Jurchen people
Jurchen (Manchu: ᠵᡠᡧᡝᠨ Jušen, IPA: [dʒuʃən]; Chinese: 女真, Nǚzhēn [nỳ.ʈʂə́n]) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking people. They lived in northeastern China, also known as Manchuria, before the 18th century. The Jurchens were renamed Manchus in 1635 by Hong Taiji. Different Jurchen groups lived as hunter-gatherers, pastoralist semi-nomads, or sedentary agriculturists. Generally lacking a central authority, and having little communication with each other, many Jurchen groups fell under the influence of neighbouring dynasties, their chiefs paying tribute and holding nominal posts as effectively hereditary commanders of border guards.
| Jurchen people | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 女真 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 女真/女眞 | ||||||||
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| South Korean name | |||||||||
| Hangul | 여진 | ||||||||
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| North Korean name | |||||||||
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 녀진 | ||||||||
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| Russian name | |||||||||
| Russian | Чжурчжэни | ||||||||
| Romanization | Chzhurchzheni | ||||||||
| Khitan name | |||||||||
| Khitan | dʒuuldʒi (女直) | ||||||||
| Mongolian name | |||||||||
| Mongolian | Зүрчид, Зөрчид, Жүрчид Zürchid, Zörchid, Jürchid | ||||||||
| Middle Chinese name | |||||||||
| Middle Chinese | /ɳɨʌX t͡ɕiɪn/ | ||||||||
Han officials of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) classified them into three groups, reflecting relative proximity to the Ming:
- Jianzhou (Chinese: 建州) Jurchens, some of whom were mixed with Chinese populations, lived in the proximity of the Mudan river, the Changbai mountains, and Liaodong. They were noted as able to sew clothes similar to the Chinese, and lived by hunting and fishing, sedentary agriculture, and trading in pearls and ginseng.
- Haixi (Chinese: 海西) Jurchens, named after the Haixi or Songhua river, included several populous and independent tribes, largely divided between semi-nomadic pastoralists in the west and sedentary agriculturalists in the east. They were the Jurchens most strongly influenced by the Mongols.
- Yeren (Chinese: 野人, lit. 'Wild People,' or, 'savage,' 'barbarian'), a term sometimes used by Chinese and Korean commentators to refer to all Jurchens. It more specifically referred to the inhabitants of the sparsely populated north of Manchuria beyond the Liao and Songhua river valleys, supporting themselves by hunting, fishing, pig farming, and some migratory agriculture.
Many "Yeren Jurchens", like the Nivkh (speaking a language isolate), Negidai, Nanai, Oroqen and many Evenks, are today considered distinct ethnic groups.
The Jurchens are chiefly known for producing the Jin (1115–1234) and Qing (1644–1912) conquest dynasties on the Chinese territory. The latter dynasty, originally calling itself the Later Jin, was founded by a Jianzhou commander, Nurhaci (r. 1616–26), who unified most Jurchen tribes, incorporated their entire population into hereditary military regiments known as the Eight Banners, and patronized the creation of an alphabet for their language based on the Mongolian script. The term Manchu, already in official use by the Later Jin at that time, was in 1635 decreed to be the sole acceptable name for that people.