CHINA
(& MANCHURIA)
The Manchu Dynasty
(Ta Ch'ing Ch'ao )
1908 - [1967] H.I.M. Emperor Hsüan-t‘ung [K‘ang Teh], the Great Illustrious Emperor of the Great Ch‘ing Dynasty, Son of Heaven, Lord of Myriad Years, etc. b. at the Pei Mansion, Shichahai, Peking, 7th February1906, eldest son of H.I.H. Prince Tsai-fêng, 2nd Prince Ch‘un, GCVO, by his first wife, H.I.H. Princess Consort Kua Erh Chia Shih, educ. privately. Selected by the Grand Empress Dowagar as the adopted son of the deceased Emperors Tung Chih and Kuang Hsu, 13th November 1908. Enthonred in the Hall of Supreme Harmony within the Forbidden City, Peking, 2nd December 1908. Deposed from temporal power after the Dowager Empress Lung Yu signed the instrument of abdication on his behalf, 12th February 1912. Granted the right to retain his Imperial titles, household, and honours in perpetuity by the Articles of Favourable Treatment. Briefly restored by General Chang Hsun 1st July, but was forced to abdicate again 12th July 1917. Expelled from the Forbidden City and illegally deprived of his styles and titles by General Feng Yu-hsiang, 5th November 1924. Appointed as Head of State of Manchuria, with the title of Chih-cheng, 28th February 1932. Installed at Hsinking, Manchuria, 9th March 1932. Proclaimed as Emperor of Manchutikuo under the reign name of K'ang Teh, 20th January 1934 and Enthroned at the Hall of Ceremony at Hsinking on 1st March 1934. Issued an Imperial rescript renouncing the throne at Tunghua on 12th August 1945. Captured by the Russiens 18th August 1945 and imprisoned at Khabarovsk 1945-1950. Delivered to the Chinese Communists 1st August 1950 and imprisoned by them at Fushun Detention Centre at Harbin in Manchuria 1950-1959, eventually pardoned by the People's Congress and released from prison, 4th December 1959. Employed at the Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences in Peking 1960, Research Assist Historical Research Cttee at the Institute of Literature and History in Peking 1961, Mbr National Cttee of the Advisory Political Conference of the Chinese People 1962, Mbr National People’s Congress 1964-1967. Sovereign of the Imperial Orders of the Double Dragon. Founded the Most Precious Order of the Imperial Throne on 20th March 1911, and the Orders of the Orchid, the Ray of the Dragon, and the Prospitious Clouds in 1934 and the Pillars of the State in 1936. Rcvd: the Collar of the Order of the Annunziata of Italy, GC of the Orders of the Chrysanthemum (6.6.1934), and the Rising Sun with Pawlownia flowers of Japan (1924), SS Maurice & Lazarus of Italy, and Carol I of Rumania with collar (28.2.1941). m. (first) at the Forbidden City, Peking, 30th November 1922 (div. 23rd October 1931), Wen-hsiu [Wenxiu] (b. 20th December 1909; m. 1947, Major Liu Zhendong, and d.s.p. 17th September 1950), raised to the rank of a Shu Fei 11th March 1922 (rescinded 1931), became a teacher after her divorce, daughter of Tuan-kung [Duangong], Expectant District Magistrate, of the Ordet [E-erh Tet’e] clan, and the Bordered Yellow Banner. m. (second) at the K‘un Ning Palace, Forbidden City, Peking, 1st December 1922, H.I.M. Empress [Chih-lien] Hsiao Hung-ch’iu [Kuo-chia] [Mu-hung] (b. in Longjiang, 13th November 1906; d.s.p. an invalid at a farm house in the Ch‘ang-pai Shan Mountains, near T‘umen, on the Korean border, 20th June 1946), née Wan Jung [Wanrong], raised to the rank of Empress with the title of Hsiao Hung-ch’iu Huang Hou, 11th March 1922, rcvd: GC of the Orders of the Orchid (19.4.1934), and Precious Crown of Japan (6.6.1934), imprisoned in Changchun, Kilin and Yenchi 1945-1946, daughter of General H.E. Prince (Kung) Jung Yüan (=Rongyuan), of the Manchu White Banner Corps and the Kokol clan, sometime Minister of the Presence, by his first wife, Si Ke Ke (=Fourth Princess), daughter of (Chen Kuo Chiang Chün) Yü-Ch’ang. m. (third) at Hsinking, 6th April 1937, Ming-hsien Huang Kuei Fei (b. 1921; d.s.p. at Hsinking, 13th August 1942), née Tan Yü-ling, raised to the title of Ch‘ing Kuei Jên 6th April 1937, prom to Hsiang Kuei Jên, and to Ming-hsien Huang Kuei Fei, a lady of the Tatara (T‘an) clan. m. (fourth) at Hsinking, 1943 (div. at Peking, May 1957), Fu Kuei-jen [Li Yü-ch‘in] (b. at Ch‘ang-ch‘un, Manchuria, 15th July 1928; m. second Huang Yu-geng, television engineer, and d. from cirrhosis of the liver, at Ch‘ang-ch‘un, Manchuria, 24th April 2001, leaving two sons by her second husband), educ. Nanling Girls’ Acad, Hsinking, Manchuria, prom to the rank of Kuei-jen 1944, imprisoned by the Soviet forces at Ch‘ang-ch‘un 1945-1946, later worked as a textile worker and in a local library, a Manchu lady from peasant stock. m. (fifth) at Peking, 23rd April 1962, Li Shu-hsien [Li Shuxian] (b. at Hangchow, 1923; d.s.p. from lung cancer, at Peking, 9th June 1997), a former nurse. He d.s.p. from nephritic cancer and uraemia at the Capital Hospital, Peking (or died from his wounds after being mutilated uring the Cultural Revolution), 17th October 1967 (bur. Eight Treasure Mountain Cemetery, Peking 1967 then in the Hall of Revolutionary Heroes 1979, and reburied among the tombs of Ching dynasty Emperors in Hebei province, 5th April 1995).
[1967 - 1994] H.I.H. Prince P‘u-chieh, 3rd Prince Ch‘un (Ch‘un Ho Shê Ch‘in Wang), Head of the Imperial Ch‘ing Dynasty. b. at the Pei Mansion, Shichahai, Peking, 27th May 1907, second son of H.I.H. Prince Tsai-fêng, 2nd Prince Ch‘un, by his first wife, H.I.H. Princess Consort Kua Erh Chia Shih, educ. Imperial Palace Sch, Forbidden City, Peking, Yew Wah Sch, Tientsin, Gakushuin Peers’ Sch, Officers’ Cadet Sch, Imperial Military Acad, Tokyo, the Infantry Sch, Chiba, Anagawa, and the Imperial War Coll, Tokyo, Japan. Cadet Officer attached 59th Infantry Regt Imperial Japanese Army July 1935, cmsnd as Lieut of Infantry Imperial Guard (Manchura) October 1935, Personal ADC to the Emperor of Manchuria 1935-1945, prom Capt of Infantry 1937, attached Imperial Guards Infantry Regt (Manchura) 1937-1939, Military Attaché Tokyo 1939-1940, Instructor Infantry Officers’ Military Sch Manchuria 1940-1943, attented Japanese Imperial War Coll, Tokyo 1943-1944, prom Lt-Col 1944, Cdt Imperial Guards Cavalry Regt (Manchura) 1944-1945. Granted the title of a prince of the second rank (To Lo Chün Wang), together with the style of His Imperial Highness, 30th November 1922. Appointed as Heir Apparent to the throne of Manchuria, by his brother, 1st March 1937. Captured by the Russians at Mukden airport while attempting to flee to Japan 18th August 1945, imprisoned at Khabarovsk 1945-1950. Delivered to the Chinese Communists 1st August 1950 and imprisoned by them alongside his elder brother at Fushun Detention Centre at Harbin in Manchuria 1950-1961. Succeeded on the death of his father as 3rd Prince Ch‘un (Ch‘un Ho Shê Ch‘in Wang), 30th March 1951. Succeeded his brother as Head of the Imperial House of Ch‘ing and as Sovereign of the Imperial Orders of the Double Dragon, and the Imperial Throne of China, and the Orders of the Orchid, the Ray of the Dragon, the Prospitious Clouds, and the Pillars of the State of Manchuria, 17th October 1967. Delegate for Shanghai to the National People's Conference 1978 and later for Liaoning, Mbr Standing Cttee National People’s Congress 1980 & 1983, Vice-Chair Nationalities Affairs Cmsn of National People’s Congress 1983. Deputy Presdt China-Japan Friendship Assoc 1985-1994. Hon Dir Welfare Fund for th Handicapped 1986-1994. Poet and calligrapher. Hon LLD Ritsumeikan Univ, Kyoto, Japan (1991). m. (first) at the Forbidden City, Peking, December 1922, (div. 1935), Tang Shih Hsia (=Don Shixia) (b. at Hanlin, 1904; d. at Hong Kong, after 1985), poet, painter and calligrapher under the nom de plume “Yi-yang”, settled in Hong Kong 1945, teacher of Mandarin at the Tang Chi Ngong Sch of Oriental Languages at the Univ of Hong Kong 1949-1964, a niece of Tuan-k’ang Huang Kuei T‘ai Fei, her father was sometime Minister in Tibet and from the Tatara (T‘an) clan, and mother from the Imperial clan. m. (second), at the temple of Jesukuni, Kudan, 3rd April 1937, H.I.H. Princess Hiro (b. in Japan, 16th March 1914; d. from kidney failure at Peking, 20th June 1987, bur. Aishin Kakura Shrine, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan), educ. Gakushuin Peeress’ Sch, Tokyo, Japan, imprisoned in Changchun, Kilin and Yenchi 1945, escaped to Japan with other Japanese refugees in 1947, returned to Peking in 1961 and received the protection of Premier Chou En Lai, eldest daughter of Sanetô, 2nd Marquess Saga, of the Sanjo northern house of the Fujiwara clan, by his wife, Hisako, daughter of Yoshiuemon Hamaguchi, from Wakayama prefecture, in Southern Japan. He d. from complications due to pneumonia and an enlarged thyroid, at the Union Hospital, Peking, 28th February 1994 (crem. there, his ashes bur. both at Babaoshan Cemetery for Revolutionary Heroes, Peking, China, and at the Aishin Kakura Shrine, Saga Family Cemetery, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan), having had issue, two daughters:
- 1) H.H. Princess (Chün Chu Kung Chu) Sheng-hui. b. at Hsingking, Manchuria, 26th February 1938, educ. Gakushuin Elementary, Women’s Secondary and Girls’ Schs, and Gakushuin Women’s Univ, Tokyo. She was k. (murdered) at Izu Island, near Tokyo, 10th December 1957 (bur. Aishin Kakura Shrine, Shimonoseki, Japan).
- 2) H.H. Princess (Chün Chu Kung Chu) Sheng-yun [Mrs Kosei Fukunaga]. b. at Tokyo, Japan, 13th March 1940, educ. privately, at Gakushuin Elementary, Women’s Secondary and Girls’ Schs, and Gakushuin Women’s Junior Coll, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Settled in Hyogo, Nishinomiya, Japan. m. at Tokyo, Japan, May 1968, Kenji Fukunaga, educ. Keio Univ, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, employed in the motor car industry, a nephew of Shozo Fukunaga, husband of her maternal aunt, Yasuko Saga, sometime Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Mother. She had issue, five children.Copyright© Christopher Buyers