Xin Jian

Overview

Xin Jian was a bondservant under the Bordered Yellow Banner during the Qing Dynasty. His family had lived in Jinzhou for generations, but the year they submitted to the Qing Dynasty is unknown. The Xin family entry in Volume 78 of the official genealogy of the Eight Banners Manchu Clans, compiled during the Qianlong era, focuses on the official positions held by descendants across several generations: his fourth-generation descendant, Xin Dali, served as a scribe, and his sixth-generation descendant, Changzai, also served as a scribe. The original text does not provide the names of the intermediate generations, nor does it list Xin Jian's own official position.

Jinzhou is a historical place name in western Liaoning, different from the commonly mentioned former residences of Shenyang and Liaoyang in this text. The record of their ancestral residence only indicates the family's origin and cannot be directly interpreted as Xin Jian's birthplace or place of official service. The title "Bundler under the Bordered Yellow Banner" indicates the family's affiliation within the banner system, and cannot be interpreted as an administrative position in Jinzhou.

A scribe was a clerical official in the Qing Dynasty, responsible for drafting and copying official documents. The fact that two descendants both served as scribes suggests that the original text recorded similar types of positions, but it is insufficient to prove that the position was hereditary or that the two served in the same government office. The term "current" in the original book only refers to the state at the time of compilation.