Language: Mandarin Chinese
Source: Qing official sources

Description

The Hànjūn (漢軍), or "Chinese Martial" was a hereditary Chinese warrior class who served the Qing under the Hànjūn Eight Banners.

They consisted of Chinese soldiers who joined the Qing ranks in an early stage of the conquest. In 1631 the first separate Han artillery corps was formed and by 1642 the Eight Hànjūn Banners were established, two years before the conquest of Beijing in 1644.

Manchus customarily fought from horseback with lance and bows and arrows, which made them superior in the field at the time but of limited use against fortifications or in rougher terrain. This is where Hànjūn came in. More adept with firearms they operated muskets and artillery to aid the Manchus in their sieges.

They and enjoyed many privileges similar to the Manchu and Mongol Bannermen and after the fall of the Qing, all families under the Hànjūn were considered to be Manchu because they were part of the Eight Banners.

Soldiers of the Hànjūn from Morokoshi Meisho Zukai by Okada, Gyokuzan Yusho.
Published by Ryushodo, Osaka 1805. This book was largely based on Chinese sources.

Hànjūn Eight Banners command flags in the 1801 Da Qing Huidian Tu (大清會典圖).

Further reading
Elliott, Mark C.; The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China, Stanford University Press, 2011.
Porter, David C.; Ethnic and Status Identity in Qing China: The Hanjun Eight Banners, Harvard Dissertation, 2018.