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Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Yolo

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3678195Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, Volume 2 — YoloArthur W. HummelLi Man-kuei and Fang Chao-ying

YOLO 岳樂, 1625–1689, the first Prince An 安親王, was a grandson of Nurhaci [q. v.] and the fourth son of Abatai [q. v.]. He enlisted with the rank of a prince of the fifth degree in the army of Haoge [q. v.] when the latter conquered Szechwan (1646), and he followed Ajige [q. v.] to suppress a local uprising in Tientsin (1648). In 1649 he was promoted to the rank of a prince of the third degree, and in 1651 inherited his father's princedom of the second degree—his title being then changed from Jao-yü 饒餘 to An 安. Appointed in 1652 to membership in the Council of Princes, he was in the following year entrusted with the command of an army sent to force the submission of Outer Mongolia. In 1655 he became presiding controller of the Imperial Clan Court and in 1657 was made a prince of the first degree.

At the beginning of Wu San-kuei's [q. v.] rebellion in Yunnan (1673) Yolo became field marshal (1674) with the title of Ting-yüan P'ing-k'ou Ta Chiang-chün 定遠平寇大將軍, in charge of the army sent to Kiangsi. At that time Wu San-kuei had already taken six provinces (Yunnan, Kweichow, Szechwan, Hupeh, Hunan, and Kwangsi) and his revolt was echoed by Kêng Ching-chung [q. v.] in Fukien, and by Wang Fu-ch'ên [q. v.] in Shensi. Wu's position in the Tung-t'ing lake region was so strong that no Manchu general dared to move against him. While his fellow-generals aimed at Changsha, Yolo's objective was to stabilize the province of Kiangsi. By 1675 he had succeeded in winning over almost the whole of that province. Taking advantage of the fact that Wu San-kuei had advanced to Sung-tzŭ, Yolo began to make his way toward Hunan, while Labu [q. v.] took Yolo's place in Kiangsi. After taking P'ing-hsiang (1676) near the border of Kiangsi and Hunan, Yolo advanced on Changsha, but, owing to the speedy return of Wu and the tardiness of other Manchu generals in coming to Yolo's assistance, that attempt failed. In 1677 Yolo assaulted Liu-yang, and in 1678 seized P'ing-chiang (two cities that blocked the way to Changsha) and brought about the surrender of Lin Hsing-chu (see under Pengcun). Wu San-kuei died in 1678. On March 11, 1679, Yolo took Changsha while another general attacked Yochow. Again Yolo pressed southwest and won his last battle in Wu-kang, a strategic gateway to Kweichow. At the close of that year his post was given to his nephew, Jangtai [q. v.], and in 1680 Yolo was recalled to the capital where he received a grand ovation. Early in 1682 he resumed his post as presiding controller of the Imperial Clan Court. His final service in the military field was in 1688 when he accompanied Yabu 雅布 (1658–1701), the fourth Prince Chien 簡親王 (younger brother of Labu), to guard Sunid, in Inner Mongolia, when Galdan [q. v.] was creating disturbances in Outer Mongolia. In the spring of 1689 Yolo died and was canonized as Ho 和. Twelve years later (1701) he was posthumously degraded to a prince of the second degree for having conducted (1665), when he served in the Imperial Clan Court, what was alleged to be an unfair trial of a member of the Imperial Family.

Yolo had twenty sons, five of whom attained to noble rank. His eighteenth son, Yin-tuan 蘊端 (or Yüeh 岳 -tuan, Yüan 袁 -tuan, T. 正子, 兼山, H. 紅蘭主人, 長白十八郎, 東風居士, 1671–1704), was a poet who left a collection of verse entitled 玉池生稿 Yü-ch'ih shêng kao, 5 chüan, printed about 1695 and supplemented about 1704 with 5 more chüan. Yün-tuan was made a prince of the second degree with the designation Ch'in (勤郡王), but in 1690 was degraded to a prince of the fourth degree, and eight years later was deprived of his princedom. From the age of ten onward he studied under Chinese tutors whom his father brought from Hunan, and later became known for his hospitality to literary men. He was on intimate terms with his cousin, Bordu 博爾都 (T. 問亭, H. 東皋漁父, d. 1697), a grandson of Tabai (see under Nurhaci).

Yolo's princedom of the second degree was inherited by his fifth son, Margun 馬爾渾 (H. 谷園荷鋤, 古香閣主人, posthumous name 懿, 1663–1709), and then by Margun's son, Hua-ch'i 華玘 (posthumous name 節, d. 1719). Hua-ch'i died without heir and for several years there was no successor to the hereditary rank. It happened that the wife of Yin-ssŭ [q. v.], a granddaughter of Yolo, took the side of her husband in opposing Yin-chên [q. v.]. When the latter ascended the throne he took revenge on Yin-ssŭ and his connections; hence late in 1723 he declared that Yolo's princedom should be discontinued. Nevertheless, when Emperor Kao-tsung appraised, in 1778, the merits and demerits of his ancestors he eulogized the military exploits of Abatai and Yolo and gave to an adoptive grandson of Hua-ch'i the hereditary, rank of a prince of the sixth degree.


[1/223/5a; 168/50b; Tsung-shih Wang-kung kung-chi piao-chuan (see bibl. under Tê-p'ei) 8/9a; Wei Yüan [q. v.], Shêng-wu chi (1842) 2/1a; Haenisch, E., T'oung Pao (1913), p. 111; 1/489/27b; 19/2 下 1a; Hsüeh-ch'iao shih-hua (see under Shêng-yü), supplement 3/2a–3b.]

Li Man-kuei

Fang Chao-ying