Jehol: kept outside the palace gates
Editorial contextThe guard marched through Jehol ('Gehor'), a town about three miles long, to the palace with the presents, but only the ambassador and gentlemen were allowed in. The soldiers went back disappointed, though Holmes says the palace's extent and elegance against the mountains, lit by the rising sun, were beyond description.
none, except his Excellency and the gentlemen, were suffered to enter the gates ; all the others returned mortified and terribly disappointed … the extent and elegance of it was beyond description, and contrasted with the adjacent mountains and precipices, the scene was great and beautiful indeed
About Qing court (Manchu 'Tartars')
Continue in this sourceA soldier's diary of the Macartney embassy to China and Tartary1792 to 1793 · 4 passagesThe golden-roofed 'Putelah' temple at Jehol
Editorial contextThe most remarkable of Jehol's seven lama and bonze temples was the 'Putalah', the temple with the golden roof, said to have more than eight hundred lamas, set on a hill commanding the valley. Hüttner climbed two long stairways into a wide court paved with dressed stone, with a square temple about 100 feet high in the middle and the lamas' rooms along the inner sides of the outer building. He found it overloaded with gilding and glaring colours; many lamas sat on the ground singing what he calls Tartar chants. It is the Putuo Zongcheng temple, built by the Qianlong emperor as a copy of the Potala at Lhasa.
One climbs by two long stairways into a wide courtyard paved with dressed stone, in the middle of which stands the temple. It forms a regular square and is about 100 feet high. Along the four inner sides of the outer building are the rooms of the lama priests. The eye is offended here in every direction by gilding and glaring colours; everything is overloaded.
Working translation
Original wording
Man steigt auf zwei langen Treppen in einen weiten, mit Quadersteinen gepflasterten Hof, auf dessen Mitte der Tempel steht. Er bildet ein regelmässiges Viereck, und ist etwa 100 Fuss hoch. An den vier innern Seiten des Aussengebäudes sind die Zimmer der Lamapriester. Das Auge wird hier in jeder Richtung von Vergoldungen und grellen Farben beleidigt; alles ist überladen.
About Lama priests of the Qing court's Tibetan Buddhist temples
Keep in mind
The name and builder of the temple are editorial context; Hüttner does not say who built it.
Tartars and Chinese: one government, one language, two characters
Editorial contextIn a section headed 'Character of the Tartars', Hüttner says mixed marriages, a single government and a common language had made Tartars and Chinese hard to tell apart in their customs. Yet he found the Tartar, as travellers described him, rough, hard and blunt: sturdier in build, clumsier in manners and less clean in his dwellings than the Chinese, but without the deceitful double-dealing he attributes to his Chinese neighbour. On the next page the two mandarins conducting the embassy blamed the stubbornness and pride of the Tartars for trouble getting supplies in Tartary.
Mixed marriages of Tartars and Chinese, one and the same government, one and the same language naturally produce the same customs. But since a people can never wholly deny its own character, here too some traits shine through that clearly distinguish the Tartar from the Chinese. Travellers describe the former as rough, hard and blunt; and so we really found him.
Working translation
Original wording
Vermischte Ehen der Tartarn und Chinesen, einerlei Regierung, einerlei Sprache bringen natürlicher Weise dieselben Sitten hervor. Da aber ein Volk seinen eigenthümlichen Charakter nie gänzlich verläugnen kann, so leuchten auch hier einige Züge hervor, die den Tartarn merklich von dem Chinesen unterscheiden. Reisende beschreiben den erstern als roh, hart und gerade; und so fanden wir ihn wirklich.
About Manchus ('Tartars') and Chinese
Keep in mind
National-character stereotypes, partly borrowed from earlier travellers, as Hüttner admits.
Jehol: the emperor's hunting palaces in 'Chinese Tartary'
Editorial contextAmiot explains why the painter-brother Attiret was summoned north: some ten thousand Dzungars had fled their ruler's usurper with families and baggage to submit to the emperor, who settled them in 'Chinese Tartary' and ordered their leaders to Gé-hol (Jehol, modern Chengde), where he hunted each year and had palaces nearly as fine as those around Peking. Attiret, it was guessed, was wanted to paint the portraits of the leading newcomers at the ceremony.
The Emperor ordered them to go to Gé-hol, a place in Chinese Tartary where he goes every year for the pleasure of hunting, and where he has palaces almost as beautiful as those around Peking.
Working translation
Original wording
L'Empereur leur ordonna de se rendre à Gé-hol, lieu de la Tartarie Chinoise où il va chaque année pour prendre le divertissement de la chasse, & où il a des palais presque aussi beaux que ceux qui sont aux environs de Peking.
About Dzungar refugees; Qianlong's court
Continue in this sourceEdifying and curious letters: Jesuit reports from China and Tartary1699 to 1779 · 11 passagesKalmyk chiefs who fled Russia for China
Editorial contextAt the emperor's birthday theatricals most of the guests who came to meet the British envoy were Tartars, since few Chinese were invited to Zhe-hol. Among them were two chiefs of 'Calmoucks' whose people had recently left Russian rule on the Caspian and migrated to Chinese Tartary, an event of 1771.
Most of them were Tartars ; few original Chinese being invited to Zhe-hol. There were likewise two Mussulmen, chiefs of some hordes of Calmoucks, who, not long since, on occasion of discontent or misunderstanding with the government of Russia, migrated in great numbers from the northern coast of the Caspian sea into Chinese Tartary, and put themselves under the Emperor's protection.
About Manchus and Mongols at court; Kalmyks from the Volga
Keep in mind
The Kalmyks (Torghuts) who made the 1771 migration were Tibetan Buddhists, so calling their chiefs 'Mussulmen' looks like a confusion.
Hovels and palaces at the emperor's summer town
Editorial contextZhe-hol (Jehol, modern Chengde), beyond the Great Wall, was the Qing emperors' summer capital in Tartary. Staunton contrasts the poor, crooked town with the grandeur of the imperial palaces, gardens and temples just beyond it. He adds that the principal buildings 'in this part of Tartary' differed little from those of China.
The town of Zhe-hol, excepting the houses of mandarines, consisted of miserable hovels full of people. The streets also were crooked, unpaved, and dusty. Immediately beyond it, the imperial garden, the palaces, the temples displayed much grandeur; and magnificence and wretchedness knew no medium.
About Manchus and Mongols (Qing court in 'Tartary')
Continue in this sourceStaunton's official account of the Macartney embassy to China and Tartary1792 to 1794 · 13 passagesJehol: wretched huts beside imperial palaces
Editorial contextHüttner contrasts the emperor's summer seat with the town that served it: apart from the palaces, the magnificent park and the rich lama temples, the town offered only miserable huts, crooked streets and great dirt. He praises the fertile valley ringed by mountains, which he thought could carry vineyards and orchards. A useful corrective to any idea of Jehol as a grand 'Tartar' city: the splendour was the court's, not the town's.
one finds nothing in the town but wretched huts, crooked streets and great filth. The imperial palaces, the magnificent park and the rich lama temples make a great contrast with it!
Working translation
Original wording
findet man in der Stadt nichts, als elende Hütten, krumme Strassen und grosse Unsauberkeit. Die Kaiserlichen Palläste, der prächtige Park und die reichen Lama-Tempel machen damit einen grossen Abstich!
About Townspeople of Jehol; Qing court
Keep in mind
The start of the sentence is on the previous, badly scanned page.