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Aigun

Coordinates:49°58′41″N127°29′24″E/ 49.978°N 127.490°E/49.978; 127.490
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Aigun
Ái hồn
Aihui
Manchutranscription(s)
Manchuᠠᡳ᠌ᡥᡡᠨ
ᡥᠣᡨᠣᠨ
Transliterationaihūn hoton
Chinesetranscription(s)
TraditionalÁi hồn
SimplifiedÁi hồn
PinyinÀihuī
CountryChina
ProvinceHeilongjiang
PrefectureHeihe
Time zoneUTC+8(China Standard Time)

49°58′41″N127°29′24″E/ 49.978°N 127.490°E/49.978; 127.490

Aigou(Aigun) shown as one of the few towns on the Amur, and one of the most important places in the region, on a 1706 French map

Aigun(simplified Chinese:Ái hồn;traditional Chinese:Ái hồn;pinyin:Àihuī;Manchu:ᠠᡳ᠌ᡥᡡᠨ
ᡥᠣᡨᠣᠨ
aihūn hoton;Russian:Айгунь,romanized:Aigun) was a historicChinesetownin northernManchuria,situated on the right bank of theAmur River,some 30 kilometres (19 mi) south (downstream) from the central urban area ofHeihe(which is across the Amur from the mouth of theZeya RiverandBlagoveschensk).[1]

The Chinese name of the town, which literally means "Bright Jade", is a transliteration of the Manchu (orDucher) name of the town.

Today the former city of Aigun is calledAihui Townand is part ofAihui District,which in turn is part of the prefecture-level city of Heihe. Heihe is one of the major cities inHeilongjiangProvince.

History[edit]

The predecessor of Aigun was a town of the indigenousDucherpeople of the Amur Valley, located on the left (northeastern - now Russian) bank of theAmur River.The site of this town, whose name was reported by the Russian explorerYerofey Khabarovas Aytyun (Айтюн) in 1652, is currently known to archaeologists as the Grodekovo site (Гродековское городище), after the nearby village of Grodekovo. It is thought to have been populated since around the end of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD.[2]

Some sources report a Chinese presence on the middle Amur – a fort existed at Aigun for about 20 years during the Yongle era on the left (northwestern) shore of the Amur downstream from the mouth of the Zeya River. This Ming Dynasty Aigun was located on the opposite bank to the later Aigun that was relocated during theQing Dynasty.[3]

Aaihom(destroyed) shown on the 1773 map oppositeSahalien Hotun,followingd'Anville's mapfrom 1734

The Ducher town was probably vacated when the Duchers were evacuated by theManchuChineseQing Dynastyto theSungariorHurkain the mid-1650s.[2]In 1683-85 the Manchus re-used the site as a base for their campaign against the Russian fort ofAlbazin.[4]

After the capture of Albazin in 1685 or 1686, the Manchus relocated the town to a new site on the right (southwestern) bank of the Amur, about 3 miles (4.8 km) downstream from the original site.[5][6]The new site occupied the location of the former village of aDaurianchief named Tolga.[5]The city became known primarily under its Manchu nameSaghalien Ula HotunorHoton(Manchu:ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ
ᡠᠯᠠ
ᡥᠣᡨᠣᠨ
Sahaliyan Ula Hoton),[7]and sometimes also under the Chinese translation of this name,Heilongjiang Cheng(Hắc long giang thành). Both names mean "Black RiverCity ", but by the 19th century the name" Aigun "again became more current in the western languages.

For a number of years after 1683, Aigun served as the capital (the seat of the Military Governor) ofHeilongjiang Province,until the capital was moved toNenjiang(Mergen) in 1690, and later toQiqihar.[8]Aigun, however, remained the seat of the Deputy Lieutenant-General (Fu dutong), responsible for a large district covering much of the Amur Valley within the province of Heilongjiang as it existed in those days.

As a part of a nationwide Sino-French cartographic program, Aigun (or, rather, Saghalien Ula hoton) was visited ca. 1709 by theJesuitsJean-Baptiste Régis,Pierre Jartoux,andXavier Ehrenbert Fridelli,[9]who found it a well-defended town, serving as the base of a Manchu river fleet controlling the Amur River region. Surrounded by numerous villages on the fertile riverside plain, the town was well provisioned with foodstuffs.[7]

Muravyov's fleet off Aigun in 1854

It was at Aigun in May 1858 thatNikolay Muravyovconcluded theAigun Treaty,according to which the left bank of theAmur Riverwas conceded toRussia.[10]

During theBoxer Rebellionof 1900, for a few weeks Aigun was the center of military action directed against theRussians.[10]On July22, Aigun wascaptured by Russian troops.

In 1913 Aigun became the county seat of the newly created Aigun County (Ái hồn huyện,Àihuī Xiàn), which was renamed Aihui County (Ái huy huyện,Àihuī Xiàn,the pronunciation remained unchanged) in December 1956.

The Manchus of the Chinese capital Peking (now known as Beijing) wereinfluenced by the Chinese dialect spoken in the areato the point where pronouncing Manchu sounds was hard for them, and they pronounced Manchu according to Chinese phonetics, while in contrast, the Manchus of Aigun could both pronounce Manchu sounds properly and mimick the sinicised pronunciation of Peking Manchus, since they learned the Pekinese pronunciation from either studying in Peking or from officials sent to Aigun from the capital, and they could tell them apart, using the Chinese influenced Pekinese pronunciation when demonstrating that they were better educated or their superior stature in society.[11][12]

On November15, 1980,HeiheCity was created, and on June6, 1983, Aihui County was abolished and merged into the Heihe City.[13]

Commemoration[edit]

There are a number of historical sites in today's Aihui Town (30 km south of downtown Heihe) related to the historical Aigun. They include Aihui Ancient City (Ái hồn cổ thành), Aihui Heroic Defenders' of the Fatherland Garden (Ái hồn vệ quốc anh hùng viên,Àihuī Wèiguó Yīngxióng Yuán), and Aihui History Museum (Ái hồn lịch sử trần liệt quán,Àihuī Lìshǐ Chénliè Guǎn).[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^Aihui Townon Google Maps
  2. ^abАмурская область: История НАРОДЫ АМУРСКОЙ ЗЕМЛИArchived2011-07-18 at theWayback Machine(Amur Oblast - the History. The peoples of the Amur Land)(in Russian)
  3. ^Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste(1735).Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise.Vol. IV. Paris: P.G. Lemercier. pp. 15–16.Numerous later editions are available as well, including oneon Google Books.Du Halde refers to the Yongle-era fort, the predecessor of Aigun, asAykom.There seem to be few, if any, mentions of this project in other available literature.
  4. ^Bruce Mancall, 'Russia and China:Their Diplomatic Relations to 1728,1971,pages 115-127
  5. ^abE.G.Ravenstein,The Russians on the Amur.London, 1861.Full textcan be found on Google Books. Pages 18,48.
  6. ^The Jesuits (at du Halde, pp. 18-19), who visited the "new" Aigun ca. 1709, also mentioned the old site on the left bank of the river (which they calledAykom), but said that it was 13li (unit),i.e. some 8.3 km, upstream from the new site. They also claimed thatAykomwas founded by the 15th-centuryMing dynastyYongle Emperor,but abandoned within 20 years. Although Yongle's Amur expeditions are well known (see e.g.Yishiha), there seem to be no corroboration in modern literature for the existence of a Yongle-era fort at the Old Aigun site.
  7. ^abJean-Baptiste Du Halde,Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise, enrichie des cartes générales et particulieres de ces pays, de la carte générale et des cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée; & ornée d'un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en tailledouce,Vol. 4(La Haye: H. Scheurleer, 1736). Pp. 18-19.
  8. ^Edmonds, Richard Louis (1985).Northern Frontiers of Qing China and Tokugawa Japan: A Comparative Study of Frontier Policy.University of Chicago, Department of Geography; Research Paper No. 213. pp. 115–117.ISBN0-89065-118-3.
  9. ^Jean-Baptiste Du Halde,Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise, enrichie des cartes générales et particulieres de ces pays, de la carte générale et des cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée; & ornée d'un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en tailledouce,Vol. 1(La Haye: H. Scheurleer, 1736). (p. xxxviii in Vol. 1)
  10. ^abChisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Aigun".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 437.
  11. ^SHIROKOGOROFF, S. M. (1934). "Reading and Transliteration of Manchu Lit.".Archives polonaises d'etudes orientales, Volumes 8-10.Contributors Polskie Towarzystwo Orientalistyczne, Polska Akademia Nauk. Komitet Nauk Orientalistycznych. Państwowe Wydawn. Naukowe. p. 122.Retrieved25 August2014.
  12. ^SHIROKOGOROFF, S. M. (1934). "Reading and Transliteration of Manchu Lit.".Rocznik orientalistyczny, Volumes 9-10.Contributors Polskie Towarzystwo Orientalistyczne, Polska Akademia Nauk. Komitet Nauk Orientalistycznych, Polska Akademia Nauk. Zakład Orientalistyki. p. 122.Retrieved25 August2014.
  13. ^Ái huy khu khái huốngArchived2012-12-25 at theWayback Machine(Aihui District overview)(in Chinese)
  14. ^"Aihui History Museum".Retrieved2020-11-27.

External links[edit]

  • Media related toAigunat Wikimedia Commons