Zaifeng, Prince Chun

Zaifeng
Prince Chun
Prince Regent of the Qing Dynasty
Tenure	2 December 1908 - 12 February 1912 (3 years, 72 days) alongside with Empress Dowager Longyu
Predecessor	Yixuan
Successor	dynasty abolished
Prince Chun
Reign	1 January 1891 - 12 February 1912
Born	(1883-02-12)12 February 1883 Prince Chun Mansion, Beijing, Qing Empire
Died	3 February 1951(1951-02-03) (aged 67) Beijing, China
Spouse	Guwalgiya Youlan Lady Dengiya, concubine
Issue	Puyi, Emperor Xuantong Prince Pujie Princess Yunying Princess Yunhe Princess Yunyǐng Princess Yunxian Prince Puqi Princess Yunxin Prince Puren Princess Yunyu Princess Yunhuan
House	House of Aisin Gioro
Father	Yixuan, 1st Prince Chun
Mother	Lady Lingiya, concubine

The 2nd Prince Chun (Chinese: 醇親王; pinyin: Chún Qīnwàng; Wade–Giles: Ch'un Ch'in-wang) (12 February 1883 – 3 February 1951) was born Zaifeng (Chinese: 載沣; Wade–Giles: Tsai-feng), of the Manchu Aisin-Gioro clan (the Qing imperial family ruling over China). He was the leader of China between 1908 and 1911, serving as regent for his son Puyi, the Xuantong Emperor.

His courtesy name (字) was Yiyun (亦雲). His pseudonym (號), chosen in his older days, was Shupi (書癖).

Family and Childhood

He was the second oldest surviving son of the Yixuan, 1st Prince Chun. His mother was the 1st Prince Chun's second concubine, the Lady Lingiya, a Han Chinese maid at the Prince Chun Mansion whose original Chinese family name was Liu (劉) and was changed into the Manchu clan's name Lingiya when she was made a Manchu, which was required in order to become the concubine of a Manchu prince.

He was born in Beijing while his older half-brother reigned as the Guangxu Emperor, having been chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1875 to succeed the Tongzhi Emperor. His branch of the imperial family had thus obtained the highest status, and was in a close relationship with Cixi. In January 1891, although he was not yet eight years old, his father, the 1st Prince Chun, died, and he was immediately made the new Prince of the First Rank Chun. In 1900, when the foreign powers entered Beijing, the fiancée of Prince Chun committed suicide reportedly to avoid the dishonor of rape.

Life in Government

At the end of February or the beginning of March 1901, he was appointed Army Inspector by the imperial court which had taken refuge in Xi'an following the Boxer Rebellion and the intervention of foreign powers. Then, in June of that same year, at the insistence of the foreign powers which favored the brother of Guangxu over the other princes of the imperial family, the only 18-year-old Prince Chun was appointed ambassador extraordinary by the imperial court, in charge of conveying to the emperor of Germany the regrets of the emperor of China for the murder of the German ambassador Baron von Ketteler at the beginning of the Boxer uprising. Prince Chun set out by sea in July, met the German Kaiser Wilhelm II in Berlin in September of that same year, then visited several European countries and returned to China. He was one of the first members of the Chinese imperial family ever to travel abroad.

Cixi was quite pleased with the way he handled his mission in Germany (allegedly he refused to kneel in front of the Kaiser, a custom mandatory at the Chinese imperial court and which the Germans had insisted on him following in Berlin), and so he was appointed to several important posts in Beijing in the following years. At the same time, Cixi was anguished by the favor that Prince Chun enjoyed with the foreign powers. One of the reasons why Prince Chun was appointed to so many important posts after 1901 was the fact that he was a protégé of the foreign powers which Cixi was very careful not to displease. However, she was as intent as ever on thwarting any challenge to her power, and so Prince Chun clearly posed a problem for her. Cixi saw an opportunity in 1902, on his return from Germany. Cixi ordered Prince Chun to marry Youlan (幼蘭), the daughter of the Manchu general Ronglu (榮祿) (1836–1903), from the Guwalgiya clan, one of the leaders of the conservative faction at the court, and a staunch supporter of Cixi. Ronglu had played a leading role in the brutal ending of the Hundred Days' Reform, in 1898, and the internment of the Guangxu Emperor that followed, and so Prince Chun greatly disliked him, and agreed to marry his daughter only because it was unthinkable to oppose Cixi. The marriage, however, was an unhappy one. With the 2nd prince Chun now firmly tied to her, Cixi saw no more danger, and when Puyi was born in 1906 from the marriage, the infant became a likely heir to the throne. A second son, Pujie, and three daughters, Wen Ying, Wen He, and Wen Wing, were also born of this marriage.

2nd Prince Chun with his eldest son Puyi on his left, and his second son Pujie on his lap. Photo taken in the end of 1907.

Regency

On 14 November 1908, the Guangxu Emperor died. On the same day, an edict from Empress Dowager Cixi proclaimed Prince Chun's eldest son, Puyi, the new emperor. At the age of 25, Prince Chun was made regent. The next day, Cixi died, ending her 47 years of almost continuous absolute power. Prince Chun was the regent of the Chinese empire for the next three years. His first concern was to punish Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang Army, who had betrayed his brother, the late emperor Guangxu, and supported Ronglu in the bloody ending of the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898. Prince Chun was prevented from carrying out his plan of having Yuan Shikai assassinated, but Yuan was dismissed from his posts and sent back to his village in Henan province under the pretense of "curing his foot disease".

For the next three years, the regent carried out the economic and political reforms that had been initiated after the Boxer Rebellion ended in 1901, but he was torn between the conservative Manchu factions at the court and the progressive Han Chinese officials in the provinces. Due to the regent's inexperience, he concentrated more power in the hands of a small ruling court which angered lower level bureaucrats. The regent promised a constitution by 1916 with preparatory steps in between. Beginning on February 5, 1909 China held its first provincial assembly and local council elections (Tianjin held a council election as early as 1907). Twenty-one provincial assemblies took their seats on October 14. The vast majority elected were constitutional monarchists with a few crypto-revolutionaries and they turned the assemblies into hotbeds of dissent. Alarmed, the national assembly, which convened in Beijing on October 3, 1910 had half of its 200 members appointed to balance the other half elected by the provincial assemblies. The provinces sent 98 members to the capital since Xinjiang, the 22nd province, had yet to hold elections to form an assembly due to its extreme backwardness. The regent only appointed 96 members. Nevertheless, it was the elected members that dominated the floor and wooed the appointed ones to their side. The national assembly urged the regent to speed up the constitutional process and create a true parliament so Zaifeng responded by cutting the expected date to 1913.

The Grand Council was replaced by an Imperial Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yikuang on May 8, 1911. It dismayed constitutionalists as the cabinet was not responsible to the national assembly and contained seven imperial relatives with four token Han Chinese among its 13 members, breaking a long standing policy of appointing equal numbers of both ethnicity. More power was concentrated in the hands of the Manchu minority than at any time since the dynasty's early years. The next day, the government announced that it will nationalize major railroads. The nationalization infuriated many businessmen who invested heavily in rail and was told they would be compensated with only a portion of what they invested. This alienated many bourgeoisie and gentry and turned them towards revolution. They started the Railway Protection Movement to oppose nationalization.

The period saw the revolutionaries attempting several insurrections to overthrow the dynasty, and there was even one attempt to assassinate the regent by Wang Jingwei in February 1910. Prince Chun did not have the maneuvering talent nor the lust for power of the late Cixi, and he proved often indecisive and probably unfit for this troubled period.

In 1910, he ousted the 13th Dalai Lama from Tibet who would not return from India until 1913, whereupon the Dalai Lama declared Tibet independent.

Eventually, on 10 October 1911, the Wuchang Uprising started the Xinhai Revolution, which was to overthrow the Qing dynasty. The court was forced to call Yuan Shikai back, despite the regent's deep aversion for him, as Yuan was the only one capable of defeating the revolutionaries. Yuan became prime minister on 16 November. Prince Chun, now deprived of any real power, and with his worst enemy in power, stepped down on 6 December 1911, and was replaced by Empress Dowager Longyu (隆裕太后) (his sister-in-law) as regent. As he returned to his home that day, he was quoted telling his family: "Now I am back among the family, and I can finally care for the children". The three years of the regency were certainly the most painful years in his life; he never relished power the way Cixi or Yuan Shikai did, and witnesses say he was relieved when he left office.

Life after the Qing Dynasty

After he returned to private life, the 2nd Prince Chun remained a respected figure, both among the republicans and later the communists, who appreciated his peaceful stepping down from power and acceptance of the republic, in sharp contrast with Yuan Shikai or other warlords. Sun Yat-sen even paid him a visit in Beijing in September 1912, on which occasion he congratulated Prince Chun, and Prince Chun formally declared he accepted the new Republic of China.

At the death of Empress Dowager Longyu in 1913, he was put in charge of the small imperial court that remained around the now non-ruling emperor Puyi, and he managed all the affairs regarding the court until 1924 when Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City. In 1917, when Puyi was briefly restored on the throne by the warlord Zhang Xun, the 2nd prince Chun played no significant role, as the slogan of Zhang Xun was "Do not allow the relatives of the emperor to participate in the government" ("不准親貴參政").

He lived in his palace in Beijing, the Northern Residence (北府), until 1928. He spent his time away from politics, spending his days in the large library of his palace, avidly reading historical books and newly published magazines. Sometime after 1911, as unhappy with his wife as ever, he married a concubine, with whom he had several children. His principal wife, the mother of Puyi, committed suicide in 1921 by swallowing opium after being scolded at a public audience by the Duankang Dowager Concubine (端康太妃) for the misconduct of the young emperor Puyi. The Duankang Dowager Concubine was the highest ranking woman in the Forbidden City since the death of the Longyu Dowager Empress in 1913.

In 1928, he moved to Tianjin where he lived in the British and Japanese concessions. In August 1939, as Tianjin was devastated by flooding, he relocated to the Northern Residence in Beijing. He was not in favor of the idea of establishing a Manchukuo state under Japanese control, and warned his son Puyi against the project, but he was not listened to. After Puyi became emperor of Manchukuo, he paid his son three visits, but ostensibly refused to take part in Manchukuo affairs. Puyi wanted to have him live close by in Manchukuo, but he refused and used the excuse of an illness to return to Beijing. At the end of the World War II, when the Kuomintang recovered Beijing from the Japanese, a letter of sympathy was dispatched to him by the municipality of Beijing in recognition of his attitude during the Japanese occupation.

When the communists took control of mainland China in 1949, he was again honored and party members took care of him. He sold the Northern Residence to the government out of financial needs. Then, thankful for the good treatment he received from the new government, he donated his library and his art collection to Peking University. He also gave money for the relief of the victims of the terrible flooding of the Huai River (淮河) in 1950. At the start of the Korean War, he was prominent in the movement of subscription to the Chinese government Victory Bonds. He died shortly afterwards on 3 February 1951 in Beijing.

Many of his descendants reside in Beijing, including Jin Youzhi, Jin Yuzhang and Jin Yulan. Many have changed their Manchu clan name Aisin-Gioro into the Chinese family name Jin (金, meaning "Gold", a direct translation of Manchu aisin).

Opinion

Opinions vary on the second prince Chun and his regency. While some describe him as a conservative who tried to reassert Manchu grasp on power despite rapidly changing times, others insist on the reforms that he implemented while regent, reforms which might well have turned China into a liberal constitutional monarchy had the Xinhai Revolution not occurred.

Issue

The 2nd Prince Chun had a total of eleven children with his two wives.

He married his primary wife, the Lady Guwalgiya Youlan, on 2 February 1902. They had two sons and three daughters:

Name	Other names	Born	Died	Spouse	Issue	Notes
Puyi 溥儀	Courtesy name: Yaozhi (耀之) Pseudonym: Haoran (浩然) Other: Pu Haoran (溥浩然)	7 February 1906 Prince Chun Mansion, Beijing	17 October 1967 Beijing	1st wife: Gobulo Wan Rong, Empress Xiao Ke Min 1st concubine: Erdet Wenxiu, Imperial Consort Shu 2nd concubine: Tan Yuling, Imperial Noble Consort Ming Xian 3rd concubine: Li Yuqin, Honored Lady Fu 2nd wife: Li Shuxian	none	Ascended the throne as the Xuantong Emperor on 2 December 1908; Abdicated on 12 February 1912; Restored as Emperor on 1 July 1917 by Zhang Xun; Restoration failed on 12 July 1917; Created puppet Emperor of Manchukuo by the Japanese on 1 March 1934; Deposed on 15 August 1945
Pujie 溥傑	Courtesy name: Junzhi (俊之) Other: Pu Junzhi (溥俊之)	16 April 1907 Beijing	28 February 1994 Beijing	Tang Shixia Lady Hiro Saga	By Tang Shixia: none By Lady Hiro Saga: Princess Huisheng Princess Yunsheng
Yunying 韞媖	none	1909	1925	Gobulo Runliang (郭布羅 潤良) (younger brother of Empress Wan Rong)	none
Yunhe 韞和	Jin Xinru (金欣如)	1911	2001	Zheng Guangyuan (鄭廣元) (son of Zheng Yu (鄭禹); grandson of Zheng Xiaoxu)	Zheng Yingcai (鄭英才) two other daughters one son
Yunyǐng 韞穎	Courtesy name: Ruixiu (蕊秀) Other: Jin Ruixiu (金蕊秀)	1913	1992	Gobulo Runqi (郭布羅 潤麒) (younger half-brother of Empress Wan Rong)	Gobulo Zongyan (郭布羅 宗弇) Gobulo Zongguang (郭布羅 宗光) Gobulo Manrong (郭布羅 曼若)

By his concubine, Lady Dengiya, he had an additional two sons and four daughters:

• Yunian 韞嫻 (1914–2003), married Zhao Qifan (趙琪璠), had issue
• Puqi 溥倛 (1915–1918), died young
• Yunxin 韞馨 (1917–1998), married Wan Jiaxi (萬嘉熙), had three sons and one daughter
• Puren 溥任 (17 August 1918 -), also known as Jin Youzhi, pretender to the throne of Manchukuo, married firstly to Jin Yuting (金瑜庭) and had three sons and two daughters, married secondly to Zhang Jiaying (張茂瀅) with no issue
• Yunyu 韞娛 (1919–1982), married Wanyan Ailan (完顏 愛蘭), had one son and four daughters
• Yunhuan 韞歡 (11 September 1921 - 2004), married 12 February 1950 Qiao Fuzhi (喬宏志), had two sons and one daughter

Ancestry

Family of Zaifeng, Prince Chun
16. Qianlong Emperor 8. Jiaqing Emperor 17. Empress Xiao Yi Chun 4. Daoguang Emperor 18. Hitara He'erjing'e, Duke En of Cheng 9. Empress Xiao Shu Rui 2. Yixuan, 1st Prince Chun 10. Lingshou 5. Imperial Noble Consort Zhuang Shun 1. Zaifeng, 2nd Prince Chun 6. Deqing 3. Lady Lingiya, concubine