Born in Wangfujing, Beijing, Yuyan was the second son of Pucheng and Jinggui, a lady of the Fuca clan. His grandfather was Zailian, a son of Yicong, the fifth son of the Daoguang Emperor. He was a distant cousin of Puyi, the Last Emperor. In 1936, Yuyan was summoned by Puyi, who had been enthroned as the ruler of the puppet state Manchukuo in 1934 by the Empire of Japan, to join his imperial court in Changchun, Jilin. Yuyan was very close to Puyi, who called him "Xiaoruizi".
After the fall of Manchukuo, Yuyan was arrested by the Russians and imprisoned from 1945 to 1950 near Khabarovsk in the Soviet Union's Far East Region along with Puyi. He was later sent back to China, where he was incarcerated in the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre in Liaoning from 1950 to 1957. Yuyan was a pretender to the Chinese throne. He claimed that Puyi appointed him as heir when they were both imprisoned in Russia in 1950. In his autobiography, Puyi wrote only that he considered selecting Yuyan as his heir. Under a succession law adopted in 1937, Puyi's younger brother, Pujie, became next in line in succession to the throne. Following his release from Fushun, Yuyan worked as a Chinese language teacher, and later in a haberdashery factory. He was arrested in 1959 and sent for hard labour at a public security detention centre near Beijing. Yuyan was arrested again in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution and sent to do hard labour in Shanxi. He was only released in 1979 and allowed to return to Beijing, where he became a road sweeper.
After release from prison
Yuyan was a calligrapher and poet. In 1987, he was appointed as a state consultant on the restoration of the Prince Gong Mansion in Beijing. Yuyan is the main character in the book The Empty Throne: The Quest for an Imperial Heir in the People's Republic of China by the British journalist Tony Scotland. Scotland was searching for an heir to the imperial throne of China.
Family
Elder sister: Yujuying, married Chen Yingsan, son of Chen Zengshou.
Spouses:
* Magiya Jinglan, of Manchu descent, married Yuyan in 1943.
* Zhang Yunfang, married Yuyan after Magiya Jinglan died in 1948 in Tianjin.
Children:
* Hengzhen, eldest son, born to Magiya Jinglan, married Tu Yanling.
* Hengkai, second son, born to Magiya Jinglan, married Liu Xiujuan.
* Hengjun, third son, born to Zhang Yunfang, married Fan Qin.
Grandchildren:
* Hengxing, name also spelled as Hengxing, Hengzhen and Tu Yanling's son.
* Jin Yinghui, also named Qiqi, Hengkai and Liu Xiujuan's son.
