辛酉政變(1861)과 太后大權論 (Coup of 1861 Reviewed: Focused from the Tradition of Regency of Empress Dowager)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 부산경남사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 역사와경계 / 82호 / 175 ~ 241페이지
· 저자명 : 김성찬

초록

본 논문은 이른바 “太后臨朝稱制”로 표현되는 황태후의 독특한 비상대권의 전통과 그 관념이, 그 유사한 발생조건에서 태동한 辛酉政變(1861)에도 재연되는지, 만약 그렇다면 어떤 모습으로 어떤 영향을 미치며 정변 주역들을 몰아가는지 살펴봄으로써, 기왕의 연구시각으로는 간취하지 못한 신유정변의 새로운 사실들을 찾아내고자 하였다. 신유정변은 신빙성을 확인하기 어려운 수많은 자잘한 에피소드류의 逸話 稗史 자료가 넘치는 사건이라서, 통상적인 정치사적 연구로는 현재의 연구의 벽을 넘을 수 없다. 그런 미세한 부분들은 기왕의 연구에 맡기고, 등장인물들의 의식과 행동을 패턴화해주는 집단의식 혹은 정치적 명분(cause)의 시각에서 관련 개별사건을 재조명하고, 그들이 사용하는 용어와 리토릭(rhetoric)을 과거의 유사한 사건에서의 경우와 비교함으로써, “皇太后 非常大權”이라는 전통과 그 사유가 이 시기에도 명백히 영향을 끼치고 있음을 확인하고자 하였다. 정치적으로 소외된(이른바 북경파) 자들 사이에서 “太后臨朝”와 황태후의 동정에 관심과 언급이 급격히 증대되었다. 누구보다도 慈禧太后 자신이 先帝가 임명한 합법적 顧命大臣들을 타도할 수 있는, 황태후대권 발동에 가장 적합한 죄목과 명분을 직접 발굴하고, 냉정히 정변에 적용하였다. 그가 결심하고 기본계획을 입안하자, 醇群王과 恭親王이 최고의 참모와 실력행사자로서 대신들을 끌어들여, 결국 하루아침에 황태후를 앞세운 연합정권 수립에 성공하였다.

영어초록

On August 21, 1861, the emperor Xianfeng(咸豊) on the deathbed named his six year old son his heir. Sushun(肅順) and other seven princes and high officials were appointed members of new Council of Regents. Powerful Prince Gong(恭親王) in Peking, one of half brothers of the late emperor, was out of consideration. They were supposed to be in partnership with two imperial consorts, who were allowed legal authority to approve the edicts prepared by the Regents. The empress of the late ruler and one of concubines who bore him the present boy emperor were made empress dowagers, respectively, Ci'an(慈安) and Cixi(慈禧).
Prince Gong, one of those who were suspicious of the Regents and wanted to mourn the late emperor to get to know what was really happening in Jehol, managed to meet and strongly asked empress dowagers to return to Peking as soon as possible. A censor sent a memorial to Jehol, requesting the regency of empress dowagers. Grand Secretary Zhou Zupei(周祖培) in Peking searched for the historical precedents, hoping to propose the regency of empress dowagers with the scholarly help of Li Ciming(李慈銘), who strongly emphasized its urgent need under the recent catastrophic crises of the dynasty. Sushun and other regents ridiculed scornfully and rebuked furiously the order of the empress dowagers to make the censor's suggestion a subject for discussion at court on the ground that there had never been the precedents of dowager's regency in the Qing dynasty.
Ci'an and Cixi, having felt vigorously their dignity despised, decided to set their customary authority of the empress dowager in motion to make the matters in order to reshuffle the regents usurping political powers to put the imperial court under the traditional mode of supreme authority of empress dowagers.
Cixi secretly ordered Prince Chun(醇群王), the husband of her sister and one of her brothers in law(late emperor's half brothers), to follow her memo in making an imperial edict punishing the crimes of them, which would be promulgated in Peking when they returned. When asked to meet to promise Prince Gong a regent title and to consult about this coup plan, Prince Chun also did a great role in advising her that two empress dowagers themselves meet to present Prince Gong with the more powerful regent title under their authority and to confer about the plan and to order him get some high officials to join.
All the steps were taken following her schedule. Two dowagers met Prince Gong on the road returning with the boy emperor near to Peking. He, in turn, introduced high officials to prepare the memorial for the regency of empress dowagers. Two dowagers, having returned to Peking on November 2, met the joiners in the palace and declared the prepared edict written by Prince Chun in Jehol. Prince Gong led to arrest the seven regents and Prince Chun was named to take another one, Sushun, on the road to Peking. Finally, their new fatal crimes, above everything else were articulated to Prince Gong during the personal meeting with Ci'an and Cixi after the successful end. These crimes in Jehol just as having fabricated edicts and disobeyed empress dowagers' order arbitrarily to rewrite edicts in their favor, regardless of whether they were true or not, were titled by the dowagers as not only betraying the late emperor Xianfeng's hope, but also maliciously putting all the imperial ancestors and lands(宗廟社稷) in danger.
Documents such as edicts, memorials, and personal records criticising the regents for usurping had the same color and target. They strongly wanted to restore the traditional tutelary authority of the regency of empress dowager, rather than adhering to imperial customary ordinance, stressing worldly crises in China with the boy emperor, suspicious of eight regents' political sincerity. Especially, they eagerly hoped just as the same that Ci'an and Cixi desired themselves to do their political roles as the sole guardian and protector of the dynasty, because the empress dowager was the only partner of the late emperor who had been in succession to his imperial ancestors' rulership.(共承宗廟)The age old cause that the empress dowager has the authority temporarily to attend in court to pronounce her decrees as the supreme ruler in favor of the malfunctioning emperor(太后臨朝稱制) revived in the early 1860s' to activate the will to power of the political losers to merge into the coup of 1861 under the leadership of the audacious and prudent Empress Dowager Cixi, whose joint enterprise with Empress Dowager Ci'an, Princes Gong and Chun could smash the political enemies easily just like the Empress Dowager of the Emperor Wanli(萬曆) had done in the late 16th century Ming dynasty.

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