Editing Amur (section)

==History and context==
Many historical references distinguish two geopolitical entities in the area of the Amur: [[Manchuria]] ([[Northeast China]]) and [[Outer Manchuria]]. The Chinese province of [[Heilongjiang]] on the south bank of the river takes its name from the river, as does the Russian [[Amur Oblast]] on the north bank. The native [[Manchu people]] and their [[Qing Empire]] of China, who regarded this river as sacred,{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} use the name ''Sahaliyan Ula'' (Black River).

The Amur is an important symbol of, and geopolitical factor in, [[History of Sino-Russian relations|Chinese–Russian relations]]. The Amur became especially prominent in the period of the [[Sino-Soviet split|Sino–Soviet political split]] of 1956–1966.

For many{{quantify|date=June 2019}} centuries, inhabitants of the Amur Valley comprised the [[Tungusic peoples|Tungusic]] ([[Evenks|Evenki]], [[Evenki language|Solon]], [[Duchers|Ducher]], [[Jurchen people|Jurchen]], [[Nani people|Nanai]], [[Ulchs|Ulch]]), [[Mongols|Mongol]] ([[Daur people|Daur]]) people, some [[Ainu people|Ainu]] and, near its mouth, the [[Nivkh people|Nivkhs]].<ref>Peter Bellwood; Immanuel Ness (10 November 2014). ''The Global Prehistory of Human Migration''. John Wiley & Sons. p. 227. {{ISBN|978-1-118-97059-1}}.</ref> For many of these groups, fishing in the Amur and its tributaries was the main source of their livelihood. Until the 17th century these peoples were not known to Europeans, and little known to the [[Han Chinese]], who sometimes collectively described them as the [[Wild Jurchens]]. The Chinese-language term ''Yúpí Dázi'' 魚皮韃子 ("Fish-skin Tatars") came to apply to the Nanais and related groups as well, owing to their traditional clothes made of fish skins.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hölzl|first=Andreas|date=2018|title=Udi, Udihe, and the language(s) of the Kyakala|url=https://www.academia.edu/37070620|journal=International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction|volume=15|pages=111–146}}</ref>
[[File:Ravenstein-Tyr-monument-196.png|thumb|left|A remnant of [[Yishiha]]'s monuments at [[Tyr, Russia|Tyr]] {{circa | 1860}}]]

The Mongols, ruling the region as the [[Yuan dynasty]], established a tenuous military presence on the lower Amur in the 13th and 14th centuries; ruins of a Yuan-era temple have been excavated near the village of [[Tyr, Russia|Tyr]].<ref name=golovachev>Головачев В. Ц. (V. Ts. Golovachev), [http://www.ethnonet.ru/ru/pub/14-11-08.html «Тырские стелы и храм „Юн Нин“ в свете китайско-чжурчжэньских отношений XIV—XV вв.»] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090223115421/http://www.ethnonet.ru/ru/pub/14-11-08.html |date= 2009-02-23 }} (The Tyr Stelae and the Yongning Temple viewed in the context of Sino-Jurchen relations of the 14-15th centuries) ''Этно-Журнал'', 2008-11-14. {{in lang|ru}}</ref>

During the reigns of the [[Yongle Emperor|Yongle]] and [[Xuande Emperor]]s (early-15th century), the [[Ming dynasty]] reached the Amur in their drive to establish control over the lands adjacent to the Ming Empire to the northeast, which would later become known as Manchuria. Expeditions headed by the [[eunuch]] [[Yishiha]] reached Tyr several times between 1411 and the early 1430s, re-building (twice) the Yongning Temple and obtaining at least the nominal allegiance of the lower Amur's tribes to the Ming government.<ref name=bio>L. Carrington Godrich, Chaoying Fang (editors), "Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644". Volume I (A-L). Columbia University Press, 1976. {{ISBN| 0-231-03801-1}}</ref><ref name=tsai>Shih-Shan Henry Tsai, "Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle". Published by University of Washington Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-295-98124-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=aU5hBMxNgWQC Partial text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110020055/https://books.google.com/books?id=aU5hBMxNgWQC |date=2017-01-10 }} on Google Books. pp. 158-159.</ref> Some sources report also a Chinese presence during the same period on the middle Amur&nbsp;– 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 later relocated during the [[Qing dynasty|Qing Dynasty]].<ref name=halde15>{{cite book |last= Du Halde |first= Jean-Baptiste |title= Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise |volume= IV |publisher= P.G. Lemercier |location= Paris |year= 1735 |url= http://web2.bium.univ-paris5.fr/livanc/?cote=00992x04&do=chapitre |pages= 15–16 |author-link= Jean-Baptiste Du Halde |access-date= 2009-04-01 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090702234744/http://web2.bium.univ-paris5.fr/livanc/?cote=00992x04&do=chapitre |archive-date= 2009-07-02 |url-status= live }} Numerous later editions are available as well, including one [https://books.google.com/books?id=1pcsAAAAYAAJ on Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110081909/https://books.google.com/books?id=1pcsAAAAYAAJ |date=2017-01-10 }}. Du Halde refers to the Yongle-era fort, the predecessor of [[Aigun]], as ''Aykom''. There seem to be few, if any, mentions of this project in other available literature.</ref> In any event, the Ming presence on the Amur was as short-lived as it was tenuous; soon after the end of the Yongle era, the Ming dynasty's frontiers retreated to southern Manchuria. {{citation needed|date= March 2014}}

Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year, the "Chinese god", Chinese motifs like the dragon, spirals, scrolls, and material goods like agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking-pots, silk, and cotton spread among Amur natives such as the Udeghes, Ulchis, and Nanais.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC&pg=PA214 Forsyth 1994] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514222051/https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC&pg=PA214 |date=2016-05-14 }}, p. 214.</ref>

Russian [[Cossack]] expeditions led by [[Vassili Poyarkov]] and [[Yerofey Khabarov]] explored the Amur and its tributaries in 1643&ndash;44 and 1649&ndash;51, respectively. The Cossacks established the fort of [[Albazin]] on the upper Amur, at the site of the former capital of the [[Evenks|Solons]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

[[File:CEM-44-La-Chine-la-Tartarie-Chinoise-et-le-Thibet-1734-Amur-2572.jpg|thumb|right|The Amur (under its Manchu name, ''Saghalien Oula'') and its tributaries on a 1734 map by [[Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville]], based upon maps of [[Jesuit China missions|Jesuits in China]]. [[Albazin]] is shown as ''Jaxa'', the old (Ming) site of [[Aigun]] as ''Aihom'' and the later, Qing Aigun, as ''Saghalien Oula''.]]
At the time, the Manchus were busy with [[Qing conquest of the Ming|conquering China]]; but a few decades later, during the [[Kangxi Emperor|Kangxi era]] of 1661–1722, they turned their attention to their north-Manchurian backyard. Aigun was re-established near the supposed Ming site in about 1683&ndash;84, and a military expeditions went upstream to dislodge the Russians, whose Albazin establishment deprived the Manchu rulers of the tribute of [[sable]] pelts that the Solons and Daurs of the area would supply otherwise.<ref>Du Halde (1735), pp. 15-16</ref> Albazin fell during a short military campaign in 1685. The [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]], concluded in 1689, marked the end of the hostilities: it left the entire Amur valley, from the convergence of the [[Shilka River|Shilka]] and the [[Argun River (Asia)|Ergune]] downstream, in Chinese hands.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

[[Fedor Ivanovich Soimonov|Fedor Soimonov]] was sent to map the then little explored area of the Amur in 1757. He mapped the Shilka, which was partly in Chinese territory, but was turned back when he reached its confluence with the [[Argun River (Asia)|Argun]].<ref>Foust, ''Muscovite and Mandarin'' p. 245-250</ref> The Russian proselytization of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] to the indigenous peoples along the Amur was viewed as a threat by the Qing.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13173/centasiaj.56.2013.0169 |pages=169–202 [169]|jstor=10.13173/centasiaj.56.2013.0169 |last1=Kim 金由美 |first1=Loretta E. |title=Saints for Shamans? Culture, Religion and Borderland Politics in Amuria from the |journal=Central Asiatic Journal |date=2013 |volume=56 }}</ref>[[File:Goldi village along the Amur River, north of Khabarovsk LCCN2004708126.jpg|thumb|left|220x220px|[[Nanai people|Nanai]] village along the Amur, north of Khabarovsk, 1895]]The Amur region remained a relative backwater of the Qing Empire for the next century and a half, with Aigun being practically the only major town on the river. Russians re-appeared on the river in the mid-19th century, forcing the Manchus to yield all lands north of the river to the [[Russian Empire]] by the [[Treaty of Aigun]] (1858). Lands east of the [[Ussuri]] and the lower Amur were acquired by Russia as well, by the [[Convention of Peking]] (1860).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Convention of Peking of 1860 is concluded |url=https://www.prlib.ru/en/history/619718 |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=Presidential Library |language=en}}</ref>