Plain Yellow Banner

The Plain Yellow Banner (Chinese: 正黃旗) was one of the Eight Banners of Manchu military and society during the Later Jin and Qing dynasty of China. The Plain Yellow Banner was one of three "upper" banner armies under the direct command of the emperor himself, and one of the four "right wing" banners. The Plain Yellow Banner was the original banner commanded personally by Nurhaci. The Plain Yellow Banner and the Bordered Yellow Banner were split from each other in 1615, when the troops of the original four banner armies (Yellow, Blue, Red, and White) were divided into eight by adding a bordered variant to each banner's design. After Nurhaci's death, his son Hong Taiji became khan, and took control of both yellow banners. Later, the Shunzhi Emperor took over the Plain White Banner after the death of his regent, Dorgon, to whom it previously belonged. From that point forward, the emperor directly controlled three "upper" banners (Plain Yellow, Bordered Yellow, and Plain White), as opposed to the other five "lower" banners.

Plain Yellow Banner
Flag of the Plain Yellow Banner
Active	1601 – 1912
Country	Later Jin  China
Allegiance	Qing dynasty
Type	Cavalry Musketeers
Part of	Eight Banners
Commander	Nurhaci The Emperor

Plain Yellow Banner
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	正黃旗
Simplified Chinese	正黄旗
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin zhènghuángqí
Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic	Шулуун шар хошуу
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᡤᡠᠯᡠ ᠰᡠᠸᠠᠶᠠᠨ ᡤᡡᠰᠠ
Möllendorff	gulu suwayan gūsa

The flag of the Plain Yellow Banner eventually became the basis of the Flag of the Qing dynasty.

Notable people

• Nurhaci (founding khan of the Jurchen-led Later Jin dynasty)
• Hong Taiji (Manchu Prince, 8th son and heir of Nurhaci)
• Hooge, Prince Su (Manchu Prince, eldest son of Hong Taiji)
• Fulin (Manchu Prince, 9th son and heir of Hong Taiji)
• Kangxi Emperor (Manchu Prince, 3rd son and heir of Shunzhi Emperor)
• Hešeri Clan
• Sonin (Manchu noble of the Hešeri clan, 1st regent for the young Kangxi Emperor)
• Songgotu (Manchu Minister, son of Sonin)
• Yunsi (Manchu Prince, 8th son of Kangxi Emperor)
• Qishan (official), the Imperial Commissioner of the Qing during most of the First Opium War and the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion.
• Clan Nara
  • Consort Shu
• Tulišen
• Empress Xiaogongren, consort of the Kangxi Emperor
• Zu Dashou (Han)
• Geng Zhongming (Han)
• Tian Wenjing (Han)
• Imperial Noble Consort Shujia
• Noble Consort Jia
• Imperial Noble Consort Zhemin
• Empress Xiaojingcheng
• Consort Rong (Kangxi)
• Concubine Yi, consort of the Qianlong Emperor

Notable clans

• Hešeri
• Geng
• Zu
• Tian
• Gūwalgiya
• Clan Nara
• Ayan Gioro
• Uya
• Borjigin
• Šumuru
• Magiya
• Donggo
• Yanja
• Cheng
• Wumit
• Zheng
• Zhou
• Wang
• Li
• Ejo

Bibliography

• Elliott, Mark C. (2001), The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China, Stanford University Press, ISBN 9780804746847

• Wakeman, Frederic Jr. (1985), The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-century China, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0520048040

Further reading

• Dennerline, Jerry (2002), "The Shun-Chih Reign", in Peterson, Willard J.; Twitchett, Denis Crispin; Fairbank, John King (eds.), The Cambridge History of China: Volume 9, Part 1, The Ch'ing Empire to 1800, The Cambridge History of China, vol. 9, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521243346

• Rawski, Evelyn S. (1998), The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions, University of California Press, ISBN 9780520926790