Daoguang’s mediocrity is acceptable, but the two major mistakes he committed cannot be forgiven.

In terms of merit, Daoguang's ranking among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty is definitely behind, but to be honest, in terms of self-discipline and self-cultivation, there are really not many dynasties who can do like him. Throughout his life, Emperor Daoguang was diligent, thrifty, and strict with himself. He reigned for 30 years and never spent a couple of dollars injustice. Therefore, in a sense, Emperor Daoguang is also very admirable.

However, Emperor Daoguang is the king of a country after all, and his evaluation obviously cannot follow the same standard as ordinary people. For an emperor in charge of the highest power, his personal knowledge, strategy, and ability are far more important than his personal morality and integrity. In this respect, Emperor Daoguang was just the opposite, with more than virtue but not enough.

There are many stories about Emperor Daoguang’s frugality in historical materials. For example, he eats only four dishes and one soup; he wears clothes full of patches; eating an egg is too expensive to consider again and again; the queen’s birthday is only to kill a pig , Reward the minister a bowl of fried noodles. This scene outlines the image of a lively "miser".

The dignified emperor of Qing Dynasty, who only counted small accounts and calculated small abacus all day long, was purely a hopeless little man. He often only cared about the trivial matters of the trivial details, but for the success or failure of the country and the long-term interests of the country. However, major events are short-sighted, more careless, and lack well-thought-out countermeasures. Therefore, later generations gave him a low evaluation. The famous modern writer Mr. Cai Dongfan has a very incisive evaluation, saying that Emperor Daoguang "successfully followed the end, did not grasp the root, saves clothes and food, and manages the family more than enough, but the country is insufficient." .

Among them, "more than governing the family, insufficient governing the country" is the finishing touch, which can be used as a summary of Emperor Daoguang. "More than governing the family" I won't say much here. This is the strong point of Emperor Daoguang. What we want to talk about is his "deficiency in governing the country." Throughout Daoguang's life, there are two things that are related to the long-term stability of the country. It is obvious that they have been mishandled, improperly handled, and lack the foresight that a politician should have. One of these two events was the Opium War, and the other was the election of a prince.

The first Opium War was a shame to the Qing empire and also a shame to the Chinese nation. The chief culprit is of course the imperialist invaders headed by Britain. Facing the opium poisoning from the Southeast Sea and the British invasion, Emperor Daoguang was worried,Having restless sleep and eating, he also strictly banned smoking, and made up his mind to fight the invaders. But at this time, no one in the Qing Dynasty knew where Britain came from, let alone what colonialism was.

As the prince of a country, Emperor Daoguang was ignorant of people in the Opium War, and he had no response to danger. He was at a loss and could not deal with it. Facing the British aggression, he could only hate himself. He sighed in shame. As a result, only to accept the humiliation of the British alliance under the city, signed the first unequal treaty in modern history-the "Nanjing Treaty."

The "Nanjing Treaty" not only ceded Hong Kong and opened five trade ports in Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai, but also paid 21 million taels of silver. Daoguang Emperor, who usually saves money and spends too much time, even a patch is too expensive, he made such a loss-making business when he came, and you can imagine how sad he was.

In fact, the failure of the first Opium War was not a bad thing for the Qing Dynasty. At this time, as long as Emperor Daoguang learned from the pain, summed up experience and lessons, opened the door to learning the advanced technology of Western countries, then this country has hope. . However, Emperor Daoguang didn't even have this courage. He still pretended to be an emperor and didn't want to make progress. He just showed that he was ashamed of the ancestors and the ancestors and had no face to worship the Taimiao. In this way, modern China lost a precious opportunity and eventually became a fish on a knife.

Regarding the reserve, Emperor Daoguang was also hesitant and could not make up his mind between the fourth son of the emperor and the sixth son of Yi Su. Although it is said that Yi Su has the advantage of the protagonist, whether it is literary talent or martial arts, Yi Su obviously has more advantages. What's more, the emperors of the Qing dynasty established the crown, and they did not rely on the establishment of a straight line but the establishment of a virtuous person.

It should be said that although Emperor Daoguang is mediocre and more or less pedantic, it should not be pedantic enough to be ignorant of virtuous people. Judging from all the signs, he should be very clear about the talents of the two princes, and he is more inclined to complain in his heart. This can also be seen in the later edict. While he established Yiqian as the crown prince, he also named Yisu as the prince.

According to historical records, Emperor Daoguang finally chose Yifan because he had won two special envoy examinations specially arranged by Emperor Daoguang, one for "Nanyuan School Hunting" and the other for "Imperial Palace Questions".Most people know about these two exams, so I will repeat them here. What needs to be pointed out is that it was these two examinations that made the balance that Emperor Daoguang once difficult to choose to tilt toward Yili, and thus determined the fate of Yili and Yi Su, and also the fate of Da Qing.

The posthumous title of Emperor Daoguang after his death is "cheng" emperor. I don't know what the word "cheng" means, and can only superficially think that it means success and achievement. But from Daoguang's body, I really didn't find that he was successful. Among the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty, only the posthumous name of Emperor Daoguang was the most untrue.