Bearded 'Alimenes' guarding the Tartar passes
Editorial contextCruz reports that the king of China keeps salaried soldiers to guard the weak passes and walls facing the Tartars: big, bearded men in cut breeches and caps, with curved swords. A Portuguese captive heard the Chinese call them 'Alimenes', which Cruz takes to mean Germans (Alemanes), concluding that China must border Upper Germany. He tells the same story on an earlier page (n25). The identification is his own leap.
the Chinese say that the King of China has many salaried men-at-arms who guard for him the weak passes and the walls on the side of the Tartars; they say they are big, heavily bearded men who wear cut breeches, caps and curved swords; and a Portuguese who had been taken captive inland told me that he had heard the Chinese call these people Alimenes.
Working translation
Original wording
dizem os chinas que tẽ el Rey da China muita gente darmas salariada, que lhe guarda os passos fracos e os muros da bãda dos tartaras: dizẽ q̃ sam homẽs grãdes e barbaçudos, e q̃ trazẽ calças cortadas e gorras e espadas rõbas, e disse me hũ portugues q̃ pola terra dentro fora leuado catiuo, q̃ ouuira dizer aos chinas q̃ lhe chamauã a estes Alimenes
About Hired guards on the Tartar frontier, called 'Alimenes' by the Chinese
Keep in mind
Third-hand report; the leap from 'Alimenes' to Germans is Cruz's guess.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this blackletter print is garbled); long s normalized, the Tironian sign for 'and' given as 'e', a few contractions (de, per, pro, terra) expanded, other abbreviation marks kept as printed.
Tartary: the Chinese name for everything beyond the Wall
Editorial contextDiscussing a Siberian Tatar story that Chinese once lived in Siberia, Müller suggests that at most the Chinese may have built some towns on the Daurian and Mongol frontiers and toward Liaodong, because in China all lands beyond the Wall are called Tartary. The name, in his view, is a broad outsiders' label, not the name of one country.
By all the circumstances one may judge that they perhaps meant certain towns built on the Daurian and Mongol borders and toward Liaotung, of which there are examples in ancient times, because in China all the lands lying beyond the Wall are called by the general name Tartary.
Working translation
Original wording
По всѣмъ обстоятельствамъ разсуждать можно, что развѣ о построенныхъ нѣкоторыхъ городахъ на границахъ Даурскихъ и Мунгальскихъ и къ Леотонгу, о чемъ и въ древнихъ временахъ примѣры имѣются, упоминать хотѣли, по тому что въ Китаѣ всѣ за стѣною находящіяся земли общимъ именемъ Татарія называются.
About Mongols and other peoples north of the Great Wall
Keep in mind
Müller cites Martini's Chinese atlas and Witsen for this; it reflects European usage of his day.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
The 'genuine Tartars' are going native
Editorial contextAfter praising Tartar warfare, Polo adds a striking remark: in his day the Mongols were changing. Those settled in China had taken up the religion and ways of the Chinese, and those in the Middle East had adopted Muslim customs. It is an eyewitness observation that the conquerors were being absorbed by the settled peoples they ruled.
But I must add also that in these days they are greatly degenerated ; for those who are settled in Cathay have taken up the practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have abandoned their own institutions ; whilst those who have settled in the Levant have adopted the customs of the Saracens.
About Mongols settled in China and in the Ilkhanate
Keep in mind
'Idolaters' means Buddhists and followers of Chinese religion; 'Saracens' means Muslims.
The 'Tartar ceremony': nine knocks of the head
Editorial contextThe embassy's quarrel was over the 'Tartar ceremony' demanded before the emperor. Ellis notes that the English word kowtow is loose: the court rite is properly 'thrice kneeling and nine times bowing the head', a Manchu court protocol.
The Tartar ceremonial has perhaps improperly been rendered by the Chinese word ko-tou, which more strictly signifies three simple genuflexions, a mode of salutation practised even in private life. The court ceremony has a different name, implying thrice kneeling and nine times bowing the head, San-kwei-keu-kou.
About Manchus (Qing court)
Continue in this sourceHenry Ellis's journal of the Amherst embassy to China1816 · 9 passages'Tata', because the Chinese cannot say R
Editorial contextThe appended East Indies volume includes a history of the Tartar conquests of China. It explains that the Chinese called the Tartars 'Tata' because they could not pronounce R, and then tells how the Mongols ruled China until 1368 and how a new Tartar kingdom, the Manchus of 'Niuche', overran it in the 1640s. The same word covers both conquests.
For in the year 1206, the Tartars, whom the Chineses call'd Tata, because they do not pronounce the Letter R, entred China with a powerful Army, and after a War of seventy two years became Masters of it
About Mongols (1206) and Manchus (1600s), both called Tartars
Keep in mind
Not Olearius or Mandelslo as eyewitnesses: a compiled history added to Mandelslo's travels in this edition. Mandelslo never went to China.
Manchu grandees carry their ancestors' bones home to Tartary
Editorial contextHüttner reports that viceroys and the highest ministers were mostly chosen from Tartar grandees, a measure he thought 'probably very necessary': according to a Chinese popular rumour, the emperor so feared losing the Chinese throne that he was having metal cast and heaped up in wide vaults under a riverbed near Mukden in Tartary (the scan is damaged at this point). And he calls it certain that Tartar nobles often moved the long-buried bodies of their forefathers from China to Tartary, fearing they would one day have to leave the country and unable to bear abandoning their ancestors' ashes to the enemy.
It is also certain that the Tartar nobles often carry the long-buried bodies of their forefathers from China to Tartary, because they fear that sooner or later they will have to leave this beautiful country
Working translation
Original wording
Es ist auch zuverlässig, dass die vornehmen Tartaren die längst beerdigten Leichname ihrer Voreltern häufig aus China nach der Tartarei führen; weil sie fürchten, über kurz oder lang dieses schöne Land verlassen zu müssen
About Manchu ('Tartar') nobility of the Qing empire
Keep in mind
The treasure-vault story is explicitly a popular rumour, and the OCR of that sentence is badly damaged; the reburial claim is stated as fact but is also hearsay.
A wall of iron bricks bound with copper
Editorial contextSallam describes how the wall was built: foundations dug thirty cubits deep and laid in iron and copper, then two great jambs, all of iron bricks sheathed in copper, carrying a 120-cubit iron lintel. He credits the work to Dhu'l-Qarnayn, the Quran's 'two-horned' king, usually identified with Alexander. Nothing here is credited to the Turks.
The wall was built in the following way. First the ground was dug to a depth of 30 cubits and the foundations laid there, built of iron and copper up to ground level … The whole structure is made of iron bricks faced with copper, each a cubit and a half long and wide and 4 inches thick.
Working translation
Original wording
La muraille fut construite de la manière suivante. D'abord on creusa le sol jusqu'à une profondeur de 30 coudées et on y jeta les fondements qu'on construisit en fer et en cuivre jusqu'à ras de terre … Toute la construction se compose de briques de fer, revêtues de cuivre, dont chacune a une coudée et demie en long et en large sur 4 pouces d'épaisseur.
About Unnamed builders credited to Dhu'l-Qarnayn (Alexander)
Keep in mind
Sallam's account as dictated to Ibn Khurradadhbih; the 'history' of the building is legend.
Why the Chinese say 'Tata'
Editorial contextMartini defines his subject: the Tartars are simply the people living north of the Great Wall, which for 300 German leagues has served as a rampart against them. He adds that the Chinese, lacking the letter R, have always called them 'Tata', and that the name covers both the Eastern Tartars, unknown in Europe, and the Western ones stretching from Kashgar to the sea above Japan.
I call that Nation Tartars, which inhabiting the Northern parts, behind that famous Wall which stretching out above 300. German Leagues from East to West, hath ever served for a Rampart to hinder their irruptions into the said Empire. This Country the Chineses having a defect of the letter R. antiently called Tata:
About Tartars in general: Eastern (Manchu/Jurchen) and Western (Mongol)
Keep in mind
Chinese 'Dada' (韃靼) is a real name for the Tatars; the 'missing R' explanation is Martini's.
A hundred leagues of wall, with mountains in the gaps
Editorial contextCruz reports that the Chinese have a wall of a hundred leagues (some say more) between themselves and the Tartars, always garrisoned against Tartar raids. He reasons that it cannot be continuous but must use mountains to fill the gaps, because a Persian lord told him Persia had similar walls broken by hills. The Wall is credited plainly to the Chinese, built against the Tartars.
as I have said, the Chinese have a hundred leagues of wall (others say it is more) between themselves and them, where there are always garrisons to defend against the incursions of the Tartars. It may be believed that this wall is not continuous, but that some mountains or ranges come in between, because a lord of Persia assured me that there were similar works in some parts of Persia, with hills or ranges coming in between.
Working translation
Original wording
como tenho dito tem os Chinas cẽ legoas (dizendo outros que seram mais) de muro ãtre si e elles, õde ha sempre guarnições de gente pera defesa das ẽtradas dos Tartaros. Pode se crer que este muro nam he cõtinuado se nam q̃ se antremetem algũs mõtes ou serras, porq̃ me afirmou hũ señor da Persia que auia semelhantes obras nalgũas partes da persia, cõ se antremeterẽ outeiros ou serras.
About Chinese garrisons facing the Tartars
A note on this quote
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this blackletter print is garbled); long s normalized, the Tironian sign for 'and' given as 'e', a few contractions (de, per, pro, terra) expanded, other abbreviation marks kept as printed.
A khan buried under a hill with slaves and impaled horses
Editorial contextIbn Battuta reports that a Mongol khan was killed by rebel kinsmen and buried with about a hundred relatives. The khan was laid on a couch in an underground chamber with his weapons, gold and silver vessels, four slave women and six favourite servants, and earth was heaped over it into a hill. Four horses were impaled on stakes on the mound. Everyone wore white hoods for mourning.
a large sepulchre was dug for him under the earth, in which a most beautiful couch was spread, and the Khan was with his weapons laid upon it. With him they placed all the gold and silver vessels he had in his house, together with four female slaves, and six of his favourite Mamluks … and the earth heaped upon them to the height of a large hill.
About Mongols of the Yuan dynasty
Keep in mind
He says the khan was killed before he reached the capital, so the burial is almost certainly reported, not seen; the translator notes he could find no record of such a khan's death, and no Yuan emperor died this way at that date.
The emperor's felt tent and its 'Tartar' name, Mungkubo
Editorial contextBefore dawn on the day of the audience, the embassy waited in the imperial park, where 'Tartar tents' stood on the south side. They needed no supporting poles: a framework of split bamboo skilfully woven together, with thick coarse felt stretched over it. The largest, hung with yellow and furnished with carpets, painted lanterns and a throne, was called by the Chinese only by its Tartar name, Mungkubo, which the interpreter could not explain. Most of the courtiers who crowded in were Tartars.
They consist of splints of bamboo cane skilfully woven into one another, over which a kind of thick coarse felt is stretched. One was far higher and broader than the others, hung with yellow … The Chinese gave this tent exclusively the Tartar name Mungkubo, whose real meaning our interpreter could not tell me.
Working translation
Original wording
Sie bestehen aus geschickt in einander geflochtenen Bambusrohr-Splitzen, worüber eine Art von dickem grobem Filze gespannt ist. Eins war weit höher und breiter als die andern, gelb überhängt … Die Chinesen gaben diesem Zelte ausschliesslich den Tartarischen Nahmen: Mungkubo, dessen eigentliche Bedeutung unser Dolmetscher mir nicht zu sagen wusste.
About Qing court (Manchus and Mongols); Qianlong emperor
Keep in mind
Hüttner could not explain the name. Its likely identification with Manchu monggo boo, 'Mongol house', is an editorial suggestion, not his.
A 500-league wall against the Tartars, mostly mountains
Editorial contextMendoza reports a wall 500 leagues long running west to east, built by a king 'Tzintzom' (Qin Shi Huang) to protect himself from the Tartars, 'and so the wall takes in the whole frontier of Tartary'. But, he adds, 400 of those leagues are made by nature, very high closed mountains; only the remaining hundred were built by the king, of very strong stone, seven fathoms wide at the base.
There is in this kingdom an enclosure or wall five hundred leagues long ... A king called Tzintzom made it to protect himself from the Tartars, with whom he was at war, and so the wall takes in the whole frontier of Tartary. But it must be understood that 400 of the leagues of the said wall are made by nature, for they are very high, very close-set mountains.
Working translation
Original wording
Hallase en este Reyno vna cerca, o muralla, que tiene quinientas leguas de largo … Hizo la vn Rey llamado Tzintzom, por ampararse de los Tartaros, con quien tenia guerra, y assi toma la muralla toda la frontera de Tartaria. Pero ha se de entender, que las 400. leguas que tiene la dicha muralla, son hechas por la naturaleza, por que son vnas sierras altissimas muy cerradas.
About Chinese builders; Tartars (Mongols) as the enemy
Keep in mind
Mendoza never saw it; he relies on Gaspar da Cruz, Rada and Chinese books. The natural-barrier claim comes from those sources.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Bodies kept at home; lords buried with horse and slaves
Editorial contextJordanus heard that in this empire the dead are neither burned nor buried, sometimes for ten years, because the family cannot yet afford the proper rites; the body is kept in the house and served food as if alive. Great lords are buried with a horse and with one or two of their favourite servants alive. The first part fits Chinese custom; the second, steppe Mongol practice.
There they do not burn their dead, nor even bury them, sometimes for ten years; … but they keep them in their houses and serve them food as if they were alive. Great lords, when they die, are buried with one horse and with one or two of their best loved servants alive.
Working translation
Original wording
Ibi, mortuos suos non comburunt; non etiam sepeliunt, aliquotiens per decem annos; … sed tenent eos in domibus, et ministrant sibi cibaria, sicut si esset vivus. Magni domini, cùm moriuntur, sepeliuntur cum equo uno, et cum uno vel duobus suis servitoribus vivis sibi magis dilectis.
About Subjects of the Great Tartar
Keep in mind
Hearsay mixing Chinese and Mongol customs.
OCR normalized against the page image; the editor's '(sic)' after 'vivus' omitted.
Monasteries, choirs and red hats like cardinals
Editorial contextIn the Great Tartar's empire, Jordanus was told, there are idol temples and monasteries of men and women just as in Europe; they chant in choir and say prayers exactly like Catholics, and the great 'pontiffs of the idols' wear red capes and red hats like cardinals. The splendour of their sacrifices is beyond belief. It is an early European comparison of Buddhist (probably Tibetan) monastic life with Catholic ritual.
In this empire there are temples of idols, and monasteries of men and of women, as among us; and they keep choir and say their prayers just as we do; and the great pontiffs of the idols wear red capes and red hats in the manner of our cardinals.
Working translation
Original wording
In isto imperio, sunt templa idolorum, et monasteria hominum et mulierum, sicut inter nos; et ita tenent chorum, et dicunt orationes suas, rectè sicut nos; et pontifices majores idolorum portant cappas rubeas et capellos rubeos ad modum cardinalium nostrorum.
About Buddhists under the Great Tartar (Yuan China)
A note on this quote
OCR normalized against the page image.
Blame Marco Polo and the friars
Editorial contextStrahlenberg blames Marco Polo and the thirteenth-century friars (Carpini, Rubruck) for spreading the 'Chinese conceit' that every steppe people is a Tartar. It is an early and explicit statement that 'Tartary' was an outsiders' label, not a nation's own name.
And because Marcus Paulus Venetus, when he was in China, was not rightly inform'd of the State of Things, he, as well as the Monks sent into Tartary, viz. Plan, Carpin, Rubriquis, &c. have themselves taken up, and misled us Europeans, with the Chinese Conceit, that all those People, whether Kalmucks or Mungals, must go under the Denomination of Tartars:
About Mongols and Kalmyks
Continue in this sourceStrahlenberg's description of Russia, Siberia and 'Great Tartary'1709 to 1729 · 18 passagesRaw meat, blood and a smell carried on the wind
Editorial contextCruz describes the Tartars as reddish, naked from the waist up, eating raw meat and smearing their bodies with its blood, so that they stink. An old Chinese man told him that when Tartar raiders approached with the wind behind them, the Chinese could smell them coming. In war, he adds, they carry raw meat under themselves to eat. This is a Chinese stereotype passed to a Portuguese friar, not something Cruz saw.
[they go naked] from the waist up, eat raw meat, and anoint their bodies with its blood, for which reason they commonly stink and have a bad smell. An old Chinese man assured me that sometimes, when they came against the lands of China, if the wind blew from where they were coming, they were detected by the smell; and when they go to war they carry the raw meat underneath them to eat.
Working translation
Original wording
da cinta pera cima, comẽ carne crua, e vntã os corpos com ho sangue della: pello qual comũmẽte sam fedorẽtos e tem mao cheiro. Afirmou me hũ China velho q̃ algũas vezes quãdo elles vinham cõtra as terras da China, se ho vento vinha da parte donde elles vinham, que eram sentidos pello cheiro: e quãdo vã aa guerra leuã ha carne crua debaixo de si pera comerẽ
About Tartars (Mongols beyond the Wall)
Keep in mind
Hostile Chinese hearsay. The sentence begins at the foot of the previous page, where Cruz calls these people commonly reddish ('bermelha') and says they go naked.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this blackletter print is garbled); long s normalized, the Tironian sign for 'and' given as 'e', a few contractions (de, per, pro, terra) expanded, other abbreviation marks kept as printed.
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!
Working translation
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 Mongols disliked the name; the Chinese called all outsiders 'Ta-ta'
Editorial contextFischer notes that in Europe and western Asia 'Tatar' (or 'Tarter') is better known than 'Mongol', although Chinggis Khan was a Mongol and not a Tatar. The mix-up, he says, is as old as the Mongol empire, and the Mongols themselves did not like to be called Tatars. He suggests the usage may come from the Chinese, who called all peoples living beyond their Great Wall 'Tata'.
Although the Mongols themselves did not like to hear it when they were given the name Tatar … The cause of such naming may well come from the Chinese, who are accustomed to give the name Tata to all peoples living outside their great wall and bordering on China
Working translation
Original wording
Wiewol die Mogolen selbst es nicht gerne höreten, wenn man sie mit dem namen Tatar belegete … Die ursache solcher benennung mag wol von den Schinesern herrüren, als welche allen ausserhalb ihrer großen mauer wonhaften und an Schina grenzenden völkern den namen Tata zu geben pflegen
About Mongols; peoples beyond the Great Wall
Continue in this sourceFischer's Siberian History1500 to 1747 · 4 passagesBeds on the ground, horses in the house, beautiful tents
Editorial contextIn a sketch of how the Tartars trained for war, Martini describes their great ring hunts and their camp habits. They sleep on the ground on a horse-cloth and care nothing for houses; if they must live in houses they keep their horses inside and knock holes in the walls. Their tents, he says, are very beautiful and put up and struck so skilfully that they never slow an army's march.
The earth covered with their Horse-cloath is their Bed ; for they care not for Houses, and Chambers ; but if they be forced to dwell in Houses, their Horses must lodge with them, and they must have many holes beaten in the Walls; but yet their Tents are most beautiful, which they fix and remove with such Art and dexterity,
About Manchu Tartar army
Keep in mind
A general portrait; the 'holes in the walls' detail may be hearsay.
The Great Wall, built by a Chinese emperor against the Tartars
Editorial contextVerbiest crossed the Great Wall several times and says all seven wonders of the world together could not match it. He credits it to an ancient Chinese emperor who built it as a bulwark against the Western Tartars, and was amazed that water, brick and mortar had been hauled up dry mountains. He measured one stretch with an instrument at 1,037 geometrical feet above the horizon.
'twas to make a Bulwork against their Incursions, that a Chinese Emperor in Antient times caused this great Wall to be Built, which seperates China from their Countrey. I have passed it several times, and have considered it very attentively, And I can say without Hyperbolizing, that all the seven Wonders of the World put together, are not comparable to this worke.
About Mongols ('Western Tartars'); Chinese builders
Keep in mind
The OCR reads 'fewer times', which seems to be a misreading of 'several times'.
Jordanus on the 'Great Tartar' of China
Editorial contextThe Dominican bishop Jordanus, who never went to China, repeats what 'trustworthy people' told him of the Great Tartar: very rich, just and generous, with paper money and monasteries like Europe's. Some subjects keep their dead unburied at home for up to ten years, serving them food as if alive, and great lords are buried with a horse and one or two favourite servants alive.
Of the Great Tartar I tell what I heard from trustworthy people … There they do not burn their dead; nor do they bury them, sometimes for ten years … but they keep them in their houses and serve them food as if they were alive. Great lords, when they die, are buried with one horse and with one or two of their favourite servants alive.
Working translation
Original wording
De Magno Tartaro, quod audivi à fide dignis narro … Ibi, mortuos suos non comburunt; non etiam sepeliunt, aliquotiens per decem annos … sed tenent eos in domibus, et ministrant sibi cibaria, sicut si esset vivus. Magni domini, cùm moriuntur, sepeliuntur cum equo uno, et cum uno vel duobus suis servitoribus vivis sibi magis dilectis.
About Mongol emperor of China and his subjects
Keep in mind
Explicit hearsay: Jordanus served in India and never reached China.
The Grand Canal: a Mongol work, or only a Mongol repair?
Editorial contextBarrow credits the successors of Genghis Khan with opening a waterway joining the two ends of the empire, praising it as the highest credit to the Mongol Tartars. He records the Chinese counter-claim that the Tartars only repaired older works. Elsewhere he says Kublai 'repaired' the canal.
the successors of Gengis-Khan were induced to open a direct communication between the two extremes of the empire, by means of the rivers and canals; an undertaking that reflects the highest credit on the Mongul Tartars, and which cannot fail to be regarded with admiration, as long as it shall continue to exist. The Chinese, however, say, that the Tartars only repaired the old works that were fallen into decay.
About Mongols (Yuan dynasty); Chinese
Continue in this sourceJohn Barrow's Travels in China1792 to 1794 · 12 passagesFour races of Tartars in China
Editorial contextThe Mongol official Kwang tells Ellis that Tartars can hold office at eighteen and that there are four races of Tartars in China. Ellis's footnote explains the Manchu, Mongol and 'Tartarized Chinese' eight-banner system, and notes that Mongols have long been Buddhists while Manchus adopted Buddhism only after entering China.
Tartars, Kwang informed us, were eligible to office at eighteen; this is said to arise from the wish of government to bring them early into employment: there are four different races of Tartars in China; he himself is a Mongul, or, as called in China, a Mun-koo.
About Manchus, Mongols and 'Tartarized' Chinese bannermen
Continue in this sourceHenry Ellis's journal of the Amherst embassy to China1816 · 9 passagesThe 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
Working translation
Original wording
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.
Tartar soldiers paid more than Chinese
Editorial contextDavis explains the dual army. The 'trusty Tartar troops' are ranged under eight standards, yellow, white, red and blue, plain and bordered, said to be 80,000 men; the Chinese serve under the green flag. A Tartar foot soldier gets two taels a month plus rice, a Chinese only 1.6 taels without rice. He also notes that Tartars under the law are punished with the whip instead of the bamboo.
A great difference seems to exist between the pay of Tartars and Chinese. One of the former, being a foot-soldier, is allowed two taels per month, or about five-pence a day, with an allowance of rice; one of the latter, only one tael and six-tenths, without the rice.
About Manchu Tartar bannermen and Chinese Green Standard troops
Keep in mind
Davis says 'seems to exist'; the figures come from report.
The Great Khan sunk by enemy swimmers
Editorial contextHayton's account of the death of the Great Khan Mongke: besieging an island in the sea of Cathay, he was sunk when the clever local people sent swimmers under his ship to bore holes in its hull until it filled and he drowned. The Kohler edition notes that a French manuscript garbled the Latin word for sponge-divers into 'spiongeorges'.
he went by sea into the kingdom of Cathay, and as he was besieging an island which he wanted to take by sea, the people of that land, who are very ingenious, sent swimmers, and they went under the ship in which Mango Can was
Working translation
Original wording
entra par mer au roiaume de Cathaï, e come il assegast une isle, laquele il voloit prendre par mer, la gent de cele terre, qui sont molt engignous, manderent homes noeors, e ceaus entrerent desouz le vaissel où Mango Can estoit
About Mongke Khan and the Tartars
Keep in mind
Not true as told: Mongke died in 1259 during a land siege in Sichuan, reportedly of illness or a wound.
Ninety years of Tartar rule, 1206 to 1368
Editorial contextIn his outline of Chinese dynasties Semedo says that after two thousand years of regional lords, the Tartars began conquering China piece by piece in 1206 and ruled it for ninety years until 1368, when Hongwu ('Hum Vu') found them grown careless and hated, drove them out and even subjected their borderlands. The Tartars here are the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty.
The lords of particular states remained in China more than two thousand years, until in the year 1206 of our Redemption the Tartars (then with another power and government), beginning to conquer it piece by piece, came to rule it for the space of ninety years, which ended in 1368, when Hum Vu, catching them now slack in their care and inflamed with tyranny
Working translation
Original wording
Permanecieron en la China los señores de Estados particulares mas de dos mil años, hasta que el de 1206. de nuestra Redencion, los Tartaros (entonces con otro poder i govierno) empeçando a conquistarla por partes, la vinieron a dominar por espacio de noventa años, que fenecieron el de 1368. en que el Hum Vu cogiendolos ya floxos de cuidado, i de tirania encendidos
About Tartars (Mongols of the Yuan dynasty)
Keep in mind
1206 is the year Chinggis Khan was proclaimed, not the start of Mongol rule over all China (completed in 1279).
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
The 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.
The wonder-working magicians of Tartar times
Editorial contextDiscussing Chinese divination, Semedo says some are said to keep familiar spirits, but he never saw any. In the time of the Tartar, he adds, there were many deeply sunk in such arts, and according to Marco Polo they worked marvels; today nothing of the kind is clearly known. He is sceptical and leans on Marco Polo for the Mongol period.
It is said that some have familiar spirits and consult them. Of these I saw none. Anciently, in the time of the Tartar, there were many, and very deeply sunk in this; and, according to Marco Polo, they worked marvels. Today I do not know that there is any such thing clearly.
Working translation
Original wording
Dizese, que algunos tienen Familiares, i q̃ los consultan. Destos no vi. Antiguamente en tiempo del Tartaro huvo muchos, i muy empantanados en esto: i, segun Marco Veneto, hazian maravillas. Oy no sè que aya cosa alguna destas con claridad.
About Mongol (Yuan) era magicians, as recalled by Semedo
Keep in mind
Second hand from Marco Polo; Semedo says he saw none.
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
A wall up a cliff no Tartar horse could climb
Editorial contextCareri found the Wall one of the greatest and 'most senseless' works ever made. What made him laugh was seeing it carried to the top of a precipitous mountain where 'the Tartar cavalry' could never have climbed; and if the Chinese thought raiders could scramble up the cliffs, it was foolish to think so low a wall would stop them. A rare eyewitness who was unimpressed.
But what struck me as altogether laughable was to see the wall carried even to the peaks of a very high and precipitous mountain, where hardly even woodpeckers could cling, let alone the Tartar cavalry climb up to enter the country.
Working translation
Original wording
Ma quel, che affatto mi sembrò da ridere, fu a vedere il muro tratto ancor fino alle cime d'un'altissimo, e straripevol monte, ove appena vi sarebbero appiccati i picchi: non che montar vi potesse la cavalleria Tartara per entrar nel paese.
About Tartar cavalry (steppe nomads)
Keep in mind
His own opinion of the defensive logic.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Manchu troops in long robes
Editorial contextFrom the boats Ellis sees soldiers under distinctive flags pointed out as Manchu Tartars. Their weapons look like Chinese troops', but they wear long gowns instead of jackets.
Last evening we observed some troops on the opposite bank with peculiar flags, which were described as Man-tchoo Tartars. There did not seem any difference in their arms or accoutrement, but instead of jackets they wore long dresses.
About Manchu bannermen
Continue in this sourceHenry Ellis's journal of the Amherst embassy to China1816 · 9 passagesGhost weddings for dead children
Editorial contextPolo reports that when a boy and a girl died unmarried, their families arranged a marriage between them, drew up a contract, burned it so the couple would know in the next world, and burned paper pictures of the dowry. Yule notes this is really a Chinese custom, though he trusts Polo that Mongols practised it too.
And marry them they do, making a regular contract ! And when the contract papers are made out they put them in the fire, in order (as they will have it) that the parties in the other world may know the fact, and so look on each other as man and wife.
About Tartars (Mongols); Chinese
Continue in this sourceThe Book of Ser Marco Polo (Yule's edition)c. 1271 to 1295 · 14 passagesHorsemen raised to arms from the cradle
Editorial contextA compiled portrait of the Tartar soldier: iron helmets with dyed horse-tail plumes, bows and sabres but no muskets, nearly all cavalry. They are pale, silent, trained to arms from infancy, unmatched archers, and eat any flesh half cooked. The same page calls them 'a Nation of Plunderers' and says few have any religion beyond some lamas.
They are whitish of Complexion, not talkative, but silent, and well composed, bred up to Arms from their very Cradles, which makes them such excellent Souldiers … They eat whatsoever they can get, but chiefly flesh, and that half roasted or boiled, being not curious of what sort it is, whether of Camels, Horses, or other Creatures.
About Tartars (Manchus)
Keep in mind
Compiled, and mixes observation with hostile stereotypes about plunder and irreligion.
The Tartar haircut forced on the Chinese
Editorial contextBefore the Tartars began to rule, Careri says, the Chinese wore their hair long, wound behind the head in a knot pinned with silver. After 'the empire of the Tartar' everyone was ordered, on pain of death, to cut it and adopt the Tartar style: shaved head with one tuft, which the Chinese wore braided, sometimes down to the legs. Loose wide-sleeved robes were also banned for Tartar dress, 'which the Chinese felt, and still feel, in their hearts'.
Before the Tartars began to rule, the Chinese wore their hair long, winding it behind the head ... but after the empire of the Tartar, everyone was ordered on pain of death to cut it, and to go in the Tartar manner, with the head shaved and a tuft
Working translation
Original wording
Prima che cominciassero a dominare i Tartari, portavano i Cinesi lunghi i capelli, avvolgendogli dietro la testa … ma dopo l'Imperio del Tartaro, fu ordinato a tutti, in pena della vita, di tagliarsegli; e di andare alla maniera Tartara, colla testa rasa, e un ciuffo
About Manchus ('the Tartar') and Han Chinese
Keep in mind
He saw the result; the history is from Jesuit sources. The corpus OCR reads 'miniera' for 'maniera'.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
The horses announce that the town has fallen
Editorial contextDescribing how the Tartars stormed Chinese walled towns, Palafox says archers lying or kneeling on the wall top drove the defenders from their guns while others scaled the walls or seized a gate. Once horses got inside, their noise and neighing told everyone the town was taken. On the next page he notes that the Tartars stormed first and only brought up artillery afterwards, the reverse of European practice.
they quickly discover, that the Town is taken… Thus the Tartarian horses first proclaim the Victory.
About Manchu Tartars
Keep in mind
The OCR on this page is garbled; the quote keeps only the readable words.
The Manchu 'Tartars' take China and change nothing
Editorial contextAfter the rebel Li Zicheng's defeat, a Manchu prince led an army 'of Tartars and many Chinese' through the provinces. The annals, as rendered here, claim the conquerors followed their emperor's line, kept the old tribunals in Peking and simply doubled the posts so that Tartars could hold half; 'China, in changing masters, changed neither its form nor its government'. The passage shows 'Tartar' used plainly for the Manchus.
One of the Manchu princes put himself at the head of a formidable army made up of Tartars and a great number of Chinese … China, in changing masters, changed neither its form nor its government.
Working translation
Original wording
Un des princes Man-tchéous se mit à la tête d'une armée formidable, composée de Tartares & d'un grand nombre de Chinois … La Chine, en changeant de maîtres, ne changea ni de forme ni de gouvernement.
About Manchus (Man-tchéous, called 'Tartares')
Keep in mind
An official, pro-Qing view of the conquest, written from Peking under the Manchu dynasty.
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.
Working translation
Original wording
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).
Horse-flesh for feasts, mutton every day
Editorial contextPalafox says the Tartars eat and drink heartily, care more for quantity than quality, and count horse-flesh their greatest delicacy. Their daily food is mutton from their great flocks, plus venison they hunt in the mountains, and he claims they eat their meat nearly raw 'according to the custome of Barbarians'. On the page before he says they despise soft music and love only the harsh sound of the trumpet.
They account Horse-flesh their greatest dainty… But their ordinary food is Mutton, and they have great flocks of Sheep : They eat likewise all sorts of Venison,
About Manchu Tartars
Keep in mind
Second-hand and coloured by the stock European image of 'barbarian' eating.
Great monuments were Ming, not Tartar
Editorial contextEllis repeats a remark that China's great national monuments and best works of art all date from the Ming dynasty, and adds his own jibe that the Tartar conquerors brought barbarism without their ancestors' energy. It is an opinion about who built China's monuments, not a survey.
It has been remarked that all the great national monuments were executed in the reign of the Ming dynasty; the best works of art of all kinds belong to the same period, so that the last Tartar conquerors of China would seem to have communicated the barbarism without the energy of their ancestors.
About Manchus (Qing dynasty)
Keep in mind
A prejudiced generalisation; the Qing built a great deal, including the palaces and temples at Chengde described by Barrow (W058).
The mooncake massacre of 1368
Editorial contextHuc tells the Chinese tradition behind the Moon festival: in about 1368 the Chinese rose against the Mongol dynasty, passing the signal in letters hidden in the festival cakes, and killed the Mongol soldiers billeted in their homes. When the priests told this to a Mongol family, the old man wept and said a day of vengeance would come. The massacre story is a legend, not established history.
The signal was given by a letter concealed in the cakes which, as we have stated, are on that day, mutually interchanged throughout the country. The massacre was effected, and the Tartar army dispersed in the houses of the Chinese, utterly annihilated. This catastrophe put an end to the Mongol domination
About Mongols (Yuan dynasty) and Chinese
Keep in mind
A Chinese folk tradition that Huc repeats as history.
The King of China is a Tartar
Editorial contextIn China, Ibn Battuta says plainly who ruled: the king was a Tartar, a descendant of the Genghis Khan who had laid waste to Muslim lands. He adds that every Chinese province had a separate town for Muslims, with their own mosques, and that the kings honoured them.
The King of China is a Tartar, and one of the descendants of Jengiz Khan, who entered the Mohammedan countries, and desolated many of them. In all the Chinese provinces, there is a town for the Mohammedans, and in this they reside.
About Mongols of the Yuan dynasty
Continue in this sourceIbn Battuta's travels, in Samuel Lee's 1829 abridged translation1325 to 1354 · 17 passagesThe wall that divides China from Tartary
Editorial contextBarrow calls the Great Wall, built against the Tartars, China's most stupendous work: a mound of earth faced with brick or stone like Beijing's walls. On the next page he calculates that its masonry would equal all the houses of England and Scotland and credits it to the First Emperor.
But the most stupendous work of this country is the great wall that divides it from northern Tartary. It is built exactly upon the same plan as the wall of Pekin
About Chinese builders; 'roving Tartars' beyond
Keep in mind
Barrow did not cross the wall himself (he stayed near Beijing while Macartney went to Jehol); he relies on Captain Parish's survey for the embassy.
The Manchus build stupas after adopting the lamas' religion
Editorial contextArguing against the idea that Chinese towers came from Bactria or Tibet, the writer jokes that the Chinese built them 'before the Mongols knew how to sneeze without looking at the sun'. As for the ta (stupa-pagodas), he says the Manchu Tartars took up the lamas' religion and its superstition of the ta, and had them built in chosen places to please the lamas and bring luck.
we had leou [towers] before the Mongols knew how to sneeze without looking at the sun. All we will say about the ta is that the Manchu Tartars, having taken up the religion of the Lamas, adopted the superstition of the ta and had them built, of various heights, in places they chose
Working translation
Original wording
nous avions des leou avant que les Mongoux sussent eternuer sans regarder le soleil. Tout ce que nous dirons sur les ta, c'est que les Tartares Mantchoux, ayant pris la religion des Lama, ont adopté la superstition des ta, & en ont fait bâtir de diverses hauteurs dans les lieux qu'ils ont déterminés
About Manchus ('Tartares Mantchoux'); Mongols
Keep in mind
Polemical and dismissive of both Mongols and lamas.
The 'Bogdoi Tartars' who rule China
Editorial contextDescribing the borders of Siberia, Perry notes that the Great Wall was built against the 'bordering Tartars', who about seventy years before had conquered China anyway, and that the 'Chams of Great Tartary', called the Bogdoi Tartars, were still emperors of China. 'Bogdoi' comes from the Mongol title Bogd Khan used for the Qing emperor.
…to defend them from the Incursions of the bordering Tartars, who have notwithstanding, about 70 Years since, made themselves Masters of the Countrey; and the Chams of Great Tartary, who are called the Bogdi Tartars, continue Emperors of China to this Day.
About Manchus (the Qing dynasty)
Continue in this sourceCaptain John Perry on the state of Peter the Great's Russia1698 to 1712 · 11 passagesA mountain chain that crosses 'the land of the Tatars'
Editorial contextTracing the great mountain chain that ends in Syria, al-Umari starts it in China at the encircling ocean and says it cuts across 'the land of the Tatars' along its mines before reaching Fergana. Here 'land of the Tatars' is simply the Mamluk name for Mongol-ruled inner Asia, much as Europeans used 'Tartary'.
Its beginning is in the east, in China, at the Encircling Ocean. It cuts across the land of the Tatars, along its mines, until it reaches Farghana.
Working translation
Original wording
فإن أوله بالمشرق من الصين من البحر المحيط . فيقطع بلاد التتر على معادنها إلى أن يأتى فرغانة
About Tatars (Mongol-ruled inner Asia)
A note on this quote
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); vowel marks omitted.
Chinese warhorses that bolt at a Tartar neigh
Editorial contextDescribing Chinese livestock, Ricci says the Chinese do not know how to break horses and simply geld them to make them docile. Their cavalry horses are countless but so feeble that they flee at the mere neigh of a Tartar horse, which makes them nearly useless in war. It is a Jesuit's jab at Ming cavalry and a measure of the fear the steppe horsemen still inspired.
The Chinese hardly know how to break them; all those used for everyday work are tamed by gelding. War horses are almost countless, but so degenerate and unwarlike that they cannot bear even the neigh of a Tartar horse without running away
Working translation
Original wording
Eos Sinae domare minime norunt, castrati omnes mansuescunt, quotquot ad usus quotidianos adhibentur. Equi porro militares sunt propemodum innumerabiles, sed ii ita degeneres atque imbelles, ut ne hinnitu quidem equi Tartari sine fuga ferant
About Tartars (Mongol horsemen), compared with the Chinese
Keep in mind
A sweeping judgement meant to impress European readers.
Hyemo, a city a day's ride across
Editorial contextJordanus heard from people who had seen them that the Great Tartar's empire has very great cities, one called Hyemo which takes a full day on horseback to cross by a straight road through the middle. On the next page he adds that the emperor rules two hundred cities bigger than Toulouse. Yule guessed Hyemo might be Emil, a Mongol town built by Ögedei, but thought it more likely a vast Chinese city like Hangzhou.
In this empire there are very great cities, as I have heard from those who have seen them; for there is one called Hyemo which, square as it is, takes a day's journey on horseback to cross through the middle by a straight road.
Working translation
Original wording
In isto imperio, sunt civitates permaximæ, prout ab hiis qui viderunt audivi; nam est una quæ Hyemo vocatur quæ per quadrum, rectâ viâ, habet dietam unam cum equo transeundo per medium, rectâ viâ.
About Subjects of the Great Tartar (Yuan China)
Keep in mind
The city is unidentified; the identification offered is Yule's guess.
OCR normalized against the page image.
The wall between China and Tartary, 'which I saw and measured'
Editorial contextPinto says a Chinese king, after wars with the Tartar, closed the whole border of the two empires with a wall, built in 27 years by 750,000 men over 315 leagues. He claims to have seen and measured it: six fathoms high and forty palms thick, with an earth rampart faced with mortar at its foot, and watchtowers of two storeys on black ironwood posts instead of towers.
This wall I saw several times, and measured it, and it is generally throughout six fathoms high and forty palms wide in the thickness of the wall, but from four fathoms down there runs a fill like an earthen rampart, sloped on the outer face with a cement like mortar
Working translation
Original wording
Este muro vy eu algũas vezes, & o medy, que he por todo geralmente de seis braças dalto, & quarenta palmos de largo no mociço da parede, mas das quatro braças para baixo corre hum entulho a modo de terrapleno, alamborado da face de fora de hũ betume como argamassa
About Chinese builders; Tartars as the enemy
Keep in mind
Pinto's Tartar episodes are widely regarded as fictional or built from hearsay; treat as claimed travel. His 'Chinese chronicle' history of the wall is unreliable.
Transcribed from the page image; long s and abbreviations normalized.
Christians backed the Tartars and lost
Editorial contextSemedo explains why Jesuits found no trace of the Christians Marco Polo described. When the Tartar ruled China there were many Christians with fine churches, favoured by him. When Hongwu fought to recover the kingdom, the Muslims sided with the Chinese and kept their liberties and mosques, while the Christians sided with the Tartar and went down with him: some died, some converted, some hid.
When the Tartar ruled China there were many Christians in it, with quite sumptuous churches, who found themselves favoured by him, as appears from the accounts of the Venetian [Marco Polo]. … The Christians, taking the side of the Tartar, and he being lost in that action, necessarily were also lost in their standing
Working translation
Original wording
Quando el Tartaro dominò la China, avia en ella muchos Christianos, con Iglesias bien suntuosas, que se hallavan favorecidos dèl, como parece de las Relaciones del Veneto. … Los Christianos tomando la voz del Tartaro, i quedando èl perdido en aquella accion, precisamente quedaron tambien perdidos en su estado
About Tartars (Mongol Yuan rulers); Christians and Muslims in China
Keep in mind
Semedo's own reconstruction, built on Marco Polo and Jesuit reasoning.
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
What the Chinese fought to keep at the Tartar conquest
Editorial contextEllis notes that the executioners' conical caps kept an ancient shape that the Chinese had been anxious to preserve when the Manchus conquered China, along with the sanctity of their ancestors' tombs. It hints at what the Chinese cared most to keep under their new rulers.
These, I afterwards learnt, were the public executioners, and that the shape of their caps was one of ancient form, which the Chinese, at the Tartar conquest, were most anxious to retain. The sanctity of the tombs of their ancestors was another and more reasonable object of their anxiety.
About Chinese under Manchu rule
Continue in this sourceHenry Ellis's journal of the Amherst embassy to China1816 · 9 passagesVillagers told to hide their women from 'Tartar' brutes
Editorial contextAn imperial edict ordered villagers along the route to stay at work and women to keep out of the foreigners' sight. A Chinese general explained why: an earlier party of Tartars from 'barbarous tribes' passing through had assaulted village women, and all foreigners were suspected of the same.
A party of Tartars belonging to some barbarous tribes, passing through the country on a similar occasion to the present, violated the women of the villages on the route; and as all foreigners are alike despised by the Chinese, we, until known, were suspected of equal brutality.
About Unnamed 'barbarous' Tartar tribes
Keep in mind
Hearsay from an official; the tribe, date and place are not given.
Jehol: 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.
Two different 'Tartar' conquests of China
Editorial contextIn Peking Bell retells the history as it was told to him: about five hundred years earlier 'western Tartars' (the Mongols) broke through the Great Wall and ruled China until driven out; then in the 1640s the Manchus conquered the whole empire. The passage shows that 'Tartar' covered both peoples, centuries apart.
However, about five hundred years ago, the western Tartars found means to get through the wall, and, with a powerful army of horse, entered the country, carrying terror along with them wherever they went. … From this time they enjoyed long peace, till the fatal year one thousand six hundred and forty, when the Mantzur Tartars conquered the whole empire of China; which conquest they retain to this day;
About Mongols ('western Tartars') and Manchus ('Mantzur Tartars')
Keep in mind
Bell's dates are approximate: the Manchu conquest of Beijing was in 1644.
A Tartar general storms Quansy and burns it to the ground
Editorial contextPinto describes the Tartars setting more than two thousand scaling ladders against the walls of the city where he was held, breaking the four gates with iron-bound beams, killing the governor and, he says, more than sixty thousand people, then burning every house and temple and carrying off gold and silver. He presents himself as a captive eyewitness.
they rushed at them with so terrible a shout that it seemed heaven and earth were coming together, and setting up more than two thousand ladders which they had brought for the purpose, they assaulted it all around, on every side they could, climbing up the ladders very resolutely and without any fear
Working translation
Original wording
arremeteraõ a elles com hũa grita taõ espantosa que parecia que se ajuntaua o Ceo com a terra, & aruorando mais de duas mil escadas que para isso trazião, lhe deraõ o assalto a toda em roda, por todas as partes que puderaõ, subindo pelas escadas acima muyto determinadamente, & sem nenhum medo
About Tartar army of the 'Nauticor of Lançame'
Keep in mind
Pinto's Tartar episodes are widely regarded as fictional or built from hearsay; treat as claimed travel. The city and general cannot be identified.
OCR normalized (checked in part against the page image).
The Tanguts cannot carry off their walled towns
Editorial contextWhen Chinggis fell from his horse on his last campaign against the Tangut kingdom, a commander advised going home to recover, arguing that the Tanguts, unlike steppe people, were tied to their pounded-earth towns and fixed camps and would still be there later. Chinggis refused to withdraw. The passage shows how the Mongols saw walled towns: as something that cannot run away.
The Tang’ut people Are ones who have towns with pounded-earth walls, Are ones who live in permanent camps. They won’t leave, carrying off their towns with pounded-earth walls; They won’t leave, abandoning their permanent camps. Let us withdraw.
About Mongols; Tanguts
Continue in this sourceThe Secret History of the Mongolsc. 1160 to 1240 · 4 passagesTartar soldiers paid double
Editorial contextFrom a Chinese officer's figures Staunton reports that much of the cavalry was Tartar, that Tartars held the posts of trust, and that a Tartar horseman drew seven ounces of silver and twenty measures of rice a month, against three and three-tenths ounces and fifteen measures for a Chinese horseman.
Of the troops, especially cavalry, a vast number are Tartars, who have a higher pay than their Chinese fellow soldiers. The principal officers of confidence in the army are Tartars also. … A Tartar horseman, seven similar ounces of silver, and twenty measures of rice for the same period.
About Manchu and Mongol ('Tartar') bannermen
Keep in mind
Figures supplied by the mandarin Van-ta-Zhin, whom Staunton thinks candid but not always careful.
The Tartar now fears China and pays a kind of vassalage
Editorial contextDiscussing China's military system, Mendoza says the Chinese had fought continual wars with the Tartars for many years, 'although today the Tartar fears him so much that he thinks it good to be his friend, and acknowledges a kind of vassalage'. Even so, every city was guarded day and night as if the enemy were at the gate. This reflects the 1571 peace in which Altan Khan accepted a Ming title and tribute trade.
although today the Tartar fears him so much that he thinks it good to be his friend, and acknowledges to him a kind of vassalage. And though at present and for some time past there has been no occasion for war of any importance, he takes the same care in preparation as if he had many very great enemies
Working translation
Original wording
aunque el dia de oy le tiene el Tartaro tanto temor que tiene por bien de ser su amigo, y le reconosce vna manera de vasallaje. Y con estar al presente y de algunos tiempos a esta parte sin ocasion de guerra que sea de momento, tiene el mesmo cuidado en la preuençion que si tuuiera muchos y muy grandes enemigos
About Mongols ('the Tartar')
Keep in mind
Compiled from Chinese and missionary sources; the framing flatters the Chinese emperor.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Mourning in white: Tartar and Chinese customs compared
Editorial contextThe general description sets Tartar mourning beside Chinese. Tartar mourners wear a long white robe down to the feet, girded with a rope, and their oldest boots, and they leave hair and beard unshaven for the whole mourning period. The next page adds that Tartar women change their usual black clothing to white.
All the Tartars, those of the household as well as blood relations, put on during mourning a long robe of white cloth hanging down to their feet, girded with a rope or twist of the same stuff … The hair of the beard and of the head is not shaved in all that time.
Working translation
Original wording
Al de Tarters, zoo wel die van den huize, als bloed-vrienden trekken in den rou tijd een lange rok van wit laken aen, die hen tot op de voeten hangt, en met een tou of wronge van een selfste stoffe toegegort is … 't Hair van de baert noch hooft word hen in al dien tijd niet geschooren.
About Tartars (Manchus in China)
Keep in mind
Compiled from earlier Jesuit writers, not observed by Dapper.
Mongol middlemen in the smuggling trade
Editorial contextIn a footnote on the Russian crown's monopoly of the Beijing caravans, Lesseps says private merchants soon slipped free of it by trading secretly with China through Mongol Tartars, who charged them dearly for their services.
Private traders soon freed themselves from the tyrannical shackles of the imperial monopoly; they managed to keep up secret dealings with China through the Mongol Tartars, who sold them their services dearly.
Working translation
Original wording
Les particuliers ne tardèrent pas à se dégager des entraves tyranniques du monopole impérial; ils parvinrent à entretenir des relations secrètes en Chine par la voie des Tartares Mongols; qui leur vendirent cher leur entremise.
About Mongols ('Tartares Mongols')
Continue in this sourceLesseps's journey across Siberia1787 to 1788 · 8 passagesAre Tartars really great horsemen?
Editorial contextTold that the emperor loves hunting and excels with the bow, Ellis adds a footnote: the missionaries praise Tartars as superb horsemen, but judging by the horses he saw, he doubts they could manage fast manoeuvres.
The account of the Missionaries represent the Tartars as excellent horsemen, and that the arts of the manege are various, and much attended to. I had no opportunity of verifying the truth of this description; from the appearance of the horses I should doubt their being equal to rapid manoeuvre.
About Manchus and Mongols
Keep in mind
Ellis admits he could not check the missionaries' claim.
