Fuheng

Who is Fuheng?

Fuheng, style name Chunhe, was a Qing Dynasty official from the Manchu Fuca clan and the Bordered Yellow Banner of the Eight Banners, and was a brother of the Empress Xiaoxianchun. He served as a senior minister at the court of his brother-in-law, the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to his death in 1770. He is best known for leading the Qing troops in the fourth and last invasion of Burma in the Sino-Burmese War.

Prior to his appointment as the commander-in-chief of the Burma campaign, Fuheng was chief grand councilor to the emperor, and one of the emperor's most trusted advisers. Fuheng was one of the few senior officials that fully backed the Qianlong Emperor's decision to eliminate the Dzungars in the 1750s when most at the court thought war was too risky. His nephew Mingrui was a son-in-law of the emperor, and led the Burma campaign of 1767–1768. His son Fuk'anggan was a senior general in the Qing military.

Fuheng was unsuccessful in the Burma campaign. In December 1769, he signed a truce with the Burmese, which the emperor did not accept. He died of malaria which he contracted during his three-month invasion of Burma, when he got back to Beijing.