Reigns of Xianfeng Period
On February 11th of the second year of Reigns of Feng (February 1852, at the age of seventeen), Yehnela was selected to enter the palace, and was given the name Lan Guiren.
Cixi
On February 2, Xianfeng 4 (1854, age 19), she was promoted to Yi concubine.
In March of the sixth year of Xianfeng's reign (1856), she gave birth to Emperor Xianfeng's only son, Zaichun, the Tongzhi Emperor, and was promoted to Yi Concubine.
At the beginning of the first month of the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857, at the age of twenty-two), she was promoted to Yi Guifei. [2]
The Emperor's frailty and illness, coupled with the invasion of Beijing by the British and French forces in the north and the anti-Qing peasant movement in the south, caused him to suffer from both internal and external problems, leaving him with an emaciated state of mind. Yi Guifei work in calligraphy, so the Xianfeng emperor often oral and let his pen to read the zhangzhang, and allow Yi Guifei to express their own views, so the ministers more than Yehnala's dissatisfaction. [3]
Tongzhi period
In 1860, before the Anglo-French allied forces attacked Beijing, Yehnala fled to Jehol with Emperor Xianfeng. [4]
In August 1861, Emperor Xianfeng died in Jehol, before his death, Prince Yi Zaiyuan, Prince Zheng Duanhua, Jingshou, Associate University Minister Shangshu Sushun, Mu Yin, Kuangyuan, Du Han, Jiao Youying eight people appointed as Zanxiang political affairs of the King's Ministers to assist the Tongzhi Emperor Zaichun to deal with the dynastic government; and to the Empress and the Crown Prince (by the Emperor's biological mother, Princess Yi, on behalf of the two seals on behalf of the imperial power, hoping that they are to hold each other in check! . [3]
Tongzhi Emperor
After the death of Emperor Xianfeng, his son Zaichun assumed the throne, and was given the name "Kixiang". Yehnala's and Empress Nuhu Lu's (then Queen Cian of the Middle Kingdom) and honored as Empress Dowager. Eight Ministers attempted to dictatorship, the strong desire for power Cixi is very dissatisfied, so the joint in Beijing to preside over the peace talks with the Xianfeng Emperor's younger brother Prince Gong Yixin, the use of the emperor and Xianfeng Emperor's Zi Gong back to Beijing, the opportunity to launch the Xin You coup, designed to arrest the eight Ministers, sentenced Prince Yi Zaiyuan, Prince Zheng Duanhua self-execution, Su Shun beheading, and others dismissed. Yixin was appointed as the King of Parliamentary Affairs. [2]
December 2, 1861, changed the year "Tongzhi", the two empress dowager Royal Palace of Yangxin Hall, the curtain to listen to the government. At the beginning of the ruling period, she was assisted by the King Yixin, rectification of officials, reuse of Han officials, rely on Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and other Han landlords armed; and in the support of the Powers, has suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Twisted Troops, Miao people, the Hui people's revolt, alleviated the Qing dynasty's ruling crisis, the Qing dynasty has been temporarily stabilized. Out of the maintenance of feudal autocracy, she also reused the foreign affairs school, to "self-improvement" and "wealth" policy, the development of a number of military and civilian industries, training of the navy and the army in order to strengthen the regime's strength. Objectively, it played a positive role in the modernization of China. During this period, the domestic uprising was pacified, the two Opium Wars temporarily satisfied the greed of the great powers, diplomacy did not suffer a great loss, the Qing dynasty's military power improved after the foreign affairs movement, and the industry and commerce had a preliminary development, which was called the "Tongzhi Zhongxing". [5]
Tongzhi eleven years (1872), Dai-chun has been 17 years old, Cixi had to choose for him, the following year, the two empress dowager curtains back to the government. But the Tongzhi emperor after the pro-government is still difficult to get rid of Cixi's intervention. Cixi in order to enjoy, authorized with the emperor to repair the Yuanmingyuan for its residence, with the emperor also wanted to take this opportunity to let the empress dowager live away from the palace to get rid of Cixi intervention in the government, however, the financial constraints, the Yuanmingyuan and the destruction of the serious, the restoration of the huge cost, with the emperor insisted on construction, caused by the Yixin and other Ministers and other opposition, the emperor will be dismissed all of them. Cixi intervened to stop this decision. [6]
Guangxu period
In January 1875, the Tongzhi Emperor died of illness. Cixi made her nephew, 4-year-old Aisin Gioro Jaizuo (爱新觉罗-载湉), the nephew of her husband, emperor, and renamed him Guangxu (光绪), and the two empress dowagers were once again subject to the rule of the emperor.
Cixi
1865-1870, the Central Asian Khanate invaders Agubai invaded and stole most of Xinjiang; 1871, Tsarist Russia sent troops to occupy the Ili region. 1875, Cixi adopted the Shaanxi-Gansu Governor Zuo Zongtang's proposal to send troops to Xinjiang, the Qing army recovered Xinjiang in January 1878; 1881, China and Russia through negotiation, China recovered Xinjiang. In 1881, China recovered most of Yili through Sino-Russian negotiations. [7]
On April 8, 1881, Empress Dowager Ci'an died at the age of 45, officially of a cerebral hemorrhage, but folklore attributes her death to Cixi.
1883-1885, the Sino-French War broke out, the two sides in the military victory and defeat, but the Qing government headed by Cixi, but advocated "take advantage of the victory that is to be harvested", and France signed the "Sino-French New Pact", which in turn enabled France to gain a lot of benefits of aggression. [8]
April 8, 1884, Cixi launched the Jiashen Yishu dynasty change, the Prince Gong Yixin as the head of the Office of the Minister of Military Affairs dismissed the whole class, the beginning of the Western Palace dictatorship.
February 1889, Guangxu wedding, nominally by the Guangxu Emperor's pro-government, Cixi and training for several years. At the end of the training, all the people within the administration, still out of his hand, "on (Guangxu Emperor) things the Empress Dowager honored, the court's major policies, must ask for orders to be done."
In 1894, Prince Mellow borrowed Cixi's 60th birthday to be "congratulated in the Summer Palace, like the Kangxi and Qianlong years into the example of the park, from Danei, the road by, set up a color shed by the altar, held a celebration. Move the Navy funds, repair the Summer Palace, set up a point of view, widely received contributions. Is the year, coincided with Japan launched Sino-Japanese War. Guangxu main war, Cixi also main war, "not allowed to show weakness". However, when someone proposed to stop the Summer Palace project, stop doing attractions, move for military expenses, Cixi was furious, said "today make me unhappy, I will also make him unhappy" words. Later, the Qing army in Korea on the battlefield lost one after another, the Beiyang naval division in the Yellow Sea battle and suffered a serious setback. In order not to interfere with her sixtieth anniversary, Cixi hoped that foreign countries intervene to end the war as soon as possible. She supported Li Hongzhang's policy of avoiding war and seeking peace, with a variety of excuses, to combat the main war faction led by Guangxu. Due to the increasingly tense situation, in the face of the heavy pressure of the dynasty and the countryside, she can no longer be bent on having a big show, had to change the original plan, scaled down the scale of the birthday celebration. In Jinzhou, Dalian fell one after another, Lushun in critical condition, Cixi in the Forbidden City Ning Shou Palace spent her 60th birthday. On February 7 of the following year, the Japanese ships and batteries at Weihaiwei attacked Liugong Island, and the Beiyang navy was completely destroyed. China's defeat on both land and sea battlefields, led by Cixi's determination to seek peace with Japan, in March, Cixi sent Li Hongzhang as Minister Plenipotentiary, went to Japan to beg for peace, April 17 signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China gave up the status of the Korean suzerainty, 200 million taels of silver in reparations, the cession of Liaodong Peninsula (in the intervention of the Russians, Germans, French and other Western powers, and then 30 million taels of silver), Taiwan, China, Taiwan, China, and the United States. China ceded the Liaodong Peninsula (after the intervention of Russia, Germany, France and other Western powers, it was later redeemed with 30 million taels of silver), Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands, and opened four ports of entry to Japan, allowing Japan to set up mines and factories there. [9]
After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the great powers set off a frenzy to partition China. In order to save the country, the bourgeois reformists initiated the Hundred Days' Reform (known as the Hundred Days' Reform), for which Cixi hoped to strengthen the country, but feared that Guangxu would take advantage of the Reform to break away from her control, and initially expressed her support for the Reform, but she then took the military power, and the power of the employer in her own hand. 1898, in June 1898, Guangxu issued the emperor's "Mingdingguo yishu shi oracle" (i.e., the "Mingdingguo yishu edict"). The Emperor Guangxu issued the Emperor's "Enlightened Statehood Oracle" (i.e., the "Edict on the Establishment of the Statehood of China") in June 1898, and introduced a change of law. Emperor Guangxu's change of law touched the interests of the old power of Manchurian aristocracy and many feudal bureaucrats, who gathered and opposed the change of law. When they heard that Emperor Guangxu attempted to have Yuan Shikai send troops to surround the garden and kill Ronglu, Cixi and others staged the Hundred Days' Rebellion, detained Emperor Guangxu, and executed Tan Sitong and other six people. [10]
Late years of discipline
After the Hundred Days' Rebellion, the Boxer Rebellion emerged in northern China, and Cixi's initial main suppression failed repeatedly, with the Boxer Rebellion growing rapidly and entering Beijing. Cixi hoped that the suppression and pacification and differentiated treatment of the Boxer Rebellion, but the powers demanded that the Qing government completely eliminate the Boxer Rebellion, and insisted on transferring troops to Beijing despite the opposition of the Qing government. Cixi, who had always been dissatisfied with the foreigners, had the idea of using the Boxer Rebellion to fight against the Great Powers, and declared war on the Great Powers (and did not issue an edict declaring war). Cixi's decision, was Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong and other local governors of the opposition, they jointly telegraphed the Qing court, advocating the elimination of the Boxer Rebellion, and with the Powers of the treaty, the implementation of the "Southeast Mutual Security". Cixi on the one hand, asked the provincial generals and governors to seriously arrange the war matters, continue to use the Boxer Rebellion siege of the Embassy, the resistance to the Eight-Power Allied Forces; on the other hand, she made Ronglu went to the Embassy to the condolences of the ambassadors of various countries, respectively, to the letter to the heads of state in the Russia, Britain, Japan, Germany, the United States, France and so on, and asked them to come forward to "solve the problem", "restore the situation", and the Governor Li Hongzhang will be transferred to the Governor of Zhili and Beiyang Minister, ready to negotiate with the powers. But the Eight-Power Allied Forces did not stop attacking.
August 14, 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces attacked Beijing; the next morning, the attack on the Forbidden City Donghuamen, Cixi fled to Xi'an with Emperor Guangxu, the Empress and others, so that Yikuang, Li Hongzhang as Minister Plenipotentiary, and the Powers of negotiation, the responsibility for the war put on the Boxer Rebellion, and ordered the Boxer Rebellion, "painfully eliminated". February 14, 1901 approved "outline of peace", and issued an oracle, said to "measure the material resources of China, and the joy of the country." [11] On September 7 of the same year, the Treaty of Xinchou was signed with eleven imperialist countries, stipulating that 450 million taels of silver would be paid out according to the size of China's population at the time, and that 980 million taels of silver would be paid out within 39 years, that the war officials would be punished, and that all the forts along the route from Dagu to Beijing would be dismantled. [10] On October 6 of the same year, Cixi sent tens of thousands of soldiers with 3,000 baggage wagons from Xi'an, out of the Tongguan Pass through Henan and Zhili, which lasted three months on January 8, 1902 back to Beijing. [12-13]
In order to maintain her rule and change the image of herself as an old-fashioned and incompetent person, the Empress Dowager Cixi announced the New Deal during the Western Hunt, carrying out reforms of the economy, the military, education, and the official system.
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out in northeastern China, and the Qing government, led by Cixi, declared its neutrality, resulting in Japan's victory over Russia. People in China generally realized that a constitutional monarchy was better than a monarchy, and demanded the Qing government to carry out constitutional reforms; at the same time, the revolutionary movement in China also became more and more intense. In order to maintain her rule, Cixi made a gesture to establish a constitution, sending five ministers to study abroad in 1905, announcing the preparation of a constitution in 1906, and promulgating the "Outline of the Constitution" in 1908, which was modeled on the constitutions of Germany and Japan, and defended the emperor's "sovereignty". [14]
In 1908, because Cixi through the photo diplomacy, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill to return more than 10 million U.S. dollars in reparations for the Gengzi, mainly used to support China's official students in the U.S.; after that, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy, Holland, and so on successively; the seven countries returned to China of the Gengzi "overflows "total, about 300 million taels of silver in the customs, on the establishment of education is quite effective, should be affirmed.
November 14, 1908, the death of Emperor Guangxu, Daxing Emperor without heir, by her order, by Prince Jaifeng of alcohol for the Regent, his son Puyi for the emperor, the year number Xuantong, Cixi was honored as Empress Dowager.
November 15, 1908 at 17:00 (not precisely three quarters), Yehnala's in Zhongnanhai Yi Luan Hall died at the age of seventy-four. Cixi's dying words said: "Hereafter, women can not be heard of the national government. This is contrary to the family law, must be strictly limited. In particular, must be strictly guarded against, not to make eunuchs unauthorized. The end of the Ming Dynasty, can be a lesson!" [15]
Xuantong first year (1909) in October, buried in Zunhua City, Hebei Province, Bodhidayu Dingdong Mausoleum, set the emblem "Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyuzhuang Chengshou Gongqinxian Chongxi Dowager Empress Dowager", posthumous title "Filial Piety Chin Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyuzhuang Chengshou Gongqinxian Chongxi with the day Xingxingxing Shengxian Empress ", referred to as" filial piety qin xian empress ", posthumous name **** 22 words, the length of the posthumous name more than the founding empress of the Qing dynasty filial piety ci, the dynasty filial piety virtue, filial piety chastity two empresses, for the Qing dynasty and the Chinese empresses of all times.
Character Evaluation
Positive Evaluation
Dowager Empress Dowager Cixi was one of the few women who stayed in power for a long time during the imperial era of Chinese history, and her political skills were so skillful that she was especially good at maneuvering the balance of power between her relatives and courtiers in order to maintain her own absolute authority, and the Qing Dynasty was renewed for decades because of her ability. During Cixi's reign, the centralization of the Qing court and China's sovereignty faced various threats from both internal and foreign sources. From the standpoint of defending the authority of the Qing empire and her own power, her initiatives were not entirely successful, but most of them were reasonable when placed in the context of history as a balanced argument. In response to the challenges from European and American powers since the Opium Wars, as well as the suppression of civil disobedience such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Cixi reappointed Li Hongzhang. Cixi reused Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other important Han Chinese officials to start the foreign affairs movement at the local level, which was the beginning of China's development of modernized industry. Supported by the achievements of the foreign affairs movement, the Qing court was able to quell internal rebellious forces, maintain the relative stability of China under the imperial system, and build a modern army and navy, creating the "Tongzhi Zhongxing" weather.
Cixi's means of reform is in fact very clever, the Hundred Days' Reform is too fast, simply a farce, impossible to succeed. After a disaster in the year of Gengzi, the Empress Dowager Cixi realized that the situation has not allowed her to adhere to the imperial tradition, the so-called "ancestral law", is to allow the Qing court to develop a variety of new political measures. Gengzi after the New Deal is involved in a variety of things, which is eminent, including: the official system of change, prepare for constitutionalism, the abolition of the imperial examination system, the ban on women's foot-binding, women's school, the new school, the Gengzi refunds to the construction of education, and so on.
Negative evaluation
Personal personality, Cixi from the court struggle to seize power cruelty. 1861, after the death of Emperor Xianfeng in the summer residence in Jehol, just became the Empress Dowager of the Yehnela's, united with Prince Gong Yi and other royal family close to the branch, staged a coup d'état from the royal family to the far branch of Prince Yi Zaiwang, Prince Zheng Duanhua, the head, the actual to be able to minister Su Shun as the core of the eight ministers of the Gu Ming Group, and three of them (Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Su Shun) were executed. In order to establish and maintain her dictatorial power, the Empress Dowager Cixi was ruthless in her purges of her political opponents, and her control over her own son, the Tongzhi Emperor, as well as her successor, the Guangxu Emperor, was also severe and oppressive.
From the point of view of China's national sovereignty, the results of Cixi's rule have also received a lot of negative comments, including the signing of the Sino-French Treaty of Tientsin in 1885, which led to the loss of the sovereignty of Annam by the Qing empire, despite the fact that Cixi had won a great victory over the French at the Zhennan Pass in the war against the French and had successfully prevented the French from landing on Taiwan. In addition, the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 and the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace in 1901, which caused China to lose major rights, was due to the defeat in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and the disaster of the Gengzi Boxing Rebellion in 1900. Cixi's rule and decision-making in the occurrence of these two events, are not to be shirked the responsibility. Although Cixi was politically very skillful, her highest goal was still to maintain the Manchu rule over China. The above list of several humiliating war results, not necessarily so, which Zhennanguan victory after the Qing-French war and Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War is to continue the war than to accept the humiliation of the conditions of the peace to be more favorable, but continue the war, although the results will defeat the domestic chaos of France, or in the Sino-Japanese War dragged down at the time of the country's power is about to run out of Japan, so that the Chinese people have a better result, but is likely to let the Manchu central government because of the protracted war, but it is also very important for the Chinese people. Cixi, as the highest authority, refused to cancel the short-sighted negotiation of peace and acceptance of shame that had sustained 300 people, which, while reflecting her political skill, also worsened the future of modern China many times. After the Gengzi Incident, when China was faced with the huge amount of reparations from the Xinchou peace treaty, its extravagance still did not see obvious convergence, making the financial problems of the late Qing Dynasty already stretched to the limit even worse, and the people's livelihood withered and closed. [30]
Foreign appraisals
The few who met the Empress Dowager described her as a tall woman with a straight frame and a beautiful face. She had eagle eyes and distinctly Tatar features. Her manner was noble and haughty, and her voice was marked by unshakeable authority and absolute majesty. [31]
---- Eliza Ruhama Sidmo, China, the Empire of Longevity
Being a Manchu woman, the chances of acquiring knowledge of those military affairs would have been slim, but she was completely different from those who only knew the However, she was completely different from the Empress Dowager, who only knew about women's honor. She was always calm and collected when dealing with important matters, and the gateway to China was never opened in the face of hostile forces, which is unique in the history of China's semi-dictatorship, and if we want to find a reason for this, I think we can only say that the ruler herself possessed a unique quality and talent.
---- Arthur H. Smith, China in Turmoil
The most interesting celebrity in China during the last thirty years has undoubtedly been the lady we call the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager has been in the forefront of every movement of a reforming nature during her reign in the curtain, and the nature of her rule can only be judged by the nature of that period. Lacking a definite center on which to base its will and feeling, diplomacy failed. Its levers found no fulcrum. Thus success in China was ever to be obtained only by military force. Is it really a great impossibility to deal with such a woman as the Empress Dowager? [32]
---- Blackwood's Magazine
In the Hundred Days' Reform, Empress Dowager Cixi almost lost her life and power, but she also gained a lot from the Hundred Days' Reform, and she began to turn into a supporter of innovative policies. She began to become a supporter of innovation. In fact, she was far superior to her nephew, Emperor Guangxu. "Long live the Empress Dowager!" "The Empress Dowager will take the throne in the future!" Throughout her life, she was counted on to keep advancing the goals she so passionately supported. She held the power firmly in her hands, and her surge of state said that she dared to steer the chariots of the country on a new road that had never been traveled before. She knew that she could count on the support of those governors and governors, who had been appointed by her personally. She also knew that the spirit of reform had spread throughout the land and that the people would support her from the bottom of their hearts.
----W-A-P-Martin The Awakening of China
The first reception of seven ladies from the diplomatic corps by the Empress Dowager Cixi was made possible by the efforts and urging of the Foreign Minister.
The 1900 Troubles After the end, the court returned to Beijing and the attitude of the Empress Dowager changed considerably, she initiated many invitations to meet, and everyone naturally accepted *** to lunch. It was during private meetings that this great woman would display her wit and femininity in the splendor and attraction of being a hostess. She would take her guests by the hand and inquire in the most concerned tone whether we were tired from our journey to the palace; she would complain of the cold weather in summer; she was anxious whenever the food was not to our taste; and she would tell us in the most affectionate tone that it was a blessing for her to see us. She was able to fascinate all her guests, even if they were prejudiced before, and her ability to take care of each and every one of them showed her sophisticated ability as a hostess.
---- Mrs. Conger (Mrs. Conger, U.S. Ambassador to China), "Letters from China."