The Eight Banners system was an important cornerstone of Manchu rule, which lasted from the time of Nurhachi to the end of the Qing Dynasty. As an important military force in the Central Plains, the Eight Banners played a key role in the establishment and continuation of the Manchu regime, but also became one of the reasons for the decline of the Manchu Dynasty.
The development of the Eight Banners system is full of evolution and changes, initially there was only one flag, and as the power grew, it continued to expand, and finally formed a system with eight flags.
In the Later Jin Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners were an important pillar of Manchu rule, and the power of the banner owners was so great that they could even shake the foundations of imperial power. In order to consolidate the imperial power, Huang Taiji began to divide and adjust the Eight Banners, until the Eight Banners became a symbolic honor and could no longer affect the stability of the imperial power.
The Jurchens' initial life of fishing and hunting gave rise to the need for unified command, and then formed the concepts of "Niu Lu Ezhen" and "Niu Lu". With the rise of military struggles and the increase in numbers, the Jurchens united several cattle records to form a larger military unit marked by a flag, Gushan, known as "Qi" in Chinese.
After Nurhachi raised his army, he first established a black flag army, which was black in color. As he continued to fight, he exterminated many tribes, taking prisoners and men into a new army, marked by red, which became known as the Red Banner.
The Black Flag Force was handed over to his younger brother Shulhazy, and he himself became the commander of the newly created Red Banner Force.
Nurhachi changed the black flag to a blue flag because it was not recognizable at night, and the red flag he led himself was changed to a yellow flag, so that the earliest prototype of the Eight Banners was formed.
In the beginning, there were only two flags, and the banner owners were Nurhachi and Shulhaqi, who were also known as the "two chiefs". The Yellow Flag is dominated by Nurhachi, and the Blue Flag is dominated by Shulhachi.
In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli (1601), Nurhachi conquered the most important tribe of the Haixi Jurchens, the Hada Division, and organized the people and horses of the Hada Division into a new banner, which was managed by his eldest son Chu Ying and the leader of the Hada Division, Wu Ergu, and the symbol of this new flag was white, which was later known as the White Flag.
Soon, Chu Ying abolished the ancient administrative position of Wu Er and became the sole owner of the White Flag. At the same time, Shulhaqi's Blue Banner was expanded, and the newly attached men were placed under the management of Nurhachi's second son, Daishan.
Since then, Nurhachi's ranks have increased to three banners.
In the thirty-seventh year of Wanli (1609), Nurhachi's younger brother Shulhaqi decided to go it alone because he was dissatisfied with his brother's strength, but he was imprisoned, and the blue flag he commanded was redivided, half of the power belonged to his second son Amin, and the rest was assigned to Daishan, which greatly enhanced Daishan's strength, and these centaurs broke away from the blue flag and officially formed the red flag.
After the establishment of the Red Flag, Nurhachi had four banners, which was the famous era of the Four Banners. In the forty-second year of Wanli (1611), because of Chu Ying's arrogance and curse Nurhachi, Nurhachi abolished his heir status in a fit of anger, and also redivided the power of the white flag, most of which was taken by Huang Taiji, and the remaining part was inherited by Chu Ying's eldest son Du Du, and Huang Taiji began to master the white flag.
In the Later Jin period, Nurhachi established the Four Banners system, which was ruled by himself and his three sons. As his power expanded, he expanded the Four Banners to eight banners, and most of the banner owners were controlled by his own sons.
Among them, the yellow flag was split into the positive yellow flag and the inlaid yellow flag, and Nurhachi personally led the two flags, and the red flag of Daishan was split into the positive red flag and the inlaid red flag, which were jointly led by Daishan and his sons Yue Tuo and Shuo Tuo.
Amin became the owner of the blue flag, and the blue flag was served by Nurhachi's fifth son, Mang Gurtai, and Derge was the owner of the small flag. Huang Taiji mastered the positive white flag, Du Du served as the owner of the inlaid white flag, and Abatai served as the owner of the small flag.
The Eight Banners Banner is relatively simple, not as complicated as it was later, the four flags are all solid colors, and the Four Inlaid Flags are a dragon added to the middle of the flag, and the style was determined later.
Although the fighting power of the Eight Banners was very strong during this period, it did not actually form a united whole. Because of the killing of Chu Ying, the heir, Nurhachi's sons all wanted to compete for the throne, and several banner owners calculated each other in order to seize power, and the eight banners and banner owners changed very frequently.
If you want to know more about the details of Huang Taiji's seizure of the two white flags, you can read an article I wrote earlier.
Although Nurhachi's will gave Dordor 15 successions and placed positions for Azig, Dordor and Dorgon, he died before he could complete the adjustment of the white flag.
Huang Taiji saw this gap and asked his son Haoge to seize the inlaid white flag that had no flag owner for the time being, and as a result, Huang Taiji and his son mastered two of the eight white flags at once.
After Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne, he faced the challenge of the parliamentary monarchy system, and he began to divide and attack other banner lords in order to seize power. He began by reversing his two white flags with the two yellow flags of the three Dorgon brothers to assert his legitimacy.
There was no personnel adjustment in this reshuffle, it was just a change of flag. After Huang Taiji mastered the two yellow flags, the biggest challenge came from Amin with the blue flag. He planned to calculate Amin, but this raid was met by Sun Chengzong's army, and Amin was forced to abandon the four cities, and Huang Taiji took the opportunity to imprison Amin and put the blue flag in the hands of Amin's younger brother Zilharang, who had a good relationship with him.
After calculating the blue flag, Huang Taiji tried to control the Zhenglan Banner, which was inherited by Mang Gurtai's son Dege, but he died of illness in the ninth year of Tiancong. Huang Taiji took the opportunity to deprive Mang Gurtai of the inheritance right and took the Zhenglan Banner into his pocket.
Huang Taiji knew that the power of the Zhenglan Banner could not be ignored, so he adopted a shrewd strategy to weaken the power of the Zhenglan Banner. He assigned the eight leaders of the blue flag to his son Hauge, and also assigned three leaders to the small banner owner of the yellow flag, Abatai.
In this way, the yellow flag was strengthened, and the power of the positive blue flag was weakened. In order to further weaken the positive blue flag, Huang Taiji combined half of the positive yellow flag with half of the positive blue flag to form a new positive yellow flag.
At the same time, he also combined the remaining blue flag and yellow flag to form a new yellow flag. Although the two Yellow Flags are still under the command of Huang Taiji, Hauge has become the banner master of the Positive Blue Banner, and Abatai has become the minor banner owner of the Positive Blue Banner.
This change made the ownership of the Eight Banners more complicated, and three forces began to form: the two yellow flags, the positive blue flag, and the inlaid blue flag controlled by the Huang Taiji lineage;Daizen and his family have two red flags and two white flags in the hands of the Dorgon brothers.
In the secret competition between Huang Taiji and the two white flags, Dai Shan and his two red flags remained neutral.
Dolgon took sole control after the death of Huang Taiji, and he followed Huang Taiji's example and took control of power by splitting up and annexing other banner lords. First of all, in the eighth year of Chongde (1643), he confiscated 15 of his younger brother Duoduo's 15 collars in the positive white flag, so that he had 30 collars, and then exchanged banners with Duoduo, and became the owner of the positive white flag, Duoduo became the owner of the white flag, and Azig became the owner of the small banner with the white flag.
Then, he pointed the finger at Huang Taiji's eldest son, Haoge, and not only sent him to prison, but also took back his Zhenglan Banner, and became the banner owner of Zhenglan Banner.
Dolgon was forced to die by Hauge in the sixth year of Shunzhi (1649), and Dordor, the owner of the White Banner, died of illness in the same year. Dolgon took the opportunity to mix the two white flags and the long-disobedient blue flag, and after the mixing, he became the owner of the inlaid white flag and the white flag, and the new blue flag was handed over to Azig, Dodo's second son Doni, Abatai's third son Bolo, and Abatai's fourth son Yuedong to manage together, of which Doni was the banner owner.
Dai Shan also died of illness in this year, and the son of Wei Daishan, the owner of the Red Flag Banner, Mandahai, was the great-grandson of Dai Shan, Luo Keduo. At this time, the Eight Banners were no longer the original Eight Banners, and the years of adjustment of Huang Taiji and Dolgon made them unrecognizable.
After Dolgon's death, Emperor Shunzhi immediately carried out the Autumn Queen's Reckoning, and at the same time made another major adjustment to the Eight Banners. Azig wanted to emulate Dolgon as regent, but was killed due to the two red flags that played the balancing technique, and the two white flags were in the hands of Emperor Shunzhi.
Led by the descendants of Zilharang. After Kangxi succeeded to the throne, in order to weaken the power of the lower five banners, he introduced the capital system to replace the status of the banner master. All are appointed by the imperial court and are not hereditary.
This move made it impossible for the hereditary banner owner to continue to hold power, and Kangxi arranged for his son to be the small banner master of the lower five banners, further dividing the lower five banners. This trend continued until the reign of Emperor Daoguang, when the Eight Banners were completely controlled by the imperial family.
At this point, the Eight Banners system of the Qing Dynasty came to a complete end, and the banner owners who originally held great power lost their power in the gradual differentiation and could no longer cover the sky with one hand in this banner.
It can be said that since the Qianlong period, the once prominent banner owner has existed in name only. By the time of Emperor Daoguang, the status of the banner lord had been reduced to an honorary title, although it was only an honorary title, but the person who served as the banner owner had to be a descendant of Nurhachi and Shulhaqi.
As for the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, they do not have independent banner owners, and they are basically led by the banner masters.