Tong of Fushun

• Chinese: 佟 (Tóng)

The Tóng were a Liaodongese lineage from Fǔshùn (撫順), a town in what is today China's Liaoning province.

Tong Bunian, a palace-degree holder and intendant (jianshi) of the Laijian Army, the local Ming garrison force, is perhaps the most famous member of the lineage. Despite his loyal service and elite credentials, Tong Bunian was suspected, and accused, by various officials of being a Jurchen, wrongfully elevated to such a position, and potentially a traitor to the Ming cause. When the Ming suffered a grievous defeat by Nurhachi's forces in 1622, and Ming forces fled through the Shanhai Pass, to the "interior" of the Great Wall, Tong was arrested along with Xiong Tingbi, Ming military intendant of Liaodong, who had appointed Tong to this position, and Liaodong military governor Wang Huazhen; the latter two were tried for desertion, and were ultimately executed.

As Tong Yangxing (d. 1632) and Tong Yangzhen (d. 1621) had joined Nurhachi's forces, Tong Bunian, purely by familial affiliation, was not only suspected of treasonous affiliations but was essentially condemned without any arguments of his innocence being heard. While in prison, he wrote a "Record of Prisoned Rage" (Yufen lu), in which he asserted that there were many Tong lineages in the northeastern region, that not all of these people were related, and that further, even those the traitors Yangxing and Yangzhen were his distant cousins (sharing a common ancestor four generations back), that shouldn't imply his own guilt in any way. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful, and was ordered to commit suicide in 1625. He was survived by his son Tong Guoqi.

The Shunzhi Emperor later took a consort from one of the Tong lineages, who gave birth to the Kangxi Emperor and came to be known as Empress Xiaokang.

References

• Crossley, Pamela Kyle. A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology. University of California Press, 1999, 58-64.