On November 14, 1908, Emperor Guangxu passed away. After that, Cixi appointed Aixinjueluo Zaifeng as the regent of the country to assist her son Puyi. However, the Qing dynasty had collapsed and perished in less than three years after Zaifeng governed the country. As the last ruler of the Qing Dynasty with real power, Zaifeng, how did his political actions relate to the demise of the Qing Dynasty?
In order to consolidate the rule of the Qing Dynasty imperial family, strengthen the status of the imperial family, specialize in cultivating Manchu military talents, and employ the royal nobility
as the saying goes, three new officials took office. When Zaifeng came to power, his first fire was Yuan Shikai On the head. At that time, almost all of China's military was in the hands of Han officials. Among them, the most powerful was the Beiyang New Army under Yuan Shikai, which formed a trend of unstoppable tails. The young Zaifeng recklessly used Yuan Shikai's "foot illness" as an excuse to remove Yuan Shikai from all official positions and let him return to his hometown to recover from the illness. After Yuan Shikai was deposed, Zaifeng began to follow the advice given by Prince Henry when he was envoy to Germany, and took military measures to strengthen the control of the Qing imperial family over the country's military power.
In December 1908, Zaifeng began to train the imperial army as a pro-army of the regent directly, and the new army in Kinki was abolished and ordered the new army in Kinki to be under the management of the Army Department. The Military Consultation Office was established to manage military administration, the Navy Department was established to build the navy, and the Noble Academy was established to accept only Manchus to train senior military personnel for the royal family.
In the second year, Zai Feng ordered him to replace the emperor as the general of the navy and the army, and announced the unification of the country’s military and political power. He began to appoint Manchu cronies such as Zaize, Shanqi and others to control the military power of the new army, Ren Fengshan, Guiliang General Jiangning and Guangzhou, and Yinchang as Minister of the Army. In addition, he appointed his younger brothers Zaixun and Zai Tao to go to European countries to study the army and navy. After the two returned to China, they were all entrusted with heavy responsibilities, Zaixun as Minister of the Navy and Zai Tao as Minister of the Military Consultation, and they were also asked to lead the newly trained Janitor in their place.
Judging from Zaifeng's appointment, almost all of Zaifeng's reliance are Manchu nobles, so why would he do this?
Judging from the situation at the time, Zhang Zhidong, Lu Chuanlin and others, who were able to rely heavily on the Qing Dynasty, have died. The only capable party is Yuan Shikai, but Zai Feng can also see that Yuan Shikai has bad intentions and is difficult to use for himself, but can he kill it recklessly, because Zhang Zhidong and others have the power before. Bao, if you kill Yuan Shikai at this time, it will arouse dissatisfaction among the ministers and will only isolate yourself from the court, because the best way to treat Yuan Shikai is to dismiss him and let him go home for retirement.
At the same time, he clarified the administration of officials and conducted strict inspections on officials of all sizes. This series of practices showed that Zaifeng wanted to make the Qing Dynasty prosperous and strong through determined reforms. The starting point of
Zaifeng's series of practices is good, and they also have some positive effects, consolidating the stability of its ruling team from the side. However, it also happened that this practice of appointing everyone to be their own cronies made the royal family dissatisfied, which also aggravated the factional disputes in the court and further increased the internal contradictions of the ruling class. At this time, there was an official who advised Zaifeng to do so, "the country will gradually become isolated", and the official said that it is "taking the world as the private property of the family". Some people also say that Zaifeng is using state public equipment to benefit his family. Is this really the purpose of Zaifeng's doing this?
In fact, these practices of Zaifeng were aimed at consolidating the Qing dynasty and strengthening the rule of the Qing imperial family over the country, not to suppress and target Han officials. But what I didn't expect was that these relatives, whom Zaifeng relied on, used the power in his hand to establish a private door and form a party for private business, which made the chaotic political situation of the late Qing Dynasty even more corrupt. In addition, due to the rush of the reform time, no long-term effect could be seen, the internal contradictions of the ruling group became more aggravated, and eventually became torn apart, resulting in the failure to solve the problem before the demise of the Qing Dynasty. Z1z
Zaifeng was originally a member of the royal family. When he was in power, he would put the family's interests more or less first, which is normal. At the beginning, the Empress Dowager Cixi was also quite supportive of the Reform Movement, but if it weren't for Kang Youwei and others to repeatedly adjust the relationship between Cixi and Guangxu, and the content of the latter period of the Reform Movement would damage the interests of the royal family, Cixi might insist on supporting the Reform to the end. Before Cixi's death, she announced the constitution, which was quite positive.To make a constitution, but at the same time, it was also proposed that the emperor’s power should not be harmed, or the rights of the royal family, Cixi and others should be replaced by the people of today. If you suddenly want to take away your supreme rights one day, I believe you will not agree. Will follow the path of reform in the same way.
Although the purpose of Zaifeng and others was mostly to maintain the feudal rule of the royal family, his reforms made China the first prime minister, parliamentarian, constitution, etc., which was a manifestation of progress for China at that time.
attaches great importance to the development of the economy. In order to obtain funds, the first point of Zaifeng's governance is to develop military power, but the development of the military requires a lot of financial support. However, the Qing government at that time, because of the indemnity treaties signed with various countries, The burden is quite heavy. At this time, Zaifeng did not use the method of increasing taxes to obtain money, but adopted the method of increasing income and reducing expenditure. Zai Feng was quite aware that the private prices at that time were soaring, and people's lives were quite difficult. If taxes were to be increased at this time, it would inevitably arouse public grievances, and it would eventually be another peasant uprising. Therefore, Zaifeng mainly obtains funds for the shipping projects of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, and the commerce and mining of the Ministry of Industry and Agriculture are used to support financial affairs. This fully reflects Zaifeng's talents.
However, it is a pity that the political situation in the late Qing Dynasty was quite complicated. The local government and the central government had many contradictions and continued to worsen. These contradictions caused many of Zaifeng's political measures to be impossible to achieve. Especially after the Wuchang Uprising, the Constitutionalists secretly communicated with Yuan Shikai or made suggestions for Yuan Shikai, which led to the further dispersion and collapse of the Qing Dynasty.
During the time when Zaifeng was in power, he did his best in military, political, economic, etc., and also implemented relevant measures to maintain the dominance of the Qing Dynasty. In the military aspect, such as revitalizing the navy, implementing a compulsory military system, and strengthening the quality of the military; in the economic aspect, increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, issuing national debt, and developing industries; in the political aspect, clarifying the governance of officials and implementing constitutional government. This series of measures was quite exhausting, but in the late Qing dynasty, his efforts were only in vain. During the three years of
Zaifeng's reign, he made his best efforts, but there was no way to stop the demise of the dynasty. This is not the fault of Zaifeng alone. No one can stop the progress of the wheel of history. When the Revolution of 1911 broke out, Zaifeng took the initiative to resign from the position of regent of Jianguo. After that, he did not advocate armed confrontation against the Revolutionaries, nor did he oppose the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor. All of these showed that Zaifeng complied with the development of the times and the people's Willingness. Especially after the Republic of China, the Manchu nobles and elders devoted themselves to restoring the Qing dynasty, and Zaifeng, as the last ruler, did not participate in it, which is very precious.
Summary:
Through the above narrative, we can know that the demise of the late Qing Dynasty has a certain connection with the implementation of Zaifeng's policy, but there is no absolute relationship. In the late Qing Dynasty, talents were scarce. Zaifeng's starting point was good in order to maintain the rule of the Qing government. However, when the important Manchu and Han officials who had grown up between Xianfeng and Tongzhi years had died, the transfer of power was faulty. The Qing dynasty that Zaifeng took over was a mess that couldn't be rotted. Visits to Germany and European powers were enough to show Zaifeng's extraordinary vision, but Zaifeng, who has just taken power, may have insufficient experience and lack of comprehensive consideration. . If
is really given to Zaifeng for a while, with a little more experience, maybe the Qing Dynasty will have a different result.
Reference: "Late Qing Dynasty Court Life" "Qing Shilu" "Regent's New Political View" "Cambridge Chinese Late History"
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