Feng An

Overview

Feng An was a member of the Shumulu clan in the early Qing Dynasty, belonging to the Plain White Banner's bondservant class. He was of the same clan as Ye Chen, the son-in-law of Hule'e, and lived in Zhusheli for generations before submitting to the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the dynasty. Volume Six of the official clan genealogy compiled during the Qianlong reign, *The General Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*, records that his son, Ye'an, served as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and his grandson, Shutong'a, served as a Secretary and Dunaka as Assistant Secretary during the compilation, presenting the civil and military career paths of his family descendants.

Boatser-in-Chief were a group within the Eight Banners with specific affiliations. The Plain White Banner indicates the banner color; the two are not the same level of identity information. A Deputy Commander-in-Chief was a high-ranking banner officer involved in banner registration and camp management; Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries were civil officials at the ministerial level in central ministries, with Secretaries usually ranking above Assistant Secretaries. This entry does not list the ministries to which his grandsons belonged, so it cannot be determined which ministry they served in.

The original book places Feng in the Zhusheli branch of the Shumulu clan. It is impossible to simply change the surname "Feng" because the character "Feng" resembles a Han surname, nor can it be used to appoint him as Deputy Commander-in-Chief because of his grandsons' prominent positions. Zhusheli was the original settlement of the clan, but its exact modern location remains to be determined. The original text does not record any migration to Hule, therefore the migration of Yechen, a member of the same clan, should not be attributed to Feng'an. The initial submission to the state only provides a temporal scope; the actual dates, the institutions to which the bondservant belonged, and the terms of office of the father and son are unclear. The text maintains the established clan and kinship hierarchy.