A Throne Built on Shadows: The Precarious Rise of the Tongzhi Emperor

When six-year-old Zaichun ascended the dragon throne as the Tongzhi Emperor in 1861, the Forbidden City’s marble floors echoed with whispered conspiracies rather than celebratory fanfare. The boy’s perception of events—mirroring that of his two regent mothers, Empress Dowagers Cixi and Ci’an—painted the Eight Regent Ministers as villains “bullying orphan and widow.” Yet behind this simplistic childhood narrative unfolded one of Qing dynasty’s most consequential power struggles.

The Xinyou Coup (known colloquially as the Beijing Coup) didn’t merely remove political opponents; it established a blueprint for Cixi’s four-decade domination. As revealed in Der Ling’s Imperial Incense, what began as a mother’s fight “to keep the little dragon robes for her son” transformed into history’s most controversial matriarchal rule. But was protecting Zaichun truly Cixi’s motive, or merely the opening gambit in her imperial chess game?

The Poisoned Chalice: Inheritance of a Collapsing Empire

The Tongzhi Emperor inherited more than just a crown in 1861—he became the reluctant heir to an empire unraveling at its seams. His father, the Xianfeng Emperor, had fled Beijing during the Second Opium War (1856-1860), leaving the Summer Palaces burning as Anglo-French troops marched through the capital. The court’s exile to Rehe Province created a power vacuum that ambitious officials like Sushun eagerly filled.

Historical records from the Qixiang Stories reveal chilling foreshadowing: on his deathbed, Xianfeng nearly implemented the “Lady Gouyi Precedent”—Han dynasty’s practice of executing consorts to prevent maternal interference. Only Cixi’s political acumen and Ci’an’s intervention spared her life. This brush with mortality steeled Cixi’s resolve; when the emperor died on August 22, 1861, she moved with calculated precision.

The Coup That Redefined Qing Politics

The regents’ fatal miscalculation lay in underestimating the dowagers’ alliance with Prince Gong (Yixin), the emperor’s uncle. As foreign powers battered China’s coasts and the Taiping Rebellion ravaged its heartland, the conservative Eight Regents rejected modernization—a stance Cixi cleverly weaponized.

Key maneuvers unfolded like a theatrical script:
– Secret Correspondence: Cixi smuggled edicts to Prince Gong using loyal eunuchs, bypassing regent-controlled channels
– The Return to Beijing: Orchestrating the imperial cortege’s November 1 arrival, when Prince Gong’s troops ambushed the regents
– Public Humiliation: Sushun was beheaded, his allies forced to commit suicide—a spectacle designed to terrify opposition

Within weeks, the boy emperor witnessed his first lesson in realpolitik: power flowed not from heavenly mandate alone, but from ruthlessness and alliances.

The Puppet Strings Tighten: Cixi’s Masterclass in Control

By 1865, four years into Tongzhi’s reign, Cixi’s tactics shifted from overt coups to psychological domination. The dismissal of Prince Gong—architect of the 1861 victory—revealed her true priorities. When censor Cai Shouqi (a likely Cixi puppet) accused the prince of arrogance, the dowager pounced.

Eyewitness accounts describe the confrontation:
“Prince Gong demanded to know his accuser. When Cixi named Cai, the prince exclaimed ‘Cai is no honorable man!’ This defiance became the pretext for stripping his titles.” (Qixiang Stories)

The subsequent 39-day power struggle culminated in Prince Gong’s tearful prostration before the dowagers. For Tongzhi, then ten, the message was clear: no ally, however indispensable, outweighed Cixi’s ambition.

Coming of Age in a Gilded Cage

Tongzhi’s fourteenth birthday in 1868 marked a constitutional crisis. Precedent demanded regencies end at this age—both the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors assumed full control at fourteen. The young emperor’s carefully crafted essay on governance (“The way to rule lies foremost in appointing virtuous men…”) was a thinly veiled plea for autonomy.

Cixi’s response revealed her mastery of political theater:
1. Controlled Preparation: Allowing Tongzhi to review memorials—but only under supervision
2. Manufactured Incompetence: Publicly criticizing his inability to “read memorials coherently”
3. Educational Sabotage: As Weng Tonghe’s Diaries note, tutors received reprimands whenever the emperor showed progress

The psychological toll manifested in Tongzhi’s rebellious adolescence. Where Kangxi used his early reign to crush the regent Oboi, Tongzhi retreated into dissipation—a reaction that conveniently justified Cixi’s continued rule.

Legacy of the Dragon Child

Tongzhi’s brief personal rule (1873-1874) proved disastrous, his attempted palace reconstruction draining coffers emptied by rebellions. His death at nineteen—officially from smallpox, though rumors persist of syphilis or suicide—cemented Cixi’s resurgence.

Modern historians recognize 1861 as the pivot where Qing China might have charted constitutional reform under Prince Gong’s modernization plans. Instead, Cixi’s victory preserved imperial autocracy while hollowing its institutions—a tradeoff that ultimately doomed the dynasty.

The child emperor’s tragedy resonates beyond imperial corridors: it’s a timeless study of how power, once concentrated, corrupts even maternal bonds. As Der Ling observed, the little dragon robes Cixi fought to preserve became not her son’s regalia, but her own.