As early as the first year of Shunzhi, the Qing court ordered that "all the eight banners who are able-bodied men are poor in grass, food and cloth will never lose", in other words, they will be exempted from all other obligations except military service that has been attacked for generations; In the second year of Shunzhi, the Qing court also formulated the Eight Banners Relief Regulations, which gave preferential treatment to the Banners in all aspects. In the decades after the Qing army entered the customs, it competed within 500 miles of Gyeonggi according to the mode outside the customs, and then distributed it to the officers and men of the Eight Banners in the form of "granting fields", which is the so-called "flag land".
According to the regulations, each flag is divided into 30 mu, but it is not allowed to buy or sell food to maintain the old days of "going out as a soldier and entering the door as a farmer"; The tradition of land to the tiller and tools to the bucket has never been ignored. However, the Eight Banners of Shi Jing are mainly stationed in the inner city. They are not good at farming, and in fact they can't take care of both soldiers and farmers. Therefore, most of these banners are managed by "coating" assistants and cultivated by local Han Chinese.
The limited tax revenue was not enough to support the flag family. Later, the Qing court established a soldier's pay system, stipulating that every adult man who chose armor was given a certain amount of money and rice by the court every month, and at the same time, he was given food rations to support his family. "Everyone over seven years old is ready to eat, and half under six years old is given food." In this way, the officers and men of the Eight Banners, up to the soldiers, can receive the prescribed amount of salary on time.
According to the Eight Banners system, salaries are paid on a monthly basis and once every quarter in Mi Lu. The regulations are as follows: Dutong's monthly salary is 180 Liang, 90 stone per year; Monthly salary of participants 130 beam, 65 stone per year; Assistant two silver per month 105, Mi Lu 52 stone 5 buckets per year; The military academy pays 80 taels of silver every month and 40 taels of Mi Lu every year; Xiaoqi School, Pro-Army School, Pioneer School, and Guard School are 60 taels of silver per month, and Mi Lu is 30 taels per year; Infantry, guards, forwards and pro-barracks soldiers receive 4 A Liang a month, and Mi Lu receives 4 stones and 8 barrels a year; The monthly salary of vest is 3 Liang, and the annual salary is 4 stone and 8 dou. Jabu's monthly salary is 2 Liang, and Mi Lu's annual salary is 4 stone and 8 dou.
In addition, the officers and men of the Eight Banners also enjoy other economic benefits, such as receiving certain allowances at weddings and funerals; If injured or discharged due to illness, the remaining students can receive a monthly pension of 1 2, and after my death, his widow can still receive half of the pension, and orphans can also receive certain subsidies.
In the article "The Border Problem between Manchu and Han in the Last Decade of the Late Qing Dynasty", scholars summed up four major differences between Manchu and Han in social positions: First, Manchu can fill vacancies, while Han people can't fill vacancies (such as commander-in-chief and general). For the same positions, such as Shangshu and assistant minister, Manchu has more power than Han people, and there are more high-level positions than Han people; Second, Manchu and Han are not married; Third, Manchu can only be a professional soldier, not allowed to engage in other production, and their life depends entirely on the financial supply of the Qing court; Fourth, the applicable laws are different, and the judicial organs are also separated for Manchu crimes.
In order to expand the ways of being an official, the general standard-bearer has other opportunities to be an official besides passing the scientific examination. For example, in the tenth year of Kangxi, it was stipulated that "the Eight Banners were full of words in imperial academy, and the translation was tested; Only know the whole word and write the exam. The best one is awarded as the positive eight products, supplemented by the brush paste type "; In the first year of Yongzheng, in view of the fact that Manchu Jinshi and Juren Hanlin had no road to promotion, they made the order of "promotion"; In the second year of Qianlong, "Manchu Jinshi selected the magistrate according to the first-class ranking", and so on.
Of course, in order to win over the Han people, the standard-bearer did not win the first place in the imperial examination (the second place was also very cautious). At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the only exception was that Chongqi, who was born in Zhenglan Banner, Mongolia, won the first place. Although there are some restrictions in the imperial examination, standard-bearers can take an examination of translation and choose guards. In addition, its population base is small and its official career is much broader than that of Han people.
According to statistics, in 268 of the Qing Dynasty, the proportion of Manchu-Han governors was 57%, and that of Han nationality was 43%. Governor 48%, South Korea 52%; 28% of the envoys are full, and 72% are from China; Magistrate 2 1%, South Korea 79%; The Manchu in Zhifu County is only 6%. Among the six central departments, the Qing court implemented the system of Manchu-Chinese ministers, that is, each department had a Manchu-Chinese ministers, and so did assistant ministers. It can be seen that the higher the level, the higher the proportion of banners, and the middle and lower level officials, especially grassroots officials, are mainly Han Chinese. This situation didn't change until after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising, when the governor of Manchu fell to 35% and the governor fell to 22%, but the central ministries didn't change much.
While giving preferential treatment to the Eight Banners, the Qing court also set many restrictions on the Eight Banners. For example, the flag bearer is not allowed to engage in commerce and agriculture, not allowed to engage in any other occupation except being a soldier (even if it is idle), and not allowed to leave the garrison at will (without the right to migrate). In order to maintain the fighting capacity of the Eight Banners and prevent the flag bearer from being sinicized, the Qing court formulated a series of measures, such as "the flag bearer does not pay property, the flag bearer does not marry, and the flag bearer is punished differently".
Under its rigid system, Banners have insurmountable boundaries with ordinary Han people in terms of household registration, address, land and property, business and litigation. However, within the flag bearer, whether it is Manchu, Mongolian and Han armies, they can marry each other and pay each other's property equally. In a sense, the Qing court built a "hardcore" support force with the Eight Banners system, and the Eight Banners Group, as a "compound nation", is essentially centered on Manchu but includes the interests of Han, Mongolian, Korean and Xibe nationalities.
There are not only differences in rights between "flag people", but also a practical obstacle, that is, the so-called "city". Among the standard-bearers, except a few who went out to be officials, most ordinary standard-bearers were sealed in military camps in the city. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, all the officers and men of the Eight Banners stationed in major cities were stationed in another "city" and were not allowed to live with local people.
Generally speaking, the whole city can be divided into two types. One is to draw an area in the original city for the officers and men of the Eight Banners to live in, such as Xi 'an, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and Hangzhou. After the area is demarcated, all the original Han residents will move out and a new wall will be built to separate the Manchu. The other is to choose an open space outside the original old city to build another new city, such as Qingzhou, Suiyuan and Yinchuan, so that the flag soldiers and local people will not interfere with each other.
In ancient China, there were different types of military service, such as conscription system, conscription system and world soldier system. Generally speaking, most nomadic people in the north are clan soldiers, such as Khitan, Nuzhen, Mongolia and Manchu. In the Ming Dynasty, the military system was first established, that is, the military household system, and then changed to the recruitment system. After the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners was actually a racial military system. Green camp started out as a recruiting system, but later, because it was stationed in one place for a long time, it became a world military system to some extent. Like green camp, the Eight Banners is actually a disguised military system or hereditary military household. This kind of occupation with a fixed salary in the imperial court is generally monopolized by special people, and it is difficult for outsiders to get their hands on it.
Of course, "dividing the flag and dividing the people" is not all bad. Wang Dong, a calligrapher who participated in the revolution with Sun Yat-sen, once said: "In the past, the special system of the Eight Banners was different from that of the Banners, not for production, but for the Han people. Although it is a civil disease, Ute consumes his hard-earned money and never competes with the people for profit. " The reason for "dividing the flag and dividing the people" is because of the military system, and the other is to prevent "competing for profits with the people" so as not to repeat the disadvantages of military groups seizing people's land and property under the "Meng 'an" system of the Jin Dynasty. In this regard, Wang Dongzeng's words are fair.