Institutional Background
The Bordered Yellow Banner Manchu division was one of the eight Manchu banner organizations. Its bordered yellow standard distinguished it from the Plain Yellow Banner. “Bordered” and “plain” refer to organizational colours, not the seniority of an individual's civil-service rank. As with other banners, Manchu, Mongol, and Han Army groups were separately registered under a common colour and cannot be treated as one population category.
Responsibilities and Historical Practice
From 1651 (Shunzhi 8), the Bordered Yellow, Plain Yellow, and Plain White banners constituted the Upper Three Banners directly controlled by the emperor. The Comprehensive Gazetteer of the Eight Banners, volume 30, associates the Bordered Yellow Banner with Beijing's Anding Gate and the left wing. These imperial banners had particular institutional connections to the selection of palace guards and to booi households of the Imperial Household Department. Nevertheless, Bordered Yellow Banner registration did not in itself imply descent from the imperial family; genealogical and niru records are needed to establish individual lineage origins.
Sources and Bibliography
- Source reference 1 — www.qinghistory.cn
- Source reference 2 — www.shidianguji.com
- Source reference 3 — www.qinghistory.cn
- Source reference 4 — zh.wikisource.org
References reproduce links supplied with the Chinese research manuscript. Individual historical claims have not all been independently verified against the primary sources.
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