Manchu

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The Manchu (Manchu: Manju; Simplified Chinese: 满族; Traditional Chinese: 滿族; pinyin: Mǎnzú, Mongolian: Манж) are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria (today's Northeast China). During Manchu's rise to power in the seventeenth century, they conquered Ming Dynasty China and founded the Qing Dynasty in its place. The Qing Dynasty ruled China until its abolition in 1912 in the Chinese Xinhai Revolution, which established the Republic of China in its place.

Manchus have largely assimilated with the Han Chinese, a mutual process that changed many elements of both ethnicities. The Manchu language is almost extinct, being spoken only among a small number of elderly people in remote rural areas of northeastern China and a few scholars; there are around ten thousand speakers of Sibe (Xibo), a Manchu dialect spoken in the Ili region of Xinjiang. In recent years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in Manchu culture among both ethnic Manchus and Han. The number of Chinese today with some Manchu ancestry is quite large, although the bulk identify themselves as Han. The adoption of favorable policies towards ethnic minorities (such as preferential university admission and government employment opportunities) has also encouraged some people with mixed Han and Manchu ancestry to re-identify themselves as Manchu.

Contents 1 Culture 2 Origins 3 Founding of the Qing Dynasty 4 Manchukuo 5 See also 6 Famous Manchu 7 External links 8 Notes

[edit] Culture

Aspects of Manchu customs and traditions can be seen in local cuisines, language and customs in today's Manchuria as well as cities in that region. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Manchus also adopted many Han customs and traditions.

Their traditional clothing (including qi pao and ma gua, Mandarin dress) is still popular all over China. The man's clothing once consisted of a short and adjusted jacket over a long gown with a belt at the waist to facilitate horse-riding and hunting.

The women once coiled their hair in high tufts on top of their heads and wore earrings, long gowns and embroidered shoes. The women with higher social standing wore silk and satin clothing while cotton clothing was worn by women of lower social standing. Unlike the Han, the Manchu did not practice foot binding.

The traditional Manchu dwellings were made up of three quarters. In the center of the house was the kitchen while the wings contained the dormitory and the living room. According to the tradition, each dormitory had three brick beds that were called nahan, identical to the Chinese kang bed-stove, constructed to allow them to be heated in the winter. Kang were traditionally laid against the west, north, and south walls. Guests and friends were usually given the west kang, elders the north, and the younger generation slept to the south. Windows generally opened to the south and west, and the houses stayed warm in winter and cool in summer.

The unique Manchu tradition did not allow people to die on kang to the west or north. Believing that doors were made for living souls, the Manchus allowed dead bodies to be taken out only through windows. Ground burial was the general practice.

One of the major difference between Manchus and other Northeastern Asian peoples is that Manchus prohibit eating of dog meat.

[edit] Origins

According to P. Huang the prehistoric ancestors of the Manchu were at least the peoples of the Yellow River valley, the Mongolian steppes, the Pacific coast and the taiga area around Lake Baikal. The first ancestors of the Manchu were the Sushen, a people who lived during the second and first millennia BC. They were followed by the Yilou people, who were active during 202 to 220 AD. The Wuji followed in the fifth century and the tribes of the Mohe in the sixth century. One of the tribes of the Mohe, the Heishui (Black Water) tribe, eventually became the ancestors of the Jurchens.^[1] The Manchus were related to the Jurchens, who had conquered a vast area in northeastern Asia in the twelfth century and established the Jin Dynasty (literally Golden Dynasty) under the Wanyan clan that ruled over northern half of China and rivaled the Song Dynasty in southern part of China until being conquered and destroyed by the Mongols under Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan’s descendants eventually established the Yuan Dynasty, ruling all of China and was followed by the Ming Dynasty in the historiography of Chinese history. Nurhaci's son Hong Taiji decided the Jurchens would call themselves Manju (Manchus) and prohibited the use of the name Jurchen.

The Manchu language is a member of the Tungusic language group, itself a member of the proposed Altaic language family.

The early significance of Manchu has not been established satisfactorily, although it seems that it may have been an old term for the Jianzhou Jurchens. One theory claims that the name came from the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (the Bodhisattva of Wisdom), of which Nurhaci claimed to be an incarnation. Another theory is that the Manchus, like a number of other Tungusic peoples, take their name from the common Tungusic word *mangu(n), 'a great river'. Before the seventeenth century, the ancestors of the Manchus were generally a pastoral people, hunting, fishing and engaging in limited agriculture and pig-farming.

Politically, Prime Yellow Banner was of great importance as the ruling Aisin Gioro (Chinese Aixin Jueluo) were Prime Yellow Banners. Because of the exalted place in Manchu spirituality held by the Moon Goddess, the White Banner held a very special significance and membership to it was often related to matters of religion. A woman born to the White Banner was presumed to be spiritually gifted. Shamans or those of shamanic potential were required to be white banner--either by birth or by adoption to white banner earned through rigorous tests for spiritual ability. Once ordained, the Manchu shaman was considered a holy vessel of great wisdom with the female shamans considered of greater spiritual power compared to their male counterparts.

Plaque at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, in both Chinese (left) and Manchu (right).

[edit] Founding of the Qing Dynasty

In 1616 a Manchu leader, Nurhaci (1559-1626) broke away from the power of the decaying Ming Dynasty and established the Later Jin Dynasty (後金 Hòu Jīn) / Amaga Aisin Gurun (), domestically called the State of Manchu (manju gurun) (), and unified Manchu tribes, establishing (or at least expanding) the Manchu Banner system, a military structure which made their forces quite resilient in the face of superior Ming Dynasty numbers in the field. In 1636 Nurhaci's son Hong Taiji, reorganized the Manchus including Mongolians, Koreans and Hans who joined them, changed the nation's name to Qing, and formally changed the name of the nationality to Manchu.

Nurhaci later conquered the Mukden (modern-day Shenyang) area and built it into a new capital of Qing Empire in 1621. When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng's peasant rebels in 1644, the Qing Dynasty collaborated with Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui and invaded Li Zicheng's Shun Dynasty and moved the capital from Mukden (Walled city since the Warring States Period) to Beijing.

For political purposes, the early Manchurian emperors took wives descended from the Mongol Great Khans, so that their descendants (such as the Kangxi Emperor) would also be seen as legitimate heirs of the Mongolian Yuan dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu government made efforts to preserve Manchu culture and the language. These efforts were largely unsuccessful in that Manchus gradually adopted the customs and language of the surrounding Han Chinese and, by the nineteenth century, spoken Manchu was rarely used even in the Imperial court. Written Manchu, however, was still used for the keeping of records and communication between the emperor and the Banner officials until the collapse of the dynasty. The Qing dynasty also maintained a system of dual appointments in which all major imperial offices would have a Manchu and a Han Chinese member. Because of the small number of Manchus, this insured that a large fraction of them would be government officials.

Near the end of the Qing Dynasty, Manchus were portrayed as outside colonizers by Chinese nationalists such as Sun Yat-Sen, even though the Republican revolution he brought about was supported by many reform-minded Manchu officials and military officers. This portrayal quickly dissipated after the 1911 revolution as the new Republic of China now sought to include Manchus within its national identity.

[edit] Manchukuo

In 1931, Imperial Japan created a puppet state known as Manchukuo in Manchuria led by Emperor Puyi. By this time the population of Manchuria was overwhelmingly Han Chinese. It was abolished at the end of World War II, with its territory incorporated back into China.

[edit] See also

• Ethnic groups in Chinese history
• Kawashima Yoshiko
• List of Manchu clans
• Manchu language
• 9th Infantry Regiment
• War crimes in Manchukuo
• Fu Manchu, a fictional character of Manchu ancestry
• Pamela Kyle Crossley, author of many scholarly and some popular works on Manchus and Manchu history

[edit] Famous Manchu

• Na Ying - Chinese Female Singer.
• Zhao Junzhe - Chinese Football player.
• Yang Liwei - First Chinese astronaut.
• Lang Lang - Chinese pianist.
• Pu Yi - Last Emperor of China.
• Lang Ping - Chinese ex-Volleyball player, now coaching USA Women's Volleyball National Team.

[edit] External links

• Qiren.cn (Simplified Chinese)

[edit] Notes