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| Sengge Rinchen | |||||||||
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| Jasagh &Prince Bodlogotoi of theHorqin Left Rear Banner (Prince of First Rank) | |||||||||
| Reign | 1854–1865 | ||||||||
| Predecessor | lifted from Prince of Second Rank | ||||||||
| Successor | Buyannemekü | ||||||||
| Jasagh &Prince of theHorqin Left Rear Banner (Prince of Second Rank) | |||||||||
| Reign | 1825–1854 | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Sodnamdorji | ||||||||
| Successor | lifted to Prince of First Rank | ||||||||
| Born | (1811-07-24)24 July 1811 Horqin Left Rear Banner,Inner Mongolia,Qing China | ||||||||
| Died | 18 May 1865(1865-05-18) (aged 53) Heze County,Caozhou Prefecture,Shandong, Qing China | ||||||||
| Burial | 1865 | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 僧格林沁 | ||||||||
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| Mongolian name | |||||||||
| Mongolian script | ᠰᠡᠩᠭᠡᠷᠢᠨᠴᠢᠨ | ||||||||
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| Manchu name | |||||||||
| Manchu script | ᠰᡝᠩᡤᡝᡵᡳᠨᠴᡳᠨ | ||||||||
| Romanization | senggerincin | ||||||||
Sengge Rinchen (24 July 1811 – 18 May 1865) orSenggelinqin (Mongolian:Сэнгэринчен) was aMongol nobleman and general who served under theQing dynasty during the reigns of theDaoguang,Xianfeng andTongzhi emperors. He is best known for his role at theBattle of Taku Forts and at theBattle of Baliqiao during theSecond Opium War and his contributions in helping the Qing Empire suppress theTaiping andNian rebellions.
Sengge Rinchen was from theHorqin Left Back Banner inInner Mongolia and was a member of theBorjigin clan. He was a 26th generation descendant ofQasar, a brother ofGenghis Khan. His name is made up of two Tibetan words, "Sengge" (Tibetan:སེང་གེ་) and "Rinchen" (Tibetan:རིན་ཆེན་), which mean "lion" and "treasure" respectively. When he was a child, he was adopted by Sodnamdorji (Содномдорж, 索特納木多布濟), ajasagh of the Horqin Left Back Banner andjunwang (郡王; Prince of the Second Rank) under theQing Empire. He inherited his adoptive father's position and princely title in 1825 during the reign of theDaoguang Emperor.
In 1853, during the reign of theXianfeng Emperor, Sengge Rinchen led Qing forces to attack theTaiping rebels of theNorthern Expedition in the southern suburbs ofTianjin and defeated them. In 1855, in recognition of his achievements, the Qing imperial court granted him the hereditary title "Prince Bodlogotoi" (Бодлоготой чин ван, 博多勒噶台親王). In the same year, he repelled an attack on Fengguan Garrison (馮官屯; northeast of present-dayChiping County,Liaocheng,Shandong) by the Taiping rebel generalLi Kaifang (李開芳) and captured him alive.
In 1857, after theSecond Opium War broke out, Sengge Rinchen was appointed as anImperial Commissioner to take charge of defence arrangements in Tianjin. Two years later, after defeating the British and French at theSecond Battle of the Dagu Forts, he andLi Chaoyi (李朝儀) oversaw the construction of artillery batteries inNinghe, Yingcheng (營城) and theDagu Forts to resist an invasion. In 1860, after the British and French defeated Qing forces at theThird Battle of the Dagu Forts and occupied Tianjin, Sengge Rinchen and his army retreated toTongzhou. When an Anglo-French delegation led byHarry Smith Parkes andHenry Loch showed up in Tongzhou for peace negotiations withPrince Yi and other Qing representatives, Sengge Rinchen ordered the delegation to be arrested and sent toBeijing, where most of them (excluding Parkes and Loch) died of disease or torture. During theBattle of Baliqiao, he led his elite Mongol cavalry to attack the Anglo-French forces but was utterly defeated and his cavalry was almost completely wiped out. After entering Beijing,Lord Elgin (the British High Commissioner to China) ordered the British and French troops to burn down theOld Summer Palace in retaliation for the torture and deaths of the delegation. Sengge Rinchen was stripped of his nobility title for his failure to drive back the invaders, but retained his appointment as Imperial Commissioner.
When the Qing imperial court received news of theNian Rebellion, Sengge Rinchen was ordered to lead troops toShandong,Henan andAnhui to suppress the rebellion. In 1865, during theBattle of Gaolou Fort, he was ambushed in a tavern near Gaolou Fort (高樓寨) inHeze, Shandong by Nian rebels led byLai Wenguang andSong Jingshi. He attempted to escape with some of his horsemen and take shelter in the woods but was killed by a minor rebel leader, Zhang Pigeng.
Shortly after Sengge Rinchen was killed in battle, news of his death reachedBeijing, shocking the Qing court. The emperor ordered imperial guards to escort his coffin back to the capital by express relay and suspended court sessions for three days as a sign of mourning and respect.
Sengge Rinchen was the last military commander of the Qing dynasty of Manchu-Mongol origin. After his death,Empress Dowager Cixi appointedZeng Guofan to lead the campaign against the Nian rebels. From that point onward, military authority increasingly shifted toHan Chinese generals such as Zeng Guofan of theXiang Army andLi Hongzhang of theHuai Army, marking a significant transition in Qing military leadership during the late dynasty.
The Qing imperial court sent couriers to retrieve and transport Sengge Rinchen's remains back to Beijing, in addition to not holding any court sessions for three days as a mark of mourning. TheTongzhi Emperor, accompanied by the empress dowagersCi'an andCixi, personally attended the funeral and ordered a shrine to be erected to commemorate Sengge Rinchen. The shrine, called "Xianzhongci" (顯忠祠; "Shrine of Displaying Loyalty"), used to stand at the current location of Kuanjie Primary School (寬街小學) in Beijing'sDongcheng District.
Sengge Rinchen's loyalty to the Qing Empire is interpreted in official histories of thePeople's Republic of China as an expression of Chinese patriotism. In 1995, the local government inTongliao,Inner Mongolia opened a Sengge Rinchen Memorial Museum.
Sengge Rinchen was well known among foreigners in China: British soldiers nicknamed him "Sam Collinson" by mispronouncing his name inMandarin.[1]
Sengge Rinchen was survived by his son, Buyannemekü (Буяннэмэх, 伯彥訥謨祜; 1836–91), who inherited his princely title. Buyannemekü's eldest son, Nersu (Нарс, 那爾蘇; 1855–90), held the title of abeile and married the eldest daughter ofYixuan, Prince Chun. Nersu was, in turn, succeeded by his son,Amurlingkui (Амарлингуй, 阿穆爾靈圭; 1886–1930). Buyannemekü had five other sons, three of whom becamelamas. His sixth son, Bodisu (Бодис, 博迪蘇; 1871–1914), was briefly a senator in theNational Assembly at the beginning of theRepublican era.
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