The Daoguang Emperor was the eighth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1820 to 1850. His reign was marked by "external disaster and internal rebellion," that is, by the First Opium War, and the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion which nearly brought down the dynasty.
Background
The Daoguang Emperor was born in the Forbidden City, Beijing, and was given the name Mianning (绵宁; 綿寧; Miánníng; Mien-ning). It was later changed to Minning (旻宁; 旻寧; Mǐnníng; Min-ning; Manchu: ᠮᡳᠨ ᠨᡳᠩ min ning) when he became emperor: The first character of his private name was changed from Mian to Min to avoid the relatively common character Mian. This novelty was introduced by his grandfather, the Qianlong Emperor, who thought it inappropriate to use a common character in the emperor's private name due to the longstanding practice of naming taboo.
Education
Mianning was the second son of Yongyan, the 15th son of the Qianlong Emperor. Even though he was Yongyan's second son, he was first in line to succeed his father according to the dishu system because his mother, Lady Hitara, was Yongyan's primary spouse whereas his elder brother was born to Yongyan's concubine. In 1796, Yongyan was enthroned as the Jiaqing Emperor, after which he made Lady Hitara his empress consort.
Mianning was favoured by his grandfather, the Qianlong Emperor. He frequently accompanied his grandfather on hunting trips. On one such trip, at the age of nine, Mianning successfully hunted a deer, which greatly amused the Qianlong Emperor. In 1813, while he was still a prince, Mianning also played a vital role in repelling and killing White Lotus invaders who stormed the Forbidden City. This action earned him important merit in securing his claim to the throne later on.
Career
The fifth emperor of the Qing, Emperor Daoguang’s father, is usually presented as the emperor who is in power when the decline of the Qing begins. He was confronted with several problems. One was the continuing web of corruption surrounding Heshen. Other difficulties involved economic constraints, demographic pressure, and the concomitant local unrest, as expressed in numerous rebellions. These are the standard indices of dynastic decline.
When Emperor Daoguang came to the throne in 1821, he faced the same problems. In addition, his reign coincided with China s first clash with the West. The initial years of rule were spent on internal issues. While the usual evaluation of Emperor Daoguang's handling of these matters, and in fact his entire reign, is that he was weak, indecisive, and miserly, one recent work has challenged this characterization. Jane Kate Leonard's book on the Emperor Daoguang's handling of the Grand Canal Crisis of 1824—1826 renders a much more favorable judgment. The emperor is presented as one who displayed skill, wisdom, and determination when confronted with the crisis. The conclusion Leonard offers is that the decline of the Qing dynasty came from overpopulation and fiscal shortages, rather than defective leadership at the top.
No matter which portrait of the emperor's early years one accepts, there is little question that he was overwhelmed by the confrontation with the West. Opium was at the heart of this clash. Used medicinally since the Tang Dynasty, opium consumption began to increase when the Portuguese started importing the drug into Taiwan in the early 1600s. In 1729 the Qing prohibited opium imports, to little avail. By 1820 the opium trade was booming. In that year some two million taels of silver flowed out of China, mostly into the pockets of British opium dealers.
The emperor became aware that this drain was damaging the national economy. By the early 1830s, the annual outflow rose to nine million taels. Finally, in 1838, after listening to various proposals, Emperor Daoguang decided to act. He commissioned Lin Zexu to stop the opium trade.
When Lin acted to carry out his orders, the British sent an expeditionary force to attack China. Once the war began going badly for China, the emperor's confidence in Lin faltered. This initial quavering then gave way to stem rebuke. The emperor made Lin Zexu the scapegoat for the humiliation the emperor suffered at the hands of the British. In reality, while nothing short of divine intervention could have prevented China's loss in the Opium War, the emperor's wavering between war and peace made matters worse.
The Treaty of Nanjing (1842), which ended the Opium War, cost the emperor's control over vital elements of his commercial, social, and foreign policies. To make matters worse, in 1848 he was advised of a substantial
shortage in the vaults of the board of revenue. One year later, the Grand Canal became impassable. The unrest generated by all of these problems grew into the Taiping Rebellion.
Fortunately for him, Emperor Daoguang did not live to witness this deadly and protracted rebellion. He died in early 1850, leaving a humiliated and bankrupt empire.