Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Anfiyanggû

3633235Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, Volume 1 — AnfiyanggûArthur W. HummelGeorge A. Kennedy

ANFIYANGGÛ 安費揚古 (武), 1559–1622, Aug. 7, was one of the earliest companions of Nurhaci [q. v.]. His biographers state that he belonged to the Giolca 覺爾察, clan and that his father Wambulu 完布祿, remained loyal to Nurhaci despite efforts of the Janggiya 竟嘉 and Nimala (尼瑪蘭) people to tempt him to rebel. Behind this statement lies a bitter dissention in Nurhaci's own clan which the official Ch'ing historians tried to conceal. There is no clan named Giolca among the 641 listed in the Genealogy of the Manchu Clans, 八旗滿洲氏族通譜 Pa-ch'i Man-chou shih-tsu t'ung-p'u, 80 + 2 chüan, completed early in 1745. Giolca was the place in which Nurhaci's granduncle, Desiku 德世庫, had settled, and it seems probable that Anfiyanggû was one of Desiku's descendants. Janggiya and Nimala were similarly the homes of two other of Nurhaci's granduncles whose descendants were hostile to Nurhaci's plans for conquest. Anfiyanggû, who was the same age as Nurhaci, joined the latter in all the expeditions by which between 1583 and 1593 he subdued the smaller tribes round him and crushed his hostile relatives at Janggiya and Nimala. During a battle with Hada forces (see under Wan) in 1593 Anfiyanggû saved Nurhaci's life, for which the title Songkoro Baturu, "eagle-like conquering hero", was conferred upon him. Attached to the Bordered Blue Banner, he took part in all of the larger campaigns of the next twenty years, and in 1615 was appointed one of the five chief councilors in the newly organized administration, the other four being Eidu, Hûrhan, Fiongdon, and Hohori [qq. v.]. He died one year after he had assisted in the capture of Shên-yang and Liao-yang. In 1659 the posthumous name, Min-chuang 敏壯, was conferred upon him and a tablet was erected in memory of his services to the founding of the dynasty.

Anfiyanggû, and his descendants held the hereditary captaincy of four companies in the first division of the Bordered Blue Banner. In memory of Anfiyanggû's exploits, the minor hereditary rank of Ch'ing-ch'ê tu-yü was conferred on one of his sons (1650) and on a great-grandson (1713). Another son was killed in battle and was rewarded with the hereditary Ch'ing-ch'ê tu-yü. A grandson, named Sun-t'a 孫 (遜) 塔 (d. 1666), was onetime president of the Board of Works (1656-60) and in 1664 was made a first class baron.


[1/231/7a; 3/261/23a; 4/3/11b; 11/1/16b; 34/16/1a; 34/178/1a; 34/276/1a; 34/292/3b, 17a.]

George A. Kennedy