They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. Manchus form the largest branch of the Tungusic peoples and are distributed throughout China, forming the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. About half of the population live in Liaoning and one-fifth in Hebei. It appears that manju was an old term for the Jianzhou Jurchens , although the etymology is not well understood.
The Jiu Manzhou Dang , archives of early 17th century documents, contains the earliest use of Manchu. Meng Sen, a scholar of the Qing dynasty, agreed. Another scholar, Chang Shan, thinks Manju is a compound word.
There are other hypotheses, such as Fu Sinian 's "etymology of Jianzhou"; Zhang Binglin 's "etymology of Manshi"; Isamura Sanjiro 's "etymology of Wuji and Mohe"; Sun Wenliang's "etymology of Manzhe"; "etymology of mangu n river" and so on. The Manchus are descended from the Jurchen people who earlier established the Jin dynasty β in China.
The Mohe practiced pig farming extensively and were mainly sedentary, [20] and also used both pig and dog skins for coats. They were predominantly farmers and grew soybeans, wheat, millet and rice, in addition to hunting.
In the 10th century AD, the term Jurchen first appeared in documents of the late Tang dynasty in reference to the state of Balhae in present-day northeastern China. The Jurchens were sedentary, [21] settled farmers with advanced agriculture. They farmed grain and millet as their cereal crops, grew flax, and raised oxen, pigs, sheep and horses. In , Jurchen pirates raided Japan for slaves.
