Abstract
The Eight Banners System is the social organizational structure of the bannerman (qiren, 旗人) from the Qing dynasty and the fundamental system of the country under Qing rule. It is divided into three types: the Manchu Eight Banners, Mongolian Eight Banners, and Han Army Eight Banners. The Han Army was a special group in the Qing dynasty between the bannerman and the commoners (minren, 民人). The sacrificial rite of the Han Army is a form of comprehensive shamanic ritual based on the traditional ancestor worship of the Han people. However, it is influenced, to some extent, by the shamanic ritual of the Manchus involving trance-dance. It finally took shape as a unique sacrificial form different from both the Manchu shamanic rite and the traditional ancestor worship of the Han minren. As a special system of symbolic rituals, the Han qiren’s sacrificial form embodies shamanic concepts and serves two functions: (1) dispelling evil and bringing in good fortune for the community; and (2) unifying the Han bannermen’s clans and strengthening the culture, identity, and tradition of the Han people, who were living under Manchu rule during the Qing dynasty.
Highlights
The Eight Banners System is the social organizational structure of the bannerman from the Qing dynasty and the fundamental system of the country under Qing rule
Shamanism is a kind of original religious form based on clan structures, whose ritual symbolic system is characterized by regional characteristics
There are some symbols in shamanic rites that can be commonly recognized by all shamans, there are some symbols that are unique to particular clans or ethnic groups, presenting the richness and diversity of the symbolic system of shamanic rituals
Summary
Gongtong village was located 1km west of Wula during the early years of the Qing dynasty. In the 8th Year of the Shunzhi period (1652), Dengke “along with his five sons upon the imperial edict moved” from Mukden to the ancient Wula City, where he “made bows and arrows for the defense of the frontier.”. He settled in Gongtong Village as a bow-maker under the Zongguan Yamen of Dasheng Wula (打牲乌拉总管衙门).. Young people have left the farmland for work in the cities, leaving just the middle-aged and elderly, along with students of primary and secondary school age, to live in Gongtong
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