Marta

Overview

Marta was a member of the Xilin Gioro clan, whose ancestral home was Wangqin. The family was listed as a bondservant under the Bordered White Banner in Volume 17 of the official Qing dynasty genealogy, *The General Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*, with a record of a change of affiliation from the Plain White Banner, though the year of this affiliation is unknown. This change of affiliation differs from the time of submission to the regime, so the "change of affiliation" cannot be written as a year in the early Qing dynasty when the clan led their people to submit. The original genealogy records that fourth-generation descendant Lengge served as a third-class guard, sixth-generation descendant Shitu Ba as a second-class guard, seventh-generation descendant Qige as a first-class guard, and Bage as a military officer. Shutong'a served as a scribe at the time. First-class, second-class, and third-class guards were different ranks, and the different official titles among descendants did not necessarily indicate that Marta himself rose through the ranks continuously. Guards were mainly found in the guard system of princely residences, military officers managed guards, and scribes handled Manchu and Han documents and archives; their job functions differed. Bondservant status indicates the specific affiliation of this family, but does not automatically provide the name of the princely residence to which they belonged. The genealogy only lists some of the descendants, and there is a lack of continuous paternal information between generations. It is impossible to add intermediate ancestors or match Shutong Aqiang with an unspecified father.