The 'Tartar town' of Peking was first built by the Mongols
Editorial contextAs the mission reached the walls of Peking, Klaproth added a note on the history of the 'Tartar town', the northern inner city where the Manchu garrison lived. It was first walled by the Mongols in 1267 with eleven gates; the Ming cut it down to nine gates, which is why its governor was called governor of the nine gates. So the 'Tartar' city of Beijing was a Mongol Yuan foundation reshaped by the Chinese Ming.
the Mongols, in 1267; it was then sixty li in circumference, and had eleven gates. The first emperor of the dynasty of Ming took off five li from its northern side, and took away two of the gates, so that only nine remained. It is for this reason that the governor of the Tartar town bears the title of governor of the nine gates.
About Mongols (Yuan dynasty); Manchu bannermen
Keep in mind
An editor's footnote drawn from Chinese sources; the first words of the sentence are on the previous page (n337).
A Tartar grandee eats half-raw pork at the council table
Editorial contextAt their first reception in Beijing the envoys sat with the council, whose Tartar members wore plain clothes and sat on a bench covered with old linen. The presiding lord grew hungry and ate half-raw pork 'more like a Butcher, then a Prince'. The Jesuit Adam Schall, dressed in Tartar fashion, interpreted. The Dutch were shocked by the lack of ceremony.
his Highness found himself hungry, and sent for a piece of Pork to satisfie his Appetite, which was half-raw, whereof he did eat most heartily, in a slovenly manner, that he looked more like a Butcher, then a Prince … When Dinner was brought up, his Highness and the rest of the Tartar Lords fell on again as greedily, as if they had eat nothing all that day
About Tartars (Manchu lords of the Qing council)
Keep in mind
Written with obvious Dutch disdain; a contrast with Chinese court manners rather than neutral description.
Kublai builds Taidu (Beijing) beside the old city
Editorial contextPolo explains that Kublai, warned by astrologers that the old city of Cambaluc would rebel, built a new, square city called Taidu (Dadu, the core of later Beijing) right beside it and moved the people there. He gives its walls as 24 miles round, of rammed earth ten paces thick. Yule's notes compare the plan with the Beijing of his own day and adjust the figures.
So he caused the present city to be built close beside the old one, with only a river between them. And he caused the people of the old city to be removed to the new town that he had founded ; and this is called Taidu. … it is all walled round with walls of earth which have a thickness of full ten paces at bottom
About Kublai Khan (Mongol emperor of China)
Keep in mind
Polo's measurements are too large; Yule's survey-based estimate is about 18 miles round. The city was designed and built by Chinese and other craftsmen for the Mongol court.
Peking's walls under the Khitan, Jin and Mongols
Editorial contextAnswering a French author who claimed Peking was founded by Khubilai in 1267, a Peking missionary traces its walls through Chinese annals: 36 li round with eight gates as the Khitan southern capital, 75 li under the Jin, then six leagues and eleven gates when the Mongol Yuan 'repaired its ruins' in 1274. Here the northern conquerors rebuild an old Chinese city rather than create one.
Peking was then only thirty-six li round … with eight gates. Under the Kin, whose capital it also was, it was seventy-five li round, or seven and a half leagues. The Yuan, who first named it the Middle Capital and then the Great Capital, gave it only six leagues round and eleven gates when they repaired its ruins in 1274.
Working translation
Original wording
Pe-king n'avoit alors que trente-six li de tour … & huit portes. Sous les Kin, dont il fut aussi la Capitale, il eut soixante-quinze li de tour, ou sept lieues & demie. Les Yuen, qui le nommerent d'abord la Capitale du milieu puis la grande Capitale, ne lui donnerent que six lieues de tour & onze portes, lorsqu'ils en reparerent les ruines en 1274.
About Khitan (Liao), Jurchen (Jin) and Mongol (Yuan) 'Tartars'
Keep in mind
The figures come from Chinese geographical annals as the writer reads them; the Yuan in fact built a largely new city (Dadu) beside the old site.
Why part of Beijing was called the Tartar city
Editorial contextStaunton describes Beijing as two walled cities side by side. The northern and larger one, with the imperial palace at its centre, was called the Tartar city; he explains the name by its being laid out anew under the first Tartar (Mongol) dynasty in the thirteenth century. The page after describes the 'Chinese city' adjoining its southern wall, half empty and partly under cultivation.
The principal part of it is called the Tartar city, from the circumstance of having been laid out anew in the thirteenth century in the time of the first Tartar dynasty. It is in the form of a parallelogram … in the centre of which is the imperial palace, occupying within the yellow wall at least one square mile.
About Mongols (the 'first Tartar dynasty'); Manchus
Keep in mind
The origin of the name is Staunton's explanation; other European writers tied 'Tartar city' to the Manchu banner garrison that lived there under the Qing.
Cannibal famine, mice and two suns: omens of the Tartar war
Editorial contextThe same 1618 memorial explains the defeat by heaven's anger and lists recent prodigies: no rain in the capital province, famine so bad in another province that people ate one another, a plague of mice in Nanjing, fires in the palace and two suns in the sky, one eclipsing the other. It shows how the Ming court read the Tartar war as a sign of cosmic disorder.
the Prodigies, which we have lately all seen, do demonstrate no lesse, In the Province of Pekim the last yeare it raigned not at all … in the Province of Xankim, there was so great a dearth and famine, that the people did eat one another: and into Nankim came an infinite multitude of Mice … we saw two Sunnes together, and the one did Ecclipse the other.
About Chinese court facing the Tartar (Manchu) invasion
Keep in mind
Reported omens, not observed events. 'Xankim' is a slip in the English; the Spanish has Xantum (Shandong).
OCR normalized; long s normalized.
Khubilai 'built four great cities'
Editorial contextThe chronicle credits Khubilai, who took the throne in 1260, with building four great cities: Daidu (Beijing), Chagan (Chagan Balgasun), Huriyetu and Lanfin (Kaiping, the later Shangdu), and with appointing able prefects. For this Mongol author, the khans were founders of cities, not tent-dwellers only.
He built four great cities: the city of Daidu, the city of Chagan, the city of Huriyetu and the city of Lanfin, and appointed capable men as prefects.
Working translation
Original wording
Er erbaute vier grosse Städte: die Stadt Täitu, die Stadt C'agan, die Stadt Hnriyet'u und die Stadt Lanfin, er- nannte tüchtige Männer zu Präfekten
About Mongols (Khubilai Khan)
Keep in mind
Written more than five centuries later; the identification of all four cities is not certain.
The biggest army since Adam marches on Beijing
Editorial contextPinto says that while he was a captive in China, news came at midnight that 'the King of Tartary' was before Beijing with the largest army any king had gathered 'since the time of Adam': twenty-seven kings and 1,800,000 men, 600,000 of them cavalry, with 80,000 rhinoceroses carrying supplies, and the Chinese emperor had fled to Nanjing. The numbers are fantastic and the event cannot be matched to 1544.
there was certain news that the King of Tartary was before the city of Peking with the greatest force of people that any other king had ever gathered in the world, from the time of Adam until that hour, in which it was affirmed that twenty-seven kings were coming, and it was said that they brought with them one million eight hundred thousand men, of whom six hundred thousand were on horseback
Working translation
Original wording
auia noua certa de estar el Rey da Tartaria sobre a cidade do Pequim, co mais grosso poder de gente q nenhum outro Rey nũca ajuntara no mundo, desde o tempo de Adão até aquella hora, no qual se affirmaua que vinhaõ vinte & sete Reys, & q se dezia q trazião comsigo hũ conto & oitocentos mil homẽs, de q os seiscẽtos mil eraõ de cauallo
About 'The King of Tartary' (Mongol forces, possibly echoing Altan Khan)
Keep in mind
Pinto reports this as rumour in the city; the numbers are impossible, and no such siege took place in 1544 (Altan Khan's raid on Beijing was in 1550).
Transcribed from the page image; long s and abbreviations normalized.
Beijing burned by a rebel, rebuilt by the Tartars in four years
Editorial contextExplaining that Chinese houses and palaces are almost all of wood and burn easily, Kircher cites Beijing: at the start of the Tartar invasion a rebel and tyrant (Li Zicheng) set it on fire for four days, but the Tartars, meaning the conquering Manchus, restored it to its former dignity with four years of building. Here the 'Tartars' are the rebuilders of a capital.
since almost everything is built of wood, if a fire breaks out somewhere and is not checked, whole cities are often reduced to ashes in a short time; as happened to Peking, the vastest of all cities after Nanking, which at the beginning of the invasion of the Tartars was consumed in a four-day fire by a rebel and tyrant, but was restored by the Tartars to its former dignity by four years of building.
Working translation
Original wording
ut quemadmodum omnia ex ligno ferè constructa sunt, ita quoque incendio alicubi exorto nisi obstetur, integræ sæpè urbes exiguo temporis spatio in cineres rediguntur; uti Pekino accidit, quæ urbs post Nankingum omnium vastissima à Rebelle & Tyranno ad initium irruptionis Tartarorum quadriduano incendio consumpta fuit, à Tartaris tamen quadriennali fabricatione in pristinum dignitatis statum restituta.
About Manchus ('Tartars' of the Qing conquest)
Keep in mind
Second-hand; the palace fire of 1644 was real, but 'four years' is a round figure from Kircher's sources.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR partly garbled); long s normalized.
Eight banners each of Manchu, Mongol and 'Tartarized Chinese'
Editorial contextA footnote to Parrenin's letters on the persecuted Christian princes of the Sunu family explains the Qing banner system: eight banners of Manchu Tartars, eight of Mongol Tartars and eight of 'Tartarized Chinese', each with its own coloured flag, its own quarter in the Tartar city of Peking and its own courts, apart from those of the ordinary people. 'Tartar' here is a legal status as much as an ancestry.
There are eight banners of Manchu Tartars, eight more of Mongol Tartars, and eight of Tartarized Chinese. … Each banner has its own quarter in the Tartar city, and its own justice, independent of that of the common people.
Working translation
Original wording
Il y a huit bannières de Tartares Mantcheoux, huit autres de Tartares Mongous, & huit de Chinois tartarisés. … Chaque bannière a son quartier dans la ville Tartare, & sa justice particulière indépendante de celle du peuple.
About Manchu, Mongol and Chinese bannermen
Continue in this sourceEdifying and curious letters: Jesuit reports from China and Tartary1699 to 1779 · 11 passagesFair Manchus with blue eyes and bushy beards
Editorial contextBarrow noticed some Manchu men and women who were very fair, with blue eyes, straight or aquiline noses, brown hair and big beards, 'more the appearance of Greeks than of Tartars'. He guesses at Greek ancestry from Sogdiana, notes that the Qianlong Emperor boasted of descent from Genghis Khan, and stresses these were exceptions.
The Man-tchoo Tartars would appear to be composed of a mixed race: among these we observed several, both men and women, that were extremely fair and of florid complexions: some had light blue eyes, straight or aquiline noses, brown hair, immense bushy beards, and had much more the appearance of Greeks than of Tartars.
About Manchus
Keep in mind
Barrow himself calls these exceptions; the Greek-descent explanation is pure guesswork.
Manchus are 'Eastern Tartars', Mongols 'Western Tartars'
Editorial contextParrenin, sending the Académie des Sciences his Manchu translation of a French anatomy commissioned by the Kangxi emperor, stops to explain what 'Tartar language' means: the language of the Manchus, who have reigned in China for eighty years and are called Eastern Tartars, not that of the Mongols, called Western Tartars and almost all tributaries of the emperor. The two languages, he says, are very different.
I mean the language of the Manchus, who have reigned in China for eighty years and are called Eastern Tartars. I do not at all mean the language of the Mongols, who are called Western Tartars and are almost all tributaries of the Emperor. These two languages are very different from each other.
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Original wording
je parle de la langue des Mantcheoux qui régnent à la Chine depuis quatre-vingts ans, & qui s'appellent Tartares Orientaux. Je ne parle nullement de la langue des Mongols, qu'on nomme Tartares Occidentaux, & qui sont presque tous tributaires de l'Empereur. Ces deux langues sont très-différentes entr'elles.
About Manchus (Eastern Tartars); Mongols (Western Tartars)
Continue in this sourceEdifying and curious letters: Jesuit reports from China and Tartary1699 to 1779 · 11 passagesGolden roofs? No, glazed clay tiles
Editorial contextDescribing the palace where the 'Great Cham' now lived, Nieuhof explains that the roofs are covered with yellow glazed tiles that shine brighter than gold in the sun. This, he says, is why some people reported that the palace was roofed with pure gold, when in fact the tiles are made of clay.
All the Roofs of the Buildings are covered with Yellow glazed Pantiles, which shine, when the Sun reflects, brighter then Gold; which has made some believe and report, that the Roof of this Royal Palace was covered with pure Gold; whereas in truth the Tiles are only made of Clay, and Glaz'd and Neil'd over with Artificial Yellow
About the Tartar emperor's court (Chinese-built palace)
Continue in this sourceNieuhof's Dutch embassy to the 'Great Tartar Khan' in Beijing1655 to 1657 · 14 passagesKublai founds in Cathay 'a city greater than Rome'
Editorial contextSumming up the khans, Sanudo says Möngke drowned trying to take an island in the sea of Cathay (a garbled report), and his brother 'Cobila Chaam' held the Tartar empire forty-two years, 'was a Christian', and founded in the kingdom of Cathay a city greater than Rome called 'Iong', where he always lived. This is Kublai's new capital, Dadu or Khanbaliq, now Beijing.
and his brother Kublai Khan succeeded him, who held the empire of the Tartars for 42 years: he was a Christian, and founded in the kingdom of Cathay a city greater than Rome, called Iong, where he stayed continually.
Working translation
Original wording
& successit illi frater Cobila Chaam, qui annis XLII. tenuit imperium Tartarorum: hic Christianus fuit, & fundauit in regno Catay, Româ ciuitatem maiorem, vocatam Iong, vbi continuè immoratus est.
About Mongols (Kublai Khan)
Keep in mind
From Hayton's history; Kublai was not a Christian, and Möngke actually died besieging a Chinese fortress.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
'Tatars' who seized China thirty years ago
Editorial contextIn a dispatch to Tsar Aleksei from Yeniseisk, Spafarii passes on what Russian traders just back from Peking (Kambalyk) told him. The 'Nikan kingdom' the Chinese were fighting, he explains, is simply the old Chinese kingdom: about thirty years before, 'Tatars' had taken the Chinese realm, the old royal line fled to distant coastal provinces, and 'the Bogdykhan's Tatars' now call it Nikan. Russian deserters in Peking whispered that two thousand soldiers could win all Dauria for the tsar.
And that Nikan kingdom is nothing other than the old Chinese kingdom, because it is now some thirty years since the Tatars took possession of the Chinese kingdom, and the royal line fled into the distant coastal Chinese lands, and the Bogdykhan's Tatars now call that the Nikan kingdom.
Working translation
Original wording
И то Никанское царство нѣтъ иного, опричь стараго Китайскаго царства, потому что нынѣ есть лѣтъ съ тридцать завладѣли Китайскимъ царствомъ Татары, а поколѣніе царское бѣжало въ дальніе приморскія китайскія страны, и то нынѣ называютъ Богдыхановы Татары Никанскимъ царствомъ.
About Manchus (called Tatars) and the Han Chinese 'Nikan' kingdom
Keep in mind
Second-hand from traders. The editor's footnote explains that the war was the revolt of the southern provinces led by Wu Sangui, not a restored Ming kingdom; 'Nikan' was the Manchu word for the Han Chinese.
Qubilai's new city 'Jong', bigger than Rome
Editorial contextAfter Mongke's death the Tartars made his brother Qubilai lord. Hayton says Qubilai founded a city called Jong, 'bigger than Rome', and lived there to the end of his life. The editor identifies Jong with Khanbaliq (Marco Polo's Cambaluc), today's Beijing, the Mongol capital that Qubilai built beside the ruined Jurchen city of Zhongdu.
they made his brother Cobila Can lord, who held the lordship of the Tartars for forty-two years, and was a Christian, and built a city called Jong, which is bigger than Rome. And in that city Cobila Can lived
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Original wording
firent seignor son frere Cobila Can, qui tint la seignorie des Tartars XLII ans, e fu crestien e ferma une cité qui est appellée Jong, que est plus grant que Rome. E en cele cité demora Cobila Can
About Qubilai Khan and the Tartars
Keep in mind
Qubilai was not a Christian and reigned 34 years (1260 to 1294); Hayton exaggerates Mongol Christian sympathies throughout.
Beijing's two cities: the Tartar City and the Chinese City
Editorial contextCareri describes Qing Beijing as two joined cities: the old walled 'City of the Tartars' around the palace, where the Manchu bannermen, officials and ministers lived, and the 'City of the Chinese', built later beside it for the overflow of inhabitants, about the same four leagues round and joined to the Tartar City by a single shared wall.
The City of the Chinese (which was built next to it to make room for the multitude of inhabitants) is of the same size as the City of the Tartars, being four leagues round; but its shape is not like that one ... on which side it joins the Tartar City by a single wall that divides them.
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Original wording
La Città de' Cinesi (che si fabbricò appresso per dar luogo alla moltitudine degli Abitanti) è dell'istessa grandezza, che la Città de'Tartari, tenendo quattro leghe di giro; ma la figura non è somigliante a quella … nel cui lato si unisce con la Città Tartara, con un sol muro, che le divide.
About Manchus ('Tartars') and Han Chinese
Keep in mind
The division itself was Ming (Inner and Outer City); the name 'Tartar City' reflects Qing residential segregation.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Born in Beijing, but still Tartars
Editorial contextStaunton explains that the Qianlong emperor, though four generations removed from the conquest and born in Beijing, was seen by everyone, and saw himself, as a Tartar. His ministers, generals, wives and servants were mostly of the same race, and every male of Tartar descent drew a stipend from birth. Here 'Tartar' plainly means the Manchu conquerors.
Tho the Emperor Chen-Lung, be the fourth in descent from him who successfully invaded China in the last age, and tho the last three succeeding generations were all born at Pekin, yet they are universally regarded by their subjects, and they regarded indeed themselves, as Tartars. Their principal ministers, their confidential servants, the chiefs of their armies, most of their wives, concubines, domestics, and eunuchs, are of that race.
About Manchus (Qing imperial house)
Continue in this sourceStaunton's official account of the Macartney embassy to China and Tartary1792 to 1794 · 13 passagesTartar women who ride astride
Editorial contextDavis quotes the account of Macartney's embassy passing through Peking. Many women in the crowd were said to be Tartars. Their feet were not bound, their thick-soled broad-toed shoes looked clumsy next to Chinese women's tiny ones, they wore a patch of vermilion on the lower lip, and some rode horseback astride like men.
Among the spectators of the novel sight some women were observed; the greatest number were said to be natives of Tartary or of a Tartar race. Their feet were not cramped like those of the Chinese;… A few of the Tartar ladies were on horseback, and rode astride like men.
About Manchu ('Tartar') women
Keep in mind
A quotation from the 1797 embassy account, not Davis's own observation.
Beijing's Tartar women ride astride and walk the streets
Editorial contextIn Beijing Barrow saw women in the crowds, in the lanes and on horseback riding like men, and all of them were Tartars (Manchus). Unlike Chinese women, they did not bind their feet: on the next page he describes their thick-soled shoes and painted faces, while Chinese women stayed indoors.
Women in Pekin were commonly seen among the crowd, or walking in the narrow streets, or riding on horseback, which they crossed in the same manner as the men, but they were all Tartars. They wore long silken robes, reaching down to their feet
About Manchu women
Continue in this sourceJohn Barrow's Travels in China1792 to 1794 · 12 passagesOne northern nation, parent of Huns, Turks, Mongols and Tartars
Editorial contextDeguignes opens his history of the ancient Huns with his big claim: a famous nation north of China's frontier provinces gave rise to the peoples later known as Huns, Turks, Mongols, Hungarians and Tartars. He lists the names the Chinese gave it over the dynasties, ending with Hiong-nou, which he thinks produced the name Hun.
North of the northern frontiers of the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Beizhili there once lived a famous nation, which gave birth to those we have since known under the names of Huns, Turks, Mongols, Hungarians and Tartars
Working translation
Original wording
Au Nord des frontières Septentrionales des Provinces de Chensi, de Chansi & de Petcheli, habitoit autrefois une Nation célèbre, qui a donné naissance à celles que nous avons connues depuis sous le nom de Huns, de Turcs, de Mogols, de Hongrois & de Tartares
About Xiongnu (Hiong-nou), in Deguignes' view the ancestors of the Huns and later Tartars
Keep in mind
A scholarly theory, not a report; the Xiongnu-Hun link is still debated and 'Hungarians' in this list is Deguignes' own speculation.
Why a Manchu prince could not write 'prendre'
Editorial contextParrenin reports a friendly debate with a Manchu prince who praised the Manchu alphabet over European letters. Parrenin challenged him to write the French words prendre, platine, griffon and friand; he could not, because Manchu cannot put two consonants together, so he had to write perendre, pelatine, feriand. Parrenin adds that the script lacks initial B and D, writing P and T instead.
'Try, for example, whether you can write these words: prendre, platine, griffon, friand.' He could not, because in the Tartar language two consonants cannot be joined in a row; a vowel must be placed between them, and one writes perendre, pelatine, feriand, gerifon, etc.
Working translation
Original wording
Essayez, par exemple, si vous pourrez écrire ces mots: prendre, platine, griffon, friand. Il ne le put, parce que dans la langue Tartare on ne peut joindre deux consonnes de suite; il faut placer entre deux une voyelle, & écrire perendre, pelatine, feriand, gerifon, &c.
About Manchus (a Manchu prince)
Continue in this sourceEdifying and curious letters: Jesuit reports from China and Tartary1699 to 1779 · 11 passagesA friar with a cross before the Great Khan
Editorial contextThe Pope's gifts included big European warhorses, and the Khan was delighted with them. Marignolli entered the palace in full vestments behind a cross, with candles and incense, singing the Creed, and blessed the Khan. He adds that the court then lodged the 32 members of the mission and paid for everything, food, drink and even paper for lanterns, for three or four years.
The great Khan, seeing the warhorses, the Pope's gifts and the sealed letters … rejoiced with great joy … And I, solemnly vested, with a most beautiful cross carried before me with candles and incense, singing 'I believe in one God', we went in before the Khan as he sat in his glorious palace; and when the singing was over I gave him a full blessing, which he received humbly.
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Original wording
Maximus autem Kaam visis dextrariis, & donis Pape, & literis bullatis … gavisus est gaudio magno … Ego autem solempniter indutus cum Cruce pulcherrima, que me precedebat cum luminaribus & incenso cantando: Credo in unum Deum; intravimus coram illo Kaam in glorioso pallacio residente, & cantu finito, largam dedi recipienti humiliter benediccionem.
About The Great Khan of the Tartars (Yuan emperor) and his court
Keep in mind
Marignolli's own account of his success; 'humbly' is his view of how the Khan received the blessing.
The emperor of China as a 'Mongol or East Tartar'
Editorial contextBrand gives a close portrait of the Kangxi emperor seen at the audience, and labels him a 'Mongal or East Tartar'. Kangxi was in fact a Manchu. The confusion shows how Europeans of the 1690s used 'Tartar' as one label for the Manchu rulers of China and the Mongols.
who is a Mongol or East Tartar, brown of complexion, about 45 to 50 years old, well built, with large black eyes, an aquiline nose, a black moustache hanging over his lips but little beard on his chin, and the skin of his face much pitted by smallpox
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Original wording
welcher ein Mongal oder Ost-Tartar ist, braun von Gestalt, und seines Alters 45. biß 50. Jahr, schön von Taille und hatte grosse schwartze Augen, eine gebogne Nase, einen über die Lippen herabhangenden schwartzen Knebel-Bahrt, hingegen wenig Bahrt an dem Kinn, dabey war die Haut seines Gesichts sehr pockengrübicht
About Manchus (called 'Mongal or East Tartar' by Brand)
Keep in mind
Kangxi was born in 1654, so he was about 39, not 45 to 50; Brand's 'Mongal' is a mislabel for Manchu.
The Tartars build a new city beside old Beijing
Editorial contextOdoric says the Tartars captured the ancient city of Cambalech and then built a second city half a mile away, called Taydo (Dadu, 'Great Court'). Yule's footnote dates the new city to Kublai Khan in 1267 and explains that it became the 'Tartar city' of later Peking. A clear case of a Tartar-built capital, recorded by someone who lived there.
I came to that noble city Cambalech, an old city of that famous province of Cathay. The Tartars took the city, and then built another at a distance of half-a-mile, which they called Taydo.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Yuan dynasty)
Keep in mind
Odoric's figures for the size of the two cities (more than forty miles round together) are rough; Yule discusses them in the notes.
The Great Tartar: rich, just, and paying in paper
Editorial contextJordanus opens his chapter on the Great Tartar by saying he reports only what trustworthy people told him: the Great Tartar is very rich, very just and very generous, rules four realms each as big as France, and feeds and clothes for life anyone who cannot earn a living. In his lands paper stamped with black ink passes for money and buys gold, silver, silk, gems and anything else. Paper money is the Yuan chao.
Of the Great Tartar I relate what I have heard from trustworthy people: that he is very rich, very just and very generous. He has under him four kingdoms, each as large as the kingdom of France, and well peopled. … In his dominion paper stamped with black ink runs as money, with which one obtains gold, silver, silk, precious stones and simply everything a man wants.
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Original wording
De Magno Tartaro, quod audivi à fide dignis narro: scilicet, quòd est ditissimus, justissimus, atque largus valdè. Iste habet quatuor regna sub se, æqualiter magna sicut regnum Franciæ, et benè habitata. … In dominio istius, currit, pro monetâ, papyrus signata cum encausto nigro, cum quâ habetur aurum, argentum, sericum, lapides pretiosi, et simpliciter omnia quæ vult homo.
About The Great Tartar (the Yuan emperor of China)
Keep in mind
Hearsay that closely echoes Marco Polo.
OCR normalized against the page image.
The last Yuan emperor weeps for Daitu and Shangtu
Editorial contextDriven out of China, Toghon Temür flees through the Moltoschi gate lamenting his 'great capital Daitu', built in 1269 'of nine kinds of precious things' by Khubilai (Setsen Khan), and his cool summer seat Shangtu Keibung. He blames his own errors and bad counsellors for the loss. Earlier (p. 113) the chronicle credits Khubilai with building four great cities in eight years, 1264 to 1271, including the summer residence at Shangtu and the winter residence at Daitu; Schmidt's note identifies Daitu as present-day Peking.
My great capital Daitu, adorned in the most manifold ways! My splendid, cool summer seat Shangtu Keibung … My faults are to blame that I have lost my realm. … My great Daitu, built in the yellowish Snake year (1269) of nine kinds of precious things! … My noble Daitu, built by the all-powerful Setsen Khan, where neither in summer nor in winter was boredom to be felt!
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Original wording
Meine aufs mannigfaltigste geschmückte grosse Hauptstadt Daitu! Mein herrlicher kühler Sommersitz Schangtu Keibung … Meine Fehler sind Schuld, dass ich mein Reich verloren habe. … Mein, im gelblichen Schlangen-Jahre (1269) aus neunerlei Kostbarkeiten erbautes grosses Daitu! … Mein edles Daitu, vom machtvollkommenen Ssetsen Chaghan erbaut, woselbst weder im Sommer noch im Winter Langeweile bemerkbar war!
About Mongol Yuan dynasty; Toghon Temür (Ukhaghatu Khan)
Keep in mind
A literary lament preserved in Mongol tradition three centuries later, not a record of the emperor's actual words.
The Khan takes your silver and pays in paper
Editorial contextAll the silver merchants bring into Cathay, Pegolotti warns, is taken by the lord of Cathay into his treasury, and the merchants are given paper money in exchange: yellow paper stamped with the lord's seal. Everyone in the country must accept it, and he adds that prices are not raised because the money is paper. This is the Yuan paper currency that amazed European visitors.
All the silver that the merchants carry with them to Cathay, the lord of Cathay has taken for himself and put into his treasury, and to the merchants who bring it he gives paper money in exchange, that is, yellow paper stamped with the seal of the said lord
Working translation
Original wording
Tutto l'argento, che i mercatanti portano, e che va al Gattajo, il Signore del Gattajo lo fa pigliare per se, e mettelo in suo tesoro, e mercatanti che lui portano ne dà loro moneta di pappiero, cioè di carta gialla coniata della bolla del detto Signore
About The lord of Cathay (the Mongol Yuan emperor)
Continue in this sourceA Florentine merchant's handbook for the road to Cathay1300 to 1333 · 4 passagesCathay: the Tartars' name for China
Editorial contextRicci explains why Europe thought Cathay and China were two countries. Marco Polo came when the Tartars ruled China, perhaps with them, and so Europe learned the country under the names the Tartars used: Cathay, with its royal city Cambalu. The Portuguese later brought home the name China and the city name Peking, and mapmakers drew two kingdoms side by side. On the previous page he offers a folk etymology that splits Campalu into Tartar 'Cam' (great) and the Chinese words 'Pa' (north) and 'Lu' (Tartars); the name is really Turkic Khanbaliq, 'city of the khan'.
From this it is plain that Marco Polo the Venetian entered this kingdom at the time when the Tartars ruled the Chinese, and perhaps entered with them. Through his writings the kingdom of China became known to Europe by the name the Tartars used, calling it Cathay and its royal city Cambalu. … At present, however, no region outside the Chinese walls is found that is called Cathay.
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inde plane apparet, Marcum Paulum Venetum eo tempore in hoc regnum penetrasse, quo Tartari Sinis imperitabant, & fortasse cum illis ipsis eo penetrasse. Eius deinde commentariis Europae, Sinarum Regnum innotuit eo nomine, quo Tartari utebantur, Cataium videlicet & urbem Regiam Cambalu appellantes. … Hoc tamen tempore nulla extra muros Sinenses Regio reperitur, quae Cataium vocitetur.
About Tartars (Mongols) who ruled China in Marco Polo's day
Continue in this sourceBrother Bento de Góis and the search for Cathay1602 to 1607 · 12 passagesThe Emperor of China is not the Great Khan, only a small Manchu prince
Editorial contextDapper corrects a long European belief: the Tartar ruler in Peking is not the Great Cham of all Tartary but one of the smallest Tartar princes, whose grandfather was raised to kingship by the people of a small province of East Tartary called Muncheu (Manchu). The same page names the present emperor Konchi (Kangxi), a youth of about sixteen, son of the Shunzhi emperor.
It is said that the Tartar prince who today possesses the land of China and resides in the capital Peking is not the Great Cham and lord of all Tartary, as has been believed until now, but one of the smallest princes of the Tartars, whose grandfather was the first king of his line, raised to that dignity by the inhabitants of his land
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Men zeid de Tartersche Vorst, die heden het gewest van Sina bezit, en sijn verblijf in de Hooft-stadt Peking heeft, de groote Cham en Heer van geheel Tartarije niet is, gelijk tot dus lang gelooft is; maer een van de kleinste Vorsten der Tarters: waer van sijn groot-vader d'eerste Koning van zijnen stam was, verheven tot die waerdigheid door d'inwoonders van zijn land
About Tartars (the Manchu Qing house)
Continue in this sourceDapper's record of the Dutch in Qing China, 1662 to 16681662 to 1668 · 4 passagesPeking: a Tartar city and a Chinese city
Editorial contextJean de Fontaney, one of the French Jesuits sent by Louis XIV, describes Peking as two joined cities, each four leagues round: the 'Tartar city', with the emperor's palace in the middle, and the 'Chinese city'. The streets were so crowded one could hardly walk. On the same page he describes the great bell of Peking set on a base of brick and stone.
Peking is made up of two cities: the first, in the middle of which is the Emperor's palace, is called the city of the Tartars; and the second, the city of the Chinese. They are joined to each other, and each is four leagues round.
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Peking est composée de deux Villes: la premiere, au milieu de laquelle est le Palais de l'Empereur, s'appelle la ville des Tartares; & la seconde, la ville des Chinois. Elles sont jointes l'une à l'autre, & ont chacune quatre lieues de tour.
About Manchus ('Tartares') and Chinese
Continue in this sourceEdifying and curious letters: Jesuit reports from China and Tartary1699 to 1779 · 11 passagesGolden columns and a Green Mount in the Khan's palace
Editorial contextOdoric describes the palace: a raised basement, twenty-four golden columns, walls hung with red leather, and a giant jade jar hooped with gold and fed by conduits of drink. On the page before he describes an artificial hill planted with trees, the Green Mount, with a lake and bridge. Yule notes that the hill still stood inside the Peking palace walls in his day.
But his own palace in which he dwells is of vast size and splendour. The basement thereof is raised about two paces from the ground, and within there be four-and-twenty columns of gold ; and all the walls are hung with skins of red leather, said to be the finest in the world.
About The Great Khan (Yuan emperor) and his court
Keep in mind
Yule notes that Mongol palace arrangements followed older Chinese and Asian royal traditions.
Why they are called Tartars: the horde that gave its name
Editorial contextJohannes Melman, a Dutch East India Company interpreter in China from 1656, wrote down for Witsen what 'the most sensible Tartars' in Peking told him about their origins. The Scythians beyond Mount Imaus lived in seven hordes, one of them called Tartar; because the khan they elected came from that horde, all his subjects took the name Tartar and kept it.
Moreover, at the time of this division, the Scythians who lived beyond Mount Imaus consisted of seven hordes, which were called Tartar, Tangur, Cunat, Tateyr, Sonic, Mongli and Tebeta … and because this elected emperor had come from the horde of the Tartars, all his subjects took that name of Tartar … and have kept it to this day.
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Daerenboven bestonden de Scyten, ten tijde dezer verdeelinge, die achter de Berg Imaus zich onthielden, in zeven Horden, welke genoemt wierden, Tartar, Tangur, Cunat, Tateyr, Sonic, Mongli, en Tebeta … en om dat dezen gekoren Keizer uit de Horde der Tartaren was voort gekomen, zoo hebben alle zijne onderdanen dien naem van Tartar … aengenomen, en tot noch toe behouden.
About Tartars (Mongols, as told to a Dutch interpreter in Qing China)
Keep in mind
The seven names closely match the list of Tartar nations in Hayton's Flower of the Histories of the East (1307), so book learning seems to be mixed into this 'Tartar' testimony.
The Great Wall is brick, built against the Tartars
Editorial contextCareri rode out from Beijing and walked four miles up the mountains to see the Wall himself. It stood 15 to 20 feet high, higher and wider in the valleys, room for six horses abreast, built 'of large fire-baked bricks with few stones', with strong square towers two bowshots apart running to the sea. He credits the emperor 'Xi-hoamti' with building it more than 1800 years earlier 'as a defence against the raids of the Tartars'.
That wall is 15 feet high in some parts and 20 in others; but in the valleys it is much higher and wider, so that six horses can comfortably go abreast on it. The construction is of large bricks baked in the fire, with few stones, and from time to time it has its towers, very strong and square, one as far from the next as two bowshots
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Egli è alto quel muro in alcune parti 15. e in altre 20. piedi; ma nelle valli è più alto assai, e più largo, potendovi agiatamente andar sei cavalli di fronte. La fabbrica è di grandi mattoni cotti al fuoco, con poche pietre: & ha di quando in quando le sue Torri bẽ forti, e quadrate, l'una lontana all'altra quanto due tratti di freccia
About Chinese builders; Tartars as the enemy it was built against
Keep in mind
The 1800-year date and builder are from Chinese tradition via Jesuit books; the brick section he saw is a Ming rebuild.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
360 giant bronze gods, one for each day, carried off as trophies
Editorial contextBrought before the Tartar king, Pinto describes a square courtyard lined with four rows of bronze statues of men 'like savages' with maces and crowns, gilded, 27 palms high, with frizzy hair 'like Kaffirs'. The Tartars told them these were the 360 gods who made the days of the year, taken from a great temple in a Chinese city 'to triumph over them' and show the world he had captured China's gods.
in which there were four rows of bronze statues in the form of men like savages, with maces and crowns of the same, but all gilded, which idols, or giants, or whatever they were, were twenty-seven palms high and six wide at the chest ... and when we asked the Tartars the meaning of those figures, they told us they were the three hundred and sixty gods
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no qual estauão quatro fileyras de estatuas de bronzo em figura de homens a modo de saluagens com maças, & coroas do mesmo, porem tudo cozido em ouro, os quais idolos, ou gigantes, ou o que quer q eraõ, tinhão daltura vinte & sete palmos, & seys de largo nos peytos … & pregũtando nòs aos Tartaros pela significação daquellas figuras, nos disseraõ que eraõ os trezẽtos & sessenta deoses
About 'Tartars' and their king
Keep in mind
Pinto's Tartar episodes are widely regarded as fictional or built from hearsay; treat as claimed travel.
Transcribed from the page image; long s and abbreviations normalized.
A hundred thousand guards for the emperor's ploughing
Editorial contextWhen the Chongzhen emperor went out to plough a furrow at the temple of agriculture as an example to his people, the fear of a Tartar 'flood' was so great that a hundred thousand men guarded him, even though the temple lay inside the city's second wall. A vivid picture of a capital living under threat.
So much did they then fear the flood of the Tartars that, although the site of this temple is inside the second wall of the city, a hundred thousand men attended to guard the royal person
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Tanto se temian entonces de la inundacion de los Tartaros, que con ser el sitio deste Templo en lo interior de la segunda muralla de la ciudad, assistieron a la guarda de la persona Real cien mil hombres
About Chinese court fearing a Tartar (Manchu) attack
A note on this quote
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
The Great Khan's square capital, by hearsay
Editorial contextConti, as retold by Poggio, describes Cathay, whose lord is the Great Khan, and its capital Cambaleschia (Khanbaliq, the Mongol name for Beijing): a square city with a central palace-fortress and four round corner fortresses linked by a vaulted wall. By Conti's time the Mongols had been expelled and a Ming emperor ruled there, so this is a mix of older fame and report.
The lord of this country is called the Great Khan, which in the language of the inhabitants means emperor. The principal city is called Cambaleschia. It is built in the form of a quadrangle, and is twenty-eight miles in circumference. In the centre is a very handsome and strong fortress, in which is situated the king's palace.
About The 'Great Khan' of Cathay
Keep in mind
Conti did not visit Cathay as far as the text shows; the title 'Great Khan' for the ruler of China was out of date by then.
Martini watches the Tartars ride back into Peking
Editorial contextAfter putting down Jiang Xiang's revolt in Shanxi, the Tartars plundered Datong and burned Puzhou, where the Christians' church was lost. Martini says he saw them return to Peking loaded with riches. Dorgon ('Amavangus') went on to the Western Tartars (Mongols) to ratify the young Shunzhi emperor's marriage and brought back a huge herd of horses.
But yet they Plundered the City Taitung, and burned the City of Pucheu, where the Church of the Christians also perished. From hence the Tartars returned to Peking, where I saw them enter overloaden with Riches and triumphant Laurels ;
About Manchu Tartars under Dorgon (Amavangus)
Keep in mind
Martini says he saw the return himself; the campaign in Shanxi he knew by report.
Khanbalik and Ordu-Balik: the 'king's city' and the 'royal camp'
Editorial contextStritter's description of Beijing explains that the Inner City was part of the city built by Kublai, the 'Kambalu' of Marco Polo, from the Mongol 'Khan' and 'balga' or 'balgasun' (town), meaning the king's city, which Persians and Arabs turned into Khanbalik. It adds that eastern writers used the name for any royal residence, including towns in Tartary, and that Orda-Balik or Ordu-Balik likewise meant 'the royal camp'.
What has now been said of Khan Balik and so on applies also to Orda Balik, Ordu Balik, or Orda and Ortu, which words mean royal in Mongolian. Thus the royal camp was called Orda-Balgasun, Ordo Balga, Ordo Balk.
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Was jetzt von Chan Balik u. s. w. ist gesagt worden, gilt auch von Orda Balik, Ordu Balik, oder Orda und Ortu, welche Wörter im Mongolischen königlich bedeuten. So nannte man Orda-Balgasun, Ordo Balga, Ordo Balk, das königliche Hoflager.
About Mongols of the Yuan dynasty; Persian and Arab writers
Continue in this sourcePallas's 'New Northern Contributions', a journal of reports from Russia's frontiers1730 to 1799 · 8 passagesCut in half for stealing a pail of milk
Editorial contextA Tartar ambassador returning from Cathay lodged in Barbaro's house at Tana. His servant told 'wonders' of Chinese justice: a man who drank a widow's milk in the market was seized and cut in two on the spot. Barbaro passes it on as the ambassador's report, not something he saw.
being on a daye in Madian, which signifieth the markett place, they did see a woman carieng a payle of mylke on her heade, to whom one came that tooke it from her : and beginneng to drynke, she beganne to crye out … Wherevpon, he was incontinently taken, and with a swearde cutt in sonder by the myddest
About Chinese of Cathay, as described by a Tartar ambassador's servants
Keep in mind
A traveller's tale told at second hand about Ming China.
Tartars wield brush and sabre and scorn trade
Editorial contextAn essay on money-lending in China contrasts the two ruling peoples: the Chinese are no warriors and prize learning, while the Tartars aim to handle the brush as well as the sabre and write works of every kind in Manchu, but would think it beneath them to practise a craft or trade. The same page praises their energy and toughness and says they spend freely rather than save.
Our Chinese are not warriors, but they pride themselves on wisdom and skill. The Tartars aim to handle the brush as well as the sabre; they compose works of every kind in Tartar [Manchu] … The Tartars would think it degrading to practise a craft or trade, and our Chinese regard the sad trade of arms as the last resort of those without merit.
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Nos Chinois ne sont pas guerriers, mais ils se piquent de sagesse & d'habileté. Les Tartares visent à manier aussi-bien le pinceau que le sabre; ils composent en Tartare des ouvrages dans tous les genres … Les Tartares croiroient s'avilir de faire un métier ou commerce, & nos Chinois regardent le triste métier des armes comme la derniere ressource du défaut de mérite.
About Manchu banner people ('Tartares') in Qing China
Keep in mind
A generalisation about national character by a writer living in Peking.
Khanbaliq, a hundred miles round
Editorial contextCathay, Pegolotti explains, is a province of many towns, and its chief city, where merchants gather and do most of their business, is Cambalecco (Khanbaliq, the Yuan capital on the site of Beijing). He passes on the merchants' claim that the city is a hundred miles round and packed with people and houses.
Cathay is a province in which there are many towns and many villages; among them there is one, the chief city, where merchants resort … and this city is called Cambalecco. And the said city is a hundred miles round, and all full of people and houses
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Il Gattajo si è una Provincia, dove à molte Terre, e molti Casali; infra l'altre si ha una, cioè la mastra Cittade, ove riparano mercatanti … la quale Cittade si chiama Cambalecco. E la detta Cittade gira cento miglia, ed è tutta piena di gente, e di magione
About The Cathay of the Great Khan (Yuan China)
Keep in mind
The hundred-mile circuit is merchants' exaggeration; the city name is badly misread in the OCR ('Cam baleito').
Dancing golden peacocks and ladies crowned with a 'foot'
Editorial contextIn the palace hall are golden peacocks that flap their wings when Tartars clap their hands, which Odoric thinks is done by devilry or hidden machinery. He then describes the court seating and the tall headdress of married Mongol women, which he likens to a man's foot topped with crane feathers and pearls. Yule's note links this to the bogtak headdress also described by Rubruck and Ibn Battuta.
In the hall of the palace also are many peacocks of gold. And when any of the Tartars wish to amuse their lord, then they go one after the other and clap their hands ; upon which the peacocks flap their wings, and make as if they would dance. Now this must be done either by diabolic art, or by some engine underground.
About Tartars (Mongols) at the Yuan court
Continue in this sourceYule's Cathay, volume I: Friar Odoric and other medieval notices of China1200 to 1399 · 4 passagesA solid brick tower thought to guard against Tartars
Editorial contextAt Tong-choo-foo, the river port of Beijing, the embassy examined an old eleven-storey brick pagoda with no door or window in its solid lower stories. Nobody knew what it had been for; the guess Staunton reports is that it was an ancient watch tower against sudden Tartar raids.
It is built of brick, and in its exterior form resembles what are called in Europe Chinese pagodas … It is thought most probable that this building was erected prior to the existence of Tong-choo-foo, and perhaps of the great Chinese wall, and was intended for a watch tower, to guard against the sudden approach of the Tartar enemy.
About Chinese; 'the Tartar enemy'
Keep in mind
Staunton admits the tower's 'original destination is not known with certainty'; the watch-tower idea is a conjecture, and many solid brick pagodas in north China were Buddhist relic towers.
Du Halde's 'lying miracle' of the earthquake
Editorial contextDavis praises the Jesuit astronomer Adam Schall, who kept his post after the Tartars took the empire, but he mocks Du Halde for padding the story with miracles. He quotes Du Halde's claim that when the regents tried to confirm Schall's death sentence, an earthquake scattered them every time, until a general pardon was granted. Davis calls this one of the 'lying miracles' with which Du Halde 'has not blushed to disfigure his work'.
this sentence was carried to the Princes of the blood and to the regent for confirmation; but, as often as they attempted to read it, a dreadful earth quake dispersed the assembly. The consternation was so great, that they granted a general pardon;
About Manchu regents and the Jesuit Adam Schall
Keep in mind
Davis quotes it only to dismiss it. (A real earthquake did strike Beijing in 1665 during Schall's trial.)
'Manchu Tartars' who conquered China
Editorial contextAt Irkutsk, explaining the history of Russia's trade with China, Lesseps dates its beginnings to the invasion of the 'Manchu Tartars', who ravaged northern China for a long time and finally conquered the whole empire. Here 'Tartar' plainly means the Manchus.
The first relations date from the middle of the last century, around the time of the invasion of the Manchu Tartars, who, after ravaging the northern provinces of the Chinese empire for a long time, ended by subjugating it entirely.
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Les relations primitives datent du milieu du dernier siècle, vers l'époque de l'invasion des Tartares Mantchoux, qui, après avoir ravagé pendant long-temps les provinces septentrionales de l'empire Chinois, finirent par le subjuguer entièrement.
About Manchus
Continue in this sourceLesseps's journey across Siberia1787 to 1788 · 8 passagesLord of half the eastern world
Editorial contextMarignolli opens his travel memories by describing the ruler he was sent to: the Great Khan at Khanbaliq, 'supreme emperor of all the Tartars'. For this Florentine friar the Tartar ruler was not a tent chief but the master of countless cities, languages and peoples. The Khan was Toghon Temur, last Yuan emperor of China.
I was sent with apostolic letters and gifts as envoy and legate to the Khan, supreme emperor of all the Tartars, who holds lordship over almost half of the eastern world, whose power and wealth in cities, lands, languages, riches and rule over countless peoples is beyond all telling.
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missus fui cum Apostolicis literis & donis nuncius & legatus ad Kaam, summum omnium Thartarorum Imperatorem, qui tenet quasi dominium medietatis orbis orientalis, cujus potestas & copia civitatum, terrarum, linguarum, diviciarum, & regiminis infinitorum quodammodo populorum excedit omnem narracionem.
About Tartars (the Mongol Yuan emperor and his empire)
Keep in mind
The printed text dates the departure 1334; the mission is otherwise dated to 1338, when Benedict XII answered the Khan's embassy.
The emperor of China is an 'East Tartar'
Editorial contextIdes calls the Kangxi Emperor 'King of China and Tartary' and 'an East Tartar, or Mongalian', and says he favours his own people over the Chinese. On the next page he adds that a Chinese man seeking high office had to 'naturalize himself a Mansur or Tartar', and that most people inside Peking's walls were Tartars. Here 'Tartar' means the Manchus.
The present … or King of China and Tartary, is an East Tartar, or Mongalian, born in Nieucheu, near the River Sagahen Oula, or Amoer: He governs his Subjects very well, tho' he doth not heartily love the Chinese, but on all occasions prefers his own Nation before them
About Manchus (called East Tartars and Mongalians)
Keep in mind
Two errors: the Manchus were not Mongols, and Kangxi was born in Beijing in 1654, not in Manchuria near the Amur.
One great khan in Cathay and three Tartar kings
Editorial contextHayton closes his history with the Tartar world as it stood when he wrote: a great emperor, Temur Khan, sixth of the line, ruling from the city of Jong in Cathay, and three other Tartar kings, Chapar in Turkestan, Toqta in Comania and Kharbanda (Oljeitu) in Tabriz, who all owe him reverence and take their quarrels to his court. It is a clear picture of 'Tartary' as a family of Mongol states, not a single city or civilisation.
The great emperor of the Tartars, the one who now holds the lordship, is named Temur Khan, and he is the sixth emperor. He holds the seat of his empire in the kingdom of Cathay, in a very great city called Jong … There are also three other kings of the Tartars, who have very great power, and all pay reverence and obedience to the great emperor.
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Le grant empereor des Tartars, celui qui ores tient la seignorie, est només Tamor Can, e est le VI empereor. Au roiaume de Cathaï tient le siege de son empire, en une molt grant cité que est nomée Jong … Encores i a autres trois rois des Tartars, qui ont molt grant puissance, e tous portent reverence e obedience au grant empereor.
About The Chinggisid khanates
Continue in this sourceHayton's Flower of the Histories of the East1260 to 1305 · 13 passagesA Ming emperor hanged with a bowstring
Editorial contextMartini says the Hongguang emperor, first ruler of the Southern Ming at Nanjing, was betrayed to the Tartars after less than a year on the throne, sent to Peking, and publicly hanged on the town walls with a bowstring, 'which kind of death the Tartars esteem most noble'.
This unfortunate Prince being thus betrayed before he had reigned full one year, was sent to Peking, and there upon the Town Walls was hanged publickly in a Bow string, which kind of death the Tartars esteem most noble.
About Manchu Tartars and the Ming claimant Hongguang
Keep in mind
Reported from a distance; other sources give different details of his death, which came in 1646.
Where China ends and 'Tartary' begins: the Wall at Gubeikou
Editorial contextOn the road north the embassy slept every night in the emperor's own travel palaces, so Hüttner skips the small places, but not the little town on the famous Great Wall 'which forms the border between China and Tartary', called Chu-pa-ku, 'between or at the wall' (Gubeikou). For him the Wall is the line where Tartary starts. He adds that the old Wall had fallen in many places and its towers had no garrisons, and the embassy took away pieces of its stone and mortar as curiosities.
since we slept every night in the imperial palaces in which the emperor himself is accustomed to stay … One small town, however, is too remarkable for me not to mention it. It lies on the famous Chinese Wall, which forms the border between China and Tartary, and is called Chu-pa-ku, that is, between or at the wall.
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da wir alle Nächte in den Kaiserlichen Pallästen schliefen, in welchen der Kaiser selbst zu übernachten pflegt … Eine kleine Stadt ist indess zu merkwürdig, als dass ich sie nicht erwähnen sollte. Sie liegt an der berühmten Chinesischen Mauer, welche die Gränze zwischen China und der Tartarei macht, und heisst: Chu-pa-ku, d. i. zwischen oder an der Mauer.
About Embassy travellers; Qing officials
Keep in mind
The details on the Wall's decay come from the next, badly scanned pages (p. 48 to 49).
Caydon, the city the men of Tartary built
Editorial contextMandeville describes the Great Khan's capital: beside an old city of Cathay the Tartars built a new one, Caydon, with twelve gates and a palace with a tree-covered hill, lakes and a bridge. This is almost word for word Friar Odoric's 'Taydo' (Dadu, Beijing), and makes a good exercise in spotting a borrowed passage.
After go men yet to another old city toward the east. And it is in the province of Cathay. And beside that city the men of Tartary have let make another city that is clept Caydon. And it hath twelve gates, and between the two gates there is always a great mile
About Men of Tartary (Mongols of the Yuan dynasty)
Keep in mind
Copied from Odoric (see W041, Taydo), not an independent witness.
Royal palaces and tombs burned, 1635
Editorial contextIn his year-by-year mission history Semedo notes that in 1635 the Tartars raided widely and set fire to royal palaces and the tombs of ancient princes, adding (as a moralist) a second fire to the one in which the princes' souls already burned. Mandarins were punished for negligence. He does not name the place.
The Tartars roamed about with their assaults, causing various destruction, and went so far as to send up in the smoke of a horrible fire the royal palaces and the tombs of the ancient princes who lay there
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Los Tartaros discurrian con sus assaltos, haziendo varios desperdicios, i llegaron a hazer bolar en humo de horrible incendio los Palacios Reales, i los sepulcros de los antiguos Principes, que alli yazian
About Tartars (Manchus) raiding north China
Keep in mind
Based on mission letters; the site is not named.
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
The Eight Banners and the ring hunt
Editorial contextMartini gives an early European description of the Eight Banners: white (the imperial banner), red, black and yellow, and four more made by mixing colours. Every soldier knows his colour and where in the city his arms and horse are kept, so the whole army is ready in half an hour at a horn call. On the next pages he adds that they carry no baggage, eat meat half cooked or their own horses and camels, and hunt by encircling a whole mountain.
under these eight colours are comprehended all the Forces of the Kingdom of China, whether they be Natives or Tartars ; the first of which is White, called the Imperial Banner ; the second is Red, the third is Black, the fourth is Yellow;… so as every Souldier knows his own colours, and to what part of the City to repair, where they have ever their Arms and Horses ready
About Manchu Tartars (the Eight Banners)
Keep in mind
The real banner colours were yellow, white, red and blue (plain and bordered); Martini's 'black' may be a mistake.
Beijing's 'Tartar cities' and a wall built by earlier Tartars
Editorial contextThe description of China printed with Lange's journal explains that Beijing is three cities in one: an outer suburb now called the Chinese city, and two 'Tartar cities', inside which lies the emperor's city with its yellow or red wall. The outer earthen rampart, it says, was built about 500 years earlier by the western Tartars when they ruled China for some thirty years, and is now almost fallen.
The city of Peking is threefold: first the suburb, which is nowadays called the Chinese city; the other two are the cities of the Tartars, and within these the emperor's city, or the city with the yellow or red wall, in which the emperor's palace stands. The suburb has a rampart, which the Chinese call Tuchin or the earthen wall, made about 500 years ago by the Tartars living to the west
Working translation
Original wording
Die Stadt Pekin ist dreyfach: erstlich die Vorstadt, die man heut zu Tage die Sineser-Stadt nennet: die andern zwo sind der Tartaren Städte, und innerhalb dieser, des Kaysers Stadt oder die Stadt mit der gelben oder rothen Mauer, in welcher des Kaysers Pallast ist. Die Vorstadt hat einen Wall, denn die Chineser Tuchin oder die erdene Mauer nennen, ist ohngefehr vor 500. Jahren gemacht worden, von denen Westwerts gelegenen Tartaren
About Manchus (the ruling 'Tartars') and the earlier Mongol (Yuan) rulers
Keep in mind
Cited from the 1744 reissue, which reprints the 1721 text page for page with clearer OCR. The history of the rampart is garbled: Mongol rule of China lasted about ninety years, not thirty.
Chinese in the suburbs, Tartars in the city
Editorial contextShut in covered carts, the soldiers saw little of Beijing except high brick walls and low, rather shabby brick houses. Holmes notes the division of the capital: the Chinese lived in the suburbs, the Tartars in the city proper. He found the suburb's buildings and shops elegant.
we then entered the suburbs, which the Chinese inhabit, as the Tartars do the city. The buildings here were truly elegant, and the shops of the tradesmen well stocked with all kinds of goods.
About Manchus ('Tartars') and Chinese
Continue in this sourceA soldier's diary of the Macartney embassy to China and Tartary1792 to 1793 · 4 passagesUnder the bamboo: the Chinese cry, the Tartar is silent
Editorial contextTravelling south, Barrow saw beatings with the bamboo almost daily. He contrasts the two peoples: a Chinese cries out and thanks the official on his knees, while a Tartar bears it silently and then grumbles, disputing a Chinese official's right to flog him.
In travelling through the country, a day seldom escaped without our witnessing the application of the Pan-tsé, or bamboo… A Chinese suffering under this punishment cries out in the most piteous manner; a Tartar bears it in silence.
About Manchus and Chinese
Keep in mind
A generalisation from what he happened to see.
The emperor: 'We Manchus have our own rites'
Editorial contextParrenin translates the Yongzheng emperor's words to his ministers about a Manchu prince who had become Christian: every nation honours Heaven in its own way; the Manchu rite is the Tiaochin, when all burn incense and paper on New Year's day; Mongols, Chinese, Muscovites and Europeans each have their own. The prince, as a Manchu, should follow the Manchu rite. A footnote says the Tiaochin had no fixed form and each family did it its own way.
The rite of the Manchu Tartars is the Tiaochin: there is no one who does not burn incense and paper on the first day of the year, and that is to honour Heaven. We Manchus have our own particular rites; the Mongols, the Chinese, the Muscovites, the Europeans and so on also each have the Tien [Heaven] proper to them.
Working translation
Original wording
Le rite des Tartares Mantcheoux est le Tiaochin, il n'y a personne qui le premier jour de l'an ne brûle des odeurs & du papier, & cela pour honorer le Ciel. Nous autres Mantcheoux, nous avons nos rites particuliers; les Mongous, les Chinois, les Moscovites, les Européens, &c. ont aussi chacun le Tien qui lui est propre.
About Manchus; the Yongzheng emperor and a Christian Manchu prince
Keep in mind
Parrenin's translation of an edict hostile to Christianity; 'Tiaochin' is his transcription of a Manchu household rite.
Tartars who look and dress like the Chinese
Editorial contextBarrow says the Manchu conquerors took over Chinese dress, manners and laws and, being in his view of the same stock, are hardly distinguishable from the Chinese except that they are shorter and stockier. On the following pages he contrasts their blunt, rough character with Chinese ceremoniousness.
The Tartars, by assuming the dress, the manners, and the habits of the Chinese, by being originally descended from the same stock, and by a great resemblance of features, are scarcely distinguishable from them in their external appearance. And if any physical difference exist, it seems to be in stature only
About Manchus
Keep in mind
The 'same stock' idea is Barrow's racial theory, not an observation.
A palace hall covered with felt 'in the Tartar manner'
Editorial contextDescribing the palace hall where the embassy was feasted, Brand notes a building of fired brick about 30 fathoms long with yellow glazed roof tiles bearing lions and dragons, paper windows, twelve gilded pillars and an open painted roof. One surface (the OCR word is garbled, probably the floor) was covered with felt in the Tartar manner and decorated with foliage and figures, a steppe touch in a Chinese palace.
it was a four-sided building, about 30 fathoms long and 10 fathoms wide, built of bricks, and the roof was covered with yellow glazed tiles … was covered with felt in the Tartar manner, and with foliage and figures
Working translation
Original wording
so war selbiger ein viereckigtes Gebäu, ohngefehr 30 Klafter lang, und 10. Klafter breit von Mauersteinen aufgeführet, und das Dach war mit gelben verglasurten Ziegeln bedecket … war nach der tartarischen Art mit Filtz bedecket, und mit Laubwerck und Figuren ge-
About Manchu court
Keep in mind
The noun before 'war nach der tartarischen Art' is garbled in the OCR; check the scan.
Imperial palaces 'modelled after the form of a tent'
Editorial contextBarrow, who lived weeks inside the Yuanmingyuan, says the palaces of Beijing are a letdown after the missionaries' praise. Like ordinary Chinese houses they follow the shape of a tent: one storey, big roofs, wooden columns, paint and gilding, crowded by mean huts. He compares them to St James's Palace, and not kindly.
Those who should rely on the florid relations, in which the missionaries and some travellers have indulged in their descriptions of the palaces of Pekin and those of Yuen-min-yuen, would experience on visiting them a woful disappointment. These buildings, like the common habitations of the country, are all modelled after the form of a tent
About Qing (Manchu) court; Chinese builders
Keep in mind
Barrow is describing Chinese architecture in general, not a Manchu style; his tone is deliberately deflating.
Lodging in the 'Tartar's town' of Peking
Editorial contextEntering Peking with the Russian embassy, Bell's party rides for two hours through crowded streets to lodgings in the part of the city called the 'Tartar's town', near its centre. This is the inner walled city where the Manchu garrison families lived, so called because Europeans called the Manchu rulers of China 'Tartars'.
After a march of two hours from the gate where we entered, we, at last, came to our lodgings, in that part of the city called the Tartar's town; which is near the center of Pekin,
About Manchus ('Tartars' of the ruling dynasty)
Continue in this sourceJohn Bell's travels from St Petersburg across Asia1715 to 1738 · 18 passagesBeijing made capital to face the Tartars
Editorial contextSemedo explains that Beijing, called Cambalu by the Muslims, became the court when Yongle ('Yunlo'), who lived in that region, seized the throne after Hongwu's death and moved the court from Nanjing, both to be among his own supporters and to stand up better to the neighbouring Tartars. The Mongol name Khanbaliq survives in 'Cambalud'.
it now has the sovereign privilege of enjoying the Court, in the city of the same name; its proper name is Xunthienfu; the Moors call it Cambalu … a grandson of his named Yunlo … [both to trust those he had always dealt with] and to be better able to face the neighbouring Tartars, took the Court out of Nanjing and planted it here.
Working translation
Original wording
tiene aora la soberania de gozar de la Corte en la ciudad del mismo nombre: el propio es Xunthienfu: Cambalud la llaman los Moros … un nieto suyo llamado Yunlo … como para poder mejor hazer rostro a los Tartaros confinantes, sacò la Corte de NamKim, i plantòla acà.
About Ming emperors; Tartars on the northern border
Keep in mind
Yongle was Hongwu's son, not his grandson ('nieto') as the Spanish says.
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
Peking's inner city belongs to the Tartars
Editorial contextDuring the New Year festival Ides noticed that women rode openly through the streets on donkeys and in carts, some ladies smoking pipes in public. He explains this by the fact that the walled inner city of Peking was lived in by 'Tartars', meaning the conquering Manchus, while the Chinese had to live around the walls and in the suburbs, where the markets were.
The Women never appear in publick in all China, except the Province of Peking only, and more especially the City, which is inhabited by Tartars; the Chinese being obliged to live all about the City Wall, and the Suburbs, where all the chief Markets, and publick Places of Sale, are.
About Manchus ('Tartars') and Han Chinese
Continue in this sourceAn envoy's overland journey from Moscow to Peking1692 to 1695 · 18 passagesChinese funeral figures as a relic of Scythian burials
Editorial contextBarrow says the Chinese once buried slaves and concubines with rulers, now replaced by tinfoil figures and statues on graves. He guesses this descends from a Scythian or Tartar custom that Herodotus described, in which horses, slaves and concubines were killed and set around a king's tomb.
Formerly it was the custom to bury slaves with emperors and princes and sometimes also their concubines alive… this seems to be the remains of a Scythian or Tartar custom, which, according to Herodotus, was commonly observed at the funerals of their sovereigns, when their horses, their slaves, and their concubines were impaled alive and placed in order round the tyrant's tomb.
About Chinese; ancient Scythians and Tartars
Keep in mind
The Tartar link is Barrow's guess from Herodotus.
Tartar women with unbound feet
Editorial contextCrossing Beijing, the embassy noticed that most women in the watching crowds were said to be of Tartar race. Unlike Chinese women their feet were not bound, and they wore broad-toed shoes with thick soles. On the next page Staunton adds that some Tartar ladies rode on horseback astride, like men.
Among the spectators of the novel sight, some women were observed. The greatest number were said to be natives of Tartary, or of a Tartar race. Their feet were not cramped, like those of the Chinese; and their shoes with broad toes, and soles above an inch in thickness, were as clumsy as those of the original Chinese ladies were diminutive.
About Manchu ('Tartar') women
Continue in this sourceStaunton's official account of the Macartney embassy to China and Tartary1792 to 1794 · 13 passagesPeking's Tartar city and Chinese city
Editorial contextDavis describes Peking as two walled cities: the northern 'Tartarian, or City of Nine Gates', holding the palace and under strict military police, and the southern Chinese city, whose walls are weaker, 'like the ordinary Chinese towns', and which holds the Temples of Heaven and Agriculture. On an earlier page he notes that Amherst's party pulled bricks out of holes in the neglected north-east wall. 'Tartar city' names who lived in it under the Qing.
The Chinese town, which lies to the south of the Tartarian, or "City of Nine Gates," is not subject to the same rigid system of military police as that which contains the abode of the Emperor; and its walls and defences are inferior to those of the other, being, in fact, like the ordinary Chinese towns.
About Manchu Tartars (the imperial garrison) and Chinese
Keep in mind
Davis saw Peking only briefly in 1816; much of his description comes from Barrow and Father Hyacinth.
Peking: the Tartar kings' city becomes the Northern Court
Editorial contextRicci explains why China had two capitals. The Ming founder ruled from Nanjing, but his son Yongle, who had guarded the northern frontier against the recently expelled Tartars, seized the throne and moved his seat north, fearing the Tartars would break out again to win back the empire. He chose the very city where the Tartar kings had lived and renamed it Peking, 'Northern Court'. The Mongol capital (Dadu, Khanbaliq) thus became Ming Beijing.
And since he had more strength and loyalty in the northern provinces, and it was likely that the Tartars would break out from there to recover their tyranny over the kingdom, he decided to settle in those parts, and indeed in the very city where the Tartar kings lived when they ruled the Chinese. He named that city Pequim, that is, Northern Court, on the model of the southern one called Nanquim.
Working translation
Original wording
Et quoniam in aquilonaribus provinciis plus habebat virium ac fidei, & Tartaros inde ad recuperandam regni tyrannidem credibile erat erupturos, iis in partibus considere statuit; & quidem ea in Urbe, in qua Reges Tartari, cum Sinis imperitabant, morabantur. Eam Urbem ipse Pequim, id est, Borealem Curiam, ad similitudinem australis, quae dicitur Nanquim nominavit.
About The Tartar (Yuan) kings and the Ming emperor Yongle
Continue in this sourceBrother Bento de Góis and the search for Cathay1602 to 1607 · 12 passagesThirty thousand Christian Alans at the Khan's court
Editorial contextAmong the Khan's great men, Marignolli counts more than thirty thousand Alans, a people from the Caucasus whom the Mongols had taken into their service, who were Christians 'in fact or in name' and called themselves the Pope's slaves. He also explains that the peoples of the East called all Western Europeans 'Franks'. The passage shows how mixed in religion and origin the Tartar empire's elite was.
The highest princes of the whole empire, more than thirty thousand, who are called Alans … are Christians, in fact or in name, and they call themselves the Pope's slaves, ready to die for the Franks; for so they call us, not from France but from 'Franquia'.
Working translation
Original wording
Summi eciam principes … Imperii tocius, plus quam triginta millia, qui vocantur Alani, … sunt Christiani, re vel nomine, & dicunt se Sclavos Pape, parati mori pro franquis, sic enim vocant nos, non a francia, sed a franquia.
About Alans serving the Tartar (Yuan) emperor
Keep in mind
The number is Marignolli's estimate, and he is keen to show the East as friendly to the Pope.
A Beijing emperor 'of Mongol race'
Editorial contextBaikov calls Beijing by its old Mongol name Kanbalyk (Khanbaliq) and reports that the reigning emperor, the 'Bogda', was of Mongol race, and that the last Chinese emperor hanged himself when the 'Mongols' took over China. He means the Manchus, who had taken Beijing in 1644. It is the Russian counterpart of the Western habit of calling the Manchus 'Tartars'.
And in the Chinese Tsardom, in Kanbalyk, the tsar is the Bogda, of Mongol race; and before him there was a tsar of Chinese race, Daba; and when the Mongols overcame the Chinese Tsardom, that Tsar Daba hanged himself
Working translation
Original wording
А въ Китайскомъ Царствѣ въ Канбалыкѣ Царь Богда Мунгальскаго рода; а прежде того былъ Царь Китайскаго рода Даба; а какъ одолѣли Мунгальцы Китайскимъ Царствомъ, и тогда тотъ Даба Царь обѣсился
About Manchus (Qing dynasty), called Mongols by Baikov
Keep in mind
Hearsay gathered while confined in Beijing. 'Daba' is Baikov's rendering of the Ming ruler (the Chongzhen emperor hanged himself in 1644).
Kublai Khan imports astronomers from Balkh and Samarkand
Editorial contextBarrow credits the Mongol emperor Kublai with welcoming learned men, especially Muslims, surveying the empire, reforming the calendar, bringing astronomical instruments from Balkh and Samarkand, and repairing the canal. He adds that after the Mongols were expelled the Chinese could not keep a correct almanac.
He caused a regular survey to be taken of the whole empire. He adjusted their chronology, and corrected the errors of their astronomical observations; he imported various mathematical and astronomical instruments from Balk and Samarcand; such as were then in use among the Chinese being of a rude construction
About Mongols (Kublai Khan)
Keep in mind
Compiled from Chinese annals and missionary writings.
The Manchu script, 'more like the Greek'
Editorial contextBarrow describes the Manchu 'Tartar' language as alphabetic (or syllabic), inflected like European tongues, rich in B and R sounds, written in vertical columns from the left, and 'full, sonorous'. He predicted it would replace Chinese at court within a century.
the Man-tchoo Tartar character, which, if the present family continue on the throne for a century longer, will, in all probability, supplant the Chinese, or will at least become the court language. In the enunciation it is full, sonorous, and far from being disagreeable, more like the Greek than any of the oriental languages
About Manchus
Keep in mind
His prediction proved wrong: Manchu declined and Chinese prevailed at the Qing court.
'Fish-skin coats' and 'louse-eaters'
Editorial contextWalking in Peking, Bell records the insults exchanged between Chinese and Manchus. The Chinese call a Tartar 'fish-skin coat' because the Manchus of the Amur live by fishing and wear fish-skin coats in summer. It is a small but telling glimpse of how the ruling 'Tartars' of China were still seen as northern forest people.
When a Chinese and Tartar are angry at one another, the Tartar, in reproach, calls the Chinese louse-eater; and the latter, in return, calls the other fish-skin coat; because the Mantzur Tartars, who live near the river Amoor, subsist by fishing, and, in summer, wear coats made of the skins of fishes.
About Manchus ('Mantzur Tartars')
Continue in this sourceJohn Bell's travels from St Petersburg across Asia1715 to 1738 · 18 passagesHorses stabled in the emperors' palaces
Editorial contextOn the Grand Canal Staunton notes that the Chinese still looked on Tartars in general as barbarians. As proof they told a four-hundred-year-old story about the Mongol capture of Beijing: the conquerors lived in tents and put their horses in the imperial palaces.
they repeat the story, popular amongst them for four centuries, that when the Mongol Tartars seized first upon Pekin, they erected tents for their own accommodation, while they put their horses in the palaces of the Chinese emperors.
About Mongols ('Mongol Tartars'), as remembered by the Chinese
Keep in mind
A popular Chinese tale, reported as such; not evidence of what happened in 1215.
