Kanbu of the Irgen Gioro Clan

The recorded household

Kanbu is identified in volume 14 of the *Comprehensive Genealogy of the Eight Banner Manchu Clans* as an Irgen Gioro clansman of the Bordered Red Banner. His family was traditionally associated with Hada, but the year of allegiance was not known to the compilers. Kanbu formerly served as a third-class *huwei*, a guard rank generally associated with service in a princely household. It should not be replaced with the separate title of third-class imperial *shiwei*.

His son and the change in registration

Kanbu's son Saqiku formerly served as a *zuoling*, commander of a basic Banner company or *niru*, with military and household-administrative responsibilities. The genealogical entry notes a transfer out of the *booi* registration of the same Banner. This information records a change in institutional status and needs to be read alongside the Banner designation at the beginning of the entry. It does not show that the household always occupied a single unchanged category.

The father's guard appointment and the son's company command were different offices. There is no evidence that Saqiku inherited Kanbu's guard post or that the company command resulted from a hereditary grant.

Unresolved matters

*Booi* was an institutional category within Banner society, not simply a term for ordinary hired servants. The source does not specify the date or reason for the transfer, the particular princely or imperial household involved, or the duty station of Kanbu's guard rank. The family's Hada locality and the two men's terms of office also remain undetermined. These gaps should be preserved rather than filled with generalized assumptions about Banner administration.