The ink had barely dried on the Convention of Peking when the Qing court became embroiled in a power struggle that would determine China’s trajectory for decades. The Xinyou Coup of 1861 marked a pivotal moment where imperial politics, foreign influence, and the ambitions of one remarkable woman collided to reshape the world’s largest empire.
A Throne in Crisis: The Death of an Emperor
In August 1861, the Xianfeng Emperor succumbed to illness at the Rehe Mountain Resort, leaving behind a six-year-old heir and a fractured court. His final edict appointed eight regents – including Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun – to govern during the young Tongzhi Emperor’s minority. This traditional arrangement might have maintained stability, but it failed to account for the ambitions of the boy’s mother, the soon-to-be-infamous Empress Dowager Cixi.
Cixi, then known as the Empress Dowager Ci’an, immediately challenged the regents’ authority. She orchestrated memorials requesting the unprecedented step of “ruling from behind the curtain” – a form of regency where empress dowagers governed from behind a screen during court audiences. When the regents refused, citing lack of precedent, the stage was set for confrontation.
The Coup Unfolds: Blood and Betrayal in Beijing
What followed was a masterclass in political maneuvering. Cixi secretly allied with Prince Gong, the emperor’s uncle who had remained in Beijing during the court’s exile to Rehe. As the imperial procession returned to the capital in November 1861, Cixi and Prince Gong struck. The regents were arrested during a carefully staged audience – Zaiyuan and Duanhua were forced to commit suicide, while Sushun was publicly executed.
The speed and brutality of the purge shocked the court. Cixi and her co-regent Ci’an established the first official system of joint empress dowager regency in Qing history, adopting the reign name “Tongzhi” (meaning “joint rule”). Prince Gong became Prince-Regent, creating a triumvirate that would govern China for nearly half a century.
Foreign Interests and Domestic Upheaval
Western powers watched these developments with keen interest. Having just forced China into unequal treaties through the Second Opium War, Britain and France saw Prince Gong as a more pliable negotiating partner than the xenophobic regents. The Times of London noted approvingly that the new regime appeared “more inclined to carry out the treaty obligations.”
This foreign support came at a price. The coup accelerated the decentralization of Qing power, as regional Han Chinese officials gained unprecedented influence after suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. Provincial governors like Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang commanded personal armies and controlled local finances, weakening Beijing’s authority.
The Birth of the Self-Strengthening Movement
The post-coup era saw the rise of the “Self-Strengthening Movement” – China’s first systematic attempt to adopt Western technology while preserving Confucian values. Prince Gong established the Zongli Yamen (China’s first foreign affairs office), while provincial officials founded arsenals and shipyards. This contradictory approach – modernizing tools but not institutions – would characterize China’s response to Western challenges for decades.
Cixi’s political genius lay in balancing these competing forces. She empowered modernizers enough to placate foreign powers and address domestic crises, but never enough to threaten Manchu dominance. As historian Jonathan Spence observes, “She was like a skilled rider who could mount one horse after another without ever being thrown.”
Legacy of the Xinyou Coup
The 1861 coup’s consequences rippled far beyond the Forbidden City. It established Cixi’s dominance – though she would withdraw temporarily after Tongzhi’s death in 1875, she returned to power in 1881 and ruled until 1908. The decentralization it accelerated contributed to the Qing’s eventual collapse in 1911.
Perhaps most significantly, the coup set China on a path of controlled modernization that ultimately failed. While Japan underwent the Meiji Restoration (1868) and transformed into an industrial power, China’s piecemeal reforms left it vulnerable to further foreign encroachment. The Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) and subsequent foreign occupation can be traced directly to the contradictions embedded in the post-1861 political settlement.
The Xinyou Coup remains controversial among historians. Some view it as a necessary stabilization after Xianfeng’s death, others as the moment when Cixi’s personal ambition eclipsed national interest. What’s undeniable is that this palace drama marked the beginning of China’s modern era – a turbulent transition from empire to nation-state that continues to shape East Asian geopolitics today.
As we examine this critical juncture, we see not just a power struggle between individuals, but a civilization grappling with its place in a rapidly changing world. The decisions made in those autumn weeks of 1861 would haunt China for generations, proving that sometimes the most consequential battles are fought not on military fronts, but in palace corridors.