Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1875 — The Chinese imperial Family. [ARTICLE]

The Chinese imperial Family.

Hie Xortk China HttxUd prints an interesting paper concerning the Chinese imperial family. From this it appears that the family name of the present ruling house is Aiain Gicro, which, being interpreted, means “ The Golden Family.” * name which they are said to have inherited from their reputed ancestors, the Nii-Chih Tartars, who ruled over Northern China during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries under the dynastic title of ‘‘Golden." This name, however, is never used, but in lieu of it the princes in the direct line of each generation adopt on a fixed system a common character as the first part of their names, and each another for the second part, all of which must, however, be compounded with the same derivative. This system serves to mark plainlv the generation to which any member of the imperial family belongs; and as it is the habit in China to marry early, and as a multiplicity of wives'is sometimes accompanied by a correspondingly large family, some such system was doubtless required. The ruling dynasty succeeded to power in the year 1644, and the present is the only instance since that date in which a direct heir has been wanting.

To begin at the < <.ginning,. Shun Che was the ninth sou of his father; Kang Hi was the third son of Shun Che; \ ung Chine was the fourth son of Kang Hi; KienLung was the fourth son of Yung Ching; Kia King was the fifteenth son of Kien Lung; Tao Kwang was tie second son of Kia King; Hien Fung was the fourth of the nine sons who were born to the Emperor Tao Kwang, and Tung Chi was the only son of Hien Fung. At the time of his'accession to the throne Hien Fung was childless; and, according to the general usage in such cases, it was decreed that Tsai Che, a youthful member of the imperial house, should be adopted into the family ot the Emperor’s deceased eldest brother, and should be nominated as heir to the throne. Subsequently, however, in the year 1886, a direct heir was born in the person of the late Emperor Tung Chi, and Tsai Che’s claims fell into abeyance. But the good fortune which had attached to liis progenitors was denied to the late Emperor. He died childless, and the throne for the first time in the annals of the great pure dynasty has passed out of the direct line. As it is the especial at"tribute —of a son —and heir that he should keep up the ancestral worship, it is held essential that he should be, if possible, of a later generation than the deceased. In the present instance this is impossible, as there is no direct descendant of a posterior generation; the choice, therefore, lav between the first cousins of the late Emperor. In the ordinary course of things, the eldest son of his eldest surviving uncle, Prince of Tun, would probably have been chosen to succeed. But, unfortunately for this candidate, both his father and himself have been adtpted into different branches of the imperial family, and have thus become to a certain extent alienated from the direct line. This destroyed hi* chances Next to him came the son of Prince Kung, but for some offense against court etiquette both this young gentleman and his father were last September temporarily—only for a day—degraded from their rank. Thus his claim was taken to be barred. No such impediment presented itself, however, in the case of the son of the next prince, the Prince of Chun, and, in accordance therefore with the will of the late Emperor, Tssi Tien—a princeling said to be not quite tour years old —has ascended the “ Dragon Throne’’ with the title of Kwang Su, or “Constitution of Glory."