The Crisis of Succession in Late Qing China

The death of Emperor Xianfeng in August 1861 at the Rehe Mountain Resort plunged the Qing Dynasty into a power struggle that would reshape China’s political landscape. The emperor’s five-year-old son Zaichun (later Emperor Tongzhi) inherited the throne under a regency council known as the Eight Ministers, led by the powerful Sushun. Meanwhile, Xianfeng’s consorts – Empress Dowager Ci’an and the ambitious Empress Dowager Cixi – found themselves sidelined despite their status as the young emperor’s guardians.

This tension reflected deeper fractures in Qing governance after the Second Opium War (1856-1860), when foreign troops had occupied Beijing, forcing the imperial court to flee to Rehe. The Eight Ministers, particularly Sushun, represented conservative factions resistant to modernization, while Prince Gong (Yixin), Xianfeng’s brother who had negotiated with Western powers in Beijing, emerged as a reformist counterbalance.

The Strategic Demand for Return

Prince Gong’s secret visit to Rehe in September 1861 proved pivotal. His urgent counsel to the empress dowagers emphasized the necessity of returning the court to Beijing’s Forbidden City – a move that would weaken the Rehe-based regents’ control. Cixi, demonstrating the political acumen that would define her half-century reign, crafted impeccable arguments for the return:

1. Imperial Precedent: Citing Qing ancestral customs, she noted that every emperor since Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) had been enshrined in the Qianqing Palace after death, regardless of where they died. Xianfeng’s remains deserved the same dignity after two weeks in Rehe.

2. Legitimacy Rituals: The young emperor required a proper enthronement ceremony in the Hall of Supreme Harmony – an impossibility in the temporary Rehe quarters. Without this, his reign would lack cosmological sanction.

When Sushun raised security concerns about returning to Beijing, Cixi’s deft reply – “Should anything happen, it won’t be your responsibility” – left the ministers politically paralyzed. Their failure to counter this argument marked the first critical mistake in what would become known as the Xinyou Coup (1861).

The Division of the Imperial Procession

Cixi’s logistical arrangements for the return trip on September 23 revealed masterful strategy:

– Sushun would escort Xianfeng’s coffin – removing him from direct control of the living emperor
– The empress dowagers would personally guard Zaichun during travel
– Two other regents (Zaiyuan and Duanhua) would accompany as nominal protection

This seemingly reasonable division actually isolated the key power players. As historian William Ayers observed, “By separating the symbols of legitimacy (the emperor) from the instruments of power (the regents), Cixi created conditions for their overthrow.” The ministers failed to recognize that controlling the child emperor represented the ultimate political leverage in Confucian governance.

The Cultural Weight of Imperial Geography

The return to Beijing carried profound symbolic meaning beyond immediate politics:

1. Cosmological Order: The Forbidden City stood as the cosmological center of the universe in Chinese political thought. An emperor ruling from anywhere else violated the Mandate of Heaven’s spatial requirements.

2. Foreign Relations: Remaining in Rehe signaled Qing weakness after the unequal treaties. Returning to Beijing allowed reengagement with Western diplomats on stronger footing – a point Prince Gong emphasized.

3. Material Conditions: As the narrative notes, Rehe’s logistical shortcomings (food supplies, housing quality) made daily life miserable for the imperial entourage compared to Beijing’s established infrastructure.

The Coup Unfolds

Upon reaching Beijing on November 1, Cixi and Prince Gong moved swiftly:

1. They secured support from Mongol princes and Han Chinese officials alienated by Sushun’s policies
2. Western diplomats, preferring Prince Gong’s pragmatic approach, provided tacit support
3. On November 2, the regents were arrested during a court audience

Sushun was executed weeks later, while Zaiyuan and Duanhua were ordered to commit suicide – unprecedented harshness toward Manchu nobility that demonstrated Cixi’s resolve.

Lasting Impacts on Qing Governance

The coup established patterns that endured until 1911:

1. Dowager Regency: Cixi’s political dominance (first jointly with Ci’an, then alone after 1881) created China’s most powerful female rulership since Empress Wu Zetian (Tang Dynasty).

2. Self-Strengthening Movement: Prince Gong’s new leadership initiated China’s first systematic modernization attempts, establishing institutions like the Zongli Yamen (foreign affairs office).

3. Centralized Control: The elimination of competing power centers concentrated authority but also made governance dependent on Cixi’s personal judgment – a vulnerability during crises like the Boxer Rebellion.

Modern Historical Perspectives

Recent scholarship (as in Jung Chang’s “Empress Dowager Cixi”) reassesses the coup as more than mere power struggle:

– It prevented continued rule by anti-reform conservatives like Sushun
– The return to Beijing enabled limited modernization that delayed Qing collapse by decades
– Cixi’s maneuvers demonstrated exceptional political skill in a system designed to exclude women from power

The Xinyou Coup’s legacy remains contested – was it a tragic consolidation of autocratic power or a necessary step for China’s modernization? What’s undeniable is that in those critical autumn weeks of 1861, a 26-year-old widow outplayed seasoned politicians to reshape an empire’s destiny.