The Jurchen is a Siniform script, that is, the form of its characters
are based on those in the Chinese writing system. However, the signs in
Jurchen are not derivative of Chinese. The visual similarity is due to
that each character is composed of brush strokes, but the way the
strokes are combined is different from that of Chinese. Also, as in
Chinese, Jurchen characters are highly logographic, and do not give any
clue onto the sounds of the words they represent.
Before the 12th century AD, the Jurchen people were a confereration
of hunting and fishing tribes in northeastern Manchuria. But from
1115 AD to 1234 AD they rose to power and formed a kingdom called "Jiang"
that occupies a large portion of northern China.
The Jurchen also overthrew the kingdom of Khitan (of Inner Asia),
but took and adopted the Khitan writing system. Khitan itself is poorly
attested and remains undeciphered. Even the Khitan language is unknown.
The Manchurians are the descendants of the Jurchen. The name
"Manchu" became the official name of all Jurchen tribes after the 16th
century. The Manchurians adopted the Mongolian script (which is a
distant descendent of Brahmi) in 1599, and
the Jurchen script ceased to be used.
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