Dynasties of ChinaQing dynastyQing dynasty lineage
Xianfeng · Reign 1850—1861
When he came to the throne, he encountered the Taiping Rebellion and the Second Opium War. The Old Summer Palace was burned, so he avoided Rehe and died of illness in a foreign land.
Yi Chi was the fourth son of Emperor Daoguang. His biological mother was Xiao Quancheng, Queen Niu Hulu. She lost her mother at the age of ten and was raised by Concubine Jing. Both he and his sixth brother Yi Xin were highly valued by their father. It is said that under the guidance of his master Du Shoutian, he won the favor of Emperor Daoguang with his benevolence and filial piety, and was eventually made Crown Prince. He succeeded to the throne in 1850 and changed the Yuan Dynasty to Xianfeng the following year. He immediately dismissed Mu Zhanga and Qi Ying and appointed Lin Zexu and others, which was quite encouraging.
However, less than a year after he took the throne, Hong Xiuquan launched the Jintian Uprising. The Taiping Army captured Nanjing in 1853, established Tianjing as its capital, and controlled the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The Nian Army, Tiandihui, etc. also launched uprisings in various places. Qing Dynasty's Eight Banners and Green Camp were unable to fight, so he had to rely on local armed forces such as the Hunan Army formed by Han officials such as Ceng Guofan, and levied gold and minted large sums of money to raise military expenses. In 1855, the Yellow River changed its course at the Tongwaxiang breach, causing serious flooding in the north.
In 1856, Britain and France launched the Second Opium War under the pretext of the Arrow incident and the Ma Priest incident. In 1858, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Tianjin, and Tsarist Russia took the opportunity to force the signing of the Treaty of Aihun. In 1860, the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing. Yi Xin fled to Rehe under the name of "Northern Hunting". The allied forces looted and burned the Old Summer Palace. Yi Xin, who stayed in Beijing, was forced to sign the "Beijing Treaty". In July 1861, Yi Chi died of illness in the summer resort at the age of thirty-one. He ordered eight ministers including Zai Yuan and Su Shun to assist his six-year-old son Zai Chun.
Yi Chi was only 20 years old when he came to the throne. He faced an unprecedented crisis with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at home and the invasion of Britain and France outside. He appointed Han officials and tacitly allowed local troops to train and raise wages, which enabled the Qing dynasty to withstand the impact of the Taiping Rebellion, but it also opened up a situation where local governors became powerful. In foreign negotiations, he was both blindly anti-foreign and blindly afraid of war. In the end, the capital was lost, the gardens were burned, and a large area of Northeastern territory was ceded to Tsarist Russia. He himself indulged in pleasure and died young because of his frailty, leaving behind a political landscape in which his mother and queen were behind the curtain.
PoliticsAscended to the throne and deposed Mu Zhanga
After ascending the throne in the first month of the year, he issued an edict to depose Mu Zhanga and Qi Ying, who were in charge of the throne, and appointed Lin Zexu as the imperial minister to go to Guangxi to suppress the uprising. Lin Zexu died of illness on the way to his appointment. He also issued an edict to ask for advice, and for a while he seemed to be working hard to govern.
MilitaryJintian Uprising
Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and others led the congregation of the God Worshipers to revolt in Jintian Village, Guiping, Guangxi, and founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the same year, the five kings in the east, west, south, north and wing of Yong'an enfeoffment established a preliminary political system, and then broke through and went north.
PoliticsTianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
The Taiping Army moved eastward along the Yangtze River, conquered Wuchang and Anqing, and captured Nanjing in March. It was renamed Tianjing and made the capital. They promulgated the "Celestial Land Acquisition System" and then sent troops to the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition. The Northern Expeditionary Army once approached Tianjin and was completely wiped out in 1855.
Economylevy fee
Military expenditures were in short supply, so Lei Yicheng, who assisted in military affairs in Yangzhou, collected a tax worth one hundred cents on passing goods in places such as the Fairy Temple, called lijin. This tax soon spread to all provinces and became the main source of revenue for the Qing government to suppress the uprising. At the same time, large amounts of money were minted indiscriminately and official banknotes were issued, causing serious inflation.
PeopleCeng Guofan Hunan Army sets off
Ceng Guofan, the current minister, organized and trained the Hunan army based on regiment training, led the local braves with Confucian scholars, returned the soldiers to generals, and established a navy. In 1854, the Hunan Army launched an offensive after issuing the "A Message to the Cantonese Bandits" and captured Wuchang in October. The Hunan Army gradually became the main force against the Taiping Army.
SocietyYellow River Tongwaxiang diversion
In June, the Yellow River burst at Tongwaxiang in Lanyang, Henan. The Qing government was busy with wars and was unable to block it. The Yellow River changed its course to the northeast and diverted the Daqing River into the Bohai Sea. This ended the more than 700 years of history of flowing southward, diverting the Huaihe River and entering the sea. Shandong and Zhili suffered from floods for many years.
Lasting legacyToday's lower reaches of the Yellow River pass through Shandong and enter the Bohai Sea. The river course was formed due to this diversion. The big bend of the Yellow River at the head of Lankao East in Henan is near the breach.
PoliticsTianjing Incident
Yang Xiuqing, the eastern king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, forced Hong Xiuquan to call him "Long Live". Hong Xiuquan secretly summoned the northern king Wei Changhui back to the capital and killed Yang Xiuqing and more than 20,000 of his followers. Later, Wei Changhui was killed again. The wing king Shi Dakai led his troops to leave the next year, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom turned from prosperity to decline.
MilitaryBritish and French forces capture Guangzhou
Britain used the Yarrow incident and France used the Abbé de Mars incident as an excuse to form a coalition, and the Second Opium War broke out. At the end of 1857, the allied forces captured Guangzhou. Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was captured and taken to Calcutta, India, where he died.
DiplomacySigning of the Treaty of Aihun
Tsarist Russia's Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Muravyov threatened with force and forced Heilongjiang General Yishan to sign the "Aihui Treaty", ceding more than 600,000 square kilometers of land north of Heilongjiang and south of the Xing'an Mountains, and designated the east of the Ussuri River as a joint venture between China and Russia.
Lasting legacyHeilongjiang has since become the boundary river between China and Russia; the Aihui Historical Exhibition Hall in Aihui Town, Heihe City records this history.
DiplomacySigning of the Treaty of Tianjin
The British and French allied forces captured the Dagu Fort and marched towards Tianjin. The Qing government was forced to sign the "Tianjin Treaty" with Russia, the United States, Britain and France respectively, allowing foreign envoys to be stationed in Beijing, and opening ten more ports such as Hankou, Nanjing and Tamsui, so that foreign merchant ships could sail on the Yangtze River. Opium was subsequently imported legally under the name "foreign medicine".
MilitaryBattle of Dagukou
The British and French ministers led their fleets northward to exchange the treaty, refused the Beitang route designated by the Qing government, and forcibly broke into Dagukou. Seng Gelinqin commanded the defenders to fire back, sinking and damaging many British and French ships. This was a rare victory for the Qing army in the two Opium Wars.
MilitaryThe Battle of Baliqiao and Bei Hunting
The British and French allied forces made a comeback, landed from Beitang, and captured Dagu and Tianjin. In September, Seng Gelinqin failed in the battle at Bali Bridge in Tongzhou. The next day, Yi Chi fled to Rehe under the name of "North Hunting" and ordered Prince Gong Yi Xin to stay in Beijing to negotiate peace.
CultureThe Old Summer Palace was burned
In October, the British and French allied forces invaded the western suburbs of Beijing and looted the Old Summer Palace. The British Plenipotentiary Elgin then ordered it to be set on fire. The fire burned for several days, and the Old Summer Palace and nearby Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden and other royal gardens were reduced to ashes.
Lasting legacyThe ruins of the Old Summer Palace are now a park; seven of the twelve zodiac animal head bronze statues that were scattered overseas have returned to China and are stored in the National Museum, the Poly Art Museum and the Old Summer Palace.
DiplomacySigning of the Beijing Treaty
Yi Xin was forced to sign the "Beijing Treaty" with Britain and France, opened Tianjin as a commercial port, and ceded the southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula to the United Kingdom. The indemnity was increased to eight million taels each. Russia also forced the signing of the "Beijing Treaty" between China and Russia because of "meritful mediation" and ceded about 400,000 square kilometers of land east of the Ussuri River.
Lasting legacyThe southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula returned to China with the return of Hong Kong in 1997; the area east of the Ussuri River now belongs to Russia, and Vladivostok is now Vladivostok.
DiplomacyEstablish the Prime Minister's Office
According to the petition of Yi Xin and others, the Prime Minister's Office for Foreign Affairs was established, chaired by Yi Xin, Guiliang, and Wenxiang, to handle diplomatic and trade affairs. This was Qing Dynasty's first dedicated diplomatic agency, and later became the centerpiece of the Westernization Movement.
PoliticsDied of illness in Rehe
He died of illness in his summer resort in July. Before his death, he appointed Zai Chun as the Crown Prince and ordered eight ministers including Zai Yuan, Duan Hua and Su Shun to "praise the government affairs". He also gave the two seals of "Imperial Award" and "Tongdaotang" to Queen Niu Hulu and Zai Chun respectively. The imperial edict must be sealed with two seals before it can take effect.
The sixth son of Emperor Daoguang and the half-brother of Emperor Xianfeng. In 1860, when the British and French allied forces entered Beijing, they stayed in Beijing to negotiate peace and signed the "Beijing Treaty". The following year, the Prime Minister's Office was established. From then on, it became the main promoter of the Westernization Movement in the imperial court.
The clan, the younger brother of Prince Zheng Duanhua, was deeply trusted by Emperor Xianfeng. Advocating the reuse of Han officials such as Ceng Guofan and Hu Linyi and severely rectifying academic and financial abuses were the core of Gu Mingba's eight ministers. He was beheaded after the Xinyou coup in 1861.
A native of Xiangxiang, Hunan, he organized and trained the Hunan Army as a registered minister. After many years of hard fighting, he was appointed governor of Liangjiang in 1860. He conquered Anqing the following year and became the supreme commander in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion.
A native of Yiyang, Hunan, he is also known as "Zeng Hu" together with Ceng Guofan. During his tenure as governor of Hubei, he rectified the civil service and raised military pay, making Hubei a rear base for the Hunan Army. He died of illness shortly after Anqing recovered in 1861.
The Horqin Mongolian Borzigit clan annihilated the Taiping Northern Expedition in 1855, defeated the British and French forces at Dagukou in 1859, and was defeated at Bali Bridge the following year. Later he was killed in battle with the Nian Army in Shandong.
A native of Hanyang, Hubei Province, he had a tough attitude towards negotiations between Britain and France but was unprepared for it. He was captured when Guangzhou fell in 1857 and was taken to Calcutta, India. He named himself "Su Wu on the Sea" and died there the following year. People at that time ridiculed him as saying, "If you don't fight, you won't make peace, you won't defend, and until you die, Bujiang won't leave."
A native of Huaxian County, Guangdong Province, he founded the God Worship Association after repeated attempts. In 1851, the Jintian Uprising was launched and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established. In 1853, Tianjing was established as the capital. After the Tianjing Incident, they were suspicious of generals with foreign surnames and favored relatives of the Hong family. The political situation became increasingly chaotic.
A native of Guixian County, Guangxi Province, he was a famous general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He defeated the Hunan Army in Hukou and Jiujiang during the Western Expedition. After the Tianjing Incident, he was jealous of Hong Xiuquan. He led his troops to flee in 1857 and fought in many provinces. In 1863, he fell into a desperate situation by the Dadu River and was captured and killed.