Seal joke

Xianfeng left two seals before his death, because he indirectly handed over power to Cixi, which changed the fate of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, Xianfeng also considered a lot when he died. At that time, Guangxu was still relatively young and could not handle state affairs. In order to make Guangxu better support state affairs, Xianfeng found eight assistant ministers for Guangxu.

At the same time, Xianfeng worried that the power given to these ministers was too great and would take away the power of his son Guangxu, so he let the empress dowager and the empress dowager master the seals of both sides. At that time, if the seal was only placed in the hands of the empress dowager, Xianfeng gave it to the empress dowager for fear that the harem would throw power in the ruling and opposition, so as to check and balance each other.

But Xianfeng's seemingly elaborate layout is actually a joke. Although the assistant minister seems to have great power, he actually has no real power at all. If they want to issue a decree, they need the consent of the empress dowager. However, the empress dowager is an organic whole. At that time, the Empress Dowager was attached to the Empress Dowager because she had no children of her own. This seems to be a complicated arrangement, but in fact Xianfeng gave all the power to Cixi alone.

The assistant minister can only make suggestions, and the final decision is still made by Cixi. Xianfeng therefore gave all the lifeblood of the Qing Dynasty to Cixi. Although there was a rule in ancient times that the harem could not participate in politics, since Xianfeng entrusted it, it became a matter of course for Cixi to take power, and no one in the court dared to object. Cixi is selfish. In fact, she didn't care about the lifeblood and direction of the Qing Dynasty at all, just wanted to hold power firmly in her own hands.

Therefore, during the reign of Cixi, she dealt with many officials who threatened her and even suppressed Prince Gong above the imperial court. Prince Gong was a very powerful person in the royal family at that time, but because she had no right to decide, she could only watch the decline of the Qing Dynasty.