Page 162 - Sotheby's Fine Chinese Art November, 2018 Hong Kong.

ON AN IMPERIAL
GILT-SILVER EDICT

PROF.RICHARD JOHN LYNN

Yicong (1831-1889), Prince Dun of the Aisin Gioro by Cixi, Prince Gong and his younger brother the four panels of the Yicong silver investiture
imperial clan, was the fifth son of the Daoguang Prince Chun, Yixuan (1840-1891), the seventh album.
Emperor. His mother was Nuohulu (1808- son of the Daoguang emperor. By1865 court The album was then acquired and taken back
1861), who was promoted with the title Xiangfei politics had stabilized, and Yicong was appointed to Japan by the Japanese Nanga (Chinese-style
(Auspicious Imperial Concubine) in 1824. In 1846 Director of the Imperial Clan Court, which was literati painting) painter Egami Keizan (1862-
Yicong was made heir of his uncle Miankai (1795- responsible for all matters concerned with the 1924), while on a visit to China on or before 1910
1838), the third son of the Jiaqing Emperor, who imperial family and had jurisdiction also over as dated by his inscription on the Japanese wood
had no sons of his own to succeed him. As such, all members of the Eight Manchu Banners into box which reads:
Yicong inherited Miankai’s rank and title of Prince which all Manchus were organized. He is known
of the blood, and was titled Prince of the second to have held this position until 1869. The next Front: Silver Panel Prince of the Blood Investiture
degree, duoluo junwang (commandery prince). few years are unclear, but beginning in 1876 Album Text
He was reduced a rank to beile (prince of the Yicong became Imperial Clan Court Treasurer, Back: Inscribed by Egami Keizan, Second Month
third degree) in 1855 as punishment for allegedly an office he held at least until 1881. During this of Spring, in the Year Cycle kōjutsu (gengxu) of
behaving with lack of decorum. However, he was same time, he also served as Bordered Yellow the Meiji Era (corresponds to 1910, fig. 1).
reinstated as a junwang in 1856 and appointed Banner Grand Minister of the Imperial Household
Plain Red Banner Commander-in-chief of Mongol and concurrent Commander of the Imperial Egami died in 1924, and the edict disappeared
Forces, an office he held until in 1858 during Guardsmen. Thereafter until 1887, he held similar for a mere fifty years to reappear in 1962, for it is
which he served successively as Bordered Yellow commands and ministerial positions in various recorded by Shigashi Takashi (1885-after 1966)
Banner Commander-in-chief of Mongol Forces Banner units. When he died in 1889 he was in an illustrated essay ‘Shi chotei to ginsatsu [The
and Bordered White Banner Commander-in-chief conferred the posthumous title Qin (Diligent). Qing court and the silver album]’, included in the
of Manchu Forces, his position through 1860 Yicong had five sons who survived into adulthood: 1963 volume of his Daibonsōyawa [Evening talks
when he was promoted to first degree Prince of Zailian (1854-1917), an acting commandery at the Villa of Mundanity], that a certain friend,
the Blood, though the investiture ceremony did prince, Zaiyi (1856-1922, Prince Duan of the Yasutake Takeshichi, brought him the silver
not take place until 1864 as stated in the edict. album in May 1962 (fig. 2).
Second Rank), Zailan (1856-1916), Zaiying, and
During 1861 he served as Grand Minister to Zaijin (dates unknown). The first three, Zailian, A gold edict album promoting Prince Zhi, the
Evaluate Troops, a year of particular historical Zaiyi, and Zailan are of particular interest, for all future Daoguang Emperor, to the rank of First
significance for imperial rule. Earlier when the three were leaders of the Boxer uprising. Zaiyi Order Prince of the Blood in 1814, “Conferred by
Daoguang Emperor died in 1850, Yicong’s fourth actually made the family estate his headquarters, His Majesty on First Order Prince of the Blood
brother Yizhu succeeded to the throne as the the Qinghua yuan, which later became the Zhi (‘Wise’), His Gold Investiture Album, dated
Xianfeng Emperor (1850–1861). Just before campus of Qinghua (Tsinghua) University. All the 16th day in the 9th month of the 18th year
the Xianfeng Emperor died in August 1861, he three were cashiered in 1901 and reduced to of the Jiaqing Period (9th October 1814)”, is
appointed a regency council to govern in the commoner status after the uprising was put preserved in the Nanjing Museum. Compare also
name of his five-year-old infant son Zaichun, down and the court compelled to capitulate to two gilt-silver albums dated to the 21st year of
who as the Tongzhi Emperor nominally reigned the Allied forces. The three were made major the Guangxu reign (1895) preserved in the Palace
from 1861 to 1875, though it was only in 1873 scapegoats, and, though Zailian was allowed Museum, Beijing, conferring titles to the Consort
that he himself took power. However, Yicong to live a secluded life of a commoner in Beijing, Zhen and Xun, published in Classics of the
supported his younger brother Prince Gong, Zaiyi and Zailian along with their families were Forbidden City: Imperial Seals of the Ming & Qing
Yixin (1833-1898), the sixth son of the Daoguang banished to Central Asia. It was probably when Dynasties, Beijing, 2008, cat. nos 284 and 286.
emperor, in the Xinyou Coup of 1861, instigated the court expelled Zaiyi’s family from the Qinghua Recording an important event in Prince Dun’s
by Prince Gong and the Empress Dowagers Yuan in 1901 and let the place go to ruin, that career, a key figure of the late Qing dynasty, the
Cixi (1835-1908), Zaichun’s mother, and Cian Zaiyi’s possessions were confiscated -or possibly present album offers us a fascinating window into
(1837-1881), which seized control from the sold by the family for their subsistence-, including this later period of the Chinese imperial history.
regents. Power thereafter was largely shared

fig. 2
fig. 1
圖一 圖二
160 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比