Manchu Manju 滿族/满族 Nurhaci • Hong Taiji • Kangxi Emperor • Yongzheng Emperor Qianlong Emperor • Empress Dowager Cixi • Guangxu Emperor • Puyi Dorgon • Heshen • Yixin • Pujie Lao She • John Fugh • Rosamund Kwan • Lang Lang Total population 10,700,000 0.15% of global human population (estimate) Regions with significant populations Ethnic Minority  China 10,682,263[1] ↳ Hong Kong N/A ↳ Macau N/A  Taiwan 12,000[2] Languages Standard Chinese • Manchu Religion Shamanism • Buddhism • Chinese folk religion • Christianity mainly Atheists or Agnostics nowadays[3] Related ethnic groups Evenks • Nanai • Oroqen • Udege • Sibe and other Tungusic peoples This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

The Manchus (Manchu: Manju; simplified Chinese: 满族; traditional Chinese: 滿族; pinyin: Mǎnzú) are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria (northeastern China).

For centuries, the Manchu ethnicity has acculturated with the majority Han ethnicity of China. Most Manchu today speak Standard Chinese, while the Manchu language is only spoken by elderly people in remote northeastern China and a few scholars; there are around ten thousand speakers of Xibe, a closely related language 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.^[4] The number of Chinese today with some Manchu ancestry is quite large—with 10.68 million members (in China), Manchu is the 3rd largest ethnic group in China after the Han and the Zhuang.^[5] The adoption of favorable policies towards ethnic minorities (such as preferential university admission, government employment opportunities and exemption from the one child policy) has encouraged some people with mixed Han and Manchu ancestry to re-identify themselves as Manchu.

During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels (such as general Wu Sangui), they came to power in China and Manchu clan Aisin Gioro founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which established a republican government in its place.

Culture[link]

A Manchu man hunting, from a Qing era painting.

Aspects of Manchu customs and traditions can be seen in local cuisines, language and customs in Northeast China as well as cities in that region. After having conquered the Ming Dynasty, the Manchus began to adopt many Han customs and traditions to effectively rule China.^{[citation needed]}

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 costumes (including qi pao and ma gua, Mandarin dress) are still popular throughout China. The cheongsam is a modern adaptation of aristocratic Manchu female dress. Men's clothing formerly consisted of a short, tailored "horse-jacket" worn over a long belted gown to facilitate an equine lifestyle.

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 nahan (20px) 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 and ground burial was the general practice.^[6]

The Tale of the Nisan Shaman is an important piece of Manchu folklore.^[7]

It was reported in anthropology studies—such as by Weston La Barre, Jeffrey Henderson, and others—that Manchu mothers used to show affection for their children by performing fellatio on their male babies, placing its penis in their mouths and stimulating it, since it was not considered a sexual act, while the Manchu regarded public kissing with revulsion, which was considered sexual.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} They were also reported to caress their children's sexual organs, tickling those of their daughters.^[13]

Manchu girls were reported to be independent and equal to male siblings, having more rights than Chinese girls.^[14] Manchu women were said to be aggressive and irritable, Mongol and Chinese Bannermen married to them were reported to be scared of them, complaining to the Emperor, who permitted them to protest out loud to their wives rather than hide.^[15][16][17]

During the Qing dynasty, education was discouraged by Manchu women. Many of the princesses could not read the simplest book nor write a letter to a friend, but depended upon educated eunuchs to perform these services for them. The Chinese woman on the contrary could usually read and write with ease, and the education of some of them was equal to that of a Hanlin.^[18] However many of these Manchu women of noble background seldom mingled with educated Chinese women even if their husbands were of equal rank in court.

History[link]

Origins and early history[link]

One of the earliest ancestors of the Manchu can trace back to the ancient Sushen tribes.^[19] They were followed by the Yilou people, who were active from AD 202 to 220. The Wuji followed in the 5th century and the tribes of the Mohe in the 6th century. One of the tribes of the Mohe, the Heishui (Amur River) tribe, eventually became the ancestors of the Jurchens, from whom the Manchu originated.^[20]

The Jurchens under the Wanyan clan established the Jin Dynasty (literally Golden Dynasty) that ruled the northern half of China (1115–1234) and rivaled the Song Dynasty in southern China. The Jin were conquered by the Mongols under Genghis Khan.

Another theory is that the Manchu people stem their roots from the Merkit people, a native Mongolic tribal people from the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century.

Before the 17th century, the ancestors of the Manchus were generally a pastoral people, hunting, fishing and engaging in limited agriculture and pig-farming.

A depiction of three peoples of the Siberia. The Manchu man in the middle is dressed in traditional clothes and soncoho.

One of the old traditions of Manchu is the system of bondservants, booi aha or just booi, translated into Mandarin as nucai. The Jurchen tribes employed booi as early as the 15th century, and it was common practice for Manchu military commanders to have their field and house bondservants serving in booi units during military campaigns. The booi differ from Chinese bond slavery in a few key ways, and are somewhat akin to the European feudal liege-bondsman relation. Firstly, booi status is hereditary, similar to a social caste. However, booi were not viewed as properties (although sales of bondservants did occur). Thirdly, booi is more a matter of rank and heredity rather than profession or social status. Indeed, many booi were richly rewarded by their bondmasters, and amassed great wealth and power. Booi status to the imperial Aisin Gioro clan was very prestigious, and they retained the privillege to call themselves "nucai" (slave) when addressing their Aisin Gioro lords. In 1673 the killing of a 'booi's slaves to accompany their dead master to the grave was outlawed.

Founding of the Qing Dynasty[link]

A depiction of two Jurchen warriors and their horses.

A depiction of a Manchu hunting party.

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

In 1616, Nurhaci broke away from the power of the decaying Ming Dynasty and established the Later Jin Dynasty (後金 Hòu Jīn)/Amaga Aisin Gurun (), domestically called the State of Manchu (manju gurun) (15px), 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 Ming Dynasty numbers in the field. Nurhaci later conquered Mukden (modern-day Shenyang) and built it into the new capital in 1621.

In 1636 Nurhaci's son Hong Taiji, reorganized the Manchus, including those other groups (such as Hans and Mongols) who had joined them, changed the nation's name to Qing Empire, and formally changed the name of the ethnic designation to Manchu, outlawing use of the name Jurchen. According to legend, the name was chosen because Hong Taiji's father, Nurhaci, had believed himself to be a reincarnation of the bodhisattva Manjusri. The actual etymology of the name Manchu is debated. The alleged connection to Manjusri faces alternative theories, one of which links the name to the Tungusic word *mangu(n) "river".^{[citation needed]}

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 Qing dynasty. Over the next two decades, the Manchu took command of all of China and defended against Russian hostilities in Russian–Manchu border conflicts.

For political purposes, the early Manchu 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 Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu government made efforts to preserve Manchu culture and 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.

During the Russian Invasion of Northern and Central Manchuria (1900), the Russian Empire annihilated many bannermen as they fought to the death against the Russians, each falling one at a time against a five pronged Russian invasion. The Russians killed many of the Manchus, thousands of them fled south. The Russian Cossacks looted their villages and property and then burnt them to ashes.^[21][22]

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.^[23] This portrayal dissipated somewhat after the 1911 revolution as the new Republic of China now sought to include Manchus within its national identity.^[24] Until 1924, the government continued to pay stipends to Manchu bannermen; however, many cut their links with their banners and took on Han-style names in shame and to avoid persecution.^[25] The official total of Manchu fell by more than half during this period, as they refused to admit to their ethnicity when asked by government officials or other outsiders.^[26]

Modern history[link]

Manchu ladies in 1900s

In 1931, the Empire of Japan created a puppet state in Northeast China called Manchukuo. The new state was nominally ruled by Emperor Puyi. By this time the population of historical Manchuria was overwhelmingly Han Chinese, so while Manchukuo was intended to be a state for Manchus (though many were murdered by the Japanese), Manchukuo had a majority Han population, largely due to internal immigration from China. Manchukuo was abolished at the end of World War II after the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, with its territory incorporated again into China.

A Manchu young man dressed in traditional clothes

The People's Republic of China recognised the Manchu as one of the country's official minorities in 1952.^[27] In the 1953 census, 2.5 million people identified themselves as Manchu.^[28] The Communist government also attempted to improve the treatment of Manchu people; some Manchu people who had hidden their ancestry during the period of KMT rule thus became more comfortable to reveal their ancestry, such as the writer Lao She, who began to include Manchu characters in his fictional works in the 1950s (in contrast to his earlier works which had none).^[29] Between 1982 and 1990, the official count of Manchu people more than doubled from 4,299,159 to 9,821,180, making them China's fastest-growing ethnic minority.^[30] In fact, however, this growth was not due to natural increase, but instead people formerly registered as Han applying for official recognition as Manchu.^[31]

About a half of the Manchu population lives in Liaoning province and about one-fifth in Hebei province. In both of these provinces there are a number of Manchu autonomous counties.

Autonomous Areas designated for Manchus[link]

Notes[link]

•  This article incorporates text from Court life in China: the capital, its officials and people, by Isaac Taylor Headland, a publication from 1909 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Bay View magazine, Volume 18, by Bay View Reading Club, a publication from 1910 now in the public domain in the United States.

Sources[link]

• Rhoads, Edward J. M. (2000). Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861-1928. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-98040-0. http://books.google.com/?id=QiM2pF5PDR8C. 
• Wang, Can; Wang, Pingxing (May 2005). Ethnic Groups in China. China Intercontinental Press. ISBN 7-5085-0490-9. 

External links[link]

• Manchu Association of Republic of China
• Mukden(Shenyang) Manchu Association
• Jixiang Manchu
• Manchu culture network
• Solonju Manchu language network
• Taipei Manchu

See also[link]

• Qing Dynasty
• Eight Banners
• List of Manchu clans
• Manchu people in Taiwan

The courtyard at Fort Provintia in Tainan is lined with nine stone tortoises each carrying a 3-meter tall royal stele bestowed by the Qianlong Emperor to General Fukang'an for suppressing the Lin Shuang-wen rebellion. Inscriptions are carved in Chinese and Manchu

The Manchu people in Taiwan constitute a small minority of the population of Taiwan. The Manchu people living in Taiwan arrived primarily in two waves of migration. The first wave was during the Qing Dynasty period. During this period, the Manchu-led government annexed Taiwan into the Qing Empire.^[1] The second wave was immediately following the Chinese Civil War, when the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan. Currently, there are about 12,000 Manchu people living in Taiwan.^[2]

Notable people[link]

Manchu writing at the Taiwan Confucian Temple. Inscription on the dismounting stele reads: "Civil and military officials, soldiers and citizens, all dismount from their horses here"

• Puru - artist and cousin of China's last emperor Puyi. He fled to Taiwan in 1949.
• Sihung Lung - actor in the Taiwanese cinema who appeared in over 100 films, best known for playing paternal roles in films including Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet.
• Chyi Chin - Taiwanese singer and songwriter.
• Chyi Yu - Taiwanese singer and songwriter.
• King Pu-tsung - Taiwanese politician currently serving as Secretary-General of the Kuomintang party.
• Doze Niu - Taiwanese film director, best known for the Taiwanese film Monga.
• John Kuan - current^[ref] president of the Examination Yuan of the Republic of China.
• Sheng Shicai - warlord who ruled Xinjiang (Sinkiang) province from April 12, 1933 to August 29, 1944 and fled to Taiwan in 1949.
• Bo Wenyue (鮑文樾) - one of the main participants in the Xi'an Incident and was held under arrest in Taiwan until 1975.

See also[link]

• Mongolians in Taiwan
• Koreans in Taiwan
• Vietnamese people in Taiwan
• Jiu Manzhou Dang, a set of Manchu archives stored at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Chinese) Republic of China Manchu Society
• (Chinese) Manchu Studies at National Chung Cheng University
• (Chinese) Lapen Publishers (Manchu publisher in Taipei)

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Telugus

75px75px 75px 75px75px
Pingali Venkayya  • Potti Sreeramulu • Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan  • Jiddu Krishnamurti • Yellapragada Subbarao • NT Rama Rao  • Neelam Sanjiva Reddy • Visvesvaraya • Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao
Total population
84.6 million (Andra pradesh 2011) [1] world Telugu people = ~110 millions [2]
Regions with significant populations
India 109 million  USA 700,000  Europe < 100,000  Malaysia 500,000  Singapore < 100,000  United Arab Emirates 100,000  Australia < 100,000  Canada 50,000 [3]
Languages
Telugu
Religion
Hinduism · Islam · Christianity · Buddhism · Jainism
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Aryan  · Brahui · Gondi · Kalinga · Kannadiga · Malayali · Tamilian · Tuluva · Dravidian

The Telugu people or Telugu Prajalu (Telugu: తెలుగు ప్రజలు) are a Dravidian ethnic group of India. They are the native speakers of the Telugu language, the third most commonly spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali. They are mostly native to Andhra Pradesh, with significant populations in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Pondicherry, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.^[4] The Telugu constitute one of the largest ethnic groups in the world.

History[link]

Antiquity[link]

After Apastamba's death the Andhra tribes crossed the Vindhya mountains, reached the south, and merged with the other Andhra tribes. The Atreya Brahmana says that the Andhras lived on the south side of Vindhya Range along with the Pundras, Pulindas, Sabaras and Mootibas.^{[citation needed]}

Some of those Andhras who came to the south of the Vindhya mountains settled in the regions north of present-day Hyderabad. Another tribe crossed the Eastern Ghats.^{[citation needed]}

The Sanskrit epics mention the Andhra Kingdom, named for the Aryan tribe of the Andhras.^[5][6] They are mentioned again at the time of the death of the great Mauryan King Ashoka in 232 BC. This date has been considered to be the beginning of the Andhra historical record. Various dynasties have ruled the area, including the Andhra (or Satavahana), Shakas, Ikshvakus, Eastern Chalukyas, the Vijayanagara Kingdom, the Qutb Shahis of Golconda, and the Nizams (princes) of Hyderābād.^[7]

The term Kalinga has been historically relevant to this region, incorporating north-east Andhra Pradesh and modern day Orissa. People from the Kalinga region were responsible for colonizing Sri Lanka, spreading Buddhism and are ancestors to a large portion of the Sinhalese population.^{[citation needed]}

Andhras and Kalingas supported the Kauravas during the Mahabharata war. Sahadeva defeated the kingdoms of Pandya, Dravida, Odra, Chera, Andhra Pradesh, and Kalinga while performing the Rajasuya yajna. Chanoora was killed by Krishna in Mathura. Hari Vamsa Purana corroborates the fact that Chanoora was the king of Karoosa Desa (to the North of the Vindhyas and on the North Bank of the Yamuna river) and was an Andhra. Buddhist references to Andhras are also found.^[8]

The Jataka Tales were written during 200–250 BC. The Tel river is a Tributary of the Mahanadi in Orissa. The tribe in this region were called Kalingas. The books cited above describe the Andhras and Kalingas as two different branches of a single tribe. Sometimes these two words (Andhras and Kalingas) are used as synonyms.^{[citation needed]}

Andhra tribes established relationships with Naga, Yaksha, and Dravida tribes of the Vindhya mountains who were already living there. A tribe called Tailang in Myanmar is proposed to be related to Telugu people.^{[citation needed]}

Satavahanas(శాతవాహనులు)[link]

The first great Andhra empire was that of the Satavahanas,^[9] who came to power when the last Kanva emperor Sisuman, was assassinated by his prime minister Sipraca, of the Andhra tribe. They reigned for 450 years and the last was Puliman or Puloma the pious, who after conquering India put an end to his life by drowning himself in the holy waters of the Ganges river, after the example of his grandfather. Because of this king, India was called Poulomeun-koue, the country of Puliman by the Chinese. While in the west the inhabitants of the Gangetic provinces were denominated Andhra Hindus^{[citation needed]}. The Satavahana rulers are said to have been held in the highest veneration all over India^{[citation needed]}; and their fame was extended to the Malay Archipelago, the Maharajas of India being a favorite subject of Malayan poetry.^[10]

Andhra, Karnataka and Maharastra states observe the same new year day. This calendar reckons dates based on the Shalivahana era (Shalivahana Shaka), which begins its count from the supposed date of the founding of the Empire by the legendary hero Shalivahana. The Satavahana king Shalivahana (also identified as Gautamiputra Satakarni) is credited with the initiation of this era known as Shalivahana. The Salivahana era begins its count of years from the year corresponding to 78 AD of the Gregorian calendar. Thus, the year 2000 AD corresponds to the year 1922 of the Salivahana Era.

Language[link]

Telugu speakers in Jaganath Puram during 2010

Telugu is a South-Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. Early inscriptions date from 620 AD and literary texts from the 11th century, written in a Telugu script adapted from the Bhattiprolu script of the early inscriptions.

Culture[link]

Kakateeya Sculpture at Warangal

Literature[link]

Traditional dress[link]

Uma Muralikrishna, a Kuchipudi dancer performing at IIM Bangalore

• Male

1. Uttareeyam or Pai Pancha (Angavastram or veil)
2. Pancha (Dhoti)
3. Jubba (Kurta) The top portion
4. Lungi (Casual or Worker dress)

• Women

1. Cheera (Sari)

• Girls

1. Langa Oni (Half sari)
2. Pattu pavada

See also[link]

• Satavahana Dynasty
• Kakatiya dynasty
• List of people from Andhra Pradesh
• List of Telugu people
• Andhra cuisine
• Karnataka ethnic groups

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Telugu people