Nurhaci — Qing Taizu

Beginning with thirteen sets of inherited armour, he unified the Jurchen over thirty years, organized them into the Eight Banners, commissioned a written script for the Manchu language, and declared the Later Jin in 1616. He beat a far larger Ming army at Sarhū in 1619 and died of wounds seven years later.

The banner system he designed was a military, civil and social organization at once, and it governed Manchu life until 1912.

The Qing empresses in the collection begin with the Mongol marriages his son made; the alliance they bought is what put the Manchus in Beijing.