Guwalgiya Feiyingdong

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Guwalgiya Feiyingdong came from the Guwalgiya clan associated with Suwan, and his father Solgo was chief of Suwan. From youth, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was known for bravery and skill in battle. He was an accomplished archer and was said to be able to draw a powerful bow rated at more than ten shi. In 1588, the 16th year of the Wanli era, six years after Nurhaci had begun his rise, Solgo led five hundred households under his command to submit. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was twenty-six. Nurhaci appointed him a first-class minister and gave him one of his granddaughters, a daughter of Cuyen, in marriage; he was therefore known as SuWanEFu.

Guwalgiya Feiyingdong's brother-in-law Dui QinBaYan was involved in a treasonous plot. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong seized and executed him, and Nurhaci consequently appointed Guwalgiya Feiyingdong a jargūci, an office responsible for hearing lawsuits and governing the people.

Campaigns Against the Various Tribes

In the first month of 1598, the 26th year of the Wanli era, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong accompanied Taiji Cuyen and Bayara with one thousand troops against the route identified in the source as Anculakû of Warka. They captured more than twenty fortified settlements and brought the associated villages under control. Earlier, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong had also been ordered to campaign against Warka, taking the GaJiaLu, killing its chief AQiu, and receiving the submission of its people.

In the ninth month of 1599, the 27th year of the Wanli era, Hada and Yehe were at war, and Hada beile Menggebulu asked Nurhaci for aid. Nurhaci ordered Guwalgiya Feiyingdong and Gagai to lead two thousand troops to garrison Hada. After Menggebulu gained the advantage, however, he turned toward the Ming. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong reported the matter to Nurhaci, and Hada was subsequently destroyed.

In the first month of 1607, the 35th year of the Wanli era, Cemutehei, head of Feiyou city among Warka, requested permission to lead his people in submitting to Nurhaci. Nurhaci ordered Guwalgiya Feiyingdong to accompany Beile Šurhaci and others with three thousand troops to receive them. They accepted five hundred households from around the city and detached three hundred troops under Hūrhan to escort them ahead. Ula beile Bujantai sent ten thousand troops to intercept them. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong arrived with the rear force under the beiles and heavily defeated the troops of Ula. In the fifth month of the same year, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong accompanied Beile Bayara against Weji, raiding the routes HeXiHei, EMoHeSuLu, FuNeHeTuoKeSuo, and others, and returned with two thousand captives.

In the seventh month of 1611, the 39th year of the Wanli era, the routes WuErGuChen and MuLun of Weji seized armor that Nurhaci had granted to other routes. Nurhaci ordered Guwalgiya Feiyingdong to accompany Taiji Abatai with one thousand troops in a punitive expedition. They returned with more than one thousand captives, further increasing the power of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

In the first month of 1613, the 41st year of the Wanli era, Nurhaci personally led Daišan, Amin, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong, Hohori, and other commanders in a concentrated attack on Ula. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was the first to seize the gate of the stronghold of Ula, allowing the Jianzhou army to enter and bringing about the destruction of Ula.

Founding of the Later Jin and the Five Councilors

In 1616, the first year of the Tianming era, Nurhaci founded the Later Jin at Hetu Ala, adopted the reign title Tianming, and organized the Eight Banners. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner and served as left-wing gūsa i ejen (banner commander). Nurhaci appointed Guwalgiya Feiyingdong, Eidu, Hohori, Hūrhan, and Anfiyanggû as the five governing councilors. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong continued to hold the positions of first-class minister and jargūci and became an important member of the Later Jin's highest governing circle.

War Against the Ming

In 1618, the third year of the Tianming era, the Later Jin began major operations against the Ming. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong joined the attack on Fushun. Ming general Zhang Chengyin came to the relief of the city with more than ten thousand cavalry, took up a strong position, and opened fire with firearms. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong's mount panicked and bolted to the side, causing the troops under him to falter and retreat. He turned his horse around, shouted to rally the men, and led them forward together. The Ming force was defeated and Fushun was taken. Nurhaci exclaimed, “He is truly a match for ten thousand men!” From then on, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was known by this epithet.

In the third month of 1619, the fourth year of the Tianming era, Ming Liaodong commander Yang Hao led four armies against Hetu Ala. Ming general Du Song advanced to the heights at Sarhu. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong's troops formed part of the left wing and joined the banners in a determined assault, heavily defeating the Ming army; Du Song was killed, producing the first major victory at the Battle of Sarhu. In the eighth month of the same year, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong accompanied Nurhaci against Yehe. As the army approached the city, the defenders hurled stones and fire from the walls, and Nurhaci ordered a temporary withdrawal. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong replied, “Our troops have already reached the walls; how can we withdraw?” Nurhaci again ordered retreat, but Guwalgiya Feiyingdong reported, “The city is on the verge of falling; we must not retreat.” He then pressed the attack and captured Yehe.

Later Years and Posthumous Honors

In the third month of 1620, the fifth year of the Tianming era, Nurhaci assessed military merit and granted Guwalgiya Feiyingdong the hereditary rank of third-class zongbingguan (hereditary military rank). Guwalgiya Feiyingdong died of illness that same month at the age of fifty-seven. According to the Draft History of Qing, as his condition became critical, the sun was setting when clouds gathered, loud sounds arose, and thunder, lightning, rain, and hail followed before the sky cleared. When Nurhaci heard the news, he wept openly and wished to go in person to mourn. The beiles tried to dissuade him because night had fallen. Nurhaci said, “He was a minister who was as my arms and legs and shared my fortunes and hardships. Now that he has died before me, how could I not grieve?” He went anyway, wept bitterly, and returned only around midnight. In the ninth month of the same year, while traveling outside the city to offer sacrifices at the tomb of Beile Murhaci, Nurhaci passed Guwalgiya Feiyingdong's grave, personally poured three cups of wine, and shed several lines of tears.

In 1632, the sixth year of the Tiancong era, Hong Taiji posthumously granted Guwalgiya Feiyingdong the title Duke Zhiyi. In 1636, the first year of the Chongde era, the imperial ancestral temple was established and Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was enshrined there; he was also buried in association with Fuling. In 1659, the 16th year of the Shunzhi era, the Shunzhi Emperor commemorated his founding service and raised his hereditary rank to third-class duke. In 1670, the ninth year of the Kangxi era, the Kangxi Emperor composed a commemorative inscription to record his achievements. In 1731, the ninth year of the Yongzheng era, the Yongzheng Emperor bestowed the additional honorific Xinyong. In 1778, the 43rd year of the Qianlong era, the Qianlong Emperor commemorated his loyal service and raised his rank to first-class duke.

Fei Yingdong was of the Guwalgiya clan and a man of the Suwan tribe, whose chief was his father, Suoerguo. In the sixth year of Nurhaci's rising, 1588, Suoerguo came over with five hundred households of his tribe; Fei Yingdong was then twenty-five, brave in battle and skilled with the bow, able to draw a bow of more than ten shi. Upright and outspoken, he was entrusted by Nurhaci with the administration of affairs, made a minister of the first rank, and given the daughter of the eldest son Cuyeng in marriage, becoming an imperial son-in-law.

His elder sister's husband, Duicin Bayan, plotted rebellion and Fei Yingdong seized and killed him, for which he was made a jarguci, an officer charged with hearing suits and governing the people. He campaigned repeatedly thereafter: in the first month of 1598 he went with the beile Cuyeng and Bayara against the Anchulaku route of the Warka, taking over twenty stockaded villages with a thousand men and receiving their settlements; he also took the Gajia route, killing its chief Aqiu, whose people then submitted. In the ninth month of 1599, when Hada and Yehe went to war and the Hada beile Menggebulu asked Nurhaci for aid, Nurhaci sent Fei Yingdong and Gagai with two thousand men to garrison Hada and bring him victory; when Menggebulu then turned to the Ming, Fei Yingdong reported it, and Hada was destroyed that year.

In the first month of 1607, when the chief of the Feiyou fort in the Warka, Cemutehei, asked to submit, Nurhaci sent Fei Yingdong with the beile to receive his people, and on the way they met the Ula army in a hard fight by the Tumen river, where Fei Yingdong fought with distinction. He took part afterward in the campaigns against the Ula, the Yehe and others, and commanded troops at the battle of Sarhu, being one of the five founding ministers of the Later Jin. He died in 1620 at fifty-seven, the emperor coming in person to his mourning; he was posthumously made Duke Zhiyi and given a place in the ancestral temple, his family remaining prominent through the Qing.

Fei Yingdong's career before and after his submission reflects the integration of the Jurchen tribes. His own Suwan tribe was one of them, and its five hundred households coming over is an important link in that process; Nurhaci's marriage of the eldest son's daughter to him and his appointment as a minister of the first rank were both a means of winning him and of drawing the newly submitted tribe into the core of the regime. Similar measures recur through Nurhaci's unification: chiefs who came over voluntarily were given office and marriage ties, their people enrolled in the banners, so that the tribes were gradually converted into forces the regime could mobilize.

The office of jarguci is also worth noting. Charged with hearing suits and governing the people, it was one of the Later Jin's main bodies for civil and criminal disputes before a formal bureaucracy existed; that Fei Yingdong received it for seizing and killing his brother-in-law for treason shows how much Nurhaci valued judicial and police matters, and that in employing men he prized loyalty and execution. Fei Yingdong went on to command or serve second in many campaigns, taking part in the Later Jin wars against the Warka, Hada, Ula and Yehe and against the Ming.

Of the campaigns Fei Yingdong took part in, the most important was the escorting of the Feiyou fort's people in 1607. When the chief of Feiyou in the Warka, Cemutehei, harassed by the Ula, asked to submit, Nurhaci sent the beile Šurhaci, Cuyeng and Daišan with troops to receive his people, Fei Yingdong among them. The Ula beile Bujantai sent troops to intercept, and the two forces met at Wujiyan on the Tumen river, where the Jianzhou army, though fewer, routed the Ula and killed its commander, Fei Yingdong contributing much to the victory. The win gave the Jianzhou the upper hand in the contest with the Ula and extended Nurhaci's influence over the eastern Jurchen tribes.

He took part afterward in further campaigns against the Ula, which Nurhaci destroyed in 1613, and served repeatedly as a commander in the war against the Yehe. At the battle of Sarhu in 1619, the decisive engagement between the Later Jin and the Ming, he and Eidu and others led their banners, helping bring the victory. Among the five founding ministers he is named together with Eidu; Hong Taiji repeatedly recalled his services, and he received further posthumous honors under Shunzhi and Kangxi. Qing official histories treat him as the type of the upright, outspoken minister who assisted in government, and his family's titles descended through the generations into the last years of the dynasty.

The treatment of Fei Yingdong after his death reflects how the early Qing honored its founding ministers. He died in 1620 with Hong Taiji attending the mourning; under Hong Taiji his era he was posthumously made Duke Zhiyi and given a place in the ancestral temple, and after the conquest the Shunzhi and Kangxi reigns added further honors to his titles and sacrifices. At every great ceremony the list of those worshipped in the ancestral temple was the officially recognized roll of founding ministers, and Fei Yingdong's place in it beside Eidu shows his standing in the state's account of its beginnings.

As a family, his line was a well-known Manchu house of the Qing, its descendants serving in the banners. The official histories give his life with stress on his military service and administration, his seizing and killing of his brother-in-law Duicin Bayan being cited repeatedly in the Qing as the type of loyalty. In terms of sources his career appears chiefly in the draft history of the Qing and the veritable records of Nurhaci, which supplement each other but are both official narratives, with limited detail on Nurhaci's employment of men and the workings of the banner system.

Fei Yingdong's standing among the Jianzhou commanders can be seen in two ways. First, in the offices and honors he received: minister of the first rank, jarguci and imperial son-in-law, three identities in one man, meaning that he was at once a commander, the actual head of judicial and administrative business, and a kinsman by marriage of Nurhaci's house. Second, in his place in the officially compiled histories: when the Qing wrote the lives of its founding ministers, Fei Yingdong and Eidu stand together at the head of the biographies, their careers used to illustrate Nurhaci's talent for judging and employing men.

His military achievements are mostly recorded in brief, at the level of a campaign — taking more than twenty stockaded villages, receiving the submission of such a people — without detail, a consequence of the recording practices of the time and of the Later Jin's still undeveloped documentary system. That he took part continuously in the wars against the Ula, the Yehe and the Ming nonetheless shows him to have been one of the commanders Nurhaci relied on in his phase of military expansion.

Major Activities

Military Campaigns

From his submission to Nurhaci in 1588, the 16th year of the Wanli era, until his death in 1620, the fifth year of the Tianming era, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong campaigned for more than thirty years, repeatedly fighting at the front and leading assaults. His principal military achievements included campaigning against the route identified in the source as Anculakû of Warka; aiding Hada and taking part in its destruction; receiving the newly submitted people of Feiyou city and heavily defeating forces of Ula; campaigning against Weji; taking part in the destruction of Ula; helping capture Fushun; defeating Du Song's army at the Battle of Sarhu; and taking part in the destruction of Yehe.

Participation in Government

After submitting to Nurhaci, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was immediately appointed a first-class minister and assisted in government affairs. Because he executed his brother-in-law Dui QinBaYan, who had engaged in treasonous activity, he was appointed jargūci, with responsibility for hearing lawsuits and governing the people. After the founding of the Later Jin in 1616, the first year of the Tianming era, Guwalgiya Feiyingdong became one of the five governing councilors while retaining his positions as first-class minister and jargūci, and participated in major military and state affairs. Hong Taiji later said of him: “When Guwalgiya Feiyingdong saw wrongdoing in a person, he would first rebuke that person himself and only then impeach him; when he saw merit in a person, he would first encourage that person and only then recommend him. Thus those impeached bore no resentment, and those recommended showed no arrogance.”

Founding Meritorious Official

Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was regarded as the foremost of the five founding councilors of the Later Jin. Nurhaci called him a minister who was as his “arms and legs” and praised him as a “match for ten thousand men.” The Shunzhi Emperor called him “the foremost founding meritorious official who aided the dynasty's establishment.” The Kangxi Emperor stated that “his achievements surpassed those of all other ministers, making him a founding statesman of his age.” The Qianlong Emperor later commemorated his loyal service and raised his rank to first-class duke.

Personal Relations

• Father: Solgo, chief of Suwan
• Elder brother: ADouBaYan
• Younger brothers: Hurha Qibayan, Yinda Huqi, Wurhan, Babben, Langge, Yarba, Uici, Anggai Feiyanggu
• Nephew: Guwalgiya Oboi, son of Uici
• Wife: a woman of the Aisin Gioro clan, granddaughter of Nurhaci and daughter of Cuyen
• Sons: Nan Qin, NaHai, NaKaBu, Tuo Hui, SeHai, Suo Hai, Tulai, SuoJi, SuWan Yan, ChaHaNi
• Grandsons: WoHei, GuErHan, GuSu, WuErHu, Zha Qin
• Great-grandsons: Furdan, ZhaoDe, Hadaha
• Nurhaci: ruler and subject; Nurhaci relied on him as a key minister, praised him as a “match for ten thousand men,” and personally attended his mourning rites
• Hong Taiji: posthumously granted him the title Duke Zhiyi and praised his loyalty and forthrightness
• Cuyen: campaigned with him against Warka; Guwalgiya Feiyingdong married Cuyen's daughter
• Abatai: campaigned with him against the routes WuErGuChen and MuLun of Weji
• Šurhaci: campaigned with him to Feiyou city and helped defeat the forces of Ula
• Bayara: campaigned with him against Warka and Weji
• Eidu, Hohori, Hūrhan, and Anfiyanggû: served with him among the five governing councilors
• Gagai: jointly led troops to garrison Hada

Historical Assessment

Qing / Contemporary

• Nurhaci: “He is truly a match for ten thousand men!” (Draft History of Qing)
• Nurhaci: “He was a minister who was as my arms and legs and shared my fortunes and hardships. Now that he has died before me, how could I not grieve?” (Draft History of Qing)
• Hong Taiji: “When Guwalgiya Feiyingdong saw wrongdoing in a person, he would first rebuke that person himself and only then impeach him; when he saw merit in a person, he would first encourage that person and only then recommend him. Thus those impeached bore no resentment, and those recommended showed no arrogance. I have not heard of another minister who reported good and evil so directly.” (Draft History of Qing)
• Shunzhi Emperor: “Guwalgiya Feiyingdong served Taizu, participated in state planning, expanded the territory, and was the foremost founding meritorious official who aided the dynasty's establishment.” (Draft History of Qing)
• Kangxi Emperor: “His achievements surpassed those of all other ministers, making him a founding statesman of his age.” (Draft History of Qing)

Republican Period

• Zhao Erxun, chief compiler of the Draft History of Qing: “Guwalgiya Feiyingdong served Taizu and fought in campaign after campaign. Whenever he met the enemy, he personally led the troops; he won every battle and captured every objective, and those who met his charge were invariably routed. Whenever there were shortcomings in state affairs, he remonstrated forcefully and never yielded. He assisted Taizu in achieving the imperial enterprise, and his merit was the greatest.”
• Zhao Erxun, chief compiler of the Draft History of Qing: “At the beginning of the dynasty, five councilors were established to govern and hear lawsuits; when there were campaigns, they led the armies out, thus in practice combining the heavy responsibilities of generals and commanders. Eidu submitted to Taizu earliest, stood foremost among the original followers, and had the greatest record of battle. Guwalgiya Feiyingdong was particularly renowned for loyalty and forthrightness, and successive reigns repeatedly praised him as the foremost among those who aided the founding.”

Modern Period

• Modern scholarship generally regards Guwalgiya Feiyingdong as one of the most important military and political figures in the founding period of the Later Jin. His epithet “match for ten thousand men” and his position as foremost among the five councilors reflect his key role in the creation of the Later Jin regime.