Zhongshu of the Irgen Gioro Clan

Genealogical profile

Zhongshu was a member of the Irgen Gioro clan registered under the Plain Yellow Banner. His family was associated with Odoli and joined the emerging Manchu polity during its early history. The official *Comprehensive Genealogy of the Eight Banner Manchu Clans*, volume 15, gives no office held by Zhongshu personally. His Chinese name resembles the written form of an administrative title, but in this record it is unambiguously a person's name and should not be converted into an institutional entry.

Descendants and their posts

Three great-grandsons are recorded as former officeholders: Yatu, a *fangyu* or Defence Officer; Mahu, a *zuoling* or Banner company commander; and Sige, a *bujunxiao* in the infantry establishment. Among more distant descendants, Changshou formerly served as a deputy Banner commander (*fudutong*), while Shicheng'e was listed as a serving *zhushi*, an administrative secretary. The military offices involved different levels of Banner administration and garrison service; *zhushi* belonged to the civil bureaucracy. The text does not specify the department to which Shicheng'e was assigned.

Sige is a personal name in the original list, not a reference to four infantry officers. The distinctions between descendants and between formerly and currently serving officials must be retained.

What the source cannot establish

The genealogy does not provide each great-grandson's father or show which great-grandson was the father of Changshou. It offers no evidence that any of these appointments were hereditary posts handed down through a single family succession. Zhongshu's personal career, the exact location of Odoli and the dates of the recorded service require examination of additional primary documents.