Gobulo Runqi ( zh, 郭布羅潤麒; July 8, 1912 – June 6, 2007) was a member by right of birth of the Gobulo clan, part of the prestigious

Plain White Banner The Plain White Banner () was one of the Eight Banners of Manchu military and society during the Later Jin and Qing dynasty of China. It was one of the three "upper" banners (Plain Yellow Banner, Bordered Yellow Banner, and Plain White Banner) d ...

group of the Qing dynasty and brother of

Wanrong Wanrong ( zh, link=no, t=婉容; 13 November 1906 – 20 June 1946), of the Manchu Plain White Banner Gobulo clan, was the wife and empress consort of Puyi, the last emperor of China. She is sometimes anachronistically called the Xuantong E ...

, the last empress consort of China. He served under the Japanese puppet

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

regime in the 1940s until its collapse, and in later life, ran an acupuncture centre from his home in Beijing.

Biography

Runqi came from the Gobulo clan, a family closely linked to the imperial

House of Aisin-Gioro The House of Aisin-Gioro is a Manchu clan that ruled the Later Jin dynasty (1616–1636), the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), and Manchukuo (1932–1945) in the history of China. Under the Ming dynasty, members of the Aisin Gioro clan served as chie ...

. He was born in Beijing on July 8, 1912, shortly after the fall of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

following the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

. In 1922, after the marriage of his sister to

Puyi Puyi (7 February 190617 October 1967) was the final emperor of China, reigning as the eleventh monarch of the Qing dynasty from 1908 to 1912. When the Guangxu Emperor died without an heir, Empress Dowager Cixi picked his nephew Puyi, aged tw ...

, the last emperor of China, he began spending time in the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...

. Runqi recalled Wanrong crying with her mother on the day she entered the Forbidden City. In 1932, he married Jin Yunying, the third younger sister of Pu Yi and they had three children: Zongyan (宗弇), Zongguang (宗光) and Manruo (曼若). After his marriage, Pu Yi sent him to Japan for military studies, accompanied by his wife. Runqi served in the Japanese puppet state of

. During the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation () and sometimes Operation August Storm, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet Union, Soviet invasion of the Emp ...

in 1945, Runqi was captured by the Soviet army, later being tried before a war criminals court in China. He was released at the age of 45 in 1957, and worked in agricultural before being employed at the Institute of Legal Research in the

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese state research institute and think tank. It is a ministry-level institution under the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The CASS is the highest academic institution and c ...

. In the early 2000s, he ran an

acupuncture Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientif ...

and

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

centre from his home. In 2005, at the age of 93, Runqi, angered and upset at how the media were portraying his late sister, sued, saying "As long as I live, I will not allow irresponsible fabrications and even personal insults about Wanrong's life story! On October 23, 2006, a ritual burial next to the Western Qing Tombs for his half-sister Wanrong was performed at his request. He died on June 6, 2007, at the age of 94 in Beijing, China.

References

{{Authority control 1912 births 2007 deaths Chinese princes People from Manchukuo Members of the 7th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Members of the 6th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Politicians from Beijing

Biography

See also

References