【Qing Dynasty Culture】The Origin of the Eight Banners of Qing
There used to be a saying called "Following the Dragon into the Pass," which actually refers to eight little dragons. At first, these eight little dragons were not united; they often fought among themselves, each trying to outdo the other in strength and competitiveness. One day, the Jade Emperor in heaven learned of their actions and summoned an angel, saying: "People on earth have filed complaints with me that the sun and moon are always together. Thus, every day is daylight, neither yin nor yang, making people feel very uncomfortable. They can't eat well or sleep well, and crops don't grow well either." People were very anxious and all demanded that they be separated. You deliver my decree and command the eight little dragons to accomplish this task.
Upon learning of the order, each of the eight little dragons wanted to be the first to achieve success, rushing forward one after another. This one came, that one went, moving the moon, shifting the sun, but no matter how much effort they expended, they couldn’t budge them. Everyone was so flustered they scratched their heads in frustration, unable to come up with any good ideas.
Just as they were at a loss for what to do, the Dragon King appeared before them with great authority and questioned them: "Why have you not completed the task assigned by the Jade Emperor after such a long time?"
The little dragons scrambled to explain: "The sun and moon are too heavy. We've exerted all our might, chasing after the moon and the sun all day, but we can never catch up. Sometimes even when we manage to catch up, we're too exhausted to keep up or block them. In the end, we're pushed aside by them."
The Dragon King asked: "How did you go about it?"
The little dragons replied: "We went one after another."
After hearing this, the Dragon King became extremely angry and immediately scolded them: "You bunch of fools! You can't even match the mortals below, who know that when hearts are united, even Mount Tai can be moved! If you had worked together, wouldn't it have been enough? Suppose each of you held an arrow; if you tried to break it, it would snap easily. But if you bound these eight arrows together, could you still break them? The reason you failed in the past was because your individual strength was too weak."
Upon hearing this, the little dragons suddenly understood. They immediately decided to unite and returned to the sky, combining together just like the Chinese character for gold (金). The character gold has exactly eight strokes, which actually represents the combination of the eight little dragons. When the pyramids' two dragon heads merged, they formed the tip of the gold character. United in effort, like a wedge, they managed to push between the sun and the moon, successfully separating them. After the sun and moon were separated, since the sun ran faster, it quickly got ahead. The moon, running slower, fell behind.
Having completed the task, the eight little dragons were utterly exhausted and began falling towards the ground. Just then, a strong wind blew. Strangely, eight large pieces of cloth of different colors mysteriously appeared and landed on the ground. Coincidentally, each of the eight little dragons landed on one piece of cloth, not only landing on the cloth but also becoming integrated with it.
Later, the Later Jin Kingdom took these eight pieces of cloth with dragon patterns as banners. Because the colors of the eight dragons and the eight pieces of cloth were different, this led to the creation of different banner colors.
A white dragon landed on yellow cloth, becoming what later became known as the Plain Yellow Banner; a blue dragon landed on white cloth, becoming the Plain White Banner; a yellow dragon landed on red cloth, becoming the Plain Red Banner; a bark-colored dragon landed on blue cloth, becoming the Plain Blue Banner. Another dragon, although it also landed on yellow cloth, had a red border around the yellow cloth, hence it was called the Border Yellow Banner; yet another dragon, though it landed on white cloth, had a red border around the white cloth, thus it was called the Border White Banner; a dragon landed on red cloth, and since the red cloth had a white border, it was called the Border Red Banner; and another dragon landed on blue cloth, and since it also had a red border, it was called the Border Blue Banner. Each of these banners featured a little dragon, scenes of combat with the Ming character, clouds, flames, and more.