Emperor Yung-cheng's Usurpation: The Question of Yin-t'i 胤禵

-112Emperor Yung-cheng 's Usurpation: The Question of Yin-t'i Robert C. I. King Senior Lecturer Department of East Asian Studies University of Melbourne I. The question of Yin-t'i Emperor K'ang-hsi had 35 sons. The name of the 14th son is given as YUn-t'i %¿ :£?|_ in the 'Table of Princes' and 'Biographies of Princes' in the Ch'ing-shih kao. We know of course that the word pfj was altered fromJSLj as an avoidance of Emperor Yung-cheng's name Yin-chenjafj^a.. Generational ranking of princes began in Ch'ing times with the sons of Emperor K'ang-hsi. All their names begin with Ja(_j , and the second character invariably has the %\ radical. But for the rule of avoidance, the 14th son's name would have read JJUjiU ' Practically all records and studies of the Ch'ing, where the 14th son is mentioned, give his name as ?_?.$(? or JjjL *|I ' as for example Wang Hsien-ch' ienJJ.^'^ comp. , Tung-hua luà^J^, Ch'ing-shih lieh-chuan^^ 3'U^» and Arthur W. Hummel, ed. , Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. In fact, the 14th son of Emperor K'ang-hsi was not called^jlHjili, at least not before the emperor's death on 20 December, 1722. The namejg(_i/^l suddenly appeared shortly after the emperor's death. At the time, the 14th son, whom the emperor had appointed in his late years as commander-inchief of the Manchu troops against the Eleuth Mongols, was aged 35. In fact, the name was a fabrication by Emperor Yung-cheng -113who wielded the unlimited power of the throne in altering his 14th brother's real name in any kind of record. We shall examine Emperor Yung-cheng' s motive shortly, but what was the true name of Emperor K'ang-hsi' s 14th son? His true name was Yin-chen^L>^ê . This fact was pointed out by a few individuals in the past, but it has not been generally accepted owing to insufficient evidence. I have been able to gather the following evidence which proves beyond doubt thatjl^^was the real name of Emperor K'ang-hsi's 14th son, and thatjt|_,^|l was a fabrication. 1. Past accounts which give^L,?! as the real name of)|L·^^ · (a)Wu Ch'ang-ShOU1JL ^.^, Ch'ing ti-hsi, hou-fei, huang-tzu, huang-nü, ssu-k'ao 7^^ %., j^Lj ,%^ ,%h^% (1917), Part 3, p. 17. (b)Chang Erh-t' ien2^^^ , Ch'ing lieh-ch'ao hou-fei chuan kao>jjfo.| & fcj,?,jjfofj (1929) , Vol. 1, p.90. (c)Wang Chung-han JJ.j^?.^ , 'Ch'ing Shih-tsung tuo-ti k'ao-shih^-^;^4^##, Yenching Hsueh-pao, No. 36 (1949) , pp. 205-261. All three above writers state that the real name of 5JjLi(I^ was JÌL\? · Whereas Wu Ch'ang-shou gives no source for his assertion, both Chang Erh-t'ien and Wang Chung-han source it to Hung Wang ^A ¿31 , Huang-Ch'ing t'ung-chih kang-yao -5-> ^R -ÌBLiila^l-sC · * have not had the opportunity to see this book. It is not clear whether the version used by Chang and that consulted by Wang over thirty years later were different editions or hand-copied versions. However, I have been able -114to establish the identity of the author, which makes his book one of great interest. His full name is in fact Aisin-Gioro Hung Wang^^ifi^^. ?Atl£ · The character ^A in his name signifies that he belonged to the generation immediately following those with the character M|l_] . The second character in the name of that generation invariably uses the Q radical. (An example is Emperor Ch' ien-lung' s name Hung-li ¿2* j& .) Hung Wang was the only son of the 8th son of Emperor K'ang-hsi, Yin-ssuJ|[_j^£-. Yin-ssu was younger than Emperor Yung-cheng by three years and abler than most of his brothers. Closest to him were his older brother Yin-shih^gL,^_ , 9th brother Yin-t'angJjJL,^ , 10th brother Yin-e)^^, and 14th brother Yin-chen. He had been recommended by high military and civil...