Cuyen was a Manchu prince and eldest son of the Later Jin ruler Nurhaci, the early patriarch of the Qing dynasty.
15 Facts About Cuyen
1.
2.
An accomplished warrior, Cuyen was instrumental in the consolidation of Nurhaci's authority among rival Jurchen clans.
3.
Cuyen served as the primary civil administrator for intermittent periods in the regime founded by Nurhaci.
4.
Cuyen was placed in solitary confinement and died in captivity a few years later.
5.
Cuyen was born in 1580, somewhere in the present-day Jilin province in northeastern China, to a prominent family of Jianzhou Jurchens.
6.
Cuyen is the grandson of Taksi and eldest son of Nurhaci, who at the time was just beginning to rise to prominence in the Jurchen tribe he belonged.
7.
Cuyen's mother was Hahana Jacing of the Tunggiya clan, Nurhaci's primary wife, who gave birth to the prince Daisan.
8.
Cuyen was an able warrior, and spent much of his youth assisting his father in consolidating power in the Manchuria region.
9.
Cuyen's fought in his first major battle against the Anculakit, a rival Jurchen tribe, in 1598, when he was merely 18 years old.
10.
Cuyen again went to war against Ula several years later and took a mountain fortress in the process.
11.
Chief among the grievances was the unequal distribution of loot from battle and Cuyen's supposed propensity to grant large holdings for himself.
12.
In practice, Daisan acted as a check on Cuyen who had at this point lost the confidence of his father.
13.
An unconfirmed Ming dynasty account apparently believed that Cuyen counseled against incursions into Ming territory in China proper, thereby incurring the wrath of Nurhaci.
14.
Cuyen was posthumously granted the title Crown Prince Guanglue.
15.
Cuyen's descendants were a largely unremarkable branch of the Aisin Gioro clan; some became minor officials.