Successive Chinese dynasties have been very cautious in the choice of heirs. This system has continued since the Western Zhou Dynasty established the system of primogeniture. Throughout the history of China, the primogeniture system has always been one of the core systems that maintain the entire patriarchal system, and is the most important inheritance principle (system) implemented under the polygamous concubinage system in ancient China. The so-called eldest son is the eldest son born to the wife (original match).
But this system sustains only inheritance in its natural state. In ancient times, the struggle for the throne was extremely fierce, and very few were really inherited according to the primogeniture system.
In the Qing Dynasty, the succession to the throne was not carried on according to the primogeniture system. On the one hand, this is to take into account the drawbacks of the primogeniture inheritance system, for example, the eldest son has mediocre intelligence, poor ability, premature death, etc., on the other hand, because the primogeniture inheritance system is easy to trigger hatred between brothers. In addition, it is also related to the unique traditions of ethnic minorities.
After Nurhaci established Houjin, he politically implemented a backward democratic deliberative system, that is, the eight flag owners jointly deliberated and decided on major national affairs. Some people may think that this is an advanced system, but in fact, it is not, on the contrary, this is the way that the development of the social productive forces of the post-Jin dynasty lags behind and the economic and cultural backwardness has to be adopted.
During Nurhaci's reign, he studied the Ming Dynasty and made him crown prince, the eldest son Daishan. However, the prince was soon deposed. At the time of his death, he had neither a prince nor an heir. At this time, power was in the hands of the Four Baylors. Who will inherit the throne, everyone is in the game. In the end, Huang Taiji won and became the new Great Khan.
Huang Taiji was nurhaci's eighth son, and before succeeding to the throne, he ranked fourth of the four baylors. During his reign, he conquered Korea and Mongolia, stabilized the internal environment, changed the name of the country to Qing, and laid the foundation for the Qing Dynasty to attack the Ming Dynasty and unify China.
Emperor Taiji reigned for 18 years, during which he did not appoint a prince, nor did he appoint an heir when he was dying. In this case, if the primogeniture system is followed, the eldest son Hauge should succeed to the throne. However, with the intervention of dorgon and other powerful ministers, Hauge was ultimately unable to inherit the throne, but was succeeded by another son of Emperor Taiji, Fu Lin.
Fu Lin was the ninth son of Emperor Taiji, and his mother was of the Borzit clan of the Mongolian Horqin tribe. Fu Lin was only six years old when he succeeded to the throne. He was able to succeed to the throne as a result of a compromise. After the death of Emperor Taiji, Hauge and Dorgon competed for the throne, and in the absence of a mutual stalemate between the two sides, they adopted a compromise approach, with the ninth son Fu Lin succeeding to the throne, and Dorgon serving as the auxiliary chancellor.
Fu Lin was the first emperor after the Qing army entered the customs, reigning for nineteen years, during which the Qing Dynasty basically achieved national unification. Fu Lin lived to be 25 years old, and died in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661) (it is said that he was a monk), and when he died, he did not designate an heir. After fierce games and mutual compromises between the various forces, it was finally decided that the eight-year-old Xuan Ye would inherit the throne, assisted by the four ministers of Soni, Aobai, Shubilong, and Suksaha, and the actual power was in the hands of Aobai.
Kangxi lived at the age of sixty-nine and reigned for a rarely long time, as long as 62 years. During his reign, he had a crown prince, but was finally deposed because he was not satisfied. After Kangxi's death, Yongzheng was able to succeed to the throne with the support of his uncle Long Keduo's power in the dynasty and the army of his close confidant Nian Qianyao.
Yongzheng reigned for fourteen years, during which time he created the secret reserve system. This system was a major initiative of the Qing Dynasty, and the emperor did not appoint a prince before his death, but secretly wrote the name of the heir on the silk veil, in duplicate, one was carried by the emperor closely, and the other was packed in a box and placed behind the Zhengda Guangming Plaque of the Qianqing Palace. After the emperor's death, the imperial chancellor took out two copies of silk and two proofs to determine the heir. The establishment of this system is a manifestation of the development of imperial power to the extreme.
In previous dynasties, if the emperor wanted to make a prince, or another prince, he had to consult the ministers. If the opposition is too loud, the emperor will not rush to make a decision. This is equivalent to the minister having certain restrictions on the imperial power.
After the establishment of this system, who will inherit the throne is the emperor alone, and no one else is allowed to beak. This is a manifestation of the unprecedented strength of the imperial power. The Qianlong Emperor was the heir identified through this system.
The Qianlong Emperor was the fourth son of Yongzheng, and his mother was the Prince of Niu Cobalt Lu ( Nyęlīn), who succeeded him as Prince of Heshuobao. He was twenty-five years old at the time of his succession and reigned for sixty-one years.
During Qianlong's reign, he twice used the method of secretly establishing a crown prince to determine the crown prince. The first confirmed crown prince was the second son of the emperor. However, since the child died before he was three years old, he secretly established a reserve for the second time. This time it was determined that it was the fifteenth son of the Emperor.
The succession is special.
The Qianlong Emperor lived a very long life, and when he died, he was already eighty-nine years old, which was very rare among the emperors of the past. In 1796, the eighty-five-year-old Qianlong Emperor followed the example of three generations of emperors, performed Zen concessions, and passed the throne to Yuanyan. After Ying Yan succeeded to the throne, he changed his era name to Jiaqing. Four years later, Qianlong died.
Both the Jiaqing Dynasty and the Daoguang Dynasty used the method of secretly establishing a reserve to determine the crown prince.
The Daoguang Emperor was the second son of Jiaqing, the former Prince of Fengzhi, who was thirty-nine years old when he succeeded to the throne. Reigned for thirty-one years. The heir chosen by the Daoguang Emperor was Xianfeng. He was the fourth son of Daoguang, who was twenty years old when he succeeded to the throne and reigned for twelve years.
The Xianfeng Emperor had only one son, so there was no need to make a secret reserve. Xianfeng's heir, the Tongzhi Emperor, had no heirs.
In 1875, Tongzhi died, and the power was in the hands of Empress Dowager Cixi. By cixi's choice, he was succeeded by Zai Xiang, the son of Emperor Xianfeng's younger brother YiZhen the Prince of Alcohol, with the era name Guangxu. Guangxu's mother was the younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi. The Guangxu Emperor was only five years old when he succeeded to the throne, reigned for thirty-four years, and died in 1908, leaving no heirs during his lifetime. After his death, he was succeeded by Puyi.
Who is Puyi?
Puyi's grandfather was Yizhen the Prince of Alcohol, the father of the Guangxu Emperor. Puyi's father, Zaifeng, was Yizhen's fifth son and the half-brother of the Guangxu Emperor. Puyi was also the nephew of the Guangxu Emperor.
During Puyi's reign, the Qing Dynasty collapsed. Since then, the feudal dynasty has officially ended in China, and the inheritance of imperial power has ceased to exist.
The Qing Dynasty was a dynasty where imperial despotism reached its peak. After Fu Lin, the succession to the throne has been firmly in the hands of the emperor, truly turning the heir issue into a private matter for the royal family. Therefore, there was no large-scale bloodshed in the Qing Dynasty for imperial power, and the competition between the princes was carried out within the controllable range. This was rare in ancient Chinese dynasties.