Natural dragon species
In the thirty-second year of Guangxu (A.D. 1906), on the fourteenth day of the first month, a newborn baby was born. He was Aisin Giorro Puyi, the last emperor of China.
Puyi, whose real name is Haoran, is Aisingiorro. Manning's great-grandson, Emperor Daoguang of Xuanzong of Qing Dynasty, grandson of Yi Xuan, seventh brother of Emperor Xianfeng of Wenzong of Qing Dynasty, fifth brother of Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty, and eldest son of Zai Feng, the second generation alcohol prince. According to this system, it seems that Puyi was born as a dragon, so he should be an emperor. However, on closer inspection, things are far from simple.
The gratitude and resentment of predecessors
After Emperor Xianfeng, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, the heir was cut off. Zai Chun, the Tongzhi Emperor, and Zai Tian, the Guangxu Emperor, reigned for 47 years, and there were no children in the palace. Yi Xuan, the father of Emperor Guangxu, had no clear views. His mother was the sister of Empress Dowager Cixi. When Tongzhi died, Zai Tian was only 4 years old, equivalent to Emperor Tongzhi, so that Cixi could be in charge of state affairs as Empress Dowager Cixi. Therefore, Cixi resolutely abandoned the ancestral system, cut off her own son Tongzhi, and simply adopted 4-year-old Zai Tian as her own son, succeeding Emperor Wenzong Xianfeng. Therefore, Zai Tian, who is no different from the sons and grandsons of other recent kings, suddenly became the real dragon emperor.
After Yi Xuan's death, posthumous title was named "Prince Xian" and later called Prince Chun Xian. Prince Chun Xian has four Fujins and seven sons. The first four sons were born to Ye Lahu, the sister of Empress Dowager Cixi. One, three and four of them all died young, and the second son, Zai Tian, adopted Cixi as his son at the age of four. The last three sons, Zai Feng, Jae-hoon and Zai Tao, were born to Liu Jia, the grandmother of the second Fujin Puyi. Because three of the first four sons died young, one became emperor, and the fifth son, Zai Feng, succeeded to the throne and became the second generation prince of alcohol.
When Zai Feng was 8 years old, he inherited the throne, which was the legacy of Prince Chun Xian. He acted like his father. But he became the emperor's father like the first generation of alcohol prince, not because he had a sister of Empress Dowager Cixi like the old alcohol prince, but for other reasons.
1898 After the coup, Guangxu was imprisoned in Yingtai, but as long as he is alive, it is a huge potential threat to die-hards such as Cixi. So they tried their best to eradicate the future trouble, and the result was that foreigners failed to intervene. So Cixi decided to use the Boxer Rebellion to kill foreigners, and at the same time let the powers understand that it was she who controlled the situation in China, not Guangxu. As a result, it was self-defeating and almost punished by the powers as the "culprit." In sharp contrast, the commander-in-chief of Eight-Nation Alliance, Wa Sid, publicly asked Zai Feng, the fifth brother of Guangxu, to apologize for the killing of Minister Cleander in the Boxer Rebellion. After Zai Feng arrived in Germany, she was treated with grand courtesy by the German royal family, which added another layer of anxiety to Cixi. It turned out that before this, Cixi was told that there was a tall ginkgo tree on the tomb of Prince Chun Xian in Miao Feng. Adding "white" to "king" was just the word "emperor", so Chunwangfu was the emperor. Although Cixi didn't necessarily believe this statement, she immediately sent someone to cut down the ginkgo tree. However, the ginkgo tree was cut down, but the crown of Guangxu was not taken off, and the attitude of the powers towards Guangxu brothers remained unchanged. In order to ease the contradictions between the parties and ensure her position, Cixi felt it necessary to think of a good strategy. This "good plan" was soon discovered by her: that is, to marry the Prince of Alcohol and let the daughter of confidant Rong Lu marry Zai Feng.
Since Guangxu can't move for the time being, foreigners seem to attach great importance to Guangxu brothers. It is always beneficial to build a bridge between Rong Lu's daughter, a close friend and himself. However, at this time, I'm afraid she hasn't set up another emperor in Chunwangfu. It should be said that Yi Kuang, the prince of the Qing court, and Yuan Shikai, who made great achievements after the coup in 1898, contributed to the second emperor in Chunwangfu.
Yi Kuang is the grandson of Yong Phosphorus, seventeen sons of Qianlong. Greedy and vulgar, good at speculating and profiting. When Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, he was ordered to make peace and make friends with foreigners. At the same time, she was valued by Cixi and later by the military department, and rose to the high position of chief military minister.
Since the coup in 1898, Yuan Shikai has made great contributions to Cixi. Since then, his official career has flourished and soared. In a few years, he was promoted from the provincial judge of Zhili to the governor of Shandong, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang and the minister of foreign affairs. During this period, he bribed Yi Kuang, the Qing prince who could sell his ancestors as long as he gave money, and expanded the Beiyang New Army by reforming the military system and other means, almost making the Beiyang Army obey him completely.
The actions of Yi Kuang and Yuan Shikai made Cixi feel uneasy. Therefore, taking the opportunity of preparing for constitutionalism, she proposed that Yuan Shikai join the military department to restore Yuan's military power. Yuan Shikai, with a keen sense of political smell, also felt that the climate was somewhat abnormal. Before Cixi gave the order, he took the initiative to hand over the military power of Beiyang. As an official of the Han nationality, Yuan Shikai's actions not only did not reassure Cixi, but reminded Cixi of Yuan Shikai's performance in the Reform Movement of 1898. Cixi foresaw a terrible threat, not only to herself, but also to Ai Xinjue Roche. She knew that Yuan Shikai's surrender of Beiyang military power was not from his original intention, and his actual control over Beiyang army was far from being lifted overnight. However, the revolutionaries called for "expelling the Tatars and restoring China" and made a big fuss about it, and decided to implement the "Three People's Principles" in China. On the other hand, the constitutionalists took advantage of the opportunity of the imperial court to imitate constitutionalism and made a scene, which was bound to share power; Guangxu was imprisoned in Yingtai for nearly 10 years. He was terminally ill and could not bear it ... He was exhausted by reasoning, and in the autumn of 1908, he was seriously ill. At this moment, a news came that shocked her: Yuan Shikai planned to abolish Guangxu and make Yi Kuang's son Zai Zhen emperor. In order to love the country and future generations of Xinjue Roche, Cixi thought it was time to take decisive measures.
After repeated weighing, Cixi finally made up her mind. In order to implement the decisive measures that she thought could determine the fate of the Qing Empire, after being convinced that Guangxu was dying soon, Yi Kuang, the prince of Qing Dynasty, personally visited Dongling Project, and at the same time transferred Beiyang Army from Beijing, the sixth town of Yuan Shikai's cronies, and made the first town under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War Shangshu come to Beijing for disaster relief. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), Emperor Guangxu was critically ill on October 20th. Cixi issued the imperial edict of "conferring Prince Zai Feng as Regent" and ordered Zai Feng's eldest son, Puyi, who was over 3 years old, to be sent to the palace for support. Yi Kuang received an urgent letter from the army the day before, and returned to Beijing on a starry night to understand water under the bridge.
On October 21st, the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), Guangxu died, and Cixi wrote to the courtiers: Puyi, son of Regent Zai Feng, "The author succeeded Datong as the prince ... and Mu is the heir, and the heir is still in his prime, so he should concentrate on canon studies, take the Regent as the supervisor of the country, and take charge of the military. 2 1 day, she was "dealing with big things all day, but she got a rest at night." Although she works very hard, she is in better health. The next day, at six o'clock, the military plane was called to have a long talk with the queen, the regent of the prison country and Fujin, the daughter of Rong Lu, and issued letters in the name of the new emperor, honoring the queen (Guangxu Yulong) as the "queen mother". I didn't expect to faint at lunch. When I woke up, I felt abnormal. I know the end has come. I urgently summoned the Queen Mother Yulong to supervise the Regent and others, saying, "Now I am in a critical situation, and I am afraid I can't bear it. Later, military and state affairs will be ruled by the Regent. In case of major events, I must ask the queen mother for instructions on an imperial decree, and the Regent should carry it out at any time. "After this arrangement, Cixi died peacefully. She thought that with Guangxu's brother as the regent and his niece in power, the land of the Qing Dynasty would be foolproof.
Xuan Tong ascended the throne.
After the death of Guangxu and Cixi, after more than half a month's preparation and planning, the ministers decided that the new emperor would hold the "Deng Ji Grand Ceremony" on November 9, the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), with the title of Xuan Tong and the year of Xuantongyuan next year.
On this day, the weather was surprisingly cold. The tenth emperor of the Qing Dynasty announced that the "Deng Ji Grand Ceremony" was held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. On the high dragon pier, Puyi, a little emperor under 3 years old, was shivering with cold and couldn't sit still. His father, Zai Feng, the regent of the state prison, got down on one knee at the foot of Longdun, holding the little emperor in his hands to accept the greetings from the royal princes and officials. Before entering the Hall of Supreme Harmony, when the ministers who led the guards bowed down in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the little emperor could not bear to lose his temper. He went to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, sat on the Lenglongdun, and watched the princes and officials kowtow three times in turn. After endless, he couldn't sit still, crying and shouting: "I don't want to stay here, I want to go home!" " I'm not staying here, I want to go home! "The regent of the prison could not stop the little emperor from crying, but he dared not stand up and hug him. He had to hold the little emperor firmly on the dragon pier and coax him into saying, "Don't cry, don't cry, it's over, it's over." The "Deng Ji Grand Ceremony" of the tenth emperor of the Qing Dynasty ended in such crying and persuasion. Three years later, the rule of the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for more than 260 years, came to an end in the upsurge of the Revolution of 1911.