庆宽是晚清民初的“奇人”，以民籍混入内务府旗籍，借助绘画的特长和办皇差的机会，在晚清拥堵的官场上，逐级升迁至候选内务府三院卿，积累了大量财富，也引发了官场侧目，遭到光绪帝下旨抄家的惩罚。戊戌之后，庆宽利用往日的关系网成为访日特使，又因为辛丑议约的劳绩，获得保举，恢复了原有旗籍和职衔。晚清最后十年，庆宽在仕途上做最后一搏，但最终止步于四品道台，遂决心离开官场。在民初的十年，庆宽以平民视角观察政局，时而以旗人身份筹划旗人生计，时而作为普通市民关注城市自治，逐渐淡出了时代舞台。

Qing Kuan was a “legendary figure” in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. He became a bannerman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from a civilian. With his expertise in painting and the opportunity to carry on imperial missions, he was promoted step by step to the candidate of a third rank minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the crowded officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty. He also accumulated a large amount of wealth. As a result, he caused jealousy of other officials and was punished by Emperor Guangxi’s order of the confiscation of his house. After the Reform Movement of 1898, Qing Kuan used his old social relations to become the special envoy to Japan. Because of the “achievements” of the Boxer Protocol, he got recommendation and his original Bannerman status and rank were restored. In the last ten years of the late Qing Dynasty, Qing Kuan made a last-ditch effort in his official career, but ended up as a governor of the fourth rank. So, he decided to leave officialdom. In the early ten years of the Republic of China, Qing Kuan observed the political situation from a civilian perspective. Sometimes he, as a bannerman, paid attention to bannermen’s livelihood, and sometimes he, as an ordinary citizen, focused on urban autonomy. He gradually faded away from the stage of his times.