Prince Gong

Yixin
Prince Gong of the First Rank
Photograph of Prince Gong, shortly after the signing of the Convention of Peking, 1860
Prince Gong of the First Rank
Tenure25 February 1850 – 29 May 1898
SuccessorPuwei
Chief Grand Councillor
In office1853 – 1855
PredecessorQi Junzao
SuccessorWenqing
In office1861 – 1884
PredecessorMuyin
SuccessorShiduo
In office1894 – 1898
PredecessorShiduo
SuccessorShiduo
Born(1833-01-11)11 January 1833
Beijing, China
Died29 May 1898(1898-05-29) (aged 65)
Beijing, China
Consorts
Lady Gūwalgiya
(m. 1848; died 1880)
IssueZaicheng
Zaiying
Princess Rongshou of the First Rank
Names
Aisin Gioro Yixin (愛新覺羅 奕訢)
Manchu: I-hin (ᡳ ᡥᡳᠨ)
Posthumous name
Prince Gongzhong of the First Rank
HouseAisin Gioro
FatherDaoguang Emperor
MotherEmpress Xiaojingcheng

Yixin (11 January 1833 – 29 May 1898), better known in English as Prince Kung[1] or Gong, was an imperial prince of the Aisin Gioro clan and an important statesman of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in China. He was a regent of the empire from 1861 to 1865 and wielded great influence at other times as well.

At a young age, Yixin was already noted for his brilliance and was once considered by his father the Daoguang Emperor as a potential heir. However, his older half-brother Yizhu eventually inherited the throne as the Xianfeng Emperor. During the Second Opium War in 1860, Prince Gong negotiated with the British, French and Russians, signing the Convention of Beijing on behalf of the Qing Empire. Following the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, Prince Gong launched the Xinyou Coup in 1861 with the aid of the Empress Dowagers Ci'an and Cixi and seized power from a group of eight regents appointed by the Xianfeng Emperor on his deathbed to assist his young son and successor, the Tongzhi Emperor. After the coup, he served as Prince-Regent from 1861 to 1865 and presided over the reforms implemented during the Tongzhi Restoration (1860–74). Despite his demotions in 1865 and 1874 for alleged corruption and disrespect towards the Emperor, Prince Gong continued to lead the Grand Council and remained a highly influential figure in the Qing government. The final decades of Prince Gong's career, under the reign of his nephew the Guangxu Emperor, were marred by his conflict with conservative elements in the Qing imperial court – In particular, his conflict with his former ally, Cixi, deepened his disillusionment with the court, and eventually opted to withdraw from politics and live in seclusion in the temple.

Having established in 1861 the Zongli Yamen, the Qing government's de facto foreign affairs ministry, Prince Gong is best remembered for advocating greater constructive engagement between the Qing Empire and the great powers of that era, as well as for his attempts to modernise China in the late 19th century.[2] His former residence, "Prince Gong's Mansion", is now one of Beijing's few AAAAA-rated tourist attractions.

  1. ^ Official site, Beijing: Prince Kung's Palace Museum, 2014, archived from the original on 2018-08-29, retrieved 2017-11-08.
  2. ^ Fang, Chao-ying (1943). "I-hsin" . In Hummel, Arthur W. Sr. (ed.). Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office. pp. 380–384.