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????The Xibe ethnic minority, with a population
of 188,824, is widely distributed over northern China from the Ili
area in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the west to the
northeast provinces of Jilin and Liaoning.
Custom
The Xibe people in northeast and northwest
China have each formed their own characteristics in the course of
development. The language and eating, dressing and living habits
of the Xibes in the northeast are close to those of the local Han
and Manchu people. Living in more compact communities, those in
Xinjiang have preserved more of the characteristics of their language
script and life styles. The Xibe language belongs to the Manchu-Tungusic
branch of the Altaic Language Family. Legend has it that the Xibe
ethnic group once had its own script but has lost it after the Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911) was founded. A growing number of Xibe people
came to learn the Manchu and Han languages, the latter being more
widely used. In Xinjiang, however, some Xibe people know both the
Uygur and Kazak languages. In 1947, certain Xibe intellectuals reformed
the Manchu language they were using by dropping some phonetic symbols
and adding new letters of the Xibe language. This Xibe script has
been used as an official language by the organs of power in the
autonomous areas.
The Xibe ethnic minority in Xinjiang
believed in Polytheism before China??s national liberation in 1949.
In addition to the gods of insect, dragon, land and smallpox, the
Xibes also worshipped divine protectors of homes and animals. Besides,
some Xibe people believe in Shamanism and Buddhism. The Xibe people
are pious worshippers of ancestors, to whom they offer fish every
March and melons every July.
In clothing, the Xibe women in Xinjiang
like close-fitting long gowns reaching the instep. Their front,
lower hem and sleeves are trimmed with laces. Men wear short jackets
with buttons down the front, with the trousers tightly tied around
the ankle. They wear long robes in winter. The Xibe costume in northeastern
China is basically the same as that of the Han people. Rice and
flour are staples for the Xibes. Those in Xinjiang who raise cattle
and sheep like tea with milk, butter, cream, cheese and other dairy
products. April 18 on the lunar calendar is the festival of the
Xibes, who would make flour or bean sauce on this day to mark the
successful conclusion of their ancestors' westward move. In autumn,
they would pickle cabbage, leek, carrot, celery and hot pepper.
The Xibes enjoy hunting and fishing during the slack farming season.
They also cure fish for winter use.
There are usually 100 to 200 households
in each Xibe village, which is enclosed with a wall two or three
miles long. A Xibe house usually consists of three to five rooms
with a courtyard, in which flowers and fruit trees are planted.
The gates of the houses mostly face south. Xibe women are good at
paper cutting, and windows are often decorated with beautiful paper-cuts.
In the past, each Xibe family used
to consist of three generations, sometimes as many as four or five
generations, being influenced by the feudal system. Marriage was,
in most cases, decided by parents. Women held a very low status
and had no right to inherit property. The family was governed by
the most senior member who had great authority. When the father
was living, the sons were not allowed to break up the family and
live apart. In family life, the old and the young each had his position
according to a strict order of importance, and they paid attention
to etiquette. "Hala," a council formed by male clan heads,
handled major issues within the clans and enforced clan rules.
History
The Xibes think they are descendants
of the ancient Xianbei people, and there are many versions of the
origin of this ethnic group. Xianbei was a branch of the ancient
Donghu ethnic group in northern China, roving as nomads over vast
areas between the eastern slopes of the Great Xinggan Mountains
in northeast China. In A.D. 89, the northern Xiongnus, defeated
by the Han Dynasty troops, moved westward, abandoning their land
to the Xianbeis. Between A.D. 158 and 167, the Xianbei people formed
a powerful tribal alliance under chieftain Tan Shihuai. Between
the third and sixth centuries, the Murong, Tuoba, Yuwen and other
powerful tribes of Xianbei established political regimes in the
Yellow River valley, where they mixed with Han people. But a small
number of Xianbeis never strayed very far from their native land
along the Chuoer, Nenjiang and Songhua rivers. They were probably
the ancestors of the Xibe people.
Before the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644),
the Xibe ethnic group lived in a vast area centering around the
present-day Fuyu County in Jilin Province and reaching as far as
Jilin in the east, Hulunbuir in the west, the Nenjiang River in
the north and the Liaohe River in the south. In the late 16th century,
the Manchu nobility rose to power. In order to expand their territory
and consolidate their rule, the Manchu rulers repeatedly tried to
conquer neighboring tribes by offering them money, high position
and marriage, and more often by armed force. Various Xibe tribes
submitted themselves one after another to the authority of the Manchu
rulers. By the end of the 17th century, the Xibe tribes in different
areas had all been incorporated into the "eight banners"
of Mongolia and Manchu. According to the "eight-banner system,"
soldiers in the banners worked the land in time of peace and went
to battles during wartime, shouldering heavy military and labor
services. In less than 150 years after the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
was founded, the Xibe people were removed from their native land
in northeast China to various other places as far as Yunnan and
Xinjiang. The Qing court also gave different treatment to various
Xibe tribes according to the time and way of their submission to
show varying degrees of favor and create differences in classification
among them.
In the mid-18th century, the Qing government
quelled the rebellions in Junggar and other localities of Xinjiang,
and moved Xibes and people of some other ethnic minorities from
northeast China to Xinjiang to consolidate and reinforce the northwestern
border defenses. For this garrisoning assignment which was to last
60 years, 1,016 Xibe officers and soldiers were dispatched, and
they took along more than 2,000 family members. In one year and
five months, the poorly-equipped Xibes scaled mountains and forded
rivers, eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew, trekking across
deserts and grasslands in Mongolia to the faraway northwestern border.
With striking stamina and tenacity, they endured starvation, drought,
diseases and difficulties brought about by Qing officials, big and
small, who embezzled army provisions and goaded them on. This was
how the Xibes came to live far apart in northeast and northwest
China. The heavy toll taken by the trip sharply reduced the originally
small Xibe population.
The ancient Xibe people lived by fishing
and hunting generation after generation. By the mid-16th century,
the social organizations of the Xibe ethnic group had shifted from
blood relationship to geographical relationship. The internal links
in the paternal consanguineous groups became very loose. In each
Xibe village lived members with different surnames. Because of the
low productivity, collective efforts were required in hunting and
fishing. Members of the same village maintained relatively close
links in productive labor, and basically abided by the principle
of joint labor and equal distribution. By the mid-17th century,
the "eight-banner system" had not only brought the Xibe
people under the reign of the Qing Court, but also caused drastic
changes in their economic life and social structure.
The Xibes are a hard-working and courageous
people. Although geographical isolation has given rise to certain
differences between the Xibes in northeast and northwest China in
the course of history, they have all made contributions to developing
and defending China's border areas. The Xibes in Xinjiang in particular
have made great contribution to the development of farming and water
conservancy in the Ili and Tacheng areas. Since the Qing court stopped
supplying provisions to the Xibes after they reached Xinjiang, they
had to reclaim wasteland and cut irrigation ditches without the
help of the government. They first repaired an old canal and reclaimed
667 hectares of land. With the increase of population, the land
became insufficient. Despite such difficulties as lack of grain
and seeds and repeated natural disasters, the Xibe people were determined
to turn the wasteland on the south bank of the Ili River into farmland
to support themselves and benefit future generations. After many
failures and setbacks, they succeeded in 1802 after six years of
hard work in cutting on mountain cliffs a 200-km irrigation channel
to draw water from the Ili River. With the completion of this project,
several Xibe communities settled along the channel.
Later, the Xibe people constructed
another canal to draw water from the upper reaches of the Ili River
in the mid-19th century. In the 1870s, they cut two more irrigation
channels, obtaining enough water for large-scale reclamation and
farming. The local Kazak and Mongolian people learned a lot of farming
techniques from the Xibes.
While building irrigation channels
and opening up wasteland, the Xibes also joined soldiers from other
ethnic groups in guarding the northwestern border. In the 1820s,
more than 800 Xibe officers and soldiers fought alongside Qing government
troops on a punitive expedition against rebels backed by British
colonialists. In a decisive battle they wiped out the enemy forces
and captured the rebel chief.
In 1876, the Qing government decided
to recover Xinjiang from the Tsarist Russian invaders. The Xibes
stored up army provisions in preparation for the expedition despite
difficulties in life and production inflicted by the marauders and
cooperated with the Qing troops in mopping up the Russian colonialists
south of the Tianshan Mountain and recapturing Ili.
The Xibe people in Xinjiang staged
an uprising in support of the Revolution of 1911 soon after it broke
out. Those in northeast China joined the Han and Manchu people in
anti-Japanese activities after that part of the country fell under
Japanese rule in 1931. Many Xibes joined such patriotic forces as
the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, the Army of Volunteers and the
Broad Sword Society. Quite a few Xibes joined the Chinese Communist
Party and the Communist Youth League to fight for national liberation.
In September 1944, struggle against Kuomintang rule broke out in
the Ili, Tacheng, Altaic areas in Xinjiang. The Xibes there formed
their own armed forces and fought along with other insurgents.
Before 1949, the feudal relations of
production in Xibe society emerged and developed with the incorporation
of the Xibes into the "Eight Banners" of the Manchus,
under which the banner's land was owned "publicly" and
managed by the banner office. Irrigated land was mostly distributed
among Banner officers and soldiers in armor according to their ranks
as their emolument. The rest was leased to peasants. This system
of distribution from the very beginning deprived the Xibe people
of the irrigated land which they had opened up with blood and sweat.
In the 1880s, the "banner land
system" for the Xibe people in northeast China began to collapse,
and the banner land quickly fell under the control of a few landlords.
Although the banner system stipulated that the banner land could
not be bought or sold, cruel feudal exploitation gradually reduced
the Xibe people to dire poverty and deprived them of their land,
and an increasing number of them became farmhands and tenants, leading
a very miserable life.
Life After 1949
The founding of the People??s Republic
of China in 1949 ushered in a bright future for the Xibe people,
who have since enjoyed political equality as one of the smaller
ethnic minorities in China. In March 1954, the
Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County was established on the site of Ningxi
County in Xinjiang, where the Xibe people live in compact communities.
Since 1949, a series of social reforms
have been carried out in the Xibe areas. Industrial and agricultural
production has grown tremendously and people's living standards
have gone up accordingly. The economic and cultural leaps in the
Qapqal Autonomous County are a measure of the great success the
Xibe people have achieved. As a result of their hard work, grain
output in the county in 1981 was nearly four times the pre-liberation
average, and the number of cattle three times as big. Small industrial
enterprises including coal mines, farm machinery works, fur and
food processing mills, which were non-existent before, have been
built for the benefit of people's life. There are in the county
12 middle schools and 62 primary schools enrolling 91.3 per cent
of the children. The Xibe people have always been more developed
educationally. Many Xibe intellectuals know several languages and
work as teachers, translators and publishers. Horse riding and archery
are two favorite sports among the Xibe people. Since 1949, endemic
diseases with a high mortality rate such as the Qapqal disease have
been stamped out, and the population of the Xibe has been on the
increase.
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