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The Jianzhou Jurchens (Chinese: 建州女真) were one of the three major groups of Jurchens as identified by the Ming dynasty. During the 14th century they were located south of the Wild Jurchens (Chinese: 野人女真) and the Haixi Jurchens (Chinese: 海西女真), inhabiting modern-day Liaoning (Chinese: 辽宁) province and Jilin (Chinese: 吉林) province in China. Although the names of its geographic location has changed throughout history, the Jianzhou Jurchens resided in Liaodong. They were bordered by Korea and China. Their proximity brought opportunities to trades and economic prosperity. The Jianzhou Jurchens were known to possess an abundant supply of natural resources. They also possessed industrial secrets, particularly in processing ginseng and the dying of cloth. They were powerful due to their proximity to Ming trading towns such as Fushun, Kaiyuan, and Tieling in Liaodong, and to Mamp Ojin on the Korean border.

Origins
After the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, pockets of Yuan loyalists retreated to the northeast. In 1375, a former Yuan official Naghachu residing in Liaoyang province invaded Liaodong with the hope of restoring the Yuan dynasty. After he was defeated in 1387, the Ming began reorganizing the Jurchens in Liaodong to protect the Ming border region from further incursions. Various Jurchen groups had migrated south and three tribes settled themselves around the Tumen River near the modern border of China, Russia, and North Korea.

In 1388, the Hongwu Emperor established contact with three tribes of Ilan Tumen in modern Yilan County near the confluence of the Mudanjiang River and the Songhua River. The Odori, Huligai (Hūrha or Hurka) and Tuowen Jurchens were enlisted as allies against the Mongols. Jurchens began accepting Ming titles. Ahacu, chief of the Huligai, became commander of the Jianzhou Guard in 1403, named after a Yuan Dynasty political unit in the area. Möngke Temür (猛哥帖木儿) of the Odoli became the leader of the Jianzhou Left Guard and accepted the Chinese surname of Tong not long afterward. The two Jianzhou guards engaged in trade with the Ming at the designated market of Kaiyuan and Fushun. They undertook several short-term moves west, battling the Wild Jurchens of the north and the Koreans to their south. Jurchen raids into Korean territory brought about joint Korean-Ming counterattacks in 1467 and 1478 which severely weakened the Jianzhou Jurchens.

Jianzhou Jurchens adopted agriculture during the Ming dynasty when they acquired knowledge of fertilization, draft animals, and iron plows as they moved south closer to Asian agricultural civilizations. Iron-smelting and mining knowledge was acquired by the Jurchens from 1599 after they learned who to turn iron into weapons from Koreans and Han Chinese from the iron plowshares they bought from the Chinese.

Confederation building
By the mid-sixteenth century, the Ming guard structure had mostly disappeared and the Jurchens were split between two confederations: the Haixi Jurchens and the Jianzhou Jurchens. The Jianzhou confederates continued to live north of the Yalu River in five tribes: the Suksuhu River tribe, Hunehe, Wanggiya, Donggo, and Jecen. Under the leadership of Wang Gao, the confederation raided the Ming frontier and even killed the Ming commander at Fushun in 1573. A major counterattack by the Chinese ended in the death of Wang Gao and the dissolution of the confederation.

A number of leaders within the Suksuhu tribe stood ready to take his place. In 1582 the chieftain Nikan Wailan allied with the Ming general Li Chengliang against Wang Gao's son Atai. Giocangga, chief of the Beiles of the Sixes, was originally under Li's command since his grandson, the young Nurhaci was under his hostage but later chose to oppose Nikan Wailan and took his fourth son Taksi to support Atai at his stronghold Fort Gure. In the ensuing battle at Gure, Atai was defeated, Giocangga and his son were massacred by Nikan Wailan when Li thought they had mutinied and left them behind. Soon afterward, the Ming troops became engaged in another struggle amongst the Haixi Jurchens.

Nurhaci and Leadership of Jianzhou Jurchens
The leadership of the Jianzhou confederacies had its origin in the headman Odori Jurchens, whose leader Mongke Temur had been recognized both by the Ming and by the Yi. Giocangga, Nurgaci grandfather, claimed to be a fourth-generation of Mongke Temur. All were members of the Jurchen lineage whose name in the twelfth century had been represented by the Chinese characters Jiagu. After the death of his father and grandfather, Taksi and Giocangga, Nurgaci would take rule in 1580. Taking control of his grandfather's Suksuhu River tribe, he confronted the Ming and Nikan Wailan. He intimidated the Ming with the Ten Commandments and ultimately saw to the death of Nikan Wailan. In 1588 he subjected the Wanggiya tribe and received the submission of the Donggo tribe. The unification of the Jianzhou Jurchens provided the basis for Nurhaci to expand his power throughout southern and central Manchuria, and to create a true Manchu state. The very name Manchu (Jurchen: manju) was perhaps an old term for the Jianzhou Jurchens.

Language
Unlike the Jurchen people, who spoke the Jin Jurchen language that was adopted from phonetic Kitan language established in the Jin dynasty, the Jianzhou Jurchens lingua franca was Mongolian. According to the Qing imperial history, the Jianzhou changed their focus when their leader, Nurgaci, focused devising a suitable system that integrated the phonetic Mongolian and Jurchen language that would later serve as one of the greatest inventions that sparked the formation of the Manchu. However, for some time the script was not well received and the Jianzhou continued to use Mongolian as their lingua franca.

Interactions with the Korean Yi Dynasty
The Korean Yi Dynasty, incepted in the 1300s, had considered some Jurchen headmen as useful allies. However, the Yi order in Korea included intense military campaigns to drive Jurchens northward toward the Yalu River and ultimately beyond it, into present-day Manchuria.

The most vivid narrative of a passage in that relationship was supplied by Sing Chung-il. Sin Chun-li’s mission to the Jianzhou Jurchens due to an incident of 1594. The Jianzhou Jurchens were in possession of at least seventeen Koreans who had been recently captured and were being held for ransom. To resolve the issue, Sin was dispatched by the Korean court to Nurgaci capital. He and a small party of officials crossed the Yalu (to them, the Amnok) at Mamp Ojin, followed a series of tributaries north and west to the Suksu Valley where Nurgaci was based, at Fe Ala.

Sin recorded his journey as he moved through Jianzhou Jurchen land. Despite it being winter, his recordings showed abundant rivers, forests, and industrialization occurring. Sin stratified his findings and stated that the Jianzhou Jurchen divided their society into villages of about twenty households or less that were clustered along forested riverbanks. They lived off of the river and its surrounding terrain.