Tongzhi Emperor

The only surviving son of the Xianfeng Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi, the Tongzhi Emperor attempted political reform in the period of the Tongzhi Restoration. His first regnal name was Qixiang (祺祥; Manchu: Fengšengge sabingga), but this name was later changed, as per tradition upon his succession to the throne, in favour of "Tongzhi". The regnal name means 'order and prosperity' coming from the Confucian teaching that "there are many ways of being a good government, and they can all be summarized as order and prosperity". [2]

The Tongzhi Emperor became emperor at the age of five upon the death of his father, the Xianfeng Emperor. His father's choice of a regent, Sushun, was removed in favor of a partnership between his mother Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Ci'an.

While there had most likely been hopes that the Tongzhi Emperor would become a leader like the Kangxi Emperor (who ascended the throne as a child in 1661), those hopes would soon come to naught, as the Tongzhi Emperor grew up to become an obstinate and dissolute young man.

In the fall of 1872, the teenage emperor married Empress Xiaozheyi and two official concubines. The Tongzhi Emperor apparently had wanted to take up power immediately, prompting a quarrel at court regarding the dismantling of the regency and the timing of it. However, the two empresses dowager stuck by the intended date of February 23, 1873.[3]

The day after the Tongzhi Emperor took up the reins of power, the foreign powers requested an audience with the teenage emperor. The request precipitated a sharp disagreement between the ministers at the foreign legations, who made it clear that they would not perform the ritual kowtow to the emperor, and the Zongli Yamen (foreign affairs ministry), regarding the protocol to be observed. The Qing government was also loath to hold the audience within the confines of the Forbidden City, eventually settling on the "Pavilion of Purple Light" at one of the lakeside palaces to the west of the Forbidden City, which is now part of Zhongnanhai.[4] The audience was finally held on 29 June 1873. After the audience, however, the foreign representatives made clear their annoyance at being received in a hall initially used by the Qing emperors to receive envoys of tributary states.

In the fall of 1874, the Tongzhi Emperor got into a clash with his ministers, which included his two uncles, Prince Gong and Prince Chun, largely over the emperor's plans to rebuild the Old Summer Palace at a time in which the empire was bankrupt, and over his dissolute behavior. The emperor reacted by firing the ministers, but Empresses Dowager Ci'an and Cixi intervened, and he had them reinstated. That December, it was announced that he was ill with smallpox, and the Empress Dowagers resumed the regency. He died on 12 January 1875, leaving no sons to succeed him.

The Tongzhi Emperor's death left the court in a succession crisis as he was childless. Eventually, the empresses dowager designated the Tongzhi Emperor's three-year-old cousin, Zaitian, as the heir to the throne. Zaitian was biologically Prince Chun's son, but was symbolically adopted as the Xianfeng Emperor's son to make him eligible to succeed the Tongzhi Emperor. Zaitian was thus enthroned as the Guangxu Emperor, with Empresses Dowager Ci'an and Cixi resuming their roles as regents. Empress Alute, Tongzhi's wife, refused to eat after his death and died seventy days after he did in an act of martial piety.

Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864) was peculiarly affected by the social instability of the Canton region. He belonged to a family of modesty well-off peasants from Hua county north of Canton, members of the Hakka community ubiquitous in the region. Hong created his own version of Christianity with a total transformation of the Chinese nation[5][6] to start his Taiping Rebellion. In late 1851, Taiping army occupied its first walled city Yongan.

Taiping break out of the Qing encirclement

When 5-year-old Tongzhi Emperor ascend the throne in 1861, the Taiping rebellion was threatening Shanghai. This move prompted several foreign missions of British, French, and Americans to the Heavenly Capital, to warn the Taiping against interference with Western commerce. Foreign neutrality was beginning to fray as Western intelligence of the Taiping revealed both its unorthodox religious ideology and its lack of understanding of the Western world. In order to save Shanghai, Tongzhi Emperor ordered Zeng Guofan to counter-attack the rebel. Zeng's appointment was the turning point in the Taiping war. Zeng was a virtual generalissimo directing a supra-provincial campaign by armies raised and led by his various lieutenants and proteges, supported by the extrodinary mobilization of revenues including the likin tax and customs revenues. His strategy was to move from the west down the Yangzi taking successive cities, while Li Hongzhang, his principal lieutenant, advanced from the east through Jiangsu toward Nanjing.

The Heavenly Capital fell in July 1864. Hong Xiuquan was already dead, on June 1, 1864. The fall of the city was followed by a great massacre. Remnant Taiping forces fled south, including Hong's son the Junior King and Hong Rengan, to continue the movement, but both were soon captured and executed. The last Taiping forces were destroyed in Guangdong in early 1866, having come geographically almost full circle in the course of fifteen years.[7]

Tongzhi Emperor

The inspiration for the Self-Strengthening Movement from the 1840s arose from this notion that China's defense in the face of war and rebellion must come from within, as the superior man strengthens himself under imperative of Heaven's robust action. the costs of war and rebellion dictated that Qing dynasty undertake vigorous measures to ensure its survival. Moreover, the very survival of China itself was now at stake.

Self-strengthening efforts evolved in a succession of stages over a period of almost half a century. In 1840 Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu, impressed by the power of British warships in the initial battles of the Opium War, advocated adoption of Western naval technology. The paddle-wheel steamer Nemsis had run circles around cumbersome Chinese war junks. Some Chinese at first believed the paddle-wheels were powered by men inside the ship, but soon came to appreciate the power of steam, Commissioner Lin was the first self-strengthener.

Self-strengthening enterprises, including arsenals, shipyards, and technical schools, were now established in the principal treaty ports where access to Western technology was most direct. By 1860, the overwhelming bulk of the Chinese scholarly class had become cognizant of the enormity of changes that were taking place due to the skyrocketing Western presence in China. They now proclaimed that change was irresistible and advocated for deeper studies of Western technology. Many reforms were proposed and implemented, but ultimately the failure of reforms was due to multiple factors such as political machinations.[8][9]

• Father: Yizhu, the Xianfeng Emperor (文宗 奕詝; 17 July 1831 – 22 August 1861)
  • Grandfather: Minning, the Daoguang Emperor (宣宗 旻寧; 16 September 1782 – 26 February 1850)
  • Grandmother: Empress Xiaoquancheng, of the Niohuru clan (孝全成皇后 鈕祜祿氏; 24 March 1808 – 13 February 1840)
• Mother: Empress Xiaoqinxian, of the Yehe Nara clan (孝欽顯皇后 葉赫那拉氏; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), personal name Xingzhen (杏貞)
  • Grandfather: Huizheng (惠徵; 1805–1853), held the title of a third class duke (三等公)
  • Grandmother: Lady Fuca

• Consorts:
  • Empress Xiaozheyi, of the Arute clan (孝哲毅皇后 阿魯特氏; 25 July 1854 – 27 March 1875), eighth cousin once removed
    皇后..嘉順皇后
  • Imperial Noble Consort Shushen, of the Fuca clan (淑慎皇貴妃 富察氏; 24 December 1859 – 13 April 1904)
    慧妃→皇貴妃..敦宜皇貴妃
  • Imperial Noble Consort Gongsu, of the Arute clan (恭肅皇貴妃 阿魯特氏; 20 September 1857 – 14 April 1921)
    珣嬪→珣妃..珣貴妃→珣皇貴妃→莊和皇貴妃
  • Imperial Noble Consort Xianzhe, of the Hešeri clan (獻哲皇貴妃 赫舍里氏; 2 July 1856 – 3 February 1932)
    瑜嬪→瑜妃..瑜貴妃→瑜皇貴妃→敬懿皇貴妃
  • Imperial Noble Consort Dunhui, of the Sirin Gioro clan (敦惠皇貴妃 西林覺羅氏; 6 September 1856 – 18 May 1933)
    瑨貴人→瑨嬪..瑨妃→瑨貴妃→榮惠皇貴妃

• Chinese emperors family tree (late)
• Tongzhi Hui (Muslim) Revolt (1862–77)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tongzhi Emperor.

• Jung Chang, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, (2013) ISBN 978-0-307-27160-0.
• Mary Clabaugh Wright. The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T'ung-Chih Restoration, 1862-1874. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957).