"At the beginning of the country, the wind and rain were formed, the world was determined by a hundred battles, and the kings were mediocre."
Among the eight iron hat kings of the early Qing Dynasty, Zilharang was the only one who was not a descendant of Nurhaci and was the only "uncle king" of the Qing Dynasty except For Dolgun. However, while this Iron Hat King was prominent in later generations, he also had an unknown side, such as the occupation of his niece and daughter-in-law, but his descendants produced three Empresses of the Qing Dynasty.
1. The lucky one who lost his father at a young age
Zilharang was the sixth son of Nurhaci's younger brother Shulhaqi, and his mother was Shulhazi's fifth wife, Fujin Uranara, who was the younger sister of Ullabe Belebu Zhantai and was a cousin of Emperor Taiji's stepfather (Hauge's biological mother).
In the year when Zilharang was 12 years old, his father Shulhazi was imprisoned and killed by Nurhaci for plotting to split the state, and in this internal power struggle between Zilharang and Zilharang's two brothers, Altona (Shulhazi's eldest son) and Zasaktu (Shulhazi's third son), were also executed by Nurhaci, and when Nurhaci also wanted to execute Shulhazi's second son Amin, Emperor Taiji and others came forward to intercede, and Amin survived.
Zilharang was raised in the palace by his uncle Nurhaci from an early age, and had a good relationship with several cousins such as Emperor Taiji, so he was also spared death in this power struggle, and was later named Heshuo Belle by Nurhaci.
Nurhaci created the eight flags system, Amin became the owner of the blue flag, and Zilharang was also sealed in the blue flag, becoming the small flag owner of the blue flag.
As he grew older, Zilharang began to show his talent on the battlefield, and in Nurhaci's later years, he participated in the war against the Chahar and Bahraini tribes, and made great achievements.
2. Succeed as the owner of the blue flag
After Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne, the other three Baylor Daishan, Amin, and Mang Gultai sat side by side with him, and he was extremely dissatisfied with this situation, so he always looked for opportunities to suppress the three Baylors. At the same time, Huang Taiji also reused several young brothers, such as Zilharang, Dolgun, Dordor, etc., especially Zilharang, although he was a cousin of Huang Taiji, but he had the best relationship with Huang Taiji, and it was not too much to ask two people to wear a pair of pants.
Of course, Huang Taiji and Zilharang are not only cousins, Huang Taiji and Zilharang's concubine Fujin are both daughters of Eyitu, so they are still in a brother-in-law relationship.
In the fourth year of Tiancong (1630), Zilharang's brother Amin was imprisoned by Emperor Taiji due to his inability to garrison Yongping, abandoned the city and surrendered, and Emperor Taiji also gave Amin's property to Zilharang, and also made Zilharang the new blue flag bearer.
After that, Zilharang worked harder on the battlefield, especially from the sixth year of Tiancong, until the eighth year of Tiancong, Zilharang followed the Emperor Taiji to defeat the invincible Chahar Lin Dan Khan.
Subsequently, in the distribution of booty, Zilharang also received benefits, and Emperor Taiji gave Sutai Dafujin, the widow of Lin Dan Khan, to Zilharang, who was from Yehe and was the sister of Zilharang's successor Tohnarah, who was the third successor of Zilharang's successor Fu jin, and Sutai Dafujin was quite rich shortly after his death, and Emperor Taiji made a shunshui favor and gave Sutai Dafujin to Zilharang, so Sutai became the third successor fujin of Zilharang.
The widow of Lin Dan Khan, named Su Tai, was also related to Emperor Taiji, and she was the granddaughter of Jintaishi, the last chief of Yehebu, the daughter of Emperor Taiji's cousin Delheli, and the cousin niece of Emperor Taiji. In fact, the Great Belle Daishan also took a fancy to the "rich woman" Su Tai, but the Emperor Taiji did not hesitate to offend the Great Belle and became quanzil Halang, which shows the Emperor Taiji's co-optation of this cousin, in order to suppress the Great Belle Daishan.
3. Prince Heshuo, who is in charge of the auxiliary government
On the ninth day of August in the eighth year of Chongde, Emperor Taiji suddenly collapsed in Shengjing, and since he did not leave a will before his death, the Manchu Qing magnates then launched a fierce battle for the throne.
In this power struggle, the two factions of Emperor Taiji's eldest son, Prince Su, Hauge, and Prince Rui Dolgun, faced each other, and for a time there was a stalemate. In fact, Prince Daishan of Li and Prince Zheng of Zilharang are also two forces that cannot be ignored, they will still hold three flags in their hands, as the lord of the blue flag, Zilharang is neutral on the surface, in fact, more inclined to Hauge, but Zilharang has always been cautious and cautious, and will never intervene too much in this struggle involving the highest power, after all, he still has to think about future generations.
In this stalemate situation, Zilharang proposed another plan, that is, fu lin, the ninth son of emperor Taiji, to inherit the throne, which was in line with the succession of the son of the former emperor in the mouths of the two yellow flag ministers, and also in line with the attitude of the two white flags against Hauge's succession, so fu lin, who was only six years old, sat on the dragon chair of the Qing Dynasty and was the Shunzhi Emperor. At the same time, Zilharang also benefited, and he and Dorgon were appointed to assist their younger brother Shunzhi.
However, after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, although Zilharang was once named the uncle of Xinyi Auxiliary Zheng, he was subsequently suppressed by Dolgun and removed from the post of auxiliary government because of the excessive system of the construction government.
In April of the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648), Hauge the Prince of Su died in prison due to the siege of Dorgon. After Hauge's death, his Fujins were divided up by several uncles, including one of the Borzigit clan (Dorgon's wife and sister) who remarried to Dolgun, and two to Zilharan and Azig respectively.
In February of the eighth year of Shunzhi, the highlight moment belonging to Zilharang arrived, and in this year, the Shunzhi Emperor, who had just been pro-government, received a proposal from Zilharang and four other princes, stripped Dolgun of his title, and carried out a thorough liquidation of Dolgun's party. The following year, Zilharang was promoted to the title of Prince of Shuhe Shuo Zheng, becoming the only uncle of the Qing Dynasty besides Dolgun.
4. The illustrious Iron Hat King family
On the eighth day of May in the twelfth year of Shunzhi, for the founding of the Qing Dynasty and the stability of the political arena in the early Qing Dynasty, the Prince of Zheng, Zilharang, who had made great achievements, died of illness in prince Zheng's palace at the age of 57. The Shunzhi Emperor wept bitterly at the death of this uncle, if it were not for the uncle's proposal, he might not have been able to sit on the dragon chair, the Shunzhi Emperor ordered to quit the dynasty for seven days, there was a Qing dynasty, only Zilharang enjoyed this honor, in addition, the Shunzhi Emperor also gave a sacrifice to the funeral of Silver Wanliang, for Zilharang carved a monument to commemorate the merits.
In the tenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the imperial court posthumously honored Zilharang with the title of "Xian" and called him Prince Zheng Xian. In the nineteenth year of Qianlong, Zilharang entered the ancestral hall of King Shengjingxian, and in the forty-third year of Qianlong, Qianlong remembered the merits of Zilharang and ordered his tablet to be worthy of the Taimiao Temple, and was designated as one of the eight iron hat kings in the early Qing Dynasty.
Moreover, throughout the entire history of the Qing Dynasty, Prince Zheng's lineage was also very prominent, especially during the Xianfeng Tongzhi period, there were three empresses.
The first was Empress Xianfeng originally with Empress Xiaodexian. Empress Xiaodexian's mother was the third daughter of Ur Gong'a, the Prince of Zhengshen, that is to say, Empress Xiaodexian was the granddaughter of Ur Gong'a, the Prince of Zhengshen.
The second was Empress Xiaozhenxian (慈安) of the Xianfeng Succession. Empress Xiaozhenxian's aunt of the Niuhulu clan married Duanhua the Prince of Zheng and became Duanhua's niece, although she was not a descendant of the Zheng Dynasty, but after all, she was also related to the Zheng Dynasty.
The third was Empress Xiaozheyi of Tongzhi. Empress Xiaozheyi's mother was the daughter of Duanhua the Prince of Zheng, that is to say, Empress Xiaozheyi was Duanhua's granddaughter and the cousin niece of Empress Xiaozhenxian (Ci'an), which was one of the important reasons why she was able to become Empress Tongzhi.
It is worth mentioning that Duanhua, the seventh grandson of Zilharang, was one of the eight ministers of Xianfeng Guming, but was killed by Cixi in the Qixiang coup, becoming one of the only iron hat kings in the history of the Qing Dynasty to be killed.
Zichen said:
Prince Zhengxian, Zilharang, grew up with Emperor Taiji of Taizong and survived the case of his father Shulhazi, and has since gained the trust and respect of Emperor Taiji. After Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne, he even proposed a compromise plan for Emperor Taiji's youngest son Fu Lin to succeed to the throne, which played a crucial role in the political stability of the early Qing Dynasty.
Moreover, the Zilharang line became the most prominent branch of Shulhaqi's descendants, the only non-Nurhaci Great Qing Iron Hat King, and the only uncle of the Qing Dynasty besides Dolgun, and the descendants were three Great Qing Empresses, and the family was so prominent that it was already very rare.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Taizu, Records of Manchuria, General Genealogy of the Eight Banners of Manchurian Clans