Eight Banners

Uncommon card · No. 76357

The Eight Banners (in Manchu: ᠵᠠᡴᡡᠨᡤᡡᠰᠠ jakūn gūsa, Chinese: 八旗; pinyin: bāqí; Wade–Giles: pa1-ch'i2, Mongolian: ᠨᠠᠶᠢᠮᠠᠨ ᠬᠣᠰᠢᠭᠤ) 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 also the basic organizational framework of all of Manchu society. Created in the early 17th century by Nurhaci, the banner armies played an instrumental role in his unification of the fragmented Jurchen people (who would later be renamed the "Manchu" under Nurhaci's son Hong Taiji) and in the Qing dynasty's conquest of the Ming dynasty. As Mongol and Han forces were incorporated into the growing Qing military establishment, the Mongol Eight Banners and Han Eight Banners were created alongside the original Manchu banners. The banner armies were considered the elite forces of the Qing military, while the remainder of imperial troops were incorporated into...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Giuseppe Castiglione, Public domain