Before entering the pass, the Manchus were in the primitive tribal form, and the Jurchens made a living from nomadic fishing and hunting, which later laid the foundation for the Manchu Shang riding and shooting. During this period, people generally relied on customary law to handle affairs, for example, when many people hunted together to obtain a prey, if a dispute arose, it would generally adopt an equal distribution method, which had primitive democratic overtones. It is also recorded in the Records of Sejong of Joseon: "Although the five or six Jurchens received a garment, they all took it." Later, in order to strengthen management, Nurhaci established a cattle record system. The cattle record system is a temporary production and military organization, and it is also the prototype of the eight flags system. Initially, when the Jurchens went out hunting, they divided ten people into a group, and the leader of the group became the Niulu Erzhen, and in 1601, Nurhaci officially established the Niulu system. The Jurchens developed rapidly, and in this year, the number of group members increased to three hundred, and Niu Lu Erzhen became an official position among the Jurchens, adding some new ranks compared with before. Every five cattle records are called a kola, and five kola are called a gushan. Gushan means flag. Originally, there were four flags of yellow, white, blue and red, each color symbolizing a flag, and each flag had about seven thousand people. The eight flags system was effective, and the Jurchens conquered more and more tribes, and the number of people expanded, adding yellow, white, blue, and red to eight flags.
The reason why the Jurchen people were brave and good at war and later entered the customs was inseparable from the strict hierarchy and clear reward and punishment of the Eight Flags system. At the end of the conquest, the sons of the Eight Banners "those who sin will be rewarded according to the rule of law, and those who have meritorious service will be rewarded." "The reward made the soldiers bravely compete for the lead, the punishment was clear where the fault was, and the combination of reward and punishment was clear, which greatly improved the morale of the Jurchen army, conquered more tribes for Nurhaci, and obtained more food, women, and the next generation of Eight Banners." After years of deliberation, in 1616 Nurhaci established Houjin in Hetuala.
Twenty-eight years later, in 1644, Wu Sangui introduced the Qing army into the customs, and the Qing began the journey of unifying the country. In the journey, unlike Guanwai, the Han people here accounted for the vast majority, in order to alleviate ethnic conflicts and reduce the people's rejection of foreign nationalities, the Eight Flags system included the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Eight Banners of the Han Nationality, and further improved.
The Eight Flags system was a tool for the Qing rulers to ease, suppress, and control social contradictions, and its core feature was the combination of farming and war and the preferential treatment of the Manchu Qing. From the perspective of the ruling structure, the general emperor commanded the yellow flag and the yellow flag, and the rest of the flags were commanded by the Manchu nobles, from Niulu - Jiala - Gushan, the rank was raised in turn, and the Niulu was equivalent to the sipin official. From the perspective of selection and appointment, the selection of the Eight Flags is strict, and the candidates must pass the baseline of height and age, and need to pass the riding archery and Manchu examinations. In addition, every three years, the compilation and review will eliminate some of the old, weak, sick and disabled each time. A military parade ceremony is held every three years, in which the children of the Eight Banners will perform artillery, shotguns, mounted archery, deployment, ladders and other skills in front of the emperor according to their respective formations, one to supervise the children of the Eight Banners to practice diligently, and the other to show the people of the world the superb military strength of the Qing Dynasty and deter the foreign tribes who are eager to move. Generally speaking, in terms of his growth experience, the eight flags will be influenced by riding and shooting from an early age, and women are no exception, and adults will hang a small bow and arrow in front of the door to wish him a good archer when he grows up. When he grew up, he studied the Manchu exam diligently or rode archery in order to pass the selection of the Eight Flags. This ensured the high quality of the Eight Banner Soldiers, and also ensured the military security of the dynasty. From another point of view, there is a reason why people are so keen to enter the Eight Flags. As far as their grain salaries are concerned, "the rulers deliberately set the grain wages higher", and the grain salaries of the eight flags are almost equivalent to that of a seven- or eight-pin official, and in addition to meeting their own needs, "selling the surplus grain" can also support their families. Solving the problem of Cangyushi, and having more favorable treatment than Han officials, the children of the Eight Banners naturally threw themselves into the qing dynasty's national defense cause more diligently.
From the perspective of military deployment, the rulers adopted the strategy of "taking the weight and controlling the light". The focus is on the defense of the capital, the yellow, white and blue of the eight flags arches from three sides to defend the capital, the white flag and the white flag are stationed on the west side, the yellow and yellow flags are stationed in the north, and the blue and blue are stationed in the south. The rest are garrisoned in various places. The garrison in the capital, known as the Eight Banners of the Forbidden Brigade, was divided into a cavalry battalion, an infantry battalion, a forward battalion, and later a tiger gun battalion, a firearms battalion, a Jianrui battalion, a shanpu battalion, and a divine machine battalion. Those stationed in various places are called the Eight Flags of Garrison, and the Green Flag is the symbol, also known as the Green Battalion. It is distributed in key military strategic points, large and small, passes, towns, and water and land transportation arteries. Together, the Eight Banners of Beijing and the local garrisons formed a tight military network that could suppress social contradictions at any time while maintaining national security.
How to evaluate the Eight Flags system? On the one hand, the eight flags system has largely eased the contradictions within the tribe and established order. At first, the newly established Post-Jin regime was not stable, because Nurhaci mainly expanded the power of the tribe through war, absorbing many other tribes, they were constantly in conflict with each other, the situation was chaotic, mainly relying on the Eight Flags system to give the people of each tribe a high and low hierarchical order, they were scattered into the cattle records, unable to be centralized, coupled with Nurhaci's powerful rule, the situation soon stabilized.
On the other hand, the eight flags system is conducive to national integration. Under the conquest of various means such as conquest or zhao'an, the eight flags system continued to expand, including the Mongols, Han, Koreans and other ethnic groups, in the process of long-term conquest, the original tribes through cooperation, intermarriage, exchanges and other forms of strengthening integration, they originally came from different regions, have different lifestyles and ethnic habits, the eight flags system placed them in the same similar patriarchal tribe, strengthened ethnic integration and exchange. In addition, the eight flags system also improved the manchu national consciousness and national spirit, under the intentional promotion of Nurhaci, Huang Taiji and others, from the triennial military parade to the Mulan siege, from the original tribal era of riding and shooting tradition continues to consolidate, becoming a landmark national tradition.
The Eight Flags system integrates politics, economy and military as one, is the core of the Qing Dynasty's rule, before entering the customs until the early Qing Dynasty, people will still think of Xiao Yong and good war, to the prosperous era of Kangqian, the upper level pays attention to eating, drinking, playing and playing the team, everything is exquisite, upward and downward effect, the Eight Flags children have also become synonymous with walking dogs and birds. This from a certain aspect, hinted at the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty, at the time of the qing Dynasty's strength, the Eight Banners disciples continued to expand, cultivating the war and the two things, not partial to the abolition, the system was constantly improved, and in the later period, the Eight Banners became one of the Manchu Noble Classes, the soldiers did not become soldiers, riding and shooting waste, some sat and ate the mountains and the sky, there were also those who seized land, the Eight Flags system rotted from within, to some extent, also hinted at the crisis hidden under the prosperity.
bibliography:
"Brilliant Eight Flags Gorgeous Military Uniform- From the Eight Flags Costume to see the Eight Flags System of the Qing Dynasty" Wang Yanan
Records of Sejong of Joseon
"A Brief Discussion on the Historical Value of the Eight Flags System Before entering the Customs Clearance" By Sun Hong
Records of Emperor Wu of the Qing Dynasty
Records of Manchuria
"Research on the Law and Culture of Manchu Dispute Resolution Mechanism before Entering Customs", Wang Yihua and Guan Fengrong
"The Legal System of the Qing Dynasty - The Eight Flags System" Zhang Yan and Zhang Orange