Empress Dowager Cixi
The Tongzhi Emperor's marriage

In 1872, the Tongzhi Emperor turned 17. Under the guidance of Empress Dowager Ci'an, he was married to Lady Arute. The new empress's grandfather, Duanhua, Prince Zheng, was one of the eight regents ousted from power in the Xinyou Coup of 1861. He had been Cixi's rival during the coup and was ordered to commit suicide after Cixi's victory. As a consequence, there were tensions between Cixi and Arute, and this was often a source of irritation for Cixi. Moreover, Arute's zodiac symbol of tiger was perceived as life-threatening by the superstitious Cixi, whose own zodiac symbol was a goat. According to Cixi's belief, it was a warning from the gods that she would eventually fall prey to Arute.

Empress Arute was well received by both Tongzhi and Ci'an. Her personal consultants once warned her to be more agreeable and docile to Cixi, who was truly the one in power. Arute replied, "I am a principal consort, having been carried through the front gate with pomp and circumstance, as mandated by our ancestors. Empress Dowager Cixi was a concubine, and entered our household through a side gate."

Since the very beginning of his marriage, Tongzhi proceeded to spend most of his time with his empress at the expense of his four concubines, including Imperial Noble Consort Shushen, who was Cixi's preferred candidate for empress consort. As hostility grew between Arute and Cixi, Cixi suggested the emperor and empress spend more time on studies and spied on Tongzhi using palace eunuchs. After her warning was ignored, Cixi ordered the couple to separate, and Tongzhi purportedly spent several months following Cixi's order in isolation at Qianqing Palace.

The young emperor, who could no longer cope with his grief and loneliness, grew more and more ill-tempered. He began to treat his servants with cruelty and punished them physically for minor offences. Under the joined influence of court eunuchs and Zaicheng, Prince Gong's eldest son and Tongzhi's best friend, the emperor managed to escape the palace in search of pleasure in the unrestricted parts of Beijing. For several evenings, Tongzhi disguised himself as a commoner and secretly spent the nights in the brothels of Beijing. His sexual habits became common talk among court officials and commoners, and there are many records of the emperor's escapades.
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