Hermune

Overview

Hermune was a member of the Irkule clan of the Bordered White 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 Hurha region for generations and submitted to the Qing dynasty at the beginning of the dynasty. Irkule was the clan name of this section, and Hurha was their ancestral home; other families in the same section had lived in Nuoluo for generations, which does not constitute grounds for changing Hermune's ancestral home to Nuoluo.

His son, Keshan, served in the Yunnan campaign as a non-official. During the attack on Yuanjiang Prefecture, he was the first to scale the city walls and was awarded the title of Baturu and appointed a Third-Class Qingche duwei (hereditary merit rank). Baturu was a title of honor, not a fixed-rank official position; Third-Class Qingche duwei (hereditary merit rank) was a hereditary position; "non-official" indicates the status of service before the campaign. These three should be understood separately. The merit of the siege belonged to Keshan, not his father, Hermune.

After Keshan's death, his son Barna and grandson Dingshan inherited the title. After Dingshan retired, the title was transferred to relatives such as Haise, Shuanzhu, and Bazhu. The genealogy also lists Sun Mengzhu as a military commander, and his great-great-grandson Batai as a fifth-rank official. A military commander was a substantive position, while a fifth-rank official was merely given a grade and could not be formally appointed to Batai; inheriting a hereditary position did not automatically grant the title of military commander. The exact dates of the battles at Huerha and Yuanjiang, and the complex branch relationships, await verification from the original inscriptions and archives.