Tong Guowei


Tong Guowei was a Qing dynasty official. He was a maternal uncle of Kangxi Emperor.

Life

Tong Guowei was the second son of Tulai. According to the Comprehensive history of Eight Banners, The Tong family from Fushun was a sinicized Jurchen clan, they were incorporated into the Han Chinese Plain Blue Banner. However, Pamela Kyle Crossley stated that they were actually Han Chinese and falsely claimed to be related to the Manchu Tunggiya clan of Jilin, using this false claim to get themselves transferred to a Manchu banner in the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. The Tong family was the most powerful family during the Kangxi period, thus got the nickname "Tong Ban Chao", which meant "the Tong who fill up half the Court".
In 1674, after the Revolt of the Three Feudatories had begun, Wu Yingxiong, the eldest son of Wu Sangui, plotted a riot in Beijing. Hearing of the plan, Tong Guowei quickly arrested the ringleaders with the aid of thirty guards. He was appointed the commander of the imperial bodyguard and Deliberative Ministers in 1682. In 1689 he was granted the hereditary rank First class Duke. He fought against Dzungars in the Battle of Ulan Butung, in which his brother Tong Guogang was killed in action. Tong Guowei was held responsible for not taking advantage of the victory to pursue the enemy during the battle, and was dismissed from his post as Deliberative Ministers. He accompanied Kangxi on both of the latter's expeditions against Galdan in 1696 and in 1697.
Tong Guowei died in 1719. He was given the posthumous name Duanchun and awarded posthumous appointment of Grand Tutor by Yongzheng Emperor in 1723.
Tong Guogang and Tong Guowei were said to believe in Christianity, though their political lives prohibited their formal conversions. They maintained close relationships with two Jesuit missionaries, Lodovico Buglio and Gabriel de Magalhães.

Family