Is the iron hat king of the Qing Dynasty iron or not iron?

"Iron Hat King" is a common name, in the Qing Dynasty, it refers to the prince who can be hereditary and never demoted, and the title of the prince of the county.

According to the rank of the Qing Dynasty, the clan titles can be divided into 14 levels such as princes, county kings, baylors, beizi, zhenguo gongs, auxiliary princes, etc., of which only the prince and the county king can be called "king"; according to the way of raiding the knights, they can be divided into two categories: "hereditary resignation" and "demotion according to the sub-level", according to the source, they can be divided into two types: gongfeng and enfeng, the former refers to those who have outstanding military achievements in the founding period of the Qing Dynasty, and the latter refers to those who govern the country and the emperor to descend to the special title.

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were 8 people, including Daishan the Prince of Youli, Dolgun the Prince of Rui, Duoduo the Prince of Yu, Zilharang the Prince of Zheng, Hauge the Prince of Su, Shuosai the Prince of Zhuang, Yue Tuo the Prince of Keqin County, and Leke Dehun the Prince of Shuncheng County, all of whom were awarded the title of Dingding Military Meritorious Service.

In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, there were 4 people, namely Yunxiang the Prince of Yi, Yixun the Prince of Gong, Yizhen the Prince of Alcohol, and Yi Li the Prince of Qing, who were awarded the honor of hereditary replacement with enfeng.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the saying of the "Eight Iron Hat Kings" only existed in the Qianlong period, and it was an honorific title for them by later generations

In the early Qing Dynasty, the saying of the "Eight Iron Hat Kings" only existed in the Qianlong period, and it was the honorific title given to them by later generations, not when they entered the customs. The Eight Kings were able to enter the hereditary succession and experienced a long and tortuous history.

During the Nurhaci period, the Eight Banners were regarded as private property, and their descendants such as Daishan, Huang Taiji, Dolgun, Yueto, hauge, etc. were divided into banners, and his brother Shulhaqi's sons Amin and Zilharang also successively received a banner, called The Great Baylor, Heshuo Belle, and Banner Lord Belle. Baylor means "king", at that time, the knighthood system had not yet been fixed, and Baylor's title and treatment were not clear and unified.

In 1636, Emperor Taiji ascended to the throne as emperor, founded the qing dynasty, and began to formally promulgate the knighthood system. In April of that year, Emperor Taiji decreed that his brothers and nephews should be divided into military merits, and that he could be crowned Prince Heshuo Li, Belzil Halang the Prince of Heshuo Zheng, Morgen Daiqing Belle Dolgun the Prince of Heshuo Rui, Erke Chuhuer Belle Dordor the Prince of Heshuo Yu, Belle Hauge the Prince of Heshuo Su, Yue Tuo the Prince of Heshuo Cheng (demoted to Beyler, Chongde died in the fourth year, posthumously crowned King of Keqin County), Azig as the King of Doro Wuying County, Dudu as Doro Anping Belle, and Abatay as Doro Rao Yu Belle. (Records of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty, vol. XXVIII, Tiancong 10th April Ding You) This time there were 7 princes and shire kings, and 2 baylors. In addition, The third son of Daishan, Sakhalyan, was originally a Belle, who had been lying ill before and was unable to be crowned king at that time. Just over a month after Emperor Taiji divided the kings, Sakhalian died of illness, and Emperor Taiji went to pay tribute, "weeping four, mournful", and then posthumously named him Prince Ying. This sub-sealing basically laid the foundation for the so-called "Eight Iron Hat Kings" that followed.

In October of the first year of Shunzhi (1644), the Shunzhi Emperor ascended the throne, and was enthroned as the prince of Dolgun and Zilharang, the prince of Fuhaoge, the prince of Azig and Duoduo, who had previously been demoted to the rank of county king, the son of Fengyuetuo, the son of Dorobele Luoluohong, as the king of Doro Yanxi County, and the fifth son of emperor Taiji, Shuosai, as the king of Doro Chengze County. The new addition to this division was Shuo Sai, who was promoted to prince for military merit in the eighth year of Shunzhi. After Shuo Sai's death, his title was inherited by his son Bo Guoduo and renamed prince Zhuang.

Even with these two formal knighthoods, the Qing Dynasty still did not know that these clan titles could be hereditary, and the titles of the princes belle were deposed or demoted or changed in the future, and their ranks and names were changed. Therefore, the titles of the kings in the early Qing Dynasty did not change and were not institutionalized in the process of inheritance.

It was not until the forty-third year of Qianlong (1778), taking the opportunity of rehabilitating The Prince of Rui, Dolgun, that the Qianlong Emperor restored the original titles of kings and explicitly promulgated the system of hereditary succession of titles.

The principle of Qianlong's restoration of the titles of the kings in the early Qing Dynasty this time is that those who have changed their titles shall be subject to the titles of each king at the time of their death; second, those who have occasional mistakes in later generations and descendants that have demoted their titles will still be restored; third, those who have committed serious mistakes such as conspiracy before their deaths and have been stripped of their titles, demoted, or executed, or whose descendants have been stripped of their titles or deposed for serious mistakes, will not be restored.

That is to say, before Qianlong, the titles of each "Iron Hat King" were either reduced or reduced, and did not exist at the same time. It was not until the Qianlong Emperor clarified their lineage and restored their titles, and the system of hereditary replacement of the eight major clan kings in the early Qing Dynasty was finally clarified, and the common name of the "Eight Iron Hat Kings" was finally formed.

Iron hats can be hereditary, but people who wear iron hats can be replaced at any time, in fact, they are not "iron" at all.

The Qing Dynasty was very strict in its management of the kings of the clan, even the iron hat king had to be punished for mistakes, and he was often blamed, and the names of the princes and county kings were like iron hats that could be hereditary, but the people who wore iron hats could be replaced at any time, in fact, they were not "iron" at all.

After the death of Prince Daishan of Li, his title was initially inherited by his son Mandahai, who was also heroic and good at war, and his merits were outstanding, but in the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, he was posthumously reprimanded seven years after his death, because during the liquidation of Dolgun, Mandahai possessed the property of the Dolgun family, was severely pursued, his tombstone was toppled, the title was demoted to Belle, and the title of prince was stripped and transferred to another grandson of Daishan, Jieshu.

In the twenty-first year of Jiaqing (1816), Zhaozhuo, the Prince of Li, was stripped of his knighthood and imprisoned for nearly a year because he insulted his ministers and abused punishments against his subordinates in the palace.

In the eighth year of Chongde (1643), Yue Tuo's son Luo Luohong (羅羅宏) was stripped of his title because of his drunkenness and drunkenness, and his entertainment of silk bamboo during the funeral of emperor Chen's concubines. In the twenty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1682), Yue Tuo's descendant, King Narsu of Pingjun, was also stripped of his title and transferred to others because of his beating and injury.

How to view the historical significance of the Iron Hat King in the Qing Dynasty

Whether the Iron Hat King is good or bad needs to be analyzed in the specific context of Chinese history and Qing Dynasty history.

First of all, this system completely ends the system of splitting the land and dividing the land, which can effectively safeguard the politics of great unification.

The Inclusion of the title of the clan in the "feudal" entry in the Qing Dynasty Literature Tongkao means that it is analogous to the feudal system in traditional Chinese history. Since the Zhou Dynasty, the system of sub-feudalism has continued endlessly in Chinese history, but those who have been enfeoffed have often supported the army and respected themselves, forming a force against the central government, and more of a negative factor that caused the chaos of the division of the country.

Compared with the past, the Qing Dynasty's knighthood system restricted the kings simply and severely. The kings of the clan had titles but no fiefs, nor did they belong to the state, they could only live in the capital and the palace, and they were not allowed to leave at will, they could not serve in local offices, they could not interfere in local affairs, and they could not control the army. All the treatment of the princes of the clan, the officials of the royal palace, the guards, etc. are all included in the unified management of the state, and are given by the clan government in accordance with the regulations. Moreover, in the Qing Dynasty, unless there is a special purpose to hereditary replacement, generally their titles can only be reduced from generation to generation, and the treatment is gradually reduced, so that the financial burden of the state will not be excessive, and also completely eliminate the various potential factors for the formation of the tail power of the kings of the clan.

Secondly, as far as the history of the Qing Dynasty itself is concerned, the hereditary system of clan division is the result of establishing the authority of the central government and eliminating the politics of the banner lord.

The threat of the kings of the early Qing Dynasty to the central government was not to divide the land and divide the parties, but to control the eight banners and flags as private property, and each banner could compete with the central government.

In the process of unifying the Jurchen tribes, as the number of jurchens grew, Nurhaci gradually reorganized the Jurchens who had surrendered and conquered into banners. As his sons, nephews, and grandchildren grew to adulthood, Nurhaci distributed the Eight Banners to his descendants like a family property. At that time, all military and state affairs of Houjin were decided by Nurhaci and the Eight Banner Lords through discussion. One of the important reasons why Nurhaci did this was that he was worried that after death, his sons would fight each other, the same room would, and the brothers would slaughter, hoping to use this pattern of equal division of family property and co-rule of the eight kings to maintain political balance and prevent personal dictatorship.

However, this pattern greatly constrained the emperor Taiji, who succeeded to the throne later, and not only had to "sit south" with the other three baylors when handling government affairs every day, but also had to give gifts to several elder brothers first. Huang Taiji once complained that he was "just a yellow flag Baylor". What is more serious is that the several major Baylors each have their own banners and heavy troops, and the contradictions between them are becoming increasingly acute, so that the emerging Manchurian forces often face a crisis of division.

Thus, from the succession of Emperor Taiji to the regency of Dolgun to the pro-government of the Shunzhi Emperor, one of the main trends in the development of the emperor's centralized politics in the early Qing Dynasty was to improve the status of the imperial family in the Eight Banners and weaken and block the power of the clan banner owners.

Not only that, the Central Committee of the Qing Dynasty also tried its best to weaken the relationship between the banner lords of the clan and the people of the flag departments, and borrowed from the bureaucratic systems of the Ming Dynasty such as the cabinet and the six ministries to govern the country and replace the politics of the eight banner masters. The management of the Eight Banners was incorporated into the state bureaucracy, the Eight Banners were no longer the private property of the clan banner owners, and the interests of the clan kings were also regulated by the knighthood system.

Therefore, a careful combing will find that the eight iron hat kings confirmed during the Qianlong period, Daishan, Dolgun, Duoduo, Zilharang, Hauge, and Yuetuo, were themselves the original banner lord Belle, and as for the later prince Shuosai of Zhuang, who was later divided, he was the son of Emperor Taiji and a descendant of the imperial family, and the Sahalian and Leke dehun families were also loyal followers of the royal family.

In short, the Qing Dynasty's standardization and strictness in the management of the clan office greatly exceeded that of previous dynasties. However, after all, this kind of knighthood system was aimed at ensuring the hereditary privileges of the Manchurian clan nobility, and its backwardness was self-evident, and with the outbreak of the revolution and the founding of the Republic of China, the Iron Hat King of the Qing Dynasty withdrew from the historical stage forever.