Mangguji

Manguci (1590–1635) was a Gege (princess) of the Later Jin, daughter of Nurhaci, and her mother was his primary consort, Gundai.

During the Wanli period of the Ming dynasty, in the twenty-seventh year of Wanli (1599), in March, Taizu (Nurhaci) led his forces to defeat the Hada tribe. The Hada chiefs Mengge Bulu and Wu Ergu Dai were captured. Nurhaci initially intended to marry Manguci to Mengge Bulu and appoint him as the Hada tribe's leader. However, Mengge Bulu was killed for conspiring with Gagai to assassinate Nurhaci. In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli (1601), in the first lunar month, Manguci remarried Wu Ergu Dai of the Hada tribe, and thus was known as Hada Gege and Feng Kuo Xi Gege. After marriage, Manguci bore two daughters: the elder daughter married Yue Tuo, the eldest son of her brother Daisan; the younger daughter married Huo Ge, the eldest son of her brother Huang Taiji.

On the third day of the second lunar month in the seventh year of Tianming (1622), Wu Ergu Dai led Manguci’s son, Esen Delige, to participate in the Battle of Guangning. When they reached the outskirts of Xing Mountain, fifteen li away, Esen Delige fell from his horse and died. Around the ninth year of Tianming (1623), Wu Ergu Dai also passed away.

On December 22, the first year of Tiancong (1627), Manguci was betrothed by her brother Huang Taiji and remarried to Bortziji of the Mongolian Oirats, Sonomuduleng, and granted land in Kaiyuan, with Manchu soldiers assigned to her. The imperial foster son Sonomuduleng, who was discontent with Lin Danhan’s rule, rallied followers to defect to the Qing court the same year in June. He attracted Huang Taiji’s attention. Sonomuduleng’s original wife bore him a eldest son, Majike, and a second son, Buda. Later, Huang Taiji disliked his sister Manguci’s original husband and her brother Togu, repeatedly demanding that the foster son and Prince Dorgi kill Togu.

In the sixth year of Tiancong (1632), Huang Taiji campaigned and took Li; he granted gifts to his sisters. Manguci and her elder sister Dong Egege received special favor.

On September 25, 1635 (the ninth year of Tiancong), her son-in-law Huo Ge requested to marry Lin Danhan’s widow, lady Boqi Fujin; her brother Abatai also proposed to marry another widow, Elezai Tufu Jin. After deliberation, Emperor Taiji and the princes approved. When Manguci Gege learned of this, she was enraged and left her home. Her elder brother, Daisan, pursued her. Daisan and Manguci, who had no close relationship but resented the Khan, led her to his residence. Huang Taiji stated that Manguci Gege had a history of cruelty and slander from her father the Khan’s time. The rumor that Togu conspired to murder her was circulated but unproven, and Togu was not convicted. Subsequently, Manguci was stripped of her title as Gege, demoted to commoner, and forbidden from contacting her relatives.

In the ninth year of Tiancong (1635), on December 5, she was accused by her household servant Leng Sengji of her husband Sonomuduleng and Prince Dorgi plotting to usurp the throne, after burning a letter before the Buddha and swearing an oath. Huang Taiji was furious. Sonomuduleng was spared death, but Manguci was taken before Nurhaci’s widow and the princesses for sentencing; she was executed at age 47. Tubu Lu, Aibali, and their close relatives and nephews were tortured to death. Manguci’s son from her paternal line, Emile, and her half-brother Ang Ala, who failed to report her, were also executed. Prince Huo Ge killed her second daughter’s wife. Prince Yutuo requested to kill her eldest daughter Amushalü, her stepdaughter, but the request was denied.