On February 12, 1912, Puyi announced his abdication, officially announcing the demise of Qing Dynasty .
Puyi's father Zaifeng , has 3 sons and 7 daughters, which means that 7 orthodox princesses "left over" the Qing Dynasty.
Where did these princes go? Under the torrent of the times, how did they let go of their past "noble" identities and welcome new life? So what's the ending?
The oldest princess is named Yunniang, born in 1908.
This year, her brother Puyi entered the Forbidden City. Yun Mu became the real princess.
Puyi's queen Wanrong , there is an older brother named Runliang. After Yun's mother became an adult, she was decided by her parents and became Runliang's wife.
Runliang is four years older than Yun Da-chan. The two are of equal status and are of the same age, but after marriage, the two have nothing to say. Yun's mother was depressed and often ran back to her parents' home. Her family felt that it was unconventional and asked her to go home quickly every time, even if she didn't like that home.
The unhappiness of marriage is still tolerated, and what happened later will be deadly.
1925, Yun's mother suddenly had acute appendicitis , and she rolled in bed with pain. Her family suggested sending him to the Western medicine immediately, but her husband Runliang said, "What kind of Western medicine is not reliable, and there is no need to take some pain pills!"
As a result, Yun's mother, who was only 17 years old, was in pain to death.
an orthodox princess of the Qing dynasty, just entered the flower season of life, and before she could bloom, she withered miserably.
It is precisely because of her early death that Yun's story was not known to many people later, but she has been to this world. The second-ranked princess is
, named Yunhe , born in 1911, is the sister of Puyi's father and mother. Compared with his elder sister Yunhe, Yunhe's life is longer and more exciting.
Yunhe has been in and out of the Forbidden City since childhood and has the closest relationship with Puyi. When Yunhe became an adult, Puyi became a mediator and married Zheng Guangyuan, the grandson of Zheng Xiaoxu, the minister of General Affairs of the puppet Manchukuo.
And Puyi did this just to win over Zheng Xiaoxu.
At first, Zheng Guangyuan refused to accept this marriage. He had already been influenced by new culture and new ideas and had a strong resistance to arranged marriages.
But I couldn't resist my parents' orders, so I still compromised.
At the beginning of his marriage, Zheng Guangyuan was very cold to Yunhe, but after spending a while, he unexpectedly fell in love with Yunhe.
Just like that, two young people who were arranged can be considered as getting married first and then falling in love.
1931, Puyi went to the northeast to establish the puppet Manchukuo, and Yunhe and Zheng Guangyuan went all the way. After Puyi's dream was shattered, Yunhe and Zheng Guangyuan also began to live in displaced. In order to return to Beijing, they were hungry all the way, and they could only rely on begging to save their lives during the most difficult time.
Because of this experience, Yunhe also won the title of "Wandering Princess".
After returning to Beijing, Yunhe entered the factory and worked as an ordinary female worker. After working diligently for several years, he used his savings to open a kindergarten.
, and Zheng Guangyuan worked as an engineer at an infrastructure office of China Post .
The first half of his life was displaced, and finally survived with peace of mind in the second half of his life. In her later years, Yunhe looked back on her life and said with infinite emotion: "It seems like a different life!"
For this former princess, it was not a "different life". She was born in the old society and grew up in the new era. She witnessed history with her own eyes and became a part of history.
In 2002, Yunhe died of illness in Beijing at the age of 91. She has a daughter named Zheng Shuang, who is a very famous printmaker. The third princess named
is named Yunying . He was born in 1913 and is also the princess with the same father and mother as Puyi.
Judging from the photos passed down, Yunying has a beautiful face. She is the most beautiful among the seven princesses and is known as the "most beautiful princess".
Yunying, like her sister Yunhe, has a good relationship with Puyi. In November 1924, Puyi was driven out of the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang and went to Tianjin. The 11-year-old Yunying also went there.
1931, Puyi went to the northeast to establish the puppet Manchukuo, and Yunying was still following him.
In August of the second year of Northeast China, Puyi was a matchmaker, and 19-year-old Yunying and Runqi, the younger brother of Puyi Empress Wanrong, got married.
Although it refers to marriage, the two have known each other since childhood and are considered childhood sweethearts. Shortly after the marriage, Puyi arranged for Runqi to study in Japan, and Yunying also went there.
Yunying was originally looking forward to going abroad, but when she really arrived in Japan, she regretted it. Yunying later recalled: "In Japan, she was supervised like a prisoner." So, after returning to China to visit relatives in 1933, she never went to Japan again, and Runqi returned to China in 1938 in order to complete her studies.
In 1945, Japan announced unconditional surrender, Puyi's dream of emperor was completely shattered, and he fled in a hurry. Puyi took Runqi away, but left his female relatives behind.
Without her husband and brother as support, Yunying spent a difficult time in Northeast China with her two sons and a daughter. When she was the poorest, she couldn't eat enough and had no money to buy medicine when she was sick. She really wanted to go back to Beijing, but she knew that she was the family of a war criminal and did not dare to go back.
The days finally endured until 1949 New China was founded . She made up her mind to take the children back to Beijing.
In Beijing, Yunying was initially helped by her father Zaifeng, but not long after, in 1951, her father passed away and lost support.
As the princess of the Qing Dynasty, she said bluntly that she "has not diligent in , and has no distinction between grains". She has no life skills at all. When she had no way to go, she even set up a stall to sell cigarettes.
At that time, people's lives were generally difficult, so she took apart the cigarettes and sold them one by one. But the money earned is very limited.
At this moment, she met a noble man - Zhang Shizhao, director of Central Museum of Literature and History Research, and Zhang Shizhao asked her to write a self-report and hand it over to Chairman Mao.
Yunying wrote more than ten pages, telling in detail the displaced half of her life and her inner changes. After seeing this self-report, Chairman Mao praised: "I entered the people and became an ambitious person." After
, under the care of the organization, Yunying had a stable job and finally had a settlement in her life.
Not long after that, another happy event came, and Yunying's husband finally found it.
It turned out that Runqi was detained in the Soviet prisoner-of-war shelter because he had been Puyi's guard. Five years later, he was escorted back to his country and entered the war criminal management office in Fushun, Liaoning to continue education and transformation.
In 1957, Runqi returned to Beijing, and the couple finally reunited after 12 years of separation.
Whether it was the third princess Yunying or Runqi, they were very low-key in Beijing later and never had the aristocratic nature of descendants of the royal family.
In 1992, Yunying passed away at the age of 79, and her life was quite complete.
The fourth princess is named Yunxian. She was born in 1914. Her biological mother was a slave to Zaifeng. Yunxian was not favored by other brothers and sisters since she was a child, and her relationship was very cold.
1936, Yunxian got married and her husband was Puyi's guard Zhao Qifan.
In 1948, Zhao Qifan fled to Taiwan and has since been facing his wife across the shore.
It was difficult for his wife Yunxian at that time. Her daughter was eight years old and her son was only five years old. They all needed care. She herself also suffered from asthma , and life was too difficult.
Later, under the care of Premier Zhou, he gradually got better.
Zhao Qifan's life in Taiwan was not easy. He missed his family every day but could not meet him. He even couldn't contact his family for many years. He was depressed all day and had rheumatism. During the hospitalization, there was no relative around me, so I could only look out the window alone, and I thought about it in my heart.
Until 1981, things finally turned around. A classmate of Zhao Qifan was studying in Japan and accidentally learned about the address of Yunxian and her son in Beijing. So as an intermediary, he finally let the family, who had been separated for 33 years, know each other's news.
At the end of April 1982, Zhao Qifan, who was already 72 years old, returned to Beijing.
The people who love each other are separated for half their lives and finally stay together in their later years, which is a blessing in disgrace.
In 2003, Yunxian died of illness at the age of 89.
5th princess Yunxin, born in 1917, knew at a very young age that she had an emperor brother named Puyi.
After Yunxin became an adult, she married Wan Jiaxi, the son of Wan Shenghai. After Japan surrendered to , Wan Jiaxi was also imprisoned with Puyi.
Yunxin lives alone with 4 children, and the hardships can be imagined. But she has a lively personality and has always been very positive and optimistic. She first worked as an apprentice in a tailor shop, and then she learned to plan and work as an accountant in a restaurant.
In early 1956, Puyi's seventh uncle Zaitao was already a member of the National People's Congress. Once, Premier Zhou said to Zaitao: "I heard that Puyi has been well transformed, you can go and see him." Then, Zaitao applied to take Yunxin and Yunying to visit Puyi, because their husbands were also detained there.
In March 1956, Zaitao and his group met Puyi, Yunxin's husband Wan Jiaxi and Yunying's husband Runqi.
In 1957, Wan Jiaxi was released and returned to Beijing, and has been engaged in translation work since then.
On December 9, 1959, Puyi was finally released and returned to his hometown of Beijing. It was Yunxin and Wan Jiaxi who greeted him at Beijing station .
Puyi has not yet lived in Yunxin's house for a while because he has no place to live.
At that time, Yunxin lived in an ordinary bungalow at No. 15 Qianjing Hutong, Beijing. Puyi lived there, which made a lot of jokes.
Once, Puyi saw a neighbor cleaning the alley, so he also took a broom to sweep it. However, as he swept, he couldn't find his home. He walked into a door, looked around, and felt that it was not his home, and later the neighbor sent him back.
Puyi helped Yunxin collect water from the faucet in the yard, pour it into the water tank in the house, throw the water scoop directly into it, and sink it to the bottom.
Yunxin looked at it, angry and smiling, but the warmth between the brother and sister came back all of a sudden.
Yunxin and Wan Jiaxi raised four children in total and all of them were admitted to university.
Liu Ge Ge Yunyu, born in 1920, she likes to draw since she was a child. In 1945, through the help of her family, she met a man who also likes to draw, named Wang Ailan.
Wang Ailan's identity is also very special. He is the 27th generation grandson of the emperor of the Jin Dynasty . Judging from the identity of the "noble descendant", the two are quite compatible.
But at that time, Wang Ailan had just returned from studying in Japan and graduated from the famous Waseda University , and studied under many famous Japanese painters. The most important thing is that Wang Ailan has a sweetheart in Japan.
In addition to this reason, Wang Ailan is also worried that Yunyu is a golden branch and has not received new education, so it is difficult for each other to get along with each other.
However, Wang Ailan finally compromised, gave up his Japanese lover, and chose Yunyu.
After marriage, Wang Ailan unexpectedly discovered that Yunyu is very accomplished in painting. The two of them have more and more common topics and their relationship is getting better and better. In addition to being husband and wife, they are also painting friends who have made progress together. It is really the best marriage in this world.
Later, the couple became well-known painters. After the founding of New China, they held art exhibitions many times.
For Yunyu's paintings, even Premier Zhou praised: "You painted very well and has the taste of Ruyi Pavilion."
The last emperor Puyi called them a "couple painter" in "My First Half of Life".
In 1982, Yunyu died. He was the earliest princess who died in addition to the big princess who unfortunately died due to appendicitis. Her son Wang Zhao is now a well-known painter.
7th princess Yunhuan was born in 1921. At that time, the Qing Dynasty had been destroyed for 10 years. Her father Zaifeng was enjoying his "old life" in a low-key manner in the Chunqin Palace.
Yunhuan, who was born at this time, enjoyed enough fatherly love and received a good education since childhood. Yunhuan studied very hard and had excellent grades.
1947, the fourth brother Pu Ren invited Yunhuan to enter the Beijing Jingye Primary School he founded, and Yunhuan began to devote herself to the education cause.
1949, through a friend's introduction, Yunhuan met Qiao Hongzhi, the teacher of Beijing No. 4 Middle School at that time. He was from Shandong and his ancestors were poor peasants for three generations.
The two of them were very good at chatting, but Yunhuan was worried that her father would not agree. After all, none of the sisters in the family married a civilian.
But unexpectedly, my father agreed and supported her choice very much.
In 1950, Yunhuan changed her name to Jin Zhijian , which means "ambition is high, the longer it will become stronger", and she was able to teach in the public Jingzhong Street Primary School. Later, she worked diligently in the education industry until she retired in 1979, and won the title of "Excellent Teacher" many times during this period.
Unfortunately, her husband died in 1960 and was only 41 years old. She walked alone in her life later.
Yunhuan died of illness on August 9, 2004 and was the last princess of the Qing Dynasty to die.
1912, the Qing Dynasty was destroyed, and an era was painted with a rest.
The princes who came from the royal family of the Qing Dynasty have become ordinary people after experiencing changes in the world.
See all the prosperity, but it will be dull.
Nowadays, we can only sigh at the saying "Plain is the truth".
But do you know? In fact, many of the stars we are familiar with today are descendants of the Qing Dynasty royal family.
Guan Xiaotong is called the "Beijing Circle Princess", part of the reason is that Guan Xiaotong's ancestors were the largest surname of Manchu , Guarjia .
and "tough guy" Wu Jing . His Manchu surname is Ulanara , which is the Manchu Zhengbai Banner . Wu Jing once said in person that he was a descendant of Dorgon , and his ancestors had produced several generations of martial arts top scholars.
, and pianist Lang Lang is a descendant of the "Niuhulu" of the Manchu Zhengbai Banner.
Some people disdained the "noble status" of these stars and said, "The dynasties have changed, so why are you talking about aristocratic?" Some people sighed, "No wonder they are so outstanding. They are originally aristocratic blood!"
These seven princesses, some died bizarrely early, some wandered on the streets, and some became teachers and artists.
Every princess' story is like a prism, reflecting the light and darkness of human nature, which is worth savoring.
-END-
Author: Xinhai
Editor: Liuye Taotao
Previous wonderful article recommendations:
