Veritable Records of the Qing Emperor Muzong Yi: Tongzhi

The Veritable Records of the Qing Emperor Muzong, Yi, consists of 374 volumes. It records events from the seventh month of the eleventh year of Xianfeng through the twelfth month of the thirteenth year of Tongzhi. The Qing Emperor Muzong, Aisin Gioro Zaichun (1856–1875), was the eighth emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He reigned from 1861 to 1875 under the era name Tongzhi. In the seventh month of the eleventh year of Xianfeng, the Xianfeng Emperor died. While the officials busied themselves with funeral arrangements, they also attended to affairs of state for the six-year-old new emperor, choosing “Qixiang” as the new era name. In accordance with the late emperor’s will, eight ministers were appointed to govern, while the two empress dowagers were not to interfere in state affairs. Driven by a hunger for power, Cixi launched an internal coup at court. In the ninth month of the eleventh year of Xianfeng, Sushun and the others escorted the late emperor’s coffin back to the capital, while the two empress dowagers took the young emperor and returned by a different route. Cixi and her party arrived first. With lightning speed, they arrested the eight ministers. Some were beheaded, some were ordered to commit suicide, and others were dismissed, all on charges of plotting treason. The Qixiang era name was abolished, and on the ninth day of the tenth month, Zaichun ascended the throne and adopted the era name Tongzhi, meaning that the two empress dowagers would govern the realm together. Defying ancestral rules, the two empress dowagers ruled from behind the curtain, though Cixi was the one who truly held power. In the twelfth month of the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, the Tongzhi Emperor died. He had ruled in his own right for two years and was only nineteen, making him the shortest-lived emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He was buried at the Huiling Mausoleum in the Eastern Qing Tombs. The Tongzhi Emperor had no children, and neither the Guangxu nor the Xuantong Emperor who came after him had any descendants. For decades, no infant cries were heard in the palace, earning the era the names “the barren palace” and “three successive breaks in the imperial line.” The superstitious former officials and imperial loyalists all sighed that the Qing Dynasty’s fortunes were nearly exhausted and its downfall already foretold by fate.