Daoguang Emperor

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About Daoguang Emperor

Lifespan: 1782 – 1850 A.D

Reign Years: 1820 – 1850 A.D

Given Name: Minning

Reign Name: Xuanzong

Daoguang Emperor – Qing Dynasty

The Daoguang Emperor was the 7th ruler of the Qing Dynasty. He was the 6th Qing Emperor who ruled over the entire country proper. His rulership was marked by the outside disaster and inner rebellion. Specifically, the First Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion started, which almost brought down the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing emperor worked hard to flourish the empire while living a rather stingy lifestyle. However, his notable efforts appeared useless due to the political and systematic constraints, together with his relatively “standard” abilities.

The Qing Empire experienced huge failures in connection to foreign invaders. Plus, the Qing emperor began signing several unfair pacts during his rule. Hence, the Daoguang Emperor’s rule was considered to be the start of the country’s modern history.

Life before Ascending the Throne

The Daoguang Emperor was born in Beijing’s Forbidden City and was given the name Mianning. Later, his name was altered to Mianning when he ascended the throne.

Mianning was the 2nd son of Prince Yongyan, successor of the Qianlong Emperor. Although he was Prince Yongyan’s 2nd son, he was first in line after Prince Yongyan to succeed the throne.

The reason for this was the Dishu System. Lady Hitara, his mother, was the primary spouse of Yongyan, while his older brother was born to a concubine.

Mianning was someone favored greatly by his grandfather, Emperor Qianlong, especially when he accompanied him on hunting trips. There was one specific trip that the 9-year-old Mianning joined. Here, he was able to successfully hunt a deer, which amused Emperor Qianlong.

Though after some years, the Qing emperor abdicated, so Mianning’s father was crowned as Emperor Jiaqing. Then, he appointed Lady Hitara as his empress consort.

In 1813, while Mianning was still a prince, he had an important role. IT was killing and repelling Eight Trigrams invaders who attacked the Forbidden City.

A Frugal yet Generous Emperor

As a monarch of a huge empire that featured centralized power, the Daoguang Emperor became famous for his heightened frugalness. He has even reached the point of becoming stingy most of the time.

Unlike other rulers of the country, he didn’t bother using fancy or extremely expensive furniture. Often, he would ask his servants to purchase dinner outside the palace. The reason for this was simple: food purchased from the civilians’ market was definitely more affordable.

Some of his clothes were patched, and he asked his imperial concubines to study how to create beautiful pieces. He asked for this to avoid spending too much money on hiring others to do the job.

His beloved, Empress Xiaoquancheng, liked his attitude, hence, entirely supported his frugal ways and ideologies. Under the empress’ command, all of the Daoguang Emperor’s imperial consorts barely used make-up. They also did not dress in expensive, fancy clothing.

Since the emperor lived a frugal lifestyle, he urged his own officials to follow the same way of living. That’s because he believed that an extremely luxurious lifestyle would simply wear out the people’s courage and ambitions.

Yet when it came to the civilians who suffered from things like natural disasters, the Qing Emperor Daoguang was different. He was a generous leader to them, and for countless times, exempted the taxes of the poor. The emperor even sent a huge amount of money to those in need.

Unfortunately, most of the money he sent to the people ended up in corrupt officials’ pockets.

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Khoja Rebellion in Xinjang

In September 1820, when he was 38-years-old, Mianning took the throne after Emperor Jiaqing died for unknown reasons. He then became the first emperor of the Qing, who was the oldest legitimate son of his father.

After becoming the Daoguang Emperor, he managed a declining empire with Westerners invading China’s borders.

The Daoguang Emperor of the Qing Dynasty ruled for six years when the exiled successor to the Khojas attacked Xinjiang during the Afawi Khoja revolts. This was Jahangir Khoja.

By the end of the year 1826, earlier cities of Qing were captured by the rebels. These were Yarkand, Kashgar, Yangihissar, and Khotan. After getting betrayed in 1827, Khoja was sent to Beijing then subsequently executed. During this time, the Qing Empire was able to regain their control over the lost territories.

The Uyghur-Muslim Sayyid and Naqshbandi Sufi of the Afaqi suborder, Jahangir Khoja, was cut and sliced to his death. The Manchus did this in 1828 to start a rebellion against the Qing Empire.

The First Opium War

During the reign of the Daoguang Emperor, the empire banned international trade on a civilian level. But despite this, the export of Qing still exceeded the imports. Then, Britain began smuggling opium into the empire and was able to acquire great benefits.

Yet, for the people, utilizing opium would lead to disasters to their stable lives and health.

The Daoguang Emperor sent an official named Lin Zexu to inspect the smuggling issues. He destroyed huge numbers of illegally-imported opium, then expelled British smugglers in the empire. Eventually, the Qing Dynasty stopped international trade with Britain.

Lin Zexu’s efforts to stop the spread of opium in China directly led to the First Opium War. With its development, Lin Zexu was turned into a scapegoat.

The Daoguang removed his power then banished him to Yili. In the Himalayas, the Sikh Empire tried to occupy Tibet, yet was defeated in the Sino-Sikh war.

The Qing lost the war on the coast, which showed their military and technological inferiority against the European powers. They had to give up Hong Kong to the British during the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842.

The next year, the Daoguang Emperor’s beloved wife passed away, then the First Opium War/First Anglo-Chinese War broke out.

The Treaty of Nanjing

After several failed negotiations and battles, the closed gate of the Qing Empire was opened. It was done by the British with the help of their advanced weapons.

The Qing had to sign the Treaty of Nanjing. It included giving up Hong Kong, the loss of sovereign rights, and indemnity.

The main reasons for the Qing Dynasty’s mistake during this war was primarily due to their chaotic organization and backward weaponry. Other reasons include insufficient details about the enemy, unclear policies, inefficient commands, and a lot more.

Anti-Christianity

In 1811, a clause sentencing Europeans to their death for spreading Catholicism was added to an edict. It was called “Prohibitions Concerning Sorcerers & Sorceresses”. Specifically, it became part of the Great Qing Legal Code.

Protestants hoped that the Qing Empire would single-out between Protestantism and Catholicism. That’s because the law stated the latter by name.

However, some Protestant missionaries handed out Christian books to the Chinese. When he learned of this, the Daoguang Emperor forced to learn who the “traitorous natives” in Guangzhou were.

The Late Years of Daoguang Emperor

In the last ten years of the Daoguang Emperor’s reign, the Qing Empire kept losing sovereignty and land. This made the Qing emperor widely criticized for being an incapable, inefficient, and undetermined leader.

It was difficult to quantify the amount of responsibility that the emperor should take for all the empire’s losses. The outcome could also be different if another monarch was handling all these.

The Qing Dynasty ruler failed to understand the determination or intentions of the Europeans. Or even the standard economics of a battle against drugs.

The Qing Empire was somehow dependent on the continuous flow of taxes coming from Southern China through the Grand Canal. However, it was easily cut at Zhenjiang because of the British expeditionary forces.

Yet there’s a reason for what made him just a regular emperor. It was that after a succession of failures and unequal treaties, he didn’t do anything to improve the situation. Nor did he at least make some effort to catch up to the progressing Westerners.

Failed Progress to Modernization

The Daoguang Emperor basically had poor understanding of the British people and the industrial uprising that Europe had encountered. He preferred to turn a blind eye to the situation and the rest of the world. However, the distance of Europe from China likely played a part as well.

Claims state that the emperor didn’t even know where Britain was exactly located in the world.

During his reign of 30 years, it introduces the preliminary onslaught of Western imperialism. That also includes the foreign invasions that would haunt China for the next hundred years.

The Daoguang Emperor was also able to witness his dynasty being invaded as well as defeated. Instead of finding ways to prevent further issues and problems, the emperor left these concerns to his heir.

Abdication and Death

The Daoguang Emperor died in February 1850 at the Old Summer Palace. He was the last emperor to die in that palace before it was set on fire and burnt down. Those responsible for burning it down were the Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War.

The Daoguang Emperor passed his throne to Emperor Xianfeng, the only son of his beloved empress.

The Daoguang Emperor was buried in the Mu mausoleum complex. It was included with the Western Qing Tombs, 75 miles on the southwestern portion of Beijing.