What is "yuzhan"

Yuzhan (28 November 1923 - 8 July 2016), courtesy name Jungu, was a Chinese calligrapher of Manchu descent. He is a member of the Aisin Gioro clan, the imperial clan of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. He was the seventh son of Puwei (溥偉) and a great-grandson of Yixin (Prince Gong).

Yuzhan was born in Dalian, Liaoning in 1923. He had a keen interest in calligraphy and learnt the style of the Qing imperial clan. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yuzhan and his father, Puwei, served in the puppet state of Manchukuo, where Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, had been installed by the Japanese as Manchukuo's emperor. Puyi later referred to Yuzhan as "Xiaogu" (小固) in his autobiography. When Puwei died in 1936, Yuzhan inherited his father's princely title, " Prince Gong of the First Rank" (恭親王), and held this title until 1945. At the end of the war in 1945, Yuzhan was captured by Soviet forces and extradited to the War Criminals Management Centre in Fushun, Liaoning. He was released four years later in 1949.

Yuzhan was sent to perform forced labour during the Cultural Revolution (1966–776) under the Communist regime. He is currently a member of many calligraphy societies in China and has produced many works. He specialises in the semi-cursive and cursive scripts.