Scholars who have studied Sin jeku jetere aha in the Imperial Household Department during the early Qing Dynasty concluded they were the humblest of slaves. This essay paints a more complex picture of the lives of Sin jeku jetere aha since the Jiaqing and Daogung reigns. The term ‘iron rice bowl’ suggests that the Manchus led an easy life on their official salaries. We can see from census and pay records, however, that the empire had financial difficulties in its late period, and therefore not everyone could live off the iron rice bowl. Under three supervisors discussed in this essay, the Sin jeku jetere aha all had to independently earn their own livings, so there were significant changes in their class positions. The Sin jeku jetere aha of the Seventh Duty Group belonged to were all Han Bannermen; of these, 21 percent of the adults were “office boys” working at a variety of menial tasks. Some were still engaged in such work during the Guangxu reign, but the proportion decreased to 13.9 percent. About 18.47 percent of Sin jeku jetere aha of the Fourth Duty Group, including Han and Mongol Bannermen, held official positions. Eight men had official positions at or above the ninth rank, a government student and seven official students. The Bannermen of Supervisor Anliincluded Manchus, Mongols, and Han. Almost 40 percent of males held official positions during Jiaqing reign while the figure drops to 20 percent for the Guangxu period. Nonetheless, in general the number of adults who held official positions under the supervisorsincreased, including 24 people who held official positions beyond the ninth rank, including Geng Deshou, who became the Liangguang Governor-General. Because Supervisor Anli’s Sin jeku jetere aha occupied such specialized hereditary posts as storehouse keepers, kitchen helpers, sacrifice helpers, silversmiths, coppersmiths, ironsmiths, and the like, they were easily able to accumulate private property. Additionally, the fact that buying official positions became permissible from the middle period of the Qing dynasty made it possible for them to buy such posts. An old saying in Beijing proclaimed that, “It doesn’t matter whether you are Han or Manchu, as long as you’re a Bannerman.” This seems to real a percpetion of the social gap between the Banners and ordinary commoners. Nevertheless, among Banners in the Imperial Household Department, the status of Han and Manchu was quite different. Manchu and Mongol Bannermen had more opportunity to choose and inherit their duties.