Borgon Clan

Overview

The Borgon clan is a Manchu surname listed in Volume 60 of the official genealogy of the Manchu clans of the Eight Banners, compiled during the Qianlong reign. Their ancestral home was Namudulu. Guo Heda of the Plain White Banner surrendered to the Qing dynasty at the beginning of the dynasty and served as a Qiduwei. His son, Yiqinai, served as a lieutenant. This refers to the specific positions held by both father and son; it cannot be stated that Yiqinai's lieutenant position was a later promotion by Guo Heda, nor is there any original text proving that the son succeeded his father in the same position.

The cavalry captains participated in the training and management of banner soldiers at the grassroots level of the Eight Banners. The lieutenant was both a basic organizational unit and the official in charge of that unit, involving household registration, military service, and military and political affairs. The organizational and official meanings of the lieutenant must be distinguished according to the context; "serving as a lieutenant" here indicates holding an official position, not that Yiqinai alone was equivalent to a unit.

Namudulu provides clues about the ancestral home, the Plain White Banner indicates organizational affiliation, and Borgon is the surname. These three factors combined can be used to identify people with the same name, but are still insufficient to determine the location of a modern village or close kinship with other surnames. The original genealogy does not specify a particular year for the "early years of the dynasty". Guo Heda's birth and death dates, the military command his father and son belonged to, their Manchu surnames, and their actual terms of office still need to be verified by cross-referencing the original engravings and archives. Military merits and titles should not be fabricated based on official records.