There were many unlucky emperors in the Qing Dynasty, but the leader must be Jiaqing.
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty before Jiaqing were all high-spirited, optimistic and positive, and they could also control their own lives and control the huge empire. But from the beginning of Jiaqing, they were collectively mediocre, collectively anxious, even if they had been sleeping at night, they could only watch the ancestors' rivers and mountains rot a little until they perished.
This is a sign of the absence of national fortunes, and it is also an inevitable phenomenon that the dynasty begins to decline.
The Jiaqing Emperor spent his life in this situation.
01
Before being elected crown prince, the Jiaqing Emperor Had always been small and transparent.
His birth mother was Empress Xiaoyi Chun of the Wei Jia clan, but this was posthumously sealed, before he became the crown prince, Wei Jia was only a concubine, and he was not as favored as played in the Qing Palace drama, and he could not walk by virtue of his mother's noble road.
In addition, Wei Jia was born in Manchuria with a yellow flag, and was strictly a servant of the Manchurian nobility, even if he was later promoted to Manchurian yellow flag person, in the eyes of Qianlong, who paid attention to rank, he was afraid that he was inferior.
The birth mother was from a humble origin, and she was not smart enough, and the little Concubine could only grow up silently in the deep palace, fortunately he was the sixteenth among his brothers, Qianlong was already fifty years old at birth, and he had the capital to die later than this super long standby father. Fortunately, he was in good health, and he survived a large number of brothers and brothers, and even a large number of nephews, before he was finally selected by Qianlong, who was pulled up in the cannon, and secretly established a reserve.
Qianlong was really the eldest of the cannons to choose him, and Qianlong was also pitiful, his favorite was the two sons born to his wife Empress Fucha, but both of them died prematurely. He also wanted to make Yongqi, the fifth son of the emperor, the crown prince, but unfortunately Yongqi died at the age of 26. After that, he still had his beloved son, but unfortunately he didn't have a long life, and finally he could only choose this sixteen-son who looked healthy.
Probably because It was really unpleasant, Qianlong prayed to heaven with the name of Emperor Yan when he was still sacrificing after the secret reserve, saying that if this person was not suitable for the emperor to let him die, I would choose another suitable one.
When he met such a father, After he became the prince, he trembled all day long, until he thought he had done his best to become the emperor, and he was still trembling.
His father was too capable of living and too much control.
02
In 1796, at the age of 36, he became emperor in the Inner Zen of the Qing court, but the military and political encyclopedia was still firmly in the hands of Qianlong. If you want to say it yourself, Jiaqing still has to spend a long three years.
In the past three years, Jiaqing must always observe Qianlong's face, and Qianlong, who was sitting on the main seat at the banquet, laughed at him before he could laugh, and when Qianlong was angry, he would immediately become more angry, and he could not react slowly and half a beat. The people he likes cannot be promoted, the people he dislikes cannot be deposed, and he must always look like a filial piety with a low eyebrow and a good eye.
The cold reality is that the honest man Jiaqing has been forced to become a movie emperor.
Fortunately, he was in good health, and finally boiled Qianlong to death after many years of pretending to be a grandson, and quickly dealt with Hezhen, which can be regarded as a bad breath.
Then he straightened out the administration of officials, purged the officialdom, severely punished corruption, advocated frugality, ended the smelly prison of words, managed river transportation, rectified the Eight Banners military affairs, and did his best to suppress opium.
Corrupt officials and corrupt officials were rampant everywhere, and the army had been extravagant to the extreme, and it took nine years for a simple White Lotus Sect to completely suppress it, but the Tianli Sect rose up again, and banditry broke out along the southeast coast.
Diplomatically, the British actually sent 9 warships to invade the Xiangshan Chicken Neck Ocean in Guangdong, and 300 British soldiers landed strongly and occupied the Sam Ba Temple in Macau, the East and West Forts and other places.
Inside and outside the court, the whole country was a mess.
03
Politics and military are inattentive, and life is equally chaotic.
The first empress of the Jiaqing Emperor, TheItala Clan, was personally chosen by Qianlong, and it was not the type he liked. This married wife died in the second year of Jiaqing, when Qianlong was serving as emperor, and he had to decide on all matters of government and politics, and whoever was chosen to succeed him naturally had to listen to him.
After careful investigation, the Niu Hulu clan, who eventually became the candidate for empress, was promoted from a noble concubine to an imperial concubine and took charge of the harem, which should also have been nodded by Qianlong. By the time Qianlong died, she was officially crowned empress, which was already logical.
The palace is not worthy of talking about love, but the two empresses are not chosen by themselves, and they are also very depressed when they want to come to Jiaqing.
Let's talk about birthdays.
Now people have to order a cake to make the two dishes lively, not to mention the birthday of the ancient king, that is the day of the universal celebration of amnesty, but Jiaqing's birthday every year is very deserted.
Usually, I will not write my birthday, but we will look at the three full birthdays of his forty, fifty and sixtieth years after he ascended the throne.
Jiaqing ascended the throne at the age of 36, and the year of his 40th birthday coincided with Qianlong's death, although Qianlong died on the third day of the first month of the first month of this year, Jiaqing's birthday was on the sixth day of October, and there was more than half a year in between to buffer, and the emperor Shouxiao could also "replace the moon with the sun" and not delay Jiaqing's celebration. But Jiaqing did not want to do this, so Jiaqing's 40th birthday was always from Jane.
In the blink of an eye, it is Jiaqing's 50th birthday, and this time I have not met the death of an important person, so I should be able to do it. But Jiaqing still ordered everything to be simple, because extravagance and waste were too serious.
In qianlong's later years, there was extravagance, and officials from all over the world sent them to Beijing in order to flatter the emperor and search for rare treasures, and this custom still existed during the Jiaqing period. In order to let the people live for a few days to stop the days, Jiaqing directly said that his fiftieth birthday was still a simple one, and also said, "On the first day of the long life, each of them is allowed to send a handle of Ruyi, and its pearls and jade furnishings and other pieces are not allowed to be presented." ”
This is to mark the gifts that officials at all levels want to give, and clearly tell officials to put their minds on government affairs and not to hollow out their minds to please yuan.
When it comes to the sixtieth birthday of Jiaqing, it is still the same, and the sixtieth birthday is a good day, even if the people will do a big event. But the people's sixtieth birthday indicates that the days are getting more and more prosperous, and Jiaqing knows that if he does it too, he is afraid that the people will suffer.
In order to make officials at all levels die from the source, Jiaqing began to issue a decree a year before the 60th birthday: "In the coming year, all the golden pearls and jade furnishings will still not be allowed to be presented." "It's really not wanting to flesh out its own little coffers.
Not only that, Jiaqing also did a practical thing for the people on his sixtieth birthday, he exempted the world from the people's arrears over the years and slowed down the levy of money, equivalent to silver totaling more than 21296800, and tens of millions of people benefited.
The so-called benevolent king is nothing more than that.
However, Jiaqing, who was so concerned about his homeland, was assassinated and forced to commit his own crimes.
It's really unfair to calculate.
04
It's a really bizarre thing to say.
One day in the spring of 1803, Jiaqing was walking slowly near the Shenwu Gate in a palanquin, when a man armed with a murder weapon suddenly appeared to assassinate him.
No one expected such a thing to happen in the palace, and all of a sudden, the more than a hundred guards around Jiaqing all turned into wooden stakes, and not a single person went to escort them. It is estimated that Jiaqing was also stunned, and he had never seen such a thing in the history books, and at the moment of crisis, it was his brother-in-law Lavan Dorji and his nephew Prince Mian'en who took the lead in attacking, which saved Jiaqing from the mob.
Who is so bold?
Similar to the rather poor people who are now a bit of a mix, this person is called Chen De, because he lost the errand of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he held a grudge, and he was praised for having "imperial court blessings", and he came to assassinate the emperor as soon as his brain was hot.
In the end, this person was executed by Ling Chi.
This incident made Jiaqing extremely unhappy, and he rushed up to himself with a knife without a word, which was too scary. But thinking that this should be a sudden event, he put it down, who knew that he had even experienced a second similar thing.
This time, a group of Tenrikyo sects broke into the palace, about twenty people. They rushed into the imperial palace when Jiaqing went to the Chengde Mountain Resort, and also bumped into minning, the second son of the emperor who had just returned to Beijing. The later Daoguang Emperor was frightened again when he saw the people around him, so come on his own.
He took the muskets around him and killed two thugs, who had never seen such a new weapon, so they scattered and fled.
These two events dealt a great blow to Jiaqing, and in order to appease the people,the emperor, who had done nothing wrong, also issued a criminal edict. He said that such "things that were not done in the Han, Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties" happened twice in succession, which must be the reason for his lack of morality.
In my opinion, it is not that there is not enough virtue, but that it is not the right time.
05
Jiaqing was not only born at an inopportune time, but also died a very humiliating death.
He set off from the Yuanmingyuan on July 18, 2005 in Jiaqing for the summer resort, and died suddenly and violently on the 25th, the cause of death is a mystery.
The Records of Emperor Qingrenzong says that he "threw himself on this trip, and occasionally felt the heat stroke", that is, heat stroke.
Jiaqing was not 61 years old at the time, and as an emperor, he could not do heavy work under the sun, how could he suddenly die of heat stroke?
This claim is somewhat untenable, so modern medical scientists say that he may have died violently due to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases caused by heat stroke, but it is only speculation and has no basis.
Among the many theories, there is also a particularly shocking rumor, that is, Jiaqing was not heat stroked, but was killed by lightning.
This theory believes that Jiaqing came to the summer resort and went hunting in the Mulan paddock, but the weather that was originally good suddenly appeared, and Jiaqing, who was trapped in the wild, was struck by a lightning bolt and died on the spot. And because of the ugly appearance of death, his remains were placed on the bottom floor of the coffin, and on the surface was seen by everyone, an old eunuch who was similar to Jiaqing's body.
At that time, there were rumors in the palace that Jiaqing liked a small eunuch, and at that time, the two were meeting privately in a small building, and suddenly the lightning jiaqing died.
Of course, these claims are only rumors, and the real cause of Jiaqing's death may really be heat stroke, there is nothing to say. But there are so many versions of it that have been passed out by posterity, and one is more terrifying than one, and it is sad enough.
Jiaqing has lived for 61 years and sat on the dragon chair for 25 years, and there are probably not many really comfortable moments.
Special Contributor to Night Wolf Literature and History Studio: West Building Outside the Curtain