Aigun

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Coordinates: 49°58′41″N 127°29′24″E / 49.978°N 127.490°E / 49.978; 127.490

Aigou (Aigun) shown as one of the few towns on the Amur, and one of the most important places in the region, on a 1706 French map

Aigun (simplified Chinese: 瑷珲; traditional Chinese: 璦琿; pinyin: Àihún; Manchu: Aihūn hoton) was a historic town of China in northern Manchuria, situated on the right bank of the Amur River. The Chinese name of the town, which literally means "Bright Jade", is a transliteration of the original Manchu (or Ducher) name of the town.

Today the former city of Aigun is called Aihui town (爱辉镇); it is the center of the Aihui District (爱辉区), which administratively is part of the prefecture-level city of Heihe, Heilongjiang Province, People's Republic of China. It is located some 30 km south (downstream) from the central urban area of Heihe.

[edit] History

The predecessor of Aigun was a town of the indigenous Ducher people of the Amur Valley, located on the left (northeastern - now Russian) bank of the Amur. The site of the Ducher town, whose name was reported by the Russian explorer Yerofey Khabarov as Aytyun (Айтюн) in 1652, is currently known to the archaeologists as the Grodekovo site (Гродековское городище), after the nearby village of Grodekovo. It is thought by archaelogists to have been populated since around the end of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd millenium AD.^[1]

The Ducher town is thought to have been vacated once the Duchers were evacuated by the Qing to the Sungari or Hurka in the mid-1650s.^[1] The Manchu must have re-used the site for their own fortress no later than the early 1680s. It was used by them as a base for the campaign against the Russian town of Albazin, further upstream, in 1685.

After returning from the destroyed Albazin later in 1685, the Manchus relocated their own town too, to the new site on the right (southwestern) bank of the Amur, about 3 miles downstream from the original site.^[2] The new site occupied the location of the former village of the Ducher chief named Tolga.^[2] The city became known primarily under its Manchu name Saghalien Ula hoton (Manchu: sahaliyan ulai hoton), and sometimes also under the Chinese translation of this name, Heilongjiang Cheng (黑龍江城). Both names mean "Black River City", but by the 19th century the name "Aigun" again became more current in the western languages.

For a few years early on (since 1683) Aigun served as the capital (the seat of the Military Governor) of Heilongjiang Province, until the capital was moved to Nenjiang (Mergen) in 1690, and later to Qiqihar.^[3] Aigun, however, remained the seat of the Deputy Lieutenant-General (Fu dutong), responsible for a large district covering much of the Amur Valley within the province of Heilongjiang as it existed in those days.

Aaihom (destroyed) shown on the 1773 map opposite Sahalien Hotun, following d'Anville's map from 1734

Muravyov's fleet off Aigun in 1854

It was here that Nikolay Muravyov concluded, in May 1857, the Aigun Treaty, according to which the left bank of the Amur River was conceded to Russia.

During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 Aigun was, for a few weeks, the center of military action directed against the Russians.

In 1913 Aigun became the county seat of the newly-created Aigun County (瑷珲县, Aihun xian), which was in December 1956 renamed Aihui County (爱辉县). On November 15, 1980, Heihe City was created, and on June 6, 1983, Aihui County was abolished, being merged into the Heihe City.^[4]

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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