| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 歷史研究所碩士在職專班 === 97 === Sunu(1648-1725), member of the Manchu Imperial Family, was a great-grand son of Cuyen(1580-1615), Nurhaci’s eldest son. He and his sons had made significant achievements in the period of Emperor Kang-hsi, and had been intimate with Emperor Kang-hsi’s ninth son, Yin-tang(1683-1726). After Emperor Yung-cheng succeeded to the throne, Sunu’s family were punished. Because several of Sunu’s sons were Christians and Emperor Yung-cheng forbad the dissemination of Christianity in China, the bitter experience of Sunu’s family has been interpreted as a religious persecution or a political persecution. The church material often put this matter in religious perspective and later studies follow this interpretation in using the idea of religious persecution. In this thesis I approach this topic through different stages of Sunu’s family in order to have a better understanding of the case of the Sunu’s family from the early Ch’ing to the mid-Ch’ing Dynasty. The availability of "The Genealogy of Aixinjueluo’s Family" not only gives us a complete picture of this case but also makes this study different with the earlier studies on this case.
Sunu’s family had reached its climax in the period of Emperor Kang-hsi. Sunu was raised the rank to a prince of the third degree, and served as military governor of Fengtien while several of his sons also had occupied important positions, such as the princes of the sixth and seventh degree, lieutenant-generals of the Manchu Red and Yellow Banner and many other honorary titles. They had obtained Emperor Kang-hsi’s trust. However, after Emperor Yung-cheng accessed to the throne through power struggle, he dealt with his political opponents with severe means. Sunu had become one of them. Among the various charges that Emperor Yung-cheng put on sunu, the most important were the rebellion of Cuyen, Sunu’s ancestor and Sunu’s collaboration with Yin-tang. Sunu’s family was banished to Yu-wei, Shansi and the entire family was stripped of the Yellow Belts. “Collaboration with others for an evil purpose” was the most serious charge. However, from the fifth year of Emperor Yung-cheng (1727), when Emperor Yung-cheng learned that they were pious Catholic believers, the Emperor paid attention to this case and attempted to use carrot and stick to force them abandon their faith. After the failure of various means, the Emperor decided to use more severe treatment and put them under the charge of “rebellion.” Although this family enjoyed a lenient treatment in the period of Emperor Chien-lung, they had another difficult time in the period of Emperor Chia-ching and Emperor Tao-kuang because of their religion.
The case of Sunu’s family has been related to Manchu Emperors’ attitude toward Bannerman’s faith in Christianity. Emperor Kang-hsi was lenient in this matter while Emperor Yung-cheng was severe, especially when Sunu was related to imperial clan. However, Sunu’s family did not waiver their faith in different times, even to the point that the whole family declined for this reason. The case of this family has become a unique and distinguished case in Ch’ing times.
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