Produced by History University Hall
Text: Lion
Edit: Lilith
Open a map of our country, when you look at the vast Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, you will find a series of place names rich in local ethnic characteristics: Alxa League, Zhenglan Banner, Chenbal Tiger Banner, East Wuzhu Muqin Banner and so on. Among them, the league is a prefectural and municipal unit, the flag is a county-level unit, and the flag league is unique to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Inner Mongolia has 3 leagues: Alxa, Xilin Gol, and Xing'an; 49 banners, as well as 3 autonomous banners of Orunchun, Evenk, and Molidava.
So why does Inner Mongolia have such a unique administrative unit as the Qimeng League? Let's start with Genghis Khan's unification of the steppes.
Above_ BoerJin Temujin (31 May 1162 – 25 August 1227), also known as Genghis Khan
First, the grasslands of the Mongolian Yuan Period
During the Song and Jin dynasties, various tribes were distributed on the grasslands: the Qiyan tribe, the Tatar tribe, the Kelie tribe, the Naiman tribe, and so on. These tribes went their separate ways and attacked each other. It was not until 1206, when Genghis Khan unified the steppes, that the situation ended.
Genghis Khan broke up the original tribes and, on the principle of one in ten, divided the people into hundreds and thousands of households, and gave them to their families and meritorious officials.
This was the beginning of mongolia's administrative establishment.
By the time the Yuan Dynasty unified the jiangshan, the grassland home became lingbei province, and the administrative system of lingbei province and other provinces in the interior was different, and the lower part of Lingbei province did not set up lufu prefectures and counties, but was composed of a fiefdom of princes and nobles "Aimak", and ten, hundred, and thousand households were set up below Aimark. In essence, it is not much different from the time of Genghis Khan.
In this system, the chiefs are hereditary and there is a very strict subordination relationship between the superiors and subordinates. The Mongol riders had a structure and a unit, so they were organized and disciplined, and their combat effectiveness was reflected, which was one of the reasons why they were able to overthrow the whole world.
Above_ In 1294, the administrative divisions of the Yuan Dynasty were divided, and the topmost Part of Lingbei province was referred to as Lingbei Province
Second, the chaotic Northern Yuan period
Later, the Mongols were driven back to northern Saibei by Zhu Yuanzhang.
The Yuan Khanate declined, internal strife continued, everyone was a descendant of the Golden Family, and they had a lot of resources, and some people controlled a number of "Love Mark", called "Otok".
None of these nobles obeyed anyone, and they fought each other. The "forest people" who were originally attached to the Great Khan rose up and competed with the Mongol headquarters, and the steppe fell into chaos.
Around the time of the Ming Dynasty's Hongzhi Zhengde period, a figure finally appeared in the Golden Family, named Bo'er Only Jin- Batu Mengke, who was called the Little Prince in the History of Ming. This little prince defeated the Wallachians and once again unified the Mongol tribes, known as the ancestor of the "Great Yuan Zhongxing", known as Dayan Khan.
Dayan Khan abolished the position of Taishi, which had long been occupied by the Walas. The establishment of the position of "Jinnong" (transliteration of the Chinese King of Jin) was established, held by the concubine or brother of the Great Khan, which strengthened the authority of the Khanate.
At the same time, the Mongolian ministries were reorganized.
Dayan Khan divided the main parts of the Mongol ministries into a total of 60,000 households on the left and right flanks, and the "Otoks" under the prime minister of 10,000 households. Thirty thousand households on the left: the Chahar, Wuhar and Khalkha departments; the right wing thirty thousand households: the Ordos department, the Tumut department, and the Yongsheb department. Chahar Wanhu was directly under the great Khan, Ordos Wanhu was under the direct administration of Jinong, and the leaders of other ministries were also the sons of Dayan Khan. The division of these 60,000 households has a far-reaching impact, and until now Mongolia still claims to be Khalkha Mongolia, which is one of the left-wing ten thousand households divided by Dayan Khan in that year.
1473~ 1517 AD Mongols, known as Dayan Khan by posterity for his exploits
However, after the death of Dayan Khan, the Mongol tribes were once again plunged into a divided war, and the reason was that the centralized measures taken by Dayan Khan were not thorough enough. The various ministries are like the princely states that Zhou Tianzi sealed in those years, the chiefs are hereditary, and the Great Khan is only in charge of one, and the strength is similar to that of the princes, and after a long time, they will "be alienated from each other, attack each other like enemies, and the princes will be more reviled, and the Heavenly Sons can forbid it."
Second, Dayan Khan did not unify the Wala within his system, and some of the smaller Mongol tribes were not included in his pocket. For example, the Horqin Ministry, which later made great contributions to the unification of the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, it is necessary to have a stronger political force, a wider range of control, and a more binding system to ensure the stability of the Mongolian plateau.
Above_ Taizu Jianyuan in the Records of Manchuria, the emperor's throne map, Nurhaci's mighty bodyguards
3. Qing Dynasty: The establishment and implementation of the flag alliance system
The Qing Dynasty emperor Nurhaci established a system of eight flags. Hundreds of people are recorded as a cow, five cows are recorded as a jia lama, and five jia la is a solid mountain. Gushan is the meaning of the flag, there are always eight flags of positive yellow, positive white, positive blue, positive red, yellow, blue, red, and white. Ding Zhuang under its banner was a soldier in peacetime and a soldier in wartime, and was firmly controlled by the Manchurian nobility.
In the process of the development and growth of the Manchu Qing forces, many Mongol tribes were either conquered by the Manchu Qing or took the initiative to defect to the Manchu Qing.
At first, the Qing government incorporated them into the Eight Banners of Manchuria, and later more and more Mongols submitted to the Qing court, and the original Eight Banners could not be contained. Especially in 1634, after Emperor Taiji defeated the Great Khan of Chahar, Lin Dan Khan, he received countless zhuang dings. Therefore, a special Mongolian eight flags were created, which was the beginning of the implementation of the "flag" within the Mongolian nation.
Above_ Eight Banner Soldiers of the Qing Army
The Mongolian Eight Banners are military-political integration organizations that belong to the Manchurian Eight Flags system, which is still different from the later local administrative district "flags". In May 1636, Emperor Taiji divided Mongolia into forty-nine banners in Shengjinghui alliance with the forty-nine princes of the sixteen tribes of Mongolia, and the original prince was Zasak (flag chief), and the real "administrative flag" was developed here. These "administrative flags" were transformed from the original Okok imitation eight flags system, and several flags held regular alliance meetings, so they were called "flag alliance system".
In 1640, Huang Taiji announced the abolition of the original "Ten Thousand Households", "Edok" and other units, all of which were divided and managed according to the flag, and the flag alliance system was fully implemented in the Southern Qing Control Area.
The flag system was constantly promoted with the expansion of Qing power in Mongolia.
In the thirtieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1691), northern Mongolia was annexed to the Qing Dynasty, and Outer Mongolia began to implement the flag alliance system.
In the second year of Yongzheng (1724), Erut Mongolia in Qinghai and other places began to implement the flag alliance system. After Qianlong attacked Dzungar, basically the Mongol areas under the jurisdiction of the Qing Empire implemented the flag alliance system.
Above: The Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1736-1796)
4. The organizational form of the Flag League
The Qing Dynasty divided the Mongol tribes into three broad categories of administration:
Eight Banners of Mongolia, Outer Mongolia and Inner Mongolia
。 The Eight Banners Of Mongolia system is the same as Manchuria, stationed in the whole country, and has its own system. Most of the Mongols on the steppes belong to the latter two. Among them, the majority of the outer mongols are Mongolian.
Banner league of outer Mongolia.
The so-called outer domain of Mongolia is the autonomy of tribal chiefs. The Hereditary Mongol lord who served as the flag chief was called the Prince of Zasak. The territory within the flag is his fiefdom, and the people inside the flag are his subjects. Zasak's office was called Heshuo Yamen and consisted of 2 associates, 1 supervisor, and 1 Merlin (i.e., the chief soldier). Collectively known as the Five Ministers. There is Su Mu at the first level of the subordinate, and the chief officer of Su Mu is called Su Mu Zhangjing. Sumu is then called Kundu.
Several adjacent flags meet once every three years, and the flag chief designated by the central government is appointed as the head and deputy league chief. The league chief and the central commissioner jointly convened the league meeting, arranged central tasks to each flag, conveyed the instructions of the imperial court, and counted the population and economic data of each banner, summarized and concluded judicial cases, and reported them to the central government. During the Qing Dynasty, the League itself had no administrative organs, and it was not yet a first-level administrative unit, but only a committee that played a role in supervising and coordinating liaison with the banners of the League.
Above_ Chahar is in charge of the Yamen
The flag of Inner Mongolia.
Inner Mongolia is administered by officials directly appointed by the central government. Appoint the Minister of General Administration, Deputy Governor general, and Scattered Rank as the flag chief. It has officials such as the commander and the staff general. The Inner Mongolian Banner is almost non-allied, and is directly under the jurisdiction of the generals, all of them and other feudal officials. It can be said that outer Mongolia is fully autonomous, and inner Mongolia is directly under the central government.
Many of the inner Mongols came from the original Outer Mongols who were suppressed due to rebellion and "changed the land and returned to the stream". The largest group of Inner Mongolian tribes is the Chahar Department. In the fourteenth year of the Qing Dynasty, Prince Burni of Chahar felt that he was an orthodox descendant of Genghis Khan, so how could he be subordinate to others? Therefore, taking advantage of the San Francisco Rebellion, he rebelled against the Qing. As a result, within two months, it was suppressed by the Qing court. Kangxi set up the Chahar Department into eight internal subordinate flags, using the name of the red, yellow, white and blue flags, known as the Eight Banners of Chahar.
Above_ Qing Dynasty Alxa Hoshuote Banner Zasak Seal
Fifth, the enwei behind the flag alliance
The flag alliance system is a basic political system implemented by the Qing Dynasty in Mongolia, from which it can be seen that the Qing Dynasty's strategy towards Mongolia is to co-opt and add precautionary restrictions and en-wei at the same time.
First look at the side of En, the high-ranking official Houlu to win over the upper echelons.
The Qing court gave the prince of Zasak extremely high treatment. They were given the title of Super Pin, ranging from Duke of Zhenguo to Prince, and married to them as relatives. Other officials in the Mongolian Flag League were also of high rank. The size of the flag is equivalent to that of counties in the interior. However, the qi assistant was a pin official, and the assistant and Merlin had two or three pins, which were higher than the seven pin sesame officials in the interior.
Let's talk about the Wei side. The Qing court set up two sets of civil and military teams at the central and local levels to control and restrain Mongolia.
Above_ Mongolian princesses and princesses in the late Qing Dynasty
In the central court, he was in charge of Mongolian affairs.
The tributes of the Mongol princes and princes were all managed by the Li Fan Yuan, and the important affairs within the banner must be reported to the Li Fan Yuan for approval, and the pastures, people, cattle and horses, and field properties in the flag must be reported to the Li Fan Yuan. The Li Fan Yuan was also responsible for formulating laws and regulations such as the Rules and Regulations of the Li Fan Yuan and the Mongolian Law to restrain the Mongol princes.
Send large personnel to set up heavy troops in the localities. In the vast land of Mongolia, there were set up deputy governors of Hulunbuir, Rehe, UlyaSutai, Kulun, Suiyuancheng, and Kobdo, who held heavy troops, to restrain and supervise the Mongol tribes, and if there was any rebellion, they would immediately crusade and destroy them.
Under enwei and shih, the banner alliance system firmly bound the Mongol tribes.
A strict boundary is drawn between flags and flags. Pastoralists with different flags are not allowed to cross the border to graze their cattle. The boundaries between the flag land and the Han dynasty are also clear, and the Mongolian and Han people cannot communicate freely. This prevented the alliance between the Mongol tribes and the Mongol and Han nationalities from becoming larger and threatening the imperial court.
Above_ Map of the Qing Dynasty
6. Epilogue
The implementation of the flag alliance system almost ran through the entire Qing Dynasty, until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the invasion of the great powers, the decline of the Qing Dynasty, he gradually went to collapse and disintegration. The flag system has its positive side:
He ensured peace and stability on the steppe frontier, which greatly reduced the strife and chaos between the Mongol tribes.
But after all, it is a feudal product of the Qing court's maintenance of rule, and it has the limitations of the times.
Due to the long-term implementation of the flag league system, the flag and league have also become the customary regional titles. In 1947, after the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the old system of the Flag League was completely eliminated by history. However, according to custom, the name of the flag and the league was left as the name of some administrative divisions.
Resources:
[1] Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
[2] General History of the Mongols, Tai Yi Chi Wu Ti - Man Chang Liaoning Nationalities Publishing House
[3] "On the Evolution of the Flag League System", Zhao Fei, Journal of Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, 2008.11
[4] "A Brief Analysis of the Governance Institutions of the Mongols in the Qing Dynasty", Zhang Baolin, Heihe Academic Journal, 2013.2
[5] "A Brief Discussion on the Flag Alliance System Established by the Qing Dynasty in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region" Lan Yunfeng Inner Mongolia United Front Theory Research, 2011.5