Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Misḥan
MISḤAN 米思翰, 1632–1675, Jan. 8, official, was a member of the Fuca clan and belonged to the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner. His family joined the forces of Nurhaci [q. v.] during the life-time of his great-grandfather who was given hereditary captaincy of a company in the Bordered Yellow Banner. Hašitun 哈什屯 (d. 1663, age 66 sui), father of Misḥan, was an illustrious soldier. As Hašitun did not join the faction of Dorgon [q. v.] when the latter was in power, he was trusted by Emperor Shih-tsu and, after several promotions in hereditary rank, was made a baron of the first class. After the death of his father Misḥan succeeded to both the hereditary rank and the captaincy, and was made a minister of the Imperial Household. Faithful to his duties, he won the favor of Emperor Shêng-tsu and in 1668 was appointed junior vice-president of the Board of Ceremonies. In the following year he was promoted to the post of president of the Board of Revenue, which he held until his death six years later. During his term of office, he managed to have the annual surplus funds in the provincial treasuries transferred to the Board of Revenue, thus not only halting illegal spending in the provinces but also regularizing the national finances.
In 1673 the question arose whether the San-fan 三藩, or Three Feudatories, should be abolished in south China. Misḥan and Mingju [q. v.] led a minority of high officials in advocating the plan of abolition, which the emperor approved. Thus the war with Wu San-kuei [q. v.] was precipitated. Misḥan assured the emperor that the national treasury could be relied on to finance a ten-year conflict. Although the campaign was finally victorious as he had predicted, Misḥan did not live to see it through to the end. He died in 1675, whereas the conflict continued until 1681. He was accorded appropriate posthumous honors, including the name Min-kuo 敏果. Because of his advice to resist Wu San-kuei, Misḥan was held in honor as a loyal official by Emperor Shêng-tsu. His sons, Maska, Maci [qq. v.], Mawu (d. 1727) and Li-jung-pao 李榮保, were all granted high official posts. Li-jung-pao succeeded to the hereditary rank of baron of the first class in 1675. Owing to the fact that his daughter became Empress Hsiao-hsien (孝賢純皇后, 1712–1748), Li-jung-pao was posthumously (1738) honored with the hereditary rank of Duke Ch'êng-ên (承恩公) of the first class. When the empress died in 1748, Hašitun and Misḥan were both posthumously raised to the same rank, and Fu-wên 富文, a son of Li-jung-pao, was raised from a marquis to Duke Ch'êng-ên. Hašitun was also canonized as K'o-hsi 恪僖. In 1749, because of the exploits of Fu-hêng [q. v.], tenth son of Li-jung-pao, in the war against the natives of the Chin-ch'uan 金川 River region (now on the borders of Szechwan and Sikang provinces), an ancestral hall was erected in Peking to the honor of Hašitun, Misḥan, and Li-jung-pao. A number of Misḥan's great-grandsons (grandsons of Li-jung-pao) were very prominent in the Ch'ien-lung period (see under Fu-k'ang-an, Fu-lung-an, Fu-ch'ang-an, Ming-liang and Ming-jui).
[1/274/12; 3/52/25a; 34/139/1a; 1/173/7a; Ch'ing huang-shih ssŭ-p'u (see Fu-lung-an) 2/19a; Haenisch, E., T'oung Pao (1913) p. 92.]
Fang Chao-ying