The story of Manchuria

 

The story of Manchuria

 

Duoji chatted with Agudenba, Azhuo, and Chu Sanxing about the Jurchens' stories, which also involved things about the Manchus.

Agudengba suggested that Dorje tell the story of the Manchu people.

Dorje then began to tell:

The Manchu people, also known as the Manchu people, were officially called Manchuria in the Qing Dynasty. They wore red tassels as hat ornaments, so they were called the Manchu people with red tassels.

The Manchu nationality is one of the ethnic minorities in China. It is the most populous branch of the Tungus nationality and the sixth largest ethnic group in China, after the five major ethnic minorities, Zhuang, Hui, Uyghur and Miao.

The Manchus and their ancestors, the Mohe and Jurchens, established the Bohai, Jin Dynasty, Eastern Xia and Later Jin-Qing dynasties in Chinese history. At present, the Manchus are mainly distributed in Northeast China and North China, mainly in scattered communities, with the largest population living in Liaoning. In addition, 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions including Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Beijing also have a wide population distribution. In addition to scattered settlements, the Manchus also have their own settlement areas, such as Xinbin, Xiuyan, Qinglong, Fengning, Yitong, Qingyuan, Weichang, Kuancheng, Benxi, Kuandian, Huanren, a total of 11 autonomous counties, and Fengcheng There are two county-level cities in Beizhen that enjoy the treatment of ethnic counties and more than 300 Manchu ethnic autonomous towns.

Dorje said:

There are different opinions on the origin of the name Manchu, and the Qing history academic circle has not yet reached a consensus. According to the official view of the Qing Dynasty (Manzhou Origins Examination), the name of Manchuria originated from Manjusri Bodhisattva. Emperor Qianlong also specially noted it in his poem to express his approval of this statement. The word may have been translated from Uyghur into Mongolian and then entered Manchu. When Nurhaci founded the country, he named it Manchukuo, which means "the land of Manjushri". Some Qing history scholars believe that the name "Manzhou" is related to Li Manzhu, the commander of the Jianzhou Guards in the mid-Ming Dynasty, and point out that Manchu (Manchu) is the "most respected title" in the traditional concept of Jianzhou. "Manchu Tribe" means "Manjusri Tribe" and is a idiom that the Jurchens in Jianzhou at that time used to name their tribe.

The Manchus have their own language and writing. Manchu belongs to the Manchu-Tungus branch of the Altaic language family. Manchu writing was founded at the end of the 16th century. During the Song and Jin dynasties, the Jurchens once had their own writing. The early Jurchen writings were prescriptive and syllabic writings derived from Chinese characters, but they have been lost for a long time. At the end of the 16th century, after Nurhaci unified all parts of the Northeast, he used Mongolian letters to spell Manchu pronunciation, forming a new script called "Old Manchu". During the Huang Taiji period, circles were added to the borrowed Mongolian letters to distinguish pronunciation, which was called dotted Manchu or "new Manchu".

As an official script, Manchu was used for a long time in the Qing Dynasty. It once became a widely used script across the country, leaving a large amount of archival materials and becoming a treasure in the cultural heritage treasure house of the Chinese nation. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, the Manchu language was gradually abandoned. The Manchu people basically used the northern dialect of Chinese. Only the banner people and banner officials still had to use Manchu on some specific occasions. By the 1980s, except for a few elderly people of the Xibe ethnic group in some remote areas of Northeast China and Xinjiang who could still speak Manchu, the Manchu language had disappeared.

The Jurchens, the predecessors of the Manchus, once created Jurchen script derived from Chinese characters and Khitan script, which became popular during the Jin Dynasty. However, due to the high degree of Sinicization of the Jurchens in the Central Plains during the late Jin Dynasty, and the Mongolianization of the Jurchens in the Northeast during the Yuan Dynasty, the Jurchen culture was lost in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

After the rise of Nurhachi, there were many inconveniences in the correspondence of documents, so Gagai and Erdeni were ordered to spell Manchu in Mongolian letters. Created by the two of them, it was called "Uncirculated Manchu" (Old Manchu) by later generations. However, unmarked Manchu "has not yet prepared many phonograms", and some unvoiced and voiced consonants and a few vowels cannot be distinguished. Therefore, during the Tiancong period, Dahai finally perfected it. He used punctuation to distinguish unvoiced and voiced consonants from vowel-like sounds, so he was called "Punctated Manchu" (New Manchu).

Since Jiaqing, most Manchus have mastered Chinese to a very high level, but the number of people who are proficient in Manchu has been on a declining trend. Although successive emperors repeatedly emphasized the importance of "Guoyu", it still did not help. After the founding of the Republic of China, Manchu lost its status as a national language, and its teaching environment became even worse. Today, the Manchu people generally use Mandarin as their mother tongue, and there are less than a hundred native speakers of Manchu.

Dorje added:

Like other ethnic groups with a long history, the origin of Manchu surnames can be traced back to ancient totem worship, but in terms of subsequent development, there are mainly two types of surnames: surnames based on the place of residence and surnames based on the tribe.

The Manchu people call their surname Hara, which is rich and complex and full of national cultural characteristics. Initially, a hala was a mukun (family). Later, as the population multiplied, family branches and accompanying garrisons were transferred to other places, the original mukun split into several new mukuns. Generally, a mukun has only one hala, but there are also cases where several mukun belong to the same hala. Historical records show that there are more than 600 Manchu surnames, second only to the Han among the surnames of various ethnic groups in China.

The Jurchens often live together in one mukun. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, they were deeply influenced by the Mongolian people, so they were called by their first names instead of surnames. After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, ethnic relations continued to develop. Most of the Han army banner people were named by Manchu names but not surnames. However, the Manchu banner people were deeply influenced by Han cultural customs. Many of them used Chinese characters as their surnames, such as Guarjia. The surname was changed to Guan in transliteration, Niuhulu was renamed Lang (Wolf) in free translation, Yiergenjueluo, also known as Minjueluo, was renamed Zhao in Han Dynasty.

There are also surnames that use the first character of the Chinese transliteration of the Manchu surname as the surname, such as Tong Jia's surname is shortened to Tong, Ma Jia's surname is shortened to Ma, and there are also surnames such as Tu, De, Da, Bao, Hu, A, Zhao, Xi, Bu, etc. Most of them use Chinese characters to abbreviate the original Manchu surname. However, in order to prevent the Chinese surnames from becoming Chinese, the Qing Dynasty did not allow Manchus to use Chinese surnames. Once discovered, they will be punished by the court. After Qianlong, the Qing government repeatedly banned it, but it had little effect. After the Revolution of 1911, the vast majority of Manchus generally used Chinese surnames or changed their surnames to prevent others from knowing that they were Manchus. So much so that today many Manchus no longer know the surnames of their ancestors.

Dorje sang "Prairie Toast Song" excitedly:

 

Life is like a huge millstone,

flowed from the grinding trough,

ups and downs,

They are all nourishing life

Rich in nutrients.

 

Life is like a wine glass in your hand,

The wine glass contains blessings,

Drunken life and dreaming of death,

They are all moments in life

Reincarnation changes.

 

treat life,

It needs as much warmth as wine,

It also needs to be as pure as the wind.

 

The so-called cowardice,

I just don’t dare to face life,

Drink this glass of wine to strengthen your courage.

 

human mind,

It should be a broad grassland,

It can accommodate all kinds of tastes.

 

Raise the cup in your hand,

We wish each other:

Now that we are together,

Then continue walking hand in hand.