Shamanism during the Qing dynasty
Shamanism was the dominant religion of the
When
Until at least the eighteenth century, shamanism was at the core of Manchu spiritual life and differentiated Manchus from
During his fieldwork among the Tungusic populations of "Manchuria" in the 1910s, Russian anthropologist S. M. Shirokogoroff found enough surviving practices to build a theory of shamanism that shaped later theoretical debates about shamanism. Since the late 1980s, however, these theories have been criticized for neglecting the relation between shamanism and the state. Historians are now arguing that shamanistic practices in northeast Asia were intimately tied to the establishment of states, an analysis that fits the Qing case very well.
Historical origins to 1644
Early Jurchen shamanism
The Manchu name for a shamanic shrine or altar to the spirits is tangse.
Each clan—mukūn, a village or association of villages who claimed to share common ancestors—had its sacred protective spirits (enduri).[6] The shaman (often a woman) was in charge of placating spirits and dead ancestors and of contacting them to seek a good hunt or harvest, quick healing, success in battle, and other such favors.[7] The point of contact between the community and the spirits was the "spirit pole" (Manchu: šomo; Chinese: 神柱; pinyin: shénzhù).[8] Shamans played a crucial role in these early Jurchen communities, as the authority of the clan headman often depended on the assent of the shaman.[9]
There were two kinds of Jurchen shamanistic rituals, corresponding to two kinds of shamans.[10] The most common was "domestic ritual": ritual-based sacrifices to Heaven and to the clan's ancestors conducted by hereditary shamans from that clan.[11] "Primitive ritual", on the other hand, was performed by people who had undergone a "shamanic illness", which was seen as a sign that they had been chosen by the spirits.[12] Entering into a trance, these "transformational" shamans let themselves be possessed by various animal spirits and sought the help of these spirits for purposes like healing or exorcism.[13] These shamans set up an altar in their own houses and received a different kind of training than hereditary shamans.[14]
Manchu shamans typically wore an apron, a feathered cap denoting their ability to fly to the spirit world, and a belt with dangling bells, and carried a knife, two wooden sticks with bells affixed to the top, and a drum they used during ceremonies.[15] These attributes could still be observed among shamans from Manchuria and Mongolia in the early twentieth century.[16]
Shamanism after the rise of Nurhaci
Jurchen shamanic practices were transformed by the rise of the Later Jin founder
In another transformation that "mirrored the process of political centralization" in Nurhaci's state, the traditional Jurchen belief in multiple heavens was replaced by one Heaven, called "Abka", led by a universal sky god called Abka Enduri ("Sky God" or "God of Heaven"), also referred to as Abka Han ("Sky Khan" or "Khan of Heaven") and Abka Ama ("Sky Father").
Nurhaci's son
Shamans could also be used for personal purposes, as when Nurhaci's eldest son Cuyen supposedly tried to bewitch the entire Aisin Gioro lineage with the help of shamans in 1612.[25]
State shamanism after 1644
The Beijing tangse
In 1644, just a few months after the Qing seized the city of Beijing from the peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng who had pushed the last emperor of the Ming dynasty to suicide, the Manchus constructed a new tangse in the city, modeled on the tangse of the former Qing capital Mukden.[26] This "Manchu shamanist sanctuary", an octagonal building whose shape was specific to the Aisin Gioro clan, was located outside the Imperial City to the southeast, but still within the Inner City occupied by Bannermen, making it convenient for imperial visits.[27] There, the emperor made offerings to Heaven and various other deities, including the horse spirit and the Manchu progenitor.[28] Ethnic Han and Mongol peoples were strictly forbidden from entering this ritual area.[29]
The Qing state's main shamanistic ritual was performed at the tangse by the emperor on the first day of the New Year.[30] In the Shunzhi (1644–1661), Kangxi (1662–1722), and Yongzheng (1723–1735) eras, this ceremony was the emperor's first activity on the first day of the New Year, but sometime during the Qianlong era (1736–1796) it fell to the second rank after private sacrifices to the Aisin Gioro ancestors.[31] Even with this somewhat diminished importance, these shamanic rites continued to the end of the dynasty.[31]
The tangse was destroyed in 1900 by
Kunning Palace
Daily shamanistic rites were also conducted in the women's quarters, in the Palace of Earthly Tranquility (Chinese: 坤寧宮; pinyin: Kunning gong), a building located near the north gate of the Forbidden City, on the central axis of the palace complex.[35] This palace had served as the Empress's residence under the Ming dynasty, but the Qing converted it for ritual use, installing a "spirit pole" to present sacrifices to heaven, changing the style of the windows, and setting up large cauldrons to cook sacrificial food.[36]
The shamans in the Kunning Palace were all women.[37] In the Shunzhi era (1644–1661), the sacrifices were performed by the wives of Aisin Gioro men and by the emperor's consorts.[38] After that, the shamanesses were selected from the wives of "imperial guards" (Chinese: 侍衛; pinyin: shìwèi), high officials belonging to Gioro households registered in the "Upper Three Banners", which belonged directly to the emperor.[39] These shamanesses (Chinese: 薩滿太太; pinyin: sāmǎn tàitài), who were assisted by eunuchs, were managed by the "Office of Shamanism" (Chinese: 神房; pinyin: shénfáng), a bureau under the authority of the Imperial Household Department.[40] Only members of the imperial clan could attend such ceremonies.[28]
Role in Qing rulership
The Qing emperor used shamanism to promote the dynasty's legitimacy among the
Healing rituals
Besides state ritual, the Manchus often resorted to shamans to treat illness.
The "Shamanic Code" of 1747
In the 1740s, the Qianlong Emperor worried that shamanic traditions were becoming lost, especially among the Manchu Bannermen who lived in garrisons throughout the empire.[54] To fight this trend, in 1741 he commissioned a "Shamanic Code", based on the rites of the imperial clan, that would explain the use of shamanic instruments and the meaning of Manchu ritual incantations, many of which had been transmitted by officiants who were not fluent in Manchu, to the point of becoming nonsensical.[55] It was completed in 1747.[56] Its full title in Manchu was ᡥᡝᠰᡝᡳ
ᡨᠣᡴᡨᠣᠪᡠᡥᠠ
ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠᠰᠠᡳ
ᠸᡝᠴᡝᡵᡝ
ᠮᡝᡨᡝᡵᡝ
ᡴᠣᠣᠯᡳ
ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝ Wylie: Ghesei toktopuha Manchusai wetchere metere kauli pitghe, Möllendorff: Hesei toktobuha Manjusai wecere metere kooli bithe, which scholars have translated variously as "Imperially commissioned Manchu rituals for sacrificing to deities and to Heaven", "Rites for the Manchu worship of Heaven and the spirits", and "Imperially commissioned code of rituals and sacrifices of the Manchus".[57] The Code attempted to formalize Manchu shamanistic practices.[58] Historian Pamela Crossley sees it as part of the Qianlong Emperor's attempts to "standardize the cultural and spiritual life of the Manchus", taking the practices of the imperial clan as a model.[59]
Though the Shamanic Code was first kept in manuscript form, French Jesuit
The compilation of this Code "opened Qing shamanism to bureaucratic review" and modified the practices of ordinary Manchus.[63] The Code was distributed to Bannermen to guide their practices.[64] Commercial editions were even produced for sale to the common public.[61] One of these editions, the Manzhou tiaoshen huanyuan dianli (滿洲跳神還願典例), dated 1828, has survived.[61] Even though this "Shamanic Code" did not fully unify shamanic practice among the Banners, it "helped systematize and reshape what had been a very fluid and diverse belief system".[64]
Diversity of practices
There is little evidence concerning the shamanic practices of common Bannermen in the garrisons.
The worship of heaven in the Chinese imperial tradition paralleled shamanistic sacrifices, but only the emperor made offerings to the Chinese heaven, whereas ordinary Manchus could also worship shamanistic heaven.[69] Both Chinese and Manchu heaven were an "all-encompassing principle of cosmic order and human destiny" that could be used to give the state legitimacy.[70]
In their shamanic ceremonies, Manchus worshipped a number of gods, including non-Tungusic deities.
Shamanism and Manchu identity
At least into the eighteenth century, shamanism served to strengthen Manchu ethnic identity by forming "the spiritual core of Manchu life".
According to historian
Elliott argues that "shamanism contributed to Manchu identity ... by constructing a very obvious boundary between Manchu and Han".[77] Ethnic Han residents and visitors, who were forbidden to observe the rituals performed at the shamanic shrine, saw these rites as "different and mysterious" or "secret and alien".[83] A visitor to Beijing in the early Qing remarked that the Tangzi was one of the three things one did not ask about in the capital.[84] The difference between shamanic rites and Han rituals still "aroused significant interest".[77] Korean visitors from Joseon, for instance, often "asked questions about the secret Manchu rites in the Tangzi".[85] Writers who wanted to satisfy their readers' curiosity about these exotic practices could only speculate or rely on the late eighteenth-century Shamanic Code.[77] This is why nineteenth-century accounts by Han people about Manchu rituals are "fragmentary and often error-prone", while their explanations of ritual language are "positively confusing".[77]
Scholarly interpretations
During his fieldwork among the Tungusic peoples of "Manchuria" from 1912 to 1918, Russian anthropologist S. M. Shirokogoroff (1887–1939) found enough surviving practices to develop an influential theory of shamanism.[86] He noted that the northern Tungus had been heavily influenced by Manchu language and culture: they wore Manchu clothing and hairstyle, read Manchu books, and conducted weddings and funerals according to Manchu customs.[87] As he also discovered, the Manchus venerated many Buddhist deities, so much that he hypothesized that northeast Asian shamanism was an outgrowth of Buddhism.[88] This thesis has not been widely accepted.[89] His definition of shamanism, however, has been widely discussed. Equipped with specific ritual implements, the shaman enters into a trance to gain control of harmful spirits who cause illness or misfortune to a clan or a tribe. His role is recognized by his society, and there is an explicit explanation of how he masters the spirits.[90]
Shirokogoroff claimed that true shamanism only existed among the Tungus and the Manchus, but despite his warnings that Tungus shamanism could only be understood in relation to all other elements of Tungus culture, and that his findings should therefore not serve to develop a general interpretation of shamanism, Shirokogoroff's ideas have shaped theoretical debates about shamanism.
Shirokogoroff's and Eliade's views of shamanism were both centered on individuals and on the role of shamans in small groups. Shirokogoroff, for instance, considered eighteenth-century Qing shamanism too formalized to be authentic.[97] Historians of northeast Asia have criticized Eliade's and Shirokogoroff's interpretations because they neglect the political roles of shamans and shamanism's relation with the state.[98] Eliade's claim that shamanism is by essence archaic, individualistic, and socially transgressive led him and his followers to neglect historical contexts in which shamanism fulfilled political functions or served the needs of the state, as it did under the Qing.[99]
See also
References
Citations
- ^ Denis C. Twitchett, John K. Fairbank, The Cambridge History of China, Volume 9: "The Ch'ing Empire to 1800", Part 1, p. 29
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 231 (every Tunguso-Manchurian language); Elliott 2001, p. 235 (general description).
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 235.
- ^ a b c d e f Rawski 1998, p. 236.
- ^ a b Elliott 2001, pp. 465–66, note 13.
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 236 ("enduri" as sacred spirits; dead ancestors); Crossley 1997, p. 32 ("mukūn"; protective spirits).
- ^ a b Elliott 2001, p. 236.
- ^ Crossley 1990, p. 34.
- ^ Crossley 1997, p. 32.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 233 ("the Jurchen had two kinds of shamans"; Elliott 2001, p. 236 ("in discussions of Manchu shamanism it is common to speak of two types of ritual").
- ^ Elliott 2001, pp. 236 ("domestic" ritual; "liturgically based sacrifices to heaven and to the ancestors") and 237 (most common); Rawski 1998, p. 233 ("hereditary shamans who specialized in performing rites for their own clan").
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 237 ("primitive ritual"); Rawski 1998, p. 233 ("shamanic illness").
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 237 ("transformational shamanism"; possession by animal spirits; specific purposes); Rawski 1998, p. 233 (also "transformational shamans"). Elliott and Rawski both borrow the term "transformational" from Humphrey 1994.
- ^ a b c d Rawski 1998, p. 233.
- ^ a b Rawski 1998, p. 234.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 370, note 18.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 236 (destruction of other tribes' shrines); Crossley 1999, p. 203 (magpie).
- ^ Crossley 1999, pp. 202 (eighteenth century) and 203 ("The first steps toward state codification of religion were taken, and the process would accelerate under succeeding emperors").
- ^ Shirokogorov (1929), p. 204.
- ^ a b c d Rawski 1998, p. 235.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 10.
- ^ Crossley 1999, p. 135.
- ^ Crossley 1997, p. 11.
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 465, note 11.
- ^ Crossley 1999, p. 162.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 236 ("work on building a tangzi ... began almost immediately after the Manchu troops occupied the capital"); Naquin 2000, p. 383 (this "special sanctuary" for shamanic rites was constructed "in the autumn of 1644"); Elliott 2001, p. 466, note 13 (modeled on "the Shenyang tangse"). Elliott, however, gives the date of construction as 1653.
- ^ Naquin 2000, p. 355 (location, "Manchu shamanist sanctuary"); Elliott 2001, p. 237 ("smallish octagonal building") and p. 466, note 13; Rawski 1998, p. 371, note 29 (shape specific to the Aisin Gioro).
- ^ a b Elliott 2001, p. 237.
- ^ Naquin 2000, p. 334 ("ritual areas closed to Chinese"); Elliott 2001, p. 237 ("the presence of Han or Mongol officials was forbidden").
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 237 (date of the ceremony, emperor's attendance).
- ^ a b Rawski 1998, p. 269.
- ^ Naquin 2000, p. 684, citing L. C. Arlington and William Lewisohn, In Search of Old Peking (Peking: Vetch, 1935), pp. 118–19.
- ^ Naquin 2000, p. 384.
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 466, note 13.
- ^ Rawski 1998, pp. 30 (location of the Kunning palace), 238 (daily rituals there), and 460 (translation of Kunning gong).
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 465, note 10 (windows and cauldrons); Naquin 2000, p. 304 (conversion of the Ming building); Crossley 1997, p. 32 (spirit pole).
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 129.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 238.
- ^ Hucker 1985, entry 5333, p. 430 ("imperial guards"); Rawski 1998, p. 238.
- ^ Hucker 1985, entry 4827, p. 395.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 242.
- ^ Rawski 1998, pp. 242–43.
- ^ a b Rawski 1998, p. 10.
- ^ Treaty between Tibet and Nepal, 1856 (translation)
- ISBN 9788120810679.
- ISBN 9781134362226.
- ^ "The Qing Dynasty and Its Central Asian Neighbors". Retrieved September 17, 2023.
- JSTOR 2718931.
- ISBN 9780861718061.
- ^ Berger 2003, p. 40.
- ^ Wakeman 1985, pp. 883–84 (Dodo contracting smallpox and role in conquest of Jiangnan); Chang 2002, p. 196 (smallpox as the most feared disease among the Manchus).
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 233 (name of the shaman); Fang 1943, p. 215 (age and date of death).
- ^ Rawski 1998, pp. 113 (date when variolation began in the Qing imperial family) and 233 (sacrifices for emperor's sons who had survived it).
- ^ Crossley 1990, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Crossley 1990, p. 29.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 240; Elliott 2001, p. 238; di Cosmo 1999, p. 355.
- ^ Taken respectively from Rawski 1998, p. 454; Crossley 1999, p. 299; and di Cosmo 1999, p. 355.
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 359.
- ^ Crossley 1999, pp. 202–3.
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 355, note 5.
- ^ a b c Rawski 1998, p. 240.
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 355, note 5 (Manchu text printed in 1778, Chinese text completed in 1782); Rawski 1998, p. 240 (Chinese text completed in 1780).
- ^ Crossley 1999, p. 299 (bureaucratic review); Rawski 1998, p. 298.
- ^ a b Rawski 1998, p. 298.
- ^ Crossley 1990, p. 240, note 17.
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 359 (analysis, with examples of the Šušu and Xibe); Elliott 2001, p. 239 ("texts for many nonimperial clan rituals have been preserved").
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 360.
- ^ Crossley 1997, p. 33 (spirit poles); Elliott 2001, p. 239 (weceku).
- ^ Rawski 1998, pp. 234–5.
- ^ Humphrey 1994, p. 196.
- ^ Naquin 2000, p. 502.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 236.
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 239.
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 240.
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 231.
- ^ Elliott 2001, pp. 240–41 (for the account that follows) and p. 467, note 39 (for the date of this incident).
- ^ a b c d e f Elliott 2001, p. 241.
- ^ Elliott 2001, p. 241 (literal meaning of tiaoshen) and p. 467, note 39 (source of the edict).
- ^ Crossley 1994, p. 361.
- ^ Elliott 2001, pp. 240 and 467, note 37.
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 375
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, pp. 353–54.
- ^ Naquin 2000, p. 383 ("different and mysterious"); Elliott 2001, p. 241 ("secret and alien").
- ^ Cited in Naquin 2000, p. 383.
- ^ Naquin 2000, p. 475.
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, p. 93 (dates of fieldwork); Crossley 1997, p. 33 (surviving practices that allowed fieldwork).
- ^ Rawski 1998, p. 242.
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, p. 96; di Cosmo 1999, p. 370, note 60.
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 370, note 60.
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, p. 95–97.
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, pp. 93 ("His authority as a scholar of shamanism is recognised and celebrated by most later scholars of shamanism") and 96–98 (warnings not to see his findings as typical of a general phenomenon called shamanism); Crossley 1999, p. 19 note 35 ("Shirokogoroff placed Manchu shamanism, particularly, so firmly in the center of shamanic studies that it remains a pole around which much theoretical discussion of shamanism rotates").
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, pp. 97 and 105–06.
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, p. 106.
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, p. 132.
- ^ Humphrey 1994, p. 191.
- ^ Boekhoven 2011, p. 98 note 25.
- ^ Humphrey 1994, pp. 212–13.
- ^ di Cosmo 1999, p. 363; Elliott 2001, pp. 238–89; Humphrey 1994, pp. 191–12[verification needed] and 213; Rawski 1998, p. 231.
- ^ Thomas & Humphrey 1994, pp. 1–3.
Sources
- Works cited
- Berger, Patricia (2003), Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 0-8248-2563-2.
- Boekhoven, Jeroen W. (2011), Genealogies of Shamanism: Struggles for Power, Charisma and Authority, Groningen: Barkhuis, ISBN 978-9-0779-2292-7.
- Chang, Chia-feng (2002), "Disease and its Impact on Politics, Diplomacy, and the Military: The Case of Smallpox and the Manchus (1613–1795)", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 57 (2): 177–97, PMID 11995595.
- ISBN 0-691-05583-1.
- Crossley, Pamela Kyle (1994), "Manchu Education", in Benjamin A. Elman; Alexander Woodside (eds.), Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600–1900, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, pp. 340–78, ISBN 0-520-08234-6.
- Crossley, Pamela Kyle (1997), The Manchus, Oxford, England: Blackwell, ISBN 1-55786-560-4.
- Crossley, Pamela Kyle (1999), A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-21566-4.
- di Cosmo, Nicola (1999), "Manchu shamanic ceremonies at the Qing court", in McDermott, Joseph P. (ed.), State and Court Ritual in China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 352–98, ISBN 0-521-62157-7.
- ISBN 0-8047-4684-2(paperback).
- Fang, Chao-ying (1943). Hummel, Arthur W. Sr. (ed.). Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office. p. 215. . In
- ISBN 0-8047-1193-3.
- Humphrey, Caroline (1994), "Shamanic Practices and the State in Northern Asia: Views from the Center and Periphery", in Nicholas Thomas; Caroline Humphrey (eds.), Shamanism, History, and the State, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 191–228, ISBN 0-472-08401-1.
- Naquin, Susan (2000), Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-21991-0.
- Rawski, Evelyn S. (1998), The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-22837-5.
- Shirokogorov, Sergey Mikhailovich (1929). Social organization of the Northern Tungus. Garland. ISBN 978-0824096205.
- Thomas, Nicholas; Humphrey, Caroline (1994), "Introduction", in Nicholas Thomas; Caroline Humphrey (eds.), Shamanism, History, and the State, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 1–12, ISBN 0-472-08401-1.
- ISBN 0-520-04804-0. In two volumes.
Further reading
- Du Jiaji 杜家骥 (1990). "Cong Qingdai de gongzhong jisi he tangzi jisi kan samanjiao" 从清代的宫中祭祀和堂子祭祀看萨满教 ["Perspectives on shamanism from Qing palace and tangse sacrifices"]. Manzu Yanjiu [Manchu Studies] 《满族研究》 1: 45–49.
- Fu Tongqin (1982). "Qingdai de tangzi" 清代的堂子 ["The Qing tangse"]. In Ming-Qing guoji xueshu taolunhui lunwenji 《明清国际学术讨论会论文集》. Tianjin: Tianjin People's Press, pp. 269–85.
- Fu Yuguang 富育光 and Meng Huiying 孟慧英 (1991). Manzu Samanjiao Yanjiu 满族萨满教研究 ["Research on Manchu shamanism"]. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.
- Hesse, Klaus (1987). "On the History of Mongolian Shamanism in Historical Perspective". Anthropos. 82: 403–13. (subscription required)
- Jiang Xiangshun 姜相顺 (1995). Shenmi de Qinggong saman jisi 神秘的清宫萨满祭祀 ["The mysterious shamanic sacrifices in the Qing palace"]. Shenyang, Liaoning People's Press.
- Jiang Xiangshun 姜相顺 (1995b). "Lun Qing gong saman" 论清宫萨满 ["On Qing court shamans"]. Journal of Shenyang Palace Museum 《沈阳故宫博物院院刊》 1: 62–66.
- Kim, Loretta E. (2012–2013), "Saints for Shamans? Culture, Religion and Borderland Politics in Amuria from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries", Central Asiatic Journal, 56, (subscription required): 169–202, .
- Li Hsüeh-chih [Li Xuezhi] 李學智 (1982). "Manzhou minzu jisi tianshen bi ji shen'gan de shiliao yu qiyin" 滿洲民族祭祀天神必祭神杆的史料與起因 ["The historical documents and origins of the mandatory use of the spirit-pole in Manchu ethnic sacrifices to the spirit of Heaven"]. Manzu Wenhua [Manchu Culture] 《满族文化》 2: 5–6.
- Liu Guiteng 刘XX (1992). "Samanjiao yu Manzhou tiaoshen yinyue de liubian" 萨满教与满族跳神音乐的流变 ["Shamanism and the evolution of the music of Manchu shamanic ritual"]. Manxue Yanjiu [Manchu Studies] 《满学研究》 1: 239–53.
- Liu Xiaomeng 刘小萌 and Ding Yizhuang 丁XX (1990). Samanjiao yu Dongbei minzu 萨满教与东北民族 ["Shamanism and the peoples of the Northeast"]. Changchun: Jilin Education Press.
- Mitamura Taisuke (Japanese: 三田村泰助) (1965). "Manshū shamanizumu no saishin to chokuji" (Japanese: 滿洲シャマニズムの祭神と祝詞) ["Sacrifices to the spirits and the text of incantations in Manchu shamanism"]. In his Shinchō zenshi no kenkyū (Japanese: 清朝前史の研究) ["Research on the early history of the Qing dynasty"]. Kyoto: Tōyōshi kenkyūkai (Japanese: 東洋史研究会).
- Mo Dongyin (1958). "Qingchu de samanjiao" 清初的萨满教 ["Shamanism in the early Qing"]. In his Manzushi luncong 《满族史论丛》 ["Collected essays on the history of the Manchus"], pp. ??.
- Wu, Ben (1998). "Ritual Music in the Court and Rulership of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
- Yan Chongnian 阎崇年 (1995). "Manzhou guizu yu saman wenhua" 满洲贵族与萨满文化 ["The Manchu aristocracy and shamanic culture"]. Manxue yanjiu 满学研究 2: 119–35.
- Zhao Zhizong 赵XX (1995). "Ni-shan saman yu zongjiao" ["The Nišan Shamaness and religion"]. In Wang Zhonghan 王重翰 (ed.), Manxue Chaoxianxue lunji 《满学朝鲜学论集》. Beijing, China Chengshi Press, pp. 174–98.