Editing Sibe people (section)

==History==
[[File:Yili-military-complex-ca-1809.jpg|thumb|A c. 1809 map of the [[Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture|Ili Region]] with south on top showing the Sibe [[Eight Banners]] ({{lang|zh|锡伯八旗}}) stationed across the [[Ili River]] from the Manchu [[Huiyuan, Xinjiang|Fort Huiyuan]] ({{lang|zh|惠远城}}), exactly where [[Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County]] is nowadays]]
According to the Russian scholar Elena P. Lebedeva, the Sibe people originated as a southern, [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]]-speaking offshoot of the ancient [[Shiwei people]]. They lived in small town-like settlements, a portion of them [[nomad]]ic, in the [[Songyuan]] and [[Qiqihar]] areas of what is now Jilin.<ref name="Gorelova">{{cite book|title=Post-Soviet Central Asia|editor1-first=Touraj|editor1-last=Atabaki|editor2-first=John|editor2-last=O'Kane|publisher=Tauris Academic Studies|chapter=Past and Present of a Manchu Tribe: The Sibe|first=Liliya|last=Gorelova|pages=325–327}}</ref>

When the [[Buyeo kingdom]] was conquered by the [[Xianbei]] in 286 AD, the southern Shiwei started practicing agriculture.<ref name="Gorelova"/> Some historians have theorized that the Xianbei were the direct progenitors of the Sibe,<ref name="PD"/> a theory described by some as politically motivated.{{sfn|Zikmundová|2013|p=11}} [[Pamela Kyle Crossley]] writes the Xianbei might have undergone a [[language shift]] from an earlier Turkic or proto-Mongolian language to a Tungusic one. However, the name "Sibe" was not used in historical records during Xianbei times.<ref name=manchus213>{{harvnb|Crossley|1997|p=213}}</ref>

The [[Han dynasty]], [[Cao Wei]] and the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)]] at times controlled the Sibe until the advent of the [[Göktürks]], who accorded the Sibe lower status than did the Chinese dynasties.<ref name="Gorelova"/> At the height of their territorial dispersion, the Sibe lived in an area bounded by [[Jilin]] to the east, [[Hulunbuir]] to the west, the [[Nen River]] to the north and the [[Liao River]] to the south.<ref name="PD"/> After the fall of the [[Liao dynasty]], the Sibe became vassals of the [[Khorchin Mongols]] who moved to the [[Nen River|Nen]] and [[Songhua River|Songhua river]] valleys in 1438 after the Khorchin were defeated by the [[Oirats]].<ref name="Gorelova"/>

[[Nurhaci]], the first prominent figure of the [[Manchu people]], routed the Sibe during the battle of Gure in 1593 on his way to founding the [[Qing dynasty]] of China. From that point, the Qing contracted the Sibe for [[Logistics|logistical support]] against the [[Russian Empire]]'s expansionism on China's northern border.<ref name="Gorelova"/> Crossley claims that the Sibe were so "well known to Russians moving toward the Pacific" that the Russians named [[Siberia]] after them.<ref name=manchus213/> In 1692, the Khorchin dedicated the Sibe, the Gūwalca and the [[Daur people|Daur]] to the [[Kangxi Emperor]] in exchange for silver. The Sibe were incorporated into the [[Eight Banners]] and were stationed in [[Qiqihar]] and other cities in [[Northeast China]].<ref name="Rawski1998">{{cite book|author=Evelyn S. Rawski|title=The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions|url=https://archive.org/details/lastemperorssoc00raws|url-access=registration|date=15 November 1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-92679-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastemperorssoc00raws/page/242 242]–}}</ref>

In 1700, some 20,000 Qiqihar Sibes were resettled in [[Hohhot]] (modern [[Inner Mongolia]]); 36,000 Songyuan Sibes were resettled in [[Shenyang]], [[Liaoning]]. The relocation of the Sibe from Qiqihar is believed by Gorelova to be linked to the Qing's complete annihilation of the Manchu clan Hoifan (Hoifa) in 1697 and the Manchu tribe Ula in 1703 after they revolted against the Qing.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KHwPAAAAYAAJ&q=ceased+exist+rebellions Gorelova 2002], p. 36.</ref> According to [[Jerry Norman (sinologist)|Jerry Norman]], after a revolt by the Qiqihar Sibes in 1764, the [[Qianlong Emperor]] ordered an 800-man military escort to transfer 18,000 Sibe to the [[Ili (river)|Ili River]] of [[Dzungaria]].<ref name="Gorelova"/><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KHwPAAAAYAAJ&q=Valley+of+Xinjiang+to+colonize+Jungaria,+where+their+descendants+still+live+today.+It+is+as+yet+unclear+why+the+Sibes+were+chosen+for+this+purpose+unless+it+was+their+opposition+to+the+ruling+Manchu+Dynasty+(Lebedeva+%26+Gorelova,+1994:10-1).+In+the+document+number+seven+of+the+above-mentioned+collection+there+is+information+about+disor%C2%AD+der+among+the+Sibes.+It+is+also+mentioned+that+the+Qiqihar+Sibe+companies’+commanders+and+their+officers+were+removed+from+their+posts.+During+their+transfer+from+Mukden+to+the+Ili+Valley,+the+Sibes+were+convoyed+by+Manchu+regular+forces+of+eight+hundred+officers+and+men.+All+these+facts+corroborate+the+compulsory+nature+of+the+Sibe’s+transfer+to+Xinjiang+(SU).&dq=Valley+of+Xinjiang+to+colonize+Jungaria,+where+their+descendants+still+live+today.+It+is+as+yet+unclear+why+the+Sibes+were+chosen+for+this+purpose+unless+it+was+their+opposition+to+the+ruling+Manchu+Dynasty+(Lebedeva+%26+Gorelova,+1994:10-1).+In+the+document+number+seven+of+the+above-mentioned+collection+there+is+information+about+disor%C2%AD+der+among+the+Sibes.+It+is+also+mentioned+that+the+Qiqihar+Sibe+companies’+commanders+and+their+officers+were+removed+from+their+posts.+During+their+transfer+from+Mukden+to+the+Ili+Valley,+the+Sibes+were+convoyed+by+Manchu+regular+forces+of+eight+hundred+officers+and+men.+All+these+facts+corroborate+the+compulsory+nature+of+the+Sibe’s+transfer+to+Xinjiang+(SU).&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Rl9oU_ebHe3QsQSPw4GADQ&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA Gorelova 2002], p. 37.</ref>

In Ili, the Xinjiang Sibe built [[Gompa|Buddhist monasteries]] and cultivated vegetables, [[tobacco]] and [[Poppy|poppies]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KHwPAAAAYAAJ&q=In+Xinjiang+the+Sibes+were+engaged+only+in+agriculture.+They+sowed+wheat,+barley+and+millet,+cultivated+onions,+garlic,+aubergine,+cucumbers,+and+other+vegetables+and+grew+corn,+tobacco-plant+and+poppy+as+well.+As+food+they+used+farm+produce,+fish,+and+very+rarely+meat.+Their+clothes+did+not+differ+from+those+of+the+Chinese. Gorelova 2002], p. 37.</ref> The Sibe population declined after the Qing used them to suppress the [[Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)|Dungan Revolt (1862–77)]] by the [[Hui people|Hui]]<ref name="Gorelova"/> and to fight against the Russian occupation of Ili during the revolt.<ref name="PD"/> The scarcity of provisions in Ili became such that the Governor at last saw himself obliged to dismiss his last auxiliaries, the Thagor Kalmuks. In the meantime both Solons and Sibos were being attacked and plundered and were obliged to make peace with the insurgents, so that only Ili, Khorgos, Losigun and Suidun, remained in the hands of the Mantchus. Ili was now entirely surrounded and it was resolved to reduce it by famine. The situation there was indeed frightful; all the provisions had been exhausted and the only food was horses, dogs and cats. Typhus so raged that from 50 to 100 men died daily.<ref>{{cite book|date=1876|title=Turkistan: 2|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.189365|publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, Searle &Rivington|edition=5|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.189365/page/n215 181]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Schuyler|first=Eugene|date=1876|title=Turkistan: Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkistan, Khokand, Bukhara and Kuldja, Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TtbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA181|publisher=S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington|edition=2|page=181}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Schuyler|first=Eugene|date=1876|title=Turkestan: Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkistan, Khorand, Bukhara, and Kuldja|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vXcGyEI-VcC&pg=PA181|publisher=Sampson Low|edition=4|page=181}}</ref>

During the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China (1912–49)]] period, many northeastern Sibe joined [[anti-Japanese volunteer armies]], while northwestern Sibe fought against the [[Kuomintang]] during the [[Ili Rebellion]]. After the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] in 1949 established the People's Republic of China (PRC), large-scale educational and hygiene campaigns increased Sibe literacy and resulted in the eradication of [[Qapqal disease]] (a form of type A [[botulism]]).

In 1954, the PRC established the [[Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County]] to replace Ningxi County in Xinjiang, in the group's area of highest ethnic concentration.