Empress Dowager Cixi was one of the most controversial historical figures of the late Qing Dynasty. In her old age, she suddenly made a puzzling decision - to make the young Pu Yi emperor. This decision was not only incompatible with the ancestral system, but also laid the foundation for the fall of the Qing Dynasty. What was the reason for Cixi's such a ridiculous choice? Was she motivated by some selfishness, or was there something else to hide?
1. The dictatorship of Cixi
The outbreak of the Wuxu Reform during the Guangxu period made the Empress Dowager Cixi feel an unprecedented threat. The young Guangxu Emperor went further and further on the road of reform and reform, not only implementing a series of reform measures, but also endangering the real power in the hands of Cixi. In the face of radical change, the stubbornly conservative Cixi could not sit idly by.
So, in the turbulent summer of 1898, Cixi pursued the concept of "first securing the inside before the outside", preemptively attacked, secretly killed the killers, and arrested and imprisoned the important members of the Restoration. Although the Guangxu Emperor still ruled the world in name, he had long since lost his real power and could only be placed under house arrest in the Forbidden City. In the following years, Guangxu's situation deteriorated, his life was embarrassed, and even the most basic diet could not be guaranteed, which can be described as a late festival.
The reason for Cixi's monopoly on power is certainly related to her personal personality factors, but the deeper motivation is the extreme thirst for imperial power. She knew that only by completely and firmly controlling the imperial power in her own hands could she maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, Cixi unswervingly deprived the Guangxu Emperor of his power and took charge of the government alone.
In this process, Emperor Guangxu was forced to write edicts, edicts and other documents several times to show obedience. But no matter how much the young emperor wailed, he could not change his predestined fate. Cixi turned a deaf ear and rested on her laurels, until the last moment, without the slightest repentance.
2. The special status of the Prince Alcohol family
Since the death of Emperor Xianfeng, Cixi began to lay out in the court, trying to expand her power territory. In the process, she took a fancy to Prince Alcohol's family, married her sister into it, and handed over military and political power to Prince Alcohol.
Prince Alcohol was the brother of Emperor Xianfeng, with a loyal and honest personality, which was deeply appreciated by Cixi. Cixi not only married her sister to Prince Alcohol, but also married her goddaughter to Prince Alcohol's son Zaifeng, hoping to win over this prominent family.
In these arrangements, Cixi took great pains. For example, she once deliberately made the people of Prince Alcohol's Mansion kneel and wait for a long time in the torrential rain to test their loyalty. It was with this skill that the Prince Alcohol family finally surrendered and submitted to Cixi.
Prince Alcohol was not only in charge of the military and political power, but also entrusted by Cixi with the important task of taking over the Shenji Battalion. The Shenji Battalion was the most elite guard unit of the Qing Dynasty at that time, with modern firearms and outstanding combat effectiveness. Prince Alcohol's control is equivalent to controlling the safety of the Jingshi.
Since then, Prince Alcohol's family has gained a very special status in the eyes of Cixi. Not only that, when Emperor Tongzhi died, Cixi once again overrode public opinion and established Prince Alcohol's descendant Zaiyan as emperor, that is, Emperor Guangxu.
Behind this decision, of course, there is the calculation of Cixi's monopoly on power, but it is more out of trust and importance to Prince Alcohol's family. After all, they had shown enough loyalty and competence in upholding Cixi's authority.
It can be said that during the decades of Cixi's reign, Prince Alcohol's family played a very important role, and compared with other princes and nobles, the status was far from equal. It was with the support of this family that Cixi was able to sit on the throne of the empress for a long time and hold great power alone.
3. The internal logic of Pu Yi becoming emperor
After Guangxu's death, the Qing court faced a new round of dispute for the crown prince. According to the ancestral system, Pu Lun, the eldest son of Emperor Guangxu, should be the crown prince and inherit the throne logically. But Cixi apparently had other plans.
Pu Lun is over the age of the strings, and after inheriting the throne, he will definitely establish great power, and this is exactly what Cixi is very afraid of. She needs a new, young, obedient emperor to keep a firm grip on power and continue her rule.
At this time, Puyi, the grandson of Prince Alcohol, was airborne and became the new crown prince favored by Cixi. Pu Yi was only three years old at the time, so he naturally could not handle the government independently, and Cixi would be able to take the opportunity to continue to hold power and "listen to the government" as always.
In addition to the age factor, Pu Yi's grandfather Zaifeng had a cowardly personality and always looked down on Cixi, which is why Cixi happily made him regent. With Zaifeng, the loyal regent, Pu Yi will naturally be safe after he ascends the throne.
However, there are still some hidden secrets to be unraveled. For example, why did Cixi disregard the ancestral system and ignore the opposition of the Manchu and Han ministers, and insisted on putting Pu Yi on the throne? And for what deep considerations? Historians still have a lot of speculation about this.
Some people believe that this is related to the special status of the Zaifeng family. Cixi hoped to use this power family to continue her rule. But this is clearly only one aspect, far from the whole reason.
Another theory states that Pu Yi's ascension to the throne was an expedient measure by Cixi to rectify the Manchu and Han ministers. At that time, Guangxu was abolished, which caused the opposition of many ministers, and Cixi's move was in response to these objections. But this interpretation is also flawed.
In short, there are still some unsolved mysteries behind the internal logic of Pu Yi becoming the emperor, which need to be further explored and solved by future generations. What is certain, however, is that this decision is destined to add a new bane to the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
Fourth, the inside story of the unknown conspiracy
Although Pu Yi's decision to ascend the throne seems to be Cixi's will on the surface, there is actually a series of confusing conspiracies behind it.
First of all, it needs to be traced back to the years when Emperor Guangxu was subjected to bullet pressure. At that time, although Empress Longyu and the Guerjia clan were under house arrest, they still tried their best to maintain the authority of the Guangxu Emperor and repeatedly confronted Cixi. They had repeatedly conspired with the army to protect Guangxu, but in the end they all failed.
What's even more mysterious is that shortly after the Guangxu Emperor was deposed by Cixi, the thirty-seven-year-old emperor died mysteriously. At that time, the government and the opposition were in an uproar, and they generally questioned the strange cause of his death, but they didn't know that there was another black hand behind it.
According to some internal archives that have never been exposed, the reason why Emperor Guangxu died suddenly is likely to be inextricably linked to Cixi. On the one hand, Cixi was worried that Guangxu would be reinstated, and on the other hand, she needed to determine a new crown prince as soon as possible, so she acted like this.
However, until now, the truth of this dark history has not been fully listed, and can only be vaguely glimpsed from some clues. What is puzzling is why Cixi still decided to put Pu Yi on the dragon chair when she was dying? What was the reason for her to make such an all-or-nothing decision?
One explanation is that Cixi, aware of her imminent death, continued to entrust power to Pu Yi at the last moments in order to maintain the Qing regime. But there are also major doubts about this statement, after all, Pu Yi is only a young child, how can he take on such a heavy responsibility?
In general, the veil of conspiracy of Cixi Lichu has not been fully unveiled so far. There are twists and turns in it, and it seems that there are some secrets hidden that we are not yet aware of. However, this mysterious inside story may be one of the main culprits that led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
5. The Price of Power and the Cycle of History
Cixi's insistence on supporting Pu Yi to ascend the throne in her dying old age was undoubtedly the last move in a power game. With this decision, she hopes to immortalize her ruling power. But fate played tricks on her after all.
Shortly after Pu Yi ascended the throne, the smoke of the Xinhai Revolution was everywhere, and the situation changed abruptly. Cixi, who was captured by the revolutionary army, had to make the decision to flee Beijing. In that difficult escape, she not only witnessed the decline of the country, but also tasted the impermanence and dark side of power.
When Cixi arrived at Fufeng Mansion in Xi'an, she was already physically exhausted and her life was on the verge of death. Her only consolation may be to see the fruits of her last decision—that Pu Yi is still the emperor in power. But this short-lived satisfaction was soon replaced by the relentless blows of reality.
On November 15, 1908, Cixi died in Fufeng Mansion, ending her long and turbulent life. Soon after, Pu Yi was forced to abdicate at the inauguration ceremony in Nanjing, officially ending more than 260 years of Qing rule.
In this way, in order to maintain her power, Cixi did not hesitate to take risks to establish the prince Puyi, which was ultimately in vain. And her secret and tortuous inner world was also buried forever in the precipitation of history with the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
The decline of the Qing Dynasty did not happen overnight, and its roots can be traced back to the various wrong decisions made in the later years of Cixi's reign. It was her protracted stubbornness that finally pushed this once glorious dynasty into the abyss of no return.
From this point of view, Cixi should indeed bear some responsibility for the fall of the Qing Dynasty. But it would be obviously one-sided and unjust to focus all the blame on her alone. After all, the upper and lower strata of the Qing Dynasty had been corrupt for a long time, and all kinds of institutional ills had already been exposed, and it was destined to be impossible for long-term peace and stability.
Perhaps, Cixi's greatest sin was that she was self-serving, self-contained, and refused to reform, thus accelerating the process of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. Her fate can be said to be a microcosm of the power game, revealing a cruel truth: rulers who blindly pursue power without regard for the will of the people will eventually be completely eliminated in the long river of history.