--- title: Daoguang Emperor (r. 1820–1850), Qing Dynasty url: https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty-emperors/daoguang-emperor/ language: en description: "The Daoguang Emperor (r. 1820–1850): his frugal rule, the Khoja revolt, Lin Zexu, the First Opium War, the Treaty of Nanjing and porcelain of his reign." alternates: zh-Hant: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hant/qing-dynasty-emperors/daoguang-emperor/ zh-Hans: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hans/qing-dynasty-emperors/daoguang-emperor/ --- *Portrait: public domain, via [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:003-The_Imperial_Portrait_of_a_Chinese_Emperor_called_%22Daoguang%22.JPG)* Qing Dynasty1820–1850 # Daoguang Emperor 道光 **Reign facts and reign mark** **Reigned:** 1820–1850 (30 years) **Lived:** 1782–1850 **Personal name:** Minning 旻寧 **Temple name:** Xuanzong 宣宗 **Era name:** Daoguang 道光 1821–1850 光年製大清道 ***Reign mark**Made in the Daoguang reign of the Great Qing. [How to read reign marks](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-reign-marks/)* [Qing Dynasty Emperors](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty-emperors/) **On this page** 1. Life before Ascending the Throne 2. A Frugal yet Generous Emperor 3. Accession and the Khoja Rebellion in Xinjiang 4. The First Opium War 5. Anti-Christian Laws 6. The Later Years of the Daoguang Emperor 7. Porcelain of the Daoguang Reign 8. Death and Succession The Daoguang Emperor (1782–1850), born Mianning and later named Minning (旻寧), reigned from 1820 to 1850. He was the sixth emperor of the [Qing dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty/) to rule China from Beijing. His era name, Daoguang, was used from 1821, and his temple name is Xuanzong. His reign brought disaster from outside and unrest within. The First Opium War ended in the Treaty of Nanjing, the first of the unequal treaties forced on China by the Western powers, and for that reason many historians date the start of China's modern history to his reign. Daoguang was hard-working and famously frugal. Neither his diligence nor his economies, however, could halt the dynasty's decline, and he did little to meet the new challenge from the West. ## Life before Ascending the Throne Mianning was born in the Forbidden City in 1782, the second son of Prince Yongyan, heir of the Qianlong Emperor. His elder brother died in infancy, and his mother, Lady Hitara, was Yongyan's principal wife, so as the eldest surviving son of the principal wife he was the natural heir. In 1799 his father, by then emperor, secretly named him as his successor. He was a favourite of his grandfather Qianlong and often joined him on hunting trips. On one of them, at the age of nine, he shot a deer, to the old emperor's delight. In 1796 Qianlong abdicated, and Mianning's father became the [Jiaqing Emperor](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty-emperors/jiaqing-emperor/), making Lady Hitara his empress. In 1813, when rebels of the Eight Trigrams sect broke into the Forbidden City, Mianning helped to drive them back, shooting attackers himself. He was rewarded with the title Prince Zhi. When he came to the throne he changed his personal name from Mianning (綿寧) to Minning (旻寧). By the rules of name taboo, the character of an emperor's name could no longer be used by others, and the change spared the many princes of his generation, whose names also began with Mian, from having to alter theirs. ## A Frugal yet Generous Emperor Although he ruled a vast empire with great power concentrated in his hands, the Daoguang Emperor became famous for his thrift, which at times verged on meanness. He avoided costly furnishings, cut palace spending, and is said to have worn patched clothes. His consorts were expected to dress plainly, use little make-up and learn needlework, so that the court need not pay others for it. His empress, Xiaoquancheng, supported him in this. He urged his officials to live in the same way, believing that luxury wore away the energy and resolve of those who governed. To his subjects in hardship he could be generous. He remitted taxes for the poor many times and sent large sums to relieve areas struck by natural disasters, though much of the money ended up in the pockets of corrupt officials. ## Accession and the Khoja Rebellion in Xinjiang The Jiaqing Emperor died suddenly in September 1820, and Mianning, then 38, succeeded him. He inherited an empire already in decline, with Western powers pressing at its borders. In 1826 Jahangir Khoja, an exiled leader of the Afaqi Khojas, a Naqshbandi Sufi lineage that had once ruled the Tarim Basin, invaded Qing territory in southern Xinjiang. By the end of the year his forces had taken Kashgar, Yangi Hissar, Yarkand and Khotan. A large Qing army recovered the cities in 1827. Jahangir was betrayed and captured, taken to Beijing and executed by slow slicing in 1828. ## The First Opium War Foreign trade was confined to Guangzhou (Canton) and closely controlled, and for many years China sold far more to Britain, above all tea, silk and porcelain, than it bought. British merchants redressed the balance by smuggling in opium grown in India. The trade was highly profitable, silver drained out of China, and addiction ruined lives and health. In 1839 the emperor sent Lin Zexu to Guangzhou as imperial commissioner to stamp out the trade. Lin confiscated and destroyed more than a thousand tonnes of opium, expelled the British smugglers and halted trade with the British. Britain answered with force, and the [First Opium War](https://realrareantiques.com/the-opium-wars/) (1839–1842) followed. As the war went badly, Lin was made a scapegoat, dismissed and exiled to Yili in the far northwest. Along the coast the Qing were outmatched in ships, guns and organisation. In 1842 British forces cut the Grand Canal at Zhenjiang, the route that carried grain and taxes from the south to the capital, and the court sued for peace. Meanwhile, in the Himalayas, a Sikh army invaded Tibet and was defeated in the Sino-Sikh War of 1841–1842. ### The Treaty of Nanjing The Treaty of Nanjing, signed in 1842, ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain, opened five ports to British trade and residence, and required China to pay a large indemnity. It was the first of the unequal treaties, and similar agreements with the United States and France followed within two years. The defeat is usually put down to poor organisation and outdated weapons, together with ignorance of the enemy, unclear policy and weak command. ## Anti-Christian Laws In 1811, under Daoguang's father, a clause prescribing death for Europeans who spread Catholicism was added to the section of the Great Qing Legal Code on "Prohibitions Concerning Sorcerers and Sorceresses". Protestant missionaries hoped that the law, which named Catholicism, would not be applied to them. When Protestant books were found being handed out in Guangzhou, however, Daoguang ordered the "traitorous natives" who had helped to be tracked down. ## The Later Years of the Daoguang Emperor In the last decade of his reign the empire continued to lose sovereignty and territory, and Daoguang has often been judged an ineffective and irresolute ruler. How much of the blame is his is hard to say, and another monarch might have fared no better. He failed to grasp the determination of the Europeans, or the economics of a war against the drug trade. The court depended on the taxes and grain carried from the south along the Grand Canal, and the British had shown how easily that lifeline could be cut. What historians hold most against him is that, after defeat and a string of unequal treaties, he did little to reform the army or to learn from the West. ### A Failure to Modernise Daoguang had little understanding of Britain or of the industrial revolution that had transformed Europe, and he preferred to look away from the wider world. The great distance between Europe and China no doubt played its part. It is said that he did not know exactly where Britain was. His thirty-year reign saw the first onslaught of Western imperialism, the beginning of a century of foreign intervention in China. Rather than prepare for what was coming, he left these problems to his heir. Unrest was already growing in the south, and within a year of his death it broke out as the Taiping Rebellion. ## Porcelain of the Daoguang Reign Imperial porcelain was made at Jingdezhen throughout the reign, usually with the six-character seal mark *Da Qing Daoguang nian zhi* (大清道光年製). Among the finest pieces are those marked *Shende tang zhi*, made for the Shende Hall, the emperor's residence in the Old Summer Palace. More Qing pieces can be seen in our [Qing dynasty porcelain collection](https://realrareantiques.com/product-category/antique-chinese-porcelain/qing-dynasty-porcelain/). *Museum exampleA bowl with the Daoguang mark and of the period (1821–50), its yellow ground painted with flower scrolls around panels of mountain landscapes in grey enamel.[Art Institute of Chicago, 1941.514. Public domain.](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/41907)* See [Qing Dynasty Porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/product-category/antique-chinese-porcelain/qing-dynasty-porcelain/) in our collection, or ask us about a piece. [Ask about a piece](https://realrareantiques.com/contact-us/) ## Death and Succession The Daoguang Emperor died at the Old Summer Palace in February 1850. He was the last emperor to die there: the palace was sacked and burned by British and French troops in 1860, during the Second Opium War. He was succeeded by his fourth son, Yizhu, the son of Empress Xiaoquancheng, who reigned as the [Xianfeng Emperor](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty-emperors/xianfeng-emperor/). Daoguang was buried in the Mu Mausoleum, part of the Western Qing Tombs southwest of Beijing. ## From the Qing Dynasty - Qing Dynasty Porcelain [Set of Four Enamelled Porcelain Cups with Flower and Crane Panels, Late Qing Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-enameled-porcelain-cup-set-late-qing-dynasty/)Late QingPrice on request - Qing Dynasty Porcelain [Blue and White Plate with Pine, Bamboo and Plum, Qing Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-porcelain-plate-qing-dynasty/)Qing DynastyPrice on request - Qing Dynasty Porcelain [Blue and White Bowl with Fu Characters and Bees, Qing Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-porcelain-bowl-qing-dynasty/)Qing DynastyPrice on request - Qing Dynasty Porcelain [Blue and White Bowl with Landscape Panels and a Leaf Mark, Qing Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/blue-and-white-antique-chinese-porcelain-bowl-qing-dynasty/)Qing DynastyPrice on request [View all Qing Dynasty Porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/product-category/antique-chinese-porcelain/qing-dynasty-porcelain/)[Ask about a piece](https://realrareantiques.com/contact-us/) Be the first to see new pieces Join our collectors' list for new arrivals, rare finds and private offers.