Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqinggong) Ⅲ

Besides, there used to be a secret box holding the selected candidate’s name of the next emperor. At the time, the competition for throne succession was very severe among emperor’s sons. For relieving the conflict, while Emperor Yongzheng was alive, Emperors adopted the measures of holding the secret name of the nominated next Emperor. He did not announce the name of the successor but wrote the name of the nominated on the paper and kept the paper in the small box. Generally, there are two pieces of document, one was put beside Emperor and the other one was place in the box, and then the box would be kept behind the plaque. After Emperor died, the appointed official would open the box and checked it with the other document beside Emperor. If both were right, he would announce the successor’s name. Emperor Qianlong, Emperor Jiaqing and Emperor Daoguang,  and Emperor Xianfeng were all enthroned in this way.