Monarch Kangxi Emperor Role Political figure Name Suksaha Suksaha | Died 1667 | |
Suksaha (Manchu: ; Chinese: 蘇克薩哈; pinyin: Sūkèsàhā) was one of the Four Regents during the early reign of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722) in the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).
Like his father Suna, he was from the Nara clan of the Plain Yellow Banner. Suksaha distinguished himself in military campaigns against Joseon Korea and Ming China in the 1630s and 1640s. Notably, he fought at Songshan and Jinzhou in 1641, a series of battles that led to the surrender of Ming commander Hong Chengchou to the Qing cause in 1642.
During the Manchu conquest of China led by Prince Regent Dorgon (1612–1650), who owned the Plain Yellow Banner, Suksaha was rewarded for his military successes and was made a member of the Deliberative Council, the main policy-making organ of the early Qing dynasty.
After the death of the Shunzhi Emperor in 1661, a modified imperial will was made public which named four regents for the newly enthroned Kangxi Emperor, who was only six years old. The four regents—Soni, Oboi, Suksaha, and Ebilun—had all helped Jirgalang and the Shunzhi Emperor to purge the court of Dorgon's supporters in 1651. Suksaha was the youngest of the four.
He became entangled in political and personal disputes with Oboi during the Emperor's minority, and he split decisively with Oboi. Oboi was looking to consolidate power in his own hands through discrediting the other three regents; Soni was old and frail, and Ebilun was seen as weak. Suksaha thus became Oboi's only serious political rival. A few days after Soni died in August 1667 and was no longer able to mediate these conflicts, Suksaha asked to retire on account of old age and illness. Perhaps advised by Oboi, the Kangxi Emperor immediately ordered the Deliberative Council to investigate Suksaha's motives. Two days later on September 2, the Council ordered Suksaha and all his male kin arrested; on September 4, it found Suksaha guilty of twenty-four "grave crimes" and recommended that he and many of his male relatives be executed, along with many members of the imperial guard who had supposedly connived in Suksaha's schemes.