Chapter 14 2. Prince of the Qing Dynasty

The Twelve Emperors of the Qing Dynasty had 113 princes, with an average life expectancy of 32.4 years.The date of birth and death of the sixteenth son of Emperor Taizu of the Qing Dynasty is unknown and not included in the statistics.Qing royal titles are divided into twelve ranks: Prince, County King, Baylor, Beizi, Zhen Guogong, Fu Guogong, the eighth-ranked Zhen Guogong, the lower-eighth Fuguo Duke, the Zhenguo General, the Fuguo General, General Feng Guo, General Feng En.The management of the prince was not institutionalized until the Kangxi Dynasty after entering the customs.Learning from the lessons of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty made three major reforms in addition to continuing the Ming Dynasty imperial clan’s system of “paying food and food and supporting them for life”:

First, the internal support of the government, and the external leadership. "Manuscripts of Qing History Zhu Wang Biography" said: "There are Ming Dynasty feudal clans, who enfeoffed but not tin (commonly referred to as "gift") land, ranked nobles but not near the people, lived on salary but did not manage affairs, and history is said to be good." Therefore, In the Ming Dynasty, "the court has no traces of Yiqin, and the bureaucrats have no ranks of internal supplements."In the Qing Dynasty, there was a change: "The kings are not in the land, but their titles are only praised, and they are not added to the prefectures, and they regard the Ming as the best. However, they support the government internally and lead the teachers outside. It’s absolutely the opposite.” (Volume 215 of “Manuscripts of the History of the Qing Dynasty: The First Kings”) That is to say, the princes of the Qing Dynasty are different from the princes of the Ming Dynasty in that: first, they only give names, and do not add a state; , "Inside the government, the outside leader works."Internally, the kings of the Qing Dynasty could serve as cabinet scholars, ministers of military aircraft, ministers of the guards, ministers of the king, ministers of the internal affairs department, ministers of the interior, and even princes as regents or assistants. Dorgon in the early Qing Dynasty, Yixin, Yixin Yan and Zaifeng; served as generals abroad, such as Duoduo as the general of Dingguo, Hauge as the general of Jingyuan, Yunyu as the general of Fuyuan, etc.

Second, the palace is in Beijing, not in other places.The royal palaces of the Qing Dynasty were all in the capital, spread all over the inner city, and there were many changes.Today, within the second ring road of Beijing, there are a large number of palaces, such as Prince Li's Mansion (Daishan), Prince Zheng's Mansion (Jierhalang), Prince Rui's Mansion (Dorgon), Prince Yu's Mansion (Duoduo), and Prince Su's Mansion (Haug), as well as Baylor and Beizifu.See Volume 4 of Zhao Lian's "Xiao Ting Xu Lu Jingshi Prince's Mansion" and Wu Changyuan's "Chenyuan Zhilue".This is convenient for management and monitoring, and prevents the military coup d'etat of the imperial clan of the Ming Dynasty from repeating itself.There are more than 50 historical sites (places) remaining in the Beijing Palace of the Qing Dynasty.The Eight Banners were garrisoned and assigned to other places. Finally, the fallen leaves returned to their roots and returned to Beijing to die.

Third, hereditary inheritance is not replaced, and it decreases according to generation. What does "hereditary replacement" mean? "Hereditary" refers to the inheritance of titles from generation to generation. The "Wang" in "Wangdai" means not to, "Dai" means to surrender or abolish, and "Wangdai" means not to surrender or abolish. "Hereditary non-replacement" means that the title is inherited from generation to generation, and will never be dropped or abolished.In the Qing Dynasty, there were 12 hereditary kings, commonly known as "Iron Hat Kings": Prince Li Daishan, Prince Zheng Jierhalang, Prince Rui Dorgon, Prince Yu Duoduo, Prince Su Haoge, Prince Zhuang Nikan (Chu Yingzi), King Yuetuo of Keqin County (Dai Shanzi), Leke Dehun, King of Shuncheng County (son of Sahalin, the third son of Dai Shan), Prince Yi Yunxiang (the thirteenth son of Emperor Kangxi), Prince Gong Yi Shi (the sixth son of Emperor Daoguang), Prince Chun Yi (the seventh son of Emperor Daoguang), and Prince Qing Yikuang (after Yonglin, the seventeenth son of Emperor Qianlong).Except for the iron hat king, other princes must be reduced according to generation, such as the two princes briefly introduced below.

One is Hongluo (yan), the tenth son of Emperor Yongzheng (ranked sixth), born in the eleventh year of Yongzheng (1733). His mother is the nobleman Liu, who is Concubine Qian.In the third year of Qianlong (1738), Hongluo was 6 years old. He was adopted by Emperor Kangxi's seventeenth son, Prince Guo Yunli, and succeeded him as Prince Guo.Hongluo is good at poetry and collecting books.He often gets up in the morning, puts on his clothes and patrols, and erects a stick when he encounters lawbreakers.Later, due to making mistakes, closing the door at home, feeling depressed, and dying of illness, he lived to be 33 years old. (Volume 220 of "Manuscripts of Qing History Zhuwang Biography"), there is a saying that Hongluo was the illegitimate son of Prince Yunli of Guo and Concubine Qian of Emperor Yongzheng. There is no historical evidence, so it is nonsense.

The second is Yongxuan, the eleventh son of Emperor Qianlong, named Jingquan, born in the seventeenth year of Qianlong (1752). His mother was the imperial concubine Jin. He became a prince when he was 38 years old.The mansion that got the pearl of the old prime minister was Wangfu (later Prince Chun's mansion, now the former residence of Soong Ching Ling) (Volume 4 of "Xiaoting Xulu").At the beginning of Jiaqing, he served as minister of military aircraft. The editor of "Drafts of Qing History Yongxing Biography" commented: "Story, the prince has no opportunity to lead the army, and the opportunity to lead the army began from Yongxing." Yongxing managed the three treasuries of the household department, and was trusted and reused by the emperor Jiaqing.There were many calligraphers and painters among the princes and grandchildren of the Qing Dynasty, Yong Xing was an example.Yongxing's calligraphy attainments are quite profound: "Yongxing's young workmanship, Gao Zong loves it, and it is lucky to have it first." (Volume 221 of "Manuscript of Qing History Yongxing Biography") Yongxing "poetry is concise, calligraphy is strong, It has been promoted by the whole country.” (Volume 5 of "Xiaoting Xulu Chengzhe Wang") Because Yongxuan's calligraphy is well written, today I can see the "Yuling Shengde Shengong Monument" in the Qianlong Yuling Stele of the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty, which is Yongxing Xing was ordered to write.Yongxing likes to collect antique calligraphy and paintings, and has a deep research on calligraphy.He heard from an eunuch in the palace that the master of a certain old eunuch had personally seen Dong Qichang, a great calligrapher of the Ming Dynasty, when he was a teenager, holding a pen with his first three fingers and hanging his wrist to write a book.Yongxing tried to figure out Dong Qichang's brushwork, and "made the stirrup (deng, the ancient word "lamp")", which inherited and innovated the brushwork of the ancients.He selected calligraphy works by himself and engraved "Yi Jin Zhai Tie" handed down from generation to generation. Officials and scholar-bureaucrats in the court were honored to be able to get this post.Yong Xing is too frugal.The notes say that he "has meager daily expenses, eight hundred thousand taels of silver in his treasury, and he is unwilling to squander it."His wife is the prime minister's daughter, with a generous dowry, which is sealed into the treasury, "just eating (dan) thin porridge every day."In his later years, he "didn't bathe his body, and his hair didn't go to bed", and he was persuaded to change his clothes. He said: "After death, maggots eat zi (zi) and bones (hai), and who will clean up the dirt!" Daoguang three years (1823) ) died at the age of 72.The gold and silver accumulated frugally during Yongxing's lifetime were either squandered for his descendants or stolen by his servants, and in the end it was still a word of "empty".Yongxuan's posthumous works include "Poetry Collection of Listening to the Rain House", "Yijinzhai Collection" and "Canglong Collection". (Volume 3 of "The Four Spectrums of the Qing Imperial Family: The Prince")