Centuar, on Jun 15 2006, 04:43 PM, said:
The 8 Banners were mainly for the Manchus? I understand that the Chinese Han were also conscripted into the Imperial Army. Were they given the same privilege of having the Banner?
The 8 banners were divided into the Manchu, Mongol and Han 8 banners. No guessing who had the highest privileges and status, but the Mongol banners had considerably good status and priveleges too, occupying high military and civil positions.... The Han though were mostly at the lowest rung of the hierarchy, being minor officials. They were also more likely to be deployed to southern China, compared to the Manchu and Mongol bannermen
However, it has to be said that they are also the most numerous among the bannermen ranks. In fact a lot of the so-called bannermen descendants today are of the Han banner origin. So, there is a distinction between being a Manchu and being a Bannerman. However, this had been blurred and many Bannermen descendants just think of themselves as Manchu.
Finally this distinction between banners are not stagnant, but can be 'promoted' or 'demoted' based on merits and relations. For example, Kangxi's mother's clan the Dong, was originally of the Han banner, but was promoted to the Manchu banner later. One can also be promoted from the lower 5 banners to the upper 3 banners etc. , so this the Bannermen system was rather fluid.
plain amateur, here to make mistakes, make a fool of ownself, and hopefully learn something in the process
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