Hongyan was born in the ManchuAisin Gioro clan as the sixth son of the Yongzheng Emperor. His mother was Consort Qian (謙妃) of the Liugiya clan (劉氏), daughter of Liu Man (刘满), an official in the Qing imperial court.
When Yongzheng died, Hongyan was just 6 years old and the responsibility of educating Hongyan was taken by the Qianlong Emperor.[1] Hongyan loved the Yuanming Yuan so much that his nickname was Yuanming Yuan Prince.[2]
On May 13 in the 28th year of the Qianlong Emperor, Hongyan asked Gao Heng to sell ginseng due to debts to the salt merchant Jiang Qixi.When the emperor found, Hongyan was downgraded to Prince of the Third Rank and withdrew from the official posts.
In February 1765, Hongyan became sick with a serious illness and the Qianlong Emperor granted the title of Prince of the Second Rank to him.[5]
On 27 April 1765, Hongyan died and was posthumously honoured as Prince Guo Gong of the Second Rank (果恭郡王)[6][5] and be buried with the rites of a prince of the first rank. The Qianlong Emperor didn't personally attend his funeral but designed one of his sons to don the mourning grab.[5]
