Booi Aha - Concept of The Booi Aha

Concept of The Booi Aha

Pamela Kyle Crossley wrote in her book Orphan Warriors: "The Mongol is the slave of his sovereign. He is never free. His sovereign is his benefactor; does not serve him for money." This Mongolian traditional model of slave to owner was taken up by the Manchu during the development of Eight Banner Army."

Crossley gave as the definition of Manchu: "A Manchu was, moreover, a man who used his skills exclusively to serve the sovereign....banners as institutions were derived from Turkic and Mongolian forms of military servitude, all enrolled under the banners considered themselves slaves of the emperor and called themselves so (aha, Chinese:奴才, pinyin:nucai) when addressing him...".