Writing Adolescent Fiction/Character names/Manchu

Usage note Manchu names are the names of the Manchu people in their own language. In addition to such names, most modern Manchus live in China and possess Chinese names. Traditionally, Manchus were called only by their given names in daily life although each belonged to a clan with its own clan name (Manchu: hala). Each clan would be divided into several sub-clans (mukūn), but these did not have separate names. Given names Manchu given names were used solely or with titles but not with clan names. For example, Fiyanggū, who was from the Donggo clan, belonged to the Manchu Plain White Banner and distinguished himself in the campaigns against the Dzungars, was usually called "Fiyanggū be" (Lord Fiyanggū) since Fiyanggū (youngest) was a relatively major given name. Unlike Chinese and Europeans, he was not to be called by combination of family name and given name, i.e. Donggo Fiyanggū or Fiyanggū Donggo. Although we can find Aisin-Gioro Ulhicun and other figures, but it is a very modern practice. To specify the clan name, Manchus would have said something like "Donggo hala-i Fiyanggū" (Fiyanggū of the Donggo clan). The Manchus had an immense variety of given names. For most of them, it is difficult to find the meanings. Some scholars try to categorize them. Erich Haenisch classified them into sixteen categories including animals (Eje: bull, Yelu: boar), plants (Fodo: willow, Maca: garlic), qualities (Ayan: big, Bayan: rich, Niowanggiyan: green), etc. Ch'en Chieh-hsien classified Manchu personal names into seven main categories. But there are many names that are not included in either categorization. Some Manchu names seem nothing more than partial phonetic alternation of other ones. For example, the names of brothers of a clan were Ulušun, Hūlušun, Ilušun, Delušun, Fulušun and Jalušun in order of age, where only the initial syllables are changed. Another example is Nurhaci. His brothers were Šurgaci and Murhaci. Like other non-Chinese terms, Manchu names are often transcribed into Chinese in a chaotic pattern since they were taken from Chinese sources. It is difficult to reconstruct original Manchu spellings from their Chinese transcription. Sometimes the first syllable of a Manchu given name is misinterpreted as a Chinese surname. For instance, the Manchu official Tulišen, who wrote a famous travel record, is mistaken for a Chinese man named "Tu Lishen." Nikan (Han Chinese) was a common first name for Manchus.Mark C. Elliott The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China https://books.google.com/books?id=_qtgoTIAiKUC&pg=PA242#v=onepage&q&f=false 2001 Stanford University Press 978-0-8047-4684-7 242– Nikan Wailan was a Jurchen leader who was an enemy of Nurhaci.Pamela Kyle Crossley A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology https://books.google.com/?id=Wn4iv_RJv8oC&pg=PA172&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 15 February 2000 University of California Press 978-0-520-92884-8 172–FREDERIC WAKEMAN JR. The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-century China https://books.google.com/?id=8nXLwSG2O8AC&pg=PA49&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1985 University of California Press 978-0-520-04804-1 49–Frederic Wakeman Fall of Imperial China https://books.google.com/?id=ORBmFSFcJKoC&pg=PA83&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1 January 1977 Simon and Schuster 978-0-02-933680-9 83–Arthur W. Hummel Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing period: 1644-1912 https://books.google.com/?id=YqNHAQAAIAAJ&q=nikan+wailan+chinese+official&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official 1991 SMC publ. 978-957-638-066-2 15, 592Kenneth M. Swope The Military Collapse of China's Ming Dynasty, 1618-44 https://books.google.com/?id=WRaoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 23 January 2014 Routledge 978-1-134-46209-4 17–The Cambridge History of China: Pt. 1 ; The Ch'ing Empire to 1800 https://books.google.com/?id=SAjRWQbINSgC&pg=PA738&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1978 Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-24334-6 738–Studia Orientalia https://books.google.com/?id=XUFZAAAAMAAJ&q=nikan+wailan+chinese+official&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official 1999 Finnish Oriental Society 978-951-9380-43-8 247Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger History of China https://books.google.com/?id=vWFCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA178&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1882 W. H. Allen & Company 178–Elena Vladimirovna Boĭkova R. B. Rybakov Kinship in the Altaic World: Proceedings of the 48th Permanent International Altaistic Conference, Moscow 10-15 July, 2005 https://books.google.com/?id=vqxGWCXaMBUC&pg=PA294&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 2006 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag 978-3-447-05416-4 294–Jonathan Porter Imperial China, 1350–1900 https://books.google.com/?id=MAFiCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA117&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 4 February 2016 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 978-1-4422-2293-9 117–Ian C. Hannah A brief history of eastern Asia https://books.google.com/?id=aF6NKVpZF-gC&pg=PA140&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1900 T.F. Unwin 140–Evelyn S. Rawski Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives https://books.google.com/?id=6p1NCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA65&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 5 June 2015 Cambridge University Press 978-1-316-30035-0 65–Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger The History of China https://books.google.com/?id=7k4bAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA621&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1808 W. Thacker & Company 621–John Ross The Manchus: Or The Reigning Dynasty of China; Their Rise and Progress https://books.google.com/?id=g-xBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA9&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1880 J. and R. Parlane 9–Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association https://books.google.com/?id=XrKAAAAAMAAJ&q=nikan+wailan+chinese+official&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official 1933 Kraus Reprint Corporation 11Tōyō Bunko (Japan) Memoirs of the Research Department https://books.google.com/?id=oZbWAAAAMAAJ&q=nikan+wailan+chinese+official&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official 1957 41Chʻing Shih Wen Tʻi https://books.google.com/?id=3nMzAAAAMAAJ&q=nikan+wailan+chinese+official&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official 1989 Society for Qing Studies 70Pamela Kyle Crossley Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World https://books.google.com/?id=NUTE8V-WhwoC&pg=PA41&dq=nikan+wailan+chinese+official#v=onepage&q=nikan%20wailan%20chinese%20official&f=false 1990 Princeton University Press 0-691-00877-9 41– Nikan was the name of one the Aisin Gioro princes and grandsons of Nurhaci who supported Prince Dorgon.Evelyn S. Rawski The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions https://books.google.com/?id=5iN5J9G76h0C&pg=PA99&dq=nikan+mandahai#v=onepage&q=nikan%20mandahai&f=false 15 November 1998 University of California Press 978-0-520-92679-0 99–FREDERIC WAKEMAN JR. The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-century China https://books.google.com/?id=8nXLwSG2O8AC&pg=PA902&dq=nikan+mandahai#v=onepage&q=nikan%20mandahai&f=false 1985 University of California Press 978-0-520-04804-1 902–Adam Yuen-chung Lui Two Rulers in One Reign: Dorgon and Shun-chih, 1644-1660 https://books.google.com/?id=OtJwAAAAMAAJ&q=nikan+mandahai&dq=nikan+mandahai 1 January 1989 Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University 978-0-7315-0654-5 41, 46John Ross The Manchus: Or The Reigning Dynasty of China; Their Rise and Progress https://books.google.com/?id=g-xBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA336&dq=nikan+mandahai#v=onepage&q=nikan%20mandahai&f=false 1880 J. and R. Parlane 336–Arthur William Hummel Eminent Chinese of the Chʻing Period (1644-1912) https://books.google.com/?id=m4RCAAAAYAAJ&q=nikan+mandahai&dq=nikan+mandahai 1943 U.S. Government Printing Office 17, 217, 591Ostasiatische Zeitschrift https://books.google.com/?id=RHlMAAAAYAAJ&q=nikan+mandahai&dq=nikan+mandahai 1926 Oesterheld & Company 45–46George Alexander Kennedy Selected Works https://books.google.com/?id=zCEtAAAAMAAJ&q=nikan+mandahai&dq=nikan+mandahai 1964 Far Eastern Publications, Yale University 522Erich Hauer Huang-ts'ing k'ai-kuo fang-lüeh: Die gründung des mandschurischen kaiserreiches https://books.google.com/?id=ObgbAQAAMAAJ&q=nikan+mandahai&dq=nikan+mandahai 1 January 1926 W. de Gruyter 545, 579 Nurhaci's first son was Cuyen, one of whose sons was Nikan.Serie orientale Roma https://books.google.com/?id=CB08AAAAIAAJ&q=nikan+mandahai&dq=nikan+mandahai 1970 Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente 174 During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus gradually adopted two-character Chinese given names (but not family names), and used Manchu transcription of them. We can find a tendency to leave a space between two syllables of the name of an exalted personage in the Manchu script and to stick them together for common people. For example, the real name of the Qianlong Emperor was Hung li, which was derived from the Chinese name Hongli (弘曆). Certain combinations of Chinese sounds that never appeared at native Manchu terms make it difficult to determine syllable boundaries. The Manchus introduced what is called "Mongolian Sibe Syllable Boundary Marker" in Unicode. As the name says, it is formalized in the Sibe script but can also be found in Manchu literature. The marker represented as the grapheme of the middle form of letter A is put on a syllable boundary so that we can distinguish Guangying (Guwang'ing) from Guanjing (Guwanging), etc. Clan names Like the Mongols, the Manchus were simply called by given name but they had their own clan names (hala in Manchu). Hala consisted of several mukūn, the unit of exogamy. Unlike hala, mukūn did not have corresponding names. The Comprehensive Book of the Eight Manchurian Banners' Surname-Clans (八旗滿洲氏族通譜 Baqi Manzhou Zhizu Tongpu), compiled in the middle 18th century, records many Manchu clan names. Among more than a thousand names, about 600 names are the Manchus'. Gioro, a major clan name, is the one of the few hala that has various variants such as Irgen, Silin and Šušu, possibly to distinguish from the imperial family name Aisin-Gioro. Since the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, Manchus have increasingly adopted Han Chinese surnames, and today, very few Manchus bear traditional Manchu family names. See also List of Manchu clans Chinese name External links 满族姓氏 - 满族文化网 (Simplified Chinese) References Stary, Giovanni. A Dictionary of Manchu Names: A Name Index to the Manchu Version of the "Complete Genealogies of the Manchu Clans and Families of the Eight Banners" Jakūn gūsai Manjusai mukūn hala be uheri ejehe bithe Baqi Manzhou shizu tongpu, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz ed., 2000. Aetas Manjurica 8. Writing Adolescent Fiction