Jottings from the Granite Studio

Today is the birthday of Aisin-Gioro I Ju, the Xianfeng 咸丰 Emperor, born this day in 1831.  He was the last of the Qing Emperors to take the throne after reaching the age of majority, but his short reign was nothing less than disastrous, a perfect embodiment of the Chinese phrase 内乱外患 (internal turmoil, external threats/calamity). Under his watch, the country became embroiled in the Taiping Rebellion which exposed the weakness of the central government to maintain order internally, and the emperor and his court were forced to flee in 1860 when the Anglo-French Expedition invaded the city of Beijing, seizing the capital and razing the palaces at Yuanmingyuan (Coincidentally, Xianfeng’s birthplace). 

Xianfeng never returned to the city.  He left the mess to be settled by his younger brother Yixin (Prince Gong) while the emperor stayed in the Qing palaces at Chengde, drinking and partying and…by the by…coming down with pneumonia. Xianfeng died in Chengde on August 22, 1861.

If that were all, Xianfeng would still be considered a crappy emperor, but to pile on: the man had terrible taste in women.  Xianfeng was besotted by his concubine, the Lady Yehenara, who gave birth to his only son, Zaichun in 1856.  Upon the death of Xianfeng, Zaichun was installed as the Tongzhi Emperor and since the boy was only five at the time, his mother, Lady Yehenara, later known as The Empress Dowager Cixi, finagled her way into a postion as regent from which she would exercise her power one way or another for the next 47 years.