Background edit

He was a member of the Guwalgiya clan, and the Bordered Yellow Banner, was the second son of a Suwan (蘇完) chieftain named Solgo (索爾果) who in 1588 led five hundred of his tribesmen to join Nurhaci.

Military service edit

Fiongdon proved himself to be a strong and an excellent fighter and he was given the eldest granddaughter of Nurhaci to wife and was appointed to a position of importance. He repaid this trust by uncovering a plot against Nurhaci and by executing the ringleader of the plot who was his own brother-in-law. In return for this he received the title jargūci (扎爾固齊, Mongol: 'judge', 'lawgiver') which gave him a right to preside over hearings and to settle disputes. After commanding two expeditions against the Warka tribes Fiongdon went in 1599 to help the Hada who had recently submitted to Nurhaci in their struggle against the Yehe. In 1607, while covering the march of a group of Warka tribesmen who had tendered their submission, he was drawn into battle with the Ula beile, Bujantai, whom he defeated. In 1615 he became one of the Five Councilors of Nurhaci. Nurhaci declared himself Khan of the Jin Dynasty early in 1616 and made Fiongdon commander of the left wing army.

Fiongdon led the attack on Fushun in 1618 in which the Manchus clashed with the Chinese for the first time. He followed this up by defeating the army of the Chinese general Tu Sung in the following year. A few months before his death he aided in the final defeat of the Yehe tribe and the capture of its beile Gintaisi.

Legacy edit

• Kennedy, George A. (1943). "Fiongdon" . In Hummel, Arthur W. Sr. (ed.). Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office.
• Crossley, Pamela Kyle (1990). Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691055831