A Throne Without an Heir: The Crisis of 1875

The year 1875 marked a pivotal moment in Qing dynasty history when the Tongzhi Emperor died at just 19 years old without producing a male heir. This created an unprecedented succession crisis that would shape China’s imperial future for decades to come. According to traditional Qing succession laws, the throne should have passed to a “Pu” generation descendant adopted as Tongzhi’s heir. But Empress Dowager Cixi, the real power behind the throne, had other plans.

Cixi faced a personal dilemma – if a “Pu” generation emperor ascended, Tongzhi’s widow would become empress dowager while Cixi would be relegated to grand empress dowager, losing her authority to rule through regency. For a woman who had wielded power for over a decade, this was unacceptable. In a bold move that broke with centuries of tradition, Cixi selected her four-year-old nephew Zaitian (the future Guangxu Emperor) to inherit the throne, establishing the unprecedented pattern of brother-to-brother succession rather than father-to-son.

The Protest That Shook the Empire: Wu Kedu’s Dramatic Suicide

The controversial succession didn’t go unchallenged. In 1879, after the Tongzhi Emperor’s funeral ceremonies concluded, a minor official named Wu Kedu committed one of the most dramatic political protests in Qing history. While other officials returned to Beijing, Wu secretly remained behind at the Sanyi Temple near the Eastern Qing tombs.

There, the 68-year-old official composed two documents that would become his political testament – a memorial to Cixi urging her to designate future Guangxu Emperor’s sons as Tongzhi’s heirs, and a suicide note to his family. On the temple wall, he penned a poignant farewell poem reflecting on his decades of service before taking poison. His final words captured the melancholy of a loyal minister witnessing the unraveling of dynastic traditions.

Wu’s shocking act achieved partial success. Cixi issued an edict agreeing that future emperors would be considered Tongzhi’s heirs. Tragically, this promise became meaningless when the Guangxu Emperor died in 1908 without producing any children, leaving both Tongzhi and Guangxu without direct descendants.

The Making of a Three-Father Emperor: Puyi’s Unusual Ascension

The succession crisis came to a head in 1908 as the Guangxu Emperor lay dying. Once again, Cixi manipulated the imperial lineage to maintain control. She selected Puyi, the two-year-old son of Prince Chun (Zaifeng), to inherit the throne with a carefully crafted edict that made him both Tongzhi’s and Guangxu’s heir simultaneously. This unprecedented arrangement gave the last Qing emperor three fathers:

1. His biological father, Prince Chun Zaifeng
2. His “imperial father” Tongzhi (as adopted heir)
3. His “imperial father” Guangxu (as designated successor)

This complex paternal arrangement served multiple political purposes. It maintained the fiction of continuity from Tongzhi while recognizing Guangxu’s reign, and kept power within Cixi’s faction. The dying empress dowager’s maneuver ensured that as regent for the child emperor, her loyal nephew Zaifeng would control the government.

Cultural Shockwaves: Challenging Confucian Succession Norms

Puyi’s unusual inheritance violated fundamental Confucian principles of patrilineal succession that had governed Chinese dynasties for millennia. Traditional rituals emphasized clear generational descent and proper ancestral worship – concepts complicated by having multiple “fathers” from different generations.

The scholarly class particularly objected to Cixi’s manipulations. As one contemporary observed, “The ancestral temples have become confused, the generational order disrupted.” This erosion of ritual propriety symbolized the Qing dynasty’s larger legitimacy crisis in its final years. The imperial household’s inability to produce healthy heirs also fueled rumors about the dynasty’s loss of the Mandate of Heaven.

The Legacy of an Imperial Oddity

Puyi’s triple paternal inheritance represents more than just a curious historical footnote. It reflects the Qing dynasty’s desperate attempts to maintain continuity amid decline, and the lengths to which Cixi went to preserve her power. The succession crises of 1875 and 1908 exposed the imperial system’s growing fragility, foreshadowing its collapse just three years after Puyi’s ascension.

Modern historians view these events as symptomatic of the late Qing’s institutional decay. The repeated breaking of succession traditions weakened the monarchy’s sacred aura, while the spectacle of officials like Wu Kedu committing ritual suicide highlighted the regime’s growing legitimacy crisis. Puyi’s unusual family situation – with three fathers but no real parental guidance – perhaps symbolizes the last emperor’s tragic role as a figurehead without true authority or belonging.

Today, this peculiar chapter in imperial history offers insights into how traditional systems adapt (or fail to adapt) under stress. The succession crises demonstrate how personal ambition (Cixi’s), bureaucratic protest (Wu’s), and institutional weakness combined to accelerate the Qing dynasty’s fall, paving the way for China’s revolutionary twentieth century.