The middle of the three Jurchen groupings the Ming distinguished: a confederation of four walled-town clans on the Sungari and its tributaries, named after the Haixi (Songhua) River. Led first from Hada and then from Yehe, it was the strongest power in Manchuria in the 1580s and the chief rival to Nurhaci's Jianzhou.
Dismembered piecemeal by Nurhaci - Hada annexed 1599, Hoifa destroyed 1607, Ula taken 1613, Yehe overthrown 1619 - its clans folded into the Manchu banners rather than destroyed; Yehe Nara descendants (Empress Dowager Cixi among them) sat at the top of the Qing state the confederation had fought.