Ebilun

Ebilun (Manchu:ᡝᠪᡳᠯᡠᠨ, Möllendorff: ebilun; Chinese: 遏必隆; pinyin: Èbìlóng; died 1673) was a Manchu noble and warrior of the Niohuru clan, most famous for being one of the Four Regents assisting the young Kangxi Emperor from 1661 to 1667, during the early Qing dynasty (1644–1912). A largely passive figure during the regency, Ebilun was disgraced following the ouster of the far more powerful regent Oboi and considered a political supporter of the latter. He was stripped of his positions by the emperor but later regained his noble rank. Many of his descendants became influential figures in the Qing imperial government.

Biography

Ebilun was from the Niohuru clan, which lived north of the Korean border and belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner.¹² He was the sixteenth of the seventeen sons of Eidu (1562–1621), who had been a close associate of Manchu patriarch Nurhaci.³ Ebilun's mother was herself a daughter of Nurhaci.⁴

In 1634, the second Qing emperor Hong Taiji (r. 1626 – 1643) gave Eidu a posthumous rank of viscount, which Ebilun immediately inherited but lost in 1637 after he tried to interfere in a trial involving his niece.⁵ In 1643 Ebilun followed Nurhaci's seventh son Abatai in forays inside North China and was credited with the capture of several towns. In 1645 and 1646, after the Qing had defeated the and made their capital, Ebilun served under Lekedehun in campaigns to dislodge Ming loyalist from and was rewarded with a minor hereditary rank. Yet his position was not assured. Because he belonged to the Yellow Banners, Ebilun was treated with suspicion by (the Prince Regent of the young ), whose power base was in the White Banners.