The etymology of the name Amur is unknown. One theory dictates that it entered intoRussian through either theEvenki wordamur or theEven wordamar, both meaning "river" in their respectiveTungusic languages. However, it is unclear whether Russian borrowed the name Amur from either Tungusic language rather than the other way around. An alternative theory suggests that Amur comes frommur, the word inDagur, one of theMongolic languages, for "big river".[14]
Itsancient Chinese names wereYushui,Wanshui andHeishui,[15] with the latter name, meaning "black water", being the basis of the modern Chinese nameHeilongjiang or "Black Dragon River", while theManchurian nameSahaliyan Ula, the Mongolian names "Amar mörön" (Cyrillic: Амар мөрөн) originates from the name "Amar" meaning to rest andKhar mörön (Cyrillic: Хар мөрөн) meanBlack River.[1]
The river rises in the hills in the western part ofNortheast China at the confluence of its two major affluents, theShilka and theArgun (or Ergune), at an elevation of 303 metres (994 ft).[16] It flows east forming the border between China and Russia, and slowly makes a great arc to the southeast for about 400 kilometres (250 mi), receiving many tributaries and passing many small towns. At Huma, it is joined by a major tributary, theHuma He.[17] Afterwards it continues to flow south until, between the cities ofBlagoveshchensk in Russia andHeihe in China, it widens significantly as it is joined by one of its most important tributaries theZeya.[18]
The Amur arcs to the east and turns southeast again at the confluence with theBureya, then does not receive another significant tributary for nearly 250 kilometres (160 mi) before its confluence with its largest tributary, theSonghua, atTongjiang. At the confluence with the Songhua the river turns northeast, now flowing towardsKhabarovsk, where it joins theUssuri and ceases to define the Russia–China border. Now the river spreads out dramatically into abraided character, flowing north-northeast through a wide valley in eastern Russia, passingAmursk andKomsomolsk-on-Amur. The valley narrows after about 200 kilometres (120 mi) and the river again flows north onto plains at the confluence with theAmgun. Shortly after, the Amur turns sharply east and into anestuary atNikolayevsk-on-Amur, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) downstream of which it flows into theStrait of Tartary.[19]
During years with heavy precipitation, the Amur river system is connected with theKherlen river. The normally exit−lessendorheic lakeHulun Lake, into whichKherlen flows, will overflow at its northern shore through thearroyo of Mutnaya Protoka, and the water will meet the Argun River (Ergune) after about 30 kilometres (19 mi). The Amur Basin of theKherlen−Argun−Amur River system has a total length of 5,052 km (3,139 mi) to its river mouth on theSea of Okhotsk.[20]
Many historical references distinguish two geopolitical entities in the area of the Amur:Manchuria (Northeast China) andOuter Manchuria. The Chinese province ofHeilongjiang on the south bank of the river takes its name from the river, as does the RussianAmur Oblast on the north bank. The nativeManchu people and theirQing Empire of China, who regarded this river as sacred,[citation needed] use the nameSahaliyan Ula (Black River).
For many[quantify] centuries, inhabitants of the Amur Valley comprised theTungusic (Evenki,Solon,Ducher,Jurchen,Nanai,Ulch),Mongol (Daur) people, someAinu and, near its mouth, theNivkhs.[24] For many of these groups, fishing in the Amur and its tributaries was the main source of their livelihood. Until the 17th century, those peoples were not known to Europeans, and little known to theHan Chinese, who sometimes collectively described them as theWild Jurchens. The Chinese-language termYúpí 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.[25]
The Mongols, ruling the region as theYuan dynasty, established a tenuous military presence on the lower Amur in the 13th and the 14th centuries; ruins of a Yuan-era temple have been excavated near the village ofTyr.[26]
During the early-15th-century reigns of theYongle and theXuande Emperors, theMing 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 theeunuchYishiha 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.[27][28] Some sources report also a Chinese presence during the same period 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 later relocated during theQing Dynasty.[29] 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]
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.[30]
RussianCossack expeditions led byVassili Poyarkov andYerofey Khabarov explored the Amur and its tributaries in 1643-44 and 1649-51, respectively[31]: 10, 15 . From 1640s to 1980s the Cossacks collected tribute from local peoples[32]: 71,78 . They also established the fort ofAlbazin on the upper Amur[33]: 113 .
At the time, the Manchus were busy withconquering China; but a few decades later, during theKangxi era of 1661–1722, they turned their attention to their north-Manchurian backyard. Aigun was re-established near the supposed Ming site in about 1683–84, and a military expeditions went upstream to dislodge the Russians, whose Albazin establishment deprived the Manchu rulers of the tribute ofsable pelts that the Solons and Daurs of the area would supply otherwise.[34] Albazin fell during a short military campaign in 1685. TheTreaty of Nerchinsk, concluded in 1689, marked the end of the hostilities: it left the entire Amur valley, from the convergence of theShilka and theErgune downstream, in Chinese hands.[citation needed]
Fedor Soimonov was commissioned in 1753 to map the then little explored area of the Amur, the actual expedition taking place in 1757[35]: 246-7 . He mapped the Shilka, which was partly in Chinese territory, but was turned back when he reached its confluence with theArgun[35]: 247 . The Russian proselytization ofOrthodox Christianity to the indigenous peoples along the Amur was viewed as a threat by the Qing.[36]
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 reappeared on the river in the mid-19th century, which forced the Manchus to yield all lands north of the river to theRussian Empire by theTreaty of Aigun (1858). Lands east of theUssuri and the lower Amur were acquired by Russia as well, by theConvention of Peking (1860).[37]
The Amur (under its Manchu name,Saghalien Oula) and its tributaries on a 1734 map byJean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, based upon maps ofJesuits in China.Albazin is shown asJaxa, the old (Ming) site ofAigun asAihom and the later, Qing Aigun, asSaghalien Oula.
Nanai village along the Amur, north of Khabarovsk, 1895
The first permanent bridge across the Amur, theKhabarovsk Bridge with an overall length of 2,590 metres (8,500 ft), was completed in 1916, allowing the trains on theTrans-Siberian Railway to cross the river year-round without using ferries or rail tracks on top of the river ice. In 1941 arailway tunnel was added as well.[citation needed]
Later, a combined road and railbridge over the Amur atKomsomolsk-on-Amur (1975; 1400 m) and the road and rail Khabarovsk Bridge (1999; 3890 m) were constructed.
TheTongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge was proposed in 2007 byValery Solomonovich Gurevich, the vice-chairman of theJewish Autonomous Oblast inRussia. The railway bridge over the Amur will connect Tongjiang withNizhneleninskoye, a village in theJewish Autonomous Oblast.[38] The Chinese portion of the bridge was finished in July 2016.[39] In December 2016, work began on the Russian portion of the bridge. Completion of structural link between the two sides of the bridge was completed in March 2019.[40][41] Opening to rail traffic has been repeatedly delayed, with the December 2019 estimate being "the end of 2020",[42] and then 3rd quarter of 2021.[43]
Flowing across northeastAsia for over 4,444 kilometres (2,761 mi) (including its two tributaries), from themountains of northeastern China to theSea of Okhotsk (nearNikolayevsk-na-Amure), it drains a remarkable watershed that includes diverse landscapes ofdesert,steppe,tundra, andtaiga, eventually emptying into the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Tartary, where the mouth of the river faces the northern end of the island ofSakhalin.[citation needed]
The Amur has always been closely associated with the island of Sakhalin at its mouth, and most names for the island, even in the languages of the indigenous peoples of the region, are derived from the name of the river: "Sakhalin" derives from aTungusic dialectal form cognate with Manchusahaliyan ("black", as insahaliyan ula, "Black River"), while Ainu and Japanese "Karaputo" or "Karafuto" is derived from theAinu name of the Amur or its mouth.Anton Chekhov vividly described the Amur in writings about his journey to Sakhalin Island in 1890.[citation needed]
The average annual discharge varies from 6,000 cubic metres per second (210,000 cu ft/s) (1980) to 12,000 cubic metres per second (420,000 cu ft/s) (1957), leading to an average 9,819 cubic metres per second (346,800 cu ft/s) or 310 cubic kilometres (74 cu mi) per year. The maximum runoff measured occurred in Oct 1951 with 30,700 cubic metres per second (1,080,000 cu ft/s) whereas the minimum discharge was recorded in March 1946 with a mere 514 cubic metres per second (18,200 cu ft/s).[46]
^abcPeter, Bauer-Gottwein; Elena, Zakharova; Monica, Coppo Frías; Heidi, Ranndal; Karina, Nielsen; Linda, Christoffersen (2023). "A hydraulic model of the Amur River informed by ICESat-2 elevation".Hydrological.68 (14):2027–2041.Bibcode:2023HydSJ..68.2027B.doi:10.1080/02626667.2023.2245811.
^Farkas, B., T. Ziegler, C.T. Pham, A.V. Ong and U. Fritz (2019). A new species of Pelodiscus from northeastern Indochina (Testudines, Trionychidae). ZooKeys 824: 71-86.doi:10.3897/zookeys.824.31376
^L. Carrington Godrich, Chaoying Fang (editors), "Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644". Volume I (A-L). Columbia University Press, 1976.ISBN0-231-03801-1
^Shih-Shan Henry Tsai, "Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle". Published by University of Washington Press, 2002.ISBN0-295-98124-5Partial textArchived 2017-01-10 at theWayback Machine on Google Books. pp. 158-159.
^Corrado, Sharyl (2014). "A land divided: Sakhalin and the Amur Expedition of G.I. Nevel'skoi, 1848-1855".Journal of Historical Geography.doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2014.05.030.
^Nesterov, S.P. (2017). "Albazin, a Russian Town on the Amur: Population Size in the Late 1600s".Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia.doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.2.113-122.
^abFoust, Clifford M. (1969).Muscovite and Mandarin; Russia's trade with China and its setting, 1727-1805. The University of North Carolina Press.
^Kim 金由美, Loretta E. (2013). "Saints for Shamans? Culture, Religion and Borderland Politics in Amuria from the".Central Asiatic Journal.56: 169–202 [169].JSTOR10.13173/centasiaj.56.2013.0169.
Kim 金, Loretta E. 由美 (2012–2013). "Saints for Shamans? Culture, Religion and Borderland Politics in Amuria from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries".Central Asiatic Journal.56. Harrassowitz Verlag:169–202.JSTOR10.13173/centasiaj.56.2013.0169.
McAleavy, Henry. "China and the Amur Provinces"History Today (June 1964) 14#6 pp 381–390.
