Manchurians

Six hundred years ago, eastern Manchuria was inhabited by numerous Tungus-Manchu tribes, some of which back in the 12th century, became the creators of the Jurchen Jin Empire, which was destroyed by the Mongols in 1234.

Four centuries ago, these peoples re-created a powerful state, conquering North China ^[3] . The new dynasty was called Da Jin (Da Qing) - "Great Golden", or Hou Jin - "Late Golden", since the First or Early was considered to be the Jurchen dynasty of 1115-1234.

In 1616, the ruler of the Jurchen Nurhatsi , uniting their separate tribes in the late XVI - early XVII centuries, renamed his people by official decree, establishing a new name - the Manchus, and proclaimed the re-establishment of the Jurchen state of Jin (in history it became known as “ Later Jin ”), and he declared himself khan. In 1621, Mukden, Liaoyang and other seventy cities were captured, and the Manchus first established control over the whole territory, which has since been given the name of Manchuria by foreigners ^[4] .

In the Qing Empire , created after the conquest of China in 1644 , the Manchus held a privileged position, forming the backbone of the army and government structures. Ethnic Chinese began to occupy high positions in the empire only from the second half of the 19th century. Being a privileged group that made up the bulk of the empire’s forces, the Manchus spread widely throughout China, forming national quarters in large cities. During the fall of the Qing Empire in 1911, many of them experienced anti-Manchu pogroms with many casualties.

During the Second World War, the Japanese created the Manchu state of Manzhou-no in Northeast China, headed by the Manchu Emperor Pu Yi who was ousted in 1911 as a child. In China, Manchuria was divided into the provinces of Liaoning, Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin. Part of the territory of Manchuria was included in the composition of Inner Mongolia .

During the 1953 census, 2.5 million people identified themselves as Manchus. In 1970, the number of Manchus was estimated at 3 million people. Between 1982 and 1990, the official number of Manchus more than doubled from 4,299,159 to 9,821,180, making them the fastest-growing ethnic minority in China. However, in fact, this growth did not occur due to natural growth; instead, people who were formerly registered as Han people asked to officially reclassify them as Manchu, who they were before in reality. In 2000-2010, the number of Manchus in the PRC decreased from 10,682.26 thousand people. up to 10387.95 thousand ^[1]

Under the Aigun Treaty of 1858, the Russian Empire included territories inhabited by the Manchus on the left bank of the Amur River from the Zeya River to the village of Hormoldzin ^[5] . The agreement guaranteed them the right to live “forever in their former places of residence” and actual extraterritoriality , since the Manchus remained under the jurisdiction of the Qing government ^[5] .

When the Russians first appeared on the Zeya and Amur rivers (Poyarkov expedition 1643–1644), there were no Manchus on the banks of these rivers. They were not even 500-600 km to the south, as were the Chinese, since the Qing government forbade ethnic Chinese from entering Manchuria.

At the Manchu court, shamanism and the cult of ancestors were professed; shamanism was codified and in many ways changed its nature, becoming a court religion. Tibetan Buddhism has also largely restored its presence on the territory of the empire, which especially affected Mongolia ; Confucianism remained the most important tool of state-building; in many ways, the scholastic and formal side of Confucianism was strengthened. Modern Manchus in rural areas preserve shamanistic traditions that live in contact with the Mongols - a commitment to Tibetan Buddhism.

In addition, in the provinces (in brackets the number of national volosts) is Anhui (1), Jilin (12), Guizhou (4), Liaoning (61), Hebei (33), Heilongjiang (23), Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (3) and The cities of Beijing (3) and Tianjin (1) have 141 Manchu national volosts.

The Manchu folk songs currently compiled can be classified linguistically into three categories:

1. Manchu
2. Chinese
3. mixed (both Manchu and Chinese at the same time);

The musical difference between the first and second category is quite large. Some songs with Chinese lyrics are very similar to Chinese folk songs. The first category of Manchu folk songs as a whole has more retained its own musical characteristics and features. Of the total number of Manchu songs, 75% belong to the first category ^[6] .

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• The New Encyclopaedia Britanica. - Deep Knowledge. 1987. vol. 16
• Sovereign friend of his subjects or court political teachings and moralizing considerations of the Manchu and Chinese Khan - Kan-Siya. Collected by his son, Khan Yun-jin. SPB: 1795.
• S. M. Soloviev . Compositions. Book 6. - M.: Thought, 1991.
• Kychanov E.I. History of the ancient and medieval states bordering China (from the Huns to the Manchus). - 2nd ed., Rev. and add. - SPb. : Petersburg Linguistic Society. - 364 p. - (Nomadica). ISBN 978-5-4318-0005-4
• Li L. British Journal of Ethnomusicology = British Journal of Ethnomusicology. - 1993. - S. 99. - 115 p. (eng.)
• Norman J. Journal of the American Oriental Society = Journal of the American Oriental Society. - 2003. - S. 483. - 491 p. (eng.)
• Williams FW The Journal of Race Development. - 1913. - S. 152. - 167 p. (eng.)

• Maps with the share of peoples in the counties of China
• Manchurian page at China Internet Information Center (rus.)
• Manchus in China
• Photo catalog of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Peter the Great (Kunstkamera) RAS