Yunhe (princess)

Yunhe (1911–2002), better known as Jin Yunying, was a Chinese princess of the Qing dynasty.

Aisin Gioro Yunhe
Born	Aisin Gioro Yunhe 1911 (1911) Forbidden City, Shuntian Prefecture, Republic of China
Died	2002 (aged 90–91) People's Republic of China
Spouse	Runqi
Names Jin Yunhe
House	Aisin Gioro (by birth)
Father	Zaifeng, Prince Chun of the First Rank
Mother	Youlan

Life

Early life

Yunhe was born in the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan in 1911 as the second daughter of Prince Chun and Princess Consort Youlan. She was also a full sister of Puyi (the Xuantong Emperor) the last Emperor of China. She had three other full siblings (one brother and two sisters) and six half siblings (two brothers and four sisters).

She was referred to as "Second Princess" in her childhood. In November 1924, the warlord Feng Yuxiang took control of Beijing and forced the former imperialy family out of the Forbidden City. They moved to Tianjin's Heping District. In Tianjin, Yunhe and her siblings learned the Japanese language and played tennis.

Life in Manchuria

Jin Yunying with Yunhe.

In 1931, Puyi was installed as emperor of Manchukuo, a puppet state established by the Empire of Japan in northeastern China. On 9 March 1932, Yunhe attended the inuguration ceremony of Puyi as ruler of Manchukuo.

In 1931, Yunhe was engaged to Guangyuan, grandson of Zheng Xiaoxu. Yunhe and Guangyuan were married in Xinjing (present-day Changchun, Jilin), the capital of Manchukuo, on 18 April 1932. The couple had three daughters and one son.

After the wedding, she accompanied her husband on his studies in Britain, where they lived until 1934. Upon their return to Manchukuo in May 1934, the settled in the Western Garden in the Imperial Palace in Changchun. She accompanied her husband during his studies in Japan in 1937-1938. It is noted that Yunhe instructed her future sister-in-law Li Yuqin in court etiquette, when Li Yuqin was appointed Imperial concubine in 1943.

Later life

At the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Soviet forces invaded and occupied northeastern China. Yunying and her family were evacuated by train from Xinjing to Dalizigou (in present-day Linjiang, Jilin); there, Puyi left his wife, his concubine, his sister-in-law and his nieces, and selected his three full siblings (his broter Pujie and his sisters Yunhe and Yunying), his physician and a servant to accmpany him further. They took a plane to Mukden (present-day Shenyang, Liaoning), where Puyi and his brother was arrested and taken to a prison camp in Siberia. The sisters of Puyi was not arrested. They moved with their children with her to Tonghua and where both eventually able to return to Beijing.

Yunhe managed to return to Beijing in 1948. In 1949, Chinese Communist forces occupied Beijing. In 1951, after her father's death, she inherited part of his properties. Her husband worked as an engineer at the post office while she managed a day care and worked at a factory. She retired in 1970. At the end of her life, she contributed with a writer to write her autobiography.

Yunying died in China, in 2002.

Ancestry

Jiaqing Emperor (1760–1820)

Daoguang Emperor (1782–1850)

Empress Xiaoshurui (1760–1797)

Yixuan (1840–1891)

Lingshou (1788–1824)

Imperial Noble Consort Zhuangshun (1822–1866)

Lady Weng

Zaifeng (1883–1951)

Deqing

Cuiyan (1866–1925)

Yunhe (1911–2002)

Tasiha

Changshou (d. 1852)

Ronglu (1836–1903)

Lady Uja

Youlan (1884–1921)

Linggui (1815–1885)

Lady Aisin Gioro

Lady Sun

Sources

• Puyi (Swedish): Jag var kejsare av Kina (I was the emperor of China) (1988)
• Life after the Last Emperor
• Chinese Imperial Family