Etymology
The form Jurchen dates back to at least the beginning of the tenth century AD, when the Korean Balhae kingdom was destroyed by the Khitans. However, cognate ethnonyms like Sushen or Jichen (稷真) have been recorded in pre-Christian Era geographical works like the Shan Hai Jing and Book of Wei. It comes from the Jurchen word jušen, the original meaning of which is unclear. The standard English version of the name, "Jurchen," is an Anglicized transliteration of the Mongolian equivalent of the Jurchen term jušen (Mongolian: Jürchin, plural is Jürchid), and may arrived in the West via Mongolian texts. A less common English transliteration is "Jurched".
It is thought by a number of Russian linguists and historians that the Ducher people encountered by Russian explorers on the middle Amur and lower Sungari in the early 1650s (who were evacuated by the Qing authorities further south a few years later) were the descendants of the Amur Jurchens, and that the word "Ducher" itself is simply a variation of jušen.
Read more about this topic: Jurchens
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