Nala Suna

Suna, Nara clan, Manchu of the Manchu Plain White Banner in the Qing Dynasty. His family traditionally resided in Yega (Yehhe) area, within present-day Lishu County, Jilin Province. Originally a member of the Jurchen Yega (Yehhe) tribe, and of the same ethnicity as Jin Tai Shi. Before the fall of the Later Jin, Yega was abandoned by Jin Tai Shi and defected to Nurhaci. After the destruction of Yega in the fourth year of Ming emperor Tianming (1619), he was assigned to oversee his relatives’ households under the jurisdiction of Niulu (a type of military and administrative district). Nurhaci married his sixth daughter to him as a wife; Suna was given the title of Efu (a high-ranking imperial consort). He organized his household members and serfs under the command of the Zhiju (military household) system, with Niulu subordinate to the Manchu Plain White Banner. During the Tianming years, he participated in numerous military campaigns and achieved notable merit. In the tenth year of Tianming (1625), he was promoted to Cānling (a senior military officer,甲喇额真), then promoted to Deputy Commander, and was granted four imperial amnesties. He was also elevated to Miele’e (meritorious officer). In the first year of Tiencong (1627), commanding brave Banner Mongolian troops, he served under Emperor Taiching’s campaign against the Ming at Jinzhou, and intercepted over 2,000 Ming reinforcements at Tashan West Road, achieving a major victory there. In the third year of Tiencong (1629), together with Wunage, he campaigned against the Chahar Mongols, capturing and integrating 2,000 households. When the captured soldiers were about to rebel, records state that Suna exterminated all their males; Emperor Taiching criticized him for this reckless killing. In the fifth year of Tiencong (1631), he was appointed Guardian Army Commander, promoted to Minister of War, and participated in the campaign against the Ming at Linghai City in present-day Liaoning Province. He defeated the enemy four times, earning meritorious service, and was granted the title of Qidu Wei (an honorary military title). In the eighth year of Tiencong (1634), after passing an imperial assessment, he was granted the title of Qingche Duyu (an auxiliary command position), and was promoted to Third-Class Jia La Zhang Jing (a high-ranking civilian official), as well as receiving the Mongolian Gushan Eje (Inner White Banner Mongol noble title). Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty (reigned after the fall of the Ming) granted him a formal post in the fifth year of his reign (1648). His son was named Suxaha.