ᠰᡞᠪᡝ Sibo, Xibe, Xibo | |
|---|---|
 "Sibo military colonists" – picture drawn byHenry Lansdell during his 1882 visit to what is nowQapqal Xibe Autonomous County | |
| Total population | |
| 190,481 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 China(Liaoning · Xinjiang · Heilongjiang · Jilin · Inner Mongolia) | |
| Languages | |
| Mandarin Chinese andSibe | |
| Religion | |
| Tibetan Buddhism andshamanism[1] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Manchus,Daur,Nanai,Orok,Evenks andSolon |
TheSibe[a][b] are aTungusic-speakingEast Asian ethnic group living mostly inXinjiang,Jilin andShenyang inLiaoning.[2] The Sibe form one of the 56ethnic groups officially recognized by China, and had a recorded population of 190,481 in the2010 Chinese Census, comprising just over 0.014% of China's total population.[3]
The Sibe are known by several variations of their name. The self-appellation of the Sibe people is pronouncedŚivə, the official Chinese term isXibo, in Russian literature the terms Сибинцы (sibintsy) and Шибинцы (shibintsy) are used, while in English works the nameSibe has been established, which corresponds to the written form.[2]
According to the Russian scholar Elena P. Lebedeva, the Sibe people originated as a southern,Tungusic-speaking offshoot of the ancientShiwei people. They lived in small town-like settlements, a portion of themnomadic, in theSongyuan andQiqihar areas of what is now Jilin.[4]
When theBuyeo kingdom was conquered by theXianbei in 286 AD, the southern Shiwei started practicing agriculture.[4] Some historians have theorized that the Xianbei were the direct progenitors of the Sibe,[1] a theory described by some as politically motivated.[5]Pamela Kyle Crossley writes the Xianbei might have undergone alanguage 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.[6]
TheHan dynasty,Cao Wei and theJin dynasty (266–420) at times controlled the Sibe until the advent of theGöktürks, who accorded the Sibe lower status than did the Chinese dynasties.[4] At the height of their territorial dispersion, the Sibe lived in an area bounded byJilin to the east,Hulunbuir to the west, theNen River to the north and theLiao River to the south.[1] After the fall of theLiao dynasty, the Sibe became vassals of theKhorchin Mongols who moved to theNen andSonghua river valleys in 1438 after the Khorchin were defeated by theOirats.[4]
Nurhaci, the first prominent figure of theManchu people, routed the Sibe during the battle of Gure in 1593 on his way to founding theQing dynasty of China. From that point, the Qing contracted the Sibe forlogistical support against theRussian Empire's expansionism on China's northern border.[4] Crossley claims that the Sibe were so "well known to Russians moving toward the Pacific" that the Russians namedSiberia after them.[6] In 1692, the Khorchin dedicated the Sibe, the Gūwalca and theDaur to theKangxi Emperor in exchange for silver. The Sibe were incorporated into theEight Banners and were stationed inQiqihar and other cities inNortheast China.[7]
In 1700, some 20,000 Qiqihar Sibes were resettled inHohhot (modernInner Mongolia); 36,000 Songyuan Sibes were resettled inShenyang,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.[8] According toJerry Norman, after a revolt by the Qiqihar Sibes in 1764, theQianlong Emperor ordered an 800-man military escort to transfer 18,000 Sibe to theIli River ofDzungaria.[4][9]
In Ili, the Xinjiang Sibe builtBuddhist monasteries and cultivated vegetables,tobacco andpoppies.[10] The Sibe population declined after the Qing used them to suppress theDungan Revolt (1862–77) by theHui[4] and to fight against the Russian occupation of Ili during the revolt.[1] 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.[11][12][13]
During theRepublic of China (1912–49) period, many northeastern Sibe joinedanti-Japanese volunteer armies, while northwestern Sibe fought against theKuomintang during theIli Rebellion. After theChinese 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 ofQapqal disease (a form of type Abotulism).
In 1954, the PRC established theQapqal Xibe Autonomous County to replace Ningxi County in Xinjiang, in the group's area of highest ethnic concentration.
Most historical analyses indicate that the Sibe people were never treated as part of the Manchu proper, nor do they ever perceive themselves as being the same as the Manchu people. The Sibe garrisons were administered separately from those of the Manchu and did not enjoy the same rights as them. The Sibe soldiers had to earn their living by squatting on land to become self-sufficient, while the Manchu garrisons were supplied by the Qing state. Possibly due to the unequal administrative treatment in the history, alongside their late incorporation into theEight Banners, there is both a Sibe self-perception and state recognition of the Sibe people in more recent times as a national minority that is distinct from the Manchu.[14]
Historical religions of the Sibe includedshamanism andBuddhism. Customary Sibe attire included short buttoned jackets and trousers for men and close-fitting, long and lace-trimmed gowns for women.Arranged marriage was common and women had low social status, including no right to inherit property.[1] Nowadays almost all the Sibe wear modern clothing and the traditional clothing is worn by elders during festivals. Traditionally, the Sibe were divided into manyhala, male-led clans consisting of people who shared the samesurname. Until modern times, the dwellings of the Sibe housed up to three different generations from the same family, since it was believed that while the father was alive no son could break the family clan by leaving the house.[1]
The Sibe inNortheast China speakMandarin Chinese as theirfirst language. In some Sibe communities inNortheast China, women are not allowed to live with men before formal marriage. During this time, the man must formally propose and express his intention to marry through specific acts and ceremonies. Only after the woman accepts the proposal and the marriage is finalized can she move into the man's home. In Xinjiang, descendants of theQing dynasty military garrison speak theXibe language, a SouthernTungusic language that underwent morphophonological changes and the adoption of loanwords from languages spoken in Xinjiang includingMandarin Chinese,Russian,Uyghur, andKazakh.
The different ethnicities of Northern Xinjiang have shared musical culture and adopted elements from each other's music.[15]
According to the2010 Chinese Census, there were 190,481 Sibe people inChina: 99,571 males and 90,910 females.[3] The largest Sibe population within China was in theprovince ofLiaoning, home to 132,431 Sibe people, 69.52% of all Sibe people in China, but just 0.30% of Liaoning's total population.[3] Theautonomous region ofXinjiang is also home to a sizable number of Sibe people: 34,399 in total, accounting for 18.06% of all Sibe people in China, and 0.16% of Xinjiang's total population.[3] Outside of these two,Heilongjiang,Jilin, andInner Mongolia have the largest Sibe populations, totaling 7,608, 3,113, and 3,000, respectively.[3]
| Provincial-level division | 2010[3] | |
|---|---|---|
| Population | Percent of total Sibe in China | |
| Liaoning | 132,431 | 69.52% |
| Xinjiang | 34,399 | 18.06% |
| Heilongjiang | 7,608 | 3.99% |
| Jilin | 3,113 | 1.63% |
| Inner Mongolia | 3,000 | 1.57% |
| Beijing | 2,569 | 1.35% |
| Hebei | 851 | 0.45% |
| Guangdong | 705 | 0.37% |
| Shanghai | 696 | 0.37% |
| Shandong | 661 | 0.35% |
| Tianjin | 536 | 0.28% |
| Jiangsu | 433 | 0.23% |
| Shaanxi | 416 | 0.22% |
| Sichuan | 381 | 0.20% |
| Gansu | 299 | 0.16% |
| Henan | 273 | 0.14% |
| Hubei | 228 | 0.12% |
| Zhejiang | 200 | 0.10% |
| Guizhou | 185 | 0.10% |
| Ningxia | 184 | 0.10% |
| Shanxi | 158 | 0.08% |
| Yunnan | 158 | 0.08% |
| Guangxi | 146 | 0.08% |
| Anhui | 143 | 0.08% |
| Chongqing | 143 | 0.08% |
| Fujian | 142 | 0.08% |
| Hunan | 136 | 0.07% |
| Qinghai | 128 | 0.07% |
| Jiangxi | 81 | 0.04% |
| Hainan | 72 | 0.04% |
| Tibet | 6 | < 0.01% |
| Total | 190,481 | 100.00% |
Approximately 43,000 Sibe people live in theautonomous region ofXinjiang, of which, approximately 34,000 live in theIli Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, where theQapqal Xibe Autonomous County is located.[16][17] As of 2018, 19,984 Sibe people live in theautonomous county, comprising 10.28% of its total population, which is dominated by larger groups, such as theHan Chinese,Uyghurs, andKazakhs.[17] In 2015, 20,426 Sibe people lived in the autonomous county, comprising 10.38% of its total population.[16]
| Prefecture-level division | 2015[16] | 2018[17] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | Percent of total Sibe in Xinjiang | Population | Percent of total Sibe in Xinjiang | |
| Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture | 34,457 | 80.18% | 33,879 | 79.21% |
| Ürümqi | 5,686 | 13.23% | 5,767 | 13.48% |
| Karamay | 986 | 2.29% | 1,033 | 2.42% |
| Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture | 651 | 1.51% | 666 | 1.56% |
| Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture | 196 | 0.46% | 425 | 0.99% |
| Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture | 265 | 0.62% | 226 | 0.53% |
| Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps | 305 | 0.71% | 202 | 0.47% |
| Aksu | 126 | 0.29% | 177 | 0.41% |
| Hami | 158 | 0.37% | 155 | 0.36% |
| Kashgar | 100 | 0.23% | 133 | 0.31% |
| Hotan | 12 | 0.03% | 55 | 0.13% |
| Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture | 6 | 0.01% | 33 | 0.08% |
| Turpan | 26 | 0.06% | 21 | 0.05% |
| Xinjiang Total | 42,974 | 100.00% | 42,772 | 100.00% |
,[ɕivə];[2]simplified Chinese:锡伯;traditional Chinese:錫伯;pinyin:Xībó| Sino-Tibetan |
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| Overseas diaspora |
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Underlined: the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups ranked by population in their language families according to2020 census | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
