The obvious reason why a young man of twenty was able to attain such eminence was that his wife's sister had become as empress dowager; but it was not the only reason. I remember that when I was young I heard an anecdote about how during a theatrical performance at home an uncle of mine, then six years old, was so terrified by one scene that he started to cry. My grandfather shouted at him in front of everybody, "What disgraceful behaviour! When I was twenty I captured Su Shun with my own hands, but if you go on like that you'll never be able to handle affairs of state."  The capture of Sun Shun had been the real beginning of his meteoric rise. 

    The Su Shun affair took place in 1861. The Second Opium War had ended with a series of humiliating treates and the emperor Hsien Feng lay mortally ill in his refuge in Jehol. He summoned to his deathbed three Ministers of the Presence and five Grand Councillors who had accompanied him in his flight, and having made his six-year-old son Tsai Chun heir to the throne, he appointed them as a regency council. The next day Hsien Feng died, and in accordance with his wishes the eight princes and high officials put Tsai Chun on the throne with the reign title Chi Hsiang and took all power into their own hands.

  

    The most important of the eight regents were two princes and Sun Shun, and Assistant Grand Secretary and President of the Board of Revenue who had earned the hatred of the Manchu nobility by Promoting may officials of Han nationality and had a reputation for ruthlessness. A more basic reason for Su Shun's later disastrous fall was that his group understimated the strenth of Prince Kung(Yi Hsin), who had made the most of the unpleasant assignment of negotiating peace after the Second Opium War: in concluding the unprecedentedly humiliating Treaty of Peking he had won the admiration of the foreigners. As an uncle of the emperor with foreign support he was not prepared to take second place to Su Shun and his party, and he was encouraged by the Manchu nobility and other high officials who had long been Su Shun's political enemies. Just at this moment an edict was brought in secret from the two dowagers in Jehol.

   

 一个二十岁的年轻人之所以能够获得如此显赫的地位，显然是因为他妻子的妹妹已经成为太后；但这并不是唯一的原因。我记得小时候我听过一则轶事，说在家里的一次戏剧表演中，我当时六岁的一个叔叔被一个场景吓坏了，哭了起来。我的祖父当着众人的面对他喊道：“多么可耻的行为！我二十岁的时候就亲手抓了苏顺，如果你再这样下去，你将永远无法处理国家事务。”孙顺的被捕才是他迅速崛起的真正开始。

苏事件发生在1861年。第二次鸦片战争以一系列屈辱的待遇结束，咸丰皇帝病逝于热河的避难所。他在临终前召见了陪伴他出逃的三位尚书和五位大学士，并立他六岁的儿子蔡淳为王位继承人，任命他们为摄政会。第二天，贤凤驾崩，八位王公和高官按照他的意愿，将蔡淳推上了王位，继位至齐相，所有的权力都掌握在自己手中。

八位摄政王中最重要的是两位皇子和孙顺，以及辅政太尉兼税务局局长，他们通过提拔汉族的五月官员而赢得了满清贵族的憎恨，并以冷酷无情著称。苏后来倒台的一个更基本的原因是，他的集团对第二次鸦片战争后最不愉快的议和任务——龚亲王的支持不足：他缔结了空前屈辱的《北京条约》，赢得了外国人的钦佩。作为一个有外国支持的皇帝的叔叔，他不准备屈居苏及其政党的第二位，他受到了长期以来一直是苏政敌的满族贵族和其他高级官员的鼓励。就在这时，有人从耶河的两个太后那里密传了一道命令。