who reduced his rank from hošoi beile to doroi beile and condemned him to pay a large fine. After further discussion, a report was introduced by Daišan ridiculing the custom of having three leaders sitting on a level, "like the images of a Buddhist trinity". It was agreed that hereafter he and Manggûltai should occupy seats below the throne to the right and left—a procedure which was first carried out early in 1632.
The death of Manggûltai in 1633 made possible a further approach by Abahai to absolute sovereignty, since the only remaining one of the "four beile" was Daišan, his original supporter. In 1635 Manggûltai's younger brother, Degelei, died. Early in the following year a servant in the employ of Manggûji charged that Manggûltai had plotted treason. The family's possessions were confiscated, and among them were found a number of seals prepared with the legend, "Seal of the Emperor of the Great Chin Kingdom" 大金國皇帝之印. Convinced that Manggûltai had planned to make himself Emperor, Abahai ordered the execution of his son, his sister (Manggûji), and his half-brother (Anggala), as accomplices, and decreed that the names of both Manggultai and Degelei should be expunged from the genealogical records of the Imperial Family. A few months later he himself assumed the title of Emperor and with it absolute rule of his people.
In 1713 the descendants of Manggûltai and Degelei were permitted by Emperor Shêng-tsu to wear the red girdle, thus being recognized as belonging to the Gioro clan but not as members of the Imperial Family who were privileged to wear the yellow girdle. There are grounds for believing that Nurhaci's sixteenth son Fiyanggû 費揚古, about whom the official records are silent, may have been a brother of Manggûltai and Degelei, in which case it is probable that he was executed with his sister in 1636.
[1/223/2a, 9b; 2/3/43a; 3/首12/1a; 34/133/9a; Tung-hua lu, T'ien-ming 7:3, T'ien-ts'ung 5:12; Man-chou lao-tang pi-lu (see under Nurhaci), 上/27b, 下/27b, 35a; Ch'ing Huang-shih ssŭ-p'u (see under Fu-lung-an), 3/5, 4/2b.]
MAO Ch'i-ling 毛奇齡 (T. 大可, 齊於, H. 西河), Oct. 25, 1623–1716, scholar, was a native of Hsiao-shan, Chekiang. His father, Mao Ping-ching 毛秉鏡 (T. 竟山), had four sons of whom Mao Ch'i-ling was the youngest. Two of the sons, Mao Wan-ling 毛萬齡 and Mao Hsi-ling 毛錫齡, were ardent students; a third, Mao Hui-ling 毛慧齡, died in early life. At the age of fifteen (sui) Mao Ch'i-ling became a hsiu-ts'ai. He and his eldest brother, Mao Wan-ling, came to be known as the "Elder and Younger Mao" (大小毛子). After the fall of the Ming dynasty (1644) he retired with several of his friends to study in the mountains near his home district, but in 1646 joined one of the southern Ming armies under the Prince of Lu (see under Chu I-hai). While thus engaged he aroused, by certain remarks, the anger of a military leader, Fang Kuo-an (see under Chu I-hai), who was then stationed in Chekiang. Thereupon he took refuge as a monk in a monastery near his home, but about 1651 he returned to the life of a hsiu-ts'ai.
Talented and proud and possessed of a sharp tongue, Mao Ch'i-ling incurred the enmity of many people in his home district. In 1651 he aroused considerable misunderstanding owing to an anthology of poems by Shaohsing authors which he had compiled. Later he wrote two dramas which were interpreted as ridiculing people of his native place. Finally the hatred against him grew so strong that he was charged with being the central figure in a murder case which occurred about the year 1657. Fleeing from home, he changed his name to Wang Yen 王彥 (T. 士方) and later to Mao Shêng 毛甡 (T. 初晴, 秋晴 and 晚晴). For some ten years he wandered in Kiangsu, Kiangsi, and Honan, and for a time was a guest of Shih Jun-chang [q. v.] when the latter was intendant of the Hu-hsi Circuit, Kiangsi (1661–1664). During his stay in Honan he made the acquaintance of T'ang Pin [q. v.]. About the year 1667, with the help of a friend, Chiang Hsi-chê (see under Wan Ssŭ-t'ung), his case was cleared and he returned home. While sojourning in Shanghai in 1678 he was recommended to take the special examination known as po-hsüeh hung-tzŭ which he passed successfully in the following year. He was made a Hanlin corrector and was appointed to the Historiographical Board which was then compiling the Ming History (Ming-shih). We are told that it fell to his lot to compile biographies of personages who lived during the Hung-chih (1488–1506) and Chêng-tê (1506–1522) reignperiods, and later to write on the aboriginal tribes and freebooters. In 1685 he officiated as an associate examiner of the metropolitan examinations. In the following year he obtained leave to bury the remains of his mother and, being
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