The Chinese emperor Xianfeng’s death led to struggles over the succession of his five-year-old son, whose mother and uncle became regents and established a regime that kept China intact under Qing Dynasty rule. The new regime pursued a Confucian restoration of national power and followed a conciliatory policy toward the West. Empress Dowager Cixi would later rise to become China’s de facto ruler.
The death of Emperor Xianfeng
Sushun preferred that the emperor stay at Jehol because at Jehol he could better control him. Most formidable among Sushun’s enemies was the mother of the emperor’s only son, Empress Dowager Cixi. She entered the court in 1851 or 1852 as an imperial concubine named Yi. Xianfeng secretly had Yi do his routine government correspondence and official business because such things bored him. On April 27, 1856, Yi gave birth to the emperor’s son Tongzhi.
Cixi.
Yi allied herself with the emperor’s wife Cian
Immediately after the emperor’s death, Sushun, Princes Zaiyuan
China’s youthful emperor receiving Western emissaries.
In early September, 1861, Prince Gong left Beijing to visit the Rehe Palace. A half brother of Xianfeng, Gong was tasked to negotiate peace with the British and French one year before Xianfeng’s death. He changed his hatred and fear of the foreigners and enjoyed diplomatic relationship with them. After the peace the Western powers adopted a conciliatory policy. Gong often asked Xianfeng to return to Beijing, but he refused.
Now at Rehe, the power struggle escalated. An imperial censor suggested Cixi be named a coregent, together with a prince or two like Gong. Sushun and his allies wrote a stinging rebuttal to the censor on September 14 and demanded that the empress dowagers affix to it the imperial seals. They did so only after the regents brought government to a standstill.
When Cixi and Cian
Gong and Chun returned to Beijing. Xianfeng’s coffin had to be brought from Rehe to Beijing for proper burial, and Cixi pointed out that the regents had to attend the coffin on its two-hundred-mile passage. Since the emperor’s son and wives must greet his coffin from out of Beijing, Cixi insisted that she, Cian, and Zaichun were to travel separately to get there ahead of the coffin’s arrival. The imperial procession attending the coffin left Rehe on October 26.
Cixi’s group safely reached Beijing on November 1, 1861. Arriving one day ahead of Sushun, Cixi met Gong and their allies. They wrote edicts for the arrest of all eight coregents. On the night of November 1, Prince Chun
The edicts were published on November 2, 1861. Sushun and the other regents were charged with subverting the state and were found guilty of mishandling foreign affairs. They were stripped of their offices, and the two empress dowagers were appointed coregents. The two women had to listen behind a screen to the all-male government officials. Prince Gong was appointed de facto third regent.
On November 8, the two princes, Zaiyuan
On November 9, six more officials allied with Sushun were dismissed, ending retaliatory action. The new regents met and decided to officially inaugurate the new emperor on November 11, 1861. They also changed his reign name to Tongzhi. The exact translation of the name is disputed, but the meaning implies a restoration of national order by a mother and son team. With the investment of Zaichun as Tongzhi emperor, Cixi, Cian
Prince Gong and Empress Dowager Cixi energetically set about to launch the Tongzhi Restoration
By relying on capable officials and military leaders the coregents were able to defeat the Taiping Rebellion
The regency ended on February 23, 1873. Yet Tongzhi’s illness led to its reinstitution on December 18, 1874; Tongzhi died January 12, 1875. Cixi installed her four-year-old nephew as Guangxu emperor in 1875, restored the regency, and drove Tongzhi’s pregnant wife to suicide. After Cian
Cixi ruled China for almost half a century. While forced to cede much to the Western powers and later Japan, she kept China unified and attempted a conservative restoration. Three years after her death, in 1911, a revolution ended the Qing Dynasty.
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Hsu, Immanuel C. Y. The Rise of Modern China. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Places the coup in the context of Qing Dynasty survival. Explores the rise of Cixi and international relations. Notes, index, bibliography. -
Laidler, Keith. The Last Empress. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. A well-written biography of the “She Dragon of China,” filled with anecdotes. -
Min, Anchee. Empress Orchid. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. A historical novel culminating in the coup. -
Paludan, Ann. Chronicles of the Chinese Emperors. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1998. An excellent account of China’s emperors, including an acute portrayal of Cixi. -
Seagrave, Sterling. The Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. A sympathetic account of Cixi that argues she was manipulated by others. Illustrations, notes, bibliography. -
Spence, Jonathan. The Search for Modern China. 2d ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. Chapters 9 and 10 discuss Prince Gong’s foreign policy and the rise and politics of Cixi. Briefly references the coup. Maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. -
Wright, Mary Clabaugh. The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T’ung Chich Restoration, 1862-1874. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1957. Includes a discussion of the coup in detail and argues that it established the foundation for the subsequent Qing Dynasty’s restoration. Notes, bibliography, index.
First Opium War
China’s Taiping Rebellion
Qing Dynasty Confronts the Nian Rebellion
Muslim Rebellions in China
Second Opium War
China’s Self-Strengthening Movement Arises
Burlingame Treaty
Boxer Rebellion
Cixi; Kang Youwei; Zeng Guofan; Zhang Zhidong.