Yangginu

Yangginu (died 1584) was a Jurchen chieftain of the Yehe Nara clan. Yangginu and his brother Cinggiyanu [zh] were either the sons or grandson of the Yehe chief Cukungge, who was executed by the Hada chief Wangji Wailan during an invasion. Yangginu and his brothers were made wards and vassals of the Hada Khan Wan, who had conquered a wide swath of territory and formed the Hulun confederation. Inheriting the eastern half of the Hada territory, Yangginu secured a marriage with a Mongol noblewoman and eventually gained the clan's independence from Wan, who died soon afterwards. Along with his brother and Mongol allies, he invaded the Hada in 1583, but was ambushed and killed by the Chinese general Li Chengliang, an ally of the Hada, around December 1583.

Biography

Yangginu and his brother Cinggiyanu [zh] were beile (chieftains) of the Yehe Nara clan, either the sons or grandsons of the clan leader Cukungge. The Yehe were not directly related to the Nara clan, but were descendants of a Tumed Mongol leader named Singgen Dargan who destroyed a group of Jurchen of the Nara clan along the Yehe River and adopted their clan name.^[1]

Unlike the neighboring Hada tribe, the Yehe were raiders hostile to the Ming dynasty. With Ming support, the Hada chief Wangji Wailan invaded the Yehe and executed Cukungge. Orphaned, Yangginu and Cinggiyanu were made wards and vassals of Wangji Wailan's nephew, the Hada Khan Wan. Yangginu was married to one of Wan's daughters, while Wan took one of Yangginu's sisters as a concubine. Wan conquered a wide territory, incorporated the Yehe, Hoifa, and Ula tribes into his Hulun confederation. The Yehe were divided between Yangginu and his brother, with Yangginu controlling the eastern portion of their previous territory. He participated in raids on Liaodong with the Jianzhou leader Wang Gao. Yangginu also traded with the Ming at the frontier market of Zhenbei. On one occasion, Yangginu dispatched a small force, including Chinese-speaking tribesmen, to meet at the market and distract the local guards while the main force proceeded into Ming territory to raid.^[2][3][4]

While under Hada authority, Yangginu and his brother schemed to avenge Cukungge, and grew their power. By 1572, they had a combined total of 20,000 horsemen under their command. Wan's power began to decline; he grew senile and was weakened by the tyrannical actions of his son Hurhan. Gradually increasing his power, Yangginu was able to marry a Mongol noblewoman and secured the independence of both the Yehe and the Ula in 1582. Wan died soon afterwards, and the Hada collapsed into a secession dispute between Hurhan and his illegitimate brother Kangguru.^[2][3][5] The young Jianzhou chieftain Nurhaci sought a marriage connection with the Yehe. Although he was relatively weak in terms of military power, Yangginu was impressed by Nurhaci's abilities and betrothed his youngest daughter Xiaoce (also known as Monggo-gege, an epithet meaning "Mongol lady") to him.^[6][7][8]

In 1583, Yangginu and Cinggiyanu invaded the Hada alongside a large force of Mongol allies, and ransacked the territory of the chief Menggebulu. They then moved south to attack the Chinese trading centers. The forces of General Li Chengliang came to the aid of the Hada. Li was able to lure Yangginu and Cinggiyanu to the North Pass, where they were ambushed and killed by his forces around December 1583.^[3][2] Yangginu's son Narimbulu succeeded him as beile of the Yehe and continued his fight against the Ming, although was eventually subdued after a long campaign. Honoring his father's agreement, he escorted Xiaoce, aged 14, to Nurhaci in 1588. This was Nurhaci's first diplomatic marriage. She became his favored consort, was proclaimed the Empress Xiaocigao, and bore him a son named Hong Taiji, who would go on to become the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty.^[7][9]

References

1. Kennedy 1943, pp. 896–897.
2. Kennedy 1943, pp. 799–800, 896–897.
3. Wada 1957, p. 52.
4. Huang 2011, pp. 110–111.
5. Huang 2011, p. 132.
6. Wada 1957, pp. 51–52.
7. Guo 1998, pp. 329–331.
8. Crossley 2002, p. 154.
9. Wada 1957, pp. 52–53.

Bibliography

• Crossley, Pamela Kyle (2002). A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520234246.
• Guo, Songyi (1998). "Empress Xiao Ci Gao of the Nara Clan". In Lee, Lily Xiao Hong; Lau, Clara; Stefanowska, A. D. (eds.). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women. Vol. 1: The Qing Period, 1644–1911. Routledge. ISBN 9781317475873.
• Huang, Pei (2011). Reorienting the Manchus: A Study of Sinicization, 1583–1795. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781933947921.
• Kennedy, George A. (1943). Hummel, Arthur W. Sr. (ed.). Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. Vol. 2. United States Government Printing Office.
• Wada, Sei (1957). "Some Problems Concerning the Rise of T'ai-tsu the Founder of Manchu Dynasty" (PDF). Memoirs of the Research Department of the Tōyō Bunko (16). Tōyō Bunko: 35–73.