The formation of Manchu language is an evolving process, including three stages of development:
1. The formation of Manchuria
As a modern nation, Manchu's original name originated from a new nation-"Manchuria" formed by the Jurchen people in Jianzhou at the end of Ming Dynasty during the construction of Qing Dynasty. In history, after the Jin Dynasty established by Jurchen destroyed the country for the Mongolian people in the grassland, the Jurchen who stayed in the northeast became the Jurchen of the Yuan Dynasty. Jurchen in Ming dynasty distributed in the vast area east of Liaodong area in Ming dynasty, reaching the sea directly. It is mainly divided into three parts: savage, Haixi and Jianzhou, among which Jianzhou Jurchen has become the core or main part to promote the formation of a new ethnic group "Manchuria" in the future.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Nuzhen Department of Jianzhou, with Nurhachi as the core, continued to expand its territory, forming the custom of "from the northeast coast to the northwest coast, taking dogs and deer as countries, producing black foxes, minks, Elut tribes, and even countries that are difficult to reach Heyuan and far away from you" (Records of Emperor Taizong of Qing Dynasty). While expanding its territory, Jianzhou Jurchen Department paid attention to attracting other Jurchen ministries to the political power, and a new ethnic group was brewing. Huang taiji made clear the imperial edict when he attached various ministries of Mannuzhen in Heilongjiang River Basin. "People here, like our country's pronunciation, can think that we can use them. In the strategy, it is appropriate to say that my predecessor was originally from China, and his record is very clear ("Records of Emperor Taizong of Qing Dynasty"). The absorption of the surrounding Jurchen ministries has strengthened the strength of the main Jurchen with Jianzhou as the core and greatly increased the size of the Jurchen ethnic group. Carrying out the Eight Banners organizational system, a management mode of military and political integration, in the * * * body of the new ethnic group has enabled the Nuzhen tribe to form a powerful military force while maintaining the stability of the main body of the new ethnic group. The management mode of the Eight Banners' military and political integration is the inheritance of the Meng 'an Mok system adopted by its predecessor, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, and it is also an important embodiment of the internal cultural inheritance of the same nation. To join the Eight Banners is to join a new ethnic group. Notes on the Outside of Heilongjiang recorded the method of obtaining the ownership of the new nation. "The first step is to move them from their original place of residence to Ningguta and live for a few years; The second step is to move to Shengjing and live there for one or two years. The third step is to finally settle in Beijing and obtain the qualification of New Manchuria. " In addition to the Nuzhen ministries in Northeast China, Mongolia, Han nationality, Korean nationality and other ethnic groups have also been absorbed into new ethnic groups. The Meng family in Ningguta is a typical example. Its genealogy records that "at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Fushun-Hanmeng family in Shenyang entered Ningguta to guide the local people to cultivate, then joined the army to resist Russia and set up an army to enter the Han flag", which is a typical case of the Han nationality entering the flag. In this way, in the case of taking the Jurchen ethnic group as the main body and absorbing a large number of new ethnic groups, the new ethnic group * * * is ready to appear: "People who don't know the original names of Manchuria, Hada, Wula, Yehe and Huifa in China are often called Shen Zhu. The name applied by the husband is the descendant of Siebel Zhao Morgan and has nothing to do with China. The name "Manchuria" was established in China for a long time and passed down from generation to generation. From now on, everybody wait. China Manchuria will no longer be called the original name, nor will it be called the previous nickname. " (Records of Emperor Taizong of Qing Dynasty)
2. Internalization of cultural characteristics
Manchu, which was formed after the establishment of Qing Dynasty, is actually a new nation with the former Nuzhen Jianzhou Department as the core and other ethnic groups in Northeast China as a whole. Far from being a single ethnic group with the same blood relationship, cultural memory, language and customs in the modern sense, its multicultural characteristics are gradually internalized into the same characteristics of the newly formed Manchu ethnic group. This feature is mainly manifested in two aspects:
The first is the internalization of new multicultural characteristics. After all, New Manchuria is a new ethnic group promoted by Nuzhen in the process of moving from the northeast corner to the whole country. It has absorbed a large number of ethnic groups such as Han, Mongolian, Hui and Korea, and brought in multicultural factors. In nearly 300 years of mutual development, it has endowed the newly established Manchuria with distinctive multicultural characteristics. After Manchuria entered Korea, the direct influence of China culture became more intense. Although Manchu was in a dominant position, they accepted Chinese culture actively or passively, considering the prosperity of Chinese civilization in the Central Plains and the sound system, as well as meeting the needs of governing the vast Han areas. While the systems of poetry, calligraphy, etiquette and rules in Han Dynasty were used by the Qing court, the customs and habits of Han nationality also deeply influenced a large number of Manchu groups who entered the Han Dynasty, and the characteristics of multiculturalism prompted Manchu people to adapt to the Central Plains culture quickly. Mongolians on the grassland have a long history of influence on Jurchen. In the process of the rise of Jurchen and the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC), Mongols became the main military and political allies of Jurchen. Manchu nobles and the upper class also intermarried with Mongolian nobles. This close relationship made the nomadic grassland culture have a far-reaching impact on the Qing Dynasty and the new Manchu. Therefore, Manchu culture is between the Central Plains culture and nomadic culture, which shapes the core of modern culture in China and is the product of the blending of farming culture and nomadic culture.
The second is the inheritance of the fishing and hunting culture of the old Nuzhen in Northeast China. In the more than 200 years after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the new Manchu nationality, which is dominated by the Nuzhen nationality in the northeast, still retains the cultural characteristics of the fishing and hunting nationality in the northeast, which is manifested in the inheritance and development of the customs and habits of the fishing and hunting nationality and is the regional cultural characteristics of "semi-grazing and semi-farming" in the northeast. For example, Riding and Shooting in Mandarin is a model of the traditional culture of Nuzhen in the former Northeast, which was inherited by the new Manchu, and the Manchu royal family is an example in this regard. In order to maintain the martial spirit and the national characteristics of hunting, riding and shooting, Mulan's annual quest for immortality is a typical example respected by the Qing royal family. Advocating "shaman culture" is another distinctive feature of the isomorphism of the new Manchu living in the Han Dynasty. Shaman worship is the concentrated expression of nature worship of all ethnic groups in northern and northeastern China. After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the activities of offering sacrifices to natural gods such as heaven, earth, mountains and rivers were still carried out at four o'clock, and some even continued to this day.
3. The formation of modern Manchu
In the late Qing Dynasty, the crisis of Manchu royal family and upper-class rule deepened day by day. In order to safeguard their own rule and interests, the ruling class of the Qing court unilaterally studied western science and technology, blocked political reform and suppressed revolution, in order to safeguard the old privileges and backward system, which gradually plunged the country and the whole Chinese nation into turmoil. In order to safeguard the interests of the nobles and the royal family in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government successively concocted measures such as the royal cabinet against the trend of the times, which caused the internal alienation of Germany in the Qing Dynasty and radical revolutions broke out one after another. They all took Paiman as the slogan, and Manchu, a national homophonic in the early Qing Dynasty, became the object of this political propaganda, but in fact it was aimed at cracking down on the royal family of the Qing Dynasty and saving the nation. In the continuous anti-Qing and anti-Han struggle, the Qing royal family and the groups who agreed with Manchu culture gradually formed a strong sense of self-help. At the same time, under the influence of western national concepts, the concept of Manchu, the same group, has evolved into the so-called Manchu nation in modern times. Therefore, Manchu, the Chinese nation and China have entered a historical transition period, which is the result of Manchu's general recognition of the history of the Chinese nation and China, the history of the Qing Dynasty and the history of the Chinese nation and China, and the idea of "learning from China and using the West".
The cultural situation of Manchu in this period is as follows: Eight Banners, a national governance model with Manchu characteristics, collapsed with the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. After the Qing Dynasty lived in Shanhaiguan for a long time, Manchu * * * basically used Chinese and Chinese, and few people were familiar with Manchu and Manchu, as well as customs and habits. However, the demise of the Qing Dynasty and the integration of Manchu and Chinese cultures did not make Manchu cultural characteristics disappear. The collective memory of Manchu nationality is still the basis of Manchu existence, which is also the reason why Manchu was listed as one of the five major ethnic groups with Han, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan in the policy of promoting harmony among the five ethnic groups when the Republic of China was founded.
From the above three stages, we can see that the formation of Manchu is not a racial and ethnic system formed by the continuation of a single blood relationship, but its formation mode presents two main lines: "multiple integration" and "one integration and multiple". In the process of its formation, it has experienced a gradual evolution and development process, showing a distinct stage.
Manchu language and its development today
After the founding of New China, Manchu was fully recognized and finally recognized as an independent nation, becoming an important member of 56 ethnic groups in China. On the identification and identification of Manchu, China * * * production party and government insisted on regional integration, national identity, * * with ethnic areas and * * with ethnic customs as the criteria, and finally confirmed Manchu. The main confirmation paths include: first, those descendants of the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolian Han Army who claim to be Manchu; Second, the "Alba people" in Beijing and the "Lu people" in Guizhou; Third, people who have lived in Manchu inhabited areas in Liaoning Province and Chengde District of Hebei Province for more than three generations; Fourth, the descendants of the Jin Dynasty Jurchen who lived in some areas of Anhui. According to the sixth national census in 20 10, the population of Manchu is about141kloc-0/0000, accounting for 0.77% of the national population, and distributed in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. Among them, Liaoning Province has the largest Manchu population, with 5.33 million people, accounting for 5 1.26% of the Manchu population, and is the main inhabited area of Manchu population. In addition, Manchu is the largest minority in Hebei, Heilongjiang and Beijing.
Due to the scattered distribution of Manchu, there are no Manchu autonomous regions, but 1 1 Manchu autonomous counties have been established in the main Manchu inhabited areas, including four Manchu autonomous counties in Qinglong, Fengning, Weichang and Kuancheng in Hebei Province, six Manchu autonomous counties in Xiuyan, Qingyuan, Xinbin, Kuandian, Benxi and Huanren in Liaoning Province, and six Manchu autonomous counties in Jilin Province.