"Even a person in a high position, once arrogant and blind, then when he falls from such a high position, he will inevitably fall to pieces."
As the most famous empress dowager in Chinese history and the de facto ruler of the late Qing Dynasty for decades, Cixi was undoubtedly the most powerful woman in the late Qing Dynasty. On the road to power, Cixi was also as fierce as Wu Zetian, and had always shown no mercy to those who stood in the way, and among these obstacles on the road to Cixi's power, the most famous was undoubtedly the eight ministers entrusted by the Xianfeng Emperor before his death.
In the eleventh year of Xianfeng, the 31-year-old Xianfeng Emperor died at the Summer Resort of Chengde in Rehe, and before his death, he left a will to inherit the throne with his only young son Zaichun, and entrusted the eight ministers of The Prince of Guyi, Zaiyuan, Duanhua the Prince of Zheng, Sushun, Jingshou, MuYin, Kuangyuan, Duhan, and Jiao Youying, then known as the "Eight Ministers of Gu Ming", among these eight ministers, the only one who really held great power was Sushun.
After Cixi launched the Xin You coup, most of the eight ministers who were overthrown had a tragic fate, but they were often able to save their lives or end themselves by giving death, and only Sushun was beheaded. So, as the head of the Eight Ministers, su shun, who was once in a position of great power, ended up in such a situation?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > too contemptuous of Cixi</h1>
Among the harem concubines of the Xianfeng Emperor, Cixi's birth was not only not noble, but on the contrary, she was born in YeHebu, who had a feud with the Ai Xinjue Luo family.
When she first entered the palace, Cixi was only a low-ranking Lan nobleman, and it was not until after giving birth to Emperor Xianfeng that Cixi began to be favored by Emperor Xianfeng and was honored as a noble concubine, and it was not until her son succeeded to the throne as Emperor Tongzhi that she became empress.
In the eyes of an old minister like Su Shun, who had been in the official field of the late Qing Dynasty for many years, Cixi was just a female stream, and her own origin was not very good, so naturally it was impossible to look up to Cixi too highly. After the Anglo-French forces captured the Jing Division, the Xianfeng Emperor's carriage bumped on the way to the Rehe River, making Cixi extremely uncomfortable, so she asked her retinue to tell Sushun that she hoped to change her carriage to alleviate the fatigue of the boats along the way, but Sushun directly refused Cixi's request, on the pretext that she would change it when she arrived in the town.
However, even after arriving in the town, Sushun still did not heed Cixi's request at all, saying that there was no carriage change, and even Empress Ci'an, whose status was higher than Cixi's, did not ask for a change of carriage, let alone a concubine of Cixi? As a result, Cixi began to form a feud with Sushun, which became one of the important reasons why Cixi had to execute Sushun later.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > Sushun had suggested that the Xianfeng Emperor execute Cixi</h1>
In the later period of the reign of The Xianfeng Emperor, with the deterioration of his physical condition, coupled with the cruel reality that the Qing Dynasty was facing the internal Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the internal and external troubles of the Anglo-French alliance outside, the heavy state affairs made the Xianfeng Emperor tired of coping, just as Cixi slightly understood political affairs and also had a strong desire for power. As a result, Cixi began to openly participate in the government and help the Xianfeng Emperor handle the twists and make decisions.
Although the status of Manchu women was not as inferior as that of Han women, the Qing Dynasty had always had the tradition of "the harem must not interfere in politics", and Cixi's open participation in the emperor's decision-making and involvement in imperial power was undoubtedly a big risk in the world, so Sushun once suggested that in order to avoid the recurrence of the "disaster of the Wu clan (Wu Zetian)" in the Qing Dynasty, Cixi should simply be executed on the grounds of Cixi interfering in the government to set an example.
However, Emperor Xianfeng was hindered by his deep feelings with Cixi and could not bear to see his only son lose his mother, so he did not take Sushun's advice, but Emperor Xianfeng revealed the matter to Cixi. Therefore, Cixi can be said to have a deep hatred for Sushun and others, and she will definitely want to get rid of them quickly.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" > authority and blatant seizure of power</h1>
Before his death, emperor Xianfeng was worried that after his death, these eight ministers lacked checks and balances, and would become the new Dorgon to empty his son's imperial power and actually control the government, so he left a hand, gave Ci'an and Cixi a golden seal, and said that everything important must be agreed by the two empresses, and let the empress dowager stamp it with a golden seal to have legal effect.
However, after the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, Sushun and others ignored the edicts left by the former emperors, believing that the major affairs of the country could only be decided by eight of them. The two empresses only need to obediently be the "rubber stamp" of the eight ministers and stamp them when the eight ministers need them.
For Empress Dowager Ci'an, who had no political ambitions, she was able to accept this arrangement, never ask about political affairs, and take on the duties of the lord of the harem with peace of mind, but for the ambitious Empress Dowager Cixi, Sushun and others did not ignore the edicts of the former emperor and openly seize power. Therefore, he reprimanded eight people on the grounds that they had disobeyed the edicts of the former emperor, but the powerful Su Shun did not care, and still had the monopoly of power and the empress.
In order to consolidate her own power and save her own life, Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong Yi bi took advantage of the fact that the eight ministers sent each other to the Xianfeng Emperor Zi Palace to return to Beijing from Rehe, and announced the dismissal of SuShun and others from all their posts and their arrest and punishment with the holy will of the jade seal and the two seals of the former emperor, and then the two princes Zaiyuan the Prince of Yi and Duanhua the Prince of Zheng were given death, Sushun was beheaded at the Caishikou Execution Ground in Beijing, and most of the remaining ministers were stripped or dismissed.
After solving the eight ministers, Cixi abolished the original "Qi Xiang" era name originally formulated by the eight ministers and changed it to "Tongzhi" (that is, the meaning of the two palace empresses bowing to the curtain and jointly governing), and thus began her decades-long career of "one phoenix driving two dragons".
SuShun was born in the clan of the Qing Dynasty, and was also a highly trusted courtier of the Xianfeng Emperor before his death, but because of his arrogance and dictatorship, he was killed by Cixi of a lowly birth in the Coup d'état of Xin You, which had to make people lament the impermanence of history, and also conveyed to us a truth - arrogance must die. Even a person in a high position, once arrogant and blind, then when he falls from such a high position, he will inevitably fall to pieces.