Hezhen

Hezhen family from the Russian Amur region in traditional costume

The Hezhen (also Hezhe ; Manschu : Heje; in Russia Nanai or Nanaier or Nanaien , conventional names in Western literature: Gold or Golden ; Samagir ; own names in IPA : [xədʑən], [nanio] and [kilən]; Chinese 赫哲族 , Pinyin Hèzhézú ; Russian нанайцы , гольды ) are a people in Russia and the People's Republic of China (one of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities there , in Russia they are recognized as one of the indigenous peoples of the north, Siberia and the Far East ).

General

According to the last census in 2010, there are 5,354 Hezhen in China and 12,160 in Russia (of whom 12,111 speak Russian; only 3,886 people speak Nanaan ). They live mainly on the Amur and Ussuri rivers in the northeast of Heilongjiang Province and in Russia in the Khabarovsk regions (10,993; 90.4%) - there mainly in the Nanaiski rajon around 200 km from the regional capital Khabarovsk - Primorye (417; 3.4%) and Sakhalin Oblast (179; 1.5% of the total, all data from the 2002 census).

The Hezhen language belongs to the southern or Manchurian group of Tungusic languages and is divided into the two dialects Hezhen and Kili (Kileng). Traditionally, they did not have their own script, in some cases the Manchu or Chinese script was used. In the Soviet Union, a written Nanaic language was created that is still taught in 13 schools in the Khabarovsk region. This written language was never used in China. In China, only about 50 people speak Hezhenic in the Kili dialect, while the three people who still spoke the Hezhen dialect in the mid-1980s have probably passed away.

Traditionally the Hezhen lived from fishing and hunting, rarely vegetables or grains were grown. Dog and pig were the only pets, the latter was also the most important sacrificial animal. Robes were made from the processed skins of the fish, which is why the Hezhen were traditionally known to the Chinese as Yupi Dazi ("fish skin Tatars").

Shamanism was part of their religious beliefs ; Only the healer who treated psychological ailments and was active as a psychopomp , that is, brought the souls of the dead into the afterlife was called a shaman (Ling Chunsheng). Other healers were responsible for other ailments, the most important of which was the "Aha" (slave), responsible for the smallpox spirits. In the religious studies doctrine and literature predominant in the People's Republic of China, shamanism is treated as a religion and all Hezhen healers are referred to as "shamans".

Spread of the Hezhen in China

The vast majority of the Hezhen in China live concentrated in six parishes (including three nationality parishes):

Community Bacha the Hezhen;
Jiejinkou parish of Hezhen;
Sipai the Hezhen Township ;
Greater community Aoqi ;
Greater community Fuyuan ;
Greater community Zhuaji .

Provincial level

In the 2000 census, 4,640 Hezhen were counted in China.

Distribution of the Hezhenian population in China

Administrative division	Number of hezhen	% Share of all of China's Hezhen
Province of Heilongjiang	3,910	84.27%
Jilin Province	190	4.09%
Beijing City	84	1.81%
Province Liaoning	82	1.77%
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region	54	1.16%
Hebei Province	46	0.99%
Rest of China	274	5.91%

District level

Distribution areas of the Hezhen at district level (2000)

Only values from 0.45% were taken into account here. AG = autonomous area.

superior provincial level	superior district level	District, city, municipality	Number of hezhen	% of all of China's Hezhen
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Tongjiang City	1,060	22.84%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Jiao District	657	14.16%
Province of Heilongjiang	Shuangyashan City	Raohe district	529	11.4 0 %
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Fuyuan County	468	10.09%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Xiangyang District	131	02.82%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Qianjin District	97	02.09%
Province of Heilongjiang	Harbin City	District Nangang	88	01.9 0 %
Jilin Province	Jilin City	Changyi District	71	01.53%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	district Huachuan	67	01.44%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Fujin City	65	01.40%
Province of Heilongjiang	City of Hegang	Suibin County	52	01.12%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Dongfeng District	51	01.1 0 %
Province of Heilongjiang	Harbin City	district Yilan	45	00.97%
Beijing City	no	District Haidian	43	00.93%
Province of Heilongjiang	Heihe city	Xunke district	43	00.93%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Huanan County	42	00.91%
Province of Heilongjiang	Jiamusi City	Tangyuan County	30th	00.65%
Jilin Province	Jilin City	Yongji County	29	00.63%
Jilin Province	Changchun City	District Chaoyang	27	00.58%
Province of Heilongjiang	Qiqihar City	Jianhua District	26th	00.56%
Province of Heilongjiang	Qiqihar City	Longjiang County	26th	00.56%
AG Inner Mongolia	City of Hulun Buir	Autonomous banner of the Evenks	22nd	00.47%
Province of Heilongjiang	Shuangyashan City	county Baoqing	21st	00.45%
Rest of China			950	20.47%

Dersu Usala

The Russian researcher Vladimir Klawdijewitsch Arsenjew traveled with the Nanaier Dersu Usala , who served as guide, at the beginning of the 20th century through an area on the lower Ussuri that had not yet been mapped. The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa filmed the coexistence of the two in the 1970s.

literature

Tatiana Bulgakova: Nanai Shamanic Culture in Indigenous Discourse. Fürstenberg: Siberian Cultural Foundation , 2013 ISBN 978-3-942883-14-6 (available as PDF )
Mareile Flitsch , Ingo Nentwig : Collection and research of folk literature and folklore of the northeast of the People's Republic of China. In: Central Asiatic Journal. 30, 1986, pp. 243-265.
J. Hefter: Moculin. A heroic epic of the Golden. In: Sinica. 14, 1939, pp. 108-150.
VN Jernakov: Goldi in Northeast China. In: Journal of the German Oriental Society. 122, 1972, pp. 173-179.
HM Jettmer: The tribe of the upper Golden (the Sungari-Ussuri group). In: Communications of the Anthropological Society Vienna. 67, 1936/37, pp. 245-276 and 3 plates.
Эрих Кастен (Ed.): Нанайские сказки. (German "Erzählungen der Nanai") Fürstenberg: Kulturstiftung Sibirien , 2012 ISBN 978-3-942883-06-1 (available as PDF )
Owen Lattimore: The Gold tribe of the lower Sungari. In: Memoires of the American Anthropological Association. 40, 1933, pp. 1-77.
Ling Chunsheng: Songhua Jiang xiayou de Hezhe too. (The Hezhen on the lower reaches of the Sungari). 2 volumes, 1 illustrated book. Taibei 1978. (Reprint of the Nanjing 1934 edition).
Bruno Richtsfeld: The Manchu story “Nisan saman-i bithe” by the Hezhe. In: Munich contributions to ethnology. 2, 1989, pp. 117-155.
Bruno Richtsfeld: The shamanism of the Tungus and Daghurs in China to the exclusion of the Manchu. (= Ethnological works. Volume 5). Bonn 1996.
Zhixian You 尤志贤, Wanjin Fu 傅万金: 简明赫哲语汉语对照读本Jianming Hezhe yu Hanyu duizhao duben (Small Hezheni-Chinese Bilingual Reader). 黑龙江省民族研究所 Heilongjiang sheng minzu yanjiu suo (Nationality Research Institute of Heilongjiang Province), 哈尔滨 Harbin 1987, OCLC 46151979 .

Web links

The Hezhe ethnic minority (Chinese government side)
Galina M. Volkova: Association of Indigenous Minority Peoples of the North of Khabarovsk Krai For the Protection of Indigenous Peoples' Rights. ( Memento from July 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)

Individual evidence

↑ Results of the 2002 census: Population by ethnic group and command of the Russian language ( MS Excel ; 38 kB), distribution of languages (except Russian) (Russian; MS Excel ; 29 kB)

[1] Results of the 2002 census: Population by ethnic group and command of the Russian language ( MS Excel ; 38 kB), distribution of languages (except Russian) (Russian; MS Excel ; 29 kB)