Cixi, no stranger to everyone, was the de facto ruler of the late Qing Dynasty. Cixi began to control the power of the Qing Dynasty after the death of Xianfeng, and until her death, she controlled the power of the Qing Dynasty for almost half a century, and had a significant impact on the entire Qing Dynasty. But in fact, from the death of Xianfeng in 1861 to the death of Cixi in 1908, although Cixi held great power, most of the time she could not do it alone.
Cixi, full nameYehenala Xingzhen, Manchuria with a blue flag。Cixi is not her name, but her title when she became the empress dowager. Cixi's father was just an ordinary magistrate, and his official position was not high. Not long after Xianfeng ascended the throne, a draft was held all over the world, and the 17-year-old Cixi was selected as a show girl to enter the palace. Soon after entering the palace, Cixi was given the title of Lan Guiren. Many people think that Xianfeng must be lustful when he is drafted as soon as he ascends the throne. But that's not the case. It was normal for ancient emperors to draft after they ascended the throne, mainly to enrich their harem. The greater the number of harems, the more heirs are possible, which is very beneficial to the development of the country. And Xianfeng's harem has a total of only 18 people, and the number is still very small.
Two years after Cixi entered the palace, she was promoted to concubine. In 1854, he gave birth to the prince Jae-chun, who was first made a concubine and later became a concubine. From this time on, Cixi's status in the palace was second only to that of the empress. Because she gave birth to a prince, Xianfeng became more and more fond of her, and she also began to interfere in political affairs. However, due to Xianfeng's lifetime, Cixi did not interfere much in political affairs and had no decision-making power.
In 1861, Xianfeng died. Before Xianfeng's death, eight ministers, including Su Shun, Mu Yin, and Kuang Yuan, were appointed as auxiliary ministers to assist the young Zaichun. If that's all there is to it, there will be nothing to do with Cixi in the future. However, Xianfeng also gave the empress and Jae-chun two seals representing the imperial power, so that they could check each other with the auxiliary minister. Due to the young age of Jae-chun, the seal given to Jae-chun was temporarily in the hands of Cixi. After Xianfeng's death, the power of the Qing Dynasty was held jointly by the eight auxiliary ministers and the empress, as well as Cixi. Since the Qing Dynasty did not allow the harem to interfere in politics, the relationship between the eight auxiliary ministers and Cixi and Ci'an was not good, and they were not willing to control the government with Cixi and Ci'an. The Ci'an in this is the previous queen. Because of this, Ci'an and Cixi decided to launch a coup d'état.
Ci'an and Cixi, together with Xianfeng's younger brother Prince Gong Yixun, staged the Xinyou coup d'état shortly after Xianfeng's death. Yixun's ability is very strong, but after Xianfeng's death, he did not arrange for him to be an assistant, so he was very dissatisfied with Xianfeng's arrangement. That's why he staged a coup d'état with Ci'an and Cixi. After the coup d'état of Xinyou, Cixi began to take power. However, there are several stages in her rise to power, each of which is different.
The first phase was from 1861 to 1881. After the Xinyou coup, Cixi did not directly control power. Prince Gong was named the king of parliament and led the government. However, Ci'an and Cixi raised the palace of the heart, and listened to the government. That is to say, although Yixun is in charge of the government, the main decision is not in his hands alone, but in the hands of Ci'an and Cixi. In general, the Qing Dynasty was what the three of them said.
At this time, Cixi's power was not particularly large. In the court, Yixun said that in the harem, the final decision lies with Ci'an, not Cixi. Although Cixi and Ci'an were both queen mothers, Ci'an was the empress before and the emperor's wife, while Cixi was always just a concubine, equivalent to a concubine. Therefore, Ci'an's status was significantly higher than that of Cixi. However, Ci'an doesn't like politics, she basically doesn't deal with government affairs, and many decisions are made by Cixi. But nominally, it was both Cixi and Cixi who agreed. Once Ci'an disagrees, even if Cixi agrees, it is useless, after all, the final decision lies with Ci'an, not Cixi.
There is one thing that best reflects Ci'an's very great power, that is, Cixi's personal eunuch An Dehai was killed. This is what Yixun and Ci'an did together. Although Cixi also knew that they did it, it was okay, after all, other people's rights were greater than their own. In general, during this time, Cixi was still subject to more restrictions.
The second phase was from 1881 to 1884. The reason why I say 1881 is because Ci'an died in this year. After Ci'an's death, no one in the harem could restrain Cixi anymore. Moreover, before Yixun, Cixi, and Ci'an controlled the power, but now Yixun and Cixi control the power together. Since the final decision rested with Cixi, Cixi's rights were greatly enhanced.
But no matter what, at this time, Yixun is still in charge of the government, and many affairs still need to be handled by him. Although Cixi controls the final decision, her influence on court politics is not very great. No matter how much Cixi has the right to decide, she can only listen to the government and cannot directly participate in government affairs, which is still very troublesome. Besides, Yixun is Xianfeng's younger brother, and with this identity alone, it is difficult for Cixi to take away all the power from him.
However, during this time, Cixi's power was not only greatly improved, but also the tendency to oversee power. Because after Yi Xun led the government for more than 20 years, he gradually became tired of political affairs, and he no longer had the courage he had before. There were fewer and fewer people in the court who supported him, and his power was constantly weakened by Cixi.
The third phase was from 1884 to 1889. During this time, Cixi was truly in power, and no one could confront him。In 1883, the Sino-French War broke out. Due to the indecision of the Qing rulers in the early days, the Qing Dynasty suffered serious defeats in the early stages of the war with the navy and army. Cixi used this as an excuse to dismiss the entire class of ministers of the Military Aircraft Department headed by Yixun, which was the famous Jiashen Yishu. The Qing Dynasty's statement to the outside world was"Prince Gong Yixun, University Shi Baojun, has been in the straight for the longest time, the blame should be strict, the old age is old, and the special record of the former labor is the end of the road. ”To put it bluntly, it's time for you to retire when you're old. After that, both the court and the central government were replaced by Cixi's cronies, and Cixi began to oversee power.
During this time, the overall development of the Qing Dynasty was still stable, and nothing special happened. The Westernization Movement of the Qing Dynasty continued, and although there were still many contradictions in the country, the national strength was still rising. It can be said that Cixi did a good job during this time.
The fourth phase was from 1889 to 1898. In 1889, the 18-year-old Guangxu Emperor got married. In feudal society, the emperor's marriage meant adulthood, and adulthood meant that he could handle court affairs. In fact, the ancient emperors got married relatively early. The reason why Guangxu got married at the age of 18 was mainly because Cixi did not want to let go of power. After Guangxu's wedding, Cixi had no reason to continue to listen to politics. The emperors are all adults, and the queen mother can't interfere in the government anymore. That being said, that's not the case.
According to historical records"The Empress Dowager is respectful, the court is in charge, and she will ask for her life. ”It means that many major events in the DPRK and China are decided by Cixi, and many personnel transfers in the DPRK and China are still decided by Cixi. But in any case, Guangxu also began to manage the government. Therefore, during this period of time, Guangxu and Cixi controlled the government together. In fact, Guangxu still had certain rights during this period of time, the most obvious is that during the Wuxu Reform, Guangxu dismissed the six officials of the Ministry of Rites, such as Waitabu, Xu Yingqi, and Kunxiu, who prevented the change. Tan Sitong, Liu Guangdi, Yang Rui, and Lin Xu were also awarded the rank of Sipinqing to walk on the military aircraft Zhangjing. If he didn't have any rights, he wouldn't have been able to do that.
During this time, the most famous event was the Sino-Japanese War. If it weren't for Guangxu, the First Sino-Japanese War would have been difficult to fight. Of course, since Cixi has the final decision, if she disagrees, it will be useless for Guangxu to agree.
The fifth phase was from 1898 to 1908. This decade was the last decade of Cixi's life, and it was also the last time Cixi took sole power. During the Wuxu Reform, Cixi reprimanded Guangxu and then placed Guangxu under house arrest, arrested the reforms and others, and abolished the new law. In this way, the Wuxu Reform Law failed, and Cixi began to oversee the power again.
This time, Cixi's general power was the same as the first time, and no one could stop her. However, Cixi did not do well during this time, and the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China took place during this time. It was this war that completely reduced the Qing Dynasty to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Although the new policy of the late Qing Dynasty carried out after the Qing Dynasty was in the right direction, many problems arose when it was implemented, which accelerated its demise. It can be said that all this is directly related to Cixi.
This was the general situation in which Cixi came to power. In fact, it was only 15 years for Cixi to really take over the power, and the rest of the time she shared power with others. But in any case, the actual power of the late Qing Dynasty has indeed been in her hands. It is not an exaggeration to say that she was responsible for the fall of the Qing Dynasty.