The Interim Council and Reestablishing the Grand Council In 1735, the Yongzheng Emperor died and was succeeded by his son, the
Qianlong Emperor. Shortly before his death, the Yongzheng Emperor established an interim council to assist his son. The Interim Council soon consolidated many of the "Inner Court" agencies of the Yongzheng era, and expanded its power. Three years later, in 1738, the Interim Council disbanded and the Grand Council was reconstituted. During the Qianlong Emperor's reign, the Grand Council had many duties. Some of them included more mundane duties such as keeping track of paperwork and planning events, including entertainments for the imperial court and transportation of the Emperor. Other duties were more tied to state administration, such as drafting edicts, and advising the Emperor on various policies and problems. Its proximity to the Emperor and inner court, secrecy, and unofficial status allowed it to expand and sustained its central role in state administration, and also freed it from some of the constraints of many of the outer-court agencies.
The Grand Council after the Qianlong era In 1796, the Qianlong Emperor abdicated in favor of his son, the
Jiaqing Emperor. Upon his father's death three years later, in 1799, the Jiaqing Emperor, along with purging his father's
favorite,
Heshen, who had served on the Grand Council since 1776, introduced numerous reforms to the Grand Council, including a reduction of the numbers of grand councilors, the introduction of administrative punishments for grand councilors, and the regulation of Grand Council clerk appointments by imperial audiences.
The Grand Council Under Empress Dowager Cixi (1833-1898), a prominent Grand Councilor during the reign of his brother, the
Xianfeng Emperor, and in the court of
Empress Dowager Cixi. During the regencies of the empress dowagers
Ci'an and
Cixi, the Grand Council took on many of the decision-making duties, particularly as the two women were novices in affairs of state. Soon after the two women became regents for the
Tongzhi Emperor in 1861, edicts went out detailing how state papers and affairs were to be dealt with, with many of the policies being decided by the Grand Council. Papers were to be first sent to the empress dowagers, who would refer them back to the
Prince-Regent,
Prince Gong, who oversaw the Grand Council. The Grand Council would then discuss the issue and seek the discretion of the empress dowagers and draft up orders accordingly, with edict drafts having to be approved by the empress dowagers. Such a configuration would lead
Zeng Guofan to remark, after an audience in 1869, that "the state of affairs hinged entirely on the Grand Councilors....whose power surpassed that of the imperial master." This configuration survived the regency for the Tongzhi Emperor and lasted into the regency of the
Guangxu Emperor. After the Guangxu Emperor formally took over the reins of power from his regent, Empress Dowager Cixi, both the Grand Council and the Emperor often sought the advice of the Empress Dowager, who was kept informed of state affairs. In fact, in 1894, with the outbreak of the
First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, copies of memoranda from the Grand Council were sent both to the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi, which was practiced until 1898, at which point the Empress Dowager resumed her "tutelage" of the Guangxu Emperor. From that time until the nearly simultaneous deaths of Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor a decade later, they jointly received the Grand Council at audiences.
Abolition With the deaths of Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908,
Puyi, Guangxu's nephew, succeeded the throne. Eventually, in May 1911, Puyi's father,
Prince Chun, who was
Prince-Regent, abolished the Grand Council, favoring an "Imperial Cabinet".
Yikuang, the
Prime Minister at the time, founded the first
Imperial Cabinet in 1911. The Qing dynasty, despite this concession to those calling for reform, collapsed not long after. ==Composition ==