Merdile Clan

Overview

The Merdile clan is a Manchu surname recorded in Volume 52 of the officially compiled *Comprehensive Genealogy of Manchu Clans of the Eight Banners*, scattered in places like Eqi Village, Heilongjiang Province. Akdao, son of Dabanai of the Plain Yellow Banner, led sixteen households and over forty able-bodied men to surrender during the Kangxi era. He was granted the rank of Fourth-Rank Zhangjing and organized into half a Zuoling (military unit), led by his son Dangxi. The genealogy records both households and able-bodied men; the former refers to the family unit, while the latter refers to the adult male population and other service members in the statistics. The two cannot be simply added together to obtain the total population.

Another branch of this clan, Orbochuo, led thirty-one households and eighty able-bodied men to Ningguta, where he was granted the title of Qiduwei and merged with the original half Zuoling into a single Zuoling. Organizational consolidation and hereditary titles were related but distinct matters: Zuoling involved the organization of banner men, while Qiduwei signified a qualification for service.

The appendix also mentions that the Fokechu clan of the Plain Yellow Banner resided in Ningguta, while the Kuchou, Tekesehe, and Tugengxing clans of the Plain Blue Banner settled in Muhu Village, Heilongjiang, and Shangyanwohe, respectively, with no record of their dates of submission. The various branches cannot be uniformly stated as having submitted during the Kangxi era. The kinship designations of Orbochuo, the location of Eqi Village, and his Manchu surname still require verification; his surname is not combined with the Merzhele clan in the same volume.