The Duchers (russian: дючеры or дучеры) was the Russian name of the people populating the shores of the middle course of the
Amur River
The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...
, approximately from the mouth of the
Zeya down to the mouth of the
Ussuri
The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...
, and possibly even somewhat further downstream.
[Амурская область: История НАРОДЫ АМУРСКОЙ ЗЕМЛИ]
(Amur Oblast - the History. The peoples of the Amur Land) Their ethnic identity is not known with certainty, but it is usually assumed that they were a
Tungusic people
Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are Indigenous peoples of Siberia, native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.
The Tungusic phylum is divided into two main ...
, related to the
Jurchens
Jurchen (Manchu: ''Jušen'', ; zh, 女真, ''Nǚzhēn'', ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples, descended from the Donghu people. They lived in the northeast of China, later known as Manch ...
and/or the
Nanais
The Nanai people are a Tungusic people of East Asia who have traditionally lived along Heilongjiang (Amur), Songhuajiang (Sunggari) and Wusuli River on the Middle Amur Basin. The ancestors of the Nanai were the Jurchens of northernmost Manch ...
.
The name of this ethnic group is sometimes also written in English as "Jucher".
Life of the Duchers
The total number of Duchers (including other related Manchu groups, but not the
Daurs
The Daur people (Khalkha Mongolian: Дагуур, ''Daguur''; ) are a Mongolic people in Northeast China. The Daur form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised in the People's Republic of China. They numbered 131,992 according to the la ...
or
Evenks
The Evenks (also spelled Ewenki or Evenki based on their endonym )Autonym: (); russian: Эвенки (); (); formerly known as Tungus or Tunguz; mn, Хамниган () or Aiwenji () are a Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Eve ...
) of the Amur Valley at the time of the
appearance of the Russian explorers in the region ca. 1650 has been estimated by modern scholars at 14,000.
[
According to the Russian explorers of the time, the Duchers, as well as the related groups, the Goguls, and their north-western neighbors, the ]Daurs
The Daur people (Khalkha Mongolian: Дагуур, ''Daguur''; ) are a Mongolic people in Northeast China. The Daur form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised in the People's Republic of China. They numbered 131,992 according to the la ...
, were agriculturalists. They grew rye, wheat, barley, millet, oats, peas, and hemp, as well as a number of vegetables. The Duchers had horses and cattle; pigs were a particularly important source of meat. They did some hunting and fishing as well.[
According to the 17th-century ]Cossacks
The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...
' reports, the Duchers lived in fortified villages (russian: городок) with 60 and more houses in each.[А.М.Пастухов (A.M. Pastukhov]
К вопросу о характере укреплений поселков приамурских племен середины XVII века и значении нанайского термина «гасян»
(Regarding the fortification techniques used in the settlements of the Amur Valley tribes in the mid-17th century, and the meaning of the Nanai word "гасян" (''gasyan''))
The predecessor of the Qing
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
fortress Aigun
Aigun (; Manchu: ''aihūn hoton''; ) was a historic Chinese town in northern Manchuria, situated on the right bank of the Amur River, some south (downstream) from the central urban area of Heihe (which is across the Amur from the mouth of th ...
(which was originally located on the left - now Russian - bank of the Amur, opposite to its later location) was a Ducher town, currently known to the archaeologists as the Grodekovo site (Гродековское городище), after the nearby village of Grodekovo.[ It is located south of the city of ]Blagoveshchensk
Blagoveshchensk ( rus, Благове́щенск, p=bləgɐˈvʲeɕːɪnsk, meaning ''City of the Annunciation'') is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, opp ...
and the fall of the Zeya into the Amur. Yerofey Khabarov
Yerofey Pavlovich Khabarov or Svyatitsky (russian: Ерофе́й Па́влович Хаба́ров (Святи́тский), ; the first name is often spelled Ярофей (Yarofey) in contemporary accounts; 1603 – after 1671), was a Russia ...
reported the existence of this town (which he called Aytyun (Айтюн)) to the Yakutsk
Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one ...
voivode
Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...
D. Frantsbekov in 1652.[ According to the archaeologists, this fortress was first built around the end of the first or beginning of the second millennium CE.][
The "tribute" of furs, grain, and livestock, collected (or looted, as the case may be) by the Cossacks from the ]Daurs
The Daur people (Khalkha Mongolian: Дагуур, ''Daguur''; ) are a Mongolic people in Northeast China. The Daur form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised in the People's Republic of China. They numbered 131,992 according to the la ...
and the Duchers was the main economic benefit derived by the Russians from their expansion in the region in the early 1650s, and, in order to deny it to them, the Qing government starting in 1654 resettled the Ducher farmers from the Amur valley to the Sungari
The Songhua or Sunghwa River (also Haixi or Xingal, russian: Сунгари ''Sungari'') is one of the primary rivers of China, and the longest tributary of the Amur. It flows about from the Changbai Mountains on the China–North Korea bor ...
and Hurka
Hurka is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Martin Hurka (born 1993), Czech footballer
* Mykhailo Hurka (born 1975), Ukrainian footballer and manager
*Thomas Hurka
Thomas Hurka (born 1952) is a Canadian philosopher who holds ...
Rivers further south. The Daurs were resettled (to the Nenjiang River
The Nen River or Nenjiang (), or Nonni () is a river in Northeast China. The Nen River flows through the northern part of Heilongjiang Province and the northeastern section of Inner Mongolia, some parts of the river forming the border between the ...
Valley) as well.[ When Onufriy Stepanov visited the lower Sungari in 1656, he found the Ducher villages deserted.
]
Ethnic identity
The ethnic identification of the Duchers and even the meaning of their name (and whether it was also a self-name) remain controversial.[A.M. Pastukhov, "Regarding the fortification techniques ..." Quote: "Ученые до сих пор не пришли к единому мнению касательно языковой принадлежности этих племен олоно-дауры (с подгруппой гогули) и дючеры / "Researchers still don't have a consensus regarding the linguistic affiliation of these tribes he Solon language-]Daurs
The Daur people (Khalkha Mongolian: Дагуур, ''Daguur''; ) are a Mongolic people in Northeast China. The Daur form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised in the People's Republic of China. They numbered 131,992 according to the la ...
(with their ''Goguli'' subgroups) and the Duchers]"[Бурыкин А. А. (Alexey Alexeyevich Burykin)]
Заметки об этнониме «чжурчжэни» и наименовании «чжурчжэньский язык».
(Remarks about the ethnonym "Jurchens" and the term "Jurchen language") Quotes: "наименование «дючеры» русских документов XVII века не имеет однозначного истолкования" / "the term 'Duchers' from the 17th-century Russian documents has multiple interpretations". "Под наименованием «дючеры» могут подразумеваться с равной степенью вероятности три разных этноса или этнических группы: 1. собственно чжурчжэни, ... зурчэн ...; 2. эвенки-жители бассейна реки Зеи ....; 3. некая этническая группа, которая предположительно могла войти в состав нанайцев." / "The term 'Ducher' may have referred equally likely to three different ethnic groups: 1. the Jurchens proper (zurchen) ...; 2. The Evenki residents of the Zeya River
The Zeya (russian: Зе́я; from indigenous Evenki word "djee" (blade); zh, 结雅; mnc, m= , Mölendroff: jingkiri bira) is a northern, left tributary of the Amur in Amur Oblast, Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . The average ...
basin ...; 3. Some ethnic group which hypothetically could have been incorporated into the Nanais
The Nanai people are a Tungusic people of East Asia who have traditionally lived along Heilongjiang (Amur), Songhuajiang (Sunggari) and Wusuli River on the Middle Amur Basin. The ancestors of the Nanai were the Jurchens of northernmost Manch ...
.
Archaeologically, the Ducher culture can be identified since the second half of the 13th century (i.e., soon after the destruction of the Jurchen Jin Empire by the Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
), being a successor of the earlier culture of the Amur Jurchens.[
According to the ]Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
, today's Nanai, Ulch, and other Tungusic people of the middle and lower Amur valley have incorporated descendants of the Duchers. The Russian scholar B.P. Polevoy goes even further, identifying the Duchers (at least, the ones from the Sungari / Ussuri mouth area) with the Nanais.
Another, and probably more common, view, expressed e.g. by the Russian archaeologist D.P. Bolotin or Tungusologist A.A. Burykin is that the Duchers were part of the Jurchens.[Д.П. Болотин (D.P. Bolotin), Б.С. Сапунов (B.S. Sapunov),]
Древняя культура Приамурья
(The ancient cultures of the Amur region)[ This would imply that after being resettled to the Sungari and the ]Hurka
Hurka is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Martin Hurka (born 1993), Czech footballer
* Mykhailo Hurka (born 1975), Ukrainian footballer and manager
*Thomas Hurka
Thomas Hurka (born 1952) is a Canadian philosopher who holds ...
they simply merged into the Manchu people.
The etymology of the word "Duchers" (which, besides дючеры and дучеры, had a number of other spelling variants in the 17th-century Russian manuscripts: чючар, джучар, жучер, дючан[) is controversial as well.][ Some researches hold it obvious that it is related to Jurchens' self-name, ''jušen''.][Burykin mentions the ''zurchen'' > ''dyucher'' etymology as well, as one of three possible options, but considers it unlikely.] Another view, expressed by A.A. Burykin, is that Russian "дючер" (''Dyucher'') may have come from Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
, , meaning "guards along the river".[
]
References
{{Tungusic peoples
Historical ethnic groups of Russia
Ethnic groups in China
History of Manchuria
Tungusic peoples