The God-given Heritage of Ancient Manchu Shaman

Manchu is a minority in China, sometimes called "Red Fringed Manchu", which refers to the decoration on the traditional shaman hat of Manchu.

Shamanism is the main religion of Tungusic people in Northeast Asia, which existed in the Jin Dynasty (11-1234).

Nuzhen, a descendant of Manchu people, held ceremonies and ceremonies in shaman shrines or altars (called "Tang" in China).

The word Downs originated from the portable box of gods. The Jurchen hunter shaman put the figurines of their gods in the shrine, and then began to settle in the village where Downs became a permanent and central sacred device.

From 1644 to 1900, the shaman shrine where the Qing emperor worshipped heaven was destroyed in the boxer uprising.

In A.D. 1590, Qing (1559- 1626), the leader of Jianzhou Jurchen, took Shamanism as the center of national ceremonies, including offering sacrifices to "China Paradise" before military action.

By the18th century, Shamanism had been firmly rooted in the core of Manchu spiritual life. Mongolians and Han people are forbidden to participate in these shamanism ceremonies because of their mysterious characteristics. These mysterious ceremonies aroused the curiosity of Beijing residents and tourists from the capital of Qing Dynasty.

Traditional Manchu shamans usually carry a drum, a knife and two sticks with bells at the top.

They also wear aprons, bells hanging from their belts and feather hats, which shows that they have the ability to fly to the spiritual world.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Manchu shaman still retained these traditional characteristics, which was recorded in the book The Way of Manchu: Eight Banners and National Identity in the Late Qing Dynasty written by scholar Mark Eliot 200 1. He said, "Every family ... has its sacred protector.

Shamans (usually women) are responsible for appeasing souls and dead ancestors and contacting them to seek good hunting or harvest, quick healing, successful fighting and other such benefits.

1904 The Buryat shaman was photographed wearing many ceremonial costumes similar to Manchu shamans, especially aprons, hats, two sticks and ceremonial drums.

(Public sphere), in Evelyn Rovsky's The Last Emperor: Social History of the Royal System in Qing Dynasty 1998, we learned that there are two kinds of rituals of Nuzhen Shamanism, which correspond to these two shamanism respectively.

The most common is the "family ceremony", which is generally based on offering sacrifices to clan ancestors and heaven.

These ceremonies are usually presided over by hereditary shamans, and the "primitive ceremonies" can only be presided over by people who have experienced the so-called "shaman disease", which means that they are selected as shamans by the gods.

These shamans who built altars in their own homes received different training from gene shamans.

When these shamans are in a trance, they believe that they are occupied by animal spirits that help them heal and exorcise demons.

1990 In the book Alone: Manchu and the World in the Three Generations in the Late Qing Dynasty, scholar Kai crossley wrote that "community and spirit are spiritual pillars" (Manchu:? Omo), "spiritual pillar" is the connection point between community and spirit. These examples were drawn by Russian explorers in Amur region in 1950s or 1960s.

(Public sphere), in addition to the daily shamanism ceremony in Tang Sai, there are also women's ceremonies in Kunning Palace.

This building used to be the residence of the imperial concubines of the Ming Dynasty, located near the north gate of the central axis of the Forbidden City.

After the renovation of the windows and internal structure of the palace in the Qing Dynasty, a "spiritual pillar" was installed to worship heaven.

Later, these sacred female residences were called "quiet palaces on the ground". Among the three halls in the inner courtyard of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the northernmost one is Jing.

The other two halls are "Tianqing Palace" and "Union Hall" (by Sa4.

In the 1940s, Emperor Qianlong began to worry that the traditional shaman customs might disappear.

So in 174 1, he entrusted a shaman code to explain the significance of using artifacts and Manchu ritual spells.

The code was completed in 1747.

Then in 1773, the French Jesuit missionary Joseph-Marie-Amiot published the first study of Manchu shaman code in Europe.

1777, Emperor Qianlong ordered it to be translated into Chinese and printed in 1778.

Evelyn Rovsky, a scholar, believes that the compilation of shaman code is helpful to systematize and reshape a very changeable and diverse belief system. He said that in the royal tradition, the sacrifice of "China Day" was carried out in the sacrifice of Shamanism, and only emperors carried out such sacrifices. When ordinary Manchu people worship a less sacred "Shaman Paradise", both China and Manchu Paradise were formed.

Shamanism is the glue to maintain Manchu identity, while Yong Zhengdi (R.

1722- 1735) was famously reprimanded for "offering sacrifices to heaven through foreign religions instead of shamanism", which he thought was the only "correct" way for Manchu people to offer sacrifices to heaven. Yong Zhengdi (R

1722- 1735) is depicted here as a Taoist master. In a decree dated 1727 and 17, Yong Zhengdi "opposed the Jesuits' attempt to convert China and Manchu to Catholicism and singled out Manchu converts for criticism.

According to the emperor, the Chinese name of "Heavenly King" and "Jesuit God" is actually a shamanism paradise once worshipped by both China and Manchu. With the imperial power's conquest of China (Qing Dynasty), Manchu people gradually adopted Chinese and merged into China religion. Although Manchu folk religion has distinctive features in the wider religion of China, the above picture shows the painting "Manchu Youth" by Hubert Voss.

Manchu shaman is an important cultural symbol.