Comrade | Guevara
Friends familiar with history know that in the early and middle period of the Qing Dynasty, the Tong Jia family (referred to as the Tong family) family was very powerful, not only a large number of founding fathers and court officials emerged, but also a number of women became empresses or concubines, and even the mother of the Kangxi Emperor was from the Tong family. However, as the first generation of the Tong family, Tong Yangzheng, the great-grandfather of the Kangxi Emperor, the final outcome was very miserable, and he ended up being executed by Ling Chi. What's going on here?
01 Trace
Tong Yangzheng, formerly known as Tong Yangzhen, was renamed "Tong Yangzheng" in later generations because of the avoidance of the name of the Yongzheng Emperor Yin chan. Tong Yangzheng was not a Han Chinese, but was born in the Tong Jia tribe of the Jurchen clan, and the ancestor Tong Dalaha did business with the Central Plains in the early Ming Dynasty, so he migrated from Kaiyuan to Fushun, and his descendants also inherited his profession. Tong Yangzheng, who was born as a merchant, followed his elders to do business in various places since childhood, and was not only closely related to the leaders of the Jurchen tribes, but also familiar with the political, public and defense conditions of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, and was an expert in collecting intelligence.
Nurhaci
Forty-four years of the Wanli Calendar (1616. Note: This article uniformly uses the Ming Dynasty era name), nurhaci, who basically unified the Jurchen tribes, called himself the Great Khan, thus establishing the predecessor of the Qing Dynasty, the Later Jin regime, and establishing the Yuan as the Mandate of Heaven. Two years later (1618), Nurhaci rebelled against the Ming Dynasty in the name of the "Seven Great Hates", and then, with the assistance of the spy Tong Yangsheng, captured the military town of Fushun, capturing more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians. In order to reward Tong Yang, Nurhaci not only married his granddaughter (the daughter of Abai) to him, but also awarded him the title of third-class baron.
After Tong Yangsheng became Hou Jin's steed, he recommended talented clan members to Nurhaci, including his cousin Tong Yangzheng. Nurhaci admired Tong Yangzheng's talent, not only making him subordinate to the Han military banner, but also taking him with him every time he went on a campaign, providing him with as many opportunities as possible to make meritorious achievements. Digression. Tong Yangzheng's clan sister Tong Jia Hahana Zaqing was Nurhaci's wife, and because of this relationship, Tong Yang was highly valued in the Later Jin court, and it was even more reasonable.
Tong Yangzheng stills
After the Battle of Salhu (1619), the Ming Dynasty's defense in Liaodong became quite weak, and Nurhaci took the opportunity to capture the military towns of Qinghe, Tieling, Liaoyang, and Shenyang, and extended its power to western Liaoning. During this period, Tong Yangzheng was awarded the post of third-class light vehicle lieutenant for his great merits in the conquest of Liaoyang, and was immediately stationed in Zhenjiang (present-day Dandong, Liaoning Province) as a guerrilla, in the first year of the Apocalypse (1621). But what Tong Yangzheng did not expect was that he had actually embarked on the road of death here.
02 Death
In the same year that Tong Yangzheng was ordered to defend Zhenjiang, the Ming guerrilla Mao Wenlong accepted the orders of Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, and led 197 warriors, including Mao Chenglu, You Jinghe, Wang Fu, and Chen Zhong, to fight deep into the territory of Houjin. Although the strength of the troops was very small, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was extremely strong, and in less than half a year, they successively recaptured pig islands, Ocean Island, Changshan Island, Guanglu Island and other coastal islands, and arrested Houjin Shoudao officers Hu Kebin, Ren Guangxian, He Guoyong and others, which made Nurhaci both shocked and angry after hearing the news.
Map of the situation in Eastern Liaoning at the end of the Ming Dynasty
On July 14, after learning that the main Force of the Later Jin Garrison stationed in Zhenjiang had gone to Shuangshan to kill the Ming Dynasty people who refused to surrender and the defense of the city was empty, Mao Wenlong consulted with wang Yining, a member of the sheng, and led more than 100 people to attack Zhenjiang at night, taking Chen Liangce, the commander of the Zhenjiang Army, as his internal response. Since Zhenjiang was almost unguarded, Mao Wenlong easily captured the city and captured the defenders Tong Yangzheng and his son Tong Fengnian and nephew Tong Songnian, known in history as the "Great Victory of Zhenjiang".
Tong Yangzheng is not only Nurhaci's wife and uncle, but also his right and left arm, and Mao Wenlong can be regarded as a fruitful harvest to capture such an important big person. In order to seek merit from the imperial court, Mao Wenlong ordered his henchmen to escort Tong Yangzheng and others to Beijing, and reported in detail to the Wanli Emperor on the background of these people. The Wanli Emperor also simply convicted Tong Yangzheng of "great rebellion", and then executed him on October 26, and Tong Fengnian and Tong Songnian were also executed.
Myojin sect image
In order to boost the morale of the Ming army in Liaodong, the Wanli Emperor, after executing Tong Yangzheng and his sons and nephews, sent their heads to Liaodong to show the public ("Tong Yangzhen's three Ling Chi, and Tong Guo beheaded four people, still with the late Ming Dynasty Zhao Gong head to Liaodong." See Records of the Two Dynasties, Vol. IX). In stark contrast to the cheers of the Ming generals, the atmosphere of fear and grief pervaded the Houjin camp, and Nurhaci immediately launched a series of onslaughts against the Ming army in Liaodong in order to avenge his wife and uncle, but with little success.
03 Family
Although Tong Yangzheng ended up with the tragic end of being executed by Ling Chi, his descendants enjoyed glory and wealth in the Qing Dynasty for more than a hundred years. According to the zhengshi records, Tong Yangzheng had three sons, except for Tong Fengnian, who was killed with him, the most accomplished and famous was the second son Tong Tulai (Han name Tong Shengnian). Tong Tulai not only made many military achievements during his lifetime, but also his daughter Tong Jiashi (Empress Xiaokangzhang) also married the Shunzhi Emperor as a concubine, and later gave birth to the Kangxi Emperor. In this way, Tong Yangzheng became the great-grandfather of the Kangxi Emperor.
The Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor was full of affection for his mother because of his filial piety, so in line with the idea of "kissing the superior and adding relatives", in August of the sixteenth year of kangxi (1677), he included his cousin Tong Jiashi into the palace and made her a noble concubine (before her death, she was promoted to empress, that is, Empress Xiaoyiren). A few years later, Tong Jia's half-sister (Emperor Huanhui's concubine) was also adopted as a concubine by the Kangxi Emperor because of her beauty and gentleness. Therefore, the phenomenon of Tong Jia sisters serving together in the palace is a great honor for the Tong family.
In addition to marrying two cousins, the Kangxi Emperor also promoted his uncle Tong Guowei several times, and eventually promoted him to the position of Minister of internal affairs and a first-class duke. Tong Guowei played the dual roles of uncle and abbot of the state, and his power in the DPRK was great, and he was known as the "Tong Half Dynasty" at that time. Behind the scenes of Tong Guowei Xie, his son Long Keduo was called "uncle" by the Yongzheng Emperor because he helped the Yongzheng Emperor to seize the throne in the "Nine Dragons Conquest", and was also the younger brother of Empress Xiaoyiren (the adoptive mother of the Yongzheng Emperor), so he was called "uncle" by the Yongzheng Emperor, and was promoted to Taibao and the First Rank Duke, and was also powerful.
Yongzheng Emperor
In addition to the above-mentioned prominent descendants, Tong Yangzheng also had a number of descendants who became concubines and important subjects of the Qing Dynasty, which will not be repeated here. In short, Tong Yangzheng's descendants enjoyed more than a hundred years of glory and wealth in the Qing Dynasty, and in addition to the royal family, they were by no means comparable to other families. It was also because of this that tong Yangzheng, a traitor who was executed by Ling Chi of the Ming Dynasty, was posthumously awarded the title of Guanglu Dafu (Guanglu Dafu) and a First Class Duke in the first year of Yongzheng (1723), and was also given the title of Taishi (太師), giving him the title of Zhonglie (忠烈), and receiving the special gift of the Chongli Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall. Tong Yang is as if he knew it under the spring, and he should feel deeply honored, right?
bibliography
Wang Zaijin (Ming): Facts of the Three Dynasties and Liao, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1996.
Shen Guoyuan (Ming): Records of the Two Dynasties, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1996.
Qing Dynasty Official Revision Historical Materials: Qing Shilu, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2008 edition.
Zhao Erxun (Qing/Republic of China): Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1998.