Baning

Overview

Ba Ning appears in the appendix to the Irgen Gioro clan in Volume 15 of the *the Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*. Listed under the Bordered Yellow Banner, his ancestral home is recorded as "Changbai Mountain," and his group of allegiance is listed as "those who came to submit at the beginning of the dynasty." The genealogy records his resume as follows: his great-grandson, Fu Liang, was a third-class imperial bodyguard. The kinship hierarchy and statuses such as "former" and "current" are retained as in the original entries. At this stage, Ba Ning's official rank, grade, or birth and death are not inferred from the official titles of his descendants. Relevant institutional terms must be understood in the context of the Qing Dynasty: a third-class imperial bodyguard was a rank of imperial bodyguard, primarily serving in the palace guard and escort system; the year of service cannot be determined solely from the title. Such appendices in the *Comprehensive Genealogy* primarily provide lineage clues, not complete personal biographies. While the title of Fu Liang helps identify the family's connection to the banner system at the time the genealogy was compiled, it does not prove that Ba Ning personally received the appointment as an imperial bodyguard during his lifetime.