Mongol Eight Banners

The Mongol Eight Banners (Manchu: ᠮᠣᠩᡤᠣᡤᡡᠰᠠ, monggo gūsa; Chinese: 八旗蒙古; pinyin: bāqí ménggǔ; Mongolian: Монгол найман хошуу) were hereditary military and administrative units of the Qing dynasty. Together with the Manchu Eight Banners and the Han Chinese Eight Banners, the units composed of Mongol bannermen formed the dynasty's Eight Banner system. The Mongol Eight Banners were formally established in 1635 by Hong Taiji of the Later Jin dynasty, which was renamed the Qing dynasty the following year. Over the previous decade, as the Jurchens (later known as the Manchu people) expanded the territory of the Later Jin across the Northeast Plain, nomadic Mongol cavalrymen—particularly those of the Kharchin and Khorchin tribes, but also some Chahars—were incorporated into their ranks. Some, like the Kharchin in 1622, joined the Jurchens in large numbers as part of formal sworn alliances; others submitted to Jurchen rule in a more sporadic process, as smaller groups of Mongol nomads and their families came to recognize the Jurchen leaders as their khan. These various Mongol groups formed the initial membership of the Mongol Eight Banners. At their founding in 1635, there were about 10,000 warriors incorporated into the Mongol Eight Banners. Like the Jurchen banners from which they separated, the Mongol Eight Banners consisted of the Plain Yellow Banner, the Bordered Yellow Banner, the Plain White Banner, the Bordered White Banner, the Plain Blue Banner, the Bordered Blue Banner, the Plain Red Banner, and the Bordered Red Banner. The Mongol Eight banners were initially subordinate to the chiefs of the Jurchen/Manchu banners of the same color. As the Qing continued to expand over the course of the 17th century, Mongol clans that were not incorporated into the Eight Banners were eventually arranged into the Banners of Inner Mongolia, which persist as administrative units in China today. The...