A person who enjoys a good education from an early age, and when he grows up to do a career, the environment is good, will he be able to achieve success in his career and create a grand cause? Tongzhi, the tenth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, used his life experience to give a negative answer.
Tongzhi Emperor: i.e. Emperor Muzong of the Qing Dynasty ai Xinjueluo Zaichun (27 April 1856 – 12 January 1875), whose era name was "Tongzhi". He was the eldest son of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, and his biological mother was Empress Xiaoqinxian of the Yehenara clan (i.e., Empress Dowager Cixi).
Tongzhi Emperor photo
The Tongzhi Emperor enjoyed excellent educational resources from an early age, and during his reign, he encountered a rare external stability, but he failed to become a Ming Emperor, not only had mediocre political performance, but also died at the age of 19. Why? What did his experience teach us? Take a look at the breakdown below.
First, early education has excellent resources
Zaichun was fortunate from an early age, xianfeng sixth year (1856) lunar calendar march 23 (April 27 of the Gregorian calendar), he was born in Chuxiu Palace (one of the six palaces of the Inner Court of the Forbidden City in Beijing). By the age of 3, his younger brother King Mercy had died prematurely after birth, after which Zaichun became the only surviving son of the Xianfeng Emperor, who was also the biological son of Empress Dowager Cixi.
That is to say, Zaichun, who was 3 years old, had actually become the crown prince who had no one to replace the Xianfeng Emperor. For such a precious only son, the royal family must focus on care and care. Therefore, just after reaching the age of 6, Zaichun was arranged to go to school, and the teacher was Li Hongzao.
Portrait of Li Hongzao
This Li Hongzao was a remarkable figure, he was a jinshi in the second year of Xianfeng (1852), and later because of his meritorious service as an emperor, he was deeply trusted by the Western Empress Dowager Cixi, and became the leader of the Qing Dynasty during the same light years, and one of the important ministers of the late Qing Dynasty. After his death, the posthumous title of Wenzheng (the highest courtesy title of the literati, including only eight of them during the Qing Dynasty), was given to the Crown Prince Taifu and entered the Ancestral Hall of Xianliang.
Continuing above, in the year of Zaichun's schooling, his father Emperor Xianfeng died, and Zaichun, who was only 6 years old, took the throne in a proper manner, and Zaichun's concubine Niu Hulu and his birth mother Yehenara were honored as empresses. Then, his extremely powerful birth mother, Empress Dowager Cixi, in collusion with Prince Gong Yixuan, launched a coup d'état in Beijing, depriving the "Eight Ministers" of their powers, and working with Empress Dowager Ci'an to "help" the little emperor to bow to the government.
In February of the first year of Tongzhi (1862), at the behest of Empress Dowager Cixi, the little emperor went to the Hongde Hall to formally enroll in school, and was taught by Qi Liaozao, Weng Xincun and others. Let's introduce who these two teachers are:
Sculpture of qi liaozao, three generations of emperors
Qi Liaozao was very powerful, he was a jinshi of Jiaqing for nineteen years, and he had served as the emperor of Daoguang, The Xianfeng, and the Tongzhi Emperor for three generations; he was also a scholar of the Four Dynasties (Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, and Tongzhi). He successively served as the Minister of Military Aircraft, zuo du yushi, the shangshu of the bing, household, worker, and ceremonial departments, and the scholar of Tirenge University and the prince Taibao.
Weng Xincun is also very famous, he is the second year of the Qing Dynasty (1822) jinshi, the late Qing Dynasty famous politician Weng Tonggong (also a minister of the Tongzhi period), the official Zhi Ti Ren Ge University scholar, after his death to the Taibao, into the Xianliang Ancestral Hall.
In summary, the Tongzhi Emperor's educational resources from an early age were very rich, and his teachers were all from jinshi, some of whom were several generations of imperial teachers, and some later became important courtiers of the imperial court, all of whom were famous teachers and well-known figures in the Qing Dynasty. This has created a very good learning environment for the Tongzhi Emperor and provided high-quality educational conditions.
Weng Xin has a portrait
Second, there are rare opportunities when in power
The Tongzhi Emperor's life was indeed very lucky, except for what was said above: he was born to become the only son of the former emperor, and no one snatched the throne from him; from an early age, he was well educated by famous teachers and sages, not only that, but also even more fortunate.
That is, the Tongzhi Dynasty encountered a rare historical opportunity: at that time, the country was between the two major social unrests of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" and the "Boxer Rebellion"; and the international situation was between the two invasions of the Anglo-French Coalition and the Eight-Power Alliance, which was like a buffer period in the middle of two major storms. Daoguang and Xianfeng before Tongzhi, and Guangxu and Xuantong after that, did not have such favorable conditions.
In addition, the Tongzhi Emperor was in the early days of his reign, because he was too young, the two empresses of the two palaces listened to the government and presided over the government affairs, and they cooperated well with each other, which provided a rare opportunity for the Tongzhi Dynasty to implement the new policy.
Curtain down to listen to the government
Third, he was briefly pro-government and died young
During the reign of the empress dowager of the two palaces, coinciding with the cooperation between the Qing government and Britain and France in 1860 and the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1864), there was a period of political calm, under the auspices of the ministers Yi Chen, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, and Hu Linyi, and a period of inertial restoration of Manchu rule. History called "Tongzhi ZTE".
Because Empress Dowager Cixi was greedy for power, she tried to delay Zaichun's pro-government time on the grounds that Zaichun's "classics had not yet succeeded". It was not until September 15, 1872 (October 16, 1872) of the eleventh year of Tongzhi that a grand wedding ceremony was held for his 17-year-old son Zaichun, and it was not until the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1873) that Zaichun was officially pro-government.
In June of the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1873), the Tongzhi Emperor, who had just come to power, met with the ambassadors of Japan, Russia, the United States, Britain, France, and the Netherlands at the Ziguang Pavilion in the Xiyuan of Zhongnanhai, and accepted the credentials they presented.
Empress Dowager Cixi took a picture
However, Zaichun's pro-government was still difficult to escape the interference of Empress Dowager Cixi. Empress Dowager Cixi also ordered Emperor Tongzhi to repair the Yuanmingyuan for her residence, and Emperor Tongzhi also wanted to use the method of restoring the Yuanmingyuan and letting the empress dowager live away from the palace to get rid of the empress's interference.
Due to the shortage of state finances at that time, the Yuanmingyuan was seriously damaged, and the restoration of the Yuanmingyuan at this time was extremely unfavorable to the national economy and people's livelihood, and it required huge expenditures, so it caused opposition from many people in the prince and minister.
The empress dowager of the two palaces saw that things had become big, so she had to mediate. The restoration of the Yuanmingyuan was changed to the repair of the Xiyuan Sanhai Project. Therefore, the first major event presided over by the Tongzhi Emperor after he pro-government - the reconstruction of the Yuanmingyuan - was not accomplished.
Tongzhi Emperor stills
On the fifth day of the first month of December in the thirteenth year of Tongzhi (January 12, 1875 in the Gregorian calendar), the Tongzhi Emperor, who had been living in an irregular life, died prematurely at the Yangxin Temple due to illness (some say smallpox, some say syphilis) just over a year after he was pro-government, and died at the age of 19.
Fourth, the author's feelings:
The Tongzhi Emperor enjoyed excellent educational resources from an early age, and during his reign, he encountered a rare external stability, but he failed to become a Ming Emperor, not only had mediocre political performance, but also died early at the age of 19. His experience inspires us to:
In children's education, we must first pay attention to both ability and political integrity, and we must not only attach importance to cultural education and neglect the cultivation of moral character; otherwise, like Tongzhi, we will enjoy very good educational resources, and we will not be able to study seriously, but we will develop the problem of pampering and treating the superior and moral corruption, and the result is not only to delay schooling, but also to suffer from bad habits and diseases, resulting in shortened life expectancy, mistakes for oneself and wrong country.
Moreover, when the offspring become adults, they should let them work independently and grow up in practice, and must not be like Empress Dowager Cixi (of course, she is in power for a long time), who refuses to let go when tongzhi is an adult, resulting in the other party's repression and disgust, and doing extreme things. We must boldly and confidently let the training object complete their work independently after doing a good job of passing, helping and leading the work, only in this way can we cultivate qualified successors.
Images of Emperor Doji
This article is original by "Such As Day Zhongtian 54", welcome to pay attention, learn together, and make progress together!