In the past hit TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan", it was revealed that Hongyi was actually the illegitimate son of Zhen Huan and Yongzheng's seventeenth brother, Prince Guo Yinli (renamed Yunli after Yongzheng succeeded to the throne).
Later, Zhen Huan passed Hongyi to Yinli and became his heir. So, is the historical Hongyi really Yinli's illegitimate son?
Hongyi, Yongzheng's heir in his later years, is not Yinli's biological son, and his father-son relationship with Yinli is purely coincidental. Why is this happening? It turned out that this was related to Hongyi's elder brother Qianlong.
Historically, Hongyi is the youngest son of Yongzheng, and his biological mother Concubine Liu was born in the Han Eight Banners, with a low family status, 32 years younger than Yongzheng, and even 3 years younger than Qianlong.
In the eleventh year of Yongzheng (1733), the 55-year-old Yongzheng ushered in the last son in his life, the sixth son of the emperor, Hongyi, who was born to 19-year-old Liu Guiren.
This made Yongzheng very happy, and he made Liu Guiren a concubine. Yongzheng had ten sons in his life, but only six of them were prefaced, and only four of them really grew up: the third son of the emperor Hongshi, the fourth son of the emperor Qianlong, the fifth son of the emperor Hongday and the youngest sixth son of the emperor Hongyi.
Although Hongshi was the oldest, he lost his qualification to inherit the throne due to his incompatibility with Yongzheng's personality. Later, he angered his father by interceding for Yongzheng's political opponent younger brother Yinxi, was expelled from the clan and succeeded to Yinxi as his son, was imprisoned, and finally died of depression.
Therefore, Yongzheng only had three sons in the end, among which Qianlong and Hongday were the same age, but Qianlong's birthday was a few months older than Hongday, so he was the elder brother. And Hongyi is 22 years younger than the two elder brothers, and Hongyi was only 3 years old when Yongzheng died, so Qianlong and Hongday love him very much, especially Qianlong, as the eldest brother, and loves him as his own son.
Emperor Qianlong doted on his two younger brothers, Hongli and Hongyi, although Hongday's behavior was absurd, and even beat the minister of military aircraft in front of Qianlong, Qianlong tolerated him.
These two younger brothers did not pose a threat to Qianlong's throne, so Qianlong doted on them and often gave them pocket money. In order to meet Hongday's needs, Qianlong even changed the Lama Temple into a lama temple and gave him all his gold and silver treasures.
Since the Lama Palace has the wealth accumulated by Kangxi's four sons, this wealth can allow Hongday and his descendants to live a prosperous life for generations.
Qianlong had long been aware of the wealth of Hongyi and his descendants, but he also understood that the future of his youngest brother, Hongyi, also needed to be planned. So, he has been waiting for an opportunity until Yinli, the seventeenth brother of Prince Yongzheng, is seriously ill and is about to die.
Yinli is not an ordinary prince, although Yongzheng treats his younger brothers very harshly, Yinli is an exception. He is one of the three younger brothers that Yongzheng really loves, trusts and reuses, the other two are the thirteenth brother Prince Yi Yinxiang and the sixteenth brother Prince Zhuang Yinlu.
In the Yongzheng period, Yinli was deeply loved and respected, and his political status was second only to Yinxiang. Whenever Yongzheng gives Yinxiang a reward, he will also reward Yinli in the same way.
Before his death, Yongzheng entrusted the young Qianlong to Yinli, who was very enterprising and responsible, despite his poor physical condition. Yinli is fully engaged in work, and often forgets to take care of his body.
Before his death, Yongzheng solemnly told Qianlong to treat him well. Subsequently, Yinli, Yinlu, Zhang Tingyu and Ortai accepted Yongzheng's deathbed and became the four ministers of prime ministership in the early Qianlong period.
After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he followed his father's will and attached great importance to Yinli. He granted Yinli the exemption from kneeling before the emperor and the throne before the emperor, as well as the treatment of the two kings. In addition, Yinli often received rich rewards in the Yongzheng Dynasty, and his family property was very rich, far exceeding the wealth of ordinary princes.
Yinli's character is well recognized, and his wife, Niu Colu, is the daughter of his mentor Ah Ling'a, and the relationship between the two is very deep. However, although they did not have children, Yinli never had the idea of taking a concubine, which was very rare among the Qing Dynasty princes at that time.
Later, with the encouragement of Niu Colu and Yongzheng, Yinli accepted a concubine, Meng. Although Meng gave birth to a son and a daughter for Yinli, unfortunately, both children died one after another, so Yinli has no heirs.
In the third year of Qianlong, Yinli was seriously ill, and Qianlong visited him many times, and at this time he began to fight the idea of Yinli's family property. Because he found that Yinli had no children and no daughters, and his family property was rich, if he could give these wealth to his younger brother Hongyi, it would undoubtedly be a good opportunity for him.
This is also Qianlong's shrewdness.
Although Qianlong was very fond of his two younger brothers and showed his side of helping his younger brothers, he was actually very shrewd. The princes of the Qing Dynasty needed to pay out of their own pockets to govern affairs.
The wealth that Qianlong rewarded Hongli was actually the property of the three people confiscated by Yongzheng that year, which did not cost him much money, so he was not stingy. Hongyi should also not spend his own money, and he can bring a lifetime of wealth to his younger brother, and Yinli has no heirs, which is equivalent to giving Hongyi's family property for nothing.
Otherwise, when Hongyi grows up, he will divide the government and govern affairs, and Qianlong will have to pay the money himself. Therefore, Qianlong wanted Hongyi to pass on to Yinli as his son, so that Hongyi could be rich for life.
Therefore, during the visit to Yinli, Qianlong proposed that his younger brother Hongyi should pass on to Yinli as his heir, so that the incense of Prince Guo would not be broken. Since the eldest nephew Qianlong has spoken, Yinli is also an open-minded and transparent person, so he agreed to Qianlong's proposal to let Hongyi succeed.
Soon after, Yinli died. Under the instruction of Qianlong, Yinlu, who was in charge of the Zongren Mansion, handled the matter of Hongyi's succession to Yinli. Qianlong also deliberately asked Hongyi and his eldest son Yonghuang to wear linen and filial piety for Yinli and play the role of filial sons and grandsons.
After Yinli was buried, Hongyi, who was only 6 years old, inherited the title of Prince Guo and became Yinli's nominal son.
Because of Qianlong's doting, Hongyi grew into a talent, but his moral character was insufficient. Hongyi received many erudite Confucian education since he was a child, among which Shen Deqian was one of his teachers, and he learned a lot of talents from Shen Deqian.
Despite this, Hongyi did not inherit Shen Deqian's character. He received a good education since he was a child, and when he grew up, he had a high reputation in literature and poetry, so he had a high reputation in the literary and poetry circles at that time.
Hongyi also likes to collect books very much, he specially built a self-garden to collect ancient books, and he also has Qianlong's collection habits, like to stamp on the collection.
According to statistics, Hongyi has stamped at least six kinds of seals in the collection, such as "Prince Guo's Decree", "Prince Guo's Mansion Reader", "Zide Jushi" and so on.
Hongyi was well-known in the literary world, loved to collect books, and was generally regarded as a literati. However, historical records show that he lacked manners and often made mistakes when he was a child, but the Qianlong Emperor never held him accountable for his faults, but only punished the attendants around him, believing that they did not educate him well.
This spoiling attitude is similar to the situation where some parents blame their children for their mistakes and do not admit that their children have problems. In such doting and self-absorption, Hongyi gradually formed an arrogant and impetuous character.
Although he achieved at a young age what many people could not achieve for years, it is easy to lose himself without proper guidance and restraint.
Eventually, he became a talented and virtuous man.
Hongyi is not only arrogant and impetuous, but also very stingy and mean. In the Qing Dynasty, the princes of the general palace would not personally inquire about the monthly expenditure accounts of the palace, and they might only check the accounts for a year or even a few years, because the princes of the Qing Dynasty had a very high income and were usually used to spending lavishly, so they were too lazy to pay attention to these accounts.
However, in Hongyi's Prince Guo's mansion, this phenomenon has never happened, because he will carefully check the accounts every month, so that his palace will not have the phenomenon of housekeepers greedy for ink.
Although thrift is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, being too frugal often makes people feel stingy. Hongyi seems to be very obsessed with money since he was a child, he inherited the title of Prince Yinliguo, this wealth is a wealth that he can't spend in his life, but he always seems to be afraid that his money will be spent, so he is usually extremely stingy and reluctant to spend money.
However, no matter how he evaluates it, Hongyi is a very frugal person, he uses nice words to say that he lives simply, and in bad words he is to slam the door.
Hongyi's mother, Concubine Qian, was named the Imperial Examination Concubine after Qianlong succeeded to the throne, although her case money was more than the original, but it was insignificant compared to Hongyi's prince Yulu.
However, Hongyi has always adhered to the principle of "even if the fly is small, it is meat", and did his best to scavenge for wealth. Every month, under the pretext of visiting his mother, he would enter the palace on time and take half of his mother's income.
This kind of person who even squeezes his mother's pension money will use all kinds of means to accumulate wealth. He even took advantage of Qianlong's doting on him to wantonly accumulate wealth, lend usury, and bully people's property.
In the end, he also wants to meddle in politics, accept bribes, and buy and sell officials. Once, he accepted bribes from others to ask Aligon to do something, but was sternly rejected by Aligon, and reported the matter to Qianlong.
Qianlong was very fond of Hongyi on weekdays, but now Hongyu dared to meddle in the transfer and personnel appointment and dismissal, and even wanted to buy and sell officials, which shocked Qianlong and immediately severely punished him, demoted his title of Prince Guo to Baylor, and fined him 20,000 taels of silver.
This is undoubtedly a huge loss for the thrifty Hongyi. Since this incident, Hongyi has been very dissatisfied with Qianlong and rarely enters the palace to ask for peace. However, Qianlong's biological mother, the Empress Dowager Chongqing, was very fond of Hongyi, and in order to prepare a valuable gift for his mother, Concubine Qian, for her fiftieth birthday, the Empress Dowager Chongqing decided to recall Hongyi.
Hongyi was reluctant to spend money for his mother's birthday, so he cried poverty to the Empress Dowager Chongqing, saying that he was fined by Qianlong, and the whole government was short of money and could not buy a birthday gift for his mother.
He also emphasized that his mother, Concubine Qian, was Qianlong's concubine, and if he bought congratulatory gifts for his mother, he would compete with the emperor for wealth. Therefore, he decided not to buy congratulatory gifts and birthdays. Empress Dowager Chongqing couldn't change his decision, so she could only go with the flow.
Qianlong was dissatisfied with this and decided to snub Hongyu and Concubine Qian's mother and son. Hongyi waited for Qianlong to celebrate Qianlong's birthday on Concubine Qian's birthday, so as to loot Qianlong's gold and silver treasures. However, Qianlong did not go to celebrate his birthday, and Hongyi failed to get the treasure, so he went to Qianlong and mocked Qianlong in person for not being filial to his mother.
Qianlong replied to him, sarcastically saying that even though his family had a lot of money, he was still greedy for his mother's property.
Originally, Hongyi should be the emperor's favorite son, but a fire in the Qingyan Hall in Kyushu in the Old Summer Palace made Qianlong very disappointed in him. At the time of the incident, Qianlong was resting in the Qingyan Hall in Kyushu, and the closest to him was Hongyi.
However, Hongyi did not rush to the scene as soon as possible, but Yongqi, who was the farthest away from Qianlong, rushed into the palace and carried Qianlong out as soon as possible. At this time, Hongyi was still laughing and playing with others, without the slightest concern and greetings for Qianlong.
This incident made Qianlong very cold, and he no longer favored Hongyi. Later, when Hongyi asked the Empress Dowager Chongqing to say goodbye, he inadvertently sat in Qianlong's position, which made Qianlong angry again, he not only fined Hongyu 10,000 taels**, but also dismissed him from all his positions, and let him go home and think about it behind closed doors.
This is undoubtedly a major blow to Hongyi. As a result, his salary was reduced by a large amount, and his career was overshadowed.
Hongyi died of serious illness at the age of 33 under Qianlong's severe punishment. Qianlong was deeply remorseful of his brother's death, personally wrote an inscription for him, and posthumously named him "Gong".
In order to comfort Hongyi's spirit in the sky, Qianlong returned all fines to Hongyi and promoted his title to the rank of county king. However, everything is irreparable, and Hongyi has passed away.
After Hongyi's death, Qianlong wrote many poems to commemorate him to express his deep thoughts and nostalgia for his younger brother.
The relationship between Hongyi and Yinli is that of father and son, but Hongyi inherited the title of Prince Guo in his early years because of the doting of his brother Qianlong. However, this doting became the misfortune of Hongyi, and although his ending was better in the emperor's house, his untimely death was self-inflicted.
All this stems from Qianlong's doting.