Overview
Empress Dowager was a Qing Empress Dowager.
IdentityHistorical · Female · Title only
Life and dates
Attested activity
Places and affiliations
- Polity Qing 清 · Relation Ruled
Works and attributed material
Events and relationships
Accepted Baoting memorial
Political · Issuer
Birthday celebrations
AD 1881 是冬 · Ritual · Honoree
Decreed Guangxu son to heir Tongzhi
Political · Issuer
- Relation Regent for · Person Emperor Guangxu (德宗)
Assessments and attributes
- Assessment compassionate-unwilling-to-divide-loyalties · Mode named-source-report Speaker Baoting (寶廷)
References in the histories
No matching passages.
Draft History of Qing, Chapter 444Volume 444 Biographies 231: Huang Tifang, Zong Shibaoting, Zong Shishengyu, Zhang Peilun, Deng Chengxiu, Xu Zhixiang · 11 passages
光緒改元，疏請選師保以崇聖德，嚴宦寺以杜干預，覈實內務府以節糜費，訓練神機營以備緩急，懿旨嘉納。
At the beginning of Guangxu he memorialized for the appointment of tutors to cultivate the emperor's virtue, tighter control of eunuchs to prevent interference, audit of the Imperial Household Department to cut waste, and drill of the Shenji Camp for emergencies—all measures praised and accepted by the empress dowager.
初，德宗繼統嗣文宗，懿旨謂將來生有皇子，即繼穆宗為嗣。
When Emperor Guangxu had first succeeded as heir to Emperor Xianfeng, an empress dowager's decree held that any son born to him in future would succeed Emperor Tongzhi as heir.
寶廷謂：「恭繹懿旨之意，蓋言穆宗未有儲貳，即以皇上所生之子為嗣，非言生皇子即時承繼也，言嗣而統賅焉矣。
Baoting wrote: "Reverently construed, the empress dowager's decree means that because Tongzhi left no heir, the son the present emperor bears shall be his successor—not that any newborn son must succeed at once, but that 'heir' here embraces the whole line of succession.
因皇上甫承大統，故渾涵其詞，留待親政日自下明詔，此皇太后不忍歧視之慈心，欲以孝弟仁讓之休歸之皇上也。
Because the emperor had only just ascended the throne, the wording was deliberately broad, leaving a clear edict for the day he took personal rule—this was the empress dowager's compassion, unwilling to divide loyalties, wishing to leave the emperor the credit of filial devotion, brotherly duty, benevolence, and forbearance.
可讀未喻懿旨言外之意，而其遺摺未達之意，皇太后早鑑及之，故曰'前降旨時即是此意'也。
Wu Kedup did not grasp what lay beyond the empress dowager's words, yet she had long seen what his memorial left unsaid—hence her declaration that the earlier edict had meant exactly this.
乃者兩宮懿旨懸於上，孤臣遺疏存於下，傳之九州，載之國史，皇上天生聖人，必能以皇太后之心為心。
Now the two palaces' decrees stand above and a lone minister's dying memorial below, to be proclaimed throughout the realm and written into the dynastic record; the emperor, a sage by nature, will surely make the empress dowager's intent his own.
請將前後懿旨恭呈御覽，明降諭旨，宣示中外，俾天下後世咸知我皇太后至慈，皇上至孝至弟至仁至讓，且以見穆宗至聖至明，付託得人也。
I beg that the earlier and later decrees be presented for the emperor's review, that a clear edict be issued and proclaimed at home and abroad, so that all the world and posterity may know the empress dowager's boundless compassion, the emperor's supreme filial piety, brotherly duty, benevolence, and forbearance—and may see that Tongzhi, most sage and discerning, entrusted his line to the right man.
又奏：「廷臣謂穆宗繼統之議，已賅於皇太后前降懿旨之中，將來神器所歸，皇上自能斟酌盡善，固也。
He also wrote: "Ministers say the question of Tongzhi's succession is already covered by the empress dowager's earlier decree, and that when the throne passes in future the emperor can weigh every matter to perfection—so far, so good.
且懿旨非皇上可改，此時不引伸明晰，將來皇上雖斟酌盡善，何敢自為變通乎？
Moreover, the empress dowager's decree is not the emperor's to alter; if it is not clarified now, how could he later dare change it even if he wished to?
今廷議不分別詞意，漫謂我朝家法未能深知，則日前懿旨'即是此意'之謂何，臣民不更滋疑乎？
If ministers refuse to distinguish the terms and casually claim ignorance of dynastic law, what becomes of the empress dowager's words 'exactly this meaning'? Will not officials and people only grow more suspicious?
是冬，皇太后萬壽祝嘏，賞三品秩。
That winter, on the empress dowager's birthday celebrations, he was honored with third-rank standing.