Xianfeng

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Emperor Xianfeng

Xianfeng ( Chinese  咸豐 , Pinyin Xiánfēng , born July 17, 1831 in Beijing , † August 22, 1861 ibid) was the son of the Qing Emperor Daoguang and from March 9, 1850 until his death, Emperor of China .

Youth and private life

He was born under the name Yizhu or I-ju in the Old Summer Palace and was, after two older sisters, the third child of the imperial concubine Quan (nee Niohuru), as well as the fourth son of Emperor Daoguang, who a few years later became Yizhu's mother as Empress Xiaoquancheng appointed his third main wife. Because of Yizhu's literary and administrative skills, with which he surpassed several of his brothers, Daoguang appointed him his successor. His first wife Sakda died before taking office.

Later as emperor, Xianfeng was considered to be very indulgent. He consumed a lot of alcohol and probably also opium , enjoyed the opera and his imperial harem. His main wife was the Empress Xiaozhenxian (later known as the Dowager Empress Ci'an ), but she was joined by sixteen other Imperial consorts and concubines. One of these was Yi, who became famous as Cixi after his death . Xianfeng and his wives had two sons and a daughter, but the second son died in infancy.

Tenure as Emperor of China

During his tenure, which he assumed at the age of 19 under the emperor name Xianfeng (literally: universal prosperity ), the empire experienced one of the most serious crises in its history, which was marked by numerous uprisings:

  • the Taiping uprising that broke out in 1848 under the Christian sect leader Hong Xiuquan expanded into a catastrophe that spread across the entire empire, devastating 600 cities and killing 20 to 30 million people. The rebels took Nanjing, but their advance on Beijing was stopped in 1853. The reconquest of Nanjing failed in 1856, the bloody civil war raged until 1864.
  • From 1851, the far less successful Nian uprising , a renewed rebellion by sympathizers of the secret society “ White Lotus ” , took place in northern and eastern China . The Nian rebels briefly threatened to take the capital and inflicted heavy losses on the imperial troops. It was not until 1868 that the Nian rebels were crushed.
  • the Panthay rebellion broke out in 1856 and lasted until 1872.
  • Various other ethnic minority surveys have been carried out in various provinces, such as the Miao .

The emperor's officials and generals, including Zeng Guofan and Senggerinchin , were unable to end the uprising during the emperor's lifetime, despite some successes.

The foreign policy conflict with England , which had been simmering since the beginning of the century , reached a further climax with the Second Opium War of 1856–1860. Xianfeng did not believe in the superiority of the British and French and did not want to bow to their demands as colonial powers, which had already taken advantage of the empire several times . Negotiations under Prince Gong ultimately failed. After the capture and devastation of Beijing in October 1860 by an Anglo-French "punitive expedition", the emperor fled on his "annual hunting trip" to his summer palace at Jehol , where he was to stay until the end of his life the following year.

As a result of its domestic and foreign policy weakness, the Beijing Convention of October 24, 1860 once again forced China to make substantial concessions, in particular to open further ports for transcontinental trade, to receive "war compensation" of 16 million silver ounces, and to tolerate unreservedly Christian missionary activity. Hong Kong Island and the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula including Stonecutters Island would be ceded to Great Britain forever . Furthermore, in the Treaty of Aigun in 1857, it had to cede parts of northern Manchuria to Russia , which founded the city of Vladivostok there three years later .

In the summer palace of Jehol, the gradually declining emperor preferred to surround himself with a group of eight favorites. These were Manchu officer Sushun , Princes Duanhua and Zaiyuan , and Jingshou, Muyin, Kuangyuan, Du Han and Jiao Youying. Before his death, Emperor Xianfeng designated these eight as a Regency Council, which should support his successor - but he had not yet named him. This angered the Imperial Wife Yi , the mother of his six-year-old son Zaichun, who also had prominent supporters under the Eight Banners , namely General Ronglu and the Imperial half-brother Prince Gong, who had remained in Beijing. Shortly before the death of Emperor Xianfeng, Yi fought his way to the emperor for the first time in a long time and presented his son to him, so that Xianfeng appointed him as heir to the throne and the widows Ci'an and Cixi as regents. With this decision, made in front of a large audience and quickly sealed, as well as a time advantage on their return to Beijing, Ci'an and Cixi succeeded in disempowering the still influential Council of Regency of Eight and reigning for the child emperor Tongzhi .

Emperor Xianfeng's tomb is one of the Eastern Qing Tombs .

literature

predecessor Office successor
Daoguang Emperor of China
1850 - 1861 		Tongzhi

Web links

Commons : Xianfeng  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Xianfeng
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yizhu; Xiandi; Wenzong
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Emperor of China
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Beijing , China
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1861
Place of death Beijing , China