Hezhen of the Three Rivers and Their Clothing Made of Fish Skin

On the plain where three great rivers meet, in the far northeast of China where the Songhua and the Ussuri join the Amur, live the Hezhen, a small people of fishers and one of the smallest of all China’s nationalities, numbering only around five thousand. A Tungusic folk kin to the Nanai across the border, they built a whole way of life on the abundant fish of the great rivers, and they are famous, above all, for clothing themselves in the tanned skins of fish.

This account follows the Hezhen from their origins among the Tungusic fishers of the Amur, through their life of the fishery and the sledge, into their endangered language, their river shamanism and the long sung tales of the yimakan, and the fish-skin dress that marks them. It ends with the Hezhen of today, one of the smallest of China’s peoples, who came near to vanishing in the last century, keeping their heritage alive by the three rivers of the far north.

The Fishers of the Three Rivers
Hezhen, Nanai, and the Name of the People
The Hezhen Tongue of Tungusic Root
The Plain Where Three Rivers Meet
The Fishery, the Sledge, and the Old Order
The Clan, the Village, and the Bonds of the Hezhen
The Shaman, the Ancestors, and the Spirits of the River
The Fish-Skin Dress, the Shaman, and the Ways of the Hezhen
The Fishers, the Tanners, and the Workers of Fish-Skin
Fish, the River, and the Table of the Hezhen
The New Year, the Wurigong, and the Feasts
From the River Fishery to the People of Modern China
The Hezhen in Modern China

The Fishers of the Three Rivers

On the plain where three great rivers meet, in the far northeast of China where the Songhua and the Ussuri join the Amur, live the Hezhen, a small people of fishers. Numbering only around five thousand, one of the smallest of all China’s peoples, they dwell by the rivers of the Sanjiang plain in Heilongjiang, in a cold northern land of water, marsh, and forest, near the border with Russia.

The Hezhen belong to the Tungusic peoples of the northeast, kin in the deep past to the Manchus, the Evenki, and the Oroqen, and closely to the Nanai, the same people who live across the border in Russia along the Amur. Their forebears were among the fishing and hunting peoples of the great rivers of the north, and the Hezhen kept a life bound to the river and the fishery.

Unlike the herding and the farming peoples, the Hezhen lived above all by the fish of the rivers, which ran in great abundance in the Amur and its tributaries, above all the salmon that came up the rivers in their season. On this abundance of fish the Hezhen built a whole way of life, unusual in all the world, a fishing people who even clothed themselves in the skins of fish.

To speak of the Hezhen is to speak of one of the smallest of China’s peoples, fishers of the great rivers of the northeast, keepers of the shaman and, most famously, of the making of clothing from the skins of fish. On the plain where the Amur, the Songhua, and the Ussuri meet, they hold their own place among the peoples of China as the fishers of the three rivers.

Hezhen, Nanai, and the Name of the People

The people are known as the Hezhen, or in other renderings Hezhe, the name they give themselves, held to mean something like the people of the east or the people downstream, marking them as folk of the lower rivers of the northeast. It is by this name that the state recognises them as one of its nationalities, one of the smallest of the recognised peoples, on the Sanjiang plain.

Across the border in Russia the same people, and their close kin, are known as the Nanai, and they live along the Amur in far greater numbers than the Hezhen of China. The Hezhen of China and the Nanai of Russia are one people divided by the modern border that runs along the great river, sharing a common origin, a common Tungusic tongue, and a common way of life bound to the fishery.

The Hezhen are close kin to the other Tungusic peoples of the northeast, the Manchus, the Evenki, and the Oroqen, yet they are a distinct people, marked off by their life on the great rivers and their fishing way. In the old records they appear under various names, marking the fishers of the lower Amur and its tributaries.

Whatever the rendering, Hezhen in China or Nanai across the border, the people know themselves as one, a small folk of the three rivers, fishers of the northeast, keepers of the shaman and the fish-skin dress. The name Hezhen marks them among the peoples of China as one of its smallest, a Tungusic fishing people of the great rivers of the far north.

The Hezhen Tongue of Tungusic Root

The Hezhen speak a language of the Tungusic family, close kin to the tongue of the Nanai across the border and to the other Tungusic languages of the northeast, and more distantly to Manchu. It is the speech of the fishers of the three rivers, a tongue rich in the words of the fish, the river, and the fishery, born of a life bound to the water.

For all of their history the Hezhen had no writing of their own, and their store of song, legend, and lore was carried by memory and by mouth, kept above all by the shamans and the singers. The Hezhen were known for a rich tradition of the sung tale, the long narrative songs that told of heroes and of the river world, carried entirely in the spoken and the sung word.

Living in the northeast among the Manchu, the Han, and, across the border, the Russians, the Hezhen were long in contact with these peoples, and their language took in words from them, above all from Chinese in later times, while their Tungusic core endured. Many Hezhen came to know Chinese for the wider world.

In the modern age standard Chinese has become the language of daily life, and most Hezhen now speak it, so that their own Tungusic tongue, spoken by so few and unwritten, is among the most endangered languages in all of China, with only a handful of the old still fluent. The keeping and recording of the Hezhen language is a matter of the deepest concern, a precious survival of the speech of the river fishers.

The Plain Where Three Rivers Meet

The homeland of the Hezhen is the Sanjiang plain, the plain of the three rivers, in the far northeast of Heilongjiang, where the Songhua and the Ussuri flow into the great Amur, near the border with Russia. This is a low, watery land of great rivers, lakes, marshes, and reed-beds, with forest on the higher ground, buried in ice and snow through the long, hard winters and teeming with fish and waterfowl in the open season.

The greater number of the Hezhen live in a few villages by the rivers, above all about the towns of Tongjiang, Fuyuan, and Raohe, on the banks of the Amur, the Songhua, and the Ussuri. The rivers were the highway, the larder, and the life of the Hezhen, giving the fish on which they lived, the water they travelled, and the reeds and the forest that gave the materials of their life.

The great rivers ran with fish in abundance, above all the salmon and the sturgeon and the many other fish of the north, and it was on this wealth of fish that the Hezhen built their whole way of life. In the open season they fished the rivers from their boats, and in the winter they fished through the ice and hunted in the forest and the marsh with sledge and dog.

Rooted to the banks of the three rivers and the marshes of the Sanjiang plain, the Hezhen made their homeland in the watery lowland of the far northeast. It is a land of great river, lake, and reed, of fish and waterfowl and forest, where one of the smallest of China’s peoples lived by the fishery, clothing themselves in the skins of fish in the cold northern land.

The Fishery, the Sledge, and the Old Order

The old way of the Hezhen was the way of the fishery, for they lived above all by the fish of the great rivers, and the round of their year turned on the runs of the fish and the seasons of the water. In the open season they fished from their boats with net, spear, and hook, taking the salmon, the sturgeon, and the many fish of the rivers, and in the winter they fished through holes cut in the ice.

Beside the fishery the Hezhen hunted in the forest and the marsh, taking the game and the fur-bearing beasts, and travelled the frozen rivers and the snow in winter by sledge drawn by dogs, for the dog was the companion and the helper of the Hezhen, in the manner of the northern peoples. The furs and the fish they took were traded to the Han, the Manchu, and the Russians for the goods they could not make.

The village of a few families by the river was the unit of the old Hezhen life, guided by its elders and, in matters of the spirit, by the shaman, for the Hezhen built no wide state and knew no king. In the days of the Qing the Hezhen were valued as fishers and hunters of the frontier and gave tribute of furs to the Manchu state.

Governed by the elders and the shaman, and living by the fish of the rivers and the game of the forest, the Hezhen lived as free fishers of the three rivers. A small Tungusic people of the northeast, keepers of the shaman and the fish-skin dress and of a deep knowledge of the river and its fish, they held to their fishing way through the long centuries on the great rivers of the far north.

The Clan, the Village, and the Bonds of the Hezhen

Hezhen society rested on the household, the clan, and the village, the ties of kin that bound the fishers of the rivers. Descent was reckoned through the father’s line, and the Hezhen were ordered into clans, each bearing its name and tracing a common ancestor, and the members of a clan honoured the same forebears, owed one another the duties of kin, and married outside the clan.

The village, a few related families by the river, was the everyday unit of the old Hezhen life, guided by its elders, and the clan bound the villages together along the rivers. The Hezhen built no wide state and knew no king, and authority rested on age, on the skill of the fisher and hunter, and on the respect owed to the shaman and the elders.

Like other fishing and hunting peoples, the Hezhen knew a way of sharing, above all in the sharing of the catch and the game, and a notable equality, and the ties of kin and the bonds of the village held the small people together. Marriage was arranged by the families, marked by the exchange of gifts and by feasting, and the ties of marriage bound the clans of the rivers together.

Women worked beside the men, above all in the making of the fish-skin dress, for it was the women who tanned and softened the skins of the fish and sewed and adorned the clothing, a craft peculiar to the people. Through the household, the clan, and the village, the Hezhen individual was bound into a close and sharing community of the three rivers, holding to its identity as one of the smallest of the peoples of China.

The Shaman, the Ancestors, and the Spirits of the River

The religion of the Hezhen was the shamanism of the northern rivers, a worship of the spirits of the sky, the water, the fish, the forest, and the beasts, and of the ancestors, in which the shaman stood as the link between the people and the unseen world. The shaman, drumming and dancing into a trance, journeyed to the spirits, healed the sick, read the causes of misfortune, and led the great rites of the village.

The spirits of the water and the fish held a special place among the Hezhen, as befitted a fishing people, and the great rivers and the abundance of the fish were honoured with rites and offerings, that the spirits should send the fish in their season and guard the fishers on the water. The forest and the beasts of the hunt, and the fire of the hearth, were honoured too.

The Hezhen shaman was a figure of power and awe, chosen and called by the spirits and trained in the vast lore of the chants and the rites, and the shamanic tradition of the Hezhen, like that of their Nanai kin, is among the best known of the north. The costume of the shaman, hung with iron and cloth and figures of the spirit helpers, and the drum, were the tools of the journey to the spirits.

In the modern age the old shamanism has all but passed away, as the old way of life was transformed, yet the memory of the shaman, the reverence of the spirits of the water and the fish, and the honouring of the ancestors remain part of the Hezhen sense of themselves, the faith of one of the smallest of China’s peoples, the fishers of the three rivers.

The Fish-Skin Dress, the Shaman, and the Ways of the Hezhen

The most famous tradition of the Hezhen, unusual in all the world, is the making of clothing from the skins of fish. The women took the skins of the great fish of the rivers, the salmon and others, scraped and dried and softened them by long working until they were supple as leather, and sewed them into coats, trousers, boots, and gloves, adorned with patterns cut from dyed skin, a dress at once warm, waterproof, and wholly their own.

So peculiar was this fish-skin dress that the Hezhen were known to their neighbours as the fish-skin people, and the making of it, a craft of the women, was among the greatest of their traditions, born of a life so bound to the fish that the people clothed themselves in its skin. The fish-skin coat, light and strong, was the mark of the Hezhen.

Song and the telling of tales filled the life of the Hezhen, above all the long sung narratives, the yimakan, that told of heroes, of the river world, and of the deeds of the past, carried by the singers in the spoken and the sung word, a tradition recognised as a treasure of the heritage of humanity. The shamanism of the rivers, with its shaman and its drum, ran likewise through the life of the people.

Around these run the customs of the year and of life, the fishery and the hunt, the courtship and the weddings, the rites of the shaman and the spirits of the water, and the games and the sledge-craft of the fishers. Through the fish-skin dress, the sung tale, and the shaman, the Hezhen mark their identity and the passages of life in ways carried down from their forebears on the three rivers.

The Fishers, the Tanners, and the Workers of Fish-Skin

The master craft of the Hezhen was the making of clothing from the skins of fish, a craft peculiar to the people and unusual in all the world. The women took the skins of the salmon and the other great fish, scraped away the flesh and the scales, dried them, and softened them by long pounding and working until they were supple as fine leather, then cut and sewed them into the coats, trousers, boots, and gloves of the fish-skin dress.

Upon this fish-skin the Hezhen women worked patterns cut from dyed skin and sewn on in bold designs, so that the fish-skin coat was not only warm and waterproof but a thing of art, adorned with the curving and figured patterns of the people. The making of a fish-skin dress was a labour of great skill and patience and the pride of the women.

Beyond the fish-skin dress the Hezhen made the boats, the nets, the spears, the hooks, and the gear of the fishery, and the sledges and the harness of the winter travel, and they worked birch bark, wood, and bone into the goods of daily life, in the manner of the northern peoples. The making of the tools of the fishery and the hunt was a craft of the men.

The crafts of the Hezhen were those of a fishing people of the great rivers, drawn from the fish, the birch, the wood, and the bone of their land. Yet it is for the fish-skin dress above all that the crafts of the Hezhen are known, a craft found among few peoples on earth, the mark of a people so bound to the fish that they clothed themselves in its skin on the three rivers of the north.

Fish, the River, and the Table of the Hezhen

The food of the Hezhen was the food of fishers of the great rivers, built above all on the fish they took in such abundance, the salmon, the sturgeon, and the many other fish of the Amur and its tributaries. Fish was the mainstay of the Hezhen table, in a way rare among the peoples of China, eaten fresh, dried, smoked, and salted to keep through the long winter, and the roe of the fish was a prized food.

A famous Hezhen way with fish was to eat it raw, sliced fresh from the living catch and dressed with the wild herbs and the seasonings of the north, a dish born of a people who lived by the fish of the rivers. The drying and smoking of great quantities of fish, above all the salmon, gave the store that carried the Hezhen through the winter when the rivers froze.

To the fish were added the game of the forest and the marsh, the waterfowl of the rivers and the lakes, and the plants, the berries, and the wild vegetables that the women gathered, so that the Hezhen drew on all the gifts of their watery land. In later times grain, tea, and other foods came by trade to the river villages.

From the fresh and the dried fish, the fish eaten raw, and the roe of the great fish, to the game and the waterfowl and the wild plants of the marsh, the food of the Hezhen was that of a fishing people of the north, a food of the river and the water. The fish of the three rivers, taken in its season and kept against the winter, was the heart of the Hezhen table.

The New Year, the Wurigong, and the Feasts

The festivals of the Hezhen turned on the round of the fishing year and on the honouring of the spirits, the water, and the ancestors. The new year, kept in the depth of the northern winter when the rivers lay frozen, was a great occasion of the gathering of kin, the sharing of the good things of the fishery, and the honouring of the ancestors after the hard cold of the season.

The Wurigong, the great festival of the Hezhen kept in the modern age, gathers the people for the celebration of their heritage, with the singing of the yimakan, the long sung tales, the games and the fishing contests of the river, the songs and dances, and the display of the fish-skin dress and the old crafts. It has become the great yearly gathering of the small people.

The rites of the spirits of the water and the fish, and the honouring of the fire and the ancestors, led by the shaman, were among the great occasions of the old Hezhen year, when the people prayed for the fish to run and for the fishers to be guarded on the water. The whole village gathered for these rites with feasting, song, and the sung tale.

The passages of life, birth, marriage, and death, gathered the kin for ceremony, the wedding marked by feasting and by the wearing of the fish-skin dress. At all these occasions the sharing of the fish, the singing of the yimakan, the games of the river, and the honouring of the spirits and the ancestors brought the small people together, so that the Hezhen met the great moments of life and the year with feast and song.

From the River Fishery to the People of Modern China

The Hezhen are counted among the Tungusic peoples of the northeast, fishers and hunters of the great rivers of the Amur basin from ancient times, kin to the Nanai across the border and to the other Tungusic peoples of the north. Their forebears lived by the fishery on the lower rivers, in a way of life little changed for ages, on the marches of the Chinese, the Manchu, and the Russian worlds.

In the days of the Qing the Hezhen were drawn into the tribute system of the Manchu state, giving furs and fish and valued as fishers and hunters of the frontier, yet in their river villages they kept their fishing way and their shamanism largely as before. The coming of the Russians to the Amur and the drawing of the border along the great river divided the people, leaving the far larger part, the Nanai, on the Russian side.

The Hezhen suffered grievously in the twentieth century, above all in the years of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, when war, disease, and hardship fell heavily on the small people, reducing them, some say, to only a few hundred souls, so that the Hezhen came near to vanishing altogether. It was a dark and perilous time for one of the smallest of peoples.

After the founding of the People’s Republic the Hezhen were recognised as one of the official nationalities of China, one of the smallest of the recognised peoples, and their numbers, so reduced, slowly recovered. The modern age has brought the ending of the old fishing life, as the fishery declined and the people took up farming and the trades of the modern world, a great change for the fishers of the three rivers.

Tongjiang on the Songhua river in a historical view

The Hezhen in Modern China

Today the Hezhen number only around five thousand, one of the smallest of all China’s peoples, living still by the three rivers of the Sanjiang plain in the far northeast of Heilongjiang, in a few villages about Tongjiang, Fuyuan, and Raohe. A small people who came near to vanishing in the last century, they have slowly recovered from that dark time, though they remain very few.

Modern life has transformed the old world of the Hezhen, for the fishery, on which their whole way of life had rested, declined as the rivers were fished and dammed and the great catches of old passed away, and the Hezhen took up farming and the trades of the modern world in fixed villages. The fish-skin dress, once the everyday clothing of the people, is now made above all for festival and for show.

The Hezhen tongue, spoken by only a handful of the old and unwritten, is among the most endangered languages in all of China, and its keeping and recording is a matter of the deepest care, as is the keeping of the yimakan, the sung tales, honoured now as a treasure of humanity and taught anew to the young.

Through the perils and changes of their history the Hezhen carry their heritage with pride. The famous fish-skin dress, the long sung tales of the yimakan, the memory of the fishery and the shaman, and the Wurigong festival endure as marks of who they are. One of the smallest of China’s peoples, fishers of the three rivers who came near to vanishing, the Hezhen keep their heritage alive in modern China.