Lineage, Mansion, and Memory: A Study of the Imperial Clan's Prince Li Family in the Qing Dynasty

Abstract

This paper examines the Prince Li family, the foremost iron-cap lineage of Qing, from a family-history perspective. Using archives, registers, and Zhaolian's Xiaoting zalu (a Qing historical notebook that provides internal family memory), it analyzes the family's political rise and fall, succession conflicts, marriage, and mansion. Findings show the family's power rested on state-recognized ancestral merit (the iron-cap system) and dissolved after the imperial collapse. Material loss prompted a turn to textual memory, epitomized by Zhaolian's “monument of memory”; contemporary reuse reveals de-familialization. The case illuminates institutional dependency, memory practices, and the modern fate of Qing imperial clans.