The Nurgan Regional Military Commission was a Chineseadministrative seatestablished in Manchuria during the Ming dynasty, located on the banks of the Amur River, about 100 kmfrom the sea, at Nurgan city, Nurgan in Jurchen language means “painting”. The seat was nominally established in 1409, but was abandoned in 1435. Nurgan was the site of Yongning Temple, a Buddhist temple dedicated to Guanyin, that was founded by Yishiha in 1413. The founding of Yongning Temple is recorded in the Yongning Temple Stele with inscriptions in Chinese, Mongolian and Jurchen. The commission was an important institution during the Ming rule of Manchuria, obtaining at least the nominal allegiance of the lower Amur's tribes to the Ming government. By 1409, the Yongle Emperor's government, which had already established relations with the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens in southern Manchuria, ordered Yishiha to start preparations for an expedition to the lower Amur River region, to demonstrate the power of the Ming Empire to the Nurgan Jurchen populating the area and induce them to enter into relations with the empire, and to ensure that they would not create trouble for the Ming state when the latter went to war with the Eastern Mongols. In 1413 Yishiha also visited the nearby coast of the Sakhalin Island, and granted Ming titles to a local chieftain. Some sources report a Chinese fort existed at Aigun for about 20 years during the Yongle era on the left shore of the Amur downstream from the mouth of the Zeya River. This Ming Dynasty Aigun was located on the opposite bank to the later Aigun that was relocated during the Qing Dynasty. Yishiha's last mission was connected to the retirement of the Nurgan chief and the "inauguration" of his son as his successor. Yishiha attended at that event in 1432, presenting the new chief a seal of authority and giving gifts to subordinate chieftains. This time Yishiha's fleet included 50 big ships with 2,000 soldiers, and they actually brought the new chief to Tyr.
