Empress Dowager Chaoxing: Difference between revisions
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The Empress Dowager continued to hold onto power even after the Yuanguang emperor came to the age of majority, being more decisive and proactive than her son. History records, "Her son so well respected her that her decisions were no different from that of the emperor's." Chaoxing presided over the court with the emperor and even held court independently when the emperor was unwell. She was given charge of the [[Heirloom Seal of the Realm]], implying that her perusal and consent were necessary before any document or order received legal validity. Yuanguang sought her views on all matters before making major decisions. Chaoxing was also granted certain honours and privileges not enjoyed by Jin empresses or empress dowagers before or since. | The Empress Dowager continued to hold onto power even after the Yuanguang emperor came to the age of majority, being more decisive and proactive than her son. History records, "Her son so well respected her that her decisions were no different from that of the emperor's." Chaoxing presided over the court with the emperor and even held court independently when the emperor was unwell. She was given charge of the [[Heirloom Seal of the Realm]], implying that her perusal and consent were necessary before any document or order received legal validity. Yuanguang sought her views on all matters before making major decisions. Chaoxing was also granted certain honours and privileges not enjoyed by Jin empresses or empress dowagers before or since. | ||
Chaoxing supervised the [[Yuanguang Restoration]], a series of radical institutional reforms that helped strengthen the regime in an ever-changing industrialised era. Although Chaoxing rejected adopting a more constitutional approach to the monarchy and adopting the Western governance models, she supported technological, educational, economic, industrial and military reforms, inviting several foreign advisors that culminated in forming the [[Western Affairs Bureau]]. Her reforms were, however, met with stiff opposition from the increasingly xenophobic nobility who feared losing their place in the emperor's court and, more notably, the commanders of the land army who viewed the modernisation of the military with suspicion, and as a backwater indignant attempt of a Kra descended Empress Dowager, to weaken the nation and the Jin people. The dissatisfaction with the Empress Dowager would eventually lead to an attempted coup known as the [[Xihai Incident]], which would also lead to an armed insurrection by northern and eastern garrisons (collectively known as the [[Dongyang Army]]), known as the [[Donyang Insurrection]]. | |||
==Life== | ==Life== | ||
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| Empress Houshiyun 霍诗韵皇后 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empress Dowager Chaoxing | |||||||||
 Portrait of Empress Houshiyun as the imperial noble consort, 1863 | |||||||||
| Empress consort of the Huang dynasty | |||||||||
| Tenure | 29 October 1859 – 20 March 1868 | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Empress Xiaogongzhang | ||||||||
| Successor | Empress Gongrangzhang | ||||||||
| Empress dowager of the Huang dynasty | |||||||||
| Tenure | 20 March 1868 – 14 February 1898 | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Empress Dowager Cixi | ||||||||
| Successor | Empress Dowager Longyu | ||||||||
| Born | Chen Wenxuan (陳文宣) 29 November 1843 (貞祐十一年 十一月 二十九日) Yonggucheng, Huang Empire | ||||||||
| Died | 28 December 1899 (aged 56) (元光十四年 十二月 二十八日) Tooth Relic Temple, Zhongnanhai, Basingse, Huang Empire | ||||||||
| Burial | Eastern Huang Tombs, Imperial Tombs of the Huang Dynasty | ||||||||
| Spouse | Zhengyou Emperor (m. 1859; died 1869) | ||||||||
| Issue | Yuanguang Emperor | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| House | Li (李; by birth) Huang (黃; by marriage) | ||||||||
| Father | Huoguang (霍光) | ||||||||
| Mother | Lady Xian | ||||||||
| Religion | Jin shamanism, Jin N'nhivaranism | ||||||||
Empress Dowager Chaoxing; born Chen Wenxuan (29 November 1843 – 28 December 1899), was a Jin noblewoman of the Jin–Kra Li clan, concubine and later regent who effectively controlled the Jin government and navy in the Early Huang dynasty for almost 30 years, from 1869 to her assassination in 1899. Selected as a concubine of the Zhengyou Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Huang Ding, in 1861. After the Zhengyou Emperor died in 1869, the young boy became the Yuanguang Emperor, and she assumed the role of co-emperor dowager alongside the emperor's widow, Empress Dowager Sun, who later died the following month for reasons unknown. Promoted to the new position of Empress Dowager, Chaoxing ousted the group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed the regency herself, becoming the administrator of the court, a position equal to the emperor's. A strong, charismatic, vengeful, ambitious, and well-educated woman who enjoyed the absolute respect of her son, Chaoxing became the grey eminence of the Huang dynasty during the minority of the Yuanguang emperor from 1870 to 1879.
The Empress Dowager continued to hold onto power even after the Yuanguang emperor came to the age of majority, being more decisive and proactive than her son. History records, "Her son so well respected her that her decisions were no different from that of the emperor's." Chaoxing presided over the court with the emperor and even held court independently when the emperor was unwell. She was given charge of the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, implying that her perusal and consent were necessary before any document or order received legal validity. Yuanguang sought her views on all matters before making major decisions. Chaoxing was also granted certain honours and privileges not enjoyed by Jin empresses or empress dowagers before or since.
Chaoxing supervised the Yuanguang Restoration, a series of radical institutional reforms that helped strengthen the regime in an ever-changing industrialised era. Although Chaoxing rejected adopting a more constitutional approach to the monarchy and adopting the Western governance models, she supported technological, educational, economic, industrial and military reforms, inviting several foreign advisors that culminated in forming the Western Affairs Bureau. Her reforms were, however, met with stiff opposition from the increasingly xenophobic nobility who feared losing their place in the emperor's court and, more notably, the commanders of the land army who viewed the modernisation of the military with suspicion, and as a backwater indignant attempt of a Kra descended Empress Dowager, to weaken the nation and the Jin people. The dissatisfaction with the Empress Dowager would eventually lead to an attempted coup known as the Xihai Incident, which would also lead to an armed insurrection by northern and eastern garrisons (collectively known as the Dongyang Army), known as the Donyang Insurrection.
Life
Birth
Zhenyou era
Yuanguang era
Assassination
Aftermath
Funeral procession and tomb
Legacy
Photographs and illustrations
Documents note that she was in an official royal family photograph, but its whereabouts are unknown if it perished or was kept hidden by Da Huang's government. Another royal family portrait does exist, but it purported to have been destroyed when the warlord Sun Dianying and his army plundered the Eastern Mausoleum during the early stages of the Wucheng Heavenly Rebellion. The mausoleum complex was methodically stripped down of its precious ornaments, and the entrance to her burial chamber was dynamited. Sun Dianying's army opened Chaoxing's coffin, threw her corpse (said to have been found intact) on the ground, and stole the jewels in the coffin. They also took the massive pearl placed in the empress dowager's mouth to protect her corpse from decomposing (in accordance with Jin tradition). They subsequently tried to burn down the complex as they fled the area when Royalist forces under the command of the Yuanguang emperor stormed it. Royalist forces were able to put out the fire and found her body, which miraculously survived the fire, albeit in a ruinous state. The Yuanguang emperor brought his grandmother's remains along as he and his army fled the central plains, reburying it in the Royalist stronghold in Baixiangshan during the Republican era. After the Corrective Movement and re-establishment of the Huang dynasty in 1943, the Gaozu Emperor ordered the restoration of the complex of Empress Dowager Chaoxing's tomb, and her remains were reburied once more there. When asked why he looted the Eastern mausoleum, Sun Dianying claimed the desecration was revenge for the fallen in the First Cross-Strait War.
Wang Jinyu, a professor at Basingse University, said that the reason why there are not many photos of the Empress Dowager was because she lived in constant fear of the early-modern Jin superstition of having one's soul snatched by a camera if their photograph was taken. Others believe that there are, in fact, photos of her since she was politically active and suspect that the ROJ government had removed any traces of the Empress Dowager after her assassination.
