the head of the expedition against the rebel, Chiang Hsiang [q. v.]. He was then promoted to Ch'in-wang 親王, or prince of the first degree, and in 1650 was associated with Mandahai [q. v.] and Bolo in directing the work of the Six Boards. Within nine months he was twice degraded in rank on minor charges and was twice reinstated. He turned against Dorgon after the latter died and so kept his position. For a time he was put in charge of the Board of Ceremonies, and in 1652 was made head of the Imperial Clan Court. On August 18, 1652 he was given the title of Ting-yüan Ta Chiang-chün 定遠大將軍, and proceeded against the Ming loyalist, Li Ting-kuo [q. v.], in Hunan. At Heng-chou, while pursuing Li's general, Ma Chin-chung 馬進忠 (T. 葵于), he was surrounded by the enemy and died in battle. His body was brought to Peking and buried with honors, and the posthumous name, Chuang 莊, was conferred upon him. Nikan's wife was a niece of Ebilun [q. v.].
In 1659 Nikan was posthumously accused, among other things, of having appropriated for his own use part of Dorgon's confiscated property. But because he had died in battle for the dynasty, his hereditary rank was allowed to continue. In 1669 his son, Lambu 蘭布 (d. 1678), was reduced to a prince of the fifth degree for concealing the misdemeanors of his wife's grandfather, Oboi [q. v.]. Lambu's descendants inherited the lower rank of a sixth degree princedom, but in 1778 Emperor Kao-tsung, in honor of Nikan, raised that rank one degree and gave it the rights of perpetual inheritance.
[1/222/3b; 2/2/34b; 3/ shou 7/1a; 34/128/5a.]
NIKAN 尼堪, d. 1660, was a member of the Nara clan in the Ula (Sungari River) district. He joined the service of Nurhaci [q. v.] sometime after the defeat of the Ula in 1613 (see Bujantai), and was attached to the Bordered White Banner. Under Nurhaci's successor, Abahai [q. v.], he took some part in the campaign against the Ming, but he was principally concerned with ManchuMongol relations. In 1633 he toured the newly-subdued Mongol territories for the purpose of holding trials and settling disputes. In the following year he took charge of groups of deserters from Chahar who came to the Manchu capital at Mukden. In 1635, while on garrison duty at Kweihwa, capital of the recently subjugated Tumet tribe, he intercepted communications between that people and the Ming Court, and frustrated plans for cooperation with the Chinese.
At the opening of the Ch'ung-tê reign period (1636) he was appointed director of the Bureau of Colonial Affairs which at that time was concerned almost exclusively with Mongol matters. Two years later he was removed for alleged injustice in the settlement of disputes among Karacin Mongols, but was shortly afterwards reappointed assistant director. In 1639 he had charge of the recruiting of Mongol soldiers for Manchu armies. After the fall of the Ming dynasty he led a Mongol army in the subjugation of Honan, but in 1646 was again sent northwards to conquer the Sunid tribe on the borders of Inner Mongolia. In 1647 he became president of the Court of Colonial Affairs at Peking, a position he held until 1653 when he was retired on account of old age. He was simultaneously promoted to the rank of viscount of the second class. He died in 1660, leaving no male heir.
[1/234/4a; 3/41/9a; 11/5/39a ; 34/167/6a.]
NIKAN Wailan 尼堪外蘭 d. 1586, was a chieftain of the Suksuhu 蘇克蘇護 river tribe of Manchus who lived on a tributary of the Hun 渾 river just northwest of Hetu ala (see under Nurhaci). (Nikan is the Manchu word for "Chinese," and Wailan appears to be a corruption of the Chinese official title yüan-wai-lang 員外郎). In 1583 he offered to co-operate with the Chinese general, Li Ch'êng-liang [q. v.], in an expedition against Atai who was constantly raiding the territory around Shenyang and Liaoyang. Atai was the son of Wang Kao (for both see Nurhaci) who had been executed by Li Ch'êng-liang in 1575; he was also a cousin of Nurhaci by marriage, having taken the daughter of Nurhaci's [q. v.] uncle, Lidun 禮敦, for a wife. In 1582 Li Ch'êng-liang besieged the town of Gure 古哷 where Atai was established. According to the official story adopted by the Ch'ing dynasty historians, Giocangga and Taksi (see under Nurhaci)—Nurhaci's grandfather and father respectively—went to the assistance of their relative, and were slaughtered by Li Ch'êng-liang along with Atai when the town was captured. But Chinese records which have escaped the Ch'ing censorship, state that Giocangga and Taksi were in the service of Li
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