The Solon people () are a subgroup of the
Ewenki (Evenk) people of northeastern Asia. They live in China's
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
and
Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...
Province, and constitute the majority of China's Ewenki.
Terminology and classification
![CEM-44-La-Chine-la-Tartarie-Chinoise-et-le-Thibet-1734-Amur-2572](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/CEM-44-La-Chine-la-Tartarie-Chinoise-et-le-Thibet-1734-Amur-2572.jpg)
The Ewenki (also spelled Evenki) people are spread throughout the
taiga
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...
forests of much of northeastern Asia, including most of
Eastern Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
and parts of
Northeastern China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...
. According to
Juha Janhunen
Juha Janhunen (born 12 February 1952 in Pori, Finland) is a Finnish linguist whose wide interests include Uralic and Mongolic languages. Since 1994 he has been Professor in East Asian studies at the University of Helsinki. He has done fieldwork o ...
's classification, the Ewenki people found in China can be classified into three subethnic groups:
* The Solon (, "Solon Ewenki")
* The
Oroqen
* The "Manchurian Reindeer Tungus" - a small group which are known to the Chinese as the "Yakut" (, "Yakut Ewenki").
[ They are the only group in China engaged in reindeer herding.][
Another subethnic group in China's ]Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
, the Khamnigan
The Khamnigan, Hamnigan Mongols, or the Tungus Evenki, are a Tungusic- Mongolic ethnic (sub)group of Mongolized Evenks.
Khamnigan is the Buriat- Mongolian term for all Ewenkis. In the early 16th century, the Evenks of Transbaikalia or Khamnigan ...
are bilingual, speaking the Ewenki language along with a Mongolian dialect. Janhunen believes that their primary ethnic affiliation is Mongolian rather than Ewenki, and does not include them into his classification of China's Ewenki.[
The above classification is different from the ]PRC
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
's official classification, according to which the Oroqen are considered a separate ethnic group, while the official Ewenki ethnic group of China includes not only the Solons and the "Manchurian Reindeer Tungus", but also the Khamnigan
The Khamnigan, Hamnigan Mongols, or the Tungus Evenki, are a Tungusic- Mongolic ethnic (sub)group of Mongolized Evenks.
Khamnigan is the Buriat- Mongolian term for all Ewenkis. In the early 16th century, the Evenks of Transbaikalia or Khamnigan ...
(or, officially, the "Tungus Ewenki", ).
As both the "Manchurian Reindeer Tungus" and the Khamnigans are quite small groups (perhaps around 200 persons in the former,[ and under 2,000 in the latter,] as of the 1990s), the majority of the people classified as "Ewenki" in China are Solons. The Solon population was estimated as 7,200 in 1957, 18,000 in 1982, and 25,000 in 1990.[
According to Janhunen's analysis, the Oroqen are in fact much closer to the "Ewenki proper" (i.e., the Evenks of ]Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
) than the Solon are. The Solon are characterized by their close association with the Daur people
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 ...
. The Solons reside in the same areas where Daur do, in particular, in Evenk Autonomous Banner
Ewenki Autonomous Banner ( Evenki: ; Mongolian: , ''Eveŋki öbertegen jasaqu qosiɣu'', Эвэнк өөртөө засах хошуу; ) is an autonomous banner that lies on the border between northwestern Greater Khingan and Hulun Buir grass ...
of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
, and elsewhere throughout the prefecture-level city
A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure.
During the Republican era, many of China' ...
of Hulunbuir
Hulunbuir or Hulun Buir ( mn, , ''Kölün buyir'', Mongolian Cyrillic: Хөлөнбуйр, ''Khölönbuir''; zh, s=呼伦贝尔, ''Hūlúnbèi'ěr'') is a region that is governed as a prefecture-level city in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. ...
.[ While the ]Solon language
Evenki (Ewenkī), formerly known as Tungus or Solon, is the largest member of the northern group of Tungusic languages, a group which also includes Even, Negidal, and the more closely related Oroqen language. The name is sometimes wrongly gi ...
itself is a dialect of the Evenki language
Evenki (Ewenkī), formerly known as Tungus or Solon, is the largest member of the northern group of Tungusic languages, a group which also includes Even, Negidal, and the more closely related Oroqen language. The name is sometimes wrongly given ...
, most of the Solons are also bilingual in the Mongolic Daur language
The Dagur, Daghur, Dahur, or Daur language, is a Mongolic language, as well as a distinct branch of the Mongolic language family, and is primarily spoken by members of the Dagur ethnic group.
Distribution
Dagur is a Mongolic language consistin ...
.[
]
History
The Albazinians
The Albazinians (Russian: албазинцы; Simplified Chinese: 阿尔巴津人, Traditional Chinese: 阿爾巴津人) are one of the few groups of Chinese of Russian descent. There are approximately 250 Albazinians in China who are descendants ...
were told to marry Solon Evenki widows by the Board of Rites.
The Solons were ordered by the Qianlong emperor
The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...
to stop using rifles and instead practice traditional archery issuing an edict for silver taels to be issued for guns to be turned over to the government:
In Xinjiang
In 1763, a number of Solon bannermen
Bannerman is a name of Scottish origin (see Clan Bannerman) and may refer to
Places
;Canada
* Bannerman, Edmonton, a neighbourhood in Edmonton, Canada
;United States
* Bannerman, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community
* Bannerman's Castle, an a ...
, along with their Daur and Xibe comrades-in-arms were resettled from Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
(Northeastern China) to the frontier regions of the recently conquered Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
(see Dzungar–Qing Wars
The Dzungar–Qing Wars ( mn, Зүүнгар-Чин улсын дайн, ) were a decades-long series of conflicts that pitted the Dzungar Khanate against the Qing dynasty and its Mongol vassals. Fighting took place over a wide swath of Inner A ...
). These Solon became also known as the "Ongkor Solon".[Juha Janhunen, "Ongkor Solon" i]
UNESCO RED BOOK ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES: NORTHEAST ASIA
based on: BAI Lan & Juha JANHUNEN: "On the present state of the Ongkor Solon", ''Journal de la Société Fino-Ougrienne'', 84, Helsinki 1992 The presence of the Solons in the region is attested in numerous Russian accounts, in particular from the time of the Muslim minorities' war and its aftermath.
Unlike Xinjiang's Xibe, who preserve their ethnic identity into the 21st century, the less numerous Solon settlers gradually assimilated to the Dagur and Xibe. While over 100 Solons still lived in Xinjiang in 1905–1908, less than 20 people identified as Solon in the region in 1991. In 1990, only one Solon speaker remained in Xinjiang; he was 79 years old.[
]
Shamanism
There are few sources on the shamanism of the Ewenki peoples below the Amur/Helongkiang river in Northern China. There is a brief report of fieldwork conducted by Richard Noll
Richard Noll (born 1959 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American clinical psychologist and historian of medicine. He has published on the history of psychiatry, including two critical volumes on the life and work of Carl Gustav Jung, books and articles ...
and Kun Shi in 1994 of the life of the shamaness Dula'r (Ewenki name), also known as Ao Yun Hua (her Han Chinese name). She was born in 1920 and was living in the village of Yiming Gatsa in the Ewenki Banner (county) of the Hulunbuir Prefecture, in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. While not a particularly good informant, she described her initiatory illness, her multiyear apprenticeship with a Mongol shaman before being allowed to heal at the age of 25 or 26, and the torments she experienced during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s when most of her shamanic paraphernalia was destroyed. Mongol and Buddhist Lamaist influences on her indigenous practice of shamansim was evident. She hid her prize possession—an Abagaldi (bear spirit) shaman mask, which has also been documented among the Mongol and Daur peoples in the region. The field report and color photographs of this shaman are available online.
Language
According to Janhunen's research, the numerous dialects of the Ewenki language
Evenki (Ewenkī), formerly known as Tungus or Solon, is the largest member of the northern group of Tungusic languages, a group which also includes Even, Negidal, and the more closely related Oroqen language. The name is sometimes wrongly given ...
can be divided into two major groups: those of the Solons (which he labels "Solon Ewenki") and those of the Ewenki of Siberia (as well as the Oroqen and the "Manchurian Reindeer Tungus" of China), which he calls "Siberian Evenki". The Ewenki dialects of the bilingual Khamnigan show features characteristic of both "Manchurian" and "Siberian" groups, as well as peculiar Khamnigan innovations.[
The Solon being closely associated with the Daur, many (around half of them, according to Janhunen's field research in the 1990s) Solon people are bilingual in the ]Daur language
The Dagur, Daghur, Dahur, or Daur language, is a Mongolic language, as well as a distinct branch of the Mongolic language family, and is primarily spoken by members of the Dagur ethnic group.
Distribution
Dagur is a Mongolic language consistin ...
. During the Qing Empire
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-speak ...
, many Solon (as well as members of many other native groups of Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
) were able to speak 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 ...
, while in modern China Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
is universally taught.
See also
* Solun, Horqin Right Front Banner
Solun () is a town in the Hinggan League, of northeastern Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China, located northwest, by road, of the city of Ulan Hot. Its name in the Mongolian language means "hunted paddock or hunting paddock", which could ...
Qing Regulation of Solon Gun Ownership, by David Porter, Harvard University
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Tungusic peoples
Ethnic groups in China
Evenks