Tuoling'a

Overview

Tuoling'a was a member of the Lijia clan, a bondservant of the Plain Red Banner, during the early Qing Dynasty. Volume 33 of the official Qing Dynasty compilation, *The Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*, records that he was from the Changbai Mountains region. His great-great-grandson, Kunbulu, served as a third-class guard; Suoli served as treasurer; and Sarjin was a sixth-rank official at the time of compilation. His fourth-generation descendants held positions such as guard captain, bondservant captain, lieutenant commander, and scribe. His fifth-generation descendants, Lizhu and Wase, served as cavalry captains. The group's ending states that they submitted to the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the dynasty.

bondservant were a specific social class within the banner system. Guards served in the princely mansions' protective service system; treasurers managed the treasury; bondservant captains managed their respective ranks; lieutenants were in charge of basic household registration and military records; and scribes were different from these positions. Sixth-rank officials were only given a grade, not a specific post.

The fact that descendants of the family held positions in the military, government offices, and treasury administration cannot be uniformly interpreted as ordinary household servants, nor can every position be assumed to belong to the Imperial Household Department. The specific ancestral home in Changbai Mountain, the princes and nobles to whom the bondservant belonged, the treasury, and the connections between the fourth and fifth generations are yet to be verified. The positions of the descendants do not match the resume of Tuoling'a himself.