Pinecone Thai

Overview

Songguotai was a member of the Esuli clan, belonging to the Bordered Yellow Banner. His family had lived in the Heilongjiang region for generations, and he submitted to the Qing dynasty during the Tiancong era. Volume 49 of the official Qing dynasty genealogy, *the Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*, primarily records the military achievements, hereditary official positions, and civil service appointments of his descendants. Tiancong was the reign title of Huang Taiji during the Later Jin dynasty; the ancestral home of "Heilongjiang" is a geographical description and cannot be directly pinpointed to a specific modern city.

Songguotai's son, Tanardai, was sent to Jiangnan as a military officer. During the siege of Jiangyin, he was the first to scale the city walls and was awarded the title of Yunqiwei (Yunqiwei). Later, he received three imperial edicts that promoted him to the rank of Third-Class Qingche duwei (hereditary merit rank). His son, Aharxi, and grandson, Juehote, successively inherited the title. After Juehote's death, his younger brother's son, Sanbao, inherited the title, receiving the Yunqiwei rank after deducting the additional rank granted by the imperial edict. Sanbao also served as a Blue-Lanyard Imperial Guard at the same time. The Imperial Guard Officer (guard-unit officer) was a junior officer in charge of the Imperial Guard, while the Blue-Lanyard Guards (Lan Ling Shi Wei) belonged to the Imperial Guard system. The Yunqiwei (hereditary merit rank) (Yunqiwei) and Qingche duwei (hereditary merit rank) (Qingche duwei) were hereditary titles; these three categories of titles cannot be considered on the same official rank table. There are also records of the family having grandson Suo and Er as scribes (bithesi (scribe)), great-grandson Cangmi as an official (Jing Li), and fourth-generation descendant Baolin as a scribe. Scribes handled translation of documents, while officials were mostly involved in official documents and archives; their specific duties varied depending on the institution. The specific department Cangmi belonged to and the term of office for each individual still need to be verified.