Where Did the Name “Manchu” Come From?
Where Did the Name “Manchu” Come From?
MING YE
9/28/20269 min read
Where Did the Name “Manchu” Come From?
The Historical Transformation from Jurchen to Manchu and the Competing Theories Behind the Name
By MING YE
Xinbin Manchu Autonomous County occupies an important place in the history of the Manchus. It is associated not only with Nurhaci, founder of the Later Jin, and Hong Taiji, the ruler who later proclaimed the Qing dynasty, but also with the early rise of the Manchu people.
The ethnic name Manchu derives from the term Manju (满洲). Yet during Nurhaci's early career, “Manju” had not been formally established as either the official name of a people or the name of a state.
On the fifth day of the first lunar month in 1596, Nurhaci asked the Korean official Sin Chung-il to carry a written reply to the king of Joseon. At the beginning of this document, Nurhaci identified himself as the ruler of the people under the Jianzhou Guard of the “Jurchen country.”
This suggests that before Nurhaci formally assumed the title of khan, he continued to identify himself in terms associated with the Jurchens and the Jianzhou Jurchens.
The situation changed dramatically several decades later.
In 1635, the ninth year of the Tiancong reign, Hong Taiji issued a famous proclamation:
“Our country originally had the names Manju, Hada, Ula, Yehe, and Hoifa. Ignorant people have often called us Jušen [Jurchen]… Our country has established the name Manju, which has been transmitted through generations. From now on, everyone shall use the original name Manju for our country and shall no longer improperly use the former designation.”
The following year, Hong Taiji formally assumed the title of emperor, changed the dynastic name from Great Jin to Great Qing, and inaugurated the Chongde reign.
From that point onward, “Jurchen” ceased to function as the official designation promoted by the Qing ruling house. The state became the Great Qing, while Manju—Manchu—became the new collective designation.
But this raises a difficult historical question.
Only about forty years separated Nurhaci's identification with the Jurchens from Hong Taiji's rejection of the name Jušen as an inappropriate designation.
Why did Hong Taiji adopt the name Manju? And where did the word “Manju” itself come from?
Historians have discussed this question for generations, but no single explanation has gained universal acceptance.
Several major theories have been proposed.
1. The Ancestral-Founder Theory: Bukūri Yongšon and the Legendary Origin of “Manju”
Qing official histories contain a famous origin legend concerning the ancestors of the Aisin Gioro imperial house.
Versions of the story appear in such works as the Veritable Records of the Qing Founder, the Manzhou Shilu (满洲实录), the Researches on Manchu Origins (满洲源流考), and writings concerning the history of the Eight Banners.
The legend tells not only of the heavenly maiden Fekulen, who became pregnant after swallowing a mysterious red fruit and gave birth to Bukūri Yongšon, but also associates this ancestral founder with the establishment of the name Manju.
According to the opening narrative of the Manzhou Shilu, northeast of the Changbai Mountains stood Bukūri Mountain, beneath which lay a lake called Bulhūri.
One day, three heavenly maidens descended to bathe there.
The eldest was Enggulen, the second Jenggulen, and the youngest Fekulen.
After they had finished bathing, a sacred magpie carrying a red fruit dropped it upon Fekulen's clothing. Fascinated by the beautiful fruit, she placed it in her mouth while dressing.
The fruit unexpectedly entered her body, and she became pregnant.
She later gave birth to a son who, according to the legend, could speak immediately and rapidly grew to adulthood.
His mother told him:
“Heaven has given you birth so that you may bring order to a troubled country.”
The young man then traveled downstream by boat until he reached Odoli.
Three clans living there were engaged in continual conflict. When they encountered the extraordinary stranger, they asked about his origins.
He replied that he had been born to the heavenly maiden Fekulen, that his clan name was Aisin Gioro, and that his name was Bukūri Yongšon. Heaven, he said, had sent him to end their disorder.
The inhabitants accepted him as their ruler, and the Qing historical tradition subsequently associated him with the establishment of the name Manju.
This produced a complete imperial origin narrative:
a heavenly maiden gives birth to the ancestral founder, and the ancestral founder establishes Manju.
Yet mythology and history are not the same thing.
According to the interpretation presented here, this particular origin story had not yet taken shape in Nurhaci's time. In 1635, Hong Taiji reportedly first heard a related tradition from a man named Mukšike, who had surrendered from the Hūrha region of Heilongjiang.
Only afterward was the legend connected with the genealogy of the Aisin Gioro imperial family.
For this reason, the claim that the ancient ancestral founder himself established the name Manju cannot be regarded as reliable historical evidence for the actual origin of the word.
2. The Mañjuśrī Theory: Did “Manju” Come from a Buddhist Name?
Another well-known explanation connects the name Manju with Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom in Buddhism.
The Qing work Researches on Manchu Origins (满洲源流考), compiled under imperial sponsorship during the Qianlong reign, states that “Manzhou” was originally written as “Manzhu” and discusses Tibetan references to the Qing emperor as a manifestation or ruler associated with Mañjuśrī.
Mañjuśrī is traditionally translated into Chinese as Miaojixiang (妙吉祥), “Wonderful Auspiciousness.”
From this resemblance, some writers proposed that Manju ultimately derived from the Buddhist term Mañjuśrī.
The chronological evidence, however, creates difficulties for this theory.
Formal diplomatic exchanges between Hong Taiji's government and Tibetan Buddhist authorities intensified only later. In 1639, the fourth year of the Chongde reign, Hong Taiji sent an invitation toward Tibetan Buddhist religious authorities.
Yet the term Manju appears in sources from considerably earlier.
The Old Manchu Archives (满文老档), for example, contains a record dated to 1613 in which a story concerning the Ming emperor refers to the ruler of the “Jurchen Manju state.”
Whatever interpretation is placed on this passage, the important point is chronological:
the name Manju was already in circulation before Hong Taiji's later contacts with Tibetan Buddhist authorities.
Therefore, the argument that the name itself originated from Tibetan references to the Qing emperor as “Mañjuśrī Great Emperor” is difficult to sustain on chronology alone.
The resemblance between Manju and Mañjuśrī may have encouraged later symbolic interpretations, but that does not necessarily establish the historical origin of the ethnonym.
3. The Chieftain's Title Theory: From “Mandu” to “Manzhu” and Finally “Manju”
A third theory attempts to trace the name through a much longer linguistic and historical development:
Mandu → Manzhu → Manju
This explanation begins with terminology associated with earlier peoples of northeastern Asia.
Chinese historical records describe the ancestors of later Jurchen populations under names such as Sushen and, during the Sui and Tang periods, Mohe.
The New Book of Tang, for example, contains a description of the Heishui Mohe in which a hereditary chief is associated with the term transcribed into Chinese as mandu (瞒咄).
Centuries later, during the early Ming period, an important Jianzhou Jurchen leader was named Li Manzhu (李满住).
Li Manzhu, a grandson of Ahacu, served as a major leader of the Jianzhou Guard for more than forty years and became one of the best-known Jurchen chiefs of his period.
Historian Meng Sen argued that the earlier mandu and the later Manzhu represented essentially the same term recorded with different Chinese characters in different periods.
According to this interpretation, after Li Manzhu's era the word Manzhu gradually became associated more generally with the title or designation of a prominent Jurchen chief.
When Nurhaci emerged as the dominant leader of the Jianzhou Jurchens, people could likewise refer to him using this designation.
One piece of evidence cited in support of this argument comes from the aftermath of the Battle of Sarhū in 1619.
After the southern Joseon contingent was defeated, its commander Gang Hong-rip entered negotiations with the Later Jin side. A Later Jin officer reportedly told him:
“Manzhu [Nurhaci] is inside the city. You cannot return without going to see him.”
On the basis of evidence of this kind, scholar Teng Shaozhen proposed that the development of the term began with Manzhu as a designation for a powerful chieftain.
Neighboring peoples may then have begun referring to the community ruled by the “Manzhu” as the Manzhu tribe.
Over time, the name of the ruler could thus become associated with the political community itself.
Through differences in Chinese transcription, Manzhu could subsequently develop into the written form Manzhou (满洲), corresponding to Manchu manju.
According to this theory, the development occurred in stages:
a designation for a prominent chief → the community ruled by that chief → the name of a political entity → a collective ethnic name.
This interpretation also helps explain why early sources could use Manju in ways that appear political as well as ethnic.
For example, a document sent by Nurhaci to the Mongol leader Oba Taiji in 1625 contains a reference to “our Manju country.”
Then, in 1635, Hong Taiji ordered that the old designation Jušen no longer be used and that the people be called Manju.
The following year he replaced the dynastic name Great Jin with Great Qing.
After the state acquired the new dynastic name Qing, Manju could increasingly function specifically as the collective designation of the people rather than the name of the state.
Among the theories discussed here, this “chieftain's title” explanation provides a relatively coherent historical sequence.
It nevertheless remains a scholarly interpretation rather than a universally accepted conclusion.
4. Did “Manju” Come from the Chinese Expression “Barbarian Lord”?
Another explanation derives the word from the Chinese expression manzhu (蛮主), literally something like “barbarian lord.”
According to this theory, Ming sources supposedly used terms of this kind for northern or northeastern rulers. The expression was later considered inelegant and transformed into characters such as “Manzhu” and eventually “Manzhou.”
There are significant problems with this explanation.
The term Tümen, sometimes represented in Ming Chinese sources by characters interpreted in this argument as tuman or tuman, was associated with Mongol groups rather than being a general designation for the Qing ruler.
More importantly, forms of Manju/Manzhou were already in circulation before the Qing conquest of China proper.
For these reasons, the derivation from “barbarian lord” is difficult to establish.
5. The “Pigsty” Legend
One of the most unusual theories was recorded by a Russian ethnographic writer.
According to this story, during an early conflict between a northeastern people and Chinese forces, a defeated chieftain escaped and hid inside a pigsty.
Chinese soldiers pursued him but failed to discover him.
One soldier supposedly exclaimed words meaning “full of pigs” and then departed.
The chieftain survived, later established a state, and commemorated his miraculous escape by adopting a name derived from this expression.
This story belongs much more clearly to the realm of folklore than serious historical explanation.
Although animal terms did appear in some ancient northeastern titles and personal names, the supposed pigsty episode does not appear to have a corresponding tradition within Manchu historical memory.
It therefore provides little reliable evidence for the etymology of Manju.
6. The Place-Name Theory
Another explanation attempts to derive Manju from a geographical name.
The Hun River region was historically important to the Jianzhou Jurchens. Certain rivers in this broader area were known in Ming sources by names such as the Tongjia River, Pozhu River, or Puzhou River.
Some researchers therefore suggested that Manzhou might have developed through phonetic transformation from one of these geographical names.
The problem is that the early center of the Jianzhou Jurchens was more directly associated with the Suzi River region.
Connecting the ethnonym Manju specifically with the name of the Pozhu River therefore requires several uncertain phonetic and geographical steps.
For this reason, the place-name explanation has also failed to gain broad acceptance.
So Where Did the Name “Manchu” Really Come From?
The origin of Manju, later rendered in English as Manchu, remains one of the interesting unresolved questions in the study of early Qing and Manchu history.
Several different explanations have been proposed:
the legendary ancestral-founder theory associated with Bukūri Yongšon;
the Buddhist Mañjuśrī theory;
the theory tracing the word through Mandu → Manzhu → Manju as a designation connected with prominent Jurchen chieftains;
the derivation from the Chinese expression “barbarian lord”;
the folkloric “pigsty” story;
and theories deriving the name from an earlier geographical designation.
Among these explanations, the theory connecting Manju with an earlier chieftain's designation provides a comparatively coherent sequence of historical development.
But it is important not to turn a plausible theory into an established fact.
The available historical materials do not yet allow us to say with certainty exactly where the word Manju first originated.
What is considerably clearer is the political transformation of the name itself.
During Nurhaci's rise, Jurchen (Jušen) remained an important designation.
The term Manju was nevertheless already present before Hong Taiji's formal proclamation of 1635.
In that year, Hong Taiji explicitly ordered the abandonment of Jušen in favor of Manju.
In 1636, he then replaced the dynastic name Great Jin with Great Qing.
From this point onward, Qing became the dynastic and state name, while Manju—Manchu—became the collective name of the people associated with the ruling house and the Eight Banners.
The mystery therefore lies not in when Manju became the officially promoted name, for that historical transition is relatively clear.
The deeper and still debated question is:
Where did the word “Manju” itself come from before Hong Taiji made it official?
After generations of historical research, that question still has no universally accepted answer.
— MING YE