Salty
Among the 12 emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Xianfeng was probably the weakest. In his life as an emperor, he made three fatal mistakes, one was that he should not sit on the emperor's throne, the other was that he should not leave Beijing in a hurry when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, and the third was that he should not mistakenly appoint "eight ministers to take care of his orders" before his death. Xian Feng took over the Great Qing, internal and external troubles, the country is not a country, why did Daoguang choose him as the heir?
Young Xianfeng in film and television dramas
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, Xianfeng's first mistake: sitting on the throne</h1>
The era name "Xianfeng" is very interesting, "Xian" means "all, all", and "Feng" means "abundant food and clothing". The combination of the two words is "May everyone in the world be fed and clothed." But even such a simple wish became an unrealistic fantasy in the Xianfeng Dynasty. As early as the years of his father Daoguang, the Westerners opened the door of China with their guns. When Jiangshan passed into Xianfeng's hands, it was already a "mess".
It is said that XianFeng is the eldest son of Daoguang, and he should not be blamed for sitting on the throne. However, the rule of succession to the Manchu throne is often to "choose the good and follow it." In contrast, it is more appropriate to pass the throne to the six brothers than to the four brothers (The Xianfeng Emperor).
Daoguang in The Opium War
Daoguang had 9 sons, and at the time of the establishment of the throne, the eldest son, the second son, and the third son were gone, and the younger brothers of the fourth brother Yixuan were still young, and the only ones who really had the competitiveness of the throne were him and the sixth brother Yibi. Yi Xuan's birth mother was Daoguang's favorite Empress Xiao Quancheng of the NiuhuLu clan. According to legend, Empress Xiao Quancheng's family was humble, but she was intelligent and beautiful, and she fell decently, so she was deeply loved by Daoguang. When she first entered the palace, she was a concubine, and after giving birth to a child, she was awarded the title of imperial concubine, and she was placed under the empress, which can be described as "ascending to the peak".
Just as the so-called "full moon is a loss, chi ying is overflowing", Niu Hulu died of illness in the twentieth year of Daoguang (1840), which made the emperor feel sad. At the age of 10, Xiao Yixuan lost her birth mother and was sent to Bee's birth mother, Jing Guifei, to receive an education. Daoguang had lost 3 empresses in succession, and after being so grief-stricken that he did not want to stand up again, he only crowned Jing Guifei as an imperial concubine and regent of the sixth palace. Since then, the two little brothers Yi Xi and Yi Bi have to study and grow up together.
Jing Guifei and Yi Xuan
Yi Xi's personality is broader than that of the sixth brother Yi Bi, but he is not as smart as his younger brother. Yi Xi once "fell off a horse and injured his stock" during a safari, leaving him with a lifelong disability. This also shows that Yi Xuan does not have the traditional Manchu emperor's "able to write and be able to use martial arts". In contrast, the history books often praise Yi Bi, some say that he can "sword eighteen styles", and some people say that he is "good at inventing and creating", anyway, he is a wise and good martial artist.
In daoguang's later years, the wandering on the standing reserve was even more confusing to the people of the time. There are rumors that Daoguang lied to commemorate the empress. This statement is actually a bit reluctant. There is also a saying that when Daoguang was writing the Li Chu Zhu Edict, the eunuch found from a distance that the stroke of the last stroke was too long, and they all guessed that it was Yi Bi. How can the secrets of the reserve be leaked? So Daoguang changed it to Yixuan. What a great thing it was to establish a crown prince, and this statement obviously lost the solemnity of the emperor.
In the end, Yi Bi could only be prince Gong
In any case, Xianfeng's reign as emperor was considered an "incredible" joke at the time, not the endgame that everyone expected. As the saying goes, the eyes of the masses are shining. Let's take a look at what the Xianfeng Emperor did for the foundation of the empire.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, Xianfeng is wrong again: fleeing from Beijing</h1>
XianFeng took over a devastated country. At that time, the empire was facing two major difficulties: "internal worries" and "external troubles". The internal worry was that the Taiping Army had captured Nanjing; the external trouble was that the Anglo-French coalition was about to invade Beijing.
It's also too hard!
The Qing Dynasty had three large-scale civil unrests. The first was the Rebellion of Wu Sangui in the Kangxi Dynasty, the second was the people's rebellion of the Jiaqing Dynasty represented by the Rebellion of the White Lotus Sect, and the third was the Taiping Rebellion of the Xianfeng and Tongzhi Dynasties. In particular, the third time was the "peak of the peasant uprising", which seriously injured the Great Qing Dynasty.
Taiping Rebellion
Not only that, in the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), Britain, France, and the United States proposed to the Qing court to revise the Treaty of Nanking, which was rejected by the Qing government. After that, the British and French allies provoked war in the south, and then went all the way north to attack the Yellow Dragon. After a diplomatic failure, the British and French fleets captured the Tianjin Dagu Fort and forced the Qing court to negotiate in Tianjin. Czarist Russia took advantage of the fire and looting, cutting off 600,000 square kilometers of territory in the northeast.
In the ninth year of Xianfeng (1859), the British and French led the army to Dagukou again and demanded a "change of contract". The Qing court had the courage to fight a decisive battle this time, and it actually severely damaged the British and French fleets. As soon as the good news came out, the Xianfeng Emperor raised his eyebrows and self-destructed the Treaty of Tianjin. Since then, Britain, France and other countries have been dispatching troops to prepare for a new round of aggression. The following year, the Anglo-French coalition completely captured Tianjin.
Tianjin: Ruins of Dagu Fort
Looking at what Xian Feng had done, he had neither issued a decisive battle nor made careful arrangements. The British and French allies rushed into the Gyeonggi region of our country with a force of less than 30,000 troops, but only encountered a little obstacle at the port of Tianjin. Xian Feng knew that the foreign enemy was in charge, and even went so far as to listen to the drama and have fun with the minister in Rehe, which had to be said to be a shameful "asshole"!
Xianfeng's political strategy of "winning is also arrogant, and losing is discouraged" made the courtiers overwhelmed by their "aggressive" and "cowardly" behavior. The people who should go to war with the emperor were admonished when the emperor was cowardly. A group of people who agreed with the emperor's revision of the treaty to stop the war were also reprimanded. It didn't work, and it didn't work, and in the end there was only a circle of "no attitude" of subordinates left, circling around the emperor.
Anglo-French coalition
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, Xianfeng's third mistake: misplacing the eight ministers</h1>
On July 15, 1861, the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), the emperor fell seriously ill at the Rehe Palace. On the sixteenth day, he summoned the princes and imperial ministers to make Zaichun crown prince, and at the same time ordered Duanhua, Sushun, and eight others to "praise all government affairs." On the surface, the emperor's move was to find an assistant for the young son, the eight ministers balanced each other, and the government was personally taken care of by the emperor, which can be said to be a great joy.
Xianfeng was orphaned on his deathbed
However, before his death, the emperor also conferred on Empress Dowager Niu Cobalt Lu (i.e., Ci'an) the "Imperial Reward" seal, and also granted the Crown Prince the seal of "Tongdao Zhong" (kept by Yi Guifei, that is, Cixi). This practice of "decentralization beyond decentralization" is actually more like a joke in the power system. The ministers had the power to jointly draw up the Holy Will, while the two "Empress Dowagers" had the power to seal. No matter what the holy will is, it must be stamped with the seal of the empress dowager to be considered legitimate. In this way, those who hold the seal and those who have the right to draft are bound to disagree with each other.
Xianfeng's improper handling of things laid the groundwork for the two empresses to seize power and listen to the government
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Wen Shijun said</h1>
The result of the matter is very clear to us, because of the Xianfeng Emperor's series of "riot operations", the Qing Dynasty's Jiangshan died faster. In fact, Xianfeng also became the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty with real power. After this, the internal and external troubles faced by the empire became more serious. The two empresses joined forces with Prince Gong Yishi and destroyed several of the eight ministers who had not yet had time to take care of things. Cixi, who had more skill, later squeezed her former "offensive and defensive alliance" off the horse, and the situation of Lafayette "hanging the curtain and listening to the government" began. The Xianfeng Emperor failed to govern the country well, nor did he deal with the affairs of his posthumous affairs, and his private life was not proper when he was alive, and he was full of prostitutes, opium, and alcoholism. I am afraid that future generations will say that he is a "dark lord", and it is not too much!
Empress
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > resources</h1>
Qian Mu: Outline of National History, Commercial Press, 2000.
Meng Sen: The Great History of the Qing Dynasty, Jinghua Publishing House, 2019.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Porcelain Country Garbage Dump)
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