Of the 12 emperors in the history of the Qing Dynasty for more than 260 years, most of the emperors in the early dynasties were horse emperors, who could not only conquer good wars, but also liked to use the "royal conquest" to promote their might.
In the Jiaqing Dynasty, the son of the Qianlong Emperor, there are few records of the Jiaqing Emperor himself shangwu. By the time of the Daoguang Emperor, the emperor Shangwu's ability to conquer the war had basically been abandoned.
However, when the Daoguang Emperor Min Ning was crown prince, he once went to battle with a shotgun and personally killed two Tianli Sect thugs who broke into the palace, which also showed his ability to "fight".
Xianfeng, Tongzhi, Guangxu, and Xuantong after the Daoguang Emperor were not as good as one, and Wen Tao's martial strategy was not good, and it was difficult to say that he was a qualified ruler of the dynasty. Some people even spit that they are all misguided countries and wrong people.
It is precisely because these people lead the imperial program that they are doomed to the fate of the Qing Dynasty becoming weaker and weaker and heading for extinction.
Consider the abilities of the four emperors after the Daoguang Emperor:
Historians commented that from the perspective of an emperor, the qualifications of the Xianfeng Emperor Yixuan were probably in the middle of the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty.
During his time as crown prince, he received a systematic education in the palace, and should have studied literature and martial arts. Because the historical records say, "When Yi Xuan was the crown prince, he hunted from the South Garden, raced away from the beasts, and fell on a horse and injured his stock." After being treated by the orthopedic surgeons of The Shangsi Hospital, he was left with disabilities and limited mobility. He also had smallpox when he was a child, leaving numbness on his face. ”
It can be seen that Jiaqing was able to ride a horse and hunt when he was a teenager, indicating that he still inherited the basic martial arts of the Ai Xin Jue Luo family.
Only after being injured, his literary and martial skills were obviously inferior to his sixth brother Yi Bi. Therefore, the teacher taught him to submit to the favor of the emperor everywhere, and finally won the favor of the Daoguang Emperor and finally passed the throne to him.
But the Xianfeng Emperor was not born at the right time, and among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, fate was bad enough: he encountered the earth-shattering Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement; the Western powers invaded Beijing with strong ships and cannons, and he also spread the favor.
Faced with internal and external troubles, the Xianfeng Emperor was a little overwhelmed, because he was unable to return to heaven at all.
Therefore, he began to avoid contradictions, broke jars and broken jars, regarded state affairs as grass and mustard, and not only became the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty to "abandon the palace and flee", but also favored a "Yi Guifei" who later caused chaos in the government and the opposition, Empress Dowager Cixi.
"The Opium War destroyed the qing empire." But the first emperor in the history of the Qing Dynasty to smoke opium turned out to be Xianfeng, who used his actions to punch his father, The Daoguang Emperor, who was a strong advocate of smoking bans, in the face.
According to reports, soon after the Xianfeng Emperor took the throne, he left Zu Xun behind, quietly smoked opium, and proudly called this thing "Yishou Ruyi Paste".
In 1860, the Anglo-French army attacked Beijing, and Jiangshan Sheji was in danger. However, the Xianfeng Emperor fled to the Rehe Palace with his concubine in the name of "Mulan Qiuyi". He did not have the courage to organize the military and the people to resist foreign aggression, and used opium to anesthetize himself every day.
During his exile from the palace, the famous Yuanmingyuan in Beijing was burned down by British and French bandits, and the people of Beijing and other places experienced disasters.
After his sixth brother, Prince Gong Yi bi, was appointed to sign on his behalf the "Sino-British Beijing Treaty," the "Sino-French Beijing Treaty," and the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty" and other treaties of humiliation and humiliation, he still relied on Rehe and refused to return to Beijing, and he was already infatuated with the luxurious life there.
Every day at the summer resort, Xianfeng not only smoked opium and played with women, but also brought a well-known opera troupe in the capital to Rehe. In the morning, "flower singing" and in the afternoon, "cappella". When you are tired of playing, you drink, and when you are drunk, you play drunk. The eunuch palace ladies around him were all drunk and scared.
After fleeing from the Rehe Palace for more than a year of drunken dreams and dying life, he finally "tired" overthrew the Xianfeng Emperor, where he suddenly fell ill, and Xianfeng died violently on July 17, 1861, the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861).
The Xianfeng Emperor reigned for eleven years, which was the main culprit that actually led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty's great cause, and also the first responsible person for the tragic fate of modern China.
After the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, his only surviving son, 6-year-old Zaichun, took the throne, and his mother was the future Empress Dowager Cixi.
Zaichun served as Tongzhi Emperor for thirteen years, living only 19 years.
Later generations commented on his life, saying that he was both fortunate and unfortunate.
Fortunately, he was born in the imperial family and was born with honor. Life was full of food and clothing, zhong ming was at its peak, and there were no brothers competing with him for the throne, and he easily ascended to the emperor's throne.
But this young Tianzi was also very unfortunate. He lost his father at an early age, was put on the emperor's throne as a decoration at the age of 6, lived day and night in the shadow of the empress dowager's curtain and listened to the government, and lost the joy of childhood early. Moreover, he had a very poor relationship with his birth mother Cixi, and was often scolded and reprimanded, and the arranged marriage arranged for him by his mother was even more unsatisfactory.
Compared with the Kangxi Emperor, who also ascended the throne at an early age, Tongzhi did not meet a kind and benevolent empress like Xiaozhuang, and his mother Cixi was sinister and vicious and obsessed with imperial power.
According to the qing dynasty custom, the young emperor should be pro-government at the age of 14, but when Tongzhi was 14 years old, Cixi did not give up his power, and postponed the time of Tongzhi's marriage and pro-government for four years. It wasn't until Tongzhi was 18 years old that he couldn't put it off any longer, and Cixi reluctantly retreated into the background.
Of the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Tongzhi was the youngest to die, and had a short life of inaction and the worst ability of character.
The so-called "Tongzhi ZTE" that appeared during his reign actually had little to do with him. It was all created by the actual rulers at that time, Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong Yishi and others.
Although it had nothing to do with the Tongzhi Emperor, there were many major events recorded in the name of the Tongzhi Dynasty. For example, during this period, the Qing court was forced to reuse the Han ministers Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and others to quell the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Twist Army, and the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion. At the same time, the foreign affairs movement set off by these Han ministers gave China a preliminary modern industrial factory, which continued the life of the Qing Dynasty to a certain extent.
The Tongzhi Emperor, as the son of Empress Dowager Cixi's concubine, received a very systematic cultural education from an early age under the harsh requirements of his mother, but whether he learned martial arts is not recorded.
One thing is indeed true, that is, the Tongzhi Emperor inherited the stubborn and paranoid character of Empress Dowager Cixi. He knew that he was the emperor, but he still had to listen to the empress dowager, and this humiliating regulation stimulated him to have a great rebellious mentality.
His action was, if you don't give me imperial power, I won't go down the good path. Therefore, in the wild history, it is rumored that Tongzhi often went out of the palace to have fun, wandering the streets and willow lanes, and as a result, he was infected with syphilis, so that the 19-year-old good years died.
Tongzhi was pro-government for a year, and only did one thing, or according to the request of his mother Empress Dowager Cixi, he decided to raise funds to repair the Yuanmingyuan, which was burned down by the British and French forces, but the result was not completed.
After Tongzhi's death, Cixi decided that Zai Xiang, the son of Prince Yizhen of Alcohol, would be the heir to the throne, the future Guangxu Emperor.
About the life experience of the Guangxu Emperor, because it is not far from our contemporary era, coupled with the scene reproduction of many film and television dramas, people know more.
Emperor Guangxu's mother, Yehenara Wanzhen, was the younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi, that is, Cixi was the aunt of Emperor Guangxu.
When the Guangxu Emperor was young, he was taught Manchu and Mongolian culture by the former imperial ministers, and also learned riding and archery, and studied at Yuqing Palace for more than ten years.
Zai Xiang read very hard, and Cixi once praised him: "I love learning very much, sitting, standing, and lying down while reciting poetry books." ”
Like the Xianfeng Emperor, Guangxu was full of ideals at the beginning of his pro-government and tried his best to save the dying Qing Dynasty.
However, at this time, there were invasions by external powers, cixi interfering in politics, and the government and the opposition fell apart, and he also had more than enough heart and insufficient strength.
In the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War that occurred after Guangxu's pro-government, he vigorously led the battle and opposed compromise, but in the end he was defeated due to the incompetence of the imperial court.
Guangxu saw his own shortcomings from the defeat in the war and strongly supported the reformists in changing the law in order to become stronger. He was keen to "change the law", which was blocked and opposed by the conservative faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi.
The Guangxu Emperor, who lacked political skill, simply wanted to rely on the treacherous Yuan Shikai to contain conservative forces such as Empress Dowager Cixi, but was betrayed by Yuan Shikai.
Empress Dowager Cixi regained power and imprisoned Guangxu in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai, and since then he has been devastated, unable to protect even his beloved concubine, and has become a puppet emperor in name only.
In August 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing, and it was rumored that it was going to invade the Forbidden City, which frightened Empress Dowager Cixi into staying up all night, so she coerced the Guangxu Emperor, Empress Longyu and others to abandon the palace and flee to Xi'an.
As a result, Guangxu also became the second emperor of the Qing Dynasty to abandon the palace and flee after the Xianfeng Emperor.
After Cixi fled to Xi'an, he ordered Li Hongzhang and others to negotiate with the great powers and signed the "Xinugu Treaty" that humiliated the country, putting all the responsibility for the war on the Boxers and eliminating the Boxers.
On November 14, 1908, the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned to death by Empress Dowager Cixi at the age of 38.
At the time, an English-language newspaper in London reported the guangxu emperor's death and speculated that if the late emperor's reforms were successful, China would be a different story.
Objective analysis, the Guangxu Emperor is a person with ideas and no ability; he wants to act, and he has no backbone and cowardice. His misfortune, like that of the Great Qing, was that he met Empress Dowager Cixi.
Emperor Puyi was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the last emperor in Chinese history.
There is no need to dwell on his situation. Because the 3-year-old succeeded to the throne for only three years, ignorant and ignorant, the fate of the Great Qing was not linked to him, and even the abdication edict was issued by Empress Longyu.
Puyi's abdication is both the end of the Qing Dynasty and the end of the Chinese imperial system.
In a comprehensive comparison, Puyi should be stronger than Tongzhi, because in the later period, he still did some useful things for the country and history.
In the early days of the Republic of China, although Puyi had abdicated, he was still a little emperor in the Forbidden City, the imperial palace was still the same, surrounded by eunuch palace women, and the living expenses were allocated by the Republic of China government.
When Puyi was 6 years old, Empress Longyu invited him a master and began to teach him to read, learn Chinese and Manchu, and the study was located in the Zhongnanhai Yingtai Tong Bookstore, where Cixi put the Guangxu Emperor under house arrest.
In the six or seven years of study, Puyi studied the Thirteen Classics, ancient poems, ancient texts, as well as "University Yanyi", "Zhu Zi Family Training", "Court Training Aphorisms", "Sacred Sayings and Broad Training", "Imperial Approval General Collection" and the like, and did not learn arithmetic, nor did he seem to have learned martial arts.
Later, the British Scottish officer Johnston was invited to the Forbidden City to serve as the Puyi Emperor. Taught him English, mathematics, world history, and geography.
When he was a teenager, it is said that Puyi often chanted poems, painted, played the piano, and also pinched clay people, raised dogs, and raised deer. Sometimes he used to go outside the palace to take a car, walk the streets, and began to wear suits, cutting off the traditional Manchu braids.
He later committed crimes as a puppet emperor of Manchuria, and after being captured, he underwent education and reform as a war criminal. He was later pardoned and given a new life.
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