Sengge Rinchen
Sengge Rinchen | |||||||||
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Jasagh & Prince Bodlogotoi of the Horqin Left Rear Banner (Prince of First Rank) | |||||||||
Reign | 1825–1854 | ||||||||
Predecessor | lifted from Prince of Second Rank | ||||||||
Successor | Buyannemekü | ||||||||
Jasagh & Prince of the Horqin Left Rear Banner (Prince of Second Rank) | |||||||||
Reign | 1854–1865 | ||||||||
Predecessor | Sodnamdorji | ||||||||
Successor | lifted to Prince of First Rank | ||||||||
Born | Horqin Left Rear Banner, Inner Mongolia, Qing China | 24 July 1811||||||||
Died | 18 May 1865 Heze, Shandong, Qing China | (aged 53)||||||||
Burial | 1865 | ||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||
Chinese | |||||||||
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Mongolian name | |||||||||
Mongolian script | ᠰᠡᠩᠭᠡᠷᠢᠨᠴᠢᠨ | ||||||||
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Manchu name | |||||||||
Manchu script | ᠰᡝᠩᡤᡝᡵᡳᠨᠴᡳᠨ | ||||||||
Romanization | senggerincin |
Sengge Rinchen (1811 – 18 May 1865) or Senggelinqin (Mongolian: Сэнгэринчен) was a Mongol nobleman and general who served under the Qing dynasty during the reigns of the Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi emperors. He is best known for his role at the Battle of Taku Forts and at the Battle of Baliqiao during the Second Opium War and his contributions in helping the Qing Empire suppress the Taiping and Nian rebellions.
Background
[edit]Sengge Rinchen was from the Horqin Left Back Banner in Inner Mongolia and was a member of the Borjigin clan. He was a 26th generation descendant of Qasar, a brother of Genghis Khan. His name is made up of two Tibetan words, "Sengge" (Tibetan: སེང་གེ་) and "Rinchen" (Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་), which mean "lion" and "treasure" respectively. When he was a child, he was adopted by Sodnamdorji (Содномдорж,
Military career
[edit]In 1853, during the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor, Sengge Rinchen led Qing forces to attack the Taiping rebels of the Northern Expedition in the southern suburbs of Tianjin and defeated them. In 1855, in recognition of his achievements, the Qing imperial court granted him the hereditary title "Prince Bodlogotoi" (Бодлоготой чин ван,
In 1857, after the Second Opium War broke out, Sengge Rinchen was appointed as an Imperial Commissioner to take charge of defence arrangements in Tianjin. Two years later, after defeating the British and French at the Second Battle of the Dagu Forts, he and Li Chaoyi (
Death
[edit]When the Qing imperial court received news of the Nian Rebellion, Sengge Rinchen was ordered to lead troops to Shandong, Henan and Anhui to suppress the rebellion. In 1865, during the Battle of Gaolou Fort, he was ambushed in a tavern near Gaolou Fort in Heze, Shandong by Nian rebels led by Lai Wenguang and Song Jingshi. He attempted to escape with some of his horsemen and take shelter in the woods but was killed by a minor rebel leader, Zhang Pigeng.
Legacy
[edit]The Qing imperial court sent couriers to retrieve and transport Sengge Rinchen's remains back to Beijing, in addition to not holding any court sessions for three days as a mark of mourning. The Tongzhi Emperor, accompanied by the empress dowagers Ci'an and Cixi, personally attended the funeral and ordered a shrine to be erected to commemorate Sengge Rinchen. The shrine, called "Xianzhongci" (
Sengge Rinchen's loyalty to the Qing Empire is interpreted in official histories of the People's Republic of China as an expression of Chinese patriotism. In 1995, the local government in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia opened a Sengge Rinchen Memorial Museum.
Sengge Rinchen was well known among foreigners in China: British soldiers nicknamed him "Sam Collinson" by mispronouncing his name in Mandarin.[1]
Family
[edit]Sengge Rinchen was survived by his son, Buyannemekü (Буяннэмэх,
References
[edit]- Têng, Ssu-yü (1944). . In Hummel, Arthur W. Sr. (ed.). Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office. pp. 632–634.
Sources
[edit]- ^ Giles, Herbert A. (1912). China and the Manchus. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 71. ISBN 9781537621265.