生平

康熙二十年二月初十出生，八阿哥胤禩由於出生時生母良妃出身辛者庫宮女，地位較低，因此少時由胤禔生母惠妃撫養。年幼時書法差勁，康熙帝令書法家何焯為其侍讀。康熙三十七年（1698年），康熙帝初度分封皇子，17歲的胤禩受封為多羅貝勒。康熙四十七年（1708年），太子胤礽被廢之後，大阿哥胤禔被發現曾用魘鎮控制人心加害廢太子胤礽，而胤禩與胤禔結為黨時，曾對張明德欲行刺太子胤礽知情不奏，因此康熙認為胤禩和胤禔為了儲位欲謀害廢太子胤礽，甚至革除大阿哥胤禔爵位，並加以拘禁。而八阿哥胤禩因證據不足以謀害廢太子，所以康熙帝僅判胤禩革除王爵。而朝中重臣馬齊、(康熙的舅舅)佟國維等人知道這些事後，仍然向滿漢眾臣抬舉立胤禩為儲君。所以康熙帝說了：「倡言欲立胤禩為皇太子殊屬可恨，朕於此不勝忿恚…朕與八阿哥父子之恩絕矣…」。康熙四十八年（1709年）三月，康熙帝開始複立皇太子胤礽，並對諸皇子封爵，當時將胤禩排除在外。康熙五十四年（1715年），康熙帝命令暫時停止胤禩和其屬下護衛人等的俸銀俸米，以作為懲戒。

後八阿哥胤禩轉而支持十四阿哥胤禵克承大統。康熙六十一年，奉康熙帝遺命四阿哥胤禛登基稱帝。

胤禛即位，改元雍正，胤禩為避諱而改名允禩。雍正帝命允禩、允祥、馬齊、隆科多四人總理事務，又封允禩為廉親王，任理藩院尚書，管工部事務，期間多次藉故譴責允禩失職。

雍正二年八月，雍正帝諭曰：「從前大阿哥允禔、八阿哥允禩、十四阿哥允禵、九阿哥允禟，俱不知本量結為朋黨，冀遂其志，皇考洞鑒此情，禁錮大阿哥允禔，令十四阿哥允禵出征西寧，置之遠地，無知之人反說是十四阿哥允禵將定儲位，允禵於是妄生覬覦…」。

雍正四年正月，允禩被革去黃帶子，發宗人府，築高牆圈禁，議罪狀四十款，並派諸王大臣多次前去敦促其易名，允禩遂自改名曰「阿其那」（ᠠᡴᡳᠨᠠ|v=Akina），其子改名「菩薩保」；其妻被革去福晉。雍正帝稱允禩「凶惡之性，古今罕聞」。同年九月初十，允禩於拘禁宗人府中以不明原因中病故。

雍正六年（1728年）十一月，雍正帝諭曰：「十四阿哥允禵賦性狂愚，與八阿哥允禩尤相親密，聽其指使，昔年允禩謀奪太子之位，皇考欲治八阿哥允禩之罪，十四阿哥與九阿哥在康熙帝前袒護強辯，致觸聖怒，欲手刃十四阿哥允禵。朕即位，降旨將伊喚回，伊在朕前放肆傲慢，犯禮犯分，朕悉皆曲宥，仍令允禵奉祀景陵，竟有奸民投書伊之院中，造作大逆之言稱允禵為皇帝、而稱允禟之母為太后。允禵見書大逆之語，剪裁藏匿向該管總兵云：此非大事可酌量完結。即此，則其悖亂之心何嘗改悔耶？…從前諸王大臣羅列允禩大罪四十欵，允禟大罪二十八欵，允禵大罪十四欵，又特參允䄉魘勝之罪，懇請將伊等立正典刑以彰國憲。朕再四躊躇心實不忍，暫將允禩拘禁降旨詢問，外省封疆大臣待其回奏，然後定奪，仍令太監數人供其使令、一切飲食所需聽其索取，不意此際，允禩、允禟遂伏冥誅。皇考切齒痛心於允禩、允禟等，則伊等不忠不孝之罪，尚安有得逃於天譴者乎？朕在藩邸光明正大公直無私，諸兄弟之才識實不及朕…古人大義滅親周公所以誅管蔡也，假使二人不死，將來未必不明正典刑，二人之死實係冥誅，眾所共知共見。朕尚未加以誅戮，也至於朕秉公執法鋤惡除奸…逆賊乃加朕以屠弟之名，只此一事天下後世自有公論，朕不辨亦不授…允禩等平日之逆謀不遂，播散訛言，分門立戶各各收買黨羽，欲以蠱惑人之耳目，俾素蓄逆念之蠢動而起，然後快心，祖宗之社稷所不顧也。夫加朕以凶暴惡名，允禩、允禟等之罪，今敗露者即不勝其數，其他匪類邪黨之聽其驅使者，奚止數千百人，造作種種誣謗之語，已流散於極邊遠塞，則宇宙之內，鄉曲愚人為其所惑者，豈止曾靜數人而已哉…」。

雍正十三年（1735年）十月初八日，乾隆帝登基後，下達上諭：「允禩，允禟，存心悖亂不孝不忠，獲罪與我皇祖，我皇考繼位之後，二人更心懷怨恨，思亂社稷，是以皇考特降諭旨，銷籍離宗，究之二人之罪，不至于此，此我皇考繼至仁至厚之寬典也。但阿其那、塞思黑，孽由自作，萬無可矜……，若俱屏除宗牒之外，則將來子孫與庶民無異，當初辦理此事，乃諸王大臣再三固請，實非我皇考本意，其作何辦理之處，著諸王滿漢文武大臣翰詹科道，各抒巳見，確議具奏，其中若有兩議三議者，亦准陳奏」。

乾隆四十三年（1778年）正月十三日，乾隆帝諭曰：「允禩、允禟居心險詐結黨妄行罪皆自取。皇考尚不忍重治其罪，僅令削除譜牒更改其名以示愧辱。就兩人心術而論，其潛蓄覬覦窺竊之謀，誠所不免。及皇考紹登大寶，伊等怨尤誹謗亦屬情事所有，蓋伊兩人未嘗無隱然悖逆之心，特未有顯然悖逆之跡，是以皇考明暴其罪狀…」。

同一日，乾隆帝令恢復曾經幹犯國法且謀逆皇帝的允禩、允禟及子孫一併收入玉牒，復其宗室和原名，但原本王爵皆不復原。。

雍正帝曾經認為三阿哥弘時品行有問題，命其過繼為允禩的子嗣。雍正十三年十月二十四日（1735年12月7日），乾隆帝即位後，追復三哥弘時的宗籍。

但是，清朝宗室金承藝根據雍正五年(1727年)九月，雍正皇帝有一份批折檔案，有隱約提起真相：「朕尚有阿其那、塞思黑等叛賊之弟…不但弟兄，便親子亦難知其心術行事也」。

關於允禩之死因，在末代皇帝溥儀曾說過，兒時與弟弟溥傑在養心殿的香爐中挖出一封乾隆帝所留下的書信，上面寫道：『打開此信者，皆不是我的子孫』。乾隆帝過去曾居住的養心殿，在於他晚年時特地留下雍正帝遺留的秘密諭旨。

評價

• 康熙帝：前因滿漢大臣有請立八阿哥允禩之言，朕深忿恚，欲俟朕劇疾少愈將廢皇太子獲罪時，乘隙紊亂國家。

• 雍正帝：十四阿哥允禵賦性狂愚，與八阿哥允禩尤相親密，聽其指使。昔年，因八阿哥允禩謀奪太子之位，皇考（康熙帝）欲治八阿哥之罪，十四阿哥允禵與九阿哥允禟在皇考前袒護強辯，致觸聖怒，皇考欲手刃十四阿哥允禵。

家室

妻妾

雍正十三年十二月初十日，和碩裕親王廣祿等奏議關於如何處理阿其那塞思黑子孫的滿文奏摺中，曾有「阿其那之子菩薩保和他額麼、阿其那的兩個蘇拉格格放在一起」的記載。菩薩保的額麼應為妾張氏。阿其那的兩個蘇拉格格是否為庶妃王氏及媵妾毛氏，待考。

• 嫡福晉郭絡羅氏，皇朝文典的冊文亦作郭爾羅斯氏。和碩額駙明尚之女，生母為岳樂第七女和碩格格。康熙三十六年定婚，康熙三十七年成婚。雍正四年正月，世宗以殘刻之罪名革去郭絡羅氏的福晉頭銜，休回外家，不准對外傳遞消息。

• 側福晉某氏，《皇朝文典》所錄入的祭文有記載，祭文有記和碩廉親王允禩側妃某氏很早就入侍王府，雍正二年或以前已故，某氏為胤禩妾室中的何人尚待考。

• 庶福晉王氏，康熙四十五年的玉牒記載，第八子多羅貝勒胤禩位下之已生育庶妃王氏為四品典儀阿爾法之女。由於王氏所出的子女夭折，庶妃王氏之名不再出現於玉牒，後事不詳。

• 妾張氏，張之碧之女。初為侍女，生一子弘旺。

• 媵妾毛氏，毛二格之女。初為侍女，生一女郡主，惟其女因允禩被削爵及除宗籍而被削爵。

子女

有一子一女

• 子弘旺：康熙四十七年戊子正月初五日寅時生，母妾張氏，張之碧之女；乾隆二十七年壬午十一月初二日亥時卒，年五十五歲。

• 女，康熙四十七年戊子五月初八日巳時生，母為媵妾毛氏，毛二格之女；雍正二年甲辰六月，她嫁給姑媽和碩愨靖公主之子、表兄弟孫五福。格格受封郡主，丈夫五福為和碩額駙；郡主于乾隆四十年乙未十一月二十一日巳時卒，年六十八歲。

• 養子弘時

允禩最後的直系後裔為其玄孫奕沆（1841-1879），無子，後過繼允禑來孫載慰為嗣。

王府舊址

關于原封廉親王允禩的府邸，在《京師坊巷志稿》卷上有兩條記載。一為75頁「王府大街」條，轉引《嘯亭續錄》記述，「饒余親王、廉親王府，俱在王府大街。」二為58頁「四王柵欄」條，同樣引有《嘯亭續錄》記述，又加了半句話：「今皆為昭忠祠」。可知廉親王府在台基廠東北，相當于現今台基廠頭條（今商務部）。它的西側是裕親王府，東為安親王府。

影視形象

• 1980年 江圖《大內群英》

• 1987年 尹天照《滿清十三皇朝》

• 1995年 吳廷燁《九王奪位》

• 1997年 鄭浩南《江湖奇俠傳》

• 1998年 鄭家生《乾隆大帝》

• 1999年 王繪春《雍正王朝》、《刺虎》

• 2000年 王繪春《李衛當官》

• 2003年 曾偉權《九五至尊》

• 2004年 王繪春《李衛當官2》

• 2004年 黃壘鑫《皇太子秘史》

• 2011年 馮紹峰《宮鎖心玉》、《宮鎖珠簾》

• 2011年 鄭嘉穎《步步驚心》

• 2011年 只有在劇中提及，未現身。《後宮甄嬛傳》

• 2013年 湯鎮宗《王者清風》

• 2014年 張繼聰《食為奴》

• 2017年 衛延侃《花落宮廷錯流年》

• 2018年 只有在劇中提及，未現身。《延禧攻略》

注釋

Early life

Yunsi was born to the Kangxi Emperor and Consort Liang (née Wei Shuangjie), a Manchu woman of the Plain Yellow Banner, and raised by the Consort Hui, mother of Yinzhi, the first son of the Kangxi Emperor. Consort Liang was seen by some historians as coming from a disadvantaged background, because she was a member of the "Sin Jeku" (辛者庫) slave caste before she became the Kangxi Emperor's consort. While the low status of her mother's family affected Yinsi's prestige within the ranks of the princes, it also gave Yinsi the impetus to overcome the odds through hard work and cultivating moral character. Over time, Yinsi became one of the Kangxi Emperor's favourite sons. He was popular with officials at court, and his uncle Fuquan would often praise him in front of his father, the Kangxi Emperor. At the age of only 18, Yinsi was granted the rank of doroi beile, the third highest rank of nobility.

Succession struggle

The Kangxi Emperor had initially chosen Yinreng, his second son to survive into adulthood, as crown prince. However, towards the later years of the emperor's reign, Yinreng engaged in increasingly licentious activities and also established a strong political base revolving around his own authority, causing him to rapidly lose favour. In 1708, during a hunting trip to Rehe, the Kangxi Emperor grew suspicious that the crown prince was conspiring to oust him in a coup. Yinreng was stripped of his position as crown prince and then placed under house arrest. Four days later, in an apparent sign of trust, the Kangxi Emperor commissioned Yinsi to oversee the imperial household department to 'clean house' and remove some vestiges of Yinreng's influence. However, Yinsi used this unique vantage point as an opportunity to curry favour with those previously loyal to Yinreng. Yinsi, widely known to have a strong base of support among the officials of court due to his moral character and wide range of talents, emerged as a serious contender for crown prince. The breadth of his support was his downfall, as it aroused suspicion from the emperor that Yinsi was competing for influence not against other princes but against the emperor himself.

Yinsi's support network, which included many top-ranking officials, the Ninth Prince Yintang, Tenth Prince Yin'e, and the 14th Prince Yinti, became a formidable clique in imperial affairs, bound together by their desire to see Yinsi become the next emperor. Collectively, this group became known as the Baye Dang, or the Eighth Lord Party (八爺黨). The Baye Dang often saw itself at odds with the Crown Prince Party (太子黨), a similarly influential group bound by their interest of maintaining the position of the crown prince. Once Yinreng was removed as heir apparent, some supporters of Yinsi engaged in conspiracies to murder Yinreng.

Shortly after Yinreng was deposed as crown prince, Yinzhi, the eldest son of Kangxi, had run afoul of the emperor for casting sorcery spells against Yinreng. Yinzhi, seeing his own hopes of attaining the crown prince position evaporate, gave his backing to Yinsi, who had been raised in the household of his mother. At the behest of Yinzhi, a fortune teller by the name of Zhang Mingde was sent to Yinsi. Zhang foretold that Yinsi was predestined for greatness. Yinzhi, long pre-occupied with supernatural ways to influence temporal affairs, relayed Zhang's seemingly auspicious predictions about Yinsi's future to the emperor in an attempt bolster Yinsi's case for becoming crown prince. In response, the emperor, rather than rewarding Yinsi, sentenced Zhang to death by lingchi in order to discourage others from becoming involved in the struggle for succession. The Zhang Mingde episode was a huge blow to Yinsi politically and resulted in his own house arrest.

The Kangxi Emperor, disillusioned by ambitions of his remaining sons and the ferocity with which they were plotting against one another, reinstated Yinreng in the crown prince position in 1709. However, the latter was once again stripped of his Crown Prince title a few years later. After the second removal, Kangxi became determined to select another prince as his successor. He issued an order for officials at court to divulge their own preferences on which of his sons should be the next crown prince. In what became essentially a straw-poll vote, the majority of court officials petitioned to the Kangxi Emperor that Yinsi should assume the position of Crown Prince. The breadth of support for Yinsi had ostensibly caught the Kangxi emperor off guard. The emperor, in a stark about-face, declared the results of the mandarin vote tally invalid. The emperor became incensed at Yinsi's self-promotion in the struggles that ensued, and stripped him of his doroi beile title and stipend (later restored). Many other princes also became disgraced in the lengthy battle for succession. According to some historians, the Kangxi emperor had sensed that Yinsi had amassed greater clout than himself, ultimately pushing him to suppress any further ambition by Yinsi for the throne. Thereafter, Yinsi threw his weight behind the 14th Prince Yinti, who was seen by most observers as being destined for the throne.

Yongzheng reign

After his fourth brother, Yinzhen, succeeded their father and became known as the Yongzheng Emperor in 1722, Yinsi changed his name to "Yunsi" to avoid using the same character as the Yongzheng Emperor's personal name, considered taboo.

A few weeks after the death of the Kangxi Emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor enfeoffed Yunsi as "Prince Lian of the First Rank" (; Manchu: hošoi hanja cin wang) and he sat on the emperor's top advisory board along with Yinxiang, Maci, and Longkodo. Yinsi was charged with overseeing the Lifan Yuan, the bureaucratic organ in charge of the affairs of the Qing dynasty suzerain lands such as Mongolia. Despite bestowing Yunsi with the highest honors, the Yongzheng Emperor targeted those court officials who were Yunsi allies. The Yongzheng Emperor frequently criticised Yunsi for not performing his duties properly. In 1724, for example, the emperor ordered Yunsi to kneel in the inner reaches of the Forbidden City for an entire night, ostensibly for an infraction committed during his oversight of the Lifan Yuan. In early 1725, the emperor forcibly exiled Yunsi's wife to the interior, and forbid all communication between the two. By 1725, Yunsi had completely lost favour with the emperor, and became the target of trumped-up charges and accusations that eventually led to the stripping of Yunsi's princely title, along with his banishment from the imperial clan.

After his banishment, Yunsi was forced to rename himself "Akina" (Manchu: ; 阿其那 Āqínà).

Yunsi died in captivity, four years after the Yongzheng Emperor's coronation. He was posthumously rehabilitated and restored to the imperial clan under the name "Yunsi" during the Qianlong Emperor's reign.

Meaning of "Akina"

"Āqínà" (阿其那) is a Chinese transliterating words of a Manchu term which has traditionally been translated as "pig" in Chinese. However it is a false rumour. Some scholars suggest the original Manchu term is "Acina", which actually means "to carry (with your crime)". But according to Hei tu dang (黑图档), a Manchu script document now kept in Liaoning Provincial Museum, the original term is "Akina". There is some dispute as to whether that is an accurate translation: "frozen fish", "fish on the chopping block", or "meat on the chopping block".

Location of residence

According to the Jingshi Fangxiang Zhigao (京师坊巷志稿), the Prince Lian family compound was located near Taijichang Road southeast of the Forbidden City, due west of the family compound of Fuquan, the Prince Yu. Its interior structure was altered shortly after Yunsi's expulsion from the imperial clan in 1725, and converted to a storehouse during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Nevertheless, some parts of the original structure may have survived to the present day. Its approximate location is near the present-day Wangfujing Station of the Beijing Subway, near the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.

Family

Consorts and Issue:

• Primary consort, of the Gorolo clan (嫡福晉 郭絡羅氏; d. 1726)

• Mistress, of the Zhang clan (張氏)

　• Hongwang (弘旺; 27 January 1708 – 16 December 1762), first son

• Mistress, of the Mao clan (毛氏)

　• Princess of the Third Rank (郡主; 24 June 1708 – 11 January 1776), first daughter

　　• Married Sun Wufu in July/August 1724

Ancestry

In fiction and popular culture

• Portrayed by Eric Wan in The Rise and Fall of Qing Dynasty (1988)

• Portrayed by Mark Cheng in Legend of YungChing (1997)

• Portrayed by Wang Huichun in Yongzheng Dynasty (1999), Li Wei the Magistrate (2001) and Li Wei the Magistrate II (2004)

• Portrayed by Savio Tsang in The King of Yesterday and Tomorrow (2003)

• Portrayed by Huang Leixin in Huang Taizi Mishi (2004)

• Portrayed by Liu Dekai in The Book and the Sword (2008)

• Portrayed by Feng Shaofeng in Palace (2011) and Palace II (2012)

• Portrayed by Kevin Cheng in Scarlet Heart (2011)

• Portrayed by Louis Cheung in Gilded Chopsticks (2014)

• Portrayed by He Zhi Long in Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty (2019)