Niyag

Overview

Niyage was a member of the Zhaojia clan of the Plain White Banner during the early Qing Dynasty. Volume 31 of the official Qing Dynasty compilation, *the Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*, records him as a native of Dong'an. His grandson, Shitu, served as a city gate guard; his great-grandson, Shichen, served as a Hanlin Academy Reader-in-Waiting during the compilation; and Shide served as a Third-Class Imperial Guard. The concluding section records his submission to the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the dynasty. Dong'an is the name of his ancestral home and is not directly identified as a modern county or city with the same name.

The position of City Gate Guard involved city gate defense; the Hanlin Academy Reader-in-Waiting was a literary lecturer, involved in lecturing on classics and history and related literary affairs; and the Third-Class Imperial Guard participated in the emperor's guard duties. Although the titles of Hanlin Academy Reader-in-Waiting and Cabinet Reader-in-Waiting are similar, they belonged to different institutions; this entry clearly defines the Hanlin Academy, and this institutional limitation should be preserved.

Shitu was a grandson, and Shichen and Shide were great-grandsons. The literary official and the imperial guard official were separate individuals and cannot be combined into Niyage's personal history. The appointment of a Hanlin official cannot, in itself, prove the year of the imperial examination or the authorship of a particular work. The location of Dong'an, the location of its city gates, and the appointments of its two great-grandsons are pending verification; the current position is understood based on the original compilation date of the book.