Looking at the emperors after daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, we will find a problem, from Xianfeng onwards, there have been problems in the inheritance of the imperial throne, starting from Xianfeng's son Tongzhi Emperor, to the two emperors of Guangxu and Puyi, there are no heirs, and the Qing Dynasty can also be spied from the emperor's fertility.
Of course, this is a more feudal superstition, the life expectancy of the Qing Emperor should be the longest average life expectancy in the dynasties, if the Daoguang Emperor chose not Xianfeng, but Yi Bi, it is estimated that the end of the Qing Dynasty is another situation.
The Daoguang Emperor had a total of nine sons, and when Daoguang decided to establish the crown prince, the first three sons had already died prematurely, and the two most competitive princes, one was the fourth prince Yixuan (later Xianfeng), and the other was the sixth prince Yixuan, compared with the two people, Although Yixuan was a little dull, he was the eldest son of Yixuan, and it was none other than Yixuan when it came to seniority.
The sixth prince Yi Bi was not the eldest son of a concubine, but his mother, Xiao Jing Guifei, was very favored by Daoguang and was more intelligent than Yi Xi.
If it is before the Qing Dynasty, the division of concubines is the most important basis for inheriting the throne, but during the Qing Dynasty, the primogeniture system was not very important, and there were very few princes who established princes in the entire Qing Dynasty, and only YiXuan was the only one who inherited the throne with the eldest son.
Originally, the Daoguang Emperor was very hesitant when choosing the crown prince, and he could not make up his mind, as to why Daoguang chose Yixuan, one theory is that Yixuan is good at disguise, pretending to be benevolent, once the Daoguang Emperor led Yixuan and Yixu to hunt, but also to investigate the prince's riding and shooting skills, the Manchu Qing started with riding and shooting, successive emperors paid attention to the riding and shooting training of the imperial heirs, and at this point Yixuan was inferior to Yixu.
Yi Bi was a prince who could write and martial arts, and at that time, Yi Xi's teacher commented that Yi Bi was "not low", and could not win the favor of Daoguang with The Time Politics of Tian Chen and the practice of martial arts on horseback, so he let Yi Xi play the emotional card.
In the process of hunting, Yi Xi captured the most birds and beasts, according to the rules, the Daoguang Emperor should reward Yi Bi, but Yi Xi did not shoot a bird or beast, the Daoguang Emperor asked him why, Yi Xi said: "Shi Fangchun, birds and beasts breed, can not bear to hurt life, in order to dry heaven and peace." This means that spring is the season of birds and beasts, and hunting in this season is to mutilate living beings.
Although the Qing Dynasty was born as a hunter-gatherer, after entering the Central Plains, it repeatedly flaunted Confucian orthodoxy and preached the rule of the world with benevolence and filial piety, and the elderly Daoguang Emperor thought that Yixuan was a good heir to the imperial throne, so he established Yixuan, that is, the later Xianfeng Emperor.
Of course, most of the above content comes from the history of the wild, which is a kind of reference value of the history of the wild, and the real reason for the Establishment of the Daoguang Emperor is unknown.
The Xianfeng Emperor was the only emperor in the Qing Dynasty to inherit the throne as the eldest son, and Xianfeng also proved that the succession of the eldest son was pure nonsense, and the emperor should still be selected with ability.
At the beginning of Xianfeng's reign, he also hoped to exert great efforts to rectify the maladministration since the late Qianlong period, and as a result, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement broke out in the first year of Xianfeng, and soon after the Second Anglo-French War broke out, Xianfeng's ability naturally could not cope with it, and sometimes even asked Cixi to help him approve the recital, laying the groundwork for Cixi to intervene in the government in the future.
During the reign of Xianfeng, the Qing government was the most critical period in the face of the impact of Western modernization, and the Xianfeng Emperor did not find a way to resolve these crises during his reign.
In 1856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reached its full military peak, and even had a tendency to rule with the Qing court, at this time the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom broke out serious infighting in the Tianjing Incident, which gave the Qing court breather time to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
However, Xianfeng's performance in the handling of foreign affairs was even more unsatisfactory, so it triggered the Second Opium War, which was already in a situation of military defeat, and even detained British and French emissaries in an attempt to force Britain and France to withdraw, which gave the Anglo-French coalition forces an excuse to drive the army into Beijing.
The point to be noted here is that the relationship between Britain and France at that time was very general, often in the division of the world, and there was often conflict, but it was quite rare in this period of history to be able to reach an agreement and cooperate with each other when attacking the Qing government.
When the Anglo-French army invaded Beijing, Xianfeng fled Beijing with his wife and children, leaving the Qing government in the dilemma of the first capital being captured since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Xianfeng Emperor who escaped to Rehe was very angry, and in order to get rid of this chaotic affair, the Xianfeng Emperor was intoxicated with drama in the Rehe Palace.
During this period, the heavy responsibility of discussing the withdrawal of troops with Britain and France was all entrusted to Prince Gong Yi bi, and under the auspices of Yi Bi, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Beijing with Britain, France and Russia.
In 1861, at the request of Yi Bi, the Qing government set up the Prime Minister's Office for State Affairs, which completely changed the Qing government's foreign and trade affairs system.
On the one hand, Yi Bi was circling with the great powers in Beijing, and on the other hand, the Xianfeng Emperor was spending days and drinking in Rehe, and how strong the contrast was.
After Prince Gong and the great powers completed the peace negotiations, Shangquan asked Emperor Xianfeng to return to Beijing, and as a result, Emperor Xianfeng said, "At this time, the weather is not yet severely cold, and if Caiyi can leave early, he can return to Luang to calm people's hearts." ”
However, although Xianfeng also had plans to return to Beijing, But Xianfeng's trusted minister Sushun repeatedly exerted influence on Xianfeng, not wanting Xianfeng to return to Beijing, Sushun had his own plan, once Xianfeng returned to Beijing, he could not have such a large influence in Rehe, and he was even more jealous of Prince Gong Yishi, so let Xianfeng die in Rehe, Sushun political centralization can control power.
Many people commented that Sushun was a very capable person, and if Sushun had succeeded in the Coup d'état of Xin You, there would have been no situation in which Cixi was bowing to the government.
Fundamentally, SuShun was a relatively talented person, but he lacked insight, lacked courage, did not have a big picture view, his administrative means were extreme, and his diplomatic measures were too tough, in fact, after Xianfeng's death, the decision of the eight ministers to take care of the fate of the orphan was itself a mentally handicapped decision.
In particular, the political group of the Eight Ministers, headed by Su Shun, is even more politically centralized with the idle clan as the core and the Han military aircraft as the mainstay, and the Eight Ministers Group is not a mature political centralization, but exists simply for the purpose of seizing power.
Xianfeng can be said to have been unable to leave a stable situation until his death, and the officials who remained in Beijing formed the Yibi clique around Yi Bi, and Sushun, who accompanied Zaifeng to rehe, formed the Eight Ministers clique.
SuShun and the other eight ministers believed that after Xianfeng's death, they would be able to monopolize power, and wanted to exclude the empress dowager of the two palaces, forming a situation in which the auxiliary ministers were in charge in the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, so they were dissatisfied with the harem.
Prince Gong therefore reached a unification with Empress Dowager Cixi, and eventually launched a coup d'état of Xin You, killing and arresting the eight ministers of Gu Ming, and finally forming a political pattern of "empress dowager hanging curtain + prince assisting the government".
After the coup d'état of Xin You, Yi Bi served as the king of the council, the foreman of the military aircraft, and the head of the prime minister's state affairs, and truly took charge of the military affairs of the Qing Dynasty.
After Yi Bi and the empress dowager of the two palaces jointly came to power, they began to boldly use the capable Han landlord class to continue to support the development of the Xiang Army, the Huai Army and other armies, on the other hand, they broke with tradition and adopted the policy of "borrowing teachers to help suppress" to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
After the two-pronged approach, only three years later, by 1864, Nanjing, the home of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was breached, ushering in a relatively stable political environment for the Qing Dynasty.
During this period, Yi Bi vigorously promoted the development of the foreign affairs movement, and in the more than 20 years from 1861 to 1884, the Qing government under Yi Bi not only restored the economic damage caused by the two Opium Wars and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.
Under the call of "self-improvement" and "seeking prosperity" and under the guidance of "secondary school as the body and Western learning as the use," the Qing government introduced advanced Western science and technology on a large scale and established modernized military and civilian industries, thus laying an industrial foundation for China's modernization movement.
The modernization of industry began with the modernization of talents, in addition to the establishment of modern industry, foreign affairs also created newspapers and periodicals, which played an important role in enlightening the wisdom of the people, on the other hand, the opening of new-style schools, but also for China's modernization to provide a steady stream of talents, in 1862 Yi Bi founded the Beijing Normal Tongwenguan, is the first school to create modern Chinese education.
Not only that, the Qing government also set up telegrams to translate foreign books, and the GuangjingShi Tongwenguan translated 36 kinds of Western books, which greatly promoted the cultural exchanges and integration of China and the West.
It can be said that although the Qing government in the Opium War of 1840 was defeated and did not reflect, it did not begin to be angry and strong until after the Second Opium War, and Yi Bi, known as "Devil Six", must have played a huge role.
To exaggerate, Yi Bi, who single-handedly built Tongzhi Zhongxing, can be called the Manchu Qing magnate who had the most far-reaching influence on China's modernization, and Yi Bi was also a real pioneer of China's modernization.
Yi Bi made such a significant contribution to the Qing court that he was eventually seized by Cixi and expelled from the power center of the imperial court.
Before the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875, Cixi had not yet fully seized power, especially Ci'an, who was also the empress dowager, suppressed Cixi. The contradiction between the empress dowager and Yi Bi was not highlighted.
After the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875, Cixi's desire for power began to rise gradually, and in 1881, Empress Dowager Ci'an collapsed, and the contradictions between Cixi and Yi Bi began to stand out. In fact, the two people have deep, irreconcilable contradictions, whether in political ideas or in the world, Cixi and Yi Bi show great contradictions.
The cooperation between the two sides is also based on the blow against the common enemy, the Sushun clique, and after the eight ministers headed by the Sushun clique were killed, the contradictions between the two people gradually became prominent.
Cixi had an extremely strong desire for power, so it was inevitable that others would not be allowed to share power with him, and in the more than ten years after Xin You's change, Cixi and Yi Bi were able to maintain a stumbling relationship, until 1884, when the Sino-French War was fought, Cixi threw the entire pot to Yi Bi (Cixi was the best at throwing pots), and finally made Yi Bi "all messengers, and withdraw Enga Shuangqi, home to recuperate".
It can be said that Yi Bi's position was a sweep to the end, and this political change was called Jiashen Yishu, although it had little impact, but it caused a considerable sensation at the time, which marked the end of the joint rule of the empress dowager and the prince Tongzhi since the Coup of Xin You.
Yi Bi belongs to the late Qing dynasty aristocracy of the more capable, enthusiastic reformers, politicians, but history did not give Yi Bi more opportunities to prove himself, if Yi Bi can replace Cixi and control the government, even if the Qing Dynasty ends, it will be relatively gorgeous!
In just ten years from the Jiashen Yishu in 1884 to the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Cixi brought the Qing government into a place of no return, becoming more corrupt in internal affairs, weaker in diplomacy, and stagnating in foreign affairs.
After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the frenzy of dividing up the government by the great powers began. At this time, Cixi only thought of Yi Bi, but it was too late to make up for the dead sheep, and after only a few years, Yi Bi was ill, and in 1898, Yi Bi, who was already 66 years old, passed away with his reluctance and helplessness.
Maybe Cixi owes him an apology!