--- title: Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861), Qing Dynasty url: https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty-emperors/xianfeng-emperor/ language: en description: "The Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861): the Taiping and Nian rebellions, the Second Opium War and the burning of the Old Summer Palace, and Xianfeng porcelain." alternates: zh-Hant: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hant/qing-dynasty-emperors/xianfeng-emperor/ zh-Hans: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hans/qing-dynasty-emperors/xianfeng-emperor/ --- *Portrait: public domain, via [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E3%80%8A%E5%92%B8%E4%B8%B0%E7%9A%87%E5%B8%9D%E6%9C%9D%E6%9C%8D%E5%83%8F%E3%80%8B.jpg)* Qing Dynasty1850–1861 # Xianfeng Emperor 咸豐 **Reign facts and reign mark** **Reigned:** 1850–1861 (11 years) **Lived:** 1831–1861 **Personal name:** Yizhu 奕詝 **Temple name:** Wenzong 文宗 **Era name:** Xianfeng 咸豐 1851–1861 豐年製大清咸 ***Reign mark**Made in the Xianfeng 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/) Yizhu (奕詝, 1831–1861), known by his era name Xianfeng and the temple name Wenzong, reigned from 1850 to 1861. He was the seventh emperor of the [Qing dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty/) to rule China from Beijing. His short reign was dominated by crisis: the Taiping Rebellion in the south, the Nian Rebellion in the north, and the Second Opium War, which ended with British and French troops in Beijing. He was the last Qing emperor to rule in his own right. After his death, real power passed to his consort, the future Empress Dowager Cixi, and remained largely in her hands until 1908. ## Family and Early Years Yizhu was born in 1831 at the Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace outside Beijing. He was the fourth son of the [Daoguang Emperor](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty-emperors/daoguang-emperor/). His mother, of the Niohuru clan, was raised to empress in 1834 and is known by her posthumous title, Empress Xiaoquancheng. Daoguang chose Yizhu as his heir in preference to his able younger brother Yixin, later Prince Gong, having been impressed by his conduct and learning. ## Accession Yizhu came to the throne in 1850, at the age of eighteen, and took the era name Xianfeng, usually translated as "universal prosperity". The name proved sadly inappropriate. He inherited a state weakened by the First Opium War, by corruption and by rural poverty, and within months of his accession the empire was facing the largest rebellion in its history. ## The Taiping and Nian Rebellions The Taiping Rebellion began in Guangxi at the turn of 1850 and 1851. Its leader, Hong Xiuquan, was a Hakka who had failed the civil service examinations and came to believe he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. His followers defeated the local forces sent against them, and he proclaimed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Taiping armies marched north through Hunan and down the Yangzi, and in 1853 they took Nanjing, which became their capital for the next eleven years. A Taiping expedition that year pushed north to within reach of Tianjin before it was destroyed. The fighting devastated the richest provinces of the empire and cost millions of lives. The regular Qing armies proved largely ineffective. The court came to rely on new provincial armies raised by Han Chinese officials, above all the Hunan Army of Zeng Guofan, which slowly turned the tide. The rebellion was not finally crushed until 1864, three years after Xianfeng's death. At the same time the Nian Rebellion spread across the north China plain. The Nian, unlike the Taiping, had no religious programme and little political organisation, but their mounted bands were highly mobile and threatened the approaches to the capital. Qing forces suffered repeated defeats against both movements. ## The Second Opium War The Second Opium War (1856–1860), also called the Arrow War, grew out of British determination to extend the trading rights won in the First Opium War, which had ended with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The seizure of the ship Arrow at Canton in 1856 gave Britain its pretext, and France joined the war after the execution of a French missionary. The background is covered in our article on [the Opium Wars](https://realrareantiques.com/the-opium-wars/). ### The Treaties of 1858 After Canton fell and the Anglo-French fleet took the Dagu forts guarding the approach to Tianjin, the Qing agreed in June 1858 to the Treaty of Tianjin. It opened further ports to foreign trade, allowed foreigners to travel in the interior, gave Christian missionaries freedom to work there, and allowed foreign envoys to reside in Beijing. The opium trade was legalised under tariff agreements concluded the same year. A month earlier, in May 1858, China had signed the Treaty of Aigun with Russia. It moved the border to the Amur River and restricted navigation on the Amur, Sungari and Ussuri rivers to Chinese and Russian vessels. ### The Fall of Beijing and the Burning of the Palaces The court, and the emperor himself, resisted above all the idea of foreign envoys living permanently in the capital. In June 1859, when British and French envoys arrived to exchange ratifications, their fleet was refused passage at Dagu and suffered heavy losses in the attempt to force it. The allies returned in greater strength in 1860. In August they took the Dagu forts, then Tianjin, and advanced on Beijing. In September the emperor left the capital for the summer retreat at Chengde in Jehol, officially for the autumn hunt, leaving his brother Prince Gong to negotiate. His health, already poor, declined further there, and rival factions formed at court. In October 1860 Anglo-French troops entered Beijing and looted the Yuanmingyuan, with its vast imperial collections. In reprisal for the torture and killing of allied prisoners, the British envoy Lord Elgin ordered the Yuanmingyuan burned, and the nearby Qingyiyuan, the site of the later Summer Palace, was also destroyed. ### The Convention of Beijing Days later Prince Gong signed the Convention of Beijing. China ratified the Treaty of Tianjin, opened Tianjin itself to trade, ceded the southern part of the Kowloon peninsula to Britain, and agreed to pay Britain and France indemnities of eight million taels each. A separate agreement with Russia confirmed the Treaty of Aigun and ceded the lands east of the Ussuri River. ## Death and the Regency The Xianfeng Emperor never returned to Beijing. He died at the Chengde Mountain Resort on 22 August 1861, at the age of thirty, after a long illness often blamed on his dissipated way of life. His only surviving son, Zaichun, then five years old, succeeded him and reigned as the [Tongzhi Emperor](https://realrareantiques.com/qing-dynasty-emperors/tongzhi-emperor/). The day before he died, Xianfeng summoned the senior official Sushun and his allies and issued an edict naming eight regents for his son: Zaiyuan, Duanhua, Sushun, Jingshou, Muyin, Kuangyuan, Du Han and Jiao Youying. Their decrees, however, required the seals held by his empress, later Empress Dowager Ci'an, and by Noble Consort Yi, the boy's mother and the future Empress Dowager Cixi. The two women returned to Beijing ahead of the funeral procession and, with Prince Gong, staged a coup that removed the regents. Cixi went on to dominate the Qing court for most of the next forty-seven years. ## Xianfeng Porcelain Imperial porcelain of the reign carries the six-character mark **大清咸豐年製** (Da Qing Xianfeng nian zhi). Genuine Xianfeng imperial wares are scarce, because the Taiping war reached Jingdezhen and the imperial kilns were destroyed in 1855. Most marked official pieces therefore date from the first years of the reign, and production at Jingdezhen did not recover until the kilns were rebuilt under Tongzhi. Late Qing pieces can be found among our [Qing dynasty porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/product-category/antique-chinese-porcelain/qing-dynasty-porcelain/). *Museum exampleA porcelain snuff bottle with the Xianfeng mark and of the period (1851–61), painted in underglaze blue and enamels with foreign figures bringing tribute.[Art Institute of Chicago, 1961.1293. Public domain.](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/87906)* 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/) ## 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 Kendi with a Phoenix among Clouds, Early Qing Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-porcelain-kendi-early-qing-dynasty/)Early QingPrice 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 - 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 [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.