% of the Qing Dynasty's fiscal revenue.
Among these measures, the national strength of the late Qing Dynasty was greatly restored, and the surviving Qing Dynasty was almost extended for half a century, and the people's livelihood of the empire was briefly revived.
Fourth, the wind candle is dead for many years, and the life is short-lived
"Tongzhi Zhongxing" was forged by the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty.
Zeng Guofan, one of the founders of ZTE, fought against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with the Xiang Army and eventually destroyed it; Li Hongzhang established the Beiyang Marine Division, which could gain a foothold among the great powers; Zuo Zongtang, who was slightly inferior, also quelled the Rebellion in Shaanxi and Gansu and recovered Xinjiang... It is precisely because there are such stars and brilliant Confucian courtiers, as well as the Imperial Court's Yi? The union of the Manchu royal family held up the last light of the late Qing Dynasty.
The politicians of the late Qing Dynasty almost did their best to try to guide the painful modernization and transformation process of this huge empire, but the most fundamental, the confucian concept of ruling the world must rely on agricultural society as the foundation, which is very different from the modern Western countries dominated by commerce and industry. After experiencing several kinds of pains, the Qing government did not reverse the defeat of its fate.
In 1870, the "Tianjin Teaching Case" occurred, the honeymoon period between the Qing government and the great powers has since passed, and the negation of the "Ali State Agreement" shows that the British Empire still chose to sacrifice the colony as a sacrifice in the balance of national interests. In the subsequent Sino-French War, even though Zhennan passed a great victory, the Qing government still had to lose its suzerainty over Vietnam. The qing court's disastrous defeat to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War also implies that in this war against the fortunes of the country, the late Qing Dynasty's "Tongzhi Zhongxing" was finally defeated by Japan's "Meiji Restoration".
With the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1874, this brief flashback was frozen in a historical moment, followed by a more ambitious Eight-Power Alliance and the Boxer Rebellion, as well as a more radical democratic revolution. Therefore, Tongzhi ZTE only turned the "acute disease" of the late Qing Dynasty into an incurable "chronic disease", relying on the talents of ZTE's ministers to briefly continue to live for half a century. And this Asian behemoth, the late Qing Empire that was once ridiculed by the British as a "broken ship", finally collapsed in the waves of the Xinhai Revolution, and the last feudal dynasty came to an end.
Undoubtedly, Tongzhi Zhongxing is also one of the greatest Zhongxing in the history of China's dynasties, but this kind of Zhongxing is only the last "afterglow" of the feudal dynasty, even though a bunch of powerful rulers emerged in the late Qing court, but they were born in the feudal dynasty, and they never had the courage to break the original system, so that in the end they did not save the Qing Empire.
Past efforts have failed because of decay, and the legend of innovation and rise in modern China is played out in a series of sad but exciting stories. In that painful hundred years, we have experienced rare tribulations in Chinese history, but we have also let the world witness the awakening of what is a "sleeping lion", and finally can enjoy the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties in this prosperous world. But when we are grateful for the blood and tears that our ancestors have paid, we must not forget that we are the generation that "carries on the work" for the rise of the motherland. Undertaking the construction of the ancestors and creating greater glory for the next generation is bound to be our unswerving mission!
Resources:
Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
Tongzhi Zhongxing
Tongzhi ZTE's "Second Five-Year Plan" (Wang Xuebin)
Three Foreigners in the Tongzhi Zhongxing Period (Li Zhao)