Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Enggeder
ENGGEDER 恩格德爾, d. 1636, belonged to the clan of Borjigit which claimed descent from the emperors of the Mongol dynasty. His ancestors were chieftains in the Bayot tribe that formed a subdivision of the Khalkas and had its pastures on the Sira muren, the upper waters of the Liao River, in present Jehol. Friendly intercourse between the Khalka Mongols and Nurhaci [q. v.] began in 1594 when some Mongol leaders sent complimentary messages to the Manchu chief. In 1605 Enggeder made a journey through hostile territory in order to bring Nurhaci a present of twenty horses. At the beginning of 1607 he again paid a visit in company with other Khalka chieftains who conferred on Nurhaci an honorary title. This title, according to the earliest shih-lu 實錄 of Nurhaci's reign, was K'un-tu-lun-han 崐都侖汗 and is there interpreted to mean "respectful". As there were a number of khan among the Khalka tribes the import of this visit appears to have been nothing more than a patronizing recognition of Nurhaci as a fellow-ruler. In the later shih-lu, however, and in all succeeding accounts, the affair is presented as an early acceptance of Nurhaci's overlordship, and the Mongol delegates are said to have given the Manchu leader the Chinese title, Shên-wu Huang-ti 神武皇帝, ten years before he himself assumed the imperial rôle. In 1617 Enggeder paid a third visit to Nurhaci and was given the fourth daughter of Šurhaci [q. v.] as wife. Seven years later he asked permission to migrate with his whole clan into Liaotung. Nurhaci extended him a welcome, granted him immunity in advance from punishment for all crimes but treason, and settled him in the city of Liao-yang which had been recently captured from the Chinese. Besides other valuable presents, he gave him a grant of land and agricultural implements, assigning part of the captured Chinese population of P'ing-ting-pu 平定堡 to be his serfs.
Enggeder and his younger brother, Manggûldai 莽果爾岱 (d. 1652), were attached to the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner and were each given the rank of a viscount. In 1629 Enggeder was in command of the left wing of the Mongol army during the expedition made by Abahai [q. v.] into northern China. At the gates of Peking his troops showed lack of discipline and suffered a defeat. For this Enggeder was required to pay a fine, but he retrieved his reputation by victories against Ming forces in the following year. In 1631 he was again reprimanded for dilatory tactics at the siege of Ta-ling-ho 大凌河. Enggeder died in 1636. In 1655 he was granted the posthumous name, Tuan-shun 端順, and his services were commemorated by the erection of a tablet in front of his tomb. In 1729 he was posthumously elevated to the rank of a duke of the third class with the designation, Fêng-i 奉義.
Enggeder left his hereditary rank of viscount to his son, Erke daicing 額爾克戴青 (d. 1661, posthumous name 勤良). In 1650 Dorgon [q. v.] tried to lure the latter to his side by promising him the rank of marquis and the privilege of transference to Dorgon's own Plain White Banner. Erke daicing declined, however, to leave the Plain Yellow Banner of Emperor Shih-tsu. Hence, in 1651, after the emperor came to power, Erke daicing was rewarded by being first made a marquis and then a duke; but in 1659, owing to a street brawl between his servant and a bodyguard of the emperor, Erke daicing was deprived of his rank and offices. From 1659 to 1667 his brother held the reduced rank of earl, but in 1667 one of Erke daicing's sons was again made a duke. When a great-grandson of Erke daicing came into the inheritance he was given, in 1715, the reduced rank of a marquis. In 1729 Emperor Shih-tsung, in remembrance of Enggeder's services, raised the rank to a dukedom of the third class and in 1731 gave it the designation, Fêng-i. Early in 1745 Emperor Kao-tsung once more reduced it to marquis.
Ch'i-shan [q. v.], a descendant of Enggeder in the eighth generation and the tenth inheritor of the family rank, was an influential governor-general at Canton (1840–41) during the first Anglo-Chinese War.
[1/173/2a, 235/3b; 3/263/14a; 11/9/46b; 34/147/12b; Ch'ing T'ai-tsu Wu Huang-ti shih-lu (see under Nurhaci) 2/2b.]
George A. Kennedy