Manchu people

For the 1/9, 2/9 Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army, see U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment.

One of the Qianlong Emperor's Manchu bodyguards (1760), notice the distinctive hat

The Manchu (Manchu: Manju; simplified Chinese: 满族; traditional Chinese: 滿族; pinyin: Mǎnzú) are a Tungusic people who originated in Northeastern Asia, collectively known in English as Manchuria. During the Manchu conquest in the 17th century, they conquered Ming Dynasty China and founded the Qing Empire in its place. The Qing Empire would continue to rule China until its abolishment in 1912 in the 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 10,000 or so speakers of Sibe (Xibo), an innovative 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 Chinese. The number of Chinese today with some Manchu ancestry is quite large, although the bulk identify themselves as Han Chinese. The adoption of favourable policies towards ethnic minorities (such as preferential university admission and government employment opportunities) has also encouraged some people with mixed Han Chinese and Manchu ancestry to re-identify themselves as Manchu.

Origins

The Manchus were descendants of the Jurchen, who had conquered a vast area in northeastern Asia in the twelfth century and established the Jin Dynasty (Golden Dynasty) that ruled over Manchuria and the northern half of China until being conquered and destroyed by the Mongols under Genghis Khan. The name Manchu was formally adopted by Nurhaci of the Jianzhou Jurchens in 1635, though it may have been in use as early as 1605. Nurhaci originated in present-day North Korea near the Paektu/Changbai Mountains. Nurhaci's son Hong Taiji decided the Jurchens would call themselves 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 disputed Altaic language family (and hypothetically related to the Korean, Mongolic and Turkic languages).

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.

The native religion to Manchus is a form of shamanism that holds some similarities to Mongol shamanism, notably the worship of a sky goddess whose temple in Beijing is the famous "Temple of Heaven" or "Tian Tan" that is now regarded more as a tourist attraction than a holy site. Despite its current state of desecration (from a Manchu spiritual point of view), the Tian Tan retains its historical, cultural, and spiritual importance to Manchus who are aware of its importance.

Besides the Sky Goddess, the Manchu pantheon also includes an earth god, sun god, and moon goddess, all of whom had temples in Beijing correlating to the Temple of Heaven. Of the four primary deities, the Moon Goddess was most important. These four primary deities were represented by four corresponding colors which became the four original colors in the Manchu banner system. Red was for the sun god. Yellow was for the earth god. Blue belonged to the sky goddess while white belonged to the moon goddess.

Politically Prime Yellow Banner was of great importance as the ruling Aisin Gioro (Chinese Aixinjueluo) were/are 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 vessal of great wisdom.

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

Founding of the Qing Dynasty

In 1616 a Manchu leader, Nurhaci (1559-1626) 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 Chinese numbers in the field. In 1636 Nurhaci's son Hong Taiji, reorganized the Manchus including Mongolians, Koreans and Chinese 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 (Shenyang in modern days]] 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 Ch'ing Empire invaded China proper 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 19th 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.

Manchukuo

In 1931, the Japanese created a puppet state known as Manchukuo in Manchuria led by Emperor Puyi. By this time the population of Manchuria was overwhelmingly Han Chinese, and even among the Manchus, this project failed to generate much genuine interest. It was abolished at the end of World War II, with its territory incorporated back into China.

See also

• Ethnic groups in Chinese history
• Kawashima Yoshiko
• List of Manchu clans
• Manchu language
• 9th Infantry Regiment

External links

• The Manchu ethnic minority (Chinese government site)