天聰五年大凌河攻城戰からみたアイシン國政權の構造

Abstract

The Aisin army that laid siege to Dalinghe 大凌河 in the fifth year of the Tiancong 天聰 era (1631) was composed of seventeen divisions. The army was composed of eight Manchu divisions organized under the eight banners 八旗, four divisions composed of Mongol battalions from unincorporated tribes, and another four divisions of an intermediate status of which two were composed of Mongols warriors who had pledged allegiance individually, and two divisions of troops from tribes that had submitted en masse, and a single division of Chinese troops who were assigned the special task of serving as an artillery unit. Hong Taiji considered these seventeen disparate divisions as integral units of the same force and deployed them jointly in strategic maneuvers in an organized manner. Hong Taiji aimed to strengthen his control over the Mongols by mobilizing their various forces in expeditions in which they were forced to conform to the military tactics and discipline imposed on the Aisin forces. It seems, moreover, that in conducting siege warfare, keeping his seventeen divisions entrenched in one location for a lengthy time, and having them operate together, Hong Taiji attempted to arouse a sense of unity with the Aisin regime. The Qing regime after coming to power in the first year of the Chongde 崇徳 era (1636) gradually concentrated on a structure in which the emperor's authority was located in a center surrounded by the eight banners headed by the imperial princes, encircled by the jasaq banners 扎薩克旗 headed by the Mongolian princes of the outer provinces, however, considering the composition of the forces besieging Dalinghe and Hong Taiji's tactics, it may be concluded that Hong Taiji had already conceived of this structure as early as Tiancong 5. It can also be concluded that Hong Taiji came to conceive of this structure as a practical method of attracting sufficient military power to fulfill his object of attacking the Ming. The conception of government originated by Hong Taiji was incorporated into the ceremony of the royal hunts conducted by subsequent Qing emperors down to the end of the dynasty.