Su Mina

Overview

Su Mina is a member of the Ezhuo clan recorded in Volume 46 of the Qing Dynasty's official genealogy, *The Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*. Belonging to the Plain Red Banner, his family had lived in Yehe for generations and submitted to the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the dynasty. The genealogy does not record Su Mina's own official position, but lists the positions of his grandsons Niu Hene, Changshou, and Chuoermen, as well as his great-grandsons Ehai and Eshan, forming a brief record of several generations of the family.

Niu Hene served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice; Changshou served as a military officer; and Chuoermen served as a cavalry officer. The Ministry of Justice was responsible for national criminal law and case review, and the Vice Minister was a high-ranking deputy official within the ministry. Military officers and cavalry officers were respectively junior officers within the military and cavalry organizations. Niu Hene's civil service experience should not be categorized as a "military officer of the Eight Banners," and there is no evidence that the two officers were appointed to positions in the Ministry of Justice.

Great-grandson Ehai originally served as a third-class bodyguard, and Eshan originally served as a scribe. The guards were responsible for protecting the princes' residences, while the scribes were in charge of official documents. The Manchu word "bithesi" is related to "bithe," meaning "book" or "document." These two positions had different functions and were not the same Manchu-Chinese translation of the same title. The historical geographical area of ​​Yehe can be understood by referring to the present-day Yehe region of Siping, Jilin Province, but the former residence of Sumina, the specific government offices her descendants served in, and the chain of fathers and sons across generations still need to be verified.