Monarch Profile: Emperor Tongzhi of China

It is an unfortunate fact that many, when looking back on the history of fallen dynasties, tend to take that downfall as an inevitable fact and allow this to prejudice their view of monarchs ruling during what is, retroactively of course, referred to as the latter stages of a dynasty. This causes them to emphasize the negative, discount the positive and ignore what were real and legitimate instances of a reversal in fortunes or at least the possibility for rejuvenation. Such is the case with the Tongzhi Emperor, tenth monarch of the Qing Dynasty of Manchuria. He was born, Prince Zaichun, on April 27, 1856 the only son of Emperor Xianfeng by his powerful consort Tzu-hsi (Cixi). He was only five years old when his father died and from that moment on was at the center of intrigues on the part of his formidable mother. Emperor Xianfeng had originally intended for General Sushun to act as head of a regency committee for his young son but this plan was thwarted by an alliance Cixi forged with Empress Xiao Chen (who had given the Emperor a daughter) and the Emperor’s brother Prince Kong (Aisin-Gioro Yixin). Cixi and Xiao Chen were both raised to the status of Dowager Empress and for Cixi it would mark the beginning of her fifty year hold on power in China.

However, the alliance was an uneasy one. Whereas Empress Dowager Cixi tended to be suspicious of any change to the established, traditional system, Prince Kong was in favor of modernization (especially in the military) and tended to prefer cooperation with the western powers over antagonism. Under this triumvirate the Great Qing Empire first began to step onto the world stage, establishing a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and promoting the study of foreign languages. As a child, Emperor Tongzhi was left mostly in the care of a small army of fawning eunuchs who were not always a good influence on him. While his tutors strove to instill in him the traditional Confucian virtues, the eunuchs were all too willing to please him by indulging his every whim and, at times, introducing him to some he might not have considered on his own. In 1873 the young Emperor was declared to be of age and he began his official duties. One of these, keeping with the changing times, was to receive foreign ambassadors and he did so, meeting with the representatives of Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, The Netherlands and the United States. As an another sign of how things were changing, none were obliged to kowtow in the presence of the young ‘Son of Heaven’.

In spite of official declarations, Empress Dowager Cixi continued to be the real power behind the throne, though initially she was not the only one struggling to dominate the halls of power in the name of the Tongzhi Emperor. The young monarch became listless and disheartened under such domination and drifted back to the eunuchs he had known all his short life who were more than willing to help him flee his troubles through overindulgence in women and alcohol. His mother responded by getting her 16-year old son married, though she clashed with Empress Dowager Xiao Chen over who it should be, until Tongzhi chose Xiaozheyi of the Alute clan, Mongol Plain Blue Banner, daughter of a prominent nobleman and scholar. However, marriage brought little lasting peace to the life of the Emperor. He had other concubines but favored his Empress above all and spent most every night with her. Empress Dowager Cixi, never terribly fond of the girl, accused her of trying to monopolize the affections of her husband and depriving the other consorts of his affections. Eventually, she would go so far as to order the two to separate.

Meanwhile, on the political scene, some actions where being taken in an effort to strengthen and modernize China as the recent defeats in the Opium Wars and the exorbitantly costly victory over the Taiping Rebellion had proven to all that some change was necessary or China would be surpassed and swallowed up by foreign powers. The shining example on how this could be done was the Meiji Restoration in Japan. In a very short period of time, the Empire of Japan had become a major regional power with modern industry, infrastructure and military might that secured it against foreign interference while also maintaining the imperial system and the traditional culture and values of Japan. This would not be the last time that something similar for the Great Qing Empire was considered. Toward that end, a number of reforms were enacted as part of the so-called Tongzhi Restoration. This included the aforementioned establishment of the Foreign Ministry and Institute for Foreign Languages as well as enlisted the aid of foreign powers in certain areas. Primarily, this meant the Imperial Maritime Customs Service which was essentially set up to enlist foreigners in China to deal with the foreigners who had dominated the Chinese coast since 1860. It was staffed by foreigners and a British national was put in charge. The IMCS collected revenue and excise duties for the imperial government and it proved to be a major success and has been described by more than a few as the only arm of the Chinese government that worked efficiently and well.

The Tongzhi Restoration, however, did not go anywhere close to the lengths that the Meiji Restoration did in Japan. It was intended to focus on “practical knowledge” while shunning western ideas about philosophy or politics. That would probably have been okay but there was such opposition that permission to limit modernization was often stretched to mean that many refused to implement any real modernization at all. There were also problems at court with the Emperor and his mother not on good terms and with cracks beginning to appear in the triumvirate that still held considerable power despite the fact that Emperor Tongzhi was supposed to be in charge. Empress Dowager Cixi suggested that the Emperor build himself a new residence and he seemed quite taken by the idea but Prince Kong refused to allocate the funds for it. Some have wondered since if the Empress Dowager expected this. Emperor Tongzhi was enraged and distraught by this, yet another example of how he was not being allowed to rule as he pleased and how everyone seemed dedicated to thwarting him and his happiness. He went back to trying to forget his sorrow, came down with smallpox but seemed to recover from it. Then, quite suddenly, Emperor Tongzhi died on January 12, 1875.

Due to the circumstances, many wondered if the Empress Dowager had not had her own son poisoned to remove him from the influence of his wife and prevent him from removing her from power. When the Empress Consort later committed suicide many also suspected the Empress Dowager of being behind it. Whatever the case may be, it was a sad end to a monarch who, despite much over-indulgence, had lived a rather sad life from start to finish. Emperor Tongzhi is often portrayed very critically as being willful, over-emotional and dissolute. However, what faults he had were mostly not of his own making but were the result of how he was treated by others. He also possessed positive qualities which are often overlooked. Had he been free to rule as he wished, aided by his very intelligent Empress consort, and had the Tongzhi Restoration lived up to its potential, there is every possibility that the era of Tongzhi might have gone down in Chinese history as the period when the Manchu dynasty revived itself and put Imperial China on the path to prestige and prosperity.

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Monarch Profile: Emperor GuangXu of China

One of the great “might have been” figures of late Imperial China was the weak but romantic and high-minded Emperor Guangxu, the last monarch but one of the Qing Imperial Dynasty. He was born Prince Aisin-Gioro Zaitian on August 14, 1871 to Yixuan, the first Prince Chun (son of Emperor Daoguang) and Yehenara Wanzhen who was a younger sister of the formidable Empress Dowager Cixi. He had little time for a normal childhood when Emperor Tongzhi died in 1875. Empress Dowager Ci’an (second empress consort of Emperor Xianfeng) first suggested the family of Prince Gong to carry on the family line but Empress Dowager Cixi blocked that idea and instead put forward her nephew Zaitian for the job. The Imperial Family agreed, Empress Cixi adopted her nephew as her own son and on February 25, 1874 the four-year-old boy formally became Guangxu (“The Glorious Succession”), “Great Emperor of the Great Qing Dynasty, Grand Khan of Tartary, the Son of Heaven and Lord of 10,000 Years”. For the sake of tradition he was legally declared the successor of Emperor Xianfeng rather than Emperor Tongzhi but “Holy Mother Empress Dowager Cixi” continued to rule herself as regent.

As a child, Emperor Guangxu was terrified by the Empress Dowager and remained intimidated by her throughout his life. However, he had a good relationship with his tutor (later the Minister of Revenue) Weng Tonghe, a Confucian scholar who had previously been tutor to Emperor Tongzhi. As he grew up there was no escaping the fact that Imperial China was being overtaken as the preeminent power in East Asia. The British had moved into Burma, France was in control of Indochina, Russia was taking a greater interest in the region, Japan was rapidly modernizing and China seemed to be standing still. As he grew into adulthood, Emperor Guangxu became more concerned with this situation and finding a way out of the downward spiral China seemed to be in. His tutor, Weng Tonghe, suggested a reform-minded mandarin named Kang Youwei who, in turn, recommended to the Emperor others who were committed to reforming Chinese society. Empress-Dowager Cixi retired to the Summer Palace, leaving politics behind (or at least so she claimed) which put Emperor Guangxu in actual control of China for the first time. With the support of men like Kang Youwei and Liang Qiqao, in June of 1898 Emperor Guangxu began what is now known as the One Hundred Days Reform.

Emperor Guangxu, and his entourage of like-minded mandarins, issued a veritable flood of imperial edicts aimed at reforming virtually every segment of Chinese society. The idea was to remake the Qing Empire along lines inspired by western countries and particularly the Empire of Japan. Just like the Japanese they hoped to create a modern infrastructure, economy, military, educational system and even a constitutional government with representative assemblies but doing it all within the traditional imperial system and with the Emperor retaining final authority. However, while Japan had modernized at breathtaking speed, Emperor Guangxu was trying to go even faster and Chinese society reeled from the impact of all the proposed changes. It also upset the old order which went looking for help at the door of Empress-Dowager Cixi. These included many officials Emperor Guangxu dismissed for being incompetent at worst or opposed to his reforms or reform schedule at best. There were also those who stood to lose power or position as a result of the reforms. Some were also genuinely concerned that foreign powers stood to take advantage of China through the flood of reforms, gaining influence in details of the mountain of edicts Emperor Guangxu put his seal on.

Empress Dowager Cixi and her supporters gathered military support with the aim of effectively deposing Emperor Guangxu to put a stop to all the drastic changes. A key figure was General Yuan Shihkai who was put in charge of the primary defensive force around the Emperor. However, at a key moment, he threw his support behind the Empress-Dowager whose own military forces, led by General Guwalgiya Ronglu. His troops surrounded the Forbidden City, took Guangxu prisoner and this was followed by an edict from the Empress-Dowager which effectively declared the Emperor unfit to rule. He was placed under house arrest, deprived of all rights and privileges and was under constant surveillance. Some wished to depose him formally while other traditionalists recoiled at this and wished him to remain powerless but still nominally emperor.

Some of his supporters were executed by the Empress-Dowager, others punished in lesser ways and some, like Kang Youwei, fled the country and founded the “Protect the Emperor Society” to advocate for a constitutional monarchy for China. Those who viewed Emperor Guangxu as being duped by foreign powers felt their prejudice confirmed when he opposed the Empress-Dowager declaring war on the great powers of Europe and the United States in support of the Boxer Rebellion. He could not influence events at all of course and was eventually proven correct when the Boxers and regular Chinese forces were defeated by the Eight Nation Alliance (Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, the United States and Japan) which saw the foreign armies take Peking, even the Forbidden City and ransacking the place. Emperor Guangxu was persuaded by his favorite consort (the tragic “Pearl Concubine”) to treat with the foreigners himself but before he could do so the Empress-Dowager had the concubine thrown down a well by her eunuchs and when she fled the Forbidden City in disguise ahead of the foreign armies, she took the Emperor with her. She was greatly offended when the foreign officials stated that any agreement had to be made, at least nominally, with Emperor Guangxu rather than herself since he was, legally, still the chief-of-state.

Once the foreigners withdrew from Peking the Emperor was returned to the Forbidden City where he was still kept isolated and confined, indulging his childhood interest of tinkering with clocks and assorted gadgetry. It seems he still had hopes of putting China on the path he thought best once the increasingly old and frail Empress-Dowager passed away. He still had loyal supporters outside of China, and a few within the country, who might rally to him and restore him to power on that occasion. However, the most widely accepted version of events is that the Empress-Dowager was not allowed to run the risk of that happening and so, when she was herself on her deathbed, ordered Emperor Guangxu to be poisoned. Whatever the case may be, he died suddenly on November 14, 1908, only one day before the Empress-Dowager, at the age of 37. His successor, Aisin-Gioro Puyi, later said that he had been told that Yuan Shihkai had employed a eunuch to murder the Emperor and then had the eunuch murdered to cover his tracks for fear that he would be executed for treason if Guangxu ever returned to power.

The funeral for Emperor Guangxu was the last such ceremony China would ever see. The Republic of China, which came into being after 1911, funded the building of his mausoleum in the Western Qing Tombs as part of an agreement made with the late dynasty. Republican leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen even managed to praise Emperor Guangxu for his open-mindedness and commitment to reform and even post-civil war communist historians have been less inclined to be harsh toward him. His efforts at widespread reform may have been rushed and not handled in the proper way yet many still point to his reign as a great opportunity lost. One cannot help but speculate about what might have been if he had been allowed to see things through as he wished. Might Imperial China have become a modern, constitutional monarchy, enjoying the advances of modern innovation while remaining faithful to long-held traditions? We can, of course, never know but it does provide a precedent which can be pointed to as an alternative for monarchists in China to this day. If China were to ever become the modern monarchy he envisioned, Emperor Guangxu would finally be vindicated in his vision for the future.

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