The influence of the rule of the Qing empire (the dynasty
established by the Manchus, 1616-1912) on the people of the
Lower Amur and Sahalin has been long neglected by the many
researchers engaged in ethnological and anthropological studies
of that region. However, it is a very important problem in this
field.
Until the middle of the 19th-century, contact with the
Manchus and their government was indispensable to those
peoples. Their material culture, social life, and even religious
life were dependent on the rule of the Qing dynasty. The
societies and cultures which researchers have investigated since
the end of the 19th-century was formed under the strong influence
of the rule of the Qing empire.
In this paper I examine the ruling system of the Qing
dynasty that governed the peoples of the Lower Amur and
Sahalin, and evaluate its influence on their societies and cultures.
Territorial expansion of Manchu empire to the lower Amur
basin began in the end of the 16th-century. But it took about
150 years to construct the ruling system which was finally
established in the middle of the 18th-century, since the Manchus
had to contest possession of the Amur basin with the Russians.
The principal purpose of the rule of this region was to collect
regularly sable furs, which was in great demand in the palace of
the Qing dynasty. In the ruling system, people were registered
in clans and villages, officially recognized by the government.
In each the government appointed the chief, hala i da (clan chief)
and gafan da (village chief), who were expected to keep order
in their community, to collect sable furs from every registered
member, and to take them to a local office of the government
(e.g., Ningguta, Sansin, or Kiji) every year.
This system played very important role in daily life of the
peoples of the Lower Amur and Sahalin during the 18th- and
the 19th-centuries.
For example, it changed their clothing culture. Cotton or
silk costumes, which were given by the Manchu government as
gifts against payment of sable furs, were so widely distributed in
the 18th- and the 19th-centuries that they became one of the
main materials of clothing, together with fish skin and animal fur,
materials traditionally used. When worn out and no longer
usable as one costume, pieces of silk or cotton were sewn into
fish skin or animal fur clothes as ornaments.
In addition, government of the Qing dynasty also provided
those who came to the local office to sell sable furs, with rice,
flour, bread, beans, and so on. Though such food was not
enough to change their food culture, rice and flour were largely
distributed among the peoples of the Lower Amur and Sahalin.
The society was also influenced or even changed by the
ruling system. All the Tungus-speaking peoples of this region
had a patrilineal clan (hala or xala) and villages (gafan, gasyan or
gassa) just like those of the Manchus. The Manchu governors
found the same functions in these organizations as their own, and
used them in their ruling system. They identified each of the
people in clans and villages who were to pay sable furs, and
recognized them as official organizations. As a result this system
defined characters and functions of their clans and villages.
Generally speaking, patrilineal descent groups, like clans or
lineages, are not stable organizations and often repeat integration
and segmentation during several generations. Clans of the
Nivkhi (Gilyaks), kxal, who had never been under the control
of any external nations, though they had lived in the Lower
Amur basin for a long time, were in such a condition when
Russian ethnologists investigated them in the end of the 19thcentury.
There were numerous small clans or lineages in their
society. However, the clans of the people who paid sable
furs to the Qing government, for example the Nanai (Golds),
were comparatively stable. Several large clans in Nanai
society have existed since the middle of the 17th-century. The
Qing government restrained their free integration and disintegration,
in order to maintain the ruling system.
As is demonstrated in this paper, the ruling system of the
Qing government in the 18th- and the 19th-centuries had a large
influence on the societies and the cultures of the peoples of the
Lower Amur and Sahalin. The rule of the Qing empire, which
lasted for more than 200 years, had something to do with ethnic
processes of this area.
アムール川下流域諸民族の社会・文化における清朝支配の影響について
KH_014_3_002.pdf
(7.38MB)
