In 1890, during the reign of the
Guangxu Emperor, Zaitao was granted the title of a
second class zhenguo jiangjun. He was promoted to a
buru bafen fuguo gong in 1894. In 1898, Zaitao was transferred from Yimo's lineage to the lineage of Yihe (奕詥; 1844–1868),
Prince Zhong of the Second Rank, as Yihe's adopted son because Yihe had no son to succeed him. He was made an acting
beizi in the same year. In 1902, he was promoted to
beile.
In December 1908, Zaitao was made an acting
junwang (second-rank prince), even though nominally he still remained as a beile. In the same year, he and Tieliang (鐵良) were appointed as zongsi jicha (總司稽察; a type of inspector-official). A year later, during the reign of the
Xuantong Emperor, Zaitao was put in charge of the Military Consultancy (軍諮處). In 1910, he visited eight countries – Japan, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Russia – to observe and learn from their more advanced armed forces. In May 1910, he was sent to Britain as an ambassador to represent the Qing Empire at the
funeral of
King Edward VII.[1]
In 1911, Zaitao was appointed as the Minister of the Military Consultancy (軍諮大臣) and placed in charge of the Imperial Guard (禁衛軍), as well as being appointed as chief of general staff.[2] He was also designated as the commander of the
Mongol Bordered Yellow Banner. In January 1912, after the fall of the Qing Empire, Zaitao, along with
Zaixun and others from the imperial clan, founded the
Royalist Party (宗社黨) to preserve their ancestral temple. In 1917, when the warlord
Zhang Xun briefly restored
Puyi to the throne, Zaitao was appointed as the Commanding Officer of the Imperial Guards.
Zaitao was also interested in
Beijing opera. He was trained in both long and short range types of performing martial arts, and specialised in playing monkey roles in opera. He was tutored by Yang Xiaolou (楊小樓) and Zhang Qilin (張淇林). Opera actor Li Wanchun (李萬春) trained under Zaitao for three years.
Zaitao died in Beijing in 1970 at the age of 83.
Family
Wife
Wife, of the Jiang clan (姜氏; 1885–1949), personal name Wanzhen (婉貞)
First son (1905)
First daughter (b. 6 March 1906)
Second daughter (24 December 1906 – 1969), personal name Yunhui (韞慧)
Married
Darijaya (1904–1968) of the
Alxa Borjigit clan in 1925, and had issue (one son, six daughters)
Pujia (溥佳; 1908–1979), second son
Pu'an (溥侒; 1911–1944), third son
Pushen (溥伸; 1915–1928), fourth son
Concubine
Concubine, of the Zhou clan (周氏; b. 1894), personal name Mengyun (夢雲)
Puxi (溥僖; 1924–1983), fifth son
Concubine, of the Jin clan (金氏; 1906–1967), personal name Xiaolan (孝蘭)
Pushi (溥仕; b. 1940), sixth son
Concubine, of the Wang clan (王氏; 1917–2003), personal name Naiwen (乃文)