Plausibility Check: Shengwu Emperor of Great Yong?

Dorozhand

Banned
I've been working on a project lately centered mainly on China. The PoD is that Hong Xiuquan never finds his brother, and the southern rebellions are much less organized. A Han general and veteran of the successful defense of Beijing during the Second Opium War seizes power from the Xianfeng Emperor after he convinces the emperor, surrounded by enemies, to sue for peace and his forces hold the Qing imperial family hostage.

Despite the end being clearly in sight for the Qing, the general becomes a close friend of the aging and depressed Xianfeng Emperor, who creates him a Duke Who Receives Grace and Guards the State, a title normally reserved for Aisin Gioro cadet lines. During the Second Opium War, the general used his experimental Yong Army (雍) to defend the Taku Forts and then Beijing, while helping win victory at Luoyang when the Franco-British forces launched an offensive along the Huanghe aimed at plundering northern China. The Yong Army was given the old name for Shaanxi, the region it was primarily drawn from, and as gratitude for his services (and without any choice) the Xianfeng Emperor gave the general an unprecedented named title as the Duke of Yong.

As this general is about to leave the capital to campaign against rebels in Henan, he hears first about a plot in the imperial family to have him murdered to snip the bud on his obvious ambitions, and leaves early to join his army and tell them that he did not intend to die, but to free the country from the Manchu. The army, demoralized after the defeat in the Second Opium War and no longer able to stomach the war against their own country for the Manchu's sake, acclaim him emperor, absorb the rebels, and move quickly to defeat his potential rivals and loyalist commanders dealing with intensifying southern rebellions, rather than going for the capital. In this way he gathers the rebels to his banner. He sets up his seat at Luoyang, which during the war had become a symbol of resistance, and refurbishes the old palace of Wu Zetian.

tl;dr

At this time, he completes the rites of a new emperor, declaring the foundation of the Great Yong (雍), after his army, his title, and the character's meaning of congruity and union, and beginning the era of Shengwu 聖武 or Holy and Martial, referring to the sacredness of the imperial institution and suggesting that it had been violated by the foreign Manchu usurpers, and the necessity of martial strength and attitude in order to drive them out.

Are these names in any way plausible?
 

Dorozhand

Banned
I mostly want to know if Shengwu works as an era name. I've seen it in posthumous names but I figured its meaning could be used for an era as well.
 
聖 was used only four times in Chinese history by "legitimate" dynasties, excluding Wu Zetian, the Tanguts, and rebel groups:
  • 承聖 ("Succeeding Sagacity"): By Yuan of Liang, from 552 to 554. Probably has to do with his own Confucian sympathies.
  • 嗣聖 ("Inheriting Sagacity"): By Zhongzong of Tang, for two months in 684.
  • 天聖 ("Heavenly Sagacity"): By Renzong of Song, from 1023 to 1032. Renzong is considered an excellent emperor in Chinese historiography.
  • 紹聖 ("Continuing Sagacity"): By Zhezong of Song, from 1094 to 1098. Zhezong is considered an emperor who ought to have been good but died too early.
So while it doesn't necessarily have the best track record, it works.

武 has a much better history, being used by famously martial emperors like the Guangwu Emperor, Gaozu of Tang, and Zhu Yuanzhang.
 

Dorozhand

Banned
聖 was used only four times in Chinese history by "legitimate" dynasties, excluding Wu Zetian, the Tanguts, and rebel groups:
  • 承聖 ("Succeeding Sagacity"): By Yuan of Liang, from 552 to 554. Probably has to do with his own Confucian sympathies.
  • 嗣聖 ("Inheriting Sagacity"): By Zhongzong of Tang, for two months in 684.
  • 天聖 ("Heavenly Sagacity"): By Renzong of Song, from 1023 to 1032. Renzong is considered an excellent emperor in Chinese historiography.
  • 紹聖 ("Continuing Sagacity"): By Zhezong of Song, from 1094 to 1098. Zhezong is considered an emperor who ought to have been good but died too early.
So while it doesn't necessarily have the best track record, it works.

武 has a much better history, being used by famously martial emperors like the Guangwu Emperor, Gaozu of Tang, and Zhu Yuanzhang.

Thanks! The smaller, lesser known dynasties are definitely an interesting source. I find it fun to mix and match the characters I can find to try and construct a unique but usable era.
 
I mean with what little I know- would any emperor in any way leave a way for his enemies to associate him with or imply that he looked up to Wu Zetian- from what I know she’s pretty much been persona non grata in Chinese historiography throughout.
 

Dorozhand

Banned
I mean with what little I know- would any emperor in any way leave a way for his enemies to associate him with or imply that he looked up to Wu Zetian- from what I know she’s pretty much been persona non grata in Chinese historiography throughout.

That's a good point, especially considering that the capital being in Luoyang was a gesture to history, and because (this timeline's) version has become seen as a sort of Hero City. The people were moved to nationalistic nostalgia as the Old Capital defied the invaders, and the Shengwu Emperor sought to acknowledge the long neglected city and make it new again. So yeah, associating with Wu would probably be bad.

Although I've also been thinking about the emperor setting himself up at Xi'an, especially since his dynasty is the Yong.

If he is in Luoyang, I figured he'd have to take up residence somewhere and since building a new palace might be prohibitively expensive, maybe an old one could be re-purposed. Were there in the 19th century any other newer and less problematic palaces in Luoyang?
 
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