1.
Amur River
–
The Amur River or Heilong Jiang is the worlds tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China. The largest fish species in the Amur is the kaluga, attaining a length as great as 5.6 metres, historically, it was common to refer to a river simply as water. The word for water is similar in a number of Asiatic languages, mul in Korean, muren in Mongolian, the name Amur may have evolved from a root word for water, coupled with a size modifier for Big Water. The Chinese name for the river, Heilong Jiang, means Black Dragon River in Chinese, and its Mongolian name, Khar mörön, means Black River. The river rises in the hills in the part of Northeast China at the confluence of its two major affluents, the Shilka River and the Ergune River, at an elevation of 303 metres. It flows east forming the border between China and Russia, and slowly makes an arc to the southeast for about 400 kilometres, receiving many tributaries. At Huma, it is joined by a tributary, the Huma River. Afterwards it continues to south until between the cities of Blagoveschensk and Heihe, it widens significantly as it is joined by the Zeya River. At the confluence with the Songhua the river turns northeast, now flowing towards Khabarovsk, now the river spreads out dramatically into a braided character, flowing north-northeast through a wide valley in eastern Russia, passing Amursk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The valley narrows after about 200 kilometres and the river flows north onto plains at the confluence with the Amgun River. Shortly after, the Amur turns sharply east and into an estuary at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, in many historical references these two geopolitical entities are known as Outer Manchuria and Inner Manchuria, respectively. The Chinese province of Heilongjiang on the bank of the river is named after it. The name Black River was used by the Manchu and the Ta-tsing Empire who regarded this river as sacred, the Amur River is an important symbol of, and geopolitical factor in, Chinese–Russian relations. The Amur was especially important in the following the Sino–Soviet political split in the 1960s. For many centuries the Amur Valley was populated by the Tungusic and Mongol people, for many of them, fishing in the Amur and its tributaries was the main source of their livelihood. Until the 17th century, these people were not known to the Europeans, and little known to the Han Chinese, the term Yupi Dazi was used for the Nanais and related groups as well, owing to their traditional clothes made of fish skins. This Ming Dynasty Aigun was located on the bank to the later Aigun that was relocated during the Qing Dynasty. In any event, the Ming presence on the Amur was as short-lived as it was tenuous, soon after the end of the Yongle era, Russian Cossack expeditions led by Vassili Poyarkov and Yerofey Khabarov explored the Amur and its tributaries in 1643–44 and 1649–51, respectively
Amur River
–
Amur near Verkhnaya Ekon,
Khabarovsk Krai, Russia
Amur River
–
Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur used to be the
longest in
Imperial Russia and
Eurasia.
Amur River
–
Goldi village along the Amur River, north of Khabarovsk, 1895
Amur River
–
Goldi men with dog sled on Amur River 1895
2.
Province of China
–
Provinces, formally provincial-level administrative divisions or first-level administrative divisions, are the highest-level Chinese administrative divisions. There are 34 such divisions, classified as 23 provinces, four municipalities, five autonomous regions, the Peoples Republic of China claims sovereignty over the territory administered by the Republic of China, claiming most of it as its Taiwan Province. The ROC also administers some offshore islands which form Fujian Province and these were part of an originally unified Fujian province, which since the stalemate of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 has been divided between the PRC and ROC. Note that every province has a Communist Party of China provincial committee, the committee secretary is in effective charge of the province, rather than the nominal governor of the provincial government. The government of each province is nominally led by a provincial committee. The committee secretary is first-in-charge of the province, second-in-command is the governor of the provincial government, the Peoples Republic of China claims the island of Taiwan and its surrounding islets, including Penghu, as Taiwan Province. The territory is controlled by the Republic of China, a municipality or direct-controlled municipality is a higher level of city which is directly under the Chinese government, with status equal to that of the provinces. In practice, their status is higher than that of common provinces. The governor of each region is usually appointed from the respective minority ethnic group. A special administrative region is an autonomous and self-governing subnational subject of the Peoples Republic of China that is directly under the Central Peoples Government. Each SAR has an executive as head of the region. The regions government is not fully independent, as policy and military defence are the responsibility of the central government. Notes,1, as of 20102, per km23, km24, Abbreviation in the parentheses is informal 5, Since founding in 1949, however, the PRC has never controlled Taiwan. Taiwan currently administers Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, the subject of whether or not Taiwan is part of China is often debated, with no clear conclusion. The Ming Dynasty kept the system set up by the Yuan Dynasty, however. By the time of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty in 1644 there were 18 provinces, in addition, there was a zongdu, a general military inspector or governor general, for every two to three provinces. Outer regions of China were not divided into provinces, military leaders or generals oversaw Manchuria, Xinjiang, and Mongolia, while vice-dutong and civilian leaders headed the leagues, a subdivision of Mongolia. The ambans supervised the administration of Tibet, in 1884 Xinjiang became a province, in 1907 Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang were made provinces as well
Province of China
–
Map comparing administrative divisions as drawn by the PRC and ROC.
Province of China
–
Provincial division 省份 Shěngfèn
3.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
4.
Qiqihar
–
Qiqihar is one of the 13 Larger Municipalities in China, and the second largest city in the Heilongjiang province, China. The built-up area made up of Longsha, Tiefeng and Jianhua districts had 979,517 inhabitants and these are mainly Han Chinese, though the city is also home to thirty-four minorities including Manchu, Daur, and Mongolians. Close to Qiqihar are numerous wetlands and the Zhalong Nature Reserve, the Khitan people settled in the region under the Liao dynasty. The word Qiqi is a reference to a river, the word hari refers to defense. Qiqihar is one of the oldest cities in the northeast of China, the region was originally settled by nomadic Daur and Tungus herdsmen. Qiqihar is a Daur word, which border or natural pasture. The citys original name was Bukui, the Chinese transcription of a Daur word meaning auspicious, the citys oldest mosque, the Bukui Mosque, actually predates the foundation of the city itself by seven years. As the Czarist Russian eastward advance to the Pacific coast, Qiqihar became a major center in 1674. In 1691, a stronghold was constructed in Qiqihar because of the Qing governments campaigns against the Mongols, around 1700 it was a center for Russo-Chinese trade. A military depot with barracks and an arsenal was set up there, Heilongjiang Martial domiciled in Qiqihar City in 1699. It enlisted Han people to teach the local Solon people farming techniques, providing materials. In 1903, The completion of the Chinese Eastern Railway made Qiqihar a center for communications between China and Russia, a network of lines radiating from Qiqihar was extended into the northwestern part of Heilongjiang Province including Jiagedaqi and Manzhouli in the late 1920s. General Ma Zhanshan was ordered to act as Governor and Military Commander-in-chief of Heilongjiang Province on October 10,1931, General Ma declined a Japanese ultimatum to surrender Qiqihar on November 15. However, after the loss of Jiangqiao Campaign, the Japanese began their occupation of Qiqihar on November 19,1931, Qiqihar became a major military base for Guandong Army and its economic importance also grew rapidly. During the occupation, the Imperial Japanese Army established Unit 516 in Qiqihar for research into chemical warfare, a major mustard gas tank left over from the Second Sino-Japanese War buried underground was accidentally damaged in August 2003, causing 43 injuries and one death. After the defeat of Japan, the Democratic Regime Qiqihar Municipal Government was established, Japanese forces in Northeast China surrendered to the Soviet Union while Japanese forces in the rest of China surrendered to the United States. Qiqihar was controlled by the Communists on April 24,1946, along with important regional cities like Changchun, Jilin City. Qiqihar was established as the capital of Heilongjiang Province after the foundation of Peoples Republic of China in 1949, however, since Songjiang Province was merged into Heilongjiang Province, the provincial capital was transferred to Harbin in 1954
Qiqihar
–
Gate of castle wall, Tsitsihar
Qiqihar
–
Qiqihar (red) in Heilongjiang (orange)
Qiqihar
–
General Ma Zhanshan
Qiqihar
–
The old station building, now used for first class
5.
Harbin
–
Harbin is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang province in the northeastern region of the Peoples Republic of China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Harbin has direct jurisdiction over nine metropolitan districts, Harbin is the eighth most populous Chinese city and the most populous city in Northeast China. According to the 2010 census, the area made of seven out of nine urban districts had 5,282,093 inhabitants. Harbin serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural, Harbin, which was originally a Manchu word meaning a place for drying fishing nets, grew from a small rural settlement on the Songhua River to become one of the largest cities in Northeast China. Founded in 1898 with the coming of the Chinese Eastern Railway, having the most bitterly cold winters among major Chinese cities, Harbin is heralded as the Ice City for its well-known winter tourism and recreations. Harbin is notable for its ice sculpture festival in the winter. Besides being well known for its historical Russian legacy, the city serves as an important gateway in Sino-Russian trade today, in the 1920s, the city was considered Chinas fashion capital since new designs from Paris and Moscow reached here first before arriving in Shanghai. The city has been voted China Top Tourist City by China National Tourism Administration in 2004, on 22 June 2010, Harbin was appointed a City of Music by the UN. Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC during the late Stone Age, Wanyan Aguda, the founder and first emperor of the Jin dynasty, was born in the Jurchen Wanyan tribes who resided near the Ashi River in this region. In AD1115 Aguda established Jins capital Shangjing Huining Prefecture in todays Acheng District of Harbin, after Agudas death, the new emperor Wanyan Sheng ordered the construction of a new city on a uniform plan. The planning and construction emulated major Chinese cities, in particular Bianjing, Huining Prefecture served as the first superior capital of the Jin empire until Wanyan Liang moved the capital to Yanjing in 1153. Liang even went so far as to destroy all palaces in his capital in 1157. Wanyan Liangs successor Wanyan Yong restored the city and established it as a capital in 1173. Ruins of the Shangjing Huining Prefecture were discovered and excavated about 2 km from present-day Achengs central urban area, the site of the old Jin capital ruins is a national historic reserve, and includes the Jin Dynasty History Museum. The museum, open to the public, was renovated in late 2005, mounted statues of Aguda and of his chief commander Wanyan Zonghan stand in the grounds of the museum. Many of the artifacts there are on display in nearby Harbin. After the Mongol conquest of the Jin Empire, Huining Prefecture was abandoned, in the 17th century, the Manchus used building materials from Huining Prefecture to construct their new stronghold in Alchuka. The region of Harbin remained largely rural until the 1800s, with ten villages
Harbin
–
Clockwise from top: Hongbo Plaza,
Saint Sofia Cathedral, Songpu Bridge,
Harbin Ice and Snow World, Central Avenue, Flood control monument
Harbin
–
Monument of Wanyan Aguda in Acheng District
Harbin
–
St. Nicolas Orthodox, a
Russian Orthodox church in Harbin, circa 1940, demolished during the
Cultural Revolution
Harbin
–
Harbin's Kitayskaya Street (
Russian for "Chinese Street"), now Zhongyang Street (
Chinese for "Central Street"), before 1945
6.
Party chief of the Communist Party of China
–
In most cases, it is the de facto highest political office of its area of jurisdiction. The term can also be used for the position of Communist Party organizations in state-owned enterprises, universities, hospitals. In post-Cultural Revolution Chinese political theory, the Communist Party is responsible for the formulation of policies, at every level of jurisdiction, a government leader serves alongside the party secretary. For example, in the case of a province, the provincial Party Secretary is the de facto highest office, the Governor is usually the second-highest-ranking official in the partys Provincial Committee, and holds the concurrent title of Deputy Party Committee Secretary. A similar comparison can be made for municipal Party Secretaries and Mayors, there have been rare instances where both Party Secretary and Governor positions were held by the same person, though this is not the common practice since the end of the Cultural Revolution. The Party Secretary is usually assisted by numerous Deputy Party Secretaries, until the 1980s, the leading position of a local party organization was called the First Secretary, its deputy the Second Secretary. The local party organizations each had its own Secretariat with numerous secretaries, at the provincial level, the party chief is known as CPC Provincial Committee Secretary, while the corresponding government position is known as Governor. At the prefecture or municipal level, the party chief is known as CPC Municipal Committee Secretary, at the county level, the party chief is known as CPC County Committee Secretary, while the corresponding government position is known as the County Governor. At the township level, the party chief is known as CPC Township/town Committee Secretary, at the village level, the local party chief, known as the Village Party Branch Secretary heads a committee of around ten people to make executive decisions related to the village. The process is not entirely formal, and therefore the party chief at this level is not considered part of the Chinese civil service. In writing and the media, the CPC designation before the title is not used often because it is assumed that Provincial Committee Secretary refers to the Communist Party secretary. Generally, a top government official will also hold the first deputy party chief position, a Deputy Party Secretary assists in the work of the Party Secretary. In provincial and most prefecture-level jurisdictions, there are two deputy party chiefs, the higher-ranked deputy party chief is generally also concurrently the head of the government of the party committees area of jurisdiction. The other deputy party chief is known as the zhuanzhi fushuji, literally, generally, the zhuanzhi deputy party chief is also the head of the party school of any given jurisdiction. A Party Branch or Party Group exists in almost all institutions of state which are not formally part of the Communist Party organization and these include government organs, Peoples Congresses, ministries, provincial and municipal departments and so on. These organizations are created by mandate of a Party Committee, serve to ensure that the policy guidelines of the party is followed at each respective institution. The Party Branch Secretary or Party Group Secretary is an office from that of the Party Committee Secretary. They do not have the organization and bureaucracy that is commonplace with a Party Committee
Party chief of the Communist Party of China
–
China
7.
Han Chinese
–
The Han Chinese, Han people or simply Han are an ethnic group native to East Asia. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of China, 95% of Taiwan, 76% of Singapore, 23% of Malaysia, Han Chinese are the worlds largest ethnic group with over 1.3 billion people. Similarly, the Chinese language also came to be named the Han language ever since, in the Oxford Dictionary, the Han are defined as The dominant ethnic group in China. In the Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, the Han are called the dominant population in China, as well as in Taiwan, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the Han are the Chinese peoples especially as distinguished from non-Chinese elements in the population. The name Hanzhong, in turn, was derived from the Han River, which flows through the regions plains. The river, in turn, derives its name from such as Tianhan, Yinhan, Xinghan or Yunhan, all ancient Chinese poetic nicknames for the Milky Way. This gave rise to a commonly used nowadays by overseas Chinese for ethnic identity – Huaren. The term is used in conversation and is also an element in the Cantonese word for Chinatown. The vast majority of Han Chinese – over 1.2 billion of them – live in areas under the jurisdiction of the Peoples Republic of China, where they constitute about 92% of its population. Han Chinese also constitute the majority in both of the administrative regions of the PRC—about 95% and 96% of the population of Hong Kong and Macau. There are over 22 million Han Chinese in Taiwan, they began migrating from the coastal provinces of mainland China to Taiwan during the 13th to 17th century. At first, these migrants chose to settle in locations that bore a resemblance to the areas they had left behind in mainland China, hoklo immigrants from Quanzhou settled in coastal regions, and those from Zhangzhou tended to gather on inland plains, while the Hakka inhabited hilly areas. Clashes between these groups over land, water, and cultural differences led to the relocation of some communities, of about 40 million overseas Chinese worldwide, nearly 30 million live in Southeast Asia. They are collectively called Nanyang Chinese, according to a population genetic study, Singapore is the country with the biggest proportion of Hans in Southeast Asia. Up until the past few decades, overseas Han communities originated predominantly from areas in southern China, christmas Island has a Chinese majority at 70%, large Chinese populations also live in Malaysia and Thailand. Prior to the 1965 split, Malaysia and Singapore used to have the largest overseas Chinese population in the world and this position has since been taken by Thailand. The prehistory of the Han ethnic group is closely intertwined with both records and mythology. Han Chinese trace their ancestry from a confederation of late neolithic/early bronze-age agricultural tribes that lived along the Guanzhong, the Yellow Emperor is traditionally credited to have united with the neighbouring Shennong tribes after defeating their leader, Flame Emperor, at the Battle of Banquan
Han Chinese
–
1983 Map of ethnolinguistic groups in
mainland China and
Taiwan (Han is in olive green)
Han Chinese
–
A female servant and male advisor dressed in
silk robes, ceramic figurines from the Western Han era
Han Chinese
–
Han Chinese man wears a
queue in compliance with Manchu custom during the Qing dynasty
Han Chinese
–
Zhang Zeduan 's painting
Along the River During the Qingming Festival captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's
Kaifeng.
8.
Manchu
–
The Manchu are an ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. They are sometimes called red-tasseled Manchus, a reference to the ornamentation on traditional Manchu hats, the Later Jin, and Qing dynasty are established by Manchus, who are descended from the Jurchen people who earlier established the Jin dynasty in China. Manchus form the largest branch of the Tungusic peoples and are distributed throughout China and they can be found in 31 Chinese provincial regions. They also form the largest minority group in China without an autonomous region, among them, Liaoning has the largest population and Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Beijing have over 100,000 Manchu residents. About half of the live in Liaoning and one-fifth in Hebei. The Sushen used flint-headed wooden arrows, farmed, hunted and fished, the cognates Sushen or Jichen again appear in the Shan Hai Jing and Book of Wei during the dynastic era referring to the Tungusic Mohe tribes of the far northeast. The Mohe practiced pig farming extensively and were sedentary. They were predominantly farmers and grew soybeans, wheat, millet and rice, in the 10th century CE, the term Jurchen first appeared in documents of the late Tang dynasty in reference to the state of Balhae in present-day northeastern China. Following the fall of Balhae, the Jurchens became vassals of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty, in the year 1114, Wanyan Aguda united the Jurchen tribes and established the Jin dynasty. His brother and successor, Wanyan Wuqimai defeated the Liao dynasty, after the fall of the Liao dynasty, the Jurchens went to war with the Northern Song dynasty, and captured most of northern China in the Jin–Song wars. During the Jin dynasty, the first Jurchen script came into use in the 1120s and it was mainly derived from the Khitan script. The Jurchens were sedentary, settled farmers with advanced agriculture and they farmed grain and millet as their cereal crops, grew flax, and raised oxen, pigs, sheep and horses. Their farming way of life was different from the pastoral nomadism of the Mongols. In 1206, the Mongols, vassals to the Jurchens, rose in Mongolia and their leader, Genghis Khan, led Mongol troops against the Jurchens, who were finally defeated by Ögedei Khan in 1234. From that time, the Jurchens of North China increasingly merged with the Han Chinese while those living in their homeland started to be Mongolized and they adopted Mongolian customs, names and the Mongolian language. As time went on, fewer and fewer Jurchens could recognize their own script, the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty was replaced by the Ming dynasty in 1368. In 1387, Ming forces defeated the Mongol commander Naghachus resisting forces who settled in the Haixi area, at the time, some Jurchen clans were vassals to the Joseon dynasty of Korea such as Odoli and Huligai. Their elites served in the Korean royal bodyguard, the Joseon Koreans tried to deal with the military threat posed by the Jurchen by using both forceful means and incentives, and by launching military attacks
Manchu
–
Nurhaci
Manchu
–
Kangxi Emperor
Manchu
–
Qianlong Emperor
Manchu
–
Puyi
9.
Koreans
–
Koreans are an ethnic group native to the whole Korean Peninsula and southeastern Manchuria. Over the course of the 20th century, significant Korean communities have emerged in Australia, Canada, United States and, to a lesser extent, as of 2013, there were an estimated 7.4 million ethnic Korean expatriates around the planet. South Koreans refer to themselves as Hanguk-in, or Hanguk-saram, both of which mean Korean nation people, when referring to members of the Korean diaspora, Koreans often use the term Han-in. North Koreans refer to themselves as Joseon-in or Joseon-saram, both of which literally mean Joseon people, using similar words, Koreans in China refer to themselves as Chaoxianzu in Chinese or Joseonjok in Korean, which are cognates that literally mean Joseon ethnic group. Ethnic Koreans living in Russia and Central Asia refer to themselves as Koryo-saram, alluding to Goryeo, Koreans are the descendants of the peoples that migrated for over 13. 000-7.000 years from Southeast Asia and todays Russian Far East into the Korean Peninsula and southern Manchuria. Later Chinese and other, often said to be Siberian or paleo-Asian tribes migrated into parts of Korea, archaeological evidence suggests that most of the later arriving tribes were migrants from south-central Siberia. During the Four Commanderies of Han some Chinese clans migrated to northern Korea, susumu Ōno, Ki-Moon Lee and Choong-Soon Kim suspect that proto-Dravidian people migrated to Korea and parts of Japan. Susumu Ōno suggest also an Austronesian immigration into the Korean peninsula, the largest concentration of dolmens in the world is found on the Korean Peninsula. In fact, with an estimated 35, 000-100,000 dolmen, Korean males also exhibit a moderate frequency of Haplogroup C-M217. About 2% of Korean males belong to Haplogroup D-M174, the D1b-M55 subclade has been found with maximal frequency in a small sample of the Ainu people of Japan, and is generally frequent throughout the Japanese Archipelago. Haplogroup D4 is the modal haplogroup among Koreans and among Northeast Asians in general. Haplogroup B, which very frequently in many populations of Southeast Asia, Polynesia. Haplogroup A has been detected in approximately 7% to 15% of Koreans, Haplogroup A is the most common mtDNA haplogroup among the Chukchi, Eskimo, Na-Dene, and many Amerind ethnic groups of North and Central America. The language of the Korean people is the Korean language, which uses Hangul as its writing system with some Hanja. There are more than 78 million speakers of the Korean language worldwide, estimating the size, growth rate, sex ratio, and age structure of North Koreas population has been extremely difficult. Until release of data in 1989, the 1963 edition of the North Korea Central Yearbook was the last official publication to disclose population figures. After 1963 demographers used varying methods to estimate the population, thus, on the basis of remarks made by President Kim Il-sung in 1977 concerning school attendance, the population that year was calculated at 17.2 million persons. During the 1980s, health statistics, including life expectancy and causes of mortality, were made available to the outside world
Koreans
Koreans
–
North Korean soldiers in the
Joint Security Area
Koreans
–
A
Russian stamp honoring Soviet rock star
Viktor Tsoi.
10.
Mongol
–
The Mongols are an East-Central Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia and Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They also live as minorities in other regions of China, as well as in Russia, Mongolian people belonging to the Buryat and Kalmyk subgroups live predominantly in the Russian federal subjects of Buryatia and Kalmykia. The Mongols are bound together by a heritage and ethnic identity. Their indigenous dialects are known as the Mongolian language. The ancestors of the modern-day Mongols are referred to as Proto-Mongols, broadly defined, the term includes the Mongols proper, Buryats, Oirats, the Kalmyk people and the Southern Mongols. The latter comprises the Abaga Mongols, Abaganar, Aohans, Baarins, Gorlos Mongols, Jalaids, Jaruud, Khishigten, Khuuchid, Muumyangan, the designation Mongol briefly appeared in 8th century records of Tang China to describe a tribe of Shiwei. It resurfaced in the late 11th century during the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty, after the fall of the Liao in 1125, the Khamag Mongols became a leading tribe on the Mongolian Plateau. However, their wars with the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty and the Tatar confederation had weakened them, in the thirteenth century, the word Mongol grew into an umbrella term for a large group of Mongolic-speaking tribes united under the rule of Genghis Khan. In various times Mongolic peoples have been equated with the Scythians, the Magog, based on Chinese historical texts the ancestry of the Mongolic peoples can be traced back to the Donghu, a nomadic confederation occupying eastern Mongolia and Manchuria. The identity of the Xiongnu is still debated today, although some scholars maintain that they were proto-Mongols, they were more likely a multi-ethnic group of Mongolic and Turkic tribes. It has been suggested that the language of the Huns was related to the Hünnü, the Donghu are mentioned by Sima Qian as already existing in Inner Mongolia north of Yan in 699–632 BCE along with the Shanrong. Mentions in the Yi Zhou Shu and the Classic of Mountains, the Xianbei chieftain was appointed joint guardian of the ritual torch along with Xiong Yi. These early Xianbei came from the nearby Zhukaigou culture in the Ordos Desert, where maternal DNA corresponds to the Mongol Daur people, the Zhukaigou Xianbei had trade relations with the Shang. In the late 2nd century, the Han dynasty scholar Fu Qian wrote in his commentary Jixie that Shanrong, againm in Inner Mongolia another closely connected core Mongolic Xianbei region was the Upper Xiajiadian culture where the Donghu confederation was centered. After the Donghu were defeated by Xiongnu king Modu Chanyu, the Xianbei, tadun Khan of the Wuhuan was the ancestor of the proto-Mongolic Kumo Xi. The Wuhuan are of the direct Donghu royal line and the New Book of Tang says that in 209 BCE, the Xianbei, however, were of the lateral Donghu line and had a somewhat separate identity, although they shared the same language with the Wuhuan. In 49 CE the Xianbei ruler Bianhe raided and defeated the Xiongnu, killing 2000, the Xianbei reached their peak under Tanshihuai Khan who expanded the vast, but short lived, Xianbei state. Three prominent groups split from the Xianbei state as recorded by the Chinese histories, the Rouran, the Khitan people, besides these three Xianbei groups, there were others such as the Murong, Duan and Tuoba
Mongol
–
The
Xianbei state under Tanshihuai (141–181)
Mongol
–
Asia in 500, showing the
Rouran Khaganate and its neighbors, including the Northern Wei and the Tuyuhun Khanate, all of them were established by Proto-Mongols
Mongol
–
Mongols using
Chinese gunpowder bombs during the
Mongol Invasions of Japan, 1281
Mongol
–
The Battle of Oroi-Jalatu in 1755 between the Qing and Oirat armies. The fall of the
Dzungar Khanate.
11.
Hui people
–
According to a 2011 census, China is home to approximately 10.5 million Hui people, the majority of whom are Chinese-speaking practitioners of Islam, though some may practice other religions. Hui people are ethnically and linguistically similar to Han Chinese with the exception that most of them practice Islam, engendering distinctive cultural characteristics. For example, as Muslims, they follow Islamic dietary laws and reject the consumption of pork, the most common meat consumed in China, the Hui people are one of 56 ethnic groups recognized by China. The government defines the Hui people to include all historically Muslim communities not included in Chinas other ethnic groups, the Hui predominantly speak Chinese, while maintaining some Persian and Arabic phrases. In fact, the Hui ethnic group is unique among Chinese ethnic minorities in that it associates with non-Sinitic languages. The Hui people are concentrated in Northwestern China, but communities exist across the country, e. g. Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Hainan. After the establishment of the Peoples Republic, the term Hui applied to one of Chinas ten historically Islamic minorities, earlier the term referred to Chinese-speaking groups with Muslim ancestry. Practising Islam was not a criterion, use of the Hui category to describe foreign Muslims moving into China dates back to the Song dynasty. Hui people are of varied ancestry, many directly descending from Silk Road travelers and their ancestors include Central Asians, Arabs and Persians who married Hans. West Eurasian DNA is prevalent—6. 7% of Hui peoples maternal genetics have a West Eurasian origin, in subsequent centuries, they gradually mixed with Mongols and Hans, eventually forming the Hui. Nonetheless, included among Huis in Chinese census statistics are members of a few small non-Chinese speaking communities, a small Muslim minority among Yunnans Bai people are classified as Hui as well, as are some groups of Tibetan Muslims. Huihui was the generic term for Chinas Muslims during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Is thought to have its origin in the earlier Huihe or Huihu, although the ancient Uyghurs were not Muslims the name Huihui came to refer to foreigners, regardless of language or origin, by the time of the Yuan. and Ming Dynasties. By the aid of heaven we have pacified you, you are our slaves, yet you do not eat our food or drink. If you slaughter sheep, you will be considered guilty of a crime and he issued a regulation to that effect. All the Muslims say, if someone else slaughters we do not eat, the Chinese called Muslims, Jews and Christians in ancient times by the same name, Hui Hui. Christians were called Hui who abstain from animals without the foot, Muslims were called Hui who abstain from pork. Hui Hui is presently used almost exclusively for Muslims, but Jews were still called Lan mao Hui Hui which means Blue cap Hui Hui
Hui people
–
Ma Bufang
Hui people
Hui people
–
Ma Qi
Hui people
–
Ma Hongbin
12.
Northeastern Mandarin
–
Northeastern Mandarin is the subgroup of Mandarin varieties spoken in Northeast China with the exception of the Liaodong Peninsula. Northeastern Mandarin varieties are spoken in the Northeastern part of China, in the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, the number of speakers was estimated in 1987 as 82 million. Like other Mandarin dialects, differences between Northeastern Mandarin and other forms arise from the geographical distribution and cultural diversity of northern China. Hā–Fù in the west, including Harbin dialect and Changchun dialect, have nasal initials in these words, hēi–Sōng in the north, including Qiqihar dialect, have zero or nasal initials in random variation. A form of Northeastern Mandarin has been spoken since approximately 1800 by the Taz people nearby in the Russian Far East, overseas, Northeastern Mandarin is being spoken in increasingly larger communities in the Chinatowns of New York City in the United States. For this reason, the Chinese dialectologist Li Rong argued that Beijing Mandarin could be grouped with northeastern dialects, however, in northeastern Chinese, final -ian or -üan is pronounced with an rather than with or as in the standard. The initial of Beijing is generally omitted in northeastern varieties, although not considered a language in academic circles, Mandarin variants like Northeastern Mandarin often contribute to a strong regional identity. Because of its usage of words and tones, comedians often use Northeast dialects when performing. The comedian Zhao Benshan is recognized nationwide for his performances which make use of Northeastern dialect. Works cited Kurpaska, Maria, Chinese Language, A Look Through the Prism of The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-021914-2. 1016/j. langcom.2003.09.002. Liu, Jin, Deviant Writing and Youth Identity, Representation of Dialects with Chinese Characters on the Internet, Chinese Language and Discourse,2, 58–79, doi,10. 1075/cld.2.1. 03liu. VanNess Simmons, Richard, The Dōngbĕi varieties of Mandarin, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication,26, 56–80, wurm, Stephen Adolphe, Li, Rong, Baumann, Theo, Lee, Mei W. Language Atlas of China, Longman, ISBN 978-962-359-085-3. Yan, Margaret Mian, Introduction to Chinese Dialectology, LINCOM Europa, ISBN 978-3-89586-629-6
Northeastern Mandarin
–
Northeastern Mandarin
13.
Jilu Mandarin
–
Jilu or Ji–Lu Mandarin, formerly known as Beifang Mandarin Northern Mandarin, is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the Chinese provinces of Hebei and Shandong. Its name is a combination of the names of the two provinces, which derive from ancient local provinces. The names are combined as Ji–Lu Mandarin, although these areas are near Beijing, Ji–Lu has a different accent and many lexical differences from the Beijing dialect, which is the basis for Standard Chinese, the official national language. There are three groups, Bao–Tang, Shi–Ji, and Cang–Hui. Bao–Tang dialect, incorporating a large part of Tianjin and northern part of Hebei province, moreover, the popularization of Standard Chinese in the two provincial capitals has induced changes in the Shi–Ji dialect causing the former to shift rapidly towards the standard language
Jilu Mandarin
–
Ji–Lu Mandarin
14.
Jiaoliao Mandarin
–
Yantai, Dalian, and Weihai dialects are the standard Jiao–Liao Mandarin. Jiao–Liao Mandarin is also called Lai, for the state of Lai, jiao is short for Jiaodong Peninsula. Jiaodong means the east of Jiao-Lai river, jiao–Lai means Jiaozhou city and Laizhou city. Liao is short for Liaodong Peninsula, Liaodong means the east of Liao river. Liao is also short for Liaoyang city, yantai dialect Dalian dialect Weifang dialect Weihai dialect Dandong dialect Qingdao dialect Rizhao dialect
Jiaoliao Mandarin
–
Jiao–Liao Mandarin
15.
Gross domestic product
–
Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
Gross domestic product
–
Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order
16.
Renminbi
–
The renminbi /ˌrɛnmɪnˈbiː/ is the official currency of the Peoples Republic of China. The yuan is the unit of the renminbi, but is also used to refer to the Chinese currency in general. The distinction between the terms renminbi and yuan is similar to that between sterling and pound, which refer to the British currency and its primary unit. One yuan is subdivided into 10 jiao, and a jiao in turn is subdivided into 10 fen, the ISO code for renminbi is CNY, or also CNH when traded in off-shore markets such as Hong Kong. The currency is often abbreviated RMB, or indicated by the yuan sign ¥, in Chinese texts the currency may also be indicated with the Chinese character for the yuan, 圆. The renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau, renminbi is sometimes accepted in Hong Kong and Macau, and are easily exchanged in the two territories, with banks in Hong Kong allowing people to maintain accounts in RMB. The currency is issued by the Peoples Bank of China, the authority of China. Until 2005, the value of the renminbi was pegged to the US dollar and it has previously been claimed that the renminbis official exchange rate was undervalued by as much as 37. 5% against its purchasing power parity. Since 2006, the exchange rate has been allowed to float in a narrow margin around a fixed base rate determined with reference to a basket of world currencies. The Chinese government has announced that it gradually increase the flexibility of the exchange rate. As a result of the rapid internationalization of the renminbi, it became the worlds 8th most traded currency in 2013, and 5th in 2015. On 1 October 2016, the RMB became the first emerging market currency to be included in the IMFs special drawing rights basket, a variety of currencies circulated in China during the Republic of China era, most of which were denominated in the unit yuán. Each was distinguished by a name, such as the fabi, the gold yuan. During the era of the economy, the value of the renminbi was set to unrealistic values in exchange with western currency. The unrealistic levels at which exchange rates were pegged led to a black market in currency transactions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, China worked to make the RMB more convertible, through the use of swap centres, the exchange rate was brought to realistic levels and the dual track currency system was abolished. As of 2013, the renminbi is convertible on current accounts, the ultimate goal has been to make the RMB fully convertible. From 1949 until the late 1970s, the state fixed Chinas exchange rate at a highly overvalued level as part of the countrys import -substitution strategy
Renminbi
–
Renminbi banknotes of the 2005 series
Renminbi
–
"People's Bank of China Ten Yuan" written in 5 different languages. From top to bottom and left to right:
Mandarin pinyin,
Mongolian,
Tibetan,
Uyghur, and
Zhuang languages.
Renminbi
–
On November 24, 2010,
Vladimir Putin announces that Russia's bilateral trade with China will be settled in
ruble and
yuan, instead of
U.S. dollars.
Renminbi
–
On October 15, 2013, the
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announces that the
pound sterling and the renminbi will be traded directly in
London and
Shanghai.
17.
List of Chinese administrative divisions by GDP
–
The article lists Chinas province-level divisions by gross domestic product. Each provinces GDP is listed in both the national currency renminbi, and at nominal US dollar values according to annual average exchange rates, Historical figures and rankings, including purchasing power parity figures, are also given for main years since 1978. Figures for Hong Kong and Macau, which are administrative regions of the PRC. All the CN¥ figures are from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, annual PPP rates are taken from the International Monetary Funds World Economic Outlook databases. The tables below list Chinas provinces and territories by their estimated GDP in main fiscal years since 1978 and their respective ranks and shares of Chinas total GDP are also shown. GDP figures for Hong Kong and Macau SARs are given in both US dollars and in their local currencies. PPP figures are given in Intl, dollars, to enable easy comparison, the following lists Taiwan Area Historical GDP. This is a list of the administrative divisions of Mainland China in order of their total gross domestic product. Currency figures are given in millions,1 USD nominally converts to 6.23 CNY according to the average 2013 exchange rate, and to 3.7603 by purchasing power parity. The Hong Kong and Macau GDP figures are given in US dollars based on purchasing power parity, currency data is based on IMF WEO figures. For the 2013 figures, nominal GDP comparisons are given between each province and sovereign countries with similar GDPs, equivalent countries are listed for both the current and previous year
List of Chinese administrative divisions by GDP
–
Map of China's province-level divisions by GDP (in billions of currency units), according to 2014
National Bureau of Statistics figures
18.
Human Development Index
–
The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the level is higher. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, while the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that the IHDI is the actual level of human development, and the HDI can be viewed as an index of potential human development. The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports produced by the Human Development Reports Office of the United Nations Development Programme, nobel laureate Amartya Sen, utilized Haqs work in his own work on human capabilities. The following three indices are used,1, Life Expectancy Index = LE −2085 −20 LEI is 1 when Life expectancy at birth is 85 and 0 when Life expectancy at birth is 20. Education Index = MYSI + EYSI22.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index = MYS15 Fifteen is the maximum of this indicator for 2025. 2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index = EYS18 Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a degree in most countries. Income Index = ln − ln ln − ln II is 1 when GNI per capita is $75,000 and 0 when GNI per capita is $100. Finally, the HDI is the mean of the previous three normalized indices, HDI = LEI ⋅ EI ⋅ II3. Standard of living, as indicated by the logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. This methodology was used by the UNDP until their 2011 report, the formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme. The 2016 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on March 21,2017, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2015 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data. Countries in the top quartile of HDI with a missing IHDI, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The 2015 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on December 14,2015, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2014 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. Note, The green arrows, red arrows, and blue dashes represent changes in rank, the rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data
Human Development Index
–
Mahbub ul Haq
Human Development Index
–
Amartya Sen
19.
Simplified Chinese characters
–
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
Simplified Chinese characters
–
Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese characters
–
The slogan 战无不胜的毛泽东思想万岁 (Zhàn wúbù shèng de Máo Zédōng sīxiǎng wànsuì; Long live the invincible
Mao Zedong Thought) on
Xinhua Gate in Beijing.
Simplified Chinese characters
–
The first batch of Simplified Characters introduced in 1935 consisted of 324 characters.
20.
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Job announcement in a Filipino Chinese daily newspaper written in Traditional Chinese characters.
Traditional Chinese characters
–
A Series of Reading workbook in Traditional Chinese used in some Elementary schools in the Philippines.
21.
Black Dragon River
–
The Amur River or Heilong Jiang is the worlds tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China. The largest fish species in the Amur is the kaluga, attaining a length as great as 5.6 metres, historically, it was common to refer to a river simply as water. The word for water is similar in a number of Asiatic languages, mul in Korean, muren in Mongolian, the name Amur may have evolved from a root word for water, coupled with a size modifier for Big Water. The Chinese name for the river, Heilong Jiang, means Black Dragon River in Chinese, and its Mongolian name, Khar mörön, means Black River. The river rises in the hills in the part of Northeast China at the confluence of its two major affluents, the Shilka River and the Ergune River, at an elevation of 303 metres. It flows east forming the border between China and Russia, and slowly makes an arc to the southeast for about 400 kilometres, receiving many tributaries. At Huma, it is joined by a tributary, the Huma River. Afterwards it continues to south until between the cities of Blagoveschensk and Heihe, it widens significantly as it is joined by the Zeya River. At the confluence with the Songhua the river turns northeast, now flowing towards Khabarovsk, now the river spreads out dramatically into a braided character, flowing north-northeast through a wide valley in eastern Russia, passing Amursk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The valley narrows after about 200 kilometres and the river flows north onto plains at the confluence with the Amgun River. Shortly after, the Amur turns sharply east and into an estuary at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, in many historical references these two geopolitical entities are known as Outer Manchuria and Inner Manchuria, respectively. The Chinese province of Heilongjiang on the bank of the river is named after it. The name Black River was used by the Manchu and the Ta-tsing Empire who regarded this river as sacred, the Amur River is an important symbol of, and geopolitical factor in, Chinese–Russian relations. The Amur was especially important in the following the Sino–Soviet political split in the 1960s. For many centuries the Amur Valley was populated by the Tungusic and Mongol people, for many of them, fishing in the Amur and its tributaries was the main source of their livelihood. Until the 17th century, these people were not known to the Europeans, and little known to the Han Chinese, the term Yupi Dazi was used for the Nanais and related groups as well, owing to their traditional clothes made of fish skins. This Ming Dynasty Aigun was located on the bank to the later Aigun that was relocated during the Qing Dynasty. In any event, the Ming presence on the Amur was as short-lived as it was tenuous, soon after the end of the Yongle era, Russian Cossack expeditions led by Vassili Poyarkov and Yerofey Khabarov explored the Amur and its tributaries in 1643–44 and 1649–51, respectively
Black Dragon River
–
Amur near Verkhnaya Ekon,
Khabarovsk Krai, Russia
Black Dragon River
–
Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur used to be the
longest in
Imperial Russia and
Eurasia.
Black Dragon River
–
Goldi village along the Amur River, north of Khabarovsk, 1895
Black Dragon River
–
Goldi men with dog sled on Amur River 1895
22.
Standard Chinese
–
Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
Standard Chinese
–
A poster outside of high school in
Yangzhou urges people to speak Putonghua
Standard Chinese
–
Zhongguo Guanhua (中国官话/中國官話), or Medii Regni Communis Loquela ("Middle Kingdom's Common Speech"), used on the frontispiece of an early Chinese grammar published by
Étienne Fourmont (with
Arcadio Huang) in 1742
23.
Hanyu Pinyin
–
Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
Hanyu Pinyin
–
A school slogan asking elementary students to speak
Putonghua is annotated with pinyin, but without tonal marks.
Hanyu Pinyin
–
In
Yiling,
Yichang,
Hubei, text on road signs appears both in Chinese characters and in Hanyu Pinyin
24.
Bopomofo
–
Zhuyin fuhao, Zhuyin or Bopomofo is a system of phonetic notation for the transcription of spoken Chinese, particularly the Mandarin dialect. The first two are traditional terms, whereas Bopomofo is the term, also used by the ISO. Consisting of 37 characters and four marks, it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin. Zhuyin was introduced in China by the Republican Government in the 1910s and used alongside the Wade-Giles system, the Wade system was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958 by the Government of the Peoples Republic of China, and at the International Organization for Standardization in 1982. The informal name Bopomofo is derived from the first four syllables in the ordering of available syllables in Mandarin Chinese. The four Bopomofo characters that correspond to these syllables are placed first in a list of these characters. The same sequence is used by other speakers of Chinese to refer to other phonetic systems. The original formal name of the system was Guóyīn Zìmǔ and Zhùyīn Zìmǔ and it was later renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào, meaning phonetic symbols. In official documents, Zhuyin is occasionally called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I, in English translations, the system is often also called either Chu-yin or the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols. A romanized phonetic system was released in 1984 as Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu, which was based on Zhang Binglins shorthand. A draft was released on July 11,1913, by the Republic of China National Ministry of Education and it was later renamed first Guoyin Zimu and then, in April 1930, Zhuyin Fuhao. The last renaming addressed fears that the system might independently replace Chinese characters. Zhuyin remains the predominant phonetic system in teaching reading and writing in school in Taiwan. It is also one of the most popular ways to enter Chinese characters into computers and smartphones, in elementary school, particularly in the lower years, Chinese characters in textbooks are often annotated with Zhuyin as ruby characters as an aid to learning. Additionally, one newspaper in Taiwan, the Mandarin Daily News. In teaching Mandarin, Taiwan institutions and some communities use Zhuyin as a learning tool. The Zhuyin characters were created by Zhang Binglin, and taken mainly from regularised forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents. It is to be noted that the first consonants are articulated from the front of the mouth to the back, /b/, /p/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /n/, Zhuyin is written in the same stroke order rule as Chinese characters
Bopomofo
–
An example of a Zhuyin keypad for Taiwan.
Bopomofo
–
Table showing Zhuyin in
Gwoyeu Romatzyh.
25.
Wu Chinese
–
Wu is a group of linguistically similar and historically related varieties of Chinese primarily spoken in the whole city of Shanghai, Zhejiang province, southern Jiangsu province and bordering areas. Major Wu varieties include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Wuxi, Wenzhou/Oujiang, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Wu speakers, such as Chiang Kai-shek, Lu Xun and Cai Yuanpei, occupied positions of great importance in modern Chinese culture and politics. Wu can also be found being used in Shaoxing opera, which is only in national popularity to Peking opera, as well as in the performances of the popular entertainer. Wu is also spoken in a number of diaspora communities, with significant centers of immigration originating from Shanghai, Qingtian. Suzhou has traditionally been the center of Wu and was likely the first place the distinct variety of Sinitic known as Wu developed. Suzhou dialect is considered to be the most linguistically representative of the family. Due to the influence of Shanghainese, Wu as a whole is incorrectly labelled in English as simply, Shanghainese, among speakers of other Sinitic languages, Wu is often subjectively judged to be soft, light, and flowing. There is an idiom in Mandarin that specifically describes these qualities of Wu speech, Ngu nung nioe ngiu, Wu varieties have the largest vowel quality inventories in the world. The Jinhui dialect spoken in Shanghais Fengxian District has 20 vowel qualities, Wu Chinese, along with Min, is also of great significance to historical linguists due to their retention of many ancient features. These two languages have proven pivotal in determining the history of the Chinese languages. More pressing concerns of the present are those of language preservation, however, many analysts believe that a stable state of diglossia will endure for at least several generations if not indefinitely. Saying one speaks Wu is akin to saying one speaks a Romance language and it is not a particularly defined entity like Standard Mandarin or Hochdeutsch. They do this by affixing 話 Wo to their locations endonym, for example, 溫州話 Wēnzhōuhuà is used for Wenzhounese. Affixing 閒話 xiánhuà is also common and more typical of the Taihu division, Wu, the formal name and standard reference in dialectology literature. Northern Wu, Wu typically spoken in the north of Zhejiang and it by default includes the Xuanzhou division in Anhui as well, however this division is often neglected in Northern Wu discussions. Southern Wu, Wu spoken in southern Zhejiang and periphery, comprising the Oujiang, Wuzhou, Western Wu, A term gaining in usage as a synonym for the Xuanzhou division and modeled after the previous two terms since the Xuanzhou division is less representative of Northern Wu. Shanghainese, is also a common name, used because Shanghai is the most well-known city in the Wu-speaking region. The term Shanghainese is never used by linguists to refer to anything
Wu Chinese
–
Wu (Wú Yǔ) written in
Chinese characters
26.
Cantonese
–
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
Cantonese
–
Street in
Chinatown, San Francisco. Cantonese has traditionally been the dominant Chinese variant among Chinese populations in the Western world.
Cantonese
–
Gwóngdūng Wah / gwong 2 dung 1 waa 6 (Cantonese) written in
traditional Chinese (left) and
simplified Chinese (right) characters
Cantonese
–
Chinese dictionary from Tang dynasty. Modern Cantonese pronunciation is more similar to Middle Chinese from this era than other Chinese varieties.
27.
Jyutping
–
Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
Jyutping
–
Jyutping Romanization.
28.
Southern Min
–
Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
Southern Min
–
Koa-a books, Min Nan written in Chinese characters
Southern Min
–
Distribution of Southern Min.
29.
Taiwanese Romanization System
–
The Taiwanese Romanization System is a transcription system for Taiwanese Hokkien. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been promoted by Taiwans Ministry of Education. It is nearly identical to Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet Romanization for Hakka apart from using ts tsh j instead of c ch j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/, Taiwanese Romanization System uses 16 basic Latin letters,7 digraphs and a trigraph. In addition, it uses 6 diacritics to represent tones, nn is only used after a vowel to express nasalization, so it has no capital letter. Palatalization occurs when J, S, Ts, Tsh followed by i, so Ji, Si, Tsi, of the 10 unused basic Latin letters, R is sometimes used to express dialectal vowels, while the others are only used in loanwords. O pronounced ㄜ in general dialect in Kaohsiung and Tainan, ㄛ in Taipei, -nn forms the nasal vowels There is also syllabic m and ng. ing pronounced, ik pronounced. A hyphen links elements of a compound word, a double hyphen indicates that the following syllable has a neutral tone and therefore that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi. 臺灣閩南語羅馬拼音及其發音學習網, Taiwanese Romanization System learning site by Ministry of Education, Taiwan
Taiwanese Romanization System
–
Taiwanese Romanization System
30.
Mongolian language
–
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and largest-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 10 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In Mongolia, the Khalkha dialect, written in Cyrillic, is predominant, while in Inner Mongolia, some classify several other Mongolic languages like Buryat and Oirat as dialects of Mongolian, but this classification is not in line with the current international standard. Mongolian has vowel harmony and a complex structure for a Mongolic language that allows clusters of up to three consonants syllable-finally. It is an agglutinative language that relies on suffix chains in the verbal and nominal domains. While there is a word order, subject–object–predicate, ordering among noun phrases is relatively free. Verbs are marked for voice, aspect, tense, and epistemic modality/evidentiality, in sentence linking, a special role is played by converbs. Modern Mongolian evolved from Middle Mongol, the language spoken in the Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries, in the transition, a major shift in the vowel-harmony paradigm occurred, long vowels developed, the case system changed slightly, and the verbal system was restructured. Mongolian is distantly related to the Khitan language and it belongs to the Northern Asian linguistic area, including the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean and Japonic languages. These languages have been grouped under the still-debated Altaic language family, Mongolian literature is well attested in written form from the 13th century but has earlier Mongolic precursors in the literature of the Khitan and other Xianbei peoples. The use of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia, has witnessed periods of decline, the multilingual situation in Inner Mongolia does not appear to obstruct efforts by ethnic Mongols to preserve their language. The children of inter-ethnic Mongol-Chinese marriages also claim to be and are registered as ethnic Mongols, Mongolian belongs to the Mongolic languages. Such data might account for the development of the Mongolian dialect continuum. The status of certain varieties in the Mongolic group—whether they are distinct from Mongolian or just dialects of it—is disputed. There are at least three varieties, Oirat and Buryat, both of which are spoken in Russia, Mongolia, and China, and Ordos, spoken around Inner Mongolias Ordos City. There is no disagreement that the Khalkha dialect of the Mongolian state is Mongolian, beyond this one point, however, agreement ends. On the other hand, Luvsanvandan proposed a much broader Mongolian language consisting of a Central dialect, an Eastern dialect, a Western dialect, some Western scholars propose that the relatively well researched Ordos variety is an independent language due to its conservative syllable structure and phoneme inventory. On the other hand, the split between the past tense verbal suffixes -sŋ in the Central varieties vs. -dʒɛː in the Eastern varieties is usually seen as a stochastic difference
Mongolian language
–
Mongolian script and
Mongolian Cyrillic on
Sukhbaatar's statue in
Ulan Bator.
Mongolian language
–
Geographic distribution of Mongolic peoples (red)
Mongolian language
–
Nova N 176 found in Kyrgyzstan. The manuscript (dating to the 12th century
Western Liao) is written in the Mongolic
Khitan language using cursive
Khitan large script. It has 127 leaves and 15,000 characters.
Mongolian language
–
Edict of
Yesün Temür Khan, Emperor Taiding of Yuan (1328). Only the
'Phags-pa script retains the complete
Middle Mongol vowel system.
31.
Manchu alphabet
–
It is written vertically from top to bottom, with columns proceeding from left to right. According to the Veritable Records, in 1599 the Manchu leader Nurhaci decided to convert the Mongolian alphabet to make it suitable for the Manchu people, overriding the objections of two advisors named Erdeni and Gagai, he is credited with adapting the Mongolian script to Manchu. The resulting script was known as tongki fuka akū hergen and this revision created the Standard script, known as tongki fuka sindaha hergen. As a result, the Manchu alphabet contains little ambiguity, recently discovered manuscripts from the 1620s make clear, however, that the addition of dots and circles to Manchu script began before their supposed introduction by Dahai. Dahai also added ten graphemes, to allow Manchu to be used to write Chinese, Sanskrit, previously, these words contained sounds that did not have corresponding letters in Manchu. Sounds that were transliterated included the aspirated sounds k, k, x, ts, ts, sy, dz, cy, jy, and ž. By the middle of the century, there were three styles of writing Manchu in use, standard script, semi-cursive script, and cursive script. Semicursive script had less spacing between the letters, and cursive script had rounded tails, the Manchu alphabet was also used to write Chinese. Manchu, a textbook for reading documents, by Gertraude Roth Li, contains a list comparing a romanization of Chinese syllables written in Manchu compared to pinyin, using the Manchu script to transliterate Chinese words is a source of loanwords for the Xibe language. Also existing as a transliteration was the Manchu version of the Hong Loumeng, in the Imperial Liao-Jin-Yuan Three Histories National Language Explanation commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, the Manchu alphabet is used to write Evenki words. In the Pentaglot Dictionary, also commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, despite the alphabetic nature of its script, Manchu was traditionally taught as a syllabary. When learning the language, Manchus were taught at once to say la, lo, etc. instead of saying I, a---la, I, o---lo, etc. As a result, the contained in their syllabary do not contain all possible combinations that can be formed with their letters. Today, the opinion on whether it is alphabet or syllabic in nature is still split between different experts, in China, it is considered syllabic and Manchu is still taught in this manner, while in the West it is treated like an alphabet. The alphabetic approach is used mainly by foreigners who want to learn the language, the Manchu alphabet has two kinds of punctuation, two dots, analogous to a period, and one dot, analogous to a comma. However, with the exception of lists of nouns being reliably punctuated by single dots, punctuation in Manchu is inconsistent, the equivalent of the question mark in Manchu script consists of some special particles, written at the end of the question. The Jurchens of a millennium ago became the ancestors of the Manchus when Nurhaci united the Jianzhou Jurchens, throughout this period, the Jurchen language evolved into what we know as the Manchu language. Its script has no relation to the Manchu alphabet, however, as their script was derived from the Khitan script, transliterations of Manchu Abkai — Unicode Manchu/Sibe/Daur Fonts and Keyboards Manchu alphabet Manchu script generator ManchuFont — an OpenType font for Manchu writing Jurchen Script
Manchu alphabet
–
Manchu script
Manchu alphabet
–
Chinese (left) and Manchu (right) writing in the
Forbidden City
Manchu alphabet
–
()
Manchu alphabet
32.
Priamurye
–
Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia, located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in the Russian Far East. The administrative center of the oblast, the city of Blagoveshchensk, is one of the oldest settlements in the Russian Far East and it is a traditional center of trade and gold mining. The territory is accessed by two railways, the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal–Amur Mainline, as of the 2010 Census, the oblasts population was 830,103. Amur Krai or Priamurye were unofficial names for the Russian territories by the Amur River used in the late Russian Empire that approximately correspond to modern Amur Oblast, the Stanovoy Range forms the dividing line between the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast and spreads across the oblasts entire northern border. The Amur–Zeya and Zeya–Bureya Plains cover about 40% of the oblasts territory, several mountain ranges are to the south of Stanovoy Range and parallel to it, and another mountain chain stretches along the oblasts eastern border with Khabarovsk Krai. Many rivers flow through the oblast, especially in the north, most of the oblast is in the Amurs drainage basin, although the rivers in the northwest drain into the Lena and the rivers in the northeast drain into the Uda. The longest rivers include the Amur, Bureya, Gilyuy, Nyukzha, Olyokma, Selemdzha, the Zeya begins in the mountains in the northeast, and its middle reaches are dammed to create the huge Zeya Reservoir, which sprawls over 2,400 square kilometers. Climate is temperate continental, with cold, dry winters and hot, average January temperatures vary from −24 °C in the south to −33 °C in the north. Average July temperatures are +21 °C in the south and +18 °C in the north, annual precipitation is about 850 millimeters. Dwarf Siberian pine and alpine tundra grow at higher elevations and larch forests with small stands of flat-leaved birch and these larch and fir-spruce forests form the watershed of the Selemdzha River. The Bureya and Arkhara Rivers, southeast of the Selemdza, have the richest remaining forests in the oblast with Korean pine, Schisandra chinensis, Mongolian Oak, the Zeya–Bureya Plain, located between the Zeya, Amur, and Bureya Rivers, has the highest biodiversity in Amur Oblast. Much of this plain has been burned for agriculture, but large patches still remain, japanese Daurian and Far Eastern western cranes nest here, as well as a host of other rare birds. Amur Oblast has considerable reserves of many types of mineral resources, among the most important are gold, silver, titanium, molybdenum, tungsten, copper, and tin. Black coal and lignite reserves are estimated to be seventy billion tons, probable iron deposits are estimated to be 3.8 billion tons. The Garin deposit is fully explored and known to contain 389 million tons of iron ore, estimated reserves of the deposit are 1,293 million tons. The deposits ore contains a low concentration of impurities, the ore contains 69. 9% iron. Amur Oblast is also a source of titanium, with the Bolshoy Seyim deposit being the most important. According to the Bei Shi and the Sui Shu, both Chinese records, this area belonged originally to the one of the five semi-nomadic Shiwei
Priamurye
–
Flag
33.
Amur Oblast
–
Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia, located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in the Russian Far East. The administrative center of the oblast, the city of Blagoveshchensk, is one of the oldest settlements in the Russian Far East and it is a traditional center of trade and gold mining. The territory is accessed by two railways, the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal–Amur Mainline, as of the 2010 Census, the oblasts population was 830,103. Amur Krai or Priamurye were unofficial names for the Russian territories by the Amur River used in the late Russian Empire that approximately correspond to modern Amur Oblast, the Stanovoy Range forms the dividing line between the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast and spreads across the oblasts entire northern border. The Amur–Zeya and Zeya–Bureya Plains cover about 40% of the oblasts territory, several mountain ranges are to the south of Stanovoy Range and parallel to it, and another mountain chain stretches along the oblasts eastern border with Khabarovsk Krai. Many rivers flow through the oblast, especially in the north, most of the oblast is in the Amurs drainage basin, although the rivers in the northwest drain into the Lena and the rivers in the northeast drain into the Uda. The longest rivers include the Amur, Bureya, Gilyuy, Nyukzha, Olyokma, Selemdzha, the Zeya begins in the mountains in the northeast, and its middle reaches are dammed to create the huge Zeya Reservoir, which sprawls over 2,400 square kilometers. Climate is temperate continental, with cold, dry winters and hot, average January temperatures vary from −24 °C in the south to −33 °C in the north. Average July temperatures are +21 °C in the south and +18 °C in the north, annual precipitation is about 850 millimeters. Dwarf Siberian pine and alpine tundra grow at higher elevations and larch forests with small stands of flat-leaved birch and these larch and fir-spruce forests form the watershed of the Selemdzha River. The Bureya and Arkhara Rivers, southeast of the Selemdza, have the richest remaining forests in the oblast with Korean pine, Schisandra chinensis, Mongolian Oak, the Zeya–Bureya Plain, located between the Zeya, Amur, and Bureya Rivers, has the highest biodiversity in Amur Oblast. Much of this plain has been burned for agriculture, but large patches still remain, japanese Daurian and Far Eastern western cranes nest here, as well as a host of other rare birds. Amur Oblast has considerable reserves of many types of mineral resources, among the most important are gold, silver, titanium, molybdenum, tungsten, copper, and tin. Black coal and lignite reserves are estimated to be seventy billion tons, probable iron deposits are estimated to be 3.8 billion tons. The Garin deposit is fully explored and known to contain 389 million tons of iron ore, estimated reserves of the deposit are 1,293 million tons. The deposits ore contains a low concentration of impurities, the ore contains 69. 9% iron. Amur Oblast is also a source of titanium, with the Bolshoy Seyim deposit being the most important. According to the Bei Shi and the Sui Shu, both Chinese records, this area belonged originally to the one of the five semi-nomadic Shiwei
Amur Oblast
34.
Khabarovsk Krai
–
Khabarovsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia, located in the Russian Far East. It lies mostly in the basin of the lower Amur River, but also occupies a vast mountainous area along the coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk, the administrative center of the krai is the city of Khabarovsk. The indigenous people of the area are various Tungusic peoples and Amur Nivkhs, in terms of area, it is the fourth-largest federal subject within Russia. Taiga and tundra in the north, swampy forest in the central depression, Khabarovsk Krai has a severely continental climate with its northern areas being subarctic with stronger maritime summer moderation in the north. This is because of the influence of the East Asian monsoon in summer, in 1643, Vassili Poyarkovs boats descended the Amur, returning to Yakutsk by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Aldan River, and in 1649–1650 Yerofey Khabarov occupied the banks of the Amur. The resistance of the Chinese, however, obliged the Cossacks to quit their forts, although the Russians were thus deprived of the right to navigate the Amur River, the territorial claim over the lower courses of the river was not settled in the Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689. The area between Uda River and Greater Khingan mountain range was left undemarcated and the Sino-Russian border was allowed to fluctuate, later in the nineteenth century, Nikolay Muravyov would conduct an aggressive policy with China by claiming that the lower reaches of the Amur River belonged to Russia. In 1852, a Russian military expedition under Muravyov explored the Amur, the Sino-Russian border was later further delineated in the Treaty of Peking of 1860 when the Ussuri Territory, which was previously a joint possession, became Russian. Modern Khabarovsk Krai was established on October 20,1938, when the Far Eastern Krai was split into the Khabarovsk, since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament. The Charter of Khabarovsk Krai is the law of the krai. The Legislative Duma of Khabarovsk Krai is the regional standing legislative body, the Legislative Duma exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The Krai Administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official, Khabarovsk Krai is the most industrialized territory of the Far East of Russia, producing 30% of the total industrial products in the Far Eastern Economic Region. The machine construction industry consists primarily of a highly developed military-industrial complex of large-scale aircraft-, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association is currently one of among the krais most successful enterprises, and for years has been the largest taxpayer of the territory. In the Amur basin, there is some cultivation of wheat. The administrative center, Khabarovsk, is at the junction of the Amur River, the regions own mineral resources are underdeveloped. According to the 2010 Census,91. 8% of the population are Russians,2. 1% Ukrainians,0. 8% Nanais,0. 6% Tatars,0. 6% Koreans,55,038 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group, in addition to the Nanai, other indigenous groups include the Evenks and Evens in the northern part of the province, and Ulchs in the lower Amur river. Some Nivkhs, a fishing people speaking an isolate language
Khabarovsk Krai
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Khabarovsk Krai Administration building
Khabarovsk Krai
Khabarovsk Krai
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Lenina Square in
Khabarovsk
35.
Mongols before Genghis Khan
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The proto-Mongols emerged from an area that had been inhabited by humans and predecessor hominin species as far back as the Stone Age over 800,000 years ago. The people there went through the Bronze and Iron Ages, forming alliances, peopling. The destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate by the Yenisei Kirghiz resulted in the end of Turkic dominance in Mongolia, over the next few hundred years, the Chinese subtly encouraged warfare among the Mongols as a way of keeping them distracted from invading China. Archaeological evidence proves that early Stone Age hominins habitated in Mongolia 850,000 years ago, by the first millennium BC, bronze-working peoples lived in Mongolia. With the appearance of iron weapons by the 3rd century BC, the origins of more modern inhabitants are found among the forest hunters and nomadic tribes of Inner Asia. During most of recorded history, this has been an area of constant ferment from which emerged numerous migrations and invasions to the southeast, to the southwest, by the eighth century BC, the inhabitants of Mongolian western part evidently were nomadic Indo-European speakers, either Scythians or Yuezhi. In central and eastern parts of Mongolia were many tribes that were primarily Mongol in their ethnologic characteristics. The Xiongnu were a group of nomads who dominated the Asian Steppe from the late 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD, although it is not yet known whether they were proto-Mongols. Fortification walls built by various Chinese warring states were connected to make a 2300-kilometer Great Wall along the northern border, as a barrier to further nomadic inroads. Endemic warfare between these two nomadic peoples reached a climax in the part of the 3rd century and the early decades of the 2nd century BC. The Yuezhi then migrated to the southwest where, early in the 2nd century, they began to appear in the Amu Darya Valley to change the course of history in Bactria, Iran, and eventually India. Meanwhile, the Xiongnu again raided northern China about 200 BCE, by the middle of the 2nd century BCE, they controlled all of northern and western China north of the Yellow River. Following these victories, the Chinese expanded into the later known as Manchuria, Mongolia, the Korean Peninsula. The Xiongnu, once more turning their attention to the west, the descendants of the Yuezhi and their Chinese rulers, however, formed a common front against the Xiongnu and repelled them. During the next century, as Chinese strength waned, border warfare between the Chinese and the Xiongnu was almost incessant, gradually the nomads forced their way back into Gansu and the northern part of what is now Chinas Xinjiang. In about the middle of the first century CE, a revitalized Eastern Han slowly recovered these territories, driving the Xiongnu back into the Altai Mountains and the steppes north of the Gobi. There are many similarities between the Xiongnu and Mongols such as yurt on cart, mounted use of the composite bow, board game, horn bow. The Mongolian long song is believed to back at least 2000 years
Mongols before Genghis Khan
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Cave paintings
Mongols before Genghis Khan
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Xianbei state
Mongols before Genghis Khan
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Later Yan
Mongols before Genghis Khan
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Tuyuhun Kingdom
36.
Balhae
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Balhae, called Bóhǎi in Chinese, was a kingdom in present-day northern Korea, areas of Chinas Northeast, and Russias Maritime Province. Balhae was established under the name Jin by former Goguryeo general Dae Jo-yeong in 698 after his defeat of the Tang China at Tianmenling, Balhaes original capital was at Dongmo Mountain in modern Dunhua, Jilin Province. In 742 it was moved to the Central Capital in Helong and it was moved to the Northern Capital in Ningan, Heilongjiang in 755, to the Eastern Capital in Hunchun, Jilin in 785, and back to the Northern Capital in 794. According to a Chinese source, the kingdom had 100,000 households, archaeological evidence suggests that the Balhae culture was an amalgamation of Chinese, Korean, and indigenous cultures. Korean scholars consider Balhae as the part of the North–South States Period of Korean history, Balhae was founded in 698 under the name Jin or Zhen. Jin is the modern Revised Romanization of Korean 진, the same as the earlier Jin state, the former states character referred to the 5th earthly branch of the Chinese and Korean zodiacs, a division of the orbit of Jupiter identified with the dragon. This was associated with a bearing of 120° but also with the period between 7 and 9 am, leading it to be associated with dawn and the direction east. The latter states name may have simply been a variant transcription of this or may have intended the characters meaning of thunderclap, shock, tremor. In 713, the Tang dynasty bestowed the title Head of Bohai Commandery to the ruler of Jin, in 762 the Tang dynasty of China recognized it a kingdom and renamed it Bohai. The earliest extant recorded mention of Balhae comes from the Old Book of Tang, southern Manchuria and northern Korea were previously the territory of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Goguryeo fell to the forces of Silla and the Tang dynasty in 668. The Tang annexed much of western Manchuria, while Silla unified the Korean peninsula south of the Taedong River, after Dae Jungsang’s death, his son, Dae Jo-yeong, a former Goguryeo general succeeded his father. Geolsa Biu died in battle against the Tang army led by the general Li Kaigu, Dae jo Yeong managed to escape outside of the Tang controlled territory with the remaining Goguryeo and Mohe soldiers. He successfully defeated an army sent by Wu Zetian at the Battle of Tianmenling. Which enabled him to establish the state of Balhae in the region of Yilou as King Go. The second King Mu, who felt encircled by Tang, Silla and Black Water Mohe along the Amur River, attacked Tang with his navy in 732 and killed a Tang prefect based on the Shandong Peninsula. In the same time, the king led troops taking land routes to Madushan in the vincity of the Shanhai Pass and he also sent a mission to Japan in 728 to threaten Silla from the southeast. Balhae kept diplomatic and commercial contacts with Japan until the end of the kingdom, Balhae dispatched envoys to Japan 34 times, while Japan sent envoys to Balhae 13 times
Balhae
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Balhae in 830
Balhae
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Stele from Balhae at the
National Museum of Korea.
Balhae
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A dragon head artifact from Balhae at the
National Museum of Korea.
37.
History of the Khitans
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The history of the Khitans dates back to the 4th century. The Khitan people dominated much of Mongolia and modern Manchuria by the 10th century, under the Liao dynasty, originally from Xianbei origins they were part of the Kumo Xi tribe until 388 when the Kumo Xi-Khitan tribal grouping was defeated by the newly established Northern Wei. This allowed the Khitan to resume their own tribe and entity which led to the beginning of Khitan written history, from the 5th to the 8th centuries the Khitan were dominated by the steppe powers to their West the Turks and then the Uyghurs. The Chinese also came from the south, in some cases they were under Korean domination according to the balance of power at any given time. Under this triple domination the Khitan started to show growing power, enjoying the departure of the Uyghur people for the West and the collapse of the Tang dynasty in the early 10th century they established the Liao dynasty in 907. The Liao dynasty proved to be a significant power north of the Chinese plain as they were moving south and West and gaining control over former Chinese. They eventually fell to the Jin dynasty of the Jurchenin in 1125 who subordinated and absorbed the Khitans to their military benefit, following the fall of the Liao Dynasty many Khitans moved further west and established the state of Qara Khitai. Their name survived in the Russian word for China as well as the archaic English Portuguese and they have been classified by Chinese historians as one of the Eastern proto-Mongolic ethnic groups – the Donghu. References to the Khitan people in Chinese sources date back to the 4th century, ancestors of the Khitan were the Yuwen clan of the Xianbei, an ethnic group situated in the area covered by the modern Liaoning province. After their regime was conquered by the Murong clan the remnants scattered in the modern-day Inner Mongolia and they had been identified as a distinct ethnic group since paying tribute to the Northern Wei dynasty in the mid-6th century. Once the Uyghurs left their home in the Mongolian Plateau in 842 enough of a vacuum was left to give the Khitan the opportunity to cast off the bonds of subordinacy. The Khitan occupied the vacated by the Uyghurs bringing them under their control. In the 5th century, the Khitan were under the Toba Wei influence, some federal leaders were created after elections during a time of war after which it became a local power. When the Sui dynasty was established in 681 when the Khitan were living in a period of internal military turmoil and their tribes were fighting each other perhaps as a result of Sui Wendi strategy to increase tensions between nomads in order to create internal divisions. In 586 some Khitans tribes submitted to the Eastern Tujue while others submitted to the Sui, notable Khitan raids on the Chinese Empire were record as early as the 7th century. In 605 they staged a large scale raid southward invading Sui territories and they were eventually crushed by a Sui general leading 20,000 Turkish cavalry. Under Emperor Taizong of Tang the Khitans became vassals of Tang China, despite some occasional clashes the Khitans remained Chinese vassals until the 690s. Li Jinzhong led the rebellion and quickly captured Yingzhou where he declared himself Wushang Kehan, Sun Wanrong assisted him as general successfully leading tens of thousands of troops southward
History of the Khitans
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Location of Khitan-Liao (1025)
History of the Khitans
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Qidan gold work, 1st-3rd century. Found in Batou city, Inner Mongolia, 1981.
History of the Khitans
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Liao dynasty in 1025
History of the Khitans
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Liao funerary mask, 10th–12th centuries
38.
Liao dynasty
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The Liao dynasty was founded by Abaoji, Khagan of the Khitan people around the time of the collapse of Tang China. It was the first state to all of Manchuria. Almost immediately after its founding, the Liao dynasty began a process of territorial expansion, tension between traditional Khitan social and political practices and Chinese influence and customs was a defining feature of the dynasty. So different were Khitan and Chinese practices that Abaoji set up two parallel governments, Khitan women were taught to hunt, managed family property, and held military posts. Many marriages were not arranged, women were not required to be virgins at their first marriage, the Liao dynasty was destroyed by the Jurchen people of the Jin dynasty in 1125 with the capture of Emperor Tianzuo of Liao. However, the remnant Khitan, led by Yelü Dashi, established the Qara Khitai, the Liao dynasty was officially known as the Khitan（now known as Cathay） or Khitan state in 916. The name Great Liao began to appear as the name between 936 and 947. The dynasty name Liao means iron, but it refers to the Liao River in southern Manchuria. Since 983 the state became known as the Khitan, but Great Liao reappeared as the country name in 1066. Neither the origins, ethnic makeup, nor early history of the Khitans are well documented in historical records, the earliest reference to a Khitan state is found in the Book of Wei, a history of the Northern Wei Dynasty that was completed in 554. Several books written after 554 mention the Khitans as being active during the late third, the Book of Jin, a history of the Jin dynasty, refers to the Khitans in the section covering the reign of Murong Sheng. Samguk Sagi, a history of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, Twitchett and Klaus-Peter Tietze, it is generally held that the Khitans emerged from the Yuwen branch of the Xianbei people. Following a defeat at the hands of another branch of the Xianbei in 345, in 388 the Kumo Xi itself split, with one group remaining under the name Kumo Xi and the other group becoming the Khitans. This view is backed up by the Book of Wei. There are also several competing theories on the origin of the Khitans, beginning in the Song dynasty, some Chinese scholars suggested that the Khitans might have descended from the Xiongnu people. While modern historians have rejected the idea that the Khitan were solely Xiongnu in origin, there is support for the claim that they are of mixed Xianbei. By the time the Book of Wei was written in 554, the Khitans suffered a series of military defeats to other nomadic groups in the region, as well as to the Chinese Northern Qi and Sui Dynasties. Khitan tribes at various times fell under the influence of Turkic tribes such as the Uighurs and Chinese dynasties such as the Sui and this influence would significantly shape Khitan language and culture
Liao dynasty
–
History of China
Liao dynasty
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遼朝
Liao dynasty
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Khitan man in tomb painting in Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia
Liao dynasty
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This painting, titled Horse and Archer, is believed to have been painted by Yelü Bei.
39.
Daur people
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The Daur people are a Mongolic-speaking ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized in the Peoples Republic of China, there are also some near Tacheng in Xinjiang, where their ancestors were moved during the Qing Dynasty. Daguur in Mongolian language means follower/copier as in dagakh to follow/copy, there is no written standard, although a Pinyin-based orthography has been devised by the native Daur scholar Merden Enhebatu. The Daur language retains some Khitan substratal features, including a number of lexemes not found in other Mongolic languages and it is made up of three dialects, Bataxan, Hailar, Qiqihar. During Qing rule, some Daurs spoke and wrote Manchu as a second language, genetically, the Daurs are descendants of the Khitan, as recent DNA analyses have proven. In the Qianlong Emperors 钦定《辽金元三史语解》 he retranslates 大贺, a Khitan clan described in the History of Liao and that is the earliest theory that claims Daurs are descendants of Khitans. In the 17th century, some or all of the Daurs lived along the Shilka, upper Amur and they thus gave their name to the region of Dauria, also called Transbaikal, now the area of Russia east of Lake Baikal. By the mid-17th century, the Amur Daurs fell under the influence of the Manchus of the Qing Dynasty which crushed the resistance of Bombogor, leader of the Evenk-Daur Federation in 1640. When the Russian explorers and raiders arrived to the region in the early 1650, they would see the Daur farmers burn their smaller villages. When told by the Russians to submit to the rule of the Tsar and to pay yasak, the Cossacks would then attack, usually being able to take Daur towns with only small losses. For example, Khabarov reported that in 1651 he had only 4 of his Cossacks killed while storming the town of the Daur prince Guigudar. Meanwhile, the Cossacks reported killing 661 Daurs big and small at that town, the captured Daur town of Yaxa became the Russian town Albazin, which was not recaptured by the Qing until the 1680s. When the Japanese invaded the area of present-day Morin Dawa in Inner Mongolia in 1931, there is a very noticeable hierarchic structure. People sharing the surname are in groups called hala, they live together with the same group. Each hala is divided in clans that live in the same town. If a marriage between different clans is made, the continues to live with the clan of his wife without holding property rights. During the winter, the Daur women wear dresses, generally blue in color. The men dress in orejeros caps in fox or red deer skin made for winter, in the summer, they cover the animals head with white colored fabrics or straw hats
Daur people
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Daur woman
Daur people
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Dauria on a British 1851 map. As the map was published 7 years before the
Treaty of Aigun, eastern (Amur) Dauria is still shown as part of the
Qing dynasty
Daur people
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The Daur (Tagour) placed between the
Nonni River and the
Amur River on a 1734 French map.
Yaxa was a Daurian town prior to its fall to
Khabarov 's Russian raiders in 1651.
Daur people
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Daur wrestling
40.
Nivkh people
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The Nivkh are an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the northern half of Sakhalin Island and the region of the Amur River estuary in Russias Khabarovsk Krai. Nivkh were traditionally fishermen, hunters, and dog breeders and they were semi-nomadic, living near the coasts in the summer and wintering inland along streams and rivers to catch salmon. The land the Nivkh inhabit is characterized as taiga forest with cold snow-laden winters, the Nivkh are believed to be the original inhabitants of the region, and that they derive from a proposed Neolithic people that migrated from the Transbaikal region during the Late Pleistocene. The Nivkh suffered heavily from foreign influences, the first of which was the migration of the Tungusic peoples, later, Qing China forced the Nivkh to pay tribute to them. In the 1850s–1860s, Cossacks of the Russian Empire annexed and colonized Nivkh lands, today, the Nivkh live in Russian-style housing and with the over-fishing and pollution of the streams and seas, they have adopted many foods from Russian cuisine. The Nivkh practice shamanism, which is important for the winter Bear festival, as of the 2002 Russian Federation census,5,287 Nivkh exist. Most speak Russian today, and about 10 percent speak their indigenous Nivkh language, Nivkh is considered an language isolate, although it is grouped, for convenience, with the Paleosiberian languages. The Nivkh language is divided into four dialects, Nivkh, an endonym, means person in the Nivkh language. They may also be referred to as Nivkhi in 1920s Western literature, due to romanization of the Russian term нивхи, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Russian explorers first termed the group Gilyak. The etymology of the name Gilyak is disputed by linguists, with some believing the name originated from a given to the Nivkhs by a nearby Tungusic group. Other scholars believe that Gilyak derives from Kile, another nearby Tungusic group that the Russians had mistakenly named Nivkhs, the origins of the Nivkh are hard to discern from current archeological research. Their subsistence by fishing and coastal sea-mammal hunting is very similar to the Koryak, the rigging of dog-sleds is also similar to these Chukotko-Kamchatkan groups. Spiritual beliefs are similar to those of the Northwest Coast Indians of North America, the Nivkh are physically and genetically different from the surrounding peoples, and scholars believe they are the indigenous inhabitants of the area. Scientists believe that people of this culture were the first to migrate eastward into the Americas. The microlithic culture was technologically adept in the climate of Siberia during the last ice age. After the ice receded, Tungusic peoples from the south pressed into the northern areas. The Nivkh are considered the last surviving ethnic group able to adapt to the climate and not be assimilated or squeezed out by the newcomers. The earliest archeological radiocarbon dating for Northern Sakhalin as of 2004 is the Neolithic Age- Imchin Site 2, the Sakhalin Nivkhs populated the island during the Late Pleistocene period, when the island was connected to the Continent of Asia via the exposed Strait of Tartary
Nivkh people
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A group of Nivkh people Nivkh men, 1902
Nivkh people
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Giliaki or Yupi (i.e. "[people wearing clothes made of] fish-skin"; a Chinese appellation that was also used for the
Nanai people) on an early 18 c. French map, whose author did not have a good idea of the
Strait of Tartary
Nivkh people
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A Nivkh village in the early-20th century
Nivkh people
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Nivkh men who wear skiy and kosk
41.
Yuan dynasty
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The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was the empire or ruling dynasty of China established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borjigin clan. His realm was, by point, isolated from the other khanates and controlled most of present-day China and its surrounding areas. Some of the Mongolian Emperors of the Yuan mastered the Chinese language, while others used their native language. The Yuan dynasty is considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and an imperial Chinese dynasty and it was the khanate ruled by the successors of Möngke Khan after the division of the Mongol Empire. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song dynasty, the dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, yet he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty as Taizu. In addition to Emperor of China, Kublai Khan also claimed the title of Great Khan, supreme over the other khanates, the Chagatai, the Golden Horde. As such, the Yuan was also referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan. However, while the claim of supremacy by the Yuan emperors was at times recognized by the khans, their subservience was nominal. In 1271, Kublai Khan imposed the name Great Yuan, establishing the Yuan dynasty, dà Yuán is from the clause 大哉乾元 in the Commentaries on the Classic of Changes section regarding Qián. The counterpart in Mongolian language was Dai Ön Ulus, also rendered as Ikh Yuan Üls or Yekhe Yuan Ulus, in Mongolian, Dai Ön is often used in conjunction with the Yeke Mongghul Ulus, resulting in Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus, meaning Great Mongol State. Nevertheless, both terms can refer to the khanate within the Mongol Empire directly ruled by Great Khans before the actual establishment of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan in 1271. Genghis Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and he and his successors expanded the Mongol empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234, Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Xingzhou, Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani and he sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers. Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedeis son, Güyük, as Great Khan in 1251 and he granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals and he adopted as his capital city Kaiping in Inner Mongolia, later renamed Shangdu. Many Han Chinese and Khitan defected to the Mongols to fight against the Jin, two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima, and the Khitan Xiao Zhala defected and commanded the 3 Tumens in the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Ogödei Khan, Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols
Yuan dynasty
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History of China
Yuan dynasty
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Yuan dynasty circa 1294
Yuan dynasty
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Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty
Yuan dynasty
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Painting of a 14th-century Yuan dynasty
junk
42.
Evenks
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The Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527, According to the 2010 census, there were 37,843 Evenks in Russia. In China, the Evenki form one of the 56 ethnic groups recognized by the Peoples Republic of China, with a population of 30,875. There are also 535 Mongolized Evenki in Mongolia, referred to as Khamnigan, the Ewenki language forms the northern branch of the Manchu-Tungusic language group and is closely related to Even and Negidal in Siberia. By 1600 the Evenks or Ewenki of the Lena and Yenisey valleys were successful reindeer herders, by contrast the Solons and the Khamnigans had picked up horse breeding and the Mongolian deel from the Mongols. The Solons nomadized along the Amur River and they were closely related to the Daur people. To the west the Khamnigan were another group of horse-breeding Evenks in the Transbaikalia area, also in the Amur valley a body of Siberian Evenki-speaking people were called Orochen by the Manchus. The ancestors of the south-eastern Evenks have most likely been in the Baikal region of Southern Siberia since the Neolithic era, the language of these tribes took precedence over the languages of the aboriginal population. Vasilevich is meaning the Tungusic languages, and the aborigianals are the Kets in Evenkia and Yukagirs in Yakutia. Elements of more modern Evenk culture, including conical tent dwellings, bone fish-lures, from Lake Baikal, “they spread to the Amur and Okhotsk Sea…the Lena Basin…and the Yenisey Basin”. In the 17th century, the Russian empire made contact with the Evenks, Cossacks, who served as a kind of “border-guard” for the tsarist government, imposed a fur tax on the Siberian tribes. The Cossacks exploited the Evenk clan hierarchy and took hostages from the highest members in order to ensure payment of the tax, although there was some rebellion against local officials, the Evenks generally recognized the need for peaceful cultural relations with the Russians. Contact with the Russians and constant demand for fur taxes pushed the Evenks east all the way to Sakhalin island, in the 19th century some groups migrated south and east into Mongolia and Manchuria. Today there are still Evenk populations in Sakhalin, Mongolia, and Manchuria, traditionally they were a mixture of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers—they relied on their domesticated reindeer for milk and transport and hunted other large game for meat. Today “he Evenks are divided into two large groups…engaging in different types of economy and these are the hunting and reindeer-breeding Evenks…and the horse and cattle pastoral Evenks as well as some farming Evenks”. The Evenks lived mostly in areas of what is called a taiga and they lived in conical tents made from birch bark or reindeer skin tied to birch poles. When they moved camp, the Evenks would leave these frameworks, during winter, the hunting season, most camps consisted of one or two tents while the spring encampments had up to 10 households. Their skill of riding the domesticated reindeer allowed the Evenks to “colonize vast areas of the eastern taiga which had previously been impenetrable”
Evenks
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Evenks
Evenks
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Evenks domicile,
chum – Evenks' home in ethnographic museum in
Ulan Ude, Russia
Evenks
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The lands of the Solons (Solonen) near
Hailar (Chailar) in the late Qing Empire
43.
Jurchens
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The Jurchen established the Jin Dynasty, whose empire conquered the Northern Song in 1127, gaining control of most of North China. Jin control over China lasted until their 1234 conquest by the Mongols, the Manchus would later conquer the Ming and establish the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until their overthrow in 1911. The obscurity of the origin of the Jurchen is reflected in the confusion surrounding their name and it is recorded variously in different languages and different eras. The apparently cognate ethnonyms Sushen and Jizhen are recorded in ancient Chinese geographical works like the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the present name dates back to at least the 10th century, when Balhae was destroyed by the Khitans. It was the source of Fra Mauros Zorça and Marco Polos Ciorcia, vajda considers that the Jurchens name probably derives from the Tungusic words for reindeer people and is cognate with the names of the Orochs of Khabarovsk Province and the Oroks of Sakhalin. In Manchu, this word was often used to describe the serfs—though not slaves—of the free Manchu people. To describe the people who founded the Jin dynasty, they reborrowed the Mongolian name as Jurcit. The initial Khitan form of the name was said to be Lüzhen, at the same time, the Jurchen were interchangeably known as the Nrjo-drik. Aisin Gioro, however, argues that this was a folk etymology. Under the Liao, a distinction was made between the Charted Jurchens who submitted to their rule and the Uncharted Jurchens who lived beyond their frontier. The former were divided into the Jianzhou and Haixi Jurchens and the latter included the Yeren Jurchens, in earlier records, this area was known as the home of the Sushen, the Yilou, the Wuji, and the Mohe or Malgal. Under the Qing and within modern scholarship, some sources stress the continuity between these peoples with the Jurchen but this remains conjectural. The Tungusic Mohe tribes were subjects of the Korean state of Balhae, the Mohe enjoyed eating pork, practiced pig farming extensively, and were mainly sedentary. They used both pig and dog skins for coats and they were predominantly farmers and grew soybean, wheat, millet, and rice in addition to hunting. By the 11th century, the Jurchens had become vassals of the Khitan rulers of the Liao dynasty, the Jin dynasty captured the Northern Song dynastys capital, Bianjing, in 1127. The name of the Jurchens dynasty—the Chinese word for gold—derived from the Gold River in their ancestral homeland, at first, the Jurchen tribesmen were kept in readiness for warfare, but decades of urban and settled life in China eroded their original warlike lifestyle in Manchurian tundra and marshes. Eventually, intermarriage with other groups in China was permitted. The Jin rulers themselves came to follow Confucian norms, by 1215, after losing much territory to the Mongols, the Jurchens moved their capital south from Zhongdu to Kaifeng
Jurchens
–
Eurasia before
Genghis Khan 's conquests, 1200
Jurchens
–
China circa 1141, superimposed on modern national borders.
Jurchens
–
Stone tortoise from the grave of a 12th-century Jurchen leader in today's
Ussuriysk
Jurchens
–
A Jurchen man hunting from his horse, from a 15th-century ink and color painting on silk.
44.
Qing dynasty
–
It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
Qing dynasty
–
History of China
Qing dynasty
–
Flag (1889–1912)
Qing dynasty
–
An Italian map showing the "Kingdom of the
Nüzhen " or the "
Jin Tartars", who "have occupied and are at present ruling China", north of
Liaodong and
Korea, published in 1682
Qing dynasty
–
Qing era brush container
45.
Nanais
–
The Nanai people are a Tungusic people of the Far East, who have traditionally lived along Heilongjiang, Songhuajiang and Ussuri rivers on the Middle Amur Basin. The ancestors of the Nanais were the Jurchens of northernmost Manchuria, the Nanai/Hezhe language belongs to the Manchu-Tungusic languages. According to the 2010 census there were 12,003 Nanais in Russia, means land, earth, ground, country or, in this context, native, local and, means people in different dialects. Sem gives the self-name in the Cyrillic form, хэǯэ най or хэǯэны and it is the source of the Chinese name for the Nanais, formerly 黑斤, 赫哲哈喇, and modern Chinese name 赫哲. Some of the earliest first-hand accounts of the Nanai people in the European languages belong to the French Jesuit geographers travelling on the Ussury, as described by early visitors, the economy of the people living there was based on fishing. The people would live in villages along the banks of the Ussuri, and would spend their summers fishing, eating fresh fish in the summer. Fish would be used as fodder for those few domestic animals they had, the traditional clothing was made out of fish skins. These skins were left to dry, once dry, they were struck repeatedly with a mallet to leave them completely smooth. The fish chosen to be used were those more than 50 kilograms. In the past centuries, this practice earned the Nanai the name Fish-skin Tartars. This name has also applied, more generically, to other aboriginal groups of the lower Sungari. Agriculture entered the Nanai lands only slowly, practically the only crop grown by the Yupi villagers on the Ussuri River shores in 1709 was some tobacco. The Nanais are mainly Shamanist, with a reverence for the bear. They consider that the shamans have the power to expel bad spirits by means of prayers to the gods, during the centuries they have been worshipers of the spirits of the sun, the moon, the mountains, the water and the trees. According to their beliefs, the land was once flat until great serpents gouged out the river valleys and they consider that all the things of the universe possess their own spirit and that these spirits wander independently throughout the world. In the Nanai religion, inanimate objects were often personified, fire, for example, was personified as an elderly woman whom the Nanai referred to as Fadzya Mama. Young children were not allowed to run up to the fire, since they might startle Fadzya Mama, bits of Chinese mirrors were also sometimes incorporated into the costume. Many Nanai are also Tibetan Buddhist, in Russia the Nanais live on the Sea of Okhotsk, on the Amur River, downstream from Khabarovsk, on both sides of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, as well as on the banks of the Ussuri and the Girin rivers
Nanais
–
Nanai family, Amur region of Russia
Nanais
–
Goldi shaman priest and assistant, 1895
Nanais
–
Goldi tribesmen acting out folk drama, "The repulse of the kidnapper" 1895
Nanais
–
Goldes hunter on skis on ice floe, with spear and rifle, 1895
46.
Ulchs
–
The Ulch are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East who speak a Tungusic language, Ulch. Over 90% of Ulchis live in Ulchsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, according to the 2010 Census there were 2,765 Ulchs in Russia. Anthropologically, no clear racial groups exist, some of them belong to the so-called Sakhalin-Amur group, like the Nivkhs. Genetically Native Americans are a hybrid of Ancestral North Eurasians and Ulchi-like people, ulchi people have strong genetic continuity since 7700 years ago
Ulchs
–
Interior of a Mangun House, drawing by
Richard Maack ca. 1854-1860
47.
Treaty of Nerchinsk
–
The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between Russia and China. The Russians gave up the north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains lasted until the Amur Annexation in 1860, for background see History of Sino-Russian relations. The agreement was signed in Nerchinsk on August 27,1689, the signatories were Songgotu on behalf of the Kangxi Emperor and Fyodor Golovin on behalf of the Russian tsars Peter I and Ivan V. The authoritative version was in Latin, with translations into Russian and Manchu, there was no official Chinese text for another two centuries, but the border markers were inscribed in Chinese along with Manchu, Russian and Latin. Later, in 1727, the Treaty of Kiakhta fixed what is now the border of Mongolia west of the Argun, in 1858 Russia annexed the land north of the Amur and in 1860 took the coast down to Vladivostok. The current border runs along the Argun, Amur and Ussuri Rivers, from about 1640, Russians entered the Amur basin from the north, into land claimed by the Manchus who at this time were just beginning their conquest of China. The Manchus had, by the 1680s, completed the conquest of China, with the Manchu Qing dynasty now firmly in control of the South, it was in a position to deal with what they saw as Russian encroachment in Manchuria, the dynastys ancient homeland. By 1685 most of the Russians had been out of the area. See Sino–Russian border conflicts for details, after their first victory at Albazin in 1685, the Qing government sent two letters to the Tsar suggesting peace and demanding that Russian freebooters leave the Amur. The Russian government, knowing that the Amur could not be defended and being concerned with events in the west. Golovin left Moscow in January 1686 with 500 streltsy and reached Selenginsk near Lake Baikal in October 1687 and it was agreed the meeting would be in Selenginsk in 1688. At this point the Oirats under Galdan attacked the eastern Mongols in the area between Selenginsk and Peking and negotiations had to be delayed, to avoid the fighting Golovin moved east to Nerchinsk where it was agreed that talks would take place. The Manchus with 3,000 to 15,000 soldiers under Songgotu left Peking on June 1689, talks went on from August 22 to September 6. The language used was Latin, the translators being, for the Russians, to avoid problems of precedence, tents were erected side by side so that neither side would be seen as visiting the other. G. P. However, there was little need for Han mandarins, both Manchu and Chinese were the official languages of the Qing court and both continued to be official languages into the eighteenth century. Dulimbai Gurun is the Manchu name for China and this was a tactic regularly used by early Qing emperors in matters which were particularly delicate or confidential. The Yuan Empires rule of Mongol tribes living around Lake Baikal was claimed by the Qing, the Manchus wished to remove the Russians from the Amur
Treaty of Nerchinsk
–
The northern border of "Chinese Tartary", as shown on this map from 1734, was more or less the Sino-Russian border line settled at Nerchinsk. Nerchinsk itself is shown on the map (on the Russian side of the border) as well.
Treaty of Nerchinsk
–
The
Amur basin. Nerchinsk is part way up the Shilka. The Stanovoy Mountains are along the northern edge of the Amur basin.
48.
Nikolay Muravyov
–
The surname Muravyov has also been transcribed as Muravyev or Muravev. Nikolay Muravyov was born in St. Petersburg and he graduated from the Page Corps in 1827. He participated in the Siege of Varna in the Russo-Turkish War in 1828–1829, due to health reasons, he retired from the military in 1833 and returned home to manage his fathers estate. However, he returned to duty in 1838, as General Golovins aide-de-camp. During one of the campaigns against the mountain people Muravyov was wounded, in 1840, Muravyov was assigned to command one of the sections of the Black Sea coast defense lines, during which time he participated in the suppression of the Ubykh people. Muravyov was promoted in rank to major-general in 1841, but had to retire from the military due to illness. He transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was appointed as an acting military, eager in his willingness to improve the provinces state of affairs, he proposed to establish the governorate agricultural society. Muravyov was the first governor to propose Tsar Nicholas I to abolish serfdom, while the tsar did nothing about the petition, from then on he always referred to Muravyov as a liberal and a democrat. On September 5,1847, Muravyov was appointed the general of Irkutsk and Yeniseysk. His appointment was a subject of controversy, as it was unusual for a person of his age to be put in charge of such a vast territory. Contrary to the views of Karl Nesselrode, the Russian Foreign Minister, muravyovs first actions as a governor general were to put end to the embezzlement of public funds. He also mandated the study of the Russian language in schools for native Siberian and he pursued the exploration and settlement of the territories north of the Amur River, often utilizing help of political exiles. Many of his actions were aimed to expand commerce in the Far Eastern region, seeing religion as a powerful form of control over local population, he favored building of new Christian churches and promoted local religious beliefs such as shamanism and Buddhism. After the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk, Russia lost the right to navigate the Amur River, Muravyov insisted on conducting an aggressive policy with China despite strong resistance from St. Petersburg officials, who feared a breakup in relations between the two countries. Nevertheless, because the lower reaches of the Amur River were in fact being claimed by the Russians, in 1851–1853, several expeditions were sent to the Amur Liman and Sakhalin, with Russian settlements being established in those areas. On January 111854, tsar Nicholas I authorized Muravyov to carry the negotiations with the Chinese regarding establishing a border along the Amur River, in 1854–1858, Muravyov assisted Gennady Nevelskoy in achieving that goal. The first expedition took place in May 1854, a fleet of 77 barges and rafts, led by the Argun steamship, sailed down to the Amurs estuary. Due to the Crimean War, a portion of the fleet was sent to Kamchatkas Avacha Bay
Nikolay Muravyov
–
The Sino-Russian border in the Amur Basin 1689–1858, shown on an 1851 map.
Irkutsk (Irkoutsk) was the main Russian city in Eastern Siberia, and
Nerchinsk, in Muravyov's Transbaikalia, was the major Russian town on the Amur system. (Muravyov's base,
Chita, is not shown, because it was too new and too small at the time).
Aigun (Saghalian Oula), was the main Qing town on the Amur.
Nikolay Muravyov
–
Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky.
Nikolay Muravyov
–
Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky. Portrait by
Konstantin Makovsky, 1863
Nikolay Muravyov
–
The Sino-Russian border after the Beijing Treaty of 1860, with the new Russian towns built north of the Amur and east of the Ussury by 1891 (date of this map).
Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula (not labeled on this map) is the site of the city of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan
49.
Far Eastern Republic
–
The Far Eastern Republic, sometimes called the Chita Republic, was a nominally independent state that existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of the Russian Far East. Its first president was Alexander Krasnoshchyokov, the Far Eastern Republic occupied the territory of modern Zabaykalsky Krai, Amur Oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, and Primorsky Krai of Russia. Its capital was established at Verkhneudinsk, but in October 1920 it was moved to Chita, after the fall of Vladivostok on 25 October 1922, the civil war was declared over. Three weeks later, on 15 November 1922, the Far Eastern Republic was merged with the RSFSR, the Far Eastern Republic was established in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. When the Japanese evacuated the Trans-Baikal and Amur oblasts in the spring of 1920, a new central authority was established at Chita to govern the Far Eastern Republic remaining in the Japanese wake. The Far Eastern Republic was established comprising only the area around Verkhne-Udinsk, but during the summer of 1920, the Soviet government of the Amur territory agreed to join. On 1 April 1920, American forces headed by General William S. Graves departed Siberia, on 6 April 1920, a hastily convened Constituent Assembly gathered at Verkhneudinsk and proclaimed the establishment of the Far Eastern Republic. The Far Eastern Republic, controlled by moderate socialists, was only recognized by the various cities of the region towards the end of 1920. Violence, atrocities, and reprisals continued to erupt periodically for the next 18 months, Japan agreed to recognize the new buffer state in a truce with the Red Army signed 15 July 1920, effectively abandoning Ataman Grigory Semenov and his Russia Eastern Outskirts. By October Semenov had been expelled from his base of operations in Chita, with Semenov out of the picture, the capital of the Far Eastern Republic moved to that city. On 11 November 1920 a provisional national assembly for the Far East met in Vladivostok, the gathering recognized the government at Chita and set 9 January 1921 as the date for new elections for the Constituent Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic. A new constitution closely resembling the United States Constitution was written, however, right-wing forces rejected the idea of a fledgling democratic republic. On 26 May 1921 a White coup took place in Vladivostok, a cordon sanitaire of Japanese troops protected the insurgents, who sought to establish a new régime known as the Provisional Government of the Priamur. Shortly after the coup, Ataman Semenov arrived in Vladivostok and attempted to proclaim himself commander-in-chief—an effort which failed when his Japanese benefactors forsook him, the new Provisional Government of Priamur attempted—with little success—to rally the various anti-Bolshevik forces to its banner. A July Zemsky sobor deposed the Merkulov brothers and named an officer of the Czech Legion. With the Japanese exiting the country throughout the summer of 1922, as the Red Army, thinly disguised as the army of the Far Eastern Republic, approached, thousands of Russians fled abroad to escape the new régime. The army of the Far Eastern Republic retook Vladivostok on 25 October 1922, with the Civil War finally over, Soviet Russia absorbed the Far Eastern Republic on 15 November 1922. The government of the Far Eastern Republic dissolved itself and transferred all its authority, the Far Eastern Republic consisted of four provinces of the former Russian empire—Trans-Baikal, Amur, the Maritime Province, and the northern half of Sakhalin island
Far Eastern Republic
–
Members of the FER Government
Far Eastern Republic
–
Flag
Far Eastern Republic
–
Territory of the Far Eastern Republic in 1922.
50.
Soviet invasion of Manchuria
–
Soviet gains on the continent were Manchukuo, Mengjiang and northern Korea. Since 1983, the operation has sometimes been called Operation August Storm, the invasion began on 9 August 1945, exactly three months after the German surrender on May 8. It has also referred to as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. This was to be performed by the Transbaikal Front from the west and by the 1st Far Eastern Front from the east, the only Soviet equivalent of a theater command that operated during the war, Far East Command, consisted of three Red Army fronts. The Transbaikal Front was to form the western half of the Soviet pincer movement, attacking across the Inner Mongolian desert, the 36th Army was also attacking from the west, but with the objective of meeting forces of the 2nd Far Eastern Front at Harbin and Tsitsihar. The 1st Far Eastern Front, under Marshal Kirill Meretskov, included, the 1st Far Eastern Front was to form the eastern half of the pincer movement. This attack involved the 1st Red Banner Army, the 5th Army, once that city was captured, this force was to advance towards the cities of Jilin, Changchun and Harbin. Its final objective was to link up with the forces of the Transbaikal Front at Changchun and this secondary objective was to be carried out by the 25th Army. Meanwhile, the 35th Army was tasked with capturing the cities of Boli, Linkou, the 2nd Far Eastern Front, under General Maksim Purkayev, included, 2nd Red Banner Army 15th Army 16th Army 5th Separate Rifle Corps Chuguevsk Operational Group Amur Military Flotilla 10th Air Army. The 2nd Far Eastern Front was deployed in an attack role. Its objectives were the cities of Harbin and Tsitsihar, and to prevent an orderly withdrawal to the south by the Japanese forces. Once troops from the 1st Far Eastern Front and Transbaikal Front captured the city of Changchun, each front had front units attached directly to the front instead of an army. The forces totaled 89 divisions with 1.5 million men,3,704 tanks,1,852 self propelled guns,85,819 vehicles and 3,721 aircraft, approximately one-third of its strength was in combat support and services. The Soviet plan incorporated all the experience in warfare that they had acquired in fighting the Germans. In addition, the Japanese were assisted by the forces of their states of Manchukuo. The former had an army of about 170,000 to 220,000 troops, while the latter had around 10,000, Korea, the next target for the Soviet Far East Command, was garrisoned by the Japanese Seventeenth Area Army. The Kwantung Army had over 700,000 men in twenty-five divisions and these contained over 1,215 armored vehicles,6,700 artillery pieces, and 1,800 aircraft. They were also deployed against the Nationalist Chinese in Operation Ichigo, by 1945, the Kwantung Army contained a large number of raw recruits and conscripts, with generally obsolete, light, or otherwise limited equipment
Soviet invasion of Manchuria
–
Pacific Fleet marines of the Soviet Navy hoisting the
Soviet naval ensign in
Port Arthur, on October 1, 1945.
Soviet invasion of Manchuria
–
Soviet gains in North East Asia, August 1945.
51.
Amur river
–
The Amur River or Heilong Jiang is the worlds tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China. The largest fish species in the Amur is the kaluga, attaining a length as great as 5.6 metres, historically, it was common to refer to a river simply as water. The word for water is similar in a number of Asiatic languages, mul in Korean, muren in Mongolian, the name Amur may have evolved from a root word for water, coupled with a size modifier for Big Water. The Chinese name for the river, Heilong Jiang, means Black Dragon River in Chinese, and its Mongolian name, Khar mörön, means Black River. The river rises in the hills in the part of Northeast China at the confluence of its two major affluents, the Shilka River and the Ergune River, at an elevation of 303 metres. It flows east forming the border between China and Russia, and slowly makes an arc to the southeast for about 400 kilometres, receiving many tributaries. At Huma, it is joined by a tributary, the Huma River. Afterwards it continues to south until between the cities of Blagoveschensk and Heihe, it widens significantly as it is joined by the Zeya River. At the confluence with the Songhua the river turns northeast, now flowing towards Khabarovsk, now the river spreads out dramatically into a braided character, flowing north-northeast through a wide valley in eastern Russia, passing Amursk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The valley narrows after about 200 kilometres and the river flows north onto plains at the confluence with the Amgun River. Shortly after, the Amur turns sharply east and into an estuary at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, in many historical references these two geopolitical entities are known as Outer Manchuria and Inner Manchuria, respectively. The Chinese province of Heilongjiang on the bank of the river is named after it. The name Black River was used by the Manchu and the Ta-tsing Empire who regarded this river as sacred, the Amur River is an important symbol of, and geopolitical factor in, Chinese–Russian relations. The Amur was especially important in the following the Sino–Soviet political split in the 1960s. For many centuries the Amur Valley was populated by the Tungusic and Mongol people, for many of them, fishing in the Amur and its tributaries was the main source of their livelihood. Until the 17th century, these people were not known to the Europeans, and little known to the Han Chinese, the term Yupi Dazi was used for the Nanais and related groups as well, owing to their traditional clothes made of fish skins. This Ming Dynasty Aigun was located on the bank to the later Aigun that was relocated during the Qing Dynasty. In any event, the Ming presence on the Amur was as short-lived as it was tenuous, soon after the end of the Yongle era, Russian Cossack expeditions led by Vassili Poyarkov and Yerofey Khabarov explored the Amur and its tributaries in 1643–44 and 1649–51, respectively
Amur river
–
Amur near Verkhnaya Ekon,
Khabarovsk Krai, Russia
Amur river
–
Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur used to be the
longest in
Imperial Russia and
Eurasia.
Amur river
–
Goldi village along the Amur River, north of Khabarovsk, 1895
Amur river
–
Goldi men with dog sled on Amur River 1895
52.
Qing Dynasty
–
It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
Qing Dynasty
–
History of China
Qing Dynasty
–
Flag (1889–1912)
Qing Dynasty
–
An Italian map showing the "Kingdom of the
Nüzhen " or the "
Jin Tartars", who "have occupied and are at present ruling China", north of
Liaodong and
Korea, published in 1682
Qing Dynasty
–
Qing era brush container
.svg)
.svg)
Hēilóngjiāng ) is a province of the People's Republic of China. Located in the northeastern part of the country, Heilongjiang is bordered by Jilin to the south and Inner Mongolia to the west. It also shares a China–Russia border with Russia to the north and east, the capital and the largest city of the province is Harbin. Among Chinese provincial level Administrative divisions, Heilongjiang is the 6th largest by total area and the 15th most populous.
Heilongjiang travel guide from Wikivoyage
Heilongjiang
