Xinjiang People’s Social Life In The Eyes Of Ma Dahan

In the late Qing dynasty, Finnish explorer Mannerheim( Ma Dahan) was asked by Russian government to detect political, military and other information in the areas of Xinjiang and Gansu in China. After his entrance to Xinjiang, he noted down the landform characteristics, the rivers and hydrological distribution, the type of animal and plant resources, urban location, traffic, commerce, culture and education, military,economic, and so on; especially, he made a detailed account of local officials, military,ethnic minorities, the temple sites, local conditions and customs, and various encounters. Based on the source written in Mannerheim’s diary, this paper organizes what he saw and heard in the Xinjiang, and descries the local people’s social life during this period, and tries to display the real appearance of people and social life in Xinjiang at this time.This paper includes four parts, and in the first one, it discovers the international background in a bigger picture through the reasons why Mnnerheim came to Xinjiang.And the reasons contains the objective ones, such as great game between Britain and Russia, hot rise of the northwest investigation, the need of the Russian geopolitical politics, and the subjective ones, such as cultivation of early exploration spirit, and the turning point for Mannerheim’s coming to Xinjiang. By means of introduction to subjective and objective reasons, the paper analyses the reason why Mannerheim came into Xinjiang. In the second part, with the point of view of Mannerheim about Xinjiang residents material and living conditions, including colorful clothing, diet culture, residential with different styles, and commercial activities. With the description of these aspects, an image of multicultural inhabited Xinjiang emerged. In the third part, in the eyes of Mannerheim, mainly about his description of the spiritual life of the residents in Xinjiang, including religion and entertainment, the paper displays the ethnic neighborhoods and colorful spiritual life in Xinjiang, especially reveals how residents made retention and succession of the traditional social life content during late Qing. In the fourth part, the paper states the health education,including the culture and education and health in Xinjiang, in the words ofMannerheim. At that time, education means religious education and common one, but the health care industry was run by many foreign missionaries.