Cai Guoming

Overview

Cai Guoming was a bondservant of the Bordered Blue Banner during the early Qing Dynasty, and his family had lived in Shenyang for generations. Volume 78 of the official genealogy of the Eight Banners Manchu Clans, compiled during the Qianlong reign, records his submission during the Tiancong era. Tiancong was the reign title used by Huang Taiji during the Later Jin period, beginning in 1627 and ending in Chongde in 1636; this places Cai Guoming's submission before the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, rather than simply referring to his submission after the conquest as part of the population's banner system.

The Bordered Blue Banner was one of the lower five banners of the Eight Banners, and bondservant status indicated a subordinate relationship with the imperial family or princes. The original text does not specify Cai Guoming's own official position, but records his son Cai Qigong and great-grandson Wushi, both of whom held the sixth-rank position of "Baoyi Da" (a high-ranking bondservant).

"Baoyi Da" was an official title within the bonder management system and should not be interpreted as a social honorific. The "sixth rank" is a rank limit and must be considered in conjunction with the specific bondservant system. The organization of the princes' mansions under the Lower Five Banners is different from that of the three banners under the Imperial Household Department, so the two people are not directly written as the head of a certain manager under the Imperial Household Department.