薩哈璘 Sàhālín

Son: Sahalin, Prince Yingyi of the First Rank

Sahalin, Prince Yingyi of the First Rank, was the third son of Daishan. He was first made a taiji. In the tenth year of Tianming, when Lindan Khan of the Chaha'er attacked the Ke'erqin, Sahalin led five thousand picked cavalry to their aid and raised the siege. In the eleventh year he followed Daishan against the Balin tribe of the Ka'erka and then against the Zhalute tribe, winning merit in both, and was made a Beile. In the first year of Tiancong, when the emperor attacked the Ming, he led the picked Bayala cavalry as the vanguard. When the emperor went from Dalinghe to Jinzhou, the Ming troops fled, and Sahalin intercepted and destroyed them. He also led a flanking force against the grain transports at Tashan and defeated twenty thousand Ming troops. In the attack on Ningyuan he struck at the Ming Brigade General Man Gui; Sahalin fought hard and was wounded. In the third year the emperor attacked the Ming and camped at Boluohetun. Daishan and others privately asked him to take the army home, and the emperor was displeased. Sahalin and Yuetuo strongly backed going on, and so Zunhua was taken and the army pressed close to the Ming capital. In the twelfth month Sahalin raided Tongzhou, burned its boats and camped at Zhangjiawan. He also besieged Yongping and took Xianghe. In the fourth year, when Yongping had fallen, Sahalin and Ji'erhalang stayed to garrison it. Li Chunwang, a man of Yongping, said that the city would be massacred; he was beheaded as a public example. Soon Sahalin persuaded Qian'an, Luan Department, Jianchang, Taitou Camp, Anshan Fort and other places to surrender. Ming troops from Laoting and Funing attacked Luan Department; Sahalin led his troops to its aid, and the Ming troops withdrew. When the Beile Amin came to replace him, he took his army home. Edit

In the fifth year an edict called on the Beile to set out their views on the affairs of the day. Sahalin said, "Good government depends on men. When the ruler clearly knows the crooked from the upright, his servants vie with one another in honour and integrity. I only ask that Your Majesty choose the officials with care and entrust them with the business of government. On great campaigns, when Your Majesty is in the field in person, the officials all follow your plans. If an army is sent out, a worthy and able man should be chosen as its commander, given the tallies of authority and real power to act, and allowed to deal by martial law with those of a certain rank and below who break military orders." When the Six Ministries were first set up, he was put in charge of the Ministry of Rites. In the sixth year he raided Guihua and took more than a thousand Mongol captives. He assigned pastures to the Mongol Beile and proclaimed the rules again. Edit

In the sixth month of the seventh year an edict asked which of the three should come first, the campaign against the Ming, the Chaha'er or Korea. Sahalin said, "We should be lenient with Korea, hold off the Chaha'er, and give ourselves wholly to the war with the Ming. Even if we send no troops against the Chaha'er, they are like insects eating away in their own hole and will surely exhaust themselves. As for the Ming, if we slacken a little, their defences grow stronger. In my view we should see how this year's autumn harvest turns out and plan our advance accordingly, striking just as their crops ripen and feeding ourselves from the enemy's grain, so as to prepare for a further advance. We should leave a suitable force to guard against the Chaha'er. First we should send cavalry back and forth to raid and ravage; then pick our best troops to go in by Yipianshi into the Shanhai Pass, and Ningyuan and Jinzhou will be of no use to them. Or we could again go in by Ningyuan and Jinzhou, cut the four roads to Beijing, study the lie of the land, and occupy country with plenty of grain. If we seize our chances and wait for the right moment, within two or three years the great work will be done." Soon after, he raided the Shanhai Pass. In the eighth year, with Duo'ergun, he went to receive the surrendering general Shang Kexi, and brought in more than three thousand eight hundred households from the two islands of Guanglu and Changshan. He followed the campaign against the Ming; Sahalin attacked from Kala'ebo and took Desheng Fort. He raided Dai Department and made a night attack on Guo County, taking it. The people of the two forts of Wangdong and Banzhen abandoned them and fled. He also defeated the troops of Dai Department. He joined the emperor at Datong and reported a register of the captives and booty. Edit

In the ninth year, with Duo'ergun, Yuetuo, Haoge and others, he received the submission of E'erke Kongguo'er Ezhe, son of Lindan Khan of the Chaha'er; the army camped at Tuolitu and took in all his people. When the army returned, Yuetuo stayed at Guihua. Sahalin, with Duo'ergun and Haoge, went inside the Ming border and raided Shanxi. The details are in the biography of Duo'ergun. The Beile and ministers had several times asked the emperor to take the imperial title, but he refused. After the Chaha'er had been taken in, they asked again, and still the emperor refused. Sahalin had the minister of the Inner Court Xifu and others memorialise: "We have asked again and again without gaining Your Majesty's consent, and day and night we are fearful and do not know what to do. We humbly reflect that if Your Majesty will not accept the imperial title, the fault lies with the Beile, who have not given their whole loyalty and good faith or put forward good counsel for the long and great enterprise. Now the Beile swear to mend their ways and give their whole loyalty, to help lay the foundations of peace, and Your Majesty should accept the imperial title." The emperor said, "Good. Sahalin, in planning for me, has set things out so far as this; he has truly spoken my mind. As to whether the Beile should swear an oath, you are in charge of the Ministry of Rites and may decide it yourself." The next day Sahalin gathered the Beile at court, and they wrote out their oath and presented it. The emperor ordered that Korea be told of the general decision, and Sahalin said, "The Beile too should send envoys, to show them that the nations are coming over to us and that our armies are strong." The emperor praised and accepted this. Edit

In the first month of the first year of Chongde, Sahalin fell ill, and the emperor had Xifu tell him, "Among all the young men of the family, it is you alone I rely on to set the ways of government in order, to think of what I have not thought of and to help me in what I cannot do. Calm your mind and take care of yourself, so as to fulfil my hopes!" Sahalin answered, "I have received Your Majesty's kind words and concern, and I humbly hope that, sustained by your grace, I may yet live. Even if I am unlucky enough to fill a ditch first, what regret would I have? Only, just when the great work is about to be accomplished, I cannot give my strength to the state but toss and turn on my sickbed; that is what I regret!" When Xifu reported back, the emperor said sorrowfully, "Has any state ever been governed by arms alone? If our territory grows wider by the day and we accomplish the great enterprise, but the wise and discerning wither first, who will help me govern?" When his illness became grave, the emperor came to see him several times; seeing how wasted he was, he wept, and Sahalin too was overcome with grief. In the fifth month he died. The emperor was shaken with grief; he went in to weep four times, and did not leave from the chen hour until the wu hour. He then sat in a tent set up in the courtyard, took no food or drink, and suspended court for three days. At the sacrifice the emperor made the offering himself and wept bitterly. An edict praised Sahalin as clear-sighted, quick and well informed, versed in the writings of the Manchu, Chinese and Mongol languages, and a great help in many things, and posthumously made him Prince Ying of the First Rank. When the emperor was in the Xiangfeng Tower and happened to doze off, he dreamed that someone asked him, "Prince Ying begs to be given an ox." By custom, when a Prince of the First Rank died, an ox was used at the first sacrifice. Because Sahalin's title was posthumous, none had been used; the emperor ordered a sacrifice to be made according to the rites. In the tenth year of Kangxi he was given a posthumous name. Edit

Sahalin had three sons: Adali, Lekedehun and Dulan. Dulan was made Beile by special grace; found guilty of an offence, he was demoted to Duke Who Guards the State. Edit