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 control of the government for the regency of the Dowager Empresses. On Sunday, June 29, he had his first audience with foreign ministers in the hall, Tzŭ-kuang-ko (see under ), at which representatives of six countries were present. The Japanese Ambassador, Soejima Taneomi 副島種臣, was first received because of his higher rank. The other ministers—Vlangaly of Russia, Low of the United States, Wade of England, De Geofroy of France, and Ferguson of the Netherlands, were all received together. This was the first audience at which the performance of the ceremony of kotow was not required of a foreign envoy, and signified a radical change from the position taken some six decades earlier when the Amherst Mission came to Peking (see under ). Only thirteen years previously (1860) the question of the kotow had stood in the way of Emperor Wên-tsung's willingness to make peace with the British and French allies. But the audience of 1873 can be taken merely as a symbol of China's unwilling submission, since anti-foreign ideas were as potent as ever. Except for a few ministers like I-hsin who went through the humiliating experiences of 1860, none of the high officials at Court had any conception of the new forces at work in the outer world, or any intimation of the changes that China was bound to undergo.

Though Tsai-ch'un reached his majority and took over nominal control of the government early in 1873, he had no power to circumvent the sinister influences that resulted—less than two years later—in his death. For one thing, he had not the physical vitality nor the courage and discernment of his illustrious ancestor,. He disliked the routine tasks which his position entailed, and had a distaste for the lifeless studies he was made to pursue even after he became the actual head of the state. Above all, he resented the interference of his mother who maintained her power at Court and persistently managed his private affairs. By some it is believed that he incurred her displeasure by choosing as his wife Empress Hsiao-chê (孝哲毅皇后, 1854–1875), the daughter of, preferring her to another girl whom his mother had selected. The fact that the one chosen was favored by Empress Hsiao-chên, added one more point of conflict between the two Dowager Empresses. The imperial couple seemed to be genuinely in love and their marriage took place on October 16, 1872. Yet Empress Hsiao-ch'in evidently took every opportunity to mar their happiness and even to prevent, whenever possible, their being together. No sooner had the Emperor taken charge of affairs than he began to fall a prey to certain eunuchs and officials who encouraged him in many ways to lead an improper life. Among the less harmful things they persuaded him to do was to undertake the restoration of the Summer Palace, Yüan-ming Yüan—a project which in August and September, 1874, aroused so much criticism that he was forced to abandon it. He became infuriated when his uncle, I-hsin, led a group of officials to join in a memorial that commented unfavorably on his personal conduct (see under ). Branding his uncle as insolent, he removed him from all offices and lowered his rank. The next day, however, the two Dowager Empresses intervened and forced him to restore to I-hsin all his posts. In November 1874 the Emperor became infected with smallpox and was obliged to let Li Hung-tsao write all edicts for him. On December 18, owing to his continued illness, the two Dowager Empresses once more became co-regents. Five days later the Emperor seems to have recovered and the Dowager Empresses, the princes, and high officials were all given presents or titles in celebration of the event. When on January 12, 1875, he died, all presents and titles were withdrawn. Tsai-ch'un was given the posthumous name, I Huang-ti 毅皇帝, and the temple name, Mu-tsung 穆宗. His tomb is called Hui-ling 惠陵.

Tsai-ch'un left no male heir and had no brother. According to the law of the dynasty his successor should have been chosen from the generation succeeding that of Tsai-ch'un. His ambitious mother, however, selected one of his first cousins and made that cousin the adopted heir, not of Tsai-ch'un, but of herself and Tsai-ch'un's father, thus leaving Tsai-ch'un without a legal heir. The cousin chosen was, son of I-huan by a sister of the Empress Dowager. By this device Hsiao-ch'in became the adoptive mother of her own nephew and thus again was in a position to rule the empire as regent. Although some officials protested against this arrangement, they were appeased by the promise that when Tsai-t'ien had a son, that son should become heir to Tsai-ch'un (see under ). But Tsai-t'ien had no son, hence the Empress Dowager in 1900 appointed as his heir a son of Tsai-i (see under ) and her niece. The appointment was later withdrawn owing to Tsai-i's activities in the Boxer Uprising. In 730