A Place Called Manchuria

     Most people do not realize how closely various ethnic groups in a place that is called Manchuria are tied together.  It is a place where Russians, Chinese, Koreans, Mongols, and Manchus are all intermeshed, have been forced to intermingle through circumstances of history.  In The Manchurian Tales I tried to show that by using the various characters of Russian Korean descent and their adventures to tell the story.  Despite the fact that Manchuria today is simply a part of China, it nevertheless was a separate region that was inhabited by non-Chinese people throughout the ages.  China did manage to send in many settlers and the population today is predominantly Han Chinese.  But until fairly recently in history, it did not have such high Chinese population.
     In previous blogs I mentioned that Manchuria, or the region that is known as Manchuria, was for centuries part of several Korean empires.  The earliest was Gochosun, from which the name Chosun was taken for a later empire and to this day the name Chosun is used to refer to Korea.  Gochosun empire was followed by one of the greatest Korean empires, the Koguryo.  Koguryo fell after about a 700 year period.  From Koguryo the name Koryo was derived, a later empire, and from which the name Korea was born.  The last Korean empire to rule over Manchuria was Balhae or Palhe, which lasted only a couple of centuries.  However, as I stated in an earlier blog, it is unlikely that all of the people simply left when the empires fell.  What happened was that they melded into the local population of various tribes, tribes that were scattered throughout and went by different names, later to be called "Manchu" tribes.  I am not trying to claim that whole territory for Korea, all this took place a long, long time ago.  I am only pointing out that the people of Manchuria are closely related to Koreans, for they are descendants of ancient Koreans.
     The Korean influence in Manchu culture is quite obvious.  The traditional Manchu dress, particularly women's dress, owes more to ancient Korean attire than Chinese.  The large, elaborate headdresses worn by Manchu women are an almost exact duplicate of ancient Korean headdresses worn by high born women of Gochosun and later Koguryo.  The Korean headdresses for women became smaller, and made mostly of hair, while the Manchu headdress stayed the same as it was worn by women of Goshosun and Koguryo.  This is but just a small piece of evidence tying the Manchu culture with Korean culture.
     Some Chinese claim that Manchuria was always Chinese, but that makes no sense in many regards.  The first part of the Great Wall that was built around 600 BC was to protect China's northeastern frontier.  The wall was built from the Yellow Sea, west of the port of Dairen and the ancient Manchu capital of Mukden, on northward to Inner Mongolia.  Chinese themselves referred to the region east of the wall as guandong. the other side of the pass or wall!  It was almost as if the Chinese felt that the region did not deserve a proper name.  Later it became known as Kwantung, and the Japanese adopted that name for their army which was stationed in Manchuria.
     When the Manchu army conquered China, they breached the great wall at its southernmost point by the sea shore, to invade China.  The Manchu army consisted of several "banners" made up of different ethnic groups.  These "banners" and the bannermen consisted of Mongols, Chinese, Koreans, and various Manchu tribes.  They were all a part of the great Manchu army that conquered China and established the Ching Dynasty, the last dynasty in China.  Incidentally, the great Mongol army of Chingis Khan was also built the same way.  It consisted of various banners made up of different ethnic groups.  Only a small portion was actually of Mongol tribe!  The population of Mongolia was never big enough to sustain such a great army, so the Mongols used other ethnic groups as their "bannermen."  The Manchus did the same thing.
     The eastern part of Manchuria that was known as the Outer Manchuria until it was annexed by Russia around the time of our civil war, also had a mixed population of various Manchu tribes, Mongols, and Chinese.  The city of Vladivostok, which was just a small Manchu fishing village, had a large population of Chinese who grew vegetables and also worked the copper mines.  In 1860 when Russians first set foot in that region, it was still just a fishing village.  The first Russian building did not go up until a few years later, after Russia had annexed all of Outer Manchuria.  By the time Vladivostok was built as a Russian city and given its Russian name, Russia was eyeing the rest of Manchuria and gained concession from China to build its own city of Harbin and build the Southern Manchurian railroad.  Chronologically speaking, as Russian cities, both Vladivostok and later Harbin, are much younger than just about any major city in America!  So, Russia too, with its annexation and just simple colonization (Harbin) managed to get into the mix in Manchuria.  Half of the original territory known as Manchuria is now Russian, the other half is Chinese.  Yet, the native population is racially and ethnically of Korean descent, sort of!  But they were Koreans an awful long time ago, today they are simply natives of the region!