After receiving the news of Tong Zhi's death, the Chicago Daily Tribune published an article entitled "Britain and the Great Cadres." The article holds that Emperor Tongzhi ruled over a huge population of more than 300 million (some British and German geographers at that time even estimated that the population of the Qianguo at that time was 450 million to 500 million), far exceeding the 280 million population of the British Empire (including all the colonies), and the combined population of the two countries was equal to more than half of the total human population, which was unprecedented in human history, and the British and Qianguo were indisputably the largest countries in the world.

Now that a country as great as Britain has lost its leader, the world is certainly interested. After the official announcement that the cause of Emperor Tongzhi's death was typhoid fever, all of a sudden, the basic knowledge about typhoid fever became one of the contents of the first reports in Western newspapers to meet the strong demand of readers. Among the newspapers that Lin Yiqing saw, there were a large number of reports of various lengths.

In addition to typhoid fever, some people think that Emperor Tongzhi was absurd as a young man, his private life was not disciplined enough, and he was contaminated with serious venereal diseases. These diseases, in concert with typhoid fever, destroyed the young man. What researchers debate endlessly is who is responsible for Emperor Tongzhi's debauchery. Among these responsible persons, the recognized and the first to bear the brunt are the Empress Dowager Renxi and Prince Jing.

The reason why Empress Dowager Renxi was attacked was because she interfered too much in her son's private life. It is rumored that she doesn't like Empress Erut Lingyin, so that Emperor Tongzhi didn't dare to share a room with the queen, but he didn't want to follow Renxi's wishes to visit her favorite concubine Fuyin Lanxuan, so he often stayed alone in the Palace of Nourishing the Heart, and in order to relieve his boredom, he began to sneak out of the palace to look for flowers and willows. And in order to prevent being bumped into by officials, he did not dare to go to high-end entertainment venues, and chose those low-grade places that officials did not often visit, and as a result, he was contaminated with venereal diseases.

Prince Jing was attacked because it was his son Chengming who acted as the emperor's partner in searching for flowers and willows. And Prince Jing used the truth obtained from his son as a weight to advise the emperor, which led to tension with the emperor.

Emperor Tongzhi finally fell ill. When he was seriously ill and unable to work, he appointed his teacher Li Gaoyang to approve the recital on his behalf, and Li Gaoyang was very cautious, and only dared to give instructions such as "I know" and "submit it to the ministry" and other innocuous words. A week later, at the request of the princes, Emperor Tongzhi agreed, in addition to the Han text for Li Gaoyang to approve on his behalf, Prince Jing approved the Manchu chapter on his behalf. The Empress Dowager Renxi summoned the military aircraft and the imperial ministers and delivered an important speech, talking for an hour, to the effect that the emperor could not personally approve the documents now, and asked everyone to think of a way. Prince Jing took the lead in saying that naturally he still had to ask the Queen Mother to come out at the helm. Renxi instructed that "the matter is big, and you should play the Ming Emperor first." The next day, Emperor Tongzhi summoned Prince Jing in front of his sickbed, and personally handed over the matter, "The affairs of the world should not be slackened for a day, and I plan to ask the queen to read the report", and told Prince Jing to "do things as usual" and "speak concisely and vigorously". Subsequently, an edict was issued, and the Queen Mother reviewed and ruled the folding, and the power of Prince Jing to approve the recital disappeared again.

More important than the power to approve the cantata is the question of succession.

After the death of Emperor Tongzhi, there was no record of the selection of his successor or even the process of controversy in official documents and official publications, but there were a large number of bizarre and sensational versions in the rumors circulating among the people.

One of the theories is that Empress Erut Lingyin was pregnant at that time. If this is the case, of course, it is necessary to wait for her to go into labor, and if the child is a boy, the heir problem will be solved, and if the child is a girl, another successor will be chosen. And the Empress Dowager Renxi said at the time: "Although the queen is pregnant, I don't know when she will be born, and the throne cannot be suspended for a long time, so it is advisable to immediately discuss the heir." ”

Prince Jing believed: "The period of the queen's birth is only a few months, and it should be kept secret for the time being, if the prince is born, he will be the heir, and if he is born as a daughter, it is not too late to discuss the establishment of a new emperor." The other princes and ministers almost agreed with Prince Jing's opinion, but the Empress Dowager Renxi was firmly opposed, and in the end, the Empress Dowager Renxi's opinion overwhelmed Prince Jing, and Emperor Guangxu was able to ascend the throne.

This well-said joke is not even an anecdote, and its origin, from a serial article written by Joseph Pulitzer published in a tabloid called "The Secret Story of the Dry Palace," has been indisputably determined to be a "fabrication" -- an outright folk tale. The author's inspiration for Empress Tongzhi's pregnancy is estimated to have come from the New York Times correspondent in China, who is as "hearsay" as the great Qianyu historians.

The second theory is that Emperor Tongzhi once wanted to set up his buddy who was looking for flowers and asking willows, Prince Jing's son, and Beile Chengming as his successor. It is said that Emperor Tongzhi had asked his teacher Li Gaoyang to draft this edict of succession before his sickbed. But this statement also originated from Pulitzer's serialization, which was quoted by a large number of people around the world, adding oil and vinegar, and finally saying that Li Gaoyang was afraid in his heart, and after drafting it, he went to Renxi to report, Renxi was furious when he saw it, and ordered the emperor to "cut off all medicine and food", and starved to death the biological flesh and blood, the young son of heaven.

The third statement is to choose from the next generation of "Pu", the eldest of this generation is Pulun, who was 6 years old at the time, but Pulun's father Chengzhi was inherited from a distant family to Yinzhi County Wang Yiwei (the eldest son of Shaoguang, the eldest brother of Emperor Xianfeng and Prince Jing, died young), not a close family, and the bloodline is not pure. This statement, which is also derived from Pulitzer's work, has been widely reprinted and is extremely unreliable.

Although the sources of the above statements are quite unreliable, they also give a rough list of possible successors at the time. Measured from all aspects, Chengtian (Guangxu) is indeed quite suitable as the successor, especially in terms of blood, he is not only the son of Prince Chun Yihuan, the purest Tianhuang noble, but also his biological mother, Prince Chun Fujin is the sister of the Empress Dowager Renxi, that is to say, the Empress Dowager Renxi has a dual relationship with Chengtian's aunt and aunt, which is incomparable to other imperial nephews (including the sons of Prince Jing).

Soon after the death of Emperor Tongzhi, Empress Erut Lingyin suddenly announced a miscarriage, which caused a lot of discussion in the outside world.

According to the official documents released by Daqian, the empress was too grief-stricken, "too badly damaged, and her diet was wasted", which led to a miscarriage. The official spoke highly of her, saying that she was in the middle palace, "Shushen Roujia, mother's foot style." Serve the queen mother of the two palaces, inherit the face and obey the will, and filial piety is not violated. "The grief of her loss of her husband is conceivable, and it is more bizarre that a healthy young woman of 21 years old could have a miscarriage due to excessive grief.

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