10 Facts About Eight Banners

Eight Banners were administrative and military divisions under the Later Jin and Qing dynasties of China into which all Manchu households were placed.

In war, the Eight Banners functioned as armies, but the banner system was the basic organizational framework of all of Manchu society.

Over time, the Eight Banners became synonymous with Manchu identity even as their military strength vanished.

Eight Banners quickly purged his rivals and took control over Hong Taiji's Solid Blue Banner.

Han bannermen were made out of ethnic Han who defected to the Qing up to 1644 and joined the Eight Banners, giving them social and legal privileges in addition to being acculturated to Manchu culture.

Related searches

Under the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors, the Eight Banners participated in a series of military campaigns to subdue Ming loyalists and neighboring states.

Manchu Eight Banners contained a lot of "false Manchus" who were from Han Chinese civilian families but were adopted by Manchu bannermen after the Yongzheng reign.

Eight Banners fled his position due to fear of being punished for being a bannerman marrying a commoner woman.

Eight Banners was sentenced to death for leaving his official post but the sentence was commuted and he was not executed.

Once the Manchus took over governing, they could no longer satisfy the material needs of soldiers by garnishing and distributing booty; instead, a salary system was instituted, ranks standardized, and the Eight Banners became a sort of hereditary military caste, though with a strong ethnic inflection.