It is well known that Emperor Kangxi devoted his life to maintaining the stability and authority of the empire, but in his old age, the struggle for the throne became the core issue of the turbulent tide in the Qing court.
The power struggle behind this turmoil for the crown is complex and fierce, and each participant is heading towards a different fate, but no one expected that the real heir will be the fourth elder brother Yinzhen, who later became Emperor Yongzheng.
Through judging the situation and careful planning, he finally won Kangxi's trust and inherited the throne, but the story is not over here.
In the ensuing competition, the entanglement of family, trust and power became one of the most interesting topics in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
The process of nine sons seizing the heir
Looking back on the reign of Kangxi, the second elder brother Yinren was made the crown prince by Emperor Kangxi since he was a child, in order to stabilize the court situation and curb the ambitions of other princes, but Yinren's performance was disappointing.
In the autumn of the forty-seventh year of Kangxi, the eighteenth elder brother was seriously ill, Kangxi was anxious, but Yinren did not care about his younger brother's condition, and this indifferent attitude made Emperor Kangxi very unhappy.
Later, during an overnight stay, Yinren actually wandered outside the tent of Kangxi, and this kind of snooping behavior aroused the suspicion of Emperor Kangxi, suspecting that he was planning to do wrong, and immediately imprisoned him, and ordered the deposition of the crown prince after returning to the capital.
This became the first incident of the abolition of the crown prince and officially opened the prelude to the battle for the crown prince. After the crown prince was deposed, the eldest brother Yinyu was the first to jump out to compete for the storage position, and the second was the eighth elder brother Yinyu.
Yinren had won Kangxi's favor in his early years, and was also one of the first princes to be crowned a prince, and after Yinren was abolished, Kangxi ordered him to take care of the abolished prince, so that Yinhe thought that he was implied to be a candidate for the new prince.
He actively behaved, and even suggested that Kangxi kill the abolished prince to prevent future troubles, and also said "I am willing to undertake this task to share the worries of my father".
Kangxi has always valued family affection, and Yinhe's proposal violated his bottom line, causing his attitude towards Yinhe to change from trust to disgust.
As the so-called "falling into the well", other princes took the opportunity to expose Yinhe and cursed the prince with witchcraft, Kangxi was furious and deprived Yinhe of the prince, and handed him over to the Zongren Mansion for life.
After the eldest brother left the game, the eighth elder brother Yinxi soon jumped out and actively competed for the storage position.
He has a generous personality and behaves decently, and is widely loved by Kangxi and the ministers, coupled with a wide range of contacts, he has won the support of many powerful ministers such as Prince Yu Fuquan, University Shi Ma Qi, and Minister of the Guard, Alinga.
Kangxi forty-seven, that is, only two months after the crown prince was deposed, Kangxi issued an edict to the ministers to recommend the new prince.
Seeing this opportunity, the eighth elder brother contacted the minister to build momentum for himself, and finally under the leadership of Ma Qi and A Ling'a, all the ministers jointly elected the eighth elder brother Yinxi, and the retired veteran minister Tong Guowei also came forward to recommend it.
Kangxi has always hated his brothers for forming parties for personal gain, because he believes that it violates the ruling principles of ancient emperors.
After the incident, Emperor Kangxi angrily reprimanded the ministers' nomination, and dismissed the leading bachelor Ma Qi from his post and imprisoned, and Yinxi's plan went bankrupt, and since then he has lost the opportunity to compete for his son-in-law.
When the crown prince was abolished for the first time, Yongzheng behaved generously, and also sent a message to Kangxi for the abolished prince, and the behavior of "brother, friend and brother Gong" won Kangxi's favor and left an impression of affection and righteousness in his father's mind.
In addition, Yongzheng adopted a prudent strategy in the battle for the crown prince, and understood that his father still had father-son affection for the second elder brother Yinren, so he has always treated the second elder brother well and used this family card to win Kangxi's trust.
He also often invited his father to his private garden to play, and arranged for his son Qianlong to accompany him, which Kangxi was very relieved about.
According to relevant information, Kangxi went to Yongzheng's house as many as 11 times in previous years, which is a treatment that other sons cannot enjoy.
It is not enough to rely on the family card, Yongzheng also showed his political talents, on the one hand, he did his best to the affairs assigned by Kangxi, and he must complete every task personally.
On the other hand, keep a low profile, do not take credit for the aftermath, and attribute the credit to Kangxi's wise leadership.
He was cautious in his words and deeds in daily life, and did not easily interact with the ministers of the DPRK and China, and gradually established an image of being talented and self-conscious in Kangxi's mind, and paved a stable road for himself in the fierce battle for the throne.
Kangxi saw Yongzheng's maintenance and loyalty to the family, and also saw his prudence and ability to handle government affairs, plus he had a good son.
In the end, Yongzheng's shrewdness and wit made him a dark horse and stood out from the fierce competition to become the Yongzheng Emperor.
The tragic end of the rest of the princes
Since ancient times, the battle for the royal throne is a bloody struggle, and the nine sons are even more so, even if the battle for the throne is over, all kinds of autumn reckoning is still not over, and it has lasted for decades.
The first of the nine princes to die was the second elder brother Yinren, as mentioned above, after being made the crown prince, Yinren was deposed twice, and was finally imprisoned because of his dissatisfaction with Kangxi's performance.
Yongzheng was very respectful to his brother before he ascended the throne, but after he ascended the throne, he didn't care, Yongzheng died in the forbidden place in December of the second year, at the age of 51, it can be said that his later years were very bleak.
The second to die was the Ninth Elder Brother Yinyu, who sided with the Eighth Elder Brother Yinyu to support him in his struggle for the throne, and Emperor Yongzheng purged this group of oppositionists after his accession to the throne. It was about the fourth year of Yongzheng that Yinyu was expelled from the clan, and was renamed "Seth Black" and imprisoned.
Even if he was imprisoned in prison, Yongzheng could not eliminate the hatred in his heart, let him "lock himself in iron, and detain his hands and feet", and finally died in the prison in Baoding.
The same fate as the ninth elder brother is the eighth elder brother Yinxi, and he was also renamed "Aqina", which means pig and dog, which shows how much Yongzheng hates him, and finally came to the end of his life in the prison in Beijing.
History records that the eighth elder brother died of a sudden illness, but according to some relevant wild histories, the letter may have been poisoned, and he continued to vomit before his death, and the signs of poisoning were obvious.
Therefore, some people speculate based on clues that Yinyu's fate is similar to that of the ninth elder brother Yinyu and died of persecution by Emperor Yongzheng.
The third son of the emperor, Yinzhi, was not spared, even if he did not have much interest in the throne. After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, Yinzhi lost trust due to political differences with him, and Yongzheng was stripped of his title and imprisoned in Jingshan in the eighth year, and finally died in the forbidden place in the tenth year of Yongzheng.
In these tragic struggles, the three princes were able to die well, among which the thirteenth elder brother Yinxiang had the best ending.
He is a close confidant of Emperor Yongzheng, and has contributed the most to the fourth elder brother among the nine sons, and Yongzheng is also conscientious after ascending the throne, and was named Prince Yi and King of Iron Hat.
However, Yinxiang did not live long at the age of 45 and was buried by Yongzheng after his death. The other two princes who were able to die well were the fourteenth elder brother Yinyu, and the two of them lived longer than Emperor Yongzheng, and then met their nephew Emperor Qianlong.
In the second year of Qianlong, Emperor Qianlong pardoned the 10th elder brother Yinyu and the 14th elder brother Yinyu, let them regain their freedom and granted them the title of auxiliary duke. Four years later, Yin Yan died of illness, and Emperor Qianlong ordered him to be buried with the grade of Beizi, which can be regarded as a relatively good death.
Yinyu's lifespan was slightly longer than that of Yinyu, so he continued to be promoted, and was successively named Baylor and the King of Suijun, and also served as the commander of the Han army in the Zhenghuang Banner, enjoying a relatively stable life in his old age.
In general, the struggle for the throne in Kangxi's later years continued until the death of Yongzheng, and most of the princes who participated in the seizure of the throne were persecuted, and only the tenth elder brother, thirteenth elder brother, and fourteenth elder brother solved it better.
Speaking of which, there may be some people who are puzzled, the thirteenth elder brother will be treated well because of his meritorious service to Yongzheng's ascension to the throne and governing the country, and the fourteenth elder brother and Emperor Yongzheng are brothers before they will be treated relatively well, why does the tenth elder brother get "courtesy"?
You must know that during the period when the ninth son seized the heir, he was the eighth elder brother's sworn friend, and he frequently opposed Yongzheng and called him the happiest, so I have to mention the identity background of this elder brother.
The background of the Ten Princes
In the TV series "Yongzheng Dynasty", the tenth prince of the Qing Dynasty, Yin, is an impressive character, known for his rude and straightforward personality and half-academic skills, and also frequently acts presumptuously in the court.
In fact, this is not just because of his unruly personality, but because he has a strong matrilineal family background behind him.
Yin's mother is Wen Guifei Niu Hulu, her father is one of the four major auxiliary ministers in the early Kangxi period, and his father is also an important hero in the founding period of the Qing Dynasty, one of the five founding ministers of the Nurhachi period.
In addition, Yin's maternal family also has deep court power, Yin's aunt is Kangxi's second empress Empress Xiaozhaoren, and Concubine Wen is from the same Niu Hulu clan, providing important royal support for Yin's family.
Yin's uncles also had a prominent position in the Qing Dynasty political arena, and the third uncle Faka inherited the title of first-class duke and served as the imperial minister, and had a prominent position. Faka's stepwife is the granddaughter of Sony, whose family is also closely linked to the Kangxi royal family.
The fourth uncle Yan Zhu once served as a first-class guard in front of the imperial palace and had a close relationship with Empress Kangxi Tong Jiashi, Yan Zhu's wife was the daughter of Tong Guowei and the sister of Empress Kangxi Xiaoyiren, and her family background was extremely strong.
The fifth uncle, Fubao, participated in the Kangxi Emperor's conquest of Ordos, and his wife came from the family of Ma Leji, the first Manchu champion of the Qing Dynasty; The sixth uncle, Yin De, served as the Minister of Parliament and the Minister of the Guards in the Kangxi Dynasty, and his cousin was Aligon, a scholar in the Qianlong period.
The seventh uncle, A Ling'a, served as the secretary of the Imperial Court and the minister of the guard in the Kangxi Dynasty, and his wife was a sister to Yongzheng's biological mother, Empress Xiaogongren; Alinga's cousin Arsonga served as the secretary of the criminal department in the Kangxi Dynasty, and his cousin married the seventeenth son of the emperor, Yinli.
It is precisely with such a strong matrilineal family background that Yin Yan dared to roll around in the palace battle, and did not even take the fourth brother in his eyes.
After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he pursued the stability of the court situation, even if he hated the tenth brother, he did not dare to kill the killer, because he moved his whole body because of a hair.
Moreover, although he once formed an alliance with the Eighth Elder Brother and was also a cadre of the Eighth Elder Party, his political wisdom was not very high, and he did not have the imperial rule of Yongzheng as the Eighth Elder Brother, the Ninth Elder Brother, and the Big Elder Brother.
In this case, it is better to bury a face for Yin's mother's family in exchange for the other party's political support, this is Yin's confidence, and the eighth and ninth elder brothers also value this.
What do you think differently about this?