The legendary life of Zaifeng, the last regent of the Qing Dynasty.
Prince Regent Zaifeng
Speaking of Zaifeng, this status is noble, Zaifeng's grandfather is the Daoguang Emperor, his brother is the Guangxu Emperor, and he has a son. It is the Xuantong Emperor, which is simply the legendary Six Flavor Dihuang Pill, right? But speaking of this regent Zaifeng, many people feel that this Zaifeng seems to be very timid and afraid of things in their first impression.
Family photos
This is not the case. On the contrary, this Zaifeng was still very successful at the beginning. After the Eight-Power Alliance captured Beijing that year, the Qing government signed a xinugu treaty that lost power and humiliated the country, one of which was. Germany demanded that the Qing government must send someone to Germany to apologize to german minister Clinder. It's humiliating, isn't it? Who wants to go? No one wants to go.
But. Zaifeng, who was only eighteen years old at the time, volunteered to send a mission to Germany, and his status was enough. During his arrival in Germany, he refused to bow down to the German Emperor and successfully completed the task of apologizing. His generous and decent performance was affirmed by Empress Dowager Cixi.
Zaifeng went to Germany to apologize
Moreover, Zaifeng was also deeply touched during his time in Germany, prompting his determination to take the road of constitutional monarchy in the future, and he also became the first to take a keen interest in Western science and technology. The princes who wore suits, cut braids, used cameras, and car phones were regarded as new figures in the late Qing Dynasty. Therefore, empress dowager Cixi made Zaifeng's son Puyi emperor before she died of illness.
As Puyi's biological father, Zaifeng, who was only twenty-six years old at the time, was designated as the regent of the Jianguo. Acting Grand Marshal of the Navy and Army. It is equivalent to becoming the actual ruler of the last three years of the Qing Dynasty. Not an emperor in name, similar to an emperor.
You see as the regent, there were two in the Qing Dynasty, who was his last term? That is, in the early days of the Qing Dynasty, he led the Qing army into the customs. Dolgun. Therefore, before her death, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered Zaifeng to be the regent, also because Empress Dowager Cixi also knew that the Qing Dynasty wanted to continue to live. This must be reformed, and at the very least superficial efforts cannot be stopped.
The reason why Zaifeng was chosen by Cixi as the regent was precisely because he was an enlightened member of the imperial family who had sent abroad to see the world. He was a man acceptable to both the royalists and the Reformers. According to Zaifeng's original idea, he planned to follow the German military and political model after coming to power, and open a parliament under the premise of retaining the eight banners and the local clans.
He also promulgated the constitution, and then he mediated in the center, balancing the interests of the Eight Banners and the Jiangnan gentry, and taking a German-style constitutional road. In this way, the large-scale gunfight was saved, at least for the time being. However, although Zaifeng's thinking was quite good, the Eight Flags nobles at that time did not agree with his ideas.
The royal family does not do it, why? Because in the eyes of these diehards, this large monarchy has been constitutionalized, and the emperor is still the emperor. Even if you are not the regent, you can be the prime minister or something. But our status is not good, who can guarantee that the treatment will not be reduced?
Therefore, these diehards do not cooperate and constantly put pressure on Zaifeng. At that time, Zaifeng was only twenty-six years old, and he had no foundation, and his strength was destined to rely on the support of the Eight Banners Nobles. So I thought about it. He did a stupid thing, the Eight Precepts. The Eight Precepts in front of us drive back in history. This is to say that he originally planned to establish a constitution, which is not a very radical proposition, after all, he studied German-Japanese constitutionalism, and at that time it was also recognized as the most authoritarian constitutional country in the world.
Therefore, he appointed Prince Yikuang of Qing as the prime minister of the first cabinet and was responsible for organizing the cabinet. When the list of the new cabinet was announced in May, it was immediately scolded by the whole country. In addition to the common people, even many Manchu Qing officials have also stood up to denounce Zaifeng, calling him a liar.
Originally, on the list of the new cabinet, the manchu royal family composed of thirteen people and thirteen ministers of state accounted for nine of them, which was obviously only four Han Chinese. This is tantamount to saying that this is a cabinet centered on the Manchu imperial family, which was called the royal cabinet at that time.
At that time, when the list was published, for a while, there was a great uproar in public opinion throughout the country. After this incident occurred, not only did the people of the whole country regard Zaifeng as a liar, but also caused changes within the Constitutionalists.
In particular, the centralized power behavior of the imperial cabinet made the Han bureaucrats discouraged and offended the interests of the Han people, which led to the complete failure of the broken ship of the Great Qing. Not long after, on October 10, 1911, a month after the uprising of the Wuchang Revolutionary Party, most of China rebelled.
In order to suppress the revolutionary party's interviews, they listened to the opinions of the nobles of the Eight Banners and did not use Yuan Shikai. Yin Chang, who was born with the Manchurian Zhengbai Banner, led the Beiyang Army to Hubei to suppress the rebel army.
However, Beiyang was grasped by Yuan Shikai alone, who would listen to Yin Chang's orders, this was to go to work and not to contribute, and it didn't matter at all. Unable to do anything, he finally licked his face and invited Yuan Shikai back and asked him to serve as the governor of Huguang, responsible for suppressing the rebel army.
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai did not do it, and the first thing Yuan Shikai did after returning to the dynasty was to oust Zaifeng from the regent's throne. Yuan Shikai also has revenge and revenge, who let you drive me away as soon as you became the regent three years ago, and this time I will come back and drive you away.
In this way, in November of that year, Zaifeng announced the dissolution of the imperial cabinet and instead appointed Yuan Shikai as the prime minister of the cabinet. With Yuan Shikai returning to power, Zaifeng also completely bid farewell to the political arena and no longer lived in the world. He felt that even if he turned the sky upside down, it had nothing to do with me.
According to Puyi's later memoirs, the first half of my life, when Zaifeng returned home, he said to his father, from today onwards. I can go home and hold the baby, and there is no discouraged expression between my words and demeanor. And at that time, this Zaifeng's father. This performance of being loaded was to cry bitterly. Later, he also warned his children that when they grow up, they must not learn from you Amma and learn his tricks. I don't know if this is true.
However, from the perspective of the style of doing things after zaifeng later, there should be a bit of a spectrum. After overthrowing Zaifeng, Yuan Shikai adopted the tactic of hitting and pulling, and after stabilizing the southern revolutionary party, he ran back to Beijing and forced Puyi to abdicate.
At that time, in the face of Yuan Shikai's forced palace, the Eight Banners nobles stopped doing it and were angry, such as Puwei, the Prince of Gong at that time. At that time, he co-opted Liang Bitie and others to form a sectarian socialist party, and secretly determined two strategies. First, he opposed the abdication of Emperor Xuantong, and second, Yuan Shikai dared to force a confession and assassinated him.
But if you say harsh words, then everyone will say that when it is really time to play with their lives, these Eight Banners nobles are all instigated. Yuan Shikai also heard about their plan, and will soon build a bridge through Wang Jingwei's lead to find the head of the Beijing-Tianjin Alliance, and you can assassinate and obstruct the leader of the republican sectarian socialist party, I don't know.
In this way, just a few days after Pu Wei and others plotted to assassinate Yuan Shikai, the League sent its own killer Peng Jiazhen to throw a bomb and kill Liang Bi, the leader of the sect president who opposed the republic, which scared all the eight banner magnates in beijing to death, and all of them ran away and fled with their families.
After this incident, although there were still a few people still hysterically opposing abdication, puyi officially announced his abdication under the auspices of Empress Longyu. After Puyi abdicated, Zaifeng was very satisfied, he felt that the preferential conditions for signing the clearance room were not bad, and now he had no worries about food and clothing, which was very in line with his own way of survival.
Because Zaifeng was the King of the Iron Hat, it was stipulated that the annual supplementary silver issued to him was 50,000 taels, and this money was paid even after the establishment of the Republic of China. He was quite satisfied. In order to maintain the status quo unchanged, Zaifeng's political views are not mixed at all, and he will not mix with anyone who engages in restoration.
This proposition of his also won the approval of many of the Eight Banners disciples who were afraid of things at that time, including some other Iron Hat Kings, princes, and county kings at that time. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, these people's unified attitude was not to ask about political affairs, even if they sat on the mountains and ate the air, and wasted time every day.
Later, in the sixth year of the Republic of China, Zhang Xun entered Beijing to support Puyi's restoration. At that time, there were many Eight Banner disciples who usually pretended not to ask about the world, and they felt that the emperor had really been restored, so they jumped out one after another. But Zaifeng saw it very clearly, and he decided. Zhang Xun is a beam-jumping clown, and no matter how infighting this Beiyang is, the strength is still there.
Therefore, for this Zhang Xun restoration, the evaluation is two words nonsense. Resolutely do not participate. Later, Puyi and the Japanese mixed together and ran to the northeast. At that time, there were still many people who supported it, but Zaifeng thought that this was a self-surrendered wolf's den, fierce and less auspicious, and held a resolute opposition attitude.
Puyi poses with the Japanese Kwantung Army
However, Puyi did not listen to Zaifeng's words, and finally ran to the northeast. Became a puppet of the Japanese. Later, after Puyi went to the northeast to establish the puppet state of Manchukuo, he also did it many times. It is necessary to move the whole family and say that the prospects are bright. The Japanese side also sent people to Beijing many times to persuade Zaifeng to move to Changchun, but Zaifeng always resolutely refused.
In the twenty-third year of the Republic of China, Puyi once again invited Zaifeng to go to the northeast. This time, Zaifeng wanted to see how Puyi was mixing in the northeast, so he took his young son with him. They went to Changchun together, but after staying in Changchun for a few days, Zaifeng was so angry that he was going to die. He saw with his own eyes that Puyi was at every turn subject to the Japanese and the Kwantung Army.
It was very painful, and he said to his younger son, what is the advantage of being a puppet like your brother Puyi, even Shi Jingyao is not as good as you, you must not learn from him.
Later, Zaifeng pretended to be ill and did not eat, forcing Puyi to send him back to Beijing, Puyi was afraid of an accident, so he could only let Zaifeng go back. After returning to Beijing. Zaifeng has always been worried and lacks a sense of trust. The younger son and two daughters stayed with him for fear that they would be abducted by the agents. Later, Puyi learned about this matter and evaluated his father. Zaifeng is an incompetent person and does not want to take on such heavy responsibilities.
Later, after the founding of New China, Zaifeng also attended the second session of the First CPPCC National Committee at that time, and felt very deeply. He took the initiative to sell his house in the Prince's Mansion to support the development of national education. Later, he donated another property to the then Government Council as an office. It is said that it was 1950, and when he sold the house, he still thought about whether to donate to the state or sell it.
Prince Of Alcohol's Mansion
In the end, it was decided to sell, selling 900,000 catties of millet. Nine hundred thousand pounds of millet, half of this income is reserved for themselves, and the other half is reserved for eight children. A year later, in February 1951, it was collected. Due to years of illness, he died in Beijing.
In this way, Zaifeng completed his life. It should be said that Zaifeng saw very clearly the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the irreversibility of the general trend of the revolution, and he was a very clear person in his heart.
Later, he did not advocate the suppression of the revolution by force, nor did he stand up against the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor, and he never participated in this restoration activity, which shows that his thinking is relatively civilized.
In line with the trend of the times, especially on the issue of Puyi's puppet Manchukuo, he insisted on refusing to go to the northeast, and also fully demonstrated his national integrity and preserved the late festival. It is said that when Zaifeng's father, Prince Lao Shuo, was alive, he once left a pair of family training couplets for his children and grandchildren.
It's a bit interesting, what do you say? Wealth is also great, production is also great, and later the descendants are also great disasters. If you ask what this reason is, your descendants will have more money. The guts are also big. I am not afraid of all kinds of big things in heaven, and I will not do it without losing my family. If the descendants are small, if they ask what this reason is, the children and grandchildren have less money and less courage. Some micro-industries know how to protect themselves, and frugality has also passed. If you look at Zaifeng's life, it seems that he understood his father's family training.
As the last prince of the moment, Zaifeng's life was both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunately, he inherited the Prince of Alcohol at a young age, all the way to the official fortune and prosperity, at the age of 20, he was the regent of the state, and he was the biological father of the Xuantong Emperor, which can be said to hold the prince in his hand and contain tianxian in his mouth. Unfortunately, he was born in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, when the wind and rain were fiercely turbulent, and during his three years in power, he suffered many disasters and difficulties.
These three years were the most difficult periods of his life. Many people in the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty thought that he was incompetent, just a snobber, had no political talent, was not worthy of being the regent, and the Qing Dynasty was broken in the hands of their brothers and sons. This is too biased. "Frozen three feet, not a day's cold". The historical responsibility for the fall of the Qing court cannot be borne by zaifeng alone.