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Wanyan Xiyin

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Wanyan Xiyin (Chinese: 完颜希尹; ?-1140) was a trusted advisor of the Jurchen chieftain, Wanyan Aguda (later the Emperor Taizu, the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty), particularly known as the creator of the first writing system for the Jurchen language.

Wanyan Xiyin's original Jurchen name is transcribed in Chinese sources as Wushi (Chinese: 兀室 or 悟室; Wade-Giles, Wu-shih). He belonged to the Jurchen Wanyan tribe, but not to the actual imperial Wanyan family.[1] Along with Nianhan (粘罕; in Chinese, Zonghan 宗翰; 1080-1137) and Gushe (骨括, or Hushe, 胡舍), Wushi was one of the three chief advisors of Aguda at the time of his rebellion against the Liao.[2] He continued to be a trusted advisor of Aguda as he became the first Emperor Taizu of the Jin Dynasty, and of and his successor Taizong (r. 1123-1134). However, Wushi (Xiyin) fell into disgrace under Taizong's successor Xizong (r. 1135-1149) and had to commit suicide in 1140.[1]

According to the contemporary Chinese sources, "Wushi was crafted and talented. It was he who personally devised laws and the script for the Jurchen, and thus shaped them into one state (guo, 国). The people of the state called him shan-man (珊蛮); shan-man in Jurchen means a shamaness. This is because he understood changing conditions like a good. From Nianhan down, nobody was able to be his equal."[3]

As the translator of this text, Herbert Franke, notes, this may be the earliest known Chinese document in which the word 珊蛮 (shanman) is attested; it correspond to the Manchu saman ("shaman, sorcerer").[3]

Wushi was fascinated by Chinese classics, and collected a large library when Jurchens seized and looted the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Pianjing (now Kaifeng). He invited several Chinese scholars, led by Yuwen Xuzhong (宇文虚中), to advise him and to teach his sons and grandsons. The instruction must have been successful, as it is reported by the contemporary Chinese visitor Hong Hao (洪皓), that the students were able to write Chinese poetry for him. The degree of sinicization in the generation of Wushi's children was high enough that one of his sons was among the first Jurchen to have a Chinese wife. [4]

Jurchen script

On Aguda's orders, in 1119 or 1120, Wanyan Xiyin created the Jurchen script, known as the "large-character script", for use in the administration of the new Jurchen (Jin) Empire. He based it on Chinese characters and the Liao script.

Literature

  • Herbert Franke, 1997 (I): "Chinese Texts on the Jurchen (I): a Translation of the Jurchen in the San ch'ao pei-meng hui-pien. Orignally published in Zantralasiatische Studien 9. Wiesbaden, 1975. Reprinted in: Herbert Franke and Hok-lam Chan, "Studies on the Jurchens and the Chin Dynasty", Variorum Collected Series Studies: CS591, Ashgate, 1997. ISBN 0-86078-645-5. (The work whose name is transcribed in Wade-Giles as San ch'ao pei-meng hui-pien is Xu Mengxin's "Collected Accounts of the Treaties with the North under Three Reigns", or San chao beimeng huibian in Pinyin. Franke translates and comments on its Chapter 3, which deals with the history and customs of the Jurchen people).

References

  1. ^ a b Franke 1997(I), pp. 150-151.
  2. ^ Franke 1997(I), p. 154
  3. ^ a b Franke 1997(I), pp. 155-156.
  4. ^ Jing-shen Tao, "The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China". University of Washington Press, 1976, ISBN 0-295-95514-7. Page 40.
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