In the seventh year of Shunzhi, the regent Dorgon , who had fought his whole life to expand the territories of the Manchu dynasty, died suddenly during a hunting trip at the age of thirty-nine. The news of Dorgon's death spread quickly back to the capital. Empress Xiaozhuang and the little emperor were in extremely complicated moods.
To others, Dorgon may be a powerful generational tycoon, but for Xiaozhuang mother and son, this is undoubtedly a big mountain weighing on their lives. Now that the news of Dorgon's death came, the mother and son felt relaxed for no reason.
Although Dorgon is dead, he and his Zhenglan Banner still have influence. Therefore, Shunzhi did not show this relaxation on his face, but prepared a grand funeral for the regent step by step.
When Dorgon's coffin was transported back to Beijing, Emperor Shunzhi led all civil and military officials to stand solemnly outside Dongzhimen. "Chinese and foreign funeral rites follow the imperial rites." Although this ambitious man who dominated the political arena in the early Qing Dynasty for many years did not become the emperor during his lifetime, he finally enjoyed the "imperial rites" after his death.
During the nationwide mourning period, Dorgon was given the posthumous title of "Emperor who cultivated virtues, cultivated Taoism, achieved widespread deeds, made meritorious deeds, settled the people, established politics, was honest and respected the righteous emperor". If the regent knew about it, he would surely feel great relief. To this day, some history enthusiasts still add a place for Dorgon on the basis of the Twelve Emperors of the Qing Dynasty, and call them the Thirteen Emperors.
However, the honors Dorgon received during his lifetime and after his death ended here. What awaits him next is the reckoning between Fulin and his political opponents.
With the death of Dorgon, his party members fell to Sun San, and Emperor Shunzhi became a veritable emperor. In the eighth year of Shunzhi, Fulin held his first pro-government ceremony in the Jinluan Hall of the Imperial Palace. This fourteen-year-old boy tasted the sweetness of power for the first time. Therefore, it is necessary for him to vent all his dissatisfaction to the dead uncle!
Zhengbai Banner Minister Suk Saha was the first to stand up and explain Dorgon's past crimes to the emperor. Immediately afterwards, more and more ministers started to report to Shunzhi, vying to add fuel to the fire. In this scene, it seems that without impeaching Dorgon, he cannot declare his loyalty to the Manchu royal family. Shunzhi selected the ten worst crimes from these countless crimes and summarized them into the ten major crimes against Dorgon.
Overnight, all Dorgon's glory was deprived, his descendants lost the qualifications for hereditary titles, and the old party was also killed and imprisoned. A foreign missionary witnessed Fulin's liquidation of Dorgon. After returning to his motherland, he included what happened during the period in his memoirs: "In order to vent the long-simmering anger in his heart, Fulin ordered people to destroy Dorgon's mausoleum, dig up the emperor's uncle's body, and chop off his head after whipping him personally.
Until now, historians have used the documents left by foreign missionaries as evidence to support the theory that Fulin humiliated his corpse. However, in the author's opinion, what the missionaries recorded may not be the truth.
The Manchus had not yet taken over the Central Plains for a long time, and the degree of Chineseization was not deep, so many Manchu customs were preserved. According to custom, the highest level of burial is not burial, but cremation. After cremation, only the ashes are finally buried in the mausoleum. According to the records of Qing history, Queen Xiaoduanwen, Queen Xiaoxian, Queen Xiaokangzhang, and Shunzhi were all buried by cremation. Among them, the death time of Queen Xiaoduanwen and Queen Xiaoxian was similar to that of Dorgon. Before Kangxi, the Manchus retained the tradition of cremation regardless of their class. Unless there are special reasons, most Manchus will be cremated after death. Kangxi was an emperor who loved Han culture, so after he ascended the throne, he began to consider modifying the burial ceremony and imitating the customs of the Han people to bury the deceased in thick soil." The first Manchu to be buried was Empress Xiaocheng, who died in the 13th year of Kangxi's reign.
However, even if Kangxi was determined to promote burial, not every Manchu could accept this burial style, and the cost of burial was higher, which was difficult for ordinary bannermen to afford. Therefore, burial during the Kangxi period was limited to members of the royal family. This reform has not yet changed the customs of all Manchus.Even during the Qianlong dynasty when the Manchu people were highly sinicized, a large number of Manchus still used cremation.
Although Dorgon was liquidated after his death, he still received courtesy from Fulin during his funeral. Therefore, Dorgon's burial method is probably cremation. Since it was a cremation, it meant that Dorgon had already turned into ashes. How could Fulin pour out the ashes and whip the corpse and behead him? This is obviously illogical.
In the 1940s, a group of tomb thieves "patronized" Dorgon's tomb. It is said that this group of thieves found a three-foot-high white porcelain bottle underground. In fact, this inconspicuous white porcelain vase is Dorgon's ashes urn. It can be seen from this that even if the regent was deprived of his honor and title during his lifetime, Shunzhi still had some compassion and did not do anything like Chen's ancestor's corpse. In fact, if you think about it carefully, you can figure out the connection. Fulin, who had just taken power, needed prestige and influence. How could he do such a bad act as humiliating a corpse, which was criticized by others?
