Manchu People

Manchu People

The Manchus (Manchu: ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ; von Möllendorff: manju; simplified Chinese: 满族; traditional Chinese: 滿族; pinyin: Mǎnzú) are members of an indigenous people of Manchuria also known as red tasseled Manchus (Manchu: ᡶᡠᠯᡤᡳᠶᠠᠨ
ᠰᠣᡵᠰᠣᠨ
ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ; von Möllendorff: fulgiyan sorson manju; 红缨满洲) because of their traditional hat ornaments. They are the largest branch of the Tungusic peoples and are chiefly distributed throughout China, forming the fourth largest ethnic group and the third largest ethnic minority group in that country.

Manchus conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty in 1644. The dynasty came to an end in 1912 when the country became a republic. As a result of the conquest in the 17th century, almost all the Manchus followed regent prince Dorgon (ᡩᠣᡵᡤᠣᠨ) and Shunzhi Emperor to their new capital Beijing (Manchu: ᠪᡝᡤᡳᠩ; von Möllendorff: beging) and mainly settled down there. Few of them were sent to other places of mainland China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet as garrisons. There were only 1524 Banner soldiers left in Manchuria at the time. After the border conflicts with Russians, Qing's emperors started to realize the strategic importance of Manchuria and gradually sent Manchus back to where they originally came from. However, during the period of Qing, Beijing was always the only focal point of Manchus in political, economic and cultural aspects. Yongzheng Emperor said, "Garrisons are the places of stationed works, Beijing is their homeland." After the fall of Qing Empire, especially the establishments of Manchu autonomous areas by PRC government, Manchuria became significant to Manchus again.

Nowadays, Manchu residents can be found in 31 Chinese provincal regions. Among them, Liaoning has the largest population and Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Beijing has over 100,000 Manchu residents. About half of the population live in Liaoning province and one-fifth in Hebei province. There are a number of Manchu autonomous counties in both provinces.