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Erdeni
Jurchen scholar-official who in 1599, at Nurhaci's order, adapted the Mongolian alphabet to write Manchu
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Erdeni Baksi
Erdeni, of the Nara clan, came from Duyengge, knew Mongolian and Chinese, and joined Nurhaci, who enrolled him in the Plain Yellow Banner and gave him the title baksi, or scholar. In 1599 Nurhaci ordered him and Gagai to create a script, and they adapted the Mongolian alphabet to the Jurchen language, producing the old Manchu script without dots and circles. Gagai was executed soon afterwards, and Erdeni carried the work forward. The early records of the Later Jin were kept in this script, as the surviving Old Manchu Archives show. He was later put to death for an offence, and in 1654 the Shunzhi court honoured him with the posthumous name Wencheng.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown; devised the Manchu script in 1599; died c. 1623 (also given as 1634)