(Young Tongzhi Emperor)
In 1861, Xianfeng, the most tragic emperor of the Qing Dynasty, rode the guests of honor and fled.
The Xianfeng Emperor did not have many heirs, and only one surviving son, named Aisin Kyora Zaichun, survived. (i.e. Tongzhi Emperor)
Since they were the only children of the former emperor, Zaichun's children were undoubtedly the only designated heirs to the throne.
When he ascended the throne at the age of six, the lord was suspicious of the country, and the emperor could not personally govern, so he needed someone else to help him manage the country.
At this time, above the court, there were three most powerful forces.
Before the death of the former emperor, he selected eight ministers as the ruling team of the new emperor, and was fully responsible for the work of the emperor before he was a minor, known as the "Eight Ministers".
We call this force the power of the ministers.
The second force is the royal family, the emperor's uncles, uncles, distant relatives, and so on, we call the emperor's forces.
The last force came from the wife of the former emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi, as the birth mother of the Tongzhi Emperor, Cixi has always had a strong voice in the harem, and we call this force the empress force.
It is reasonable to say that the chancellor is responsible for assisting the emperor, the imperial prince is responsible for strengthening the imperial power, the empress dowager is responsible for managing the harem, everyone performs their duties, and the small life is quite good, but everyone also understands that in the face of the young emperor, if two of the three forces can be combined, then the three-legged state can be broken, turned into a monopoly, and completely controlled the government.
The first person to break this deadlock was Empress Dowager Cixi.
I am afraid that I have little chance of winning alone, so Cixi found her good sister, Ci'an, who was also the empress dowager, and the two of them jointly wrote a letter asking for the curtain to listen to the government.
The eight ministers, who were in charge of the affairs of the Qing Dynasty, saw Empress Dowager Cixi's request and refused one after another.
The reason is also very simple, because since the founding of the country, there has been no such precedent.
Even if there is, can you Cixi compare with the Empress Xiaozhuang of that year?
Besides, we can't trust you either.
Unexpectedly, Cixi did not rely on it and did not forgive, and she folded her son every day, hoping that she could participate in the affairs of the government.
When the eight ministers looked, you wanted to bow the curtain and listen to the government, right? Well, we resign, we're not going to do it, you come.
These eight important ministers held the lifeblood of the imperial court, and if they suddenly picked and did not do anything, it would definitely have an impact on the government of the dynasty, and Cixi had to give in when she saw it, and no longer mentioned the matter of entering the government of the dynasty.
In the first round of confrontation between the empress dowager and the ministers, the ministers won.
But the Eight Ministers did not expect that the reason why they would win was because Cixi deliberately lost to them.
And the reason for losing to them is also very simple, that is, to paralyze the minister and buy time for himself.
On the surface, Empress Dowager Cixi was completely defeated by the ministers and could only stay in the harem in ashes, but in fact, Empress Dowager Cixi secretly colluded with many courtiers, princes, university scholars, household departments, punishment departments, and even the guards of the Forbidden City, all of whom became Empress Dowager Cixi's henchmen.
The so-called "taking advantage of your paralysis to kill you", soon, Empress Dowager Cixi took advantage of the eight ministers to relax their vigilance, thunder attacked, and directly cleaned up the eight ministers.
Eight ministers committed suicide twice, one was beheaded, four were suspended, and one was transferred to field work.
Cixi is in charge.
(Empress Dowager Cixi)
Comrade Cixi during this period was still relatively honest, because after all, he had just taken power, so he would not make any moths for a while.
This woman, who will stir up the storm of modern times in the future, at this moment, just wants to enjoy the joy of hanging the curtain and listening to the government.
The emperor and the empress dowager were at peace, and nothing major happened within the Qing Dynasty.
Of course, it can't be nothing at all.
There were rebellions and uprisings throughout the Qing Dynasty, and with the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the domestic situation has not been very optimistic.
But fortunately, in this period, there were loyal and very responsible ministers like Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, as loyal workers of the Qing Dynasty, they professionally wiped the emperor's ass, which belonged to a brick of the Qing Dynasty, where it needed to be moved.
The rebellion in the country rose and fell, was put down, and the Taiping Rebellion was suppressed.
But the good news is more than that.
In the previous Daoguang and Xianfeng dynasties, Western forces repeatedly attacked, and these extremely vicious foreigners committed heinous crimes in the Central Plains, and they also wanted money for the land, and when they were finished, they had to sign treaties.
In the Tongzhi Dynasty, the relations between China and foreign countries finally entered a buffer period, foreigners wanted money to give money, land to give, gradually tended to be satisfied, no longer make trouble, and the domestic uprising movement was also declared aborted.
The emperor suddenly found that the world seemed to be too peaceful, and he seemed to be able to do something serious.
You know, it is not easy to find a respite in modern history. It was precisely because neighboring Japan seized the opportunity and launched the Meiji Restoration that it embarked on the road to becoming a strong country.
China began to innovate the law during the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago, and the Qing government certainly could not miss this precious period of development.
The Qing Dynasty decided to open a new era, reform and change the law, not to mention restoring the glory of the Qing Empire in the past, at least it could no longer be bullied by foreigners.
The first step in reform is the establishment of new institutions.
In the past, the six ministries, the military industry and the punishment households, could no longer meet the needs of the new era, and in the face of the impact of foreign culture, it was necessary to set up a new department, so the prime minister Yamen was born.
The prime minister has a lot of control, but to sum up, this is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the name of the Great Qing Dynasty.
(Prime Minister Yamun)
Just to set up a new unit is not called reform, and to reform, it is necessary to make some big noise, so a reform called the "Foreign Affairs Movement" began.
The western affairs movement is a compulsory content of junior high school history, but the history of junior high schools only says that the Qing government launched the foreign affairs movement, and does not say what the foreign affairs movement did.
In fact, it is very simple, from the literal meaning, it can be understood that the foreign is the West, and the business is learning, so the foreign affairs movement is a movement to learn Westernism.
Foreigners set up military factories, and the Qing Dynasty also opened military factories in Shanghai, Fuzhou and other places.
Foreigners built ships, and the Qing Dynasty established the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau.
Foreigners engaged in invention, the Qing Dynasty can not be idle, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Bureau, Xi'an Machinery Bureau one by one opened.
If the country wants to develop, it is not enough to come up with hardware conditions, and software must also keep up.
What is software? Talent, of course.
The talents who studied in private schools all day long could no longer meet the needs of the Qing government, and the Qing Dynasty urgently needed a group of modern professionals.
So where do modern talents come from?
Two channels, one is that we cultivate ourselves, and the other is that we send people out to study, return from school, and use them for ourselves.
(Reyo Student)
The Qing government took a two-pronged approach, first running a new-style school (The Beijing Normal Division and the Cultural Museum), and then sending a bunch of children to study abroad.
In addition, the government vigorously developed cultural undertakings, widely translated foreign books, erected telegraphs, and built railways.
It seems that the Qing government is finally willing to change its thinking.
In the past, Western countries broke through the door, and the Qing Dynasty was forced to open the door, but now it has become the Great Qing Dynasty that takes the initiative to open the door and go to the world.
But in essence, the foreign affairs movement is still a failure.
From a microscopic point of view, the western affairs movement has always been in the imitation stage, and what foreigners do, the Qing Dynasty will follow suit.
This belongs to "always imitating, never surpassing".
As a result, imitation and imitation, there is no innovative spirit at all, and it is all left after others play.
Moreover, the Qing court was only willing to learn Western techniques, and they did not allow any slight change in feudal thought and feudal system.
The emperor and his ministers were hovering in a state of triumph in the shackles of the feudal dynasty because of innovations.
From a macro perspective, the facts are more thought-provoking.
If we look at some modern and modern historical materials, we will find that most of the documents will characterize the Western Affairs Movement as a self-help operation initiated by the Rulers of the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century AD.
What is self-help?
Self-salvation means maintaining one's own rule and power.
In essence, the purpose of the Qing government's tossing and turning back and forth was still for its own sake, for the development of the feudal dynasty itself, rather than hoping that the reform would bring good life to the people at that time.
Save yourself, not the people.
Bad motives, impure purposes, is there a reason to be invincible?
But this did not have much to do with the Tongzhi Emperor, because he was only a child after all.
I have seen many lectures by historians, as well as very professional historical papers from some colleges and universities, and I really don't agree with some of them.
Some literary and historical workers pointed to the three- to five-year-old emperors of the past dynasties, and seriously criticized others for not being serious and irresponsible when they were emperors, and were proper kings of the subjugated country.
Forgive me for being direct, it's funny and funny.
These arguments are as ridiculous as the death of The Tang Dynasty to Yang Yuhuan and the death of Daming to Zhang Juzheng.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and it certainly wasn't going to go backwards overnight.
The collapse of a dynasty will never be entirely responsible for one person, and it is even more nonsense to push the evil consequences of the demise of the dynasty to some puppet emperors who are wrapped in diapers and even have the hard work of Shangkang.
Of course, I am not saying this to defend the Tongzhi Emperor.
(Tongzhi Emperor)
In the thirteen years of his career as emperor, his life was fortunate and unfortunate.
Fortunately, there have always been royal power struggles, fierce and dangerous, swords and swords, and bloody court people, and there are many people, but as a tongzhi who is a single miao, the road to the throne is unusually smooth.
His bells are ringing, and his graceful and noble life comes very easily.
But living well is only the basic requirement of the emperor's profession, and whether or not he can make the country under his rule better is the basic requirement of people for the emperor.
Obviously, the Tongzhi Emperor did not meet this requirement.
He lost his father at an early age, ascended the throne at an early age, was in the midst of civil strife in the transition of power, and then had his mother, the Cixi family, and basically did nothing himself.
If I had to say that the words "western affairs movement" and Tongzhi Zhongxing were arranged for this emperor, I can only say that the foreign affairs movement was a failure, and Tongzhi Zhongxing was meaningless.
The Western Affairs Movement was a mindless imitation show, while Tongzhi Zhongxing was more like the Qing Dynasty's self-praise.
But you must understand that when I say this, I am not criticizing the Qing Dynasty or Tongzhi, but on the contrary, the Tongzhi Emperor is one of the few emperors I admire more.
In his short nineteen years of life, he dared to try and dare to change, and it was already very difficult.
Some emperors spend their entire lives locking themselves up in the depths of the court.
Tongzhi, on the other hand, is already planning to go global.
Even if some people think that he was a loser, I still feel that Tongzhi and the guangxu emperors after him were the forerunners of that era, and they explored the path for China's future reform and development, even if it was only for a small period.
History will care about this small segment.
History will remember everyone who shines.