"A cup of cold wine for a thousand years of tears, a few points of residual lamp ten thousand surnames anointing", the Xianfeng Emperor wrote his life under the lamp, his health is not good, the heavy empire is really going to crush him, he himself knows in his heart, in front of and behind him, there is no hope.
How to evaluate the Xianfeng Emperor, too many historical works only show the tired and weak side of the Xianfeng Emperor, but if you really put this person back into history, you will find that the old Chinese sayings "Poor people must have something to hate" and "mourn their misfortunes, anger them are not disputed" is so appropriate.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > crash</h1>
The Xianfeng Emperor was self-aware of himself, he knew that he could no longer hold back this empire that was constantly declining, and even every night in the middle of the night, he could faintly hear the whole Forbidden City creaking. His health was not good, which made him extremely scared.
▲Xianfeng Emperor's imperial dress
What happens when people are scared to the extreme? Will indulge.
He indulged himself completely, and the rapid rise of the Inner Taiping Heavenly Kingdom caused a series of storms, and other uprisings were like complications, quickly destroying the dynasty's immune system. Externally, the rout of the Second Opium War let all foreigners know that the Qing Empire was already a corpse that was still warm, and the time had come to divide and eat.
The total collapse of the Xianfeng Emperor on the two lines of internal affairs and diplomacy would have left him with a bad reputation for thousands of years, and perhaps the old man of history could not bear to treat this weak child like this, when all the bad luck was on the shoulders of the Xianfeng Emperor, the only little favor in his life came, a woman - the last woman of this dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > dynasty curse</h1>
The front of the dynastic era is "under the whole world, can not be the king's land, the coast of the land, and the king's subject", but the reverse side is only four words, "involuntarily". Zhao Yao of The Brilliant Pen Danqing and Zhu Youxiao, who has a pair of skillful hands, it seems that they all have and are very talented, and they should have exerted their talents to the fullest, but Providence made a fatal joke with them and made them kings. The same was true of the Xianfeng Emperor.
▲ A remnant of the Forbidden City
"Where blessings and misfortunes lie", this Yang conspiracy in the Tao Te Ching seems to be a big hand, every dynasty is breathless, and no one can escape the law of turning from prosperity to decline, as if it is an inevitability, how many dynasties are overthrown in an instant, and eventually nothing is heard. There are very few heroes who have been able to change their lives against the sky, and most of them can only leave a sigh.
In the end, it was not the disease in his body that strangled the Xianfeng Emperor, but his dynasty.
The golden age of the dynasty came from the best balance of productive forces and means of production, the qianlong emperor who was lucky in his life happened to experience the golden age, but the iron law of prosperity and decline did not let go of the Qing Dynasty, and the subsequent Jiaqing Emperor and the Daoguang Emperor were already powerless, but they could barely maintain the apparent prosperity of the empire, and this hand-held thunder exploded in Xianfeng's hands.
▲ "Qianlong Southern Tour Map" (partial)
As the monarch of a country, he received the most rigorous education in the world from a young age, from the etiquette culture of the Four Books and Five Classics to the imperial heart technique of vertical and horizontal deception, every emperor was raised by his father and emperor every day, but under such strict education, the Xianfeng Emperor became a monarch who had to be dazed.
Why say you have to? Because of a big question, how much power can the emperor hold? Most people have a misunderstanding, the emperor as the true dragon heavenly son, the king of a country seems to have unlimited power, but the reality is that the emperor's power continues to decrease with the social contradictions and the contradictions of productive forces that arise in development.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the paradox of kings</h1>
At the beginning of the dynasty, "Yu Lie of the Sixth Dynasty", the efforts of several generations, the combination of means of production and productive forces to the greatest extent, the whole country became rich and prosperous, the emperor should have been constantly expanding and improving his power, but the reality is just the opposite, every time at this time, the emperor's power will shrink, the reason is very simple, that is, as an emperor, he can no longer be an adult beauty.
"The Art of Kings in The Beauty of Adulthood".
▲ Stills from the movie "Cast Name"
With the development of the country, all kinds of forces continue to expand, but all kinds of resources are constantly decreasing, and more and more forces can talk to the emperor about chips, and slowly it is not the emperor's dynasty, but the emperor of the dynasty.
The perfect balance point is perfect precisely because of its fragility, fleeting, the emperor and various forces will eventually change from subordinate relations to game opponents, the emperor does not dare to act rashly in the game, so that the entire country lacks policy mobilization, often loses its activity, and goes downhill.
This situation was particularly serious in the Qing Dynasty, where the Manchus and Han Chinese naturally became two highly inclined interest groups, and the struggle was extremely fierce.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > festering</h1>
As they grew older, the Manchu forces gradually indulged in pleasure and became corrupt and degenerate because of their natural dominant position, and the Han forces became more and more powerful. Sandwiched in the middle, the Xianfeng Emperor was more and more embarrassed, he wanted to stabilize the situation with the Manchu forces, but the successive failures made Xianfeng soberly realize that the Manchu forces could no longer answer the questions raised by the times, and the Manchu forces because of their own orthodox identity as a dynasty, they were extremely superior to themselves, and it seemed that everything they had was taken for granted, and finally they could only fall into deeper contradictions.
▲ The scene of the signing of the "Treaty of Yaohun" in the eighth year of Xianfeng was restored
The Xianfeng Emperor was trapped in an unsolvable puzzle, that is, the more he relied on the Manchu forces, the more he could not solve the real problems, the Xianfeng Emperor did not have the means and ability to balance the two forces of the Manchu and Han, and his weak body finally made him collapse day by day, and he hoped to get rid of all this as soon as possible in his drunken dreams.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "man grows to hate water and long east"</h1>
This helplessness is insoluble, the core of the dynasty is the family world, Xian Feng knew in his heart that only Han Chen could help him, but he did not dare and could not, once he chose Han Chen, the legitimacy of the dynasty's orthodoxy was gone, and Xian Feng himself, who was a Manchu, was torn apart in this endless contradiction.
▲The interior view of the Rehe Palace
On July 16, 111th, Xianfeng, before the autumn wind arrived, Xianfeng, who was in the Rehe Palace (that is, Chengde Summer Resort), felt cold to the bone, and everyone was persuading him to return to Beijing, even if he died, he died in the capital, that city that was too big and too big, how many heroes Haojie could not reach that threshold in his whole life, but Xianfeng did not want to go back, he knew that he was not a hero Haojie, but fate made a joke with him too big and put him in that position. Ninety-nine eighty-one door nails crushed his life, and now that he is dead in the field, Xian Feng feels at ease. Xian Feng did not have any nostalgia for this piece of Jiangshan, and in a hurry, Xian Feng died, as if it had never existed.
The dynasty was already like a reed in the wind, no matter where it drifted, Xianfeng did not have to suffer anymore.
Resources:
"The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty" Mao Haijian
"The Scale of Modern Times" Mao Haijian