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Manchurian Folk Tales, Part One: The Origins of the Manchu People
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# : |
20476 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1992 |
4,108 Words |
| Author
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Pack Carnes
Pack Carnes is associate professor of Japanese studies and
folklore in the Department of Modern Languages at Lake Forest
College in Illinois. He is editor of Western Folklore. |
The term Manchurian is difficult to define. It refers to the roughly four million people who inhabit traditional Manchuria--a land generally thought to include modern Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces in China, parts of Inner Mongolia, areas near the Korean border, and some eastern portions of what was the Soviet Union. Manchuria is popularly known as the land between the Long White Mountains (Changbai-shan) and the Black Water of the Japan Sea.
Manchurian is a relatively new name for the people apparently originally called the Juchen. The name Manchu was given them by the founder of the Ch'ing or Manchu dynasty. The Manchu dynasty was the last dynasty in China, and its last ruler was the Last Emperor, or "the last of the Manchu." The Manchurians are traditionally thought of as coming from the Long White Mountains, a locale that figures prominently in their tales.
The Manchu language, altogether different from and unrelated to Chinese, is an Altaic language; sadly, it is very nearly (if not yet completely) extinct. With the loss of the language there is naturally a concomitant loss in the oral transmission of tales, but a significant number have been preserved by effective collecting among the Manchu and the Mongolians. The collecting continues, although virtually all Manchurian folktales are now found in Chinese, with a very few in Mongolian.
The beginnings of the Manchu people are described in the tale of Bukuri Yong-shon. The founder of the Manchu, he had a divine origin, being the son of one of the Heavenly Maidens.
The Three Heavenly Maidens
The three Heavenly Maidens were bathing one day near the Long White Mountains, and as they finished came out of the lake to dress. One of the three found a red fruit on her clothing. She put it into her mouth while she dressed, and the fruit was inadvertently swallowed. She said to her sisters that she was heavy and could not return to heaven with them. The two sisters took pity on her, and they told her to return to the heavens as soon as she became lighter.
This happened very soon, for she immediately bore a child who had the power of speech as soon as he was born. His mother told him that he was sent to earth to bring order to the matters of men and to establish a better world for humans. The boy was told to enter a small boat
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