Claim: The three nomadic Jurchen tribes that lived on the northern border of Ming dynasty China were Haixi Jurchens, Jianzhou Jurchens, and Wild Jurchens.
Evidence: Chinese officials of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) classified them into three groups, reflecting relative proximity to China: Jianzhou (Chinese: 建州) Jurchens, some of whom were mixed with Korean and Chinese populations, lived in the proximity of the Mudan river, the Changbai mountains, and Liaodong. They were noted as able to sew clothes similar to the Chinese, and lived by hunting and fishing, sedentary agriculture, and trading in pearls and ginseng. Haixi (Chinese: 海西) Jurchens, named after the Haixi or Songhua river, included several populous and independent tribes, largely divided between nomadic pastoralists in the west and sedentary agriculturalists in the east. They were the Jurchens most strongly influenced by the Mongols. Yeren (Chinese: 野人, lit. 'Wild People,' or, 'savage,' 'barbarian'), a term sometimes used by Chinese and Korean commentators to refer to all Jurchens. It more specifically referred to the inhabitants of the sparsely populated north of Manchuria beyond the Liao and Songhua river valleys, supporting themselves by hunting, fishing, pig farming, and some migratory agriculture. This relationship between the Jurchens and Koreans was ended by the Ming which envisioned the Jurchens as a form of protective border to the north. 
Chinese chroniclers of the Ming dynasty distinguished three different groups of Jurchens: the Wild Jurchens (野人女真; yěrén Nǚzhēn) of Outer Manchuria, the Haixi Jurchens (海西女真) of modern Heilongjiang Province and the Jianzhou Jurchens of modern Jilin Province. The Jurchen (Manchu: ᠵᡠᡧᡝᠨ Jušen, IPA: [ʤuʃən; Chinese: 女真, Nǚzhēn, [nỳ.ʈʂə́n) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples who lived in the northeast of China, later known as Manchuria, before the 18th century.