A Manchu-Language Genealogy of the Tong Clan Discovered in Tieling
A Manchu-Language Genealogy of the Tong Clan Discovered in Tieling
MING YE
9/29/202612 min read
A Manchu-Language Genealogy of the Tong Clan Discovered in Tieling
A Rare Family Record Spanning the Ming and Qing Dynasties
By MING YE
A rare Manchu-language genealogy of the Tong clan has been preserved by the family of Tong Qingli in Tieling County, Liaoning Province.
According to specialists who examined and interpreted the document, the genealogy traces the clan from ancestors living in the middle Ming dynasty through the end of the Qing dynasty. It records not only the succession of generations within the Tong family but also accounts of individuals who played significant roles in Ming–Qing history.
Researchers involved in its examination have suggested that some of these family records may supplement information preserved in official histories and provide new clues concerning the rise and development of the Tong clan.
Tong Qingli, who was 73 when interviewed, explained that the genealogy had been handed down within his family since the Qing dynasty. Traditionally, it was opened only during New Year ceremonies honoring the ancestors, and according to the family's old customs, women were not permitted to view it.
The family once possessed another genealogy written in Chinese, but only fragments of that version are now said to survive.
He Rongwei, a specialist in the history of Northeast China's ethnic groups and an official at the Liaoning Provincial Archives, examined the Manchu genealogy and identified it as an original historical document of considerable value.
Professor Sun Shoupeng of the School of History and Culture at Jilin Normal University also emphasized its significance. As Manchu-language genealogies became increasingly uncommon over time, a surviving genealogy belonging to such a prominent and extensive clan provides valuable material for studying both family history and Qing society.
The document is particularly important because the history of the Tong clan became deeply intertwined with that of the Qing ruling house.
More Than a Family Tree
According to Liu Hanxing, formerly associated with the historical materials committee of the Tieling CPPCC, the genealogy does considerably more than list generations.
It also contains biographical accounts of important members of the clan.
These records may provide additional evidence for examining relationships between the Tong clan, the Qing imperial family, and other Manchu families.
Among the most intriguing names appearing in the genealogy are Nikan Wailan and Hūrhan.
Their appearance makes the document potentially relevant not merely to genealogy but also to the political and military history of the rise of the Later Jin.
Nikan Wailan: A Name Connected with Nurhaci's Early History
The earliest ancestor recorded in the genealogy is named Bahutekšen, who is said to have had seven sons.
In Chinese transcription, the names of several of these sons contain a recurring element rendered as “Tumutu.”
For example, the second son is recorded as Tantumutu, the third as Ehetumutu, the fifth as Darhantumutu, and the sixth as Yantumutu.
Qing historian Tong Yue has suggested that these individuals lived during the Ming dynasty, before the creation of the Manchu script. Their names may therefore have originated in Mongolian or possibly another regional language, while “Tumutu” may have represented a title or office rather than simply a personal-name element.
The genealogy states that a son of Tantumutu had a son at a place called Jiaha, possibly referring to a locality identified by some scholars with the area of present-day Shangjiahe in Xinbin Manchu Autonomous County.
That son was named Nikan Wailan.
Another individual called Nikan Wailan also appears in the sixth generation of the Ehetumutu line.
For researchers, this is one of the most intriguing aspects of the genealogy.
Was This the Same Nikan Wailan Who Became Nurhaci's Enemy?
Nikan Wailan occupies an important place in accounts of Nurhaci's early rise.
He was associated with the Jianzhou Jurchens and the region around Jiaha. In traditional accounts of the conflict surrounding the Ming general Li Chengliang's attack on Gure, Nikan Wailan became closely connected with the events that resulted in the deaths of Nurhaci's father Taksi and grandfather Giocangga.
Nurhaci subsequently made vengeance for their deaths an important justification for his campaigns against Nikan Wailan.
These struggles formed part of the process through which Nurhaci gradually consolidated the Jianzhou Jurchens.
The appearance of the name Nikan Wailan in the Tong genealogy is therefore highly significant.
However, He Rongwei emphasized an essential point of historical caution:
the genealogy alone does not prove that the Nikan Wailan recorded in the Tong family line was the same Nikan Wailan whom Nurhaci regarded as an enemy.
Establishing that identification would require additional documentary evidence.
The genealogy thus provides an important clue rather than a final answer.
Hūrhan: One of Nurhaci's Five Founding Ministers
Another major figure appearing in the genealogy is Hūrhan (扈尔汉).
Hūrhan is traditionally grouped with He Heli, Eidu, Fiongdon, and Anfiyanggū as one of the five important founding ministers associated with Nurhaci.
Historical sources record that Nurhaci accepted Hūrhan as an adopted son and granted him the Gioro surname.
What has been less clear is Hūrhan's precise age when this occurred.
According to He Rongwei's interpretation, the Tong genealogy states that Hūrhan became Nurhaci's adopted son at the age of eight.
If corroborated by other sources, this would provide a useful detail for reconstructing Hūrhan's early biography.
Hūrhan's Military Career in the Genealogy
The genealogy devotes considerable attention to Hūrhan's military career.
It describes him as a warrior who, whenever confronted with battle, sought to fight at the front and distinguish himself through military achievement.
Qing historical materials likewise portray Hūrhan as an exceptionally aggressive commander.
One account describes him confronting an Ula force numbering in the thousands with only around two hundred men until reinforcements arrived.
The Tong genealogy also records Hūrhan's participation in expeditions toward Jurchen communities in the Heilongjiang region.
According to the family record, he ordered trees cut down and approximately two hundred boats constructed. His forces then advanced by both land and water and captured thirty-six settlements along the river.
The genealogy further places Hūrhan in the Battle of Sarhū.
It states that he fought Ming forces around Fushun and Kaiyuan and subsequently led approximately one thousand troops into an ambush position along the route expected to be taken by the Ming commander Liu Ting.
After reinforcements arrived, the Later Jin forces attacked from multiple directions. Liu Ting was killed and his army collapsed.
Other Qing historical sources also associate Hūrhan with the Later Jin capture of Shenyang and fighting against the Ming commander He Shixian.
According to the genealogy, when Hūrhan died at the age of forty-eight, Nurhaci personally came to mourn him and wept.
Hūrhan's Brother Hūšta and an Imperial Story
Hūrhan's younger brother, Hūšta, is also portrayed as an extraordinary figure.
During one of the Kangxi Emperor's eastern tours, officials from Shengjing accompanied the emperor in ceremonies connected with the imperial tombs.
Hūšta was among them.
According to the Tong genealogy, Kangxi noticed that Hūšta was unusually tall and physically imposing.
The emperor then asked whether anyone present could lift a large incense burner.
Hūšta stepped forward.
The genealogy claims that he lifted the extremely heavy object with little apparent difficulty and carried it before the assembled officials, astonishing everyone present.
Whether every detail of this family story can be independently verified or not, its preservation is itself revealing: genealogies were not merely records of descent but also repositories of family memory and narratives about distinguished ancestors.
Junta: From Pi Island to the Campaigns Against Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong
Hūrhan's fourth son, Junta, followed his father into military service.
During the Qing attack on Pi Island, the genealogy describes Junta connecting his warships with those commanded by forces under Oboi and taking part in the advance across the water.
During the assault, Junta and Oboi are portrayed as charging forward despite Ming arrows and crossbow fire.
The genealogy gives particular attention to Junta's campaigns after he entered Shanhai Pass with Dorgon.
He participated in the pursuit of Li Zicheng, eventually advancing toward Zhending.
The record then describes campaigns southward through Shandong and fighting between the Yellow and Huai rivers, where Qing forces reportedly captured 564 boats and 57 hongyipao cannon.
Junta later entered Sichuan to fight forces associated with Zhang Xianzhong.
According to the genealogy's account, he commanded Banner vanguard troops and cavalry from the Two Yellow Banners and the Plain White Banner during the fighting.
The family record attributes Zhang Xianzhong's death to an arrow fired during this engagement.
These accounts make the genealogy potentially useful for comparison with Qing official military histories and other contemporary records.
The Tong Clan and the Qing Imperial Family
The historical relationship between the Tong clan and the Qing ruling house was unusually close.
Tong Yue points to a document from 1596 in which Nurhaci's name appears in Chinese diplomatic usage with the surname Tong.
Ming records also contain Chinese renderings of the names of Nurhaci's father Taksi and grandfather Giocangga that incorporate the surname Tong.
Why did Nurhaci sometimes use the surname Tong in communications with the outside world?
One explanation is practical.
The Jurchens maintained political and commercial relations with Ming China and Joseon Korea, and using a familiar Chinese surname may have facilitated communication.
The Tong surname was already prominent in Liaodong and appears in Chinese historical records from much earlier periods.
Another interpretation emphasizes the political prestige of the Liaodong Tong clan itself.
According to Liu Hanxing, the branch descended from Darhantumutu had used the Tong surname since the early Ming period and produced generations of officials in Liaodong.
One prominent member, Tong Deng, became an influential Ming military figure in the region.
From this perspective, Nurhaci's use of the Tong surname may also have carried political and social advantages.
The precise historical relationship between these uses of the surname, however, remains a subject requiring careful documentary analysis.
Tong Yangxing and Tong Yangzhen
The genealogy records that the Darhantumutu branch entered the Chinese household-registration system at Kaiyuan.
This branch included two important early Qing figures:
Tong Yangxing and his cousin Tong Yangzhen.
Their ethnic and political identities have long generated discussion among historians.
The genealogy provides additional family evidence relevant to that debate.
Tong Yue, however, argues that trying to impose rigid modern ethnic categories on these individuals may obscure the historical reality.
Branches of the family that lived for generations among Han Chinese populations naturally adopted many Chinese customs.
When members of those branches later joined Nurhaci, they entered a different political and social environment and increasingly identified themselves with the Jurchen political community.
Their history therefore illustrates the fluidity of identity along the Liaodong frontier during the transition from Ming to Qing.
Marriage Ties Between the Tong and Aisin Gioro Families
Some researchers have proposed that Tong Deng married a daughter to Nurhaci, although this interpretation remains disputed.
What is much more securely recorded in historical sources is that Nurhaci gave one of his daughters in marriage to Tong Yangxing.
This marriage brought the Tong and Aisin Gioro families into an even closer political relationship.
Tong Yangxing was a wealthy and influential figure in Liaodong.
He supported Nurhaci and later played an important role in the development and manufacture of artillery for the Later Jin.
His political and military choices therefore contributed to the rise of the new regime.
The descendants of Tong Yangzhen became even more closely connected with the Qing imperial family.
His son Tong Tulai, and later descendants including Tong Guogang and Tong Guowei, occupied important positions in the Qing political establishment.
A female member of the Tonggiya clan became an imperial consort of the Shunzhi Emperor and the mother of the future Kangxi Emperor.
Tong Guowei's son Longkodo later became one of the most powerful officials of the early eighteenth century.
Why Was the Tong Clan Called “Half the Court”?
The extraordinary political prominence of the family eventually gave rise to the expression:
“Tong Ban Chao” (佟半朝) — “Half the Court was Tong.”
According to Tong Yue, as many as 221 members of the extended Tong clan held official positions in the Qing government.
The expression was not necessarily meant literally. Rather, it reflected the remarkable visibility of the family within the Qing political elite.
Their influence came from a combination of:
military service,
early support for the Later Jin,
marriage connections with the imperial family,
Banner status,
wealth,
and generations of government service.
The Kangxi Emperor himself composed verses praising members of the Tong family, emphasizing their distinguished standing, modest conduct, and continued imperial favor.
As one of the most important families associated with the early Qing rise, descendants of the Tong Yangxing and Tong Yangzhen branches increasingly moved to Beijing.
Only a smaller portion of these branches remained in Liaodong.
The Tieling Branch: Remembered for Loyalty and Courage
As the Tong clan expanded, it divided into numerous branches.
One of these eventually settled in Tieling.
It was this branch that preserved the Manchu genealogy discussed here.
According to He Rongwei, the genealogy devotes considerable attention to the Tieling branch, whose members are repeatedly portrayed through the traditional virtues of loyalty and military courage.
The Tieling Tongs belonged to the line of Tantumutu.
Their first recorded ancestor in this branch was Tabahai, born in 1557 during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty.
According to the genealogy, he moved to Hetu Ala in 1616.
In 1625, he moved again, settling at Xixiaohe north of Shengjing, identified with present-day Xixiaohekou Village in Xintaizi, Tieling County.
Like Hūrhan, Tabahai is described in strongly martial terms.
Whenever battle occurred, the genealogy says, he risked his life and fought with determination.
Tabahai and the Battle of Sarhū
The genealogy records Tabahai as participating in the Battle of Sarhū alongside Hūrhan.
He fought against the eastern Ming army commanded by Liu Ting, contributing to its defeat.
Tabahai continued his military career after the battle.
According to the genealogy, he was killed in fighting around Shanhai Pass in 1626.
His descendants continued the family's military tradition.
Sentuhe and the War Against the Three Feudatories
The second-generation ancestor Sentuhe is likewise described as an experienced warrior.
He participated in numerous campaigns during the transition from Ming to Qing.
In 1644, he was reportedly rewarded with a substantial grant of land before later retiring because of illness.
When Wu Sangui's rebellion broke out during the Kangxi reign, Sentuhe returned to military service and participated in the suppression of the revolt.
During one engagement, the genealogy says that he seized an iron-chain bridge single-handedly and fired his arrows without missing.
His performance reportedly earned imperial recognition.
Colai and the Battle of Albazin
The third-generation ancestor Colai is associated with another major episode in Qing history: the conflict with Russia at Albazin (Yaksa).
In 1685, during the Kangxi reign, Colai was reportedly ordered to participate in an expedition involving approximately three thousand Qing troops.
The Qing assault on Albazin became part of a prolonged confrontation between the Qing Empire and Russia over the northeastern frontier.
These conflicts eventually contributed to negotiations between the two empires.
In 1689, Qing China and Russia concluded the Treaty of Nerchinsk, one of the most important early diplomatic agreements between the two states.
The presence of a Tong ancestor in the genealogy's account of these events demonstrates how one family record can intersect with much larger developments in international history.
From Warriors to Scholars and Officials
The later generations recorded in the genealogy reveal an important transformation.
The family did not remain exclusively a military lineage.
Its descendants also entered scholarship and civil administration.
The sixth-generation ancestor Fuerjian, for example, is described as devoted to Chinese learning and as having served in connection with the compilation of the Siku Quanshu alongside scholars such as Yao Nai.
The eighth-generation ancestor Fushenge submitted a memorial to the Daoguang Emperor describing the damage caused by opium and reportedly attracted imperial attention.
The tenth-generation ancestor Shulong'a distinguished himself in military operations against Russian expansion and was eventually promoted to a senior command position responsible for Shanhai Pass.
The eleventh-generation ancestor Lian Pinsan received the privilege of wearing the Yellow Riding Jacket from the Guangxu Emperor. According to the family account, his name was also personally bestowed by the emperor.
By this period, centuries had passed since the rise of Nurhaci.
Yet the genealogy portrays the Tieling Tong lineage as continuing to maintain connections with the Qing state and imperial political culture.
Why Is This Manchu Genealogy Important?
The importance of the Tieling Tong genealogy lies in several different dimensions.
First, it is a Manchu-language family document.
As the use of spoken and written Manchu declined during the later Qing period, genealogies written substantially in Manchu became increasingly uncommon.
Second, the genealogy covers a remarkably long period—from ancestors associated with the Ming dynasty through the end of the Qing.
Third, it preserves information about individuals who intersect with major historical events:
Nurhaci's rise,
Nikan Wailan and the Jianzhou Jurchens,
Hūrhan and the founding generation of the Later Jin,
the Battle of Sarhū,
the Qing conquest,
campaigns against Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong,
the Revolt of the Three Feudatories,
the Qing-Russian conflicts at Albazin,
and later Qing frontier affairs.
Fourth, it offers evidence for studying the complicated identity of the Tong/Tonggiya clan and its relationships with Han Chinese society, the Jurchens and Manchus, the Eight Banners, and the Aisin Gioro imperial house.
Family Genealogies and Official History
A genealogy must nevertheless be approached differently from an official archive or a contemporary military report.
Family genealogies were created to preserve descent, commemorate ancestors, and construct family memory.
For precisely this reason, they can contain information unavailable elsewhere—but they may also preserve traditions that require independent verification.
The case of Nikan Wailan is an excellent example.
The appearance of his name in the Tong genealogy is historically intriguing.
But a shared name does not by itself prove that the individual in the genealogy was Nurhaci's famous enemy.
Likewise, detailed stories concerning military achievements, imperial encounters, physical feats, or personal relationships become most historically powerful when they can be compared with contemporary memorials, veritable records, Banner archives, local gazetteers, and other independent documents.
This does not diminish the value of the genealogy.
On the contrary, it explains why such a document is important.
It provides another historical voice with which official history can be compared.
A Manchu Manuscript Preserving Four Centuries of Family Memory
The Tieling Tong genealogy is therefore more than a list of ancestors.
Within its pages are preserved stories of migration, warfare, political allegiance, imperial marriage, scholarship, frontier conflict, and family identity.
From Ming-period Liaodong to the rise of Nurhaci, from the establishment of the Qing dynasty to the empire's final generations, the history of this family repeatedly intersected with larger transformations in Northeast China.
Most importantly, these memories were preserved in Manchu.
Today, when Manchu is no longer widely used as an everyday language, documents such as this genealogy demonstrate why the surviving Manchu written heritage remains so valuable.
Official archives tell us how governments recorded history.
Genealogies tell us how families remembered themselves within that history.
When the two are read together, details that once seemed minor can acquire entirely new significance.
That may ultimately be the greatest value of the Tieling Tong genealogy:
it allows a family history written in Manchu to speak again—and to become part of the broader reconstruction of Ming–Qing history.
— MING YE