Among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, the last emperor with real power should be regarded as the Xianfeng Emperor, after Xianfeng, the power of the Qing Dynasty basically fell into the hands of Empress Dowager Cixi, and the two emperors of Tongzhi Guangxu were basically controlled by Cixi, and after Cixi's death, Puyi was not to mention, just a doll.
But the fate of Xianfeng, the emperor, can be said to be quite bad, when he was emperor, he was catching up with the most difficult time of the Qing Dynasty, the decline of the Shangcheng Jia Dao, the lower Qi Tongguang Zhongxing, on the one hand, he bore the evil consequences of the decline of the Qing Dynasty, and on the other hand? In the later period, the Qing Dynasty barely perked up and did not catch up.
Therefore, the position of the Xianfeng Emperor was very depressing.
On August 22, 1861, the Xianfeng Emperor Ai Xinjueluo Yixuan died at the Chengde Summer Resort at the age of 30. Some people may ask, the Xianfeng Emperor died very strangely, first of all, the age, 30 years old to die, which is also too young; secondly, the location, Chengde Mountain Resort, the normal situation should be to die in Beijing.
Let's talk about the location first, the location is not strange, because Xianfeng was on the way to the "North Hunt" at that time. Kita-hunt? This is a euphemism in the history books, in fact, the Anglo-French coalition army came to Beijing in 1860, and Xianfeng fled to the Chengde Mountain Resort.
What about age? 30-year-old death is certainly not normal, for the direct cause of death of the Xianfeng Emperor is actually not much disputed by historians, he is not in good health, and sick, comprehensive historical records, the Xianfeng Emperor should have died of tuberculosis, because the history books record that Xianfeng has coughing up phlegm, hemoptysis, emaciation and other symptoms, which is the typical tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis was completely incurable at that time, and could only be recuperated.
However, from the Qing Palace, there has always been such a saying, the Xianfeng Emperor died of suicide!
The Emperor committed suicide?! This is also a strange story, most people may think that this matter is very absurd, the emperor will not be unable to live anyway, and the emperor committed suicide, it seems that there is no chance, to know that there are a bunch of eunuchs around him.
But in this case of the Xianfeng Emperor, he can take the initiative to accelerate his own death, and comprehensive analysis, Xianfeng himself is extremely likely to find death.
What does that mean? This is to understand the state of mind of the Xianfeng Emperor, who was in the most difficult period of the Qing Dynasty, had the heart to reform but was unable to return to heaven, at this time the State apparatus of the Qing Dynasty had been running for more than 200 years, it had rotted to the root, the class contradictions were very sharp, and it was already on the verge of subjugation (in history, whenever there was an uprising of the scale of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the basic declaration of the dynasty's demise was not far away); and Xianfeng also encountered a situation that was different from any previous dynasty: western colonists invaded the east. After the Foreign Affairs Movement, the Qing Dynasty barely had some military and political diplomatic talents involved in diplomacy, but at this time, the Qing Dynasty was still in a state of confusion and did not know how to deal with this situation.
At the beginning of the Xianfeng Emperor's ascension to the throne, he carried out reforms, eliminated maladministration, and flipped through the "Records of Emperor Wenzong of the Qing Dynasty", we will find that Xianfeng was an extremely diligent person, but his efforts were only a drop in the bucket, and he was simply unable to reverse the general trend of the dynasty's decadence! As soon as he ascended the throne, he encountered the Taiping Rebellion.
This vividly showed the decay and incompetence of the Qing Dynasty, at this time the regular armed forces of the Qing army were completely incapacitated, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept through half of South China in only two years, attacking Jiangning Province (Nanjing), and the Northern Expedition forwards hit Tianjin and directly approached the capital! As a result, "The Capital Division was greatly shaken, and the number of bureaucratic and rich people fleeing reached 30,000 households!" Even Xianfeng almost ran to Rehe, the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs for more than 200 years, this is the first time, you think, the frail and sick Xianfeng Emperor is stimulated every day, can this condition get better?
But later, with the harsh winter, the Qing army blocked the Taiping Army, but the Taiping Army had just left, and the British and French troops came. In 1856, the British and French allies provoked the Second Opium War, and the Qing Dynasty was circling with it, but it did not settle this "foreign lawsuit". In 1860, the people came again, this time without giving face, they directly attacked the city of Beijing, and even burned the Yuanmingyuan.
Xianfeng was very honored to become the first emperor to be expelled from the capital since the founding of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and by the way, his own home was burned (the Yuanmingyuan was actually equivalent to the emperor's home), and the humiliation in Xianfeng's heart could be imagined.
Moreover, Xian Feng himself fled, so how should he face his subjects? As you can see, Xianfeng died in 1861, in fact, the British and French allies left in 1860, why didn't Xianfeng go back? No face to go back.
The living conditions in Chengde are also very bad, everyone knows that this is a mountain villa for summer vacation, and the Xianfeng Emperor ran through it in winter! Therefore, the climate was harsh, and Chengde was not rich at that time, and a small city could not afford to supply the fleeing royal family, so life was very difficult, which made Xianfeng even more uncomfortable.
Therefore, the history books record that Xianfeng behaved very strangely after arriving in Chengde, in addition to handling government affairs, he only did two things all day: listening to the drama and indulging in lust, Xianfeng listened to the drama in Chengde all day long, the gongs and drums were noisy, and the drama team sang until late at night before dispersing; after that, Xianfeng drank wildly, and according to some folk sayings, he still looked for flowers and asked for willows everywhere in the folk (even some people said that he died of flower willow disease). Moreover, the Xianfeng Emperor seemed to be in a fluctuating mood, often abusing the attendants around him when he was drunk, but when he woke up, he regretted it very much and desperately gave rewards to others.
Let's see, is this in line with the rest conditions that a patient should have? Especially drinking and indulgence! And xianfeng's performance is like a normal emperor?
So why did Xianfeng do this? Many people think that this is "self-inflicted death"! Qian Yong, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, said in the "Words of the Garden": The ancient heroes are not ambitious, and those who end up with a drunken woman are not the same. Xian Feng may be like this, the huge psychological pressure and painful psychological state makes Xian Feng have no nostalgia for the earthly world, so he chose to use such a bad way but survived.
Author: Yun Fan