Gintaisi 金台什

Gintaisi 金台石, 錦台什 d. Sept. 29, 1619, younger brother of Narimbulu [q.v.], became one of the two beile of the Yehe tribe after the death of his brother which took place sometime before 1613. In the latter year Bujantai [q.v.], beile of the Ula tribe, fled to the Yehe after the defeat of his forces at the hands of Nurhaci [q.v.]. Gintaisi gave him protection and when attacked by Nurhaci appealed to the Chinese for help. He also tried in 1615 to appease the Mongols on the west by marrying his cousin (who had eighteen years before been promised to Nurhaci) to the Khalka beile, Manggûldai (see under Enggeder). The alliance with the Chinese proved futile, for in 1619 Nurhaci defeated a large Chinese army, together with its Yehe auxiliaries (see under Yang Hao), and proceeded to besiege Gintaisi in his own stronghold. Despite attempts at a settlement by Nurhaci's son, Abahai [q.v.], the future T'ai-tsung who was Gintaisi's nephew, the fighting continued until both Gintaisi and his cousin Buyanggû 布揚古 had been captured and executed. (Chinese sources state that Gintaisi committed suicide). Thus ended the independent existence of the Yehe tribe, but many of its members, including the descendants of Gintaisi, became prominent in the service of Nurhaci and of the succeeding Manchu emperors (see under Mingju). Even the Empress Dowager (Hsiao-ch'in, q.v.) of the late nineteenth century, traced her descent back to the Yehe division of the Nara clan, and recognized Yangginu [q.v.], father of Gintaisi, as her great ancestor.

[ i/229/7b; Pa-ch'i Man-chou shih-tsu t'ung-p'u (see under Anfiyanggû) 22.]

GEORGE A. KENNEDY