Saišangga ( mnc, ᠰᠠᡳ᠌ᡧᠠᠩᡤᠠ, , 1798–1875),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Heting (鶴汀), was a

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

official and linguist from the Mongolian Alut clan and the Mongolian Plain Blue Banner. He was the father of Imperial Noble Consort Gongsu. His third son was Chongqi. Saišangga obtained ''

juren ''Juren'' (; 'recommended man') was a rank achieved by people who passed the ''xiangshi'' () exam in the imperial examination system of imperial China. The ''xiangshi'' is also known, in English, as the provincial examination. It was a rank high ...

'' degree in the

imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

in 1816. Influenced by his father Jinghui (景煇), whom was also a linguist, Saišangga was proficient in

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

, Mongolian and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. Therefore, he was highly valued by Daoguang and Xianfeng. He had served as Grand Councillor, Minister of Lifan Yuan, Minister of War, Minister of Works, Minister of Revenue, Minister of Personnel, Grand Secretary and other positions. During the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

, he was twice sent to

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

to supervise the defense of the coast. In the year 1851,

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...

broke out in

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

. The provincial governor Zhou Tianjue (周天爵) and

provincial military commander The provincial military commander () was a high military official in the Chinese provinces of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). There was one in each province, ranked 1b. Under the jurisdiction of the provincial governor (巡撫 ''xúnfǔ'') and somet ...

Xiang Rong were unable to suppress the rebellion. Saišangga was made the

Imperial Commissioner Imperial commissioner is an ambivalent English language term, used to render foreign language titles of various – mostly gubernatorial – officers whose ' commission' was in the gift of an Emperor, including China, the Russian Empire and the Hol ...

in charge of military affairs in Guangxi to fight against the Taiping rebels. Accused of allowing the rebels to move from Guangxi to

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

, he was dismissed and escorted to Beijing for trial. In 1853, Saišangga was stripped of official position, imprisoned and waited for execution. However, Xianfeng Emperor pardoned him and exiled him to

Zhili Zhili, alternately romanized as Chihli, was a northern administrative region of China since the 14th-century that lasted through the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty until 1911, when the region was dissolved, converted to a province, and renamed ...

. In 1855, he was sent to serve at frontier military outposts (軍台效力). Soon after the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

broke out, he was recalled to the capital and ordered to train Chahar Mongolian soldiers. he was appointed the deputy lieutenant-general of the Mongolian Plain Red Banner (正紅旗蒙古副都統) in 1860. He died in 1875. ( Draft History of Qing Volume 392)

Publications

* ''Huijiang zeli'' (回疆則例) * ''Mengwen zhiyao'' (蒙文旨要)

References

{{Authority control 1798 births 1875 deaths 19th-century Chinese politicians 19th-century linguists Grand Councillors of the Qing dynasty Grand Secretaries of the Qing dynasty Mongolian Plain Blue Bannermen Qing dynasty government officials Linguists from China