Yuyan (17 May 1918 – 18 January 1999),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Yanrui, nickname Xiaoruizi, was a Chinese calligrapher of

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...

descent. He was a member of the

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 ...

clan, the imperial clan 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 ...

. He claimed that he was appointed by

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 Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" () was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the " Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine mandat ...

, as the heir to the throne. His claim is the subject of the travel adventure book ''The Empty Throne'' by British journalist

Tony Scotland Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony the Tiger, cartoon mascot for Frosted Flakes cereal * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * M ...

Early life

Born in

Wangfujing Wangfujing Street ( zh, s=王府井大街, p=Wángfǔjǐng Dàjiē) is a shopping street in Beijing, China, located in Dongcheng District. The majority of the main area is pedestrianised. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty there have been ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, Yuyan was the second son of Pucheng (溥偁) and Jinggui (敬貴), a lady of the Fuca (富察) clan. His grandfather was Zailian (載濂; 1854–1917), a son of

Yicong Yicong (23 July 1831 – 18 February 1889), formally known as Prince Dun (or Prince Tun), was a Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty. Life Yicong was born in the Aisin Gioro clan as the fifth son of the Daoguang Emperor. His mother was Consort ...

(1831–1889), the fifth son of the

Daoguang Emperor The Daoguang Emperor (16 September 1782 – 26 February 1850), also known by his temple name Emperor Xuanzong of Qing, personal name Mianning, was the seventh List of emperors of the Qing dynasty, emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the sixth Qing e ...

. He was a distant cousin of

, the Last Emperor. In 1936, Yuyan was summoned by Puyi, who had been enthroned as the ruler of the puppet state

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 ...

in 1934 by the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

, to join his imperial court in

Changchun Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin, Jilin Province, China, on the Songliao Plain. Changchun is administered as a , comprising seven districts, one county and three county-level cities. At the 2020 census of China, Changchun ha ...

Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...

. Yuyan was very close to Puyi, who called him "Xiaoruizi" (小瑞子; or "Little Rui").

Life in the People's Republic of China

After the fall of Manchukuo, Yuyan was arrested by the Soviets and imprisoned from 1945 to 1950 near

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's Far East Region along with Puyi. He was later sent back to China, where he was incarcerated in the

Fushun War Criminals Management Centre Fushun War Criminals Management Centre ( zh, s= , t=撫順戰犯管理所 , p=Fǔshùn Zhànfàn Guǎnlǐ Suǒ , first=t), also known as Liaodong No. 3 Prison or Liaoning No. 3 Prison, was the site of the re-education of Manchukuo, Kuomintang a ...

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

from 1950 to 1957. Yuyan was a

pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimat ...

to the Chinese throne. He claimed that Puyi appointed him as heir when they were both imprisoned in the Soviet Union in 1950. In his autobiography, Puyi wrote only that he considered selecting Yuyan as his heir. Under a succession law adopted in 1937, Puyi's younger brother,

Pujie Pujie (; 16 April 1907 – 28 February 1994) was a Qing dynasty imperial prince of the Aisin-Gioro. Pujie was the younger brother of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, Pujie went to Japan, where he was educated ...

, became next in line in succession to the throne. Following his release from Fushun, Yuyan worked as a Chinese language teacher, and later in a haberdashery factory. He was arrested in 1959 and sent for hard labour at a public security detention centre near

. Yuyan was arrested again in 1966 during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

and sent to do hard labour in

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

. He was only released in 1979 and allowed to return to Beijing, where he became a road sweeper.

After release from prison

Yuyan was a calligrapher and poet. In 1987, he was appointed as a state consultant on the restoration of the

Prince Gong Mansion Prince Gong's Mansion, also known as the Prince Kung Mansion, is a museum and tourist attraction located in Xicheng District, Beijing, just north of the Shichahai Lake. It consists of large siheyuan-style mansions and gardens. Originally c ...

. Yuyan is the main character in the book ''The Empty Throne: The Quest for an Imperial Heir in the People's Republic of China'' (1993) by the British journalist

. Scotland was searching for an heir to the imperial throne of China.

Family

* Elder sister: Yujuying (毓菊英), married Chen Yingsan (陳英三), son of Chen Zengshou (陳曾壽). * Spouses: ** Magiya Jinglan (馬佳靜蘭), of Manchu descent, married Yuyan in 1943. ** Zhang Yunfang (張雲訪), married Yuyan after Magiya Jinglan died in 1948 in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

. * Children: ** Hengzhen (恆鎮; 1944 – 27 August 2023 ), eldest son, born to Magiya Jinglan, married Tu Yanling (塗艷玲). ** Hengkai (恆鎧; b. 1945), second son, born to Magiya Jinglan, married Liu Xiujuan (劉秀娟). ** Hengjun (恆鈞; b. 1966), third son, born to Zhang Yunfang, married Fan Qin (范秦; b. 1971). * Grandchildren: ** Hengxing (恆星; b. 1977), name also spelled as Hengxing (恆鍟), Hengzhen and Tu Yanling's son. ** Jin Yinghui (金英輝; b. 1980), also named Qiqi (啟琪), Hengkai and Liu Xiujuan's son. ** Jin Qitong (金啟桐; b. 29 October 1996), Hengjun and Fan Qin's daughter.

Ancestry

References

Succession

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuyan 1918 births 1997 deaths Chinese collaborators with Imperial Japan Qing dynasty imperial princes Manchu people Aisin Gioro Pretenders to the Chinese throne People from Manchukuo