Daoguang Emperor
Qing · 8th ruler
道光帝 Dàoguāng Dì愛新覺羅旻寧 Àixīnjuéluó Mínníng
Wade–Giles: Tao-kuang Emperor · Ai-hsin-chüeh-lo Min-ning
Reigned 1820–1850 (29 years)
Reigned 29 years (1820–1850). Died at 69 (East Asian reckoning) of natural causes. 8th ruler of Qing.
Facts
- Reign
- 3 October 1820 – 25 February 1850 (8th ruler of Qing)
- Length of reign
- 29 years
- Born
- 16 September 1782
- Died
- 25 February 1850
- Age at accession
- 39
- Age at death
- 69
- Cause of death
- Natural causesNatural death or illness (including old age)
- Path to the throne
- Designated heirSucceeded the previous ruler of the same regime, who had chosen the heir (by testament, naming a crown prince, etc.)
- Predecessor
- Jiaqing Emperor
- Successor
- Xianfeng Emperor
- Era names
- 道光 Dàoguāng (proclaimed 1820)
Ages are given in East Asian reckoning (sui): a person is one year old at birth and gains a year at each New Year, so the figure is one or two years higher than the Western age.
Life
In brief
He succeeded through the secret designation of an heir, and after losing the war with Britain over opium he opened five ports. The assessment in the Draft History of Qing calls him a frugal, tolerant and humane ruler who preserved what he had inherited, but says that war arose out of foreign trade and that the decline of the state began here.
Road to the throne
He was the second son of the Jiaqing Emperor, and his mother was Empress Xiaoshurui. In 1799 the Jiaqing Emperor, following the house law, wrote Minning's name himself and sealed it in a box. When followers of Lin Qing broke into the Forbidden City in 1813, he shot down two of the rebels with a musket and was made Prince Zhi. In 1820, when the Jiaqing Emperor became critically ill at Rehe, the ministers opened the box and made Minning crown prince, and the empress dowager also issued an edict telling him to take the throne. He took the throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the same year.
Reign and death
In 1828 he captured Jahangir of the Muslim regions and had him put to death by dismemberment in the marketplace. He sent Lin Zexu to Guangdong as imperial commissioner, and in 1839 Lin Zexu made the British merchants hand over more than 20,000 chests of opium and burned them. When British forces took Dinghai in 1840, he dismissed Lin Zexu and sent Qishan to Guangdong as Viceroy of Liangguang. According to the treatise on foreign relations, Qishan conceded Hong Kong to the British but could not bring himself to report it, and when he later submitted the British document the emperor was angry and refused to allow it. In 1842 Qiying and others negotiated a ceasefire with the British forces and asked the emperor to put his seal on the treaty. The treatise on foreign relations writes that the British demanded 21 million taels of silver, Hong Kong and trade at five ports, and that the treaty was signed at the Jinghai Temple, but the annals of Xuanzong in the Draft History of Qing record neither the name of the treaty nor the cession of Hong Kong. In 1850, while in mourning for the empress dowager, he collapsed with illness, and in his final hours had the box opened to make his fourth son crown prince, and he died that day at the Yuanmingyuan.
Translated from the Japanese text of this site, which is written from the official histories. Years are given in the Western calendar; months are omitted because the histories use the Chinese lunar calendar.
During the reign
Number of times each event is recorded in the official histories. How each item is counted
- Era name changes
- 1
- General amnesties
- 1
- Empresses installed
- 2
- Crown princes deposed
- 0
- Personal campaigns
- 0
- Rebellions suppressed
- 31
- Rebellions faced
- 36
- Capital relocations
- 0
Emperors of Qing
- 2ndHong Taiji清太宗 Qīng Tàizōng愛新覺羅皇太極 Àixīnjuéluó Huángtàijí1636–1643 · 7 years · Unknown, age 521636–16437 yearsUnknown, age 52
- 3rdShunzhi Emperor順治帝 Shùnzhì Dì愛新覺羅福臨 Àixīnjuéluó Fúlín1643–1661 · 17 years · Natural causes, age 241643–166117 yearsNatural causes, age 24
- 4thKangxi Emperor康熙帝 Kāngxī Dì愛新覺羅玄燁 Àixīnjuéluó Xuányè1661–1722 · 61 years · Natural causes, age 691661–172261 yearsNatural causes, age 69
- 5thYongzheng Emperor雍正帝 Yōngzhèng Dì愛新覺羅胤禛 Àixīnjuéluó Yìnzhēn1722–1735 · 12 years · Disputed, age 581722–173512 yearsDisputed, age 58
- 6thQianlong Emperor乾隆帝 Qiánlóng Dì愛新覺羅弘曆 Àixīnjuéluó Hónglì1735–1796 · 60 years · Natural causes, age 891735–179660 yearsNatural causes, age 89
- 7thJiaqing Emperor嘉慶帝 Jiāqìng Dì愛新覺羅顒琰 Àixīnjuéluó Yóngyǎn1796–1820 · 24 years · Natural causes, age 611796–182024 yearsNatural causes, age 61
- 8thDaoguang Emperor道光帝 Dàoguāng Dì愛新覺羅旻寧 Àixīnjuéluó Mínníng1820–1850 · 29 years · Natural causes, age 691820–185029 yearsNatural causes, age 69
- 9thXianfeng Emperor咸豐帝 Xiánfēng Dì愛新覺羅奕詝 Àixīnjuéluó Yìzhǔ1850–1861 · 11 years · Natural causes, age 311850–186111 yearsNatural causes, age 31
- 10thTongzhi Emperor同治帝 Tóngzhì Dì愛新覺羅載淳 Àixīnjuéluó Zàichún1861–1875 · 13 years · Natural causes, age 191861–187513 yearsNatural causes, age 19
- 11thGuangxu Emperor光緒帝 Guāngxù Dì愛新覺羅載湉 Àixīnjuéluó Zàitián1875–1908 · 33 years · Assassinated, age 381875–190833 yearsAssassinated, age 38
- 12th, 13th, 14thPuyi宣統帝 Xuāntǒng Dì愛新覺羅溥儀 Àixīnjuéluó Pǔyí1908–1912; restored 1917; restored 1934–1945 · 14 years · Natural causes, age 621908–1912; restored 1917; restored 1934–194514 yearsNatural causes, age 62