Hešeri (Chinese: 赫舍里; pinyin: Hesheli; Manchu: ᡥᡝᡧᡝᡵᡳ Hešeri), is a clan of Manchu nobility with Jianzhou Jurchens roots, originally hailing from the area which is now the modern Chinese provinces of Jilin and Liaoning.
It was once one of the most important and powerful noble families in the early Qing dynasty in China, second only to the royal House of Aisin Gioro, to whom they were closely related by marriage.
[citation needed] Although its influence declined following Songgotu's death, the Hešeri clan continued to be the hereditary nobility and play a role in Chinese politics until the demise of the Qing dynasty in early 1912.
After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the resulting 1912 collapse of the Qing dynasty, the vast majority of Hešeri saw fit to distance themselves from their Manchu origins.
To accomplish this, the more Han-sounding diminutive He (Chinese: 赫 / 何) was adopted as a replacement surname (commonly spelled Ho in Hong Kong and several other Cantonese-speaking regions); a few Hešeri went further and changed their surnames completely to Gao (高), Kang (康), Zhang (张), Lu (芦), He (贺), Suo (索), Ying (英), Hao (郝), Hei (黑), Pu (普), Li (李), or Man (满).