by Poon, Alice;
1645 (May): Ten-day massacre of Yangzhou residents.
1645 (July 21): Dorgon imposes “shaved head” order on all Hans on pain of execution for treason.
1645 (Summer): Three massacres of residents in Jiading area.
1650 (November 24): Massacre of Guangzhou residents.
1650 (December 31): Dorgon dies in a hunting trip accident.
1651 (February 1): Shunzhi assumes full imperial authority.
1651 (Summer): Shunzhi weds his first Empress, Bumbutai’s niece.
1654 (May 4): Birth of Xuanye (Kangxi).
1659 (June - September): Battle of Nanjing (river battle in which Koxinga’s fleet defeated).
1660 (September 23): Imperial Noble Consort Donggo dies.
1661 (February 5): Shunzhi dies from smallpox.
1661 (February 7): Xuanye (Kangxi) enthroned, with Sonin, Suksaha, Oboi and Ebilun as Regents.
1665 (October): Kangxi weds his first Empress, Sonin’s granddaughter.
1667 (August 25): Kangxi assumes full imperial authority.
1669: Qing Court arrests and imprisons Regent Oboi.
1673 - 1681: Revolt of the Three Feudatories.
1678 (October 2): Wu Sangui dies on sickbed.
1683 (Summer): Battle of Penghu.
1683 (September): Taiwan Kingdom of Tungning Surrenders to the Qing Empire.
1688 (January 27): Bumbutai (Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang) dies.
List of Characters
Qing Court:
Abahai, Lady, Nurhaci’s favorite consort; mother of Ajige, Dorgon and Dodo.
Ajige, eldest son of Nurhaci and Lady Abahai.
Bumbutai, or Empress Xiaozhuang, a Borjigit princess of the Khorchin Mongol state; daughter of Jaisang; granddaughter of Manggusi; consort of Hong Taiji; mother of Shunzhi Emperor, Princess Shuhui and two other princesses; grandmother of Kangxi Emperor and Fuquan.
Daisan, second son of Nurhaci; First Great Beile of Later Jin.
Dodo, youngest son of Nurhaci and Lady Abahai.
Donggo, Consort, Imperial Noble Consort of Shunzhi Emperor (his favorite).
Dorgon, second son of Nurhaci and Lady Abahai; Prince Regent to Shunzhi Emperor.
Ebilun, of the Niohuru clan; one of the Four Regents to Kangxi Emperor; father of Kangxi’s second Empress.
Fan, Scholar, a key Han adviser and teacher of Hong Taiji.
Ferdinand Verbiest, Flemish Jesuit priest; successor to Johann Adam Schall von Bell.
Gabula, Chief of the Imperial Guards; eldest son of Sonin; father of Kangxi’s first Empress.
Harjol, a Borjigit princess of the Khorchin Mongol state; consort of Hong Taiji; daughter of Jaisang; sister of Bumbutai and Wukesan; granddaughter of Manggusi.
Hong Taiji, a son of Nurhaci; Fourth Great Beile of Later Jin; founder of Qing Dynasty; husband of Jere, Bumbutai and Harjol; father of Shunzhi Emperor; grandfather of Kangxi Emperor and Fuquan.
Hooge, eldest son of Hong Taiji; grandson of Nurhaci.
Hui, Consort, Imperial Concubine of Kangxi; niece of Mingju.
Hung Chili, a Han scholar of the Hanlin Academy; Minister of Rites.
Jaisang, a Borjigit prince of the Khorchin Mongol state; son of Manggusi; father of Wukeshan, Harjol and Bumbutai.
Jere, Empress, a Borjigit princess of the Khorchin Mongol state; daughter of Manggusi; sister of Wukesan; wife of Hong Taiji; aunt of Bumbutai.
Jirgalang, a nephew of Nurhaci; Second Great Beile of Later Jin; Co-Regent to Shunzhi Emperor for a short time.
Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit priest; Director of the Imperial Observatory and the Tribunal of Mathematics; key adviser to Shunzhi and Bumbutai.
Kangxi, or Xuanye, son of Shunzhi and Consort Tunggiya; grandson of Hong Taiji and Bumbutai.
Lin, Scholar, a Han scholar; student of Scholar Fan; Minister of Documents.
Little Jade, a Borjigit princess of the Khorchin Mongol state; wife of Dorgon; half-sister of Bumbutai.
Manggultai, a son of Nurhaci; Third Great Beile of Later Jin.
Manggusi, leader of the Khorchin Mongol state; father of Jaisang; grandfather of Wukeshan, Harjol and Bumbutai.
Mingju, of the Nalan clan, a Senior Imperial Guard; Minister of Punishments; father of Xingde (a poet); uncle of Consort Hui.
Monggo, Consort, a deceased consort of Nurhaci; mother of Hong Taiji.
Nurhaci, leader of the Jurchen tribe; patriarch of the Aisin Gioro clan; founder of Later Jin Dynasty; father of Daisan, Manggultai, Hong Taiji, Ajige, Dorgon and Dodo; uncle of Jirgalang.
Oboi, one of the Four Regents to Kangxi Emperor.
Shi Lang, a naval admiral; Commander-in-Chief of the Qing naval fleet that conquered the Kingdom of Tungning.
Shunzhi, or Fulin, son of Hong Taiji and Bumbutai; grandson of Nurhaci; father of Xuanye and Fuquan.
Songgoto, a Senior Imperial Guard; third son of Sonin; coach of the buku young guards; Grand Secretary.
Sonin, of the Heseri clan; Head of the Four Regents to Kangxi Emperor; grandfather of Kangxi’s first Empress.
Suksaha, one of the Four Regents to Kangxi Emperor.
Sumalagu, maid and confidante of Bumbutai.
Tuhai, a Senior Imperial Guard; Minister of Revenue.
Tunggiya, Consort, or Hexian, Imperial Noble Consort of Kangxi Emperor (his favorite and first cousin).
Wang, Chief of Staff of the Imperial Household Department in Shunzhi’s reign.
Wang Xi, a Han scholar of the Hanlin Academy (who drafted Shunzhi’s will).
Wu Liangfu, chief eunuch to Shunzhi Emperor.
Wukeshan, eldest Borjigit prince of the Khorchin Mongol state; son of Jaisang; brother of Bumbutai and Harjol; father of Shunzhi’s first Empress.
Ming Court:
Chongzhen, the last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Geng Jingzhong, Feudatory Lord of Fujian.
Hong Chengchou, a military general who defected to Qing after the Battles of Songshan and Jinzhou.
Shang Kexi, Feudatory Lord of Guangdong; father of Shang Zhixin.
Wu Sangui, a military general who defected to Qing at the Battle of Shanhai Pass; Feudatory Lord of Yunnan and Guizhou; husband of Chen Yuanyuan; grandfather of Wu Shifan.
Yuan Chonghuan, a military general; Governor of Ningyuan.
Others:
Chen Yuanyuan, a courtesan; favorite concubine of Wu Sangui.
Mao, a Zen Buddhist monk.
Mu, a Zen Buddhist monk.
Siu Mui, maid-in-waiting to Bumbutai.
Siu Fa, maid-in-waiting to Bumbutai.
Wang Fushen, a subordinate of Wu Sangui.
Xia, a Ming soldier who betrayed Hong Chengchou’s army in the Battle of Songshan.
Yu Lin, a Zen Buddhist/Taoist monk.
Zheng Chenggong, or Koxinga, a Ming loyalist and naval commander in the Battle of Nanjing.
Zheng Jing, son and heir of Zheng Chenggong and father of Zheng Keshuang; founder of the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan.
Acknowledgments
My heartfelt gratitude goes first and foremost to my publisher Graham Earnshaw, whose faith in the novel has been priceless. Earnshaw Books’ goal to bring to global audiences knowledge of Chinese history through fiction has been inspirational and encouraging. I happen to be a fervent supporter. My deep thanks also go to John Grant Ross, who read the manuscript at an early stage and offered me invaluable editorial input, and to Lydia Moed, who helped me improve the opening chapters. As well, I am indebted to my friends at Goodreads for their continual moral support throughout the writing process - you know who you are.
Author’s Afterword
Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang undoubtedly made an indelible mark on Chinese history, but her contributions as an influential leader and a champ
ion for peace and humanity have been, I believe, greatly undervalued. I would even contend that without her charismatic guidance, the Qing Empire would not have survived its fledgling years. History also witnessed how the young Emperor Kangxi, under her mentorship, went on to become one of the most benevolent and liberal-minded Emperors in China’s history. His oft-proclaimed deep affection and veneration for her, all well-documented, speaks volumes about this free-spirited and acuminous Mongolian woman.
While this novel is in the main an act of the imagination, it draws abundantly on the work of modern historians, both Chinese and Western.
Regarding the cast of characters, real historical figures predominate and real names are used as far as possible. There are a few characters, however, who are entirely fictional. These are: Bumbutai’s Han maids Siu Mui and Siu Fa, Court Physician Sima, and Wang, the Chief of Staff at the Imperial Household Department. Naturally, episodes in which these fictional characters take part are my own creation.
In general, I have taken the liberty to flex my imagination where there are missing links, obvious gaps or only mere hints in the official historical texts. I have based my narrative on what I believe to be the psychological landscape of the key personalities as extrapolated from my research. In other cases, I have dramatized known facts a little.
As for historical facts, all battles and most Court intrigues included in the story are based on recorded events. I have tried not to deviate from the historical record. The one major exception is Dorgon’s premeditated murder of Hong Taiji, which is my own conjecture. According to historical texts, Hong Taiji died on his sickbed in Empress Jere’s Palace. In my defense, I would argue that the causes of death relating to Emperors and members of their households are often the most cryptic of secrets in the Imperial records throughout Chinese dynastic history, thus leaving room for speculation.
As the saying goes, sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. Incredible as it may sound, Johann Adam Schall von Bell’s late-life melodrama is based on true events. The trial on trumped-up charges, the sentence of death by slicing, his near-death experience on the day of his execution, and the timely earthquake which saved him, are all well-recorded facts.
I should also mention that there is a centuries-old controversy over the question of whether or not Bumbutai, as Empress Dowager, married her brother-in-law, Regent Dorgon, after her son Shunzhi was enthroned. In this debate, there are two major camps. Conservative Chinese historians and academicians insist that there is no conclusive written evidence for such a marriage. One of the noted hardliners in this camp is Meng Sen, a well-known late Qing scholar and historian. The other camp, made up of mostly literary writers and common folk, earnestly believes that the marriage was a natural course of events, as a levirate union was a cultural tradition among Manchus and Mongols. Such a union, however, was generally abhorred in Han culture and hence, any documentary record might have been erased because it might denigrate the Qing Court.
This latter camp cites as evidence a particular poem written by the Qing era poet Zhang Cangshui, which describes the wedding in detail, and the fact that Dorgon used the title “Imperial Father Prince Regent” in Court documents. One key supporter of this camp was literary icon Hu Shih (1891-1962). He debated the topic with Meng Sen in an exchange of letters, saying that the title Dorgon used is itself an indisputable historical fact. Subsequently, Meng Sen admitted that the later Qing rulers had a habit of purposely destroying all written documents that they deemed as defamatory to Qing imperial figures.
For my research, apart from relying on newer editions of Chinese history publications (compiled from The Twenty-Four Histories and Draft History of Qing), I also consulted the following English non-fiction titles:-
Robert B. Oxnam, Ruling from Horseback; Manchu Politics in the Oboi Regency 1661-1669, 1975.
Frederic Wakeman, The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China, 1985.
Pamela Kyle Crossley, The Manchus, 1997.
Evelyn S. Rawski, The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions, 1998.
The Secret History of the Mongols: The History and the Life of Chinggis Khan, Translated & Edited by Urgunge Onon, 2001.
Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 2004.
Cho-yun Hsu, China: A New Cultural History, 2006.
Jack Weatherford, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, 2010.
1001 Battles That Changed the Course of World History, Edited by R. G. Grant, 2011.
Herbert Allen Giles, China and the Manchus, Revised 2013.
Alice Poon
2017
About The Author
Alice Poon is an avid reader of world historical fiction. Born and educated in Hong Kong, she grew up devouring Jin Yong’s martial arts and chivalry novels, all set in China’s distant past. That sparked her life-long interest in Chinese history. Writing historical novels set in Old China has been her long-cherished dream.
She is the author of the bestselling Chinese edition of Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong, which won the 2011 Hong Kong Book Prize. Canadian Book Review Annual selected the original English Edition as Editor’s Choice (Scholarly) in 2007.
She currently lives in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, and is working on her next Old China novel.
http://alicewaihanpoon.blogspot.ca
http://twitter.com/alicepoon1
https://www.goodreads.com/alice_poon
