- This article should be merged with Banner system.
The
Eight Banners were the core elite of the
Qing empire. It was a
hereditary class of
bannermen founded by
Nurhaci, the first leader of the
Manchu, and reorganized by his son, the
emperor Hong Taiji for the Qing dynasty. Though initially military in nature, the Eight Banners came to assume other administrative duties. It originally consisted of three upper banners directly responsible to the emperor himself and five lower banners responsible to imperial
princes; later, all the banners were placed under the direct control of the emperor.
The Eight Banners consisted of three ethnic components: the Manchu, the Han Chinese, and the Mongols. Initially, the Eight Banners had a very large Manchu majority; later, the majority became less dominant as the percentage of Han Chinese increased. At the end of the Qing dynasty, all members of the Eight Banners, regardless of their original ethnicity, were considered by the Republic of China to be Manchu.
