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Preface
This is a people recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", which has lived in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River and Sakhalin Island for generations, guarding the northeastern frontier for the motherland.
However, in modern times, due to the weakness of the Qing government, Sakhalin Island was lost, so that this people had to leave their homeland, leave China, and become part of Russia.
This is the Fyakha, the "Nivkh" in the Russian population.
What kind of people is this?
01 Fishing and hunting for a living
This is a nation with a long history, and there are records about the ancestors of the Feiyaka people in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" as early as possible, but at this time, China is still very unfamiliar with the Feiyaka people.
During the Tang Dynasty, the place where the Feiyaka people lived for generations was officially connected with the Central Plains Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty government sent Changshi to govern it.
With the passage of time, the connection between the Feiyaka and the Central Plains Dynasty also became closer, and the Tang, Jin, Yuan, and Ming all exercised effective jurisdiction over the area.
Under the jurisdiction of various dynasties, the people of the Feyaka people have lived in the northeastern frontier of the mainland for generations, creating a unique national culture belonging to the Fiyaka.
This is a fishery-based people, and nature has given the Feyaka people abundant fish resources, so every Fiyaka knows everything about fish, especially salmon and trout.
This is their main food.
These fish are not only food rations for the Feyaka people, but also feed for dogs.
The essence of fish meat is dried into dried fish, which is human food, and the fish head and bones are dried and then used to feed dogs.
Therefore, every Fyaka family has a rack for drying fish outdoors, and in addition to being used as rations, the fish skin can also be used to make clothes.
Fishing is mainly carried out in spring and summer, and after autumn, the Fiyaka people start hunting, and they hunt bears, seals, foxes, and martens.
The animals hunted were used for many purposes, mink was the main tribute to the Qing court, and the rest could be kept as rations or traded.
However, the Fiyaka people are very careful to protect the ecology, and when they kill the fish, they will directly smash the head with a hammer and then deal with it, otherwise it will be considered animal cruelty.
In the Fiyaka people's mindset, animal cruelty is retribution.
Dogs occupy an important place in the life of the Fiyaka people, and dog sledding is the main means of transportation for the Fiyaka people, and the wealthy Fiyaka family may have two sets of sled dogs, and one set will have a dozen.
Hunters use hounds to help them hunt, and experienced dogs can also guide their owners in snowstorms.
Many ethnic minorities living in the Northeast have dogs, so these ethnic groups are called "dog tribes", and the Fiyaka people are of course among them.
However, unlike other canine tribes, the Feyaka people eat dog meat, which is why the Feyaka people are looked down upon by many of their neighbors, but they stick to their own way of life.
When a dog grows older and no longer has the strength to work, it is killed and eaten.
Each household of Fiyaka has three "sacred dogs", which enjoy a good diet, but they still cannot escape the fate of slaughter in old age.
Even the Fiyaka people sacrificed dogs as sacrifices.
In this way, the Fiyaka people survived by fishing, hunting, gathering, raising dogs as domestic animals, and living in the vast land of the northeast for generations.
Until the rise of the Jurchens in the northeast, the Feiyaka people, along with other ethnic minorities, were also attached to the Manchu banner.
02 Return to the Manchu Qing Dynasty
In 1583, Nurhachi rebelled, and various ethnic minorities in the northeast, including the Fiyaka, submitted one after another.
However, the Qing government did not allow the Feiyaka to join the Manchu Eight Banners, but let them stay in the northeast and establish a tributary relationship with the Qing government.
The Qing government set up General Ningguta in the area where the Feiyaka people lived, and was responsible for the administration.
Later, because there were many criminals exiled here, it was difficult to manage, so they simply relied on the original clan system of the Fiyaka people and set up a township chief to manage it.
Since then, the Feiyaka people have to pay tribute to the Qing government every year to pay mink from hunting and send them to Ningguta;
The Qing government sent officials to collect mink skins in June every year and issue rewards to the Fiyaka people.
In addition to this relationship of tribute and reward, the Manchu government also maintained a steady stream of marriage relations with the Fiyaka.
The Qing government encouraged the leaders of the Feiyaka to marry Qing clan women, but because the distance was too long, they instead gathered folk women near Ningguta to marry Sakhalin instead of noble women.
This system was clearly a purposeful marriage between the two parties, but under this system, the Fiyaka began to gradually merge with other ethnic groups and became a member of the Chinese family.
The climate of the Northeast Frontier is cold, and compared with the Central Plains, the living conditions are relatively poor, and Ningguta has always been a place where criminals were exiled by the Qing court, and the harsh environment can be seen.
However, the Fiyaka people have lived here for generations, guarding the civilization of their people, and as a frontier people, they have always undertaken the obligation to guard the frontier.
In the face of foreign invaders, the Fiyaka people stood with the Qing government and fought together against the enemy who invaded their homeland.
In the middle of the 17th century, Tsarist Russia came to the northeast of the continent with the footsteps of aggression and expansion.
The first to invade the Heilongjiang region of the mainland was Boyarkov.
But that wasn't the end of it, in 1649, the Khabarov bandits, at the behest of the Russian government, invaded the Feyaka people's habitat.
This time the aggression was even worse than that of Boyarkov, and even alarmed the Qing government.
In 1650, the Khabarov bandits crossed the Trans-Khingan Mountains for thousands of miles and committed numerous evil deeds in the Heilongjiang River Valley, and all ethnic groups, including the Fiyaka people, were treated inhumanely.
The Khabarov gang burned, killed, and looted, and even spared even children, and even reversed black and white, saying that what they had looted was "paying taxes" and demanding that the people of the mainland "submit" to them.
The Fyaka people were unwilling, so the Khabarov bandits attacked the village directly and brutally tortured the Chinese prisoners.
In the face of the inhumane Tsarist invaders, the ethnic minorities in Northeast China, including the Fiyaka people, rose up to resist, and the Qing government organized the military and civilians in time to confront the Tsarist invaders.
During this period, the Fiyaka assisted the Qing army in the joint fight against the invading army, and finally drove the Khabarov gang out of the Heilongjiang River valley.
However, the Russian invaders did not give up, but made even greater waves.
In the winter of 1665, Chernihivsky, who had been exiled to the Far East, led his men to invade and occupy Yaksa, beginning his criminal activities in the northeast.
The Qing army reacted quickly and immediately dispatched troops to suppress the bandits, successfully driving the group of exiled prisoners out of the country.
However, the Qing army did not defend in Yaksa, which was equivalent to sending the city out directly.
Not surprisingly, Tsarist Russia made another comeback.
This time, the Qing army united with the local people of various nationalities to surround Yaxa, and it was not until there were only more than 100 of the more than 800 people in the city that they had to choose peace talks.
China and Russia signed a treaty to determine the territorial scope of both sides, and the place where the Feiyaka people were located naturally belonged to the territory of the Qing government.
Since then, there has been no contact between Tsarist Russia and the Fiyaka.
Life returned to peace, and the Fiyaka people continued their ancestral way of life, continuing their patriarchal tribe and multiplying.
At the same time, the Feiyaka people, as the people of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, also maintained contact with the Qing court.
However, the peaceful life was eventually interrupted.
03 Split land
The Russians are obsessed with land, are very keen to seize territory and expand their territory, and have always wanted to have a coastal stronghold.
They set their sights on the estuary of the Heilongjiang River, the territory of the Fiyaka people.
Eventually, the Russian government decided to use force to clear the way for its ambitions.
As Russia continued to grow as an imperialist power, the Qing government became increasingly weak.
When Russia's aggression re-established itself in the Heilongjiang Valley, Heilongjiang General Yishan asked his subordinates to "not cause trouble";
When the Russian warship had sailed into the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, Yishan still ignored it.
The Qing government allowed the Russians to establish a base here, formed an invading force, and trampled on the territory of the motherland.
In 1854, the Russian invaders fought a war with the British and French invaders on Chinese territory, and as a result, Russia won and ate the aggressive interests of this territory.
After that, Russia began to be aggressive, preparing to seize this territory from the Qing government, directly claiming that the area in the middle reaches of the Heilongjiang River "belongs to Russia."
The Qing government sent people to negotiate, but the Jilin general Yige actually resigned because he was afraid and pretended to be sick.
Russia became even more arrogant, taking advantage of the embarrassing situation in which the Qing government was facing the overthrow of foreign powers at that time, and put forward sovereignty claims to Chinese territory.
The two sides were once tense and filled with gunsmoke, and it seemed that war would break out in the next second.
However, the Russian army was arrogant and unreasonable, and the British and French forces were clamoring to attack Beijing, and the Qing government had no choice but to send Yishan to negotiate with Russia.
In the face of aggression, Yishan can hide and hide, and in the face of negotiations, he grovels, only thinking about his own security and not considering national interests at all.
With the signing of the Treaty of Aihui, the Fiyaka homeland was given to Russia, and from then on, the Fiyaka changed their nationality and became Russian citizens.
After being assigned to Russia, what happened to the living conditions of the Fiyaka people?
04 Nivkh
The Qing government gave up the ancestral land of the Fiyaka people, and the Fiyaka people were brought under the jurisdiction of the Russian government, and the Russians called them Nivkh.
However, among the imperialist countries, Russia was not very strong, and its land was too vast, so it did not manage the frontier areas, especially the Far Eastern frontier regions.
At that time, after the Fiyaka people joined Russia, they were exploited and oppressed by the Tsarist government, and their economy and culture could not be developed, and the original clan system was relatively backward, so their life was even more embarrassing.
Before the Soviet Union, the population of Fiyaka was very unstable and even tended to decrease.
Under the constant influence of the Russians, the clan system of Fiyaka began to disintegrate, and Russian culture began to permeate the daily life of the Fiyaka people.
The Russians believe in Orthodox Christianity, which is in conflict with the original religious beliefs of the Fiyaka people.
The people of Fiyaka worship the nature of the mountains and rivers and worship the animals that are closely related to life.
The main worship is the "mountain god", "sea god", and "fire god", and the animal worship is mainly "bear worship", and the dog is also killed as a sacrifice to the bear, and the "bear festival" is held.
After joining Russia, the primitive religious cult was attacked, and by the end of the 19th century, almost all the Fiyaka people had become Orthodox Christians.
Later, the Soviet Union was formed, and the life of the Fiyaka people was much better.
The Soviet Union carried out a socialist transformation here, promulgated a number of policies to promote economic development, and the population of the Fyaka people was restored.
The Fiyaka people originally had their own independent language, but as a result of the policies of the Soviet Union, they gradually began to use the Russian language in their daily lives and adapted to Russian culture.
Although the Soviet Union did not pay much attention to the minorities of the Far East after the 30s, the Feyaka people were given a chance to develop their national culture, but this did not last long.
After the 50s, the Soviet Union began to fully regulate all aspects of the life of ethnic minorities, and the life of the Fiyaka people slowly entered the modernization.
However, most of the Fiyaka people did not like this change, which meant the destruction of the traditional fishing and hunting economic model, and the process of industrialization caused the living space of the Fiyaka people to be continuously compressed, and brought serious environmental problems.
After the market reform in the Soviet Union, the Fiyaka people, as a minority, had a serious employment problem, and the government did not guarantee them.
All these have inspired the desire of the Fiyaka people to protect their national culture, and they will not forget that they were once part of the big family of the Chinese nation, and their national culture is inextricably linked with the Chinese civilization.
The intellectuals of the Fiyaka ethnic group took up this responsibility, established a number of national art groups, built museums of national culture, and promoted their own civilization.
There are also many scholars in Russia who are actively studying the history of ethnic minorities, and many people of insight have emphasized the importance of protecting the traditional culture of the Fiyaka people.
However, most Russian scholars have tacitly avoided the question of the relationship between the Fiyaka and the Chinese feudal dynasties.
For a number of political reasons, Russians are reluctant to admit that their minority has Chinese roots.
But this can't change history, although the Feiyaka people had to leave their homeland because of the incompetence and corruption of the Qing government, but the culture they left behind will always shine in the long river of Chinese civilization.
Resources
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[3] Sun Yunlai. Social Science Front,1986(4):334-338.
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[5] Zhou Xifeng. The Sino-Russian Battle of Yaksa and the Treaty of Nebuchu[J].Struggle,2019(17):71-72.
[6] Wu Xiaotao. The story behind the Sino-Russian Aihui Treaty[J].Literature and History World,2008(2):33-35.
[7] Hao Jianheng. Ye Khabarov's report to the Yakutsk Overseer[J].Northern Antiquities,1984(3):103-112.