The Evenki hero Hailanqa

Statue of Hailanqa, Hailar, Inner Mongolia

As I was reading The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian 遲子建 several months ago, one name in particular popped out at me: Hailanqa. The narrator of the novel, as did many of her relatives in the urireng, treated the name of this hero with reverence and awe. Hailanqa, the greatest martial hero of the Evenki people of the 18th century, was described in the novel as an orphan who lost both of his parents while he was still a youth, and he ended up a servant for a horse-merchant in Hailar. He was something of a folkloric figure of tall-tale proportions, somewhat akin to a batyr in a Turkic dastan. One Evenki saying about Hailanqa is that he was able to scare wolves away from the herds of horses even in his sleep, because his snore was as loud as a tiger’s roar. He rose to prominence to become one of the Qing Dynasty’s bravest, most tenacious and most successful generals.

But like most heroes of legend, Dolar Hailanqa (Duola’er Hailancha 多拉爾海蘭察) was in fact a historical figure. He belonged to the Solon 索倫 tribe of the Evenkil, and was born sometime around the year 1740, around the same time that the Evenkil around Lake Baikal were being converted to Orthodoxy by Russian missionaries. The stories about him being an orphan and a servant to a Hailar horse-merchant might very well be true. But when he was probably about fifteen years old he entered military service as a cavalryman.

In 1755 the Qing Dynasty had begun its conquest and destruction of the Dzunghar Khanate. The Dzunghars had overextended themselves on account of their sustained campaign of subjugation against the Kazakhs, which the latter people were spiritedly resisting under leaders like Abylai Khan. Hailanqa was recruited from amongst the Solon Evenks to participate in this campaign against the Dzunghars. As many of the Evenkil still are, he was a practised marksman, and his favoured weapon was the short cavalry bow. He distinguished himself in battle by shooting and capturing the Dzunghar general Bayar; and he impressed Emperor Qianlong 乾隆帝 enough to be granted the courtesy name of Erke Batlu. He later accompanied the Emperor in Mulan Park, and shot two tigers that were about to attack the Emperor. The grateful Qianlong promoted him to a senior captain rank in the Imperial Bodyguard.

He rose quickly through the ranks from there. Hailanqa again distinguished himself in military service against Burma, where he fought with bravery and distinction in highly unfamiliar terrain as a vanguard of the light cavalry (though the Burmese campaign itself turned out to be a disaster), and was awarded with a position in the Bordered Blue Banner. Two years later he was promoted to the Bordered White Banner and sent to Jinchuan – modern Sichuan – to quell a rebellion by the Tibetan Chieftain of Tsanlha. The campaign was an incredibly costly one, and the siege lasted five years. Even so, his service there was enough to ensure his promotion to the Plain Red Banner and his generalship in the Imperial Guard.

Hailanqa’s greatest military achievements were yet to come. He was sent to Taiwan to participate in the suppression of the rebellion of Lin Shuangwen 林爽文. Lin Shuangwen was a leader in the Hongmen 洪门 or Heaven and Earth Society 天地会, a quasi-Masonic organisation which by that time was engaging in piracy and racketeering. Lin Shuangwen organised an army of 300,000 people and proclaimed himself king. Hailanqa was sent to Taiwan in 1787 to advise the local police force of 3,000 led by Huang Shijian 黄仕简 on how to quell the rebellion. Once he landed, Hailanqa found his forces badly outnumbered and besieged. Despite being badly outnumbered, Hailanqa and Huang Shijian held out for months until Hailanqa’s friend and fellow bannerman Fukang’an 福康安 was sent with a relief force of 20,000 soldiers from the Chinese Southwest to take charge of the defence of the island. Lin Shuangwen was captured alive and sent to Beijing to face trial for his treason.

Hailanqa was also involved as one of the generals in the Sino-Nepalese Wars of 1788-1792. In 1791 the Evenki marksman was ordered to assist Fukang’an’s army of Manchu and Mongol bannermen in repelling an invasion of 10,000 Gurkhas from Tibetan territory, where they were under orders from Bahadur Šâh to exact tribute. The Manchus and Mongols under Fukang’an and Hailanqa marched through Tibet in the bitterest of winter conditions, and arrived to repulse the Nepalese force. The two bannermen won a number of engagements, but were soon overextended. They made a peace agreement with the Nepali šâh to the effect that instead of Tibet having to pay tribute to Nepal, Nepal would have to pay tribute to Tibet instead. Qing suzerainty was asserted over both countries.

By this time, Hailanqa was awarded a position in the Bordered Yellow Banner, the highest of the Manchu banner ranks. He died of illness in 1793 – possibly from his campaign in Tibet – and was awarded with the posthumous title of Wuzhuang 武状, or ‘Martial Champion’. In his life he had participated in at least five of the Ten Great Campaigns of Emperor Qianlong. His remains were interred in the Zhaozhong Temple 昭忠祠 – an honour reserved for the bravest of China’s veterans – and his name was inscribed in the Ziguang Pavilion 紫光阁 as a hero of the Qing Empire. Not a bad career at all for a horse-trader’s serving-lad from Hailar.