A Palace Divided: The Political Landscape of Late Qing China

In the sweltering summer of 1874, the Forbidden City became the stage for one of the most dramatic confrontations in Qing Dynasty history. At the center stood the 18-year-old Emperor Tongzhi, whose ambitious plan to rebuild the ruined Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) exposed deep fractures between the throne, the imperial clan, and the bureaucracy.

This crisis unfolded against a backdrop of post-Taiping Rebellion recovery, where the Qing court struggled with depleted treasuries and rising Western encroachment. The Empress Dowager Cixi, though officially “retired” after Tongzhi’s assumption of direct rule in 1873, maintained invisible control through networks of spies and loyalists. Her uneasy relationship with Prince Gong (Yixin), the pragmatic statesman who had negotiated with foreign powers after the Second Opium War, created persistent tensions.

The Fundraising Farce and Its Political Theater

The crisis began with what should have been a routine matter: financing the Yuanmingyuan reconstruction. When Tongzhi issued a call for donations:

– Prince Gong made a strategic donation of 20,000 taels—a substantial sum equivalent to 10 years of a prince’s stipend—hoping to ease Cixi’s suspicions of his ambitions
– Prince Chun (Yixuan) felt compelled to match this amount despite financial strain
– The final tally reached just 405,000 taels, a fraction of the millions required

This disappointing response revealed the court’s financial exhaustion and growing resistance to imperial extravagance. The stage was set for confrontation when two censors dared challenge the project.

The Censors’ Revolt: When Moral Authority Challenged Imperial Will

The confrontation escalated through two pivotal encounters with imperial censors—the “eyes and ears” of the Confucian bureaucracy:

1. Shen Huai’s Failed Protest
The wooden-faced censor’s straightforward memorial criticizing the project’s wastefulness earned him a humiliating lecture from Tongzhi about filial piety—a clever deflection invoking Confucian doctrine to justify pleasing Cixi.

2. You Baichuan’s Clever Gambit
The shrewd Shandong-born censor, famous for earlier impeachments of corrupt nobles, employed psychological tactics:
– First flattering Tongzhi’s filial devotion
– Then proposing a compromise: renovating the nearby Western Gardens (Xiyuan) at lower cost
– His shocking discovery—the emperor didn’t even know the location of this imperial property—revealed Tongzhi’s lack of administrative knowledge

The subsequent humiliation, where You was forced to draft a memorial using the emperor’s own brush (a near-sacrilegious act), demonstrated Tongzhi’s growing authoritarian tendencies.

The Scandal That Shook the Throne

Just as tensions peaked, scandal struck from an unexpected quarter:
– Li Guangzhao, a Guangdong merchant contracted to supply rare timber, was exposed as a fraud by Sichuan Governor Wu Tang
– The ensuing international lawsuit and embezzlement revelations forced Tongzhi to order Li’s execution
– This debacle became the rallying point for bureaucratic opposition

The Princes’ Rebellion: A Constitutional Crisis

On July 16, 1874, Prince Gong and Prince Chun led ten senior statesmen in presenting the “Eight Point Memorial”—a sweeping critique of Tongzhi’s rule demanding:
1. Halt to Yuanmingyuan reconstruction
2. Cessation of imperial “incognito travels” (later revealed as forbidden pleasure excursions)
3. Removal of corrupt eunuchs
4. Rejection of sycophants
5. Curtailment of lavish banquets
6. Opening of remonstrance channels
7. Vigilance against foreign threats
8. Abandonment of frivolous pursuits

The subsequent audience became one of Qing history’s most explosive confrontations:
– Tongzhi’s shocking offer to abdicate—”Shall I yield the throne to you?”—left Grand Secretary Wenxiang physically collapsing
– Prince Gong’s revelation about Tongzhi’s secret brothel visits (the true meaning of “incognito travels”) came from his own son Zaicheng, a royal companion
– The emperor’s subsequent erratic punishment—demoting Prince Gong to commoner status before partial reinstatement—revealed his crumbling authority

The Empress Dowager’s Return: A Humiliating Intervention

On August 1, Cixi and co-regent Ci’an staged a dramatic intervention:
– The scene of “two dowagers weeping above, the emperor kneeling below” became legendary
– Cixi’s rebuke—”Without Prince Gong these past ten years, how could we have today?”—forced Tongzhi to rescind his edicts
– The Yuanmingyuan project was canceled in favor of Xiyuan renovations, exactly as You Baichuan had suggested

Legacy of a Political Earthquake

This 1874 crisis left enduring marks on Qing history:
1. Institutional Consequences
– Confirmed the limits of imperial power even under “personal rule”
– Demonstrated the bureaucracy’s ability to check autocratic excess

2. Personal Tragedies
– Tongzhi’s humiliation may have contributed to his reckless behavior leading to his death from smallpox (or possibly syphilis) just months later in January 1875
– The succession crisis that followed—Cixi’s installation of her nephew as Guangxu Emperor—prolonged her regency

3. Symbolic Significance
– The abandoned Yuanmingyuan became a permanent ruin—a stark contrast to the later Summer Palace reconstructions
– The Western Gardens (today’s Zhongnanhai) gained new importance as an imperial retreat

The events of 1874 revealed a fundamental truth: even absolute monarchs could not govern against the collective will of the elite. Tongzhi’s failed assertion of authority became a cautionary tale about the realities of power in late imperial China—where filial duty, bureaucratic consensus, and palace politics often outweighed imperial edicts. For modern historians, it remains a fascinating case study in the mechanics of Qing governance and the personal costs of political failure.