Contributions of the Manchus

In the eastern part of China's Jilin Province , there is a magical and beautiful mountain called Changbai Mountain. Every winter, the mountain is covered with snow. From a distance, Changbai Mountain is covered with silver, especially magnificent, so people call it "White Mountain". In the northern part of Heilongjiang Province, there is a big river flowing south from west to east, which is the famous Heilongjiang River, the river is dark green and almost black, as if a black dragon is rolling, so people call it "black water". Between the white mountains and black water is the endless northeast plain. Here, a hard-working and courageous people with a long history - the Manchus were nurtured.

In China's ancient texts, there was a record of a tribe called "Sushin" or "Xishen", which is the ancestor of the Manchu. Su Shen people lived in the Heilongjiang River, Songhua River area, they hunt for a living, and is known for good bow and arrow. As far back as the Zhou Dynasty, the Suheng tribe had dealings with the Central Plains. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the power of the Sushan tribe had developed to a large area in the Heilongjiang basin. The North and South Dynasties, Sushan also known as "Bedji". Sui to the beginning of the Tang Dynasty called "socks and scorpions", socks and scorpions in the seven socks and scorpions in the Liao, Jin period is also known as the female genitals, and 1115 AD ~ 1234 years to establish a confrontation with the Southern Song dynasty of the Jin dynasty. The Manchus are the ethnic group that evolved gradually from the Jurchen and were formed at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

At the beginning of the 17th century A.D., there was a famous figure called Nurhachu. It took him 30 years to gradually unify the Jurchen ministries. In the process of unification, he put the female real ministries successively organized into eight teams, each team respectively with eight different colors of the flag as a symbol, collectively known as the "eight banners". Nurhachu designated his son and nephew to subdivided eight banners, the implementation of all soldiers. Eight banners is not only military organization, but also production organization and political organization. It is with this strong brigade, Nurhachu used the tactics of individual attack, defeated the siege of more than 100,000 troops of the Ming Dynasty. Later, the Manchu regime established the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Eight Banners of Han. In 1644 AD, the Eight Banners entered the customs and occupied Beijing, sweeping north and south of the Yangtze River, and established the Qing Empire with an unprecedentedly vast territory. This was the most prosperous period in Manchu history.

There are more than 9.821 million Manchus in China. For historical reasons, they are distributed almost all over the country. More than half of the Manchus live in the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang between the white mountains and black waters, and the rest are scattered in Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Beijing. In addition, there are Manchus living in Xi'an, Chengdu, Kunming and other large and medium-sized cities across the country.

The Manchu are a people who pay great attention to etiquette. In the past, the younger generation to the older generation is three big small gift, five days a big gift, every three days to the elders to ask for peace, every five days to see the elders to "play a thousand". This "playing a thousand" etiquette is very peculiar. Men to hit a thousand when the waist, the right hand at the same time under the extension of the left hand to support the knee, like picking up something like; women to hit a thousand with both hands to support the knee squatting. Friends and relatives meet, regardless of gender, all will hold the waist to receive the face of the salute.

In the past, Manchu men stored long hair braids, from the top of the head of the back part of the braid hanging in the back of the head, wearing horseshoe-sleeved robes and coats, both sides of the fork, the waist in the bundle on the belt. Women wear wide cheongsams, do not wrap their feet, prefer to wear embroidered shoes or clogs with high soles, and wear their hair coiled on top of their heads, combed into maids and wearing earrings.

The Manchus love to eat millet, yellow rice and yellow biscuits (bean buns). Every festival to eat "hey Zhange biscuit dumplings", New Year's Eve dinner to eat "hand-picked meat", in addition, the Manchu people also have some food unique flavor, such as white boiled pork, roast pork and pastries "Sakima "and so on. Manchu housing is generally two rooms, the outer room is the kitchen, placed pots and stoves, the inner room has three kangs, the west kang is expensive, the north kang is large, the south kang is small. The west kang is the most expensive, the north kang is the largest, and the south kang is the smaller.

The Manchu people believe in many religions. In the past, whenever they offered sacrifices to their ancestors and to the sky, they would put on a god's hat, put on a skirt, tie on a bell, beat drums and dance while praying. The Manchus have their own language and script. The Manchu script was created at the end of the 16th century by borrowing the Mongolian script, which is called "old Manchu script". Due to the difference between Mongolian and Manchu phonetics, the borrowed Mongolian alphabet could not fully express Manchu phonetics. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Manchus added "circles" or "dots" to the borrowed Mongolian alphabets to differentiate the speech sounds that were not easy to distinguish, which was called "Manchu with circles and dots" or "New Manchu". "New Manchu".

After the Qing army entered the Guam in the 1740s, a large number of Manchus moved into the Guam area and lived with the Han Chinese. Many Han Chinese also migrated outside the Pass to live with the Manchus. In these long years, Manchu and Han people learn from each other, influence each other, complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, over time, *** with more and more things. Now, in addition to some remote villages in Heilongjiang Province, a small number of Manchu elders still speak Manchu, the vast majority of Manchu people are general Chinese Chinese. And Manchu women wear cheongsam, has long become a favorite dress of Han Chinese women, popular in the country.

The Manchu people have a glorious history of safeguarding the unity of the cursed country and resisting foreign invasion. In the opium war, stationed in zhejiang zhapu guanyinshan tianzun temple in the eight banners soldiers, heroic resistance to the British invaders, 276 Manchu soldiers and officers, almost all died in battle on the position. Eight banners soldiers guarding Zhenjiang, facing ten times more enemy troops and foreign guns and foreign artillery, fighting in blood, not giving up an inch of land, showing the heroism of the Chinese children against foreign aggression. In the War of Resistance against Japan and the War of Liberation, there were also many Manchu heroes and martyrs. The famous anti-Japanese hero, the anti-Japanese allied army second division commander Chen Hanzhang, outstanding military commander, the eight road army 12O division political commissar Guan Xiangying, is their excellent representative.

In the fields of culture, art, science and technology, the Manchus have also produced many famous figures. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Aixinjueluo Xuanye, was not only an outstanding military man and politician, but also a scholar. The books he edited, such as The Essence of Mathematics and Physics, The Calendar and the Emperor's Opinion, are of high scientific value. In modern times, the Manchu have attainments in the literati. There were also many artists. The famous writer Lao She, the famous Peking Opera artists Cheng Yanqiu and Guan Sufang, the famous linguist Luo Changpei, etc., are all outstanding figures in the Manchu race.

The Manchus have had a glorious past as well as painful experiences. After the fire of the Qing Dynasty died for a period of time, the vast majority of the Manchu people suffered discrimination, oppression, many people even changed their names, hiding their ethnic identity. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Manchu people enjoyed equal national rights, and they regained their ethnic identity. Now, the Manchu people are working together with people of all ethnic groups in the country, contributing their hard work and wisdom on various fronts, such as industry, agriculture, science and technology, education, art, sports, and so on, and are full of confidence to meet a better future.

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Customs

Manchu people filial piety elders, note to etiquette, in the road to meet the elders, to sideways bowing, hanging hands in salute, and so on the elders walked through and then line; not only the younger generation to see the elders to salute, in the same generation of young people to see older Not only should the younger generation salute their elders, but also the younger generation should salute the older generation. Friends and relatives meet, in addition to shaking hands and greet each other with respect, some also hold the waist to receive face salute. The Spring Festival to worship twice, the night of the New Year's Eve to worship once, for the resignation of the old year, the first day of the year to worship once again, called to welcome the New Year.

Traditional Manchu housing is generally west, center, east three, the door opens to the south, the west room called west on the house, the center called the hall, the east room called east under the house. In the west house, there are kangs in the south, west and north, and the west kang is expensive, the north kang is big, and the south kang is small; guests live in the west kang, elders live in the north kang, and the younger generation lives in the south kang.

Taboos: Indoor west kang is not allowed to sit and pile up sundries; avoid hitting dogs, killing dogs and eating dog meat; don't wear a dog skin hat, don't lay a dog skin mattress, and avoid wearing a dog skin hat or a dog skin sleeve of the guests.

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Marriage

Manchu weddings are characterized by a strong ethnicity, but also the integration of a number of Han Chinese customs and etiquette, generally speaking, to go through the following procedures:

Engagement: Manchu young men and women engaged in two forms. One is the parents of young men and women are acquaintances, mutual understanding, intends to do marriage, they will be entrusted to the matchmaker to the children of the promise of life, there are men to the female side of the marriage proposal, there are women to the male side of the marriage proposal. The other is a man and a woman do not know each other, trust the matchmaker for the children engaged, and by the matchmaker to transfer the two sides of the "gateway sticker", open both sides of the flag Zuo, curriculum vitae, family name, three generations. In addition, they have to check each other's birthdays and birthmarks.

Put fixed: that is, handing over the gift of wealth. Divided into two kinds of put small fixed and put small fixed. Put a small fixed is the future daughter-in-law to meet aunts, brothers and sisters-in-law and other male relatives, get property. Enlarge the fixed is called "over the big gift", commonly known as "under the big dish", is to choose an auspicious day, the male will be the bride price to the female family.

One day before the wedding, the bridegroom should drink "wind wine". The bride left home to the male party to borrow a good apartment to stay, commonly known as "playing the next hair". Early the next morning, the woman's home color car to send the bride, escorted by her brother. If the road meets wells, temples, tombs, then use red felt to cover the colorful car, commonly known as "avoiding the God of Fury". The male party also meets the bride with a colorful car at the same time, the two cars meet in the middle of the road, outside the staggered, the bride is held by the elder brother to meet the bride in the car, known as the "plug car". Color car to the groom's home, the cave door on the ground in front of a fire pit, so that the car carries the bride from the fire pit, commonly known as "over the fire to avoid evil spirits". In order to drive away or kill the ghosts and monsters with the sedan chair, the groom to the door of the sedan chair virtual shot three arrows; there are also real shot, but generally are shot towards the bottom of the sedan chair, so as not to hurt the bride. Then, the bride was helped out of the sedan chair to heaven and earth before, with the groom to the north three kowtow, commonly known as "worship of the Big Dipper". The purpose is to beg God to bless the newlyweds, so that they are full of children and grandchildren, and grow old together.

After these ceremonies, the bride by the whole family (i.e., parents and children all people) into the cave. Bride over the doorway, the doorway on a saddle, the bride must cross over from above. The new room bed must be laid by the whole family, the bridal chamber to be laid in the room after the music, called "loud room". Bride into the bridal chamber, a little girl holding two copper mirrors, on the bride] to shine a little, and then hang the mirror in the bride's chest and back. Then, another little girl handed over two tin pots, which holds rice, money, etc., the bride or hold in the arms, or clamped in the armpits, commonly known as "hold the bottle", also known as "hold the media pot. When the bride on the bed to sit still, the groom with a scale rod to cover the bride's head of the red cloth removed, called "uncovered". The next step is to drink the couple, and eat the happy noodles, longevity noodles, or children and grandchildren biscuits and so on.

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Food

Manchu folk eat three meals a day when they are busy, and two meals a day when they are idle. The staple food is mostly millet and sorghum rice, round-grained rice, dry rice, like in the rice with small beans or beans, such as sorghum rice beans dry rice. Some areas to corn as the main food, like to ferment cornmeal made of "sour soup". Manchu meat and potatoes has a long history, the Qing Dynasty that became the staple food of the court. One of the most representative is the imperial meal "chestnut noodles nest", also known as small nest. Manchu confectionery Saqi Ma also became a nationally renowned pastry. The more famous Qingdongling pastry, also known as Qingdongling large meat and potatoes, Beijing snacks Dun meat and potatoes, Hebei Chengde snacks crispy meat and potatoes, Hubei Jingzhou snack lard meat and potatoes and so on.

Northern winter weather is cold, there is no fresh vegetables, Manchu folk often pickled cabbage in the fall and winter (i.e., sauerkraut) as the main vegetable. It is rumored that the method of storing vegetables in pickles began during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. Sauerkraut boiled white meat, vermicelli is often eaten after the winter Manchu dishes. In addition, the daily vegetables are radish, bean curd and so on.

The Manchu people love to eat pork, often cooked in white. The Manchu restaurant Najiakan in Shenyang, Liaoning province, which has a history of more than 100 years, carries white meat and blood sausage, which is regarded as an authentic Manchu flavor.

Typical food: the Manchu people live in scattered, all over the representative of the typical food, mainly: white meat and blood sausage, hot pot, sour soup, Qingdongling pastries. Also known as the Qingdongling big meat and potatoes. Large meat and potatoes per catty eight pieces, commonly known as the Qingdongling large eight pieces; small meat and potatoes per catty sixteen pieces, commonly known as the Qingdongling small eight pieces. The size of the meat and potatoes varieties are mainly master cake, pine cake, rose cake, dragon and phoenix cake, hawthorn peach. There are also seven star points, eight crackers, walnut cake, to the mouth of the pastry.

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Festivals

Traditional festivals mainly include the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, February 2, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. During the festivals, traditional sports activities such as "pearl ball", horse jumping, camel jumping and ice skating are usually held.

Jinjie: is the Manchu "clan celebration" day. 1635 lunar October 13, Huang taiji issued a decree, officially changed the clan name "female" for "Manchuria", which marks a new ethnic **. This marks the formation of a new national **** the same body. October 1989, in Dandong, "the first symposium on Manchu culture", the December 3 every year as "gold festival".

Walking hundred diseases: Manchu women's festival. Generally on the sixteenth day of the first month. That night, the women in groups of three or five, with the far continent, or walking sand and ice, or playful and playful, called the "walk a hundred diseases".

February 2: commonly known as "dragon head-raising day". On the morning of that day, the Manchu family to the stove ash scattered in the yard, ash path curved like a dragon, so called "lead the dragon". Then held a ceremony in the courtyard, praying for good weather. The whole family also eat "dragon beard noodles" and "dragon scale cake". Women are not allowed to do needlework on this day.

Ching Ming Festival: the graves of ancestors, unlike the Han Chinese paper money on the top of the grave after the pressure of money, but in the grave inserted "Buddha Duo". "Fodor's" is a Manchu word, translated into Chinese as "willow" or "willow branches". According to Manchu beliefs, the willow is the ancestor of people, people are the descendants of the willow, in order to show that there are successors, to insert the willow on the grave.

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Cheongsam

Cheongsam is one of the modern popular clothing, in the international dress window, enjoy a high reputation. reputation.

The cheongsam is the evolution of the old Manchu costume.

The cheongsam is a Manchu word for "clothes". In ancient times, it referred to the clothes and robes worn by men and women of the eight banners of the Manchurian, Mongolian and Han Chinese armies.

Cheongsam style in the early Qing Dynasty has several major features: collarless, arrow sleeves, left overlapping, four slits, waist. Arrow sleeves, is a narrow cuffs, plus a semi-circular sleeve head, shaped like a horseshoe, also known as "horseshoe sleeves". Horseshoe sleeve weekdays ò up, hunting and combat is down, covering the back of the hand, winter can be cold. Four slits, that is, before and after the hem of the robe, slits to the knee. Left-over-oblique and girdle, tight to keep warm, belt a bunch, line pigs, can be dry food, utensils into the front flap. Men's robes are mostly blue, gray and green, and women's flag dresses are mostly white.

Manchu cheongsam also has a characteristic, is in the cheongsam coat on the shoulders. Shoulders have a lapel, twisted lapel, pipa lapel, a lapel, and so on. Put on the shoulder riding horseback looks very lean and sharp.

The Manchus moved south to Liaoshen, into the Central Plains, and the Han Chinese with the field **** coupling, by the Han "big collar and big sleeves" dress influence, by the arrow sleeve into a trumpet sleeve, four slits evolved into the left and right slits.

To the 1930s, Manchu men and women wore straight straight type of wide-breasted big-sleeved robe. The hemline of the female cheongsam was up to the (left bone and right trunk) (calf), with embroidered floral motifs. Male cheongsam hem and ankle, no decoration. 40s, by the domestic and foreign impact of the new wave of new clothing, Manchu male cheongsam has been abandoned, female cheongsam from wide-sleeved to narrow-sleeved, straight to tight waist, hips a little bigger, the hemline recycling, ankle-length. Gradually formed today's various colors and decorations and the human body lines of the cheongsam style. Because the cheongsam is very suitable for Chinese women's body shape and virtuous personality, national temperament, and then this traditional clothing from the Manchu gradually became a treasure trove of Chinese culture, a harsh flower, favored and appreciated by women at home and abroad.

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Flavored biscuits

Biscuits are the main food of the Manchu people usually and festivals. Biscuits are made of sticky rice. There are bean noodles and meat and potatoes, Su Ye meat and potatoes and sticky cake and meat and potatoes. Soybean flour biscuits are made of large yellow rice, small yellow rice ground into fine noodles, and then added into the bean flour steamed. This kind of meat and potatoes color golden, sticky, flavorful and delicious. Su leaf meat and potatoes is mixed with sticky sorghum flour and small beans of the bean mud, outside with the Su leaf wrapped up steamed, there is a special aroma of Su leaf, distinctive flavor. Sticky cake meat and potatoes is soaked in yellow rice after grinding into noodles, in the middle of the yellow rice noodles wrapped in some bean paste steamed into. This kind of meat and potatoes with oil fried to eat, or dipped in sugar to eat all, both fragrant and sweet.

Manchu's meat and potatoes are very hungry, easy to carry, unique flavor, to today is still quite popular food.

Sour soup is also a traditional Manchu biscuit food. It is made of fermented cornmeal. The first water to soak the corn, ground into water, and then use a cloth bag over the dregs, the water in the bucket fermentation, to have a sour taste, with a funnel or machine squeezed into a noodle shape, boiled can be eaten. Sometimes too much fermentation, slightly sour odor, so also known as "stinky rice". In Liaoning, it is called "(left fire right fork)". Northeastern cities and towns, but also (left fire right fork) sub-house, specializing in "stinky rice".

Sakima is a nationally recognized Manchu pastry. Its predecessor, is a traditional Manchu confectionery - rubbing the bar meat and potatoes. The production of rubbing the strip of meat and potatoes first steamed rice on the cake stone with a wooden hammer repeatedly beaten into dough, then dipped in soybean flour rubbed into strips, deep-fried and then cut into blocks, then wine on a thick layer of cooked soybean flour into. Rub the strip of meat and potatoes is an important offering of the Manchu in the past, so also known as the "cake Mudan strip". Later, instead of cooked soybean flour with sugar, became "sugar wrap", renamed Saqi Ma, people also called it sugar cake. This kind of meat and potatoes color, aroma, taste, shape with good, by the people's favorite.

Manchu biscuit varieties, each with its own characteristics. The golden small head, crispy fried deep-fried noodle cake, fluffy cake, delicate big pot cake, in addition, there are gold cake, sun cake, cold cake, wine cake, spring cake, etc., countless, each leading the trend, are the traditional flavor of the Manchu people.

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The custom of "falling grass"

If you give birth to a boy, you will hang a wooden bow and arrow by the front door of your home, commonly known as the "son of the arrow". This is not a real bow and arrow, but with a branch simmering into a bow, with a red cloth wrapped around three arrows, wishing the child to grow up and become famous after becoming a fine riding with a man shooting. If a girl is born, a strip of red cloth is hung on the right side of the gate to symbolize good luck. The hanging of the red cloth gradually evolved into a symbol of the maternity ward. No one was allowed to break into the maternity ward because a stranger would take away the milk, which was called "milk collection". If a stranger inadvertently breaks into the room, a bowl of soup must be made and sent to the mother, which is called "returning milk". When a child is born, a person with great ability, good character and good looks should be invited to be the first one to go to the maternity ward, which is called "stepping on the birth". It is said that whoever stepped on the birth, the child will grow up to be like him.

The third day after the birth of the child, please a son and daughter of a prestigious old lady to give the child a bath. The bath was carried out in a large copper basin, built-in acacia branches, wormwood, hot water and so on. The old woman holds the child in one hand and bathes it with the other. As she washes, she sings, "Wash your head and be a prince; wash your waist and be taller than your generation; wash your face and be a governor; wash your buttocks and be a governor". Finally, the old lady with a large onion even hit the baby three times, said while playing: "a hit smart, two hit clever, three hit clear". After the beating, the child's father threw the onion onto the room, and friends and relatives joined in congratulating him.

After the child is one month old, will be hanging on the door of the "Gongzi arrow" and red cloth strips retrieved bolted to the children and grandchildren on the rope, placed in the middle of the west wall on the north side of the children and grandchildren in the bag, next to the enshrinement of the "Fotomamma", is to protect the baby of the God, the Manchu family in the spring and fall, to be worshipped in order to bless. Fotomama to seek blessings. At the time of sacrifice, the children and grandchildren rope from the god to pull the willow branches in the yard, the family of unmarried men and women and holding children's women kneeling in front of the case, the crowd kowtowed. Shaman with willow branches dipped in water sprinkled to the child's head, and let the child in front of the incense dish smoked, intended to drive away evil spirits, and then remove the colorful threads on the child rope, set on the child's neck. After three days to take back the colorful thread stored in the children and grandchildren bag. Because the colorful thread is called "lock line", so this custom is called "lock change".

Babies sleep in a car after the first month of life, which is a traditional method of Manchu child-rearing. Yau car made of thin wooden boards, 2 meters long, 1.5 meters wide, rounded at both ends, with a bottom, style like a boat. With four ropes tied to the beams, a certain distance from the ground, the child will be placed in the car. The baby cried milk, not crying is shaken, very lightweight, the mother can also do some housework. Manchu people gave birth to the first boy, the car from the grandmother's family gift.

In order to avoid the child flipped from the yo car fall down, but also consider the child grew up after archery arm straight, horseback riding leg position correctly, it will be the child's elbow, leg knee, neck with a band tied up, the child can not move can only lie down on their backs. Therefore, the Manchu teenager body more healthy, rarely hunchback bending. Manchu to flat head for beauty, so more millet or sorghum loaded pillows, pillows under the child's head, commonly known as "sleep flat head".