Xianfeng Emperor - Legacy

Legacy

Xianfeng's reign saw the continued decline of the Qing dynasty. Rebellions in the country, which began the first year of his reign, would not be quelled until well into the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor and resulted in millions of deaths. Xianfeng also had to deal with the British and French and their ever growing appetite to expand trade further into China. Xianfeng, like his father, the Daoguang Emperor, understood very little about Europeans and their mindset. While Westerners saw different nations as equals deserving mutual respect as an international norm, Xianfeng viewed non-Chinese Europeans as inferior and regarded the Europeans' repeated requests to be treated as equal as an offence. When the Europeans introduced the long held concept of an exchanged consular relationship, Xianfeng quickly rebuffed the idea.

During the Second Opium War, repeated requests by Europeans to meet Xianfeng were also denied. At the time of Xianfeng's death, he had not even once met any foreign dignitaries.