Semu
Sign in to savethumb|Ma Hajji, a Song Dynasty official in Yunnan (a descendant of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar), and his young son Ma He, future admiral [[Zheng He, as imagined by a modern Kunyang sculptor.]] The Semu () were the name of a political class in Imperial China, made up of foreign experts who came to serve the political systems of Imperial China. The Semu were not a self-defined ethnic group unto themselves; rather, "Semu" was initially an exonym for various Central and East Asian peoples under the Yuan Dynasty. The Semu were one of the four "castes" which Yuan society was divided into, along w
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Name
- Classification
- Similar practices in other areas of the Mongol Empire
- Discrimination
- Yuan dynasty
- Ming dynasty
- See also
- References
thumb|Ma Hajji, a Song Dynasty official in Yunnan (a descendant of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar), and his young son Ma He, future admiral [[Zheng He, as imagined by a modern Kunyang sculptor.]] The Semu () were the name of a political class in Imperial China, made up of foreign experts who came to serve the political systems of Imperial China. The Semu were not a self-defined ethnic group unto themselves; rather, "Semu" was initially an exonym for various Central and East Asian peoples under the Yuan Dynasty. The Semu were one of the four "castes" which Yuan society was divided into, along with the Mongols, the Hanren, and the Nanren. The Semu included were Buddhist Turpan Uyghurs, Tanguts, and Tibetans; Church of the East Christian tribes like the Ongud; Turkic Muslim peoples including Khwarazmians; and others.
==Name== Contrary to popular belief among both non-Chinese and Chinese, the term "Semu" (interpreted literally as "color-eye") did not imply that caste members had "colored eyes" and it was not a physical description of the people it labelled. It in fact meant "assorted categories" (各色名目, gè sè míng mù), emphasizing the ethnic diversity of Semu people.