Fuca Fuheng and Hai Lancha of the Qing Dynasty

Hai Lancha May be the Greatest General of the Qing Dynasty

Fuca Fuheng and Hai Lancha both appear as characters in the TV series Story of the Yanzi Palace (which the Sage reviewed in 2022).

In the TV series, the main character, Lady Wei, develops a romantic attachment to one of the Royal Guards, Fuca Fuheng, the younger brother of the Huanghou (Empress). In the show, Fuheng’s best friend is a man named Hai Lancha.

These element of the story are not historical, they are a complete invention by the script writer.

Fuheng was a busy man and while he might have met Lady Wei when he was visiting his older sister, he was married to several women by 1744 and his first son was born before 1745. As for Hai Lancha, while he did serve briefly in the Royal Guard in the late 1750s, he spent much of his career commanding armies far from Beijing. From 1784 till his death, he worked closely and successfully with Fuca Fuheng’s 3rd son: Fu’kangan.

Fuca Fuheng

Fuheng served as bodyguard of the Qianlong Emperor from ~1740 to 1742 when he was given charge of the Summer Palace, at the age of just 22. The Qianlong Huangdi liked Fuheng and gave him a new job every year. Fuheng moved to the Ministry of Revenue in 1745, then to the Grand Secretary’s office in 1747. Then he went off on campaign in late 1748.

Fuheng’s primary wife was a Princess of the Yehe-Nara clan. His secondary wives gave birth to sons around 1744, then 1745, and finally his 3rd son Fu’kangan was born in 1748.

Fuheng had essentially no time to spend on helping his sister’s maid servant, Lady Wei. With three or four wives of his own and important jobs to do for the Huangdi, he just didn’t have the time or - one would think - the motivation to deal with problems of the inner palace. The idea that Fuheng was secretly in love with Lady Wei has no foundation in history.

Fuheng spent 18 years, from 1750 to 1768, working directly for the Qianlong Huangdi as the Grand Secretary. Fuheng advised the Huangdi on all matters and supervised the creation and distribution of thousands of Imperial Edicts. It is highly likely that Fuheng met the Lady Wei during this time as she became the primary consort of the Qianlong Huangdi around the year 1752.

Fuheng requested command of what became the final Qing invasion of Burma in 1768. After a year of unsuccessful fighting, he and most his army took sick from tropical diseases. Fuca Fuheng died in 1770. Not surprisingly, given his status, two of his daughters married princes and his sons had very successful careers.

Hai Lancha

Hai Lancha is considered one of the best generals of the Qing Dynasty. He came from the far north, his family were hunters, belonging to one of the Wild Jurchin tribes. He was just an ordinary Manchu soldier in the final war against the Dzunghar Mongols but he won fame on the battlefield and was promoted to the Imperial Bodyguard in 1757. Ten years later he went south with Fuheng to Burma as a deputy general, but unlike Fuheng, Hai Lancha survived.

From 1773 on, Lancha was constantly at war, and almost always successful. He commanded Fuheng’s son Fu’kangan around 1774. Ten years later, Fu’kangan was the supreme commander of several Qing military operations, with Hai Lancha as his top general. Together, they were never defeated.

Hai Lancha’s most impressive victory took place in 1792 when he and Fu’kangan took an army into Tibet, and destroyed an invading Gurka army which was ravaging southern Tibet. The Qing army drove the Gurkas across the high passes of the Himalayas and reached the gates of Kathmandu before the the Gurkas sued for peace. Hai Lancha died in 1793, about 60 years old.

Conclusion

The writer of the Story of Yanzi Palace was correct about one thing: Fuca Fuheng was a bodyguard of the Qianlong Huangdi in 1742 but after that, he was a very busy man with important jobs and several wives and children of his own. The idea that he was secretly in love with Lady Wei lacks evidence and makes no sense given his life. All one can say is that their lives inside the Palace did overlap.

Hai Lancha was much younger than Fuheng and he only became a bodyguard of the Huangdi in late 1757, long after the Lady Wei had become the primary consort of Qianlong. Instead of being a friend of Fuheng, Hai Lancha was certainly a very close to Lord Fuheng’s 3rd son, Fu’kangan. Hai Lancha would never have met Lady Wei until 1757, at the earliest.

The Sage is somewhat disappointed that the writer of Yanzi Palace choose to use the names of real men from this time period but pretty much mangled the history in order to create romantic sub-plots.