The Eight Banners system is an important organizational system of the Qing Dynasty, which first originated in the hunting activities of Manchuria, and was an organizational form produced by the Manchurians at that time in order to facilitate the command during hunting, with the ox record as a unit and the color of the flag as a guide.
With the rise of Nurhachi, the Eight Banners system also officially appeared, but the earliest Eight Banners system was very different from the later ones.
After that, Nurhachi made many adjustments to the Eight Banners system, including in the later Huang Taiji period, the Eight Banners system also continued to evolve, and it was not until the early years of Kangxi that the complete Eight Banners system was finally determined.
But no matter how it evolves, one thing has not changed, that is, the Eight Banners have always been in the hands of the Aixinjue Luo clan, more precisely, in the hands of the descendants of Nurhachi's nephews.
So, how did the owners of the Eight Banners change? This starts with the time when Nurhachi founded the Eight Banners.
In 1584 A.D., Nurhachi raised troops with thirteen pairs of armor left by his ancestors and fathers and began the war to unify the Jurchen tribes, and in this year, Nurhachi established the Eight Banners system.
However, there were not eight flags at that time, but only one.
This flag is directly led by Nurhachi, with the black flag as the banner, and there are not many people under his command, most of them are Nurhachi's relatives, such as his younger brother Shulhachi, and Anferyangu father and son.
Later, as Nurhachi led his troops to continue to conquer the south and the north, and at the same time continued to incorporate the Manchurian tribes, in 1589 AD, the three guards of Jianzhou were unified by him, so that there were more and more people under Nurhachi.
There were too many people, and Nurhachi couldn't manage it alone, so he needed to find someone to share it for him, so Nurhachi set up a red flag again.
That is, by this time, the Eight Flags changed from one flag to two.
So who are the owners of these two flags? Originally, the black flag was led by Nurhachi himself, but now he handed over the black flag to his younger brother Shulhaqi, and he himself commanded the newly built red flag.
However, at this time, there was no fixed number of black and red flags, and Nurhachi was roughly distributed, and he and his younger brother were basically equal in the number of commanders, so the strength was basically balanced.
However, during this period, the colors of the black and red flags changed, and the specific changes were changed from black flag to blue flag and red flag to yellow flag.
There are many theories about the reason for the change, one is that the black flag is not easy to identify when marching at night, and the other is that Nurhachi asked a master for guidance, and yellow represents the emperor, but whatever the explanation, in short, the black and red flags were eventually changed to blue and yellow.
Among them, the blue flag is led by Shulhaqi, and the yellow flag is led by Nurhachi.
In 1601 A.D., Nurhachi incorporated the Hada Department of the Haixi Jurchens, and the number of people under his command increased significantly, so in order to facilitate management, Nurhachi carried out large-scale transformation and reconstruction of the banner organizations for the first time.
First of all, he clarified the number of people in the Niulu organization, stipulating that one Niulu is 300 people, and 5 Niulu is a Jiala, and 5 Jiala is a solid mountain, and this solid mountain is a banner.
In addition, the names of the leaders of each organizational structure were formulated, among which, the leader of Niulu was called "Niulu Ezhen", the leader of Gela was "Gela Ezhen", and the leader of Gushan was "Gushan Ezhen".
"Gushan" is a Manchu language, and its Chinese meaning is "flag", therefore, "Gushan Ezhen" is what we call the flag owner.
Through Nurhachi's rectification, under the command of a banner master, there were 25 Niu Lu, that is, 7,500 people, which was the standard configuration of a banner master at that time.
But in fact, this configuration is not completely fixed, more and less cattle under the command of a flag owner, in the later stage is dynamic, some even far more than 25 cattle records, some are lower than 25 cattle records.
So, what Nurhachi formulated at that time was just a model, a basic standard.
After formulating various standards, Nurhachi organized the subdued Hada Department into a banner and handed it over to his eldest son Chu Ying, and the flag led by Chu Ying, Nurhachi set the flag color to white.
Therefore, the previous two flags have evolved into three flags, the yellow flag is Nurhachi himself, the blue flag is Nurhachi's younger brother Shuerhaqi, and the white flag is Nurhachi's eldest son Chu Ying.
However, shortly after the three flags were determined, something went wrong with Shulhazy, the owner of the Blue Flag.
To put it bluntly, Shulhachi's growing ambition made the contradiction between him and his brother Nurhachi deeper and deeper, in fact, this contradiction existed a long time ago, but at that time, Nurhachi was in the initial stage of his career and did not pay special attention to his younger brother's movements, so hidden dangers were buried.
After that, as the power of the Jianzhou Jurchens increased, Nurhachi and Shuerhaqi became the supreme leaders of the Jianzhou Jurchens, and people called them "two chiefs" at that time.
But it was at that time that Shulhaqi became more and more dissatisfied with his condescending state of being subordinate to his brother, and when he went to the Ming court to pay tribute, his emotions were exploited by the Ming Dynasty, which constantly granted him high-ranking officials and gold, silver and jewelry, and tried to use his contradictions with his brother to sow discord and drive a wedge between him and Nurhachi.
In this case, Shulhaqi gradually regarded the Ming Dynasty as his backstage, and Li Chengliang, a border general of the Ming Dynasty at that time, took advantage of this opportunity to let his son marry Shulhaqi's daughter as a concubine, which further brought the relationship between the two sides closer.
As a result, Shulhaqi became more emboldened, and he began to openly challenge Nurhachi's authority, often arguing with Nurhachi in public meetings due to disagreements, and over time, the relationship between the two sides gradually broke down, and the contradictions became more and more serious.
As for Nurhachi, naturally no one is allowed to challenge his authority, and seeing his younger brother becoming more and more arrogant, Nurhachi finally decided to get rid of his younger brother Shulhachi.
In 1609, after a bitter quarrel with his brother, Shulhachi left in anger and planned to establish himself as king, but after the dissuasion failed, Nurhachi took decisive and strong measures, executing Shulhaqi's two sons and imprisoning Shulhaqi himself to death.
After weighing it, Nurhachi finally decided to divide the blue flag into two, half of which was still under the management of the blue flag, and the owner of the flag was set to be Shulhaqi's other son, Amin.
The other half is a new flag, the color of the flag is the red flag that was not used for the time being, and the owner of the flag is set as the second son of Nurhachi.
As of this time, the three flags have become four flags, and the flag owners are: Yellow Flag Nurhachi, White Flag Chu Ying, Blue Flag Amin, and Red Flag is Daishan.
Not long after, in 1613, Nurhachi's eldest son, that is, Chu Ying, the banner owner of the White Flag, was set up as the heir by Nurhachi by virtue of his years of military exploits, but due to Chu Ying's brutal nature and not taking others in his eyes at all, it caused dissatisfaction among many people, so several of Nurhachi's sons and nephews united and began the impeachment of Chu Ying.
In the end, Chu Ying was isolated, and Nurhachi faced a joint letter from several nephews and important ministers, and after weighing it, Chu Ying was deprived of his title and imprisoned.
As soon as Chu Ying had an accident, the white flag changed, and Nurhachi's eighth son, Huang Taiji, became the owner of the white flag, and at the same time, Nurhachi allocated a small part of the white flag to Chu Ying's son Du Du, and asked Du Du to assist Huang Taiji in managing the white flag together.
By 1615 AD, Nurhachi had unified all the Jurchen tribes except for the Yehebu, and the men and horses under his command were much stronger than in the previous period, and many Mongol tribes also came to join at that time, which increased Nurhachi's power.
According to historical records, the number of troops under Nurhachi's command at that time alone reached more than 60,000.
Also for the sake of ease of management, Nurhachi once again reorganized the current four banners, and this time the reorganization directly expanded the four banners to eight banners.
Among them, the yellow flag is divided into two flags, positive yellow and inlaid yellow, which are led by Nurhachi himself;
The white flag is divided into two flags, the white flag is Huang Taiji, and the white flag is Du Du;
The red flag is divided into red and red, among them, the main owner of the red flag is Dai Shan, and the owner of the red flag is Yue Tuo, the son of Dai Shan;
The blue flag is also divided into blue and blue, the blue flag is owned by Amin, and the blue flag is owned by Nurhachi's fifth son, Mang Gurtai.
In addition, Nurhachi modified the flag of the Eight Banners, the four flags in the Eight Banners, the flag is a solid color square, and the four flags are inlayed, and the flag is a pentagonal shape, among them, the red flag is white-edged, and the white, blue and yellow flags are white-edged.
At this point, the Eight Banners were truly established and complete, and became a special system throughout the history of the Qing Dynasty.
After the perfection of the Eight Banners system, Nurhachi devoted himself to entrepreneurship, during which the owners of the Eight Banners did not change, until Nurhachi was on his deathbed, he made another adjustment to the flags.
He gave the two flags in his charge, the yellow and the yellow, to the fifteenth son Dordot and the twelfth son Azig, respectively, but after dividing them, considering that there was no inheritance left to their half-brother Dorgon, he planned to give the white flag to Dorgon.
As mentioned earlier, the owner of the white flag is Nurhachi's grandson Dudu, and since Dolgon is allowed to take over the white flag, how can Dudu arrange it?
Daishan was the owner of the Zhenghong Banner at that time, and the Red Flag was in charge of Daishan's son Yue Tuo, which means that the Daishan family controlled the two flags, and in order to balance the forces between the sons, Nurhachi decided to transfer Du Du to the Red Banner as the flag owner, so as to achieve the purpose of decomposing the power of Daishan's lineage.
If Nurhachi's plan is ultimately implemented, the three brothers of Dodor, Azig, and Dolgon, their mother's siblings, will each be in charge of a banner, and they will become the most powerful of the eight banners.
However, an embarrassing thing happened, just as Dudu stepped down from the White Flag and was about to take over the Red Flag, Nurhachi died, and at this time Dolgon had not officially taken over the White Flag.
That is to say, at this time, the owner of the white flag is vacant, and the Dai Shan family is still in charge of the red and red flags.
And in this case, through the support of Dai Shan, Huang Taiji successfully ascended to the throne and took over as the Great Khan, and the first thing he did after ascending the throne was to order the white flag that Dolgon was preparing to take office.
Huang Taiji's reason is very simple, that is, Du Du has stepped down from the White Flag, and Dolgon has not taken office, so the White Flag is considered ownerless, so he simply handed over the White Flag to his son Hauge.
Dolgon, on the other hand, was driven to the Yellow Banner by Huang Taiji, and asked him to lead the Yellow Banner with Azig.
As for Du Du, he is even more pitiful, since then he has lost his position as the flag owner, and throughout his life, the highest title is only Dorobelle, which means that Nurhachi's eldest son Chu Ying is in the same vein, and he was completely kicked out of the flag master queue by Huang Taiji.
After cooking Du Du, Huang Taiji turned his attention to Duoduo and Azig, as mentioned above, Nurhachi handed over Zhenghuang and Huang to these two before his death, and the Niu Lu that they mastered were: Zheng Huang Collar 45 Niu Lu, Inlaid Yellow Collar 25 Niu Lu, a total of 65 Niu Lu.
This force was the largest of the Eight Banners at that time, and the Zhengbai led by Huang Taiji himself was only 25 Niu Lu.
Therefore, for the purpose of maintaining his rule, Huang Taiji began to rectify Duoduo and Azig, and he used the excuse that he was the Great Khan, and the Great Khan had to use the yellow flag as an excuse to forcibly reconcile his own white flag and his son Hauge's inlaid white flag with the positive yellow and yellow flags of Duoduo and Azig, and finally held the Erhuang flag in his own hands.
After the forcible replacement, Huang Taiji still felt uneasy, and found another reason to remove Azig as the head of the white flag and replace it with Dolgon.
Why did Huang Taiji let Dolgon take over? In fact, this was also a strategy he used at that time, as mentioned earlier, Dolgon failed to take over as the owner of the White Flag Banner? Huang Taiji's operation not only made Dolgon accept his affection, but also separated the brotherly relationship between Dolgon and Azig, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
After these operations, Huang Taiji began to rectify the Blue Flag Banner Master Amin and the Blue Flag Banner Master Mang Gurtai.
The first to be rectified was Amin, in the fourth year of Tiancong, Huang Taiji to Amin's poor rescue, resulting in the Ming army Lianke four cities, and its "will have different aspirations" as the reason, Amin dismissed the official and imprisoned, and at the same time seized the position of Amin's banner master, changed to Amin's younger brother Zilharang.
After that, Mang Gurtai, Mang Gurtai's position as the flag owner was taken away, to some extent he asked for it, in the ninth year of Tiancong, Mang Gurtai intended to rebel, and after the defeat, he was captured by Huang Taiji.
In fact, the capture of Amin and Mang Gurtai was also the inevitable result of the struggle in the court in the early Qing Dynasty, Huang Taiji ascended to the throne of the Great Khan, in order to consolidate the power in his hands, he would inevitably attack the forces that did not belong to him, so Amin and Mang Gurtai became victims.
After Mang Gurtai was captured the flag, Huang Taiji mixed the yellow flag under his command with the blue flag of Mang Gurtai, and after the mixing, he took back the yellow flag led by his son Haoge, and arranged for Haoge to lead the new blue flag, and he led the yellow and yellow flags.
After that, Huang Taiji settled his flag in the Yellow Flag, and since then, the Yellow Flag has become the direct command of the Qing Dynasty emperor, and the highest status of the flag, this practice has continued until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
After taking care of these, Huang Taiji often reorganized Duoduo's positive white flag from time to time in a small way, for example, in the fourth year of Chongde, Huang Taiji cut off his positive white flag by one-third on the grounds that Duoduo's expedition was unfavorable.
Since he wanted to rectify Duoduo, Huang Taiji naturally did not forget Dorgon, and before his death, he once again mixed the white flag and the inlaid white flag, disrupted the cattle of the two flags and divided them equally, and reversed the position of Dolgon and Duoduo's flag owners.
After this series of tosses, by the time Huang Taiji died, the eight banners at that time were divided into three major factions, the strongest faction, the two yellow flags of Huang Taiji and the positive blue flag of his son Haoge, these three banners led a total of 117 Niu Lu.
Slightly inferior are the two flags of white and white led by Duoduo and Dolgon, with a total of 98 oxen, and the next two red flags led by the Daishan family and the inlaid blue banner led by Zilharang, with a total of 96 oxen.
Among these three major factions, Huang Taiji himself and his son Haoge needless to say, while the Daishan family and Zilharang belong to the irons of Huang Taiji, as for Dolgon, he is also deeply favored by Huang Taiji, and the only hidden danger is Duoduo, but he was also beaten by Huang Taiji and had no temper.
At this point, the Eight Banners with Huang Taiji as the core finally took shape, but unfortunately, when Huang Taiji was ambitious, he died of illness.
After the death of Huang Taiji, Dolgon assumed power, and during his reign, the Eight Banners were reorganized twice.
The first reorganization was mainly aimed at Dordor, and Dolgon took back 15 of the cattle under Dordor, and the second reorganization was because Hauge lost the succession with Dorgon, giving Dolgon a great opportunity to fight Hauge's power.
Originally, Hauge held the Blue Banner, but after he lost power, he was hit by Dolgon's repeated blows, and he was imprisoned, and the Blue Banner was also taken away by Dolgon.
Later, Dorgon mixed the blue flag with his own white flag, and changed it to a new white flag and a white flag, all of which were under his own command.
The white flag, which had been in Dord's hands, was changed to a blue flag and given to Dord's son Doni to lead it.
At the same time, during this period, the two red flags also changed, when Shi Shi Shan died, and his son Yue Tuo died earlier, Shuo Tuo, who was connected to Ren Yue Tuo, was also executed a few years ago, so the owners of the two red flags were replaced.
Among them, the owner of the Red Flag is Mandahai, the seventh son of Dai Shan, and the owner of the Red Flag is Luo Keduo (the grandson of Yue Tuo), the great-grandson of Dai Shan.
In 1650 AD, Dolgon died unexpectedly, and the Shunzhi Emperor was able to govern in person, and soon after, the court set off a wave of liquidation of Dolgon, with the help of this opportunity, the Shunzhi Emperor took Dolgon's Zhengbai flag as his own, so that the Shunzhi Emperor led the three banners of Zhenghuang, inlaid yellow and Zhengbai.
It was from this time that the three flags of yellow, yellow and white became the "upper three flags", and the other flags became the "lower five flags".
As for the inlaid white flag, Emperor Shunzhi handed it over to his nephew, that is, the son of Haoge, to lead it, and the owners of the other four banners remained basically unchanged, either himself or his descendants.
After Kangxi succeeded to the throne, in order to consolidate the imperial power, the Kangxi Emperor subdivided the five banners, each flag was divided into large and small flag owners, the big flag owners were served by the descendants of the previous flag owners, and the small flag owners were served by Kangxi's sons.
In this way, the power of the lower five banners was further compressed, and this method continued to be implemented after Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, and Yongzheng divided each banner of the lower five banners into "outer leader" (Zuo Ling is Niu Lu) and "inner Zuo Ling", among them, the outer leader is directly controlled by the emperor, and the king Baylor only controls the inner leader.
As a result, most of the power of the Eight Banners was received into the hands of the emperor, and this policy has been followed, and by the Qianlong period, the owner of the Eight Banners has become a person who only has a false name, but no real power, except for a high status and enjoyment of state support, basically has no power.
In this way, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty finally took the Eight Banners into their own hands step by step.