During the Qing Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor, both of whom reigned for more than 60 years, had many children. Emperor Qianlong gave birth to a total of 17 princes in his lifetime, and the number of princes of Emperor Kangxi was even larger, with as many as 24 listed in the tooth order alone, and the total number of princes reached 35.
However, when these two emperors faced the issue of succession to the throne, a completely different situation arose.
In the later years of the Kangxi Dynasty, all the Kangxi princes fought for the throne and broke their heads, known as the "Nine Sons Seize the Inheritance", and finally Yongzheng won this thrilling battle for the throne and ascended to the throne after Kangxi's death. On the other hand, during the Qianlong Dynasty, especially in the later years of the Qianlong Dynasty, the princes of Qianlong almost looked at the issue of Qianlong's succession with a very peaceful attitude, and there was neither a struggle between brothers, nor a retaliation against other political enemies after Yongzheng ascended the throne, which could be a very smooth and smooth transfer of power.
So also in the Qing Dynasty, the reign interval between the two emperors was also very short, why there was such a completely different situation on the issue of succession, it can be summed up in three points, that is, the quantity is different, the quality is different, and the system followed is also different.
Let me give you a detailed explanation.
on the Internet).
Kangxi had a total of 35 sons in his life, of which 24 entered the dental sequence, and among them, 20 princes were still alive after Kangxi's death, which shows that the "base" of princes who are qualified to participate in the struggle for the throne is still very large. So, putting aside those who are younger and have no intention of seizing the throne, they finally formed a very famous "nine sons to seize the throne" situation in history, that is, the eldest brother Yinzhen, the abolished prince Yinren, the third brother Yinzhi, the fourth brother Yinzhen, that is, the Yongzheng Emperor in history, the eighth brother Yinzhen, the ninth brother Yinzhen, the tenth brother Yin, the thirteenth brother Yinxiang and the fourteenth brother Yinzhen (Yongzheng changed it to "Yunyu" after ascending the throne), these nine Kangxi princes or their own fight for the throne, or help the prince he supports to participate in the process of seizing the heir, thus staging a family battle within the royal family of cannibalism and brothers.
On the other hand, Emperor Qianlong, although he gave birth to a total of 17 princes in his life, there are 10 who can live to adulthood, and there are only 4 people left who are still alive after Qianlong's death, these people are just enough to play a table of mahjong, even if they want to stage another big drama of "nine sons to win the heir", the number of people can't even get together.
on the Internet).
Kangxi and Qianlong reigned for almost the same time, but in the final analysis, Qianlong was too long-lived.
In the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661), Emperor Kangxi was only 8 years old when he ascended the throne, reigned for 61 years, and was 69 years old when he died in the sixty-first year of Kangxi (1722).
In the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735), Qianlong ascended the throne, when he was 25 years old, reigned for 60 years, and also served as the emperor for more than 3 years, and when he died in the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), Qianlong was already 88 years old, nearly 20 years longer than Kangxi.
You must know that at this time, people's average life expectancy is only more than 30 years old, and 20 years is equivalent to experiencing one more generation, and it is precisely with these 20 years of longevity that many Qianlong princes walked in front of him, so when Qianlong died, the number of Qianlong princes who survived was naturally much smaller than the number of Kangxi princes who survived when Kangxi died.
In fact, it is precisely because of Qianlong's longevity, especially when he has been the emperor for more than three years, that he still firmly holds the power in his own hands, so that he can stabilize the situation very well, and it also plays a strong deterrent role for the prince, and to a certain extent, it also avoids the situation of mutual attack and dumping between the princes in order to compete for the throne.
on the Internet).
Now many people joke that Kangxi gave birth to all the people who could be emperors in the Qing Dynasty at one time, so it led to the lack of strong leadership in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, and then continued to decline until it finally perished.
Although this is just a joke, it undoubtedly tells the fact that the princes of Emperor Kangxi are indeed very good, and in comparison, the princes of Emperor Qianlong do seem to be a little "out of action".
First of all, let's talk about Kangxi's heir to the throne Yongzheng and Qianlong's heir to the throne Jiaqing, Yongzheng has almost formed a "crushing" advantage over Jiaqing in terms of political skills, governing ability, and the degree of national development.
In addition to Yongzheng, the abilities of other Kangxi princes are also outstanding, here are the Kangxi princes who participated in the "Nine Sons to Seize the Inheritance" as an example.
The eldest brother Yinzhen and the fourteenth elder brother Yinzhen both have a strong ability to lead the army to fight, especially Yinzhen was once named the "Great General King", quelled the rebellion of Arabutan, and then recovered the entire ** region.
The third elder brother Yinzhi is the most comprehensive development among all the Kangxi princes, he not only presided over the compilation of the "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books", but also has many achievements in the fields of mathematics, legal calendar, natural science and other fields.
The former was entrusted with reuse during the Kangxi Dynasty, and the latter became Yongzheng's most relied on "brother minister", and as the country's "second-in-command" for a long time, he assisted Yongzheng very well.
The ninth elder brother Yinyu is not only extremely sensitive to numbers and letters, so that the first Manchu people to transcribe Manchu in Latin, and at the same time he is quite business-minded, and he is the richest of all the Kangxi princes, and has accumulated a lot of wealth.
There is no doubt that compared with these Kangxi princes with outstanding abilities, the princes of Qianlong do seem a little bleak.
on the Internet).
Of course, in addition to the difference in personal ability, the support of the foreign relatives and family forces behind it also greatly stimulated the ambition of the Kangxi princes to compete for the throne.
Prince Yinren's biological mother is Kangxi's wife, the Empress Xiaochengren, the Hesheri family, and the Hesheri family where the Hesheri family is located has a very high power and status in the early and middle Kangxi Dynasty, and the father and son of Sony and Suo Etu are from this family.
In the court, it is Mingzhu who was born in the Yehenala family for a long time to sing against Suo Etu, and Mingzhu's niece is Concubine Hui, the head of the "four concubines" of Kangxi's "Huiyi Derong", and she is also the biological mother of the eldest brother Yinchu, and she is also the adoptive mother of the eighth elder brother Yinzhen. Therefore, the Yehenara family naturally stood on the opposite side of the crown prince Yinren and fully supported Yinren and Yinren. At the same time, because the tenth elder brother Yin is also fully supporting the eighth elder brother Yinxi, this also makes the entire Niu Hulu family represented by Kubilong and Alinga also maintain their support for Yinxi.
on the Internet).
It is precisely because of the intervention of foreign relatives that the struggle between the princes and the struggle between the political forces in the court echo each other, which undoubtedly exacerbates the tension between the princes and the princes, thus making this struggle increasingly fierce.
On the other hand, when Emperor Qianlong, in addition to his wife Xiaoxianchun, Empress Fucha's family, who was born in a famous family and had a strong family power, the other princes and their biological mothers were very weak and could not change the trend of the court at all, and this would not stimulate the ambition of the princes to compete for the throne to a certain extent.
on the Internet).
In fact, one of the very important reasons why the Kangxi Dynasty had the situation of "nine sons seizing the heirs" was that the Qing Dynasty had not long since it entered the customs, and it still retained the tradition of "choosing those who can be admonished and virtuous" to succeed to the throne since the Nurhachi period, so when establishing the heir to the throne, whether it is a prince or a courtier, there is a strong tendency to choose "virtuous" people.
As a result, it was precisely because of the absurd behavior and bad performance of the crown prince Yinren that other princes and all the courtiers thought that he was not a "virtuous" person, which directly led to the princes and the courtiers behind him attacking him, and was finally deposed by Emperor Kangxi.
on the Internet).
In the period of the Yongzheng Dynasty, in order to avoid the tragic situation of "nine sons seizing the heir" again, Yongzheng formally established the "secret reserve system", Qianlong inherited the throne through this system, although Yongzheng had helped him remove all the obstacles before this, but this system was still established and implemented.
When Emperor Qianlong was in power, he had twice executed the "secret prince", and the two princes born to Empress Fucha, namely Yonglian and Yongcong, were his own ** people, but these two princes coincidentally died young, and Empress Fucha also died subsequently, so that Emperor Qianlong did not carry out the "secret reserve" for a long time.
on the Internet).
During this period, Emperor Qianlong also had a prince who he liked very much, which was the fifth elder brother Yongqi.
Yongqi is not only both civil and military, a talent, but also once in the fire of the Old Summer Palace, carrying Qianlong to escape from the fire, Qianlong 30 years (1765), 24-year-old Yongqi was named the prince by Qianlong, but unfortunately, only a year later in the 31st year of Qianlong (1766), Yongqi died of illness, Qianlong was extremely sad and disappointed. In the 58th year of Qianlong (1793), more than 20 years after Yongqi's death, Qianlong also mentioned Yongqi when he met with Magorny, which was enough to show Qianlong's love and nostalgia for him. And if Yongqi can really live until Qianlong's death, it must be him who will inherit the throne.
on the Internet).
And when Emperor Qianlong really did the "secret establishment of the prince" again, he could only "pull out the big one among the short ones".
In the thirty-eighth year of Qianlong (1773), only 7 of all the Qianlong princes were alive, and among these 7 people, the fourth son of the emperor Yonghui and the sixth son of the emperor Yongying had been passed out, and the twelfth son of the emperor Yongxuan had long been excluded because of his mother's step-queen Huifa Nala. Therefore, at this time, there were only four people available for Qianlong to choose from, namely the eighth son of the emperor Yongxuan, the eleventh son of the emperor Yongxuan, the fifteenth son of the emperor Yongyan, and the seventeenth son of the emperor Yongxuan.
Yongxuan, although he is a little older, has frivolous behavior, does not do things properly, and his popularity is not very good, so he is not liked by Qianlong; Yongying is heavy on literature and light on martial arts, and he is angry with books, and he is not appreciated by Qianlong; Yongxuan, Qianlong was too young when he made the edict of succession, and Qianlong did not dare to take this risk. In contrast, Yongyan had the least shortcomings and problems, so Qianlong also chose Yongyan as his ** person, and wrote the edict of succession, completing the "secret reserve".
Finally, in the 60th year of Qianlong (1795), Emperor Qianlong read out the edict in advance and chose to abdicate voluntarily, and Jiaqing successfully completed his accession to the throne.
on the Internet).
To sum up, compared with Kangxi's princes, due to Qianlong's longevity, his sons were "boiled to death", which made the number of surviving princes of Qianlong very small. Not only that, compared with Kangxi's princes, these Qianlong princes have a gap in ability, and they are extremely lacking in the support of their mother's relatives, so they have the ambition to win the heir like Prince Kangxi. In addition, since the beginning of the Yongzheng Dynasty, the "secret reserve system" has been adopted, and Emperor Qianlong attaches great importance to imperial power, which also makes his son more and more afraid to fight openly and make some mistakes.
In this way, the fierce "nine sons seizing the heir" in the later years of the Kangxi Dynasty did not appear in the Qianlong Dynasty, and in the end, Jiaqing was able to succeed to the throne smoothly when Qianlong was alive. It is precisely because of this that the rest of the Qianlong princes also received preferential treatment from Jiaqing, and there was no more attack and retaliation after Yongzheng ascended the throne, which can be regarded as a stable and stable transition of the regime.
on the Internet).
**10,000 Fans Incentive Plan