胤禟 Yìntáng

Yuntang

Yuntang was the ninth son of Shengzu. In the forty-seventh year of Kangxi, when the emperor rebuked Yunsi, Yuntang told Yunti to go in and present a memorial to protect him, and the emperor was angry. At that time, whenever the emperor made a tour, he always accompanied him. In the third month of the forty-eighth year he was enfeoffed as a beizi. In the tenth month he was ordered to go to Wengniute to escort the funeral of the Princess Wen'ke of the First Rank. In the fifty-first year he was granted four thousand taels of silver. Edit

In the first year of Yongzheng, Shizong summoned Yunti back to the capital, and on the deliberation of the princes and high officials ordered Yuntang to go out and be stationed at Xining. Yuntang repeatedly asked for delay; the emperor rebuked the eunuchs of his household, and Yuntang proceeded to the army. In the fourth month of the second year, the Imperial Clan Court impeached Yuntang for having, on his own authority, sent men to He Department to buy fodder and survey grazing land, acting unlawfully and at will, and asked that he be stripped of his rank; the emperor ordered leniency. In the third year the emperor heard that Yuntang was indulging the men of his household in making trouble at Xining, and sent the Lieutenant-General Chuzong to restrain them. When Chuzong arrived, Yuntang did not come out to receive him, and when the decree was conveyed to him in rebuke, he said: "All that the emperor blames me for is right; what more have I to say? I am about to leave home and depart from the world!" Chuzong reported this; the emperor considered that Yuntang was arrogant and lacked the propriety of a subject, rebuked him severely in an edict in his own hand, and also drew in Yunsi, Yunti and Yun'e and their private banding together in cliques to support each other. In the seventh month, Shan Wuyatu and others, in [pacifying...], beat licentiates, and asked that they be punished according to the statutes; the people of Shaanxi called Yuntang the Ninth Prince, and for the sake of the emperor [...] the Governor of Xi[...] Yidouli memorialised impeaching Yuntang for shielding [...] what was heard. The emperor in an edict in his own hand denounced him as shameless, and then stripped Yuntang of his rank, abolished the companies that had belonged to him, and confined him at Xining itself. He also recorded Mao Tai, Tongbao and others, who were Yuntang's attendants and held power in his service, and had them withdrawn to the capital and given official posts. Edit

In the first month of the fourth year, the constables of the Nine Gates seized private letters sent to Yuntang by Mao Tai, Tongbao and others and reported them. The emperor saw that the handwriting resembled Western script, and sent someone carrying the letters to question Yuntang's son Hongyang; Hongyang said that they were characters made up by Yuntang. The emperor decreed: "From of old, making up secret language to guard against being noticed has been done only by hostile states. When Yuntang was at Xining, I never forbade him to exchange letters; why should he have gone so far as to invent a separate script, to conceal and pass messages in secret, which cannot be shown for all to see? Yuntang's letters to Hongyang were written with vermilion brush, and Hongyang's replies called his father's words 'edicts'; all this is presumptuous and improper. In the letter Yuntang sent to Yun'e he said that 'the opportunity has been lost', and these words are all the more alarming." He ordered a strict interrogation of Mao Tai, Tongbao and others. The princes and high officials asked that Yuntang's crimes be dealt with, and he ordered that his Yellow Girdle be taken away, his name struck from the clan register, and that he be arrested and brought back to the capital, with Hushili put in charge of escorting him. In the fifth month Yuntang was ordered to change his name; and because the characters he had proposed were crafty and devious, the matter was referred to the princes and high officials, and it was changed to Sai[...] Chuzong and Shisihei. Edit

In the sixth month the princes and high officials again impeached Yuntang with twenty-eight items of crimes, and asked that he be put to death. Hushili escorted Yuntang to Baoding, and the emperor ordered the Governor-General of Zhili, Li Fu, to hold him temporarily and to observe his conduct. Fu said to Hushili that he "should act as expediency required"; Hushili reported this, and the emperor ordered a messenger sent at speed to forbid it, but Fu memorialised that he had said no such thing. In the eighth month, Fu memorialised that Yuntang had died of an abdominal illness in his place of confinement. The emperor heard that Hushili and Chuzong had put Yuntang in fetters on the road and then soon released him, and that Hushili again [...], which gave rise to rumours. Qian[...] recklessly related Fu's words, and the emperor ordered them to be arrested and tried together. Later, when Fu was found guilty, the emperor still reproached Fu for not setting out plainly the circumstances of Yuntang's death [...] Longqing[...]. His original name was restored and he was returned to the clan register. His son Hongzheng was enfeoffed as Duke Who Assists the State, without the Eight Privileges, and was stripped of his rank on account of an offence. Edit