After the end of the "Kangqian Prosperous Era", the Qing Dynasty began to decline. Although none of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were considered faint monarchs by virtue of the inheritance system of virtue and virtue, they still could not change the trend of history.
Emperor Xianfeng reigned for 11 years, and watched the Western powers enter the country, and the ancestral foundation was destroyed, and he also ended up dying early. But if we look at history carefully, we will find that the death of Emperor Xianfeng is actually inseparable from his four hobbies.
Secret storage turmoil
In 1850, Emperor Daoguang was seriously ill, and the crown prince had not yet been established, so he urgently recruited many ministers into the palace and announced that the fourth son of the emperor, Yi Su, would be the crown prince.
Not long after the edict was established, Emperor Daoguang died in the Old Summer Palace, and the next day Yi Su succeeded to the throne, which was later Emperor Xianfeng.
As for why Emperor Daoguang did not choose the heir to the throne until he was dying? We have to talk about the imperial throne system of the Qing Dynasty, as one of the few dynasties in which ethnic minorities occupied the world, the Manchu Qing summed up the lessons of the previous dynasties and found that it was inevitable that there would be a mediocre successor to the throne in the "establishment of succession and longevity", which led to the misery of traitors and the people, and finally the destruction of the country.
So the Qing Dynasty adopted the principle of "establishing virtue and not standing up", as long as you are a virtuous prince, then you can become the emperor to a large extent, so in the film and television dramas of the Qing Dynasty, we will often see the scene of the prince competing for the throne, after all, since ancient times, the temptation of the dragon chair is too great, even if it is a brother and a father, it cannot stop the sinister of people's hearts.
To say that this Daoguang Emperor is also very romantic in his life, there are more than 20 concubines in the harem, and 9 princes have been born, but unfortunately the eldest son, the second son and the third son have died one after another, until 1831, the fourth son Yisu was born, and Emperor Daoguang was very happy.
At that time, the princes of the Qing Dynasty were basically studying in the study, but the best performance was not the fourth son of the emperor, but the sixth son of the emperor, Yixun, this guy was rated by the history books as "talented, intelligent, able to write and martial arts", and it can be seen that his ability should be very outstanding.
As for the fourth son of the emperor, that is, "old and benevolent and filial", although it sounds good, but in today's words, he doesn't have any particularly outstanding abilities, but he is a good person, the historian commented like this, which is equivalent to giving him a good person card.
And Yi Su is a typical vegetable and fun-loving, once hunting, fell off the horse, although after treatment, people survived, but fell disabled, walking with a limp, it is said that after he succeeded to the throne, in order not to be embarrassed in front of the ministers, specially issued an order, let the ministers go first, but also let the ministers who do not know the truth shout moved.
As for appearance, Yi Su had smallpox once when he was a teenager, and there were many scars on his face, which seriously affected his appearance, so the fourth son of the emperor can't compare to his sixth brother from the inside out, why was he still made emperor?
Mother and son are both expensive
As the old saying goes, "mothers are more expensive than children", from ancient times to the present, whether it is the emperor or the common people, as long as the daughter-in-law gives birth to a child, then she will be treated better, in the palace, if any concubine can give birth to a prince, it will become a phoenix overnight.
After Emperor Daoguang's three children died, the harem concubines all competed to grab the husband in order to brush up a wave of favor in front of the emperor.
It is said that Yixu's biological mother, Queen Xiao Quancheng, because she was pregnant later, so in order to give birth to the prince first, she secretly asked the imperial doctor to prescribe medicine for herself, the purpose was to let the child in her womb be born as soon as possible, and later she really gave birth to the fourth son of the emperor as she expected.
This time it is really flying on the branch to become a phoenix, originally she was just the daughter of the guard, because she was beautiful to be elected to the palace, and later won the love of Emperor Daoguang, was named a concubine, after giving birth to the prince, she was even more favored, in less than three years, from the concubine to the queen.
It's a pity that when Yixu was 10 years old, the 33-year-old Empress Xiaoquancheng died of illness, and Daoguang asked Jing Guifei to raise Yixu, and Jing Guifei is the biological mother of the sixth son of the emperor, Yixu, and the two princes get along with each other on weekdays.
Daoguang is very fond of both children, but he has never made a decision on who he wants to make the crown prince.
It wasn't until Emperor Daoguang was seriously ill that the fourth son of the emperor was appointed as the emperor because of the memory of Empress Xiaoquancheng. Maybe in his heart, he wanted to establish Yixun as the emperor, after all, the tradition of the Qing Dynasty has always been that the sage lives there.
But in the end, he still chose a more filial Yisu, which shows that the so-called "Liyan is not virtuous" is just a beautified statement, and the final decision is still in the hands of the emperor.
worked hard but was defeated by Britain and France
However, after Emperor Xianfeng succeeded to the throne, although he lacked ability, he had been conscientious. At that time, the Qing government had the Western powers that opened China's door through the Opium War, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was vigorous.
In order to reverse the mess left by his father, Emperor Xianfeng reused Han Chen, removed the old ministers of the main peace faction, appointed reformist officials, and made every effort to rectify the corruption in the officialdom left by Emperor Qianlong, which greatly improved the atmosphere of officialdom.
It is said that in the third year of Emperor Xianfeng's succession, there were only 227,000 taels of silver left in the national finance, and even the soldiers' salaries were paid for less than two months.
After solving the problem of insufficient finance, Xianfeng began to deal with two hidden dangers, and finally after various considerations, he first put forward a strategic plan to first secure the interior and then the outside.
Subsequently, with the help of Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zuo Zongtang, the internal Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement was extinguished. Just after Emperor Xianfeng had just dealt with the internal rebellion, Britain, France and other Western powers took the opportunity to attack.
After repeatedly revising the treaty and asking the Qing government to add a treaty port, which was not agreed by Emperor Xianfeng, he used strong ships and cannons to capture Guangzhou in 1956 and launched the Second Opium War.
Two years later, in order to further expand the privileges, the Anglo-French alliance army invaded north, and in the face of the Western fleet, Emperor Xianfeng mistakenly thought that the weight of the world was in Beijing, and no longer Haikou, resulting in the loss of the war, and the Anglo-French alliance occupied Dagu and Tianjin successively.
It wasn't until they inflicted heavy losses on the heroic Qing army in the Bali Bridge area that the frightened Emperor Xianfeng found an excuse to run from the Old Summer Palace to the Chengde Summer Resort, leaving his sixth brother Prince Gong Yixun to negotiate with the British and French forces in Beijing.
After the Anglo-French troops broke into the city of Beijing, they were attracted by the prosperity of the capital, so they looted everywhere, took everything they could and took it away, and set fire to those who could not be moved.
During this period, the Old Summer Palace, the treasure of imperial garden art, the culmination of Chinese and Western architecture, was devastated, countless rare treasures were taken away, and many precious historical buildings were also burned in a fire.
Four hobbies to hollow out the body
After escaping to the summer resort of Chengde, Emperor Xianfeng's ambitions were gradually smoothed out. At first, he was still concerned about the negotiation affairs in the capital, but later in the environment of singing and dancing, he gradually changed to an attitude of living a day and enjoying a day, and died not long after.
However, according to historical records, in addition to being a premature baby, which led to frailty and illness, Emperor Xianfeng's four hobbies were also the main reasons for his untimely death.
It is said that "there is wine today and drunk today", when living in the summer resort of Chengde, in order to dispel the depression in his heart, Emperor Xianfeng drank and had fun all day long, after all, as an emperor, he ended up running away in a hurry, no matter how you look at it, it is a matter of detrimental majesty, and he has just quelled the rebellion and civil strife, and is about to deal with foreign enemies with all his might, and he was taught a lesson by the Western guns and cannons.
It stands to reason that because you don't have to deal with the government, greedy cups are not a big deal, but Emperor Xianfeng's wine is not good, every time he drinks, he has to get drunk, and after getting drunk, he has to torture the people around him, and in the long run, the body will definitely not be able to bear it.
In addition to drinking, Emperor Xianfeng lingered in the summer resort during the time, but also indulged in beauty, thinking about being happy all day long, seemed to forget to return to Beijing, and when the country was in danger, he also wanted to let a beautiful woman from Shanxi enter the palace, pampered her, and completely became the emperor of waste wood.
At that time, because there was no extra entertainment, Emperor Xianfeng also specially called an opera troupe to Chengde to sing opera, singing twice a day, and listening to the opera in the house when it was windy and rainy.
After a long time, he completely forgot the burden of being an emperor, completely indulged in the past time, and the flattery of the actors, and became a theater connoisseur, able to point out the mistakes of the actors.
As for this last hobby, that is, opium, which is deeply hated by the Chinese people, Britain relied on the sale of opium, which led to the destruction of countless Chinese families, and also grabbed a large amount of silver from the Qing government, completely reversing the situation of foreign trade.
Who knew that after Emperor Xianfeng succeeded to the throne, he openly smoked opium, and called it "wishful ointment", fantasizing about relying on opium to prolong life, which is tantamount to wishful thinking, and in the end he can only anesthetize himself again and again, and his already weak body is worse.
If the Xianfeng Emperor of Beijing City is still a good emperor who knows how to forge ahead and works hard, then after the failure of the outside, in the Chengde Summer Resort, the Xianfeng Emperor who got by is an out-and-out loser, and finally let the four hobbies hollow out the body, so that he died at the age of 31, no wonder some people say that he can live 31 years old is already considered a long life.
Epilogue:
In 1861, the 31-year-old Emperor Xianfeng died, as the last emperor in the history of the Qing Dynasty to hold real power, he did a lot of things, but unfortunately because of the light enemy was defeated by the British and French forces, he had no choice but to squander his body in the summer resort. Leaving a more unbearable situation for future generations, let the Qing Dynasty go to the abyss step by step.
If Emperor Daoguang had chosen Prince Ligong as the crown prince, or if Emperor Xianfeng had been able to maintain his dedication when he first succeeded to the throne, history might have had a different ending.