The Manchus are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Qing (1636–1912) dynasties of China were established and ruled by the Manchus, who are descended from the Jurchen people who earlier established the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in northern China.
Jurchen is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking people, descended from the Donghu 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.
The Changbai Mountains are a major mountain range in Northeast Asia that extends from the Northeast Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, across the border between China and North Korea, to the North Korean provinces of Ryanggang and Chagang. They are also referred to as the Šanggiyan Mountains in Manchu. Most peaks exceed 2,000 meters in height．
Khitan or Kitan, also known as Liao, is a now-extinct language once spoken in Northeast Asia by the Khitan people. It was the official language of the Liao Empire (907–1125) and the Qara Khitai (1124–1218).
The Khitan large script was one of two writing systems used for the now-extinct Khitan language. It was used during the 10th–12th centuries by the Khitan people, who had created the Liao Empire in north-eastern China. In addition to the large script, the Khitans simultaneously also used a functionally independent writing system known as the Khitan small script. Both Khitan scripts continued to be in use to some extent by the Jurchens for several decades after the fall of the Liao dynasty, until the Jurchens fully switched to a script of their own. Examples of the scripts appeared most often on epitaphs and monuments, although other fragments sometimes surface.
Tolo was an ancestor to the Qing dynasty. He was the eldest son of Cungšan, Nurhaci's grand uncle. His family name is Aisin Gioro (愛新覺羅); his name was translated as Tole (脫羅) and Tolv (土老).
The Yelü clan, alternatively rendered as Yila or Yarud, was a prominent family of ethnic Khitan origin in the history of China. The clan assumed leadership of the Khitan tribal confederation in 907 when Abaoji was made khagan. In 916, Abaoji founded the Liao dynasty. After the fall of the Liao dynasty in 1125, members of the Yelü family continued to play significant roles in history, most notably for ruling the Western Liao and during the Mongols era of conquest in the 13th century. Yelü Chucai, the last recorded person to be able to speak and read the Khitan language, is notable for advising Genghis Khan in the Confucian tradition.
The Jurchen script was the writing system used to write the Jurchen language, the language of the Jurchen people who created the Jin Empire in northeastern China in the 12th–13th centuries. It was derived from the Khitan script, which in turn was derived from Chinese. The script has only been decoded to a small extent.
Tatsuo Nishida was a professor at Kyoto University. His work encompasses research on a variety of Tibeto-Burman languages, he made great contributions in particular to the deciphering of the Tangut language.
The Khitan small script was one of two writing systems used for the now-extinct Khitan language. It was used during the 10th–12th century by the Khitan people, who had created the Liao Empire in present-day northeastern China. In addition to the small script, the Khitans simultaneously also used a functionally independent writing system known as the Khitan large script. Both Khitan scripts continued to be in use to some extent by the Jurchens for several decades after the fall of the Liao dynasty, until the Jurchens fully switched to a script of their own. Examples of the scripts appeared most often on epitaphs and monuments, although other fragments sometimes surface.
Irgen Gioro is a Manchu clan and family name, which was officially categorized as a "notable clan", and member of the eight great houses of the Manchu nobility in Qing dynasty. Sibe and Nanai people also has Irgen Gioro as their family name.
Jin Qicong or Aisin-Gioro Qicong was a Chinese historian and linguist of Manchu ethnicity who is known for his studies of the Manchu and Jurchen languages. His works include the first modern dictionary of Jurchen (1984), various books about the Manchu people, and editions of the poetry of his great-great-grandfather Aisin-Gioro Yihui (1799–1838) and his wife Gu Taiqing.
Jin Guangping or Aisin-Gioro Hengxu (1899–1966) was a Chinese linguist of Manchu ethnicity who is known for his studies of the Jurchen and Khitan languages and scripts.
The Yongning Temple Stele is a stele erected by the Chinese Ming dynasty in 1413 with a trilingual inscription to commemorate the founding of the Yongning Temple (永寧寺) in the Nurgan outpost, near the mouth of the Amur River, by the eunuch Yishiha. The location of the temple is the village of Tyr near Nikolayevsk-on-Amur in Russia. This stele is renowned both as the latest known example of a monumental inscription in the Jurchen script, and also for the inscription of the Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum in four different scripts on its sides. A stele with a monolingual Chinese inscription, commemorating the repair of the temple by Yishiha, was erected in 1433. Both monuments are now held at the Arsenyev Museum in Vladivostok.
Manchu names are the names of the Manchu people in their own language. In addition to such names, most modern Manchus live in China and possess Chinese names.
Shintarō Arakawa is a Japanese linguist who specializes in the study of the extinct Tangut language.
Pierre Marsone is a French sinologist. He is Directeur d'études (Professor) at the Department of Historical Sciences and Philology of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) in Paris, France. His principal fields of research are the political and religious history of China, including the Khitan Liao dynasty, the Jurchen Jin dynasty and Mongolian Yuan dynasty; the Quanzhen School of Taoism, Japanese Zen Buddhism, and the semantic analysis of Chinese.
The Huáyí yìyǔ refers to a series of vocabularies produced by Ming and Qing dynasty Chinese administration for the study of foreign languages. They are a precious source of phonological information, both for the study of Chinese pronunciation and for the study of the languages in question.
