Zhalan

Overview

Zhalan is a member of the Ujara clan of the Bordered Yellow Banner, recorded in Volume 30 of the *Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners* from the Qing Dynasty. He was a native of Saharcha and submitted to the Qing Dynasty at its beginning. This entry does not detail Zhalan's own official positions, military achievements, or birth and death dates, but focuses on the merits and hereditary titles obtained by his son Echu and related relatives due to war. Readers should not mistakenly attribute the military achievements of his descendants to Zhalan himself.

The genealogy records that Echu, initially a layperson, went to Shaanxi to fight. During the attack on Xiping County, he was the second to scale the city walls and was awarded the title of Yunqiwei (hereditary merit rank). Later, due to several imperial edicts, he was gradually promoted to Third-class Qingche duwei. He also participated in battles in the Jiangning direction related to Zheng Chenggong's army, and according to his recorded merits, was promoted to Second-class Qingche duwei, eventually serving as Jiangning General. "Second to scale the city walls" is a clear order in the original text and cannot be rewritten as "first to scale the city walls"; Jiangning General was also Echu's own position, not Zhalan's.

After Echu's death, the related hereditary titles were first inherited by his brother's relative, Funubao, and later by Fabao. The original book also recounts the military merits of Fabao's father, Gekeli, who died in battle in Dianbai County, Guangdong, thus combining the merits and rewards from different sources. The core value of the Zhalan article lies in preserving how the ancestral home, allegiance, and subsequent hereditary positions of the Saharan Banner families in the early Qing Dynasty changed due to military achievements, imperial edicts, and kinship inheritance.