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In the Qing court drama "The Legend of Zhen Huan", after Yongzheng died, Zhen Huan passed the sixth elder brother of the "Four Masters" to Prince Guo Yunli, which not only fulfilled a father-son relationship, but also preserved the (adoptive) mother-son relationship between himself and the new emperor, and the brotherhood between Hongli and Hongyi. So, in the real history, has this little brother who was passed on to "Uncle Seventeen" safe and smooth since then?
From the elder brother of the Old Summer Palace to the prince of Guo
The TV series is different from historical facts, in the official history, Hongyi is not the son of Concubine Xi Niu Hulu - and certainly not the son of Guojun Wang Yunli. In history, Hongyi is Yongzheng's parent, and his biological mother is Concubine Liu. Liu was named a concubine by a noble person during the Yongzheng period because of the birth of a child, and was given a title, and it was not until after the death of Yongzheng that she gave birth to an elder brother, and the new emperor Qianlong was honored as a concubine by the empress dowager.
Liu's son, Hongyi, was born in the eleventh year of Yongzheng (1733), when Yongzheng was fifty-six years old. More than two years later, the king of the "Dynasty and Evening" died, and Hongyi was only three years old at this time (according to the habit of the ancients, the same as later). Yongzheng had a total of ten sons, but only four of them grew up, and in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Hongshi, who was born to Concubine Li of Qi, was stripped of his clan because of indulgence, and Qianlong's own brothers were only five elder brother Hongday and sixth elder brother Hongyi. Hongli and Hongli are the same age, and they went to school together when they were young, and Hongli is more than 20 years older than Hongyi, so he treats this young brother like a brother and a father. Hongyi often lived in the Old Summer Palace when he was a child, so he was also called "Brother of the Old Summer Palace".
Qianlong has always attached great importance to the upbringing of his younger brother Hongyi, which was the case when he was in the Old Summer Palace. In October of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735), the empress dowager and Qianlong talked about Hongyi and called Qianlong "Brother Khan" (that is, the emperor's son, but this title is not in accordance with etiquette). Qianlong thought that this was because the eunuch Wang Zili around Hongyi did not guide him well, and instructed the chief eunuch of the Internal Affairs Office to blame him for forty boards. Qianlong also prepared to take Hongyu back to the palace next year, raise him with his princes, and get along day and night.
At this time, Qianlong was already worried that Hongyi would not teach well now, and when he grew up, he would have an arrogant temperament and no heavenly authority, which would provoke the princes and ministers to participate. And this fear has indeed become a reality in the future.
In February of the third year of Qianlong (1738), Prince Heshuo Guo passed away. Yunli is the seventeenth son of Kangxi, but his biological mother is not Concubine Shu of the "Favorite Crown Six Palaces" in the TV series, but the Qin concubine Chen, who was respected as the Qin Concubine in the early years of Qianlong. In the first year of Yongzheng (1723), Yunli was crowned the king of Guojun and was in charge of the affairs of the domain. In the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), Yun Lijin became the prince of Guo, and then successively managed the affairs of the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Households and Miaojiang. After Yongzheng's death, Yunli was bequeathed as an assistant. In the third year of Qianlong (1738), Yunli, who was forty-two years old at the time, died of illness, and Qianlong came to his funeral. Because he had no son to inherit the title, Qianlong was invited by the prince and minister to inherit the younger brother Hongyi to Yunli and inherited the title of Prince Guo. In this way, Hongyi, who was only six years old, was named a new generation of Prince Guo.
After Hongyi was sealed, he was still kept in the palace until the eleventh year of Qianlong (1747), when the fourteen-year-old Hongyi went out of the palace to build a mansion. In the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748), Qianlong married the sixteen-year-old Hongyi, and the woman was the daughter of Fan Hongbin, the superintendent of the imperial history recorded by Fan Yiqianniu, who was inlaid with the military flag of the Yellow Han Dynasty. According to the "Great Qing Huidian", the Qing Dynasty supervised the imperial history as an official from the five grades. In October of the following year, Hongyi and Fan were married, and Qianlong also sent the minister Haiwang and a scattered minister to lead thirty guards. Haiwang, Wu Yashi (Wu Ya Shi in "The Legend of Zhen Huan", where the Queen Mother is located), is a native of the Yellow Flag in Manchuria. In the last years of Yongzheng, Haiwang and Ortai, Zhang Tingyu and other eight people were ordered to take care of each other. In the early years of Qianlong, Haiwang was still reused, and at this time (the fourteenth year of Qianlong), although he no longer handled military aircraft, he was still a secretary of the household department. The emperor sent him to attend the wedding of Hongyi, which can be said to be very important.
In the following year of the wedding, Qianlong ordered Hongyu to manage the affairs of the Wuying Palace, the Imperial Study and Pharmacy, and the Eight Banners Guard Barracks of the Old Summer Palace. In the following years, Hongyi also took charge of the affairs of the construction office, serving as the Mongolian capital of the white flag, acting the Mongolian capital of the white flag, and the Han army of the blue flag. The young prince was rich and noble, and he also wore many hats, and was valued by the emperor, but he did not know that this too superior and smooth growth process had laid the groundwork for the future disasters.
The Seven Deadly Sins of the Sixth Elder Brother
In the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong (1763), Hongyi was thirty-one years old, and Qianlong's long-accumulated dissatisfaction with this overspoiled younger brother finally broke out. In a long edict, Qianlong listed eight charges in three aspects. The first is the lack of greed and illegal profit-making, such as the opening of coal kilns and the seizure of people's property, and the private trust official Gao Heng took ginseng to Yangzhou to sell for profit, and ordered various places to create customs to buy embroidered silk and playthings for him, but only gave a little money, which is equivalent to asking for property in disguise. The second is to interfere in the affairs of the court and interfere in the election of officials, such as privately entrusting Aligon to take care of his subordinates when the court is electing officials. Qianlong expressed his incomprehension of these behaviors of Hongyi: the predecessor Prince Guo Yunli served the longest in the Yongzheng period, the best reward, and was relatively wealthy among the kings.
Although Qianlong had harshly criticized Hongyi's behavior, in fact, what he cared about the most was Hongyi's third crime, that is, contempt for Tianwei and indulgence. Earlier, Qianlong had ordered Hongyi to go to Shengjing to send the jade, but Hongyi was not only rude and did not escort him personally, but also took the liberty of playing the emperor and said that he would go to the siege first. Qianlong was not punished because of his young age. This year, Hongyi's biological mother Concubine Qian celebrated her birthday, and the Queen Mother ordered Hongyu to prepare birthday gifts. But Hongyi did not comply with the decree, and under the three urges and four invitations of the Queen Mother, he made an excuse that Qianlong did not give Concubine Qian an additional reward, and he did not dare to be extravagant. In this regard, Qianlong said: You are pointing at me. Qianlong thought that Hongyi was resentful because his mother's position was inferior to that of Yuguifei, the mother of Prince Hongday, so he made sarcastic remarks. In the edict, Qianlong also explained the reasons why he did not pay a grand salute: first, when Yongzheng reigned, Concubine Qian's status was lower than that of Concubine Yu, and secondly, Concubine Yu was older than the Queen Mother, and she only began to "do a big job" after the age of 60, and Concubine Qian was just over 50 years old, so it is reasonable that there is no gift outside the exception.
In addition, Qianlong was also dissatisfied with Hongyi's other behaviors. For example, when the fire broke out in the Old Summer Palace, the other princes hurriedly came to care, but Hongyi, who lived closest to him, came the latest, and seemed to care about the fire and his brother's safety as if he was nothing.
And the fuse of the outbreak of the contradiction is probably in this last crime: Hongday and Hongyu came to the palace of the Queen Mother to ask for peace, and they actually knelt next to the Queen Mother and the place where the emperor asked for peace to sit. This direct offense finally made Qianlong decide to punish his young brother for his unscrupulous misconduct. In this edict, Qianlong was dismissed from the title of prince of Hongyi because of his rudeness, disrespect for Yiyi's decree and disrespectful remarks, demoted to Baylor, and suspended forever, and relieved him of his duties to see the after-effects. and Prince Hongday was also fined for three years.
Although the edict enumerated many of Hongyi's crimes, Qianlong was perhaps more concerned about his own supreme and unshakable imperial power than embezzling people's property and entrusting officials to make profits. Hongyi's smooth growth environment and arrogant personality may have made him forget that the "man in the yellow robe" not only dotes on his brother, but also the emperor.
After being removed from the title of prince, Hongyi's Prince Guo Jinbao was taken back and destroyed, and the subordinate guards were also deposed accordingly, all errands were dismissed, and he was also ordered to reflect. In the edict, Qianlong still said that he did not plan to investigate deeply this time, and only hoped that the rest of the kings would be able to keep to themselves in peace and not follow suit. For this young brother, Qianlong was not too harsh. In June of the following year, when paying tribute to the Tailing of Yongzheng, Qianlong also sent Hongyi to pay tribute. But the young nobleman could not bear such a sudden and severe blow, and finally became depressed.
In February of the thirtieth year of Qianlong (1765), Hongyi's illness worsened, and Qianlong also felt pity, so he obtained the consent of the Queen Mother and re-named Hongyi as the king of Guojun, hoping that his younger brother could be happy and his illness would get better quickly. He also instructed his younger brother to take care of the emperor's grace and recuperate, and was unwilling to give up, and soon sent a letter to ask his brother how his condition was. It's a pity that the heavens did not fulfill people's wishes, and only a little more than a month later, Wang Hongyi of Guojun died of illness. At this time, Qianlong had already set off for a southern tour, not in the capital, and was very sad to hear that his younger brother had died of illness, so he ordered all affairs to be handled according to the prince's standards, and sent his sixth elder brother Yongying to wear filial piety, and the rest of the elder brothers went on the day of the sacrifice. In April, Qianlong named Hongyu "Gong" ("can be changed to Gong", Qianlong's move, I don't know if this is the intention). In May, Qianlong himself also came to the funeral center to give a memorial service.
In June, Hongyi's wife petitioned the Zongren Mansion to handle matters related to inheriting the title of Guojun Wang, and Qianlong ordered Hongyi's eldest son, Yongying, who was only 14 years old, to inherit the title of county king. But Yongying did not live much longer than his father, and in the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1789), Yongying died. Yongying's eldest son, Mian, was demoted from the usual rank to Baylor, but he died of illness after only one year. At the request of Hongyi's wife, the eldest son of Hongyi's second son, Yongcan, was passed on to Uncle Yongyao, and still inherited the title of Baylor, "able to support three generations of widows".
is a prince and a poet
Although Hongyi did not do a good job as a prince, this young man who grew up in the splendid pile wrote poems really well. Emperor Qianlong was fond of composing poetry, as were his uncles, brothers, sons and nephews, and formed a distinctive style of the "Zhu Di Poetry Group" (a group of poets composed of the prince's son Baylor). As the core figure of the "Zhu Di Poetry Group" in the early Qianlong period, Hongyi Ya has a good collection of books, good poetry, and poetry collections such as "Ming Sheng Collection" and "Jing She Zhai Poems" have been handed down.
When he was a child, Hongyu studied in the palace with the princes of Qianlong and was taught by Shen Deqian. Shen Deqian, whose name is Zhushi, was awarded the Zhongjin Shi at the age of sixty-seven in the fourth year of Qianlong (1739). His poetic theory is mainly based on "style theory", emphasizing the gentle and generous "poetic teaching" and the beauty of the rhythm of suppression and resistance. Hongyi is also influenced by his poetic theory, and his poems coexist with "lofty and far-reaching" and "ups and downs of lyrics", and has the creative consciousness of "Zhengyin Mingsheng". For example, in the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), the eighteen-year-old Hongyu accompanied Qianlong to the west to visit Songluo, Henan and other places, and wrote many poems in this prosperous tour, including a group of "crossing the Yellow River", whether it is the depth of time opened up by "waves circulate day and night" and "vast divine traces", or the spatial breadth created by "looking west through the pillar of heaven and returning to the sea gate in the east", it undoubtedly shows the understanding of a noble nobleman in the prosperous era.
During the 23rd to 28th years of Qianlong, Hongyi successively published three special collections. Among them, the volume of "Jing She Zhai Poems" includes more than 300 poems created by Hongyu in the 23rd year of Qianlong (1758), which is not inferior to his brother Hongli, and the author thinks that the quality is higher than that of Qianlong.
In addition to writing his own poems, Hongyi also often sang harmony with other princes and nobles. At that time, among the three generations of princes represented by Shenjun Wang Yunxi, Prince Guo Hongyi, and the fourth elder brother Yonghui, a poetry society had been formed, and there was a relatively close singing harmony. For example, on the winter solstice of the 22nd year of Qianlong (1757), Hongyu not only enjoyed the snow and sang harmony with the disciples Shi Yanghao, Gu Yuanhua and others, but also copied these poems to his uncle Yunxi and invited him to participate in them. Yunxi also happily joined when she received the invitation, and forwarded the invitation to Prince Yi Hongxiao. This singing was compiled as a group of "Snow Window Miscellaneous Songs", and the poems not only have the Changbai style of Manchu culture, but also the prosperous atmosphere of Kangqian, which can be said to be one of the representative works of the clan poetry in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. It's just that only five months after this singing, the then forty-eight-year-old Shenjun Wang Yunxi died, and Hongyi and Yonghui compiled their posthumous collections into three volumes of "Ziqiongyan Poems".
As the younger brother of Emperor Qianlong, Hongyi may have been able to spend his life of wealth and glory in peace, but this overly arrogant little prince was finally blinded by the prosperous atmosphere and the wealth and power in his hands, and became a "negative example" of the princes. Although the future is bright and the children and grandchildren are extended, he himself stayed in the early spring of the thirty-third year......
Bibliography:
[1] [Qing] Kun Gang Xiu, Liu Qirui, ed., "The Case of the Great Qing Huidian", Qing Guangxu lithograph.
[2] History of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1993.
[3] The First Historical Archives of China, ed., Notes on the Living of Emperor Qianlong, Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2002.
[4] Wang Xianqian, [Qing] Zhu Shoupeng, Donghualu Donghua Continuation, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2008.
[5] Compilation Committee of Qing Dynasty Poetry Collection, Compilation of Qing Dynasty Poetry Collection, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2009.
[6] Chen Hongyan, Xie Dongrong, and Sa Ren Gaowa (eds.), Rare Book Series of Qing Dynasty Poetry and Essays, Beijing: National Library Press, 2017.
[7] Han Xiaomei, "An Analysis of the Beginning and End of the Title of Prince Hong of the Qianlong Emperor's Revolution", Journal of Jilin Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 2019, Issue 3, pp. 21-27.
[8] Zhao Erxun, Manuscript of Qing History, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2021.
[9] Huang Zheng and Huang Bin, "The Style of the Middle Clan Poetry from Hongyi's Poetry", Studies in Ethnic Literature, No. 5, 2023, pp. 168-176.
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Author | Zhou Siyan
Edit | Hu Xinya
Typography Editing | Cheng Mei Ling (Intern)
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