The Manchu people are a who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the , along with the help of Ming rebels , they conquered the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until its abolition in 1911 after the Xinhai Revolution, which established in its place.
The Manchu ethnicity have largely been assimilated with the Han Chinese. The Manchu language is almost extinct, now spoken only among a small number of elderly in remote rural areas of northeastern China and a few scholars; there are around ten thousand speakers of , 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, and the adoption of favorable policies towards ethnic minorities has encouraged some people with mixed-Han and Manchu ancestry to re-identify themselves as Manchu.
Much recent scholarship in ethnic identity emphasizes that ethnic categories, rather than being static and objective, are fluid and subjective. This applies to the notion of a Manchu ethnicity which much recent scholarship suggests was strengthened in the early 19th century to distinguish members of the Qing military elites from the peoples they ruled.
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 Ming Dynasty, Manchus also adopted many customs and traditions.
They traditionally 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. Variants of such vestments are 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. 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. The unique Manchu tradition did not allow people to die on '''' 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.
The Manchu language is a member of the language group, itself a member of the proposed .
Origins
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Ancestors of the Manchu were the peoples of the Mongolian steppes. 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 from AD 202 to 220. The followed in the fifth century and the tribes of the Mohe in the sixth century. One of the tribes of the Mohe, the Heishui tribe, eventually became the ancestors of the Jurchens, from whom the Manchu originated.
The Jurchens under the Wanyan clan established the Jin Dynasty that ruled the northern half of China and rivaled the Song Dynasty in southern China. The Jin were conquered by the Mongols under Genghis Khan.
Before the seventeenth century, the ancestors of the Manchus were generally a pastoral people, hunting, fishing and engaging in limited agriculture and pig-farming.
Founding of the Qing Dynasty
In 1616 a Manchu leader, Nurhaci broke away from the power of the decaying Ming Dynasty and established the Later Jin Dynasty / ''Amaga Aisin Gurun'' , domestically called the State of Manchu , and unified Manchu tribes, establishing the Manchu Banner system, a military structure which made their forces quite resilient in the face of superior Ming Dynasty numbers in the field. Nurhaci later conquered Mukden and built it into the new capital in 1621. In 1636 Nurhaci's son Huang Taiji, reorganized the Manchus, including those Mongolians, Koreans and Hans who had joined them, changed the nation's name to '''', and formally changed the name of the nationality to Manchu.
The early significance of ''Manchu'' has not been established satisfactorily. It may have been an old term for the Jianzhou Jurchens. One theory claims that the name came from the Bodhisattva Ma& , 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'', 'a great river'.
When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng's peasant rebels in 1644, the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide. The Manchu then allied with Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the new ruling Qing dynasty. Over the next two decades, the Manchu took command of all of China.
For political purposes, the early Manchurian emperors took wives descended from the Mongol Great Khans, so that their descendants 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 . These efforts were largely unsuccessful in that Manchus gradually adopted the customs and language of the surrounding Han Chinese and, by the , 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 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 .
Manchukuo
In 1931, the Empire of Japan created a puppet state in Manchuria called Manchukuo. The new state was nominally ruled by Emperor Puyi. By this time the population of Manchuria was overwhelmingly Han Chinese, and though Manchukuo was intended to be a state for Manchus, the way its borders were drawn produced a state that had a majority population. Manchukuo was abolished at the end of World War II, with its territory incorporated back into China.
designated for Manchus
See also
* Anti-Manchuism
* Ethnic groups in Chinese history
* Kawashima Yoshiko
* List of Manchu clans
* Manchu language
* Qing Dynasty
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* 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
Famous Manchu
* Cao Xueqin - Famous writer.
* Nalan Xingde - Famous poet.
* Na Ying - Pop Star.
* Zhao Junzhe - Football player.
* - Pianist.
* Pu Yi - Last Emperor of Qing Dynasty and Emperor of Manchukuo.
* Lang Ping - Ex-Volleyball player, now coaching USA Women's Volleyball National Team.
* Lao She - writer.
* - Calligrapher
External links
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