Baldushan

Overview

Baldushan was a member of the Nimacha clan of the Bordered Yellow Banner. Volume 39 of the official Qing dynasty genealogy, *The Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*, records that his family had lived in the Changbai Mountains region for generations and submitted to the Qing during the Tiancong era. Tiancong was the reign title used by Huang Taiji during the Later Jin dynasty, meaning the submission occurred before the Qing entered the Central Plains. Changbai Mountains was his ancestral home, and his descendants' service in the imperial guards cannot be used to deduce his place of origin as Beijing.

His great-grandson, Wudachan, served as a first-class imperial bodyguard, and Bulha served as a third-class imperial bodyguard. Bodyguards belonged to the Qing dynasty's imperial guard system, responsible for duties such as guarding and accompanying the emperor. First-class and third-class were different ranks. "Imperial bodyguard" indicates a specific close service relationship; it doesn't mean Wudachan had another surname called "Imperial Bodyguard," nor can Bulha's third-class position automatically be recorded as an imperial bodyguard.

The two great-grandsons held different positions, which does not constitute a record of one person rising from third-class to first-class, and the original genealogy cannot use this to prove that Baldushan himself held the same rank. During the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners were managed separately in terms of official status and actual positions. Belonging to the Bordered Yellow Banner did not mean that all members served as imperial guards. The specific dates of Wu Dachan's service in the imperial court, the records of his selection as a guard, his ancestral home in Changbai Mountain, and the exact time of his surrender are yet to be verified through original engravings and archives.