A Throne Unexpected: The Rise of Guangxu and His Father’s Dilemma

In the tumultuous twilight of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Guangxu’s 34-year life was profoundly shaped by four pivotal men: his father Prince Yixuan (奕譞), mentor Weng Tonghe (翁同龢), the ambitious general Yuan Shikai (袁世凯), and the enigmatic eunuch Li Lianying (李莲英). Their influence—sometimes nurturing, often treacherous—determined the course of China’s ill-fated reformist emperor.

The story begins in 1875, when four-year-old Zaitian (载湉, later Guangxu) was plucked from his comfortable princely life to inherit the throne after the sudden death of his cousin, the Tongzhi Emperor. This shocking decision by Empress Dowager Cixi upended the life of his father, Prince Yixuan. As Cixi’s brother-in-law, Yixuan had enjoyed prestige as a military commander and imperial tutor—but his son’s ascension transformed privilege into peril.

Fearing Cixi’s suspicion, Yixuan performed desperate political theater. He submitted the Yu Du Wang Lun memorial in 1875, renouncing any dynastic ambition, and resigned all official positions. Even when offered the rare honor of a yellow sedan chair (reserved for emperors), he kept it unused in his mansion. This self-erasure haunted Guangxu, who longed for his father’s guidance during his isolated childhood in the Forbidden City.

The Scholar Who Dreamed of Reform: Weng Tonghe’s 22-Year Mentorship

For over two decades, Grand Tutor Weng Tonghe served as Guangxu’s intellectual compass and surrogate father. Appointed when the emperor was four, Weng balanced Confucian pedagogy with progressive ideas—a duality that defined Guangxu’s worldview.

Weng’s teaching methods were revolutionary:
– Cultural Foundations: He grounded the young emperor in classics like the Four Books and Five Classics, but paired them with studies of Western geography and reformist texts.
– Real-World Lessons: During the 1884 Sino-French War, Weng used battlefield reports as teaching materials, fostering Guangxu’s critical thinking.
– Moral Frameworks: His lectures on “Imperial Virtue” emphasized compassion over autocracy, directly challenging Cixi’s Machiavellian rule.

Their bond became dangerous. By the 1890s, Weng’s reformist teachings inspired Guangxu’s Hundred Days’ Reform—a 1898 modernization campaign that threatened conservative elites. Cixi retaliated by forcing Guangxu to exile his beloved tutor, a devastating blow captured in Weng’s diary: “The Emperor wept as he signed my dismissal decree.”

The Betrayal: Yuan Shikai and the Collapse of the Hundred Days’ Reform

The 1898 reform movement marked Guangxu’s boldest—and final—grasp for power. Needing military support, he turned to Yuan Shikai, commander of the modernized New Army. Over three fateful days in September:
1. September 20: Guangxu granted Yuan an unprecedented two-hour audience, imploring his loyalty.
2. September 21: Radical reformer Tan Sitong secretly visited Yuan, proposing a coup against Cixi.
3. September 22: Yuan betrayed the plot to Cixi’s ally Ronglu, triggering the emperor’s imprisonment.

Historians still debate Yuan’s motives. Some argue self-preservation; others cite his conservative leanings. Regardless, the betrayal doomed Guangxu to a decade of house arrest and China to another generation of stagnation.

The Eunuch’s Paradox: Li Lianying Between Compassion and Complicity

As Cixi’s chief eunuch, Li Lianying (1848–1911) occupied a unique space in Guangxu’s tragedy. While facilitating Cixi’s control, he occasionally softened the emperor’s suffering:
– During the 1900 Boxer Rebellion’s chaos, Li ensured Guangxu had blankets during their flight to Xi’an.
– He discreetly provided writing materials when Cixi forbade the emperor from communicating with reformers.

These acts, recorded by reformist Wang Zhao, reveal the complex humanity beneath Li’s political machinations. Guangxu himself acknowledged: “Without Elder Brother Li [Lianying], I wouldn’t have survived.”

Legacy: The Emperor Who Could Have Been

Guangxu’s reign (1875–1908) remains a haunting “what if” of Chinese history. His attempted reforms—judicial modernization, industrial development, educational overhaul—prefigured Japan’s Meiji successes. Yet the four men around him created irreconcilable tensions:
– Yixuan’s caution left Guangxu politically isolated.
– Weng’s idealism armed him with vision but not power.
– Yuan’s betrayal exposed the military’s conservative core.
– Li’s dual loyalty mirrored the court’s fractured morality.

Modern China still grapples with this legacy. The 1898 reforms are now celebrated as proto-nationalist movements, while Yuan Shikai’s later presidency (1912–1916) exemplifies the perils of militarized governance. Most poignantly, Guangxu’s poisoned death in 1908—revealed by 2008 forensic tests—symbolizes the tragic cost of thwarted change.

In the end, these four men didn’t just shape an emperor’s life—they held mirrors to the Qing Dynasty’s fatal contradictions between tradition and progress, loyalty and survival. Their stories remind us that history turns not on abstract forces, but on human relationships fraught with hope and betrayal.