Mardan Clan

Overview

The Mardan clan is a Manchu surname recorded in Volume 60 of the official genealogy of the Manchu clans of the Eight Banners, compiled during the Qianlong reign. Their ancestral home was Zakumu. The year of Yatu's submission to the Qing Dynasty is unknown. His grandson, Yifu, served as an infantry officer, and Sige served as a cavalry officer. Here, Sige is a descendant's name and cannot be interpreted as four officials or a shortened form of a rank.

An infantry officer was part of the infantry organization, involved in military and security affairs such as city gate guarding and patrolling; a cavalry officer belonged to the basic military management of the Eight Banners, participating in the training and discipline of banner soldiers and related military and political work. Although both grandsons held military positions, they belonged to different systems, so their official titles cannot be combined into a single position, nor can they be attributed to Yatu himself.

Zakumu is the name of the ancestral home recorded in the genealogy; the Qing Dynasty's banner system indicates its organizational structure; Mardan is a clan classification. These clues can help distinguish Yatu from other surnames with the same name, but they do not directly provide a common ancestor or birthplace. The genealogy does not specify the exact post, term of office, military merits, or the process of succession. The exact settlement and Manchu surname of Yifune and Sige's father, Zhakumu, are still to be verified; the year of their submission is unknown and cannot be filled in by borrowing the reign title from adjacent entries, nor can they be merged with other clans with similar names based on pronunciation.

The branch associated with Yatu is recorded under the Plain White Banner.