'Eastern Tartars': a Manchu dynasty from a small horde chief
Editorial contextCareri opens his chapter on the 'Eastern Tartars' by saying their princes' origin is so obscure that everyone who writes of it tells fables. They began only in this century from 'a small Horde chief, or captain of outlaws or wandering Tartars' called Tien-mim (Nurhaci). He goes on to divide Tartary into Eastern (Manchu lands, poor, with only two or three small towns) and a far more powerful Western Tartary, both mostly living in tents.
The origin of these princes is so obscure that whoever has tried to speak of it has fallen into fables. They had their beginning in this century from a small chief of a Horde, or captain of outlaws or wandering Tartars, who was called Tien-mim
Working translation
Original wording
E' così oscura di questi Principi l'origine, che chiunque ha voluto parlarne ha dato nelle favole. Eglino hanno avuto principio in questo secolo da un picciol Capo d'Horda, o Capitano di fuorusciti, o Tartari erranti, che si chiamava Tien-mim
About Manchus ('Eastern Tartars'), as against 'Western Tartars' (Mongols, Oirats)
Keep in mind
Compiled from printed Jesuit histories; 'Tien-mim' is Tianming, Nurhaci's reign name, not his personal name.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Towns wiped out by the Manchu war
Editorial contextVerbiest saw almost nothing left of the many towns and villages of Liaodong. He was told why: the 'petty King of the Tartars' who started the war, with only a small army, forced the local people to take up arms and then destroyed their homes so his soldiers had nothing to go back to. It is a clear case of a named cause for ruins, reported sixty years after the event.
There is now not the least footsteps remaining of a great number of Towns and Villages which were here before the Warr. Because the petty King of the Tartars, who began to kindle this Warr having but a very small Army, caused the Inhabitants of those places to take Armes, which places he forthwith destroyed
About Manchus (the 'Tartars' of the Qing founders)
Keep in mind
Verbiest saw the ruins; the explanation of how they came about is what he was told. The 'petty King' is presumably the Manchu founder Nurhaci, whose armies took Liaodong from 1618.
Servants and horses burned with the dead
Editorial contextWhen the Chinese ignored his complaints, the Tartar king (Nurhaci) vowed to celebrate his father's funeral with the lives of 200,000 Chinese. Martini explains that when a Tartar of rank died, servants, women and horses, with bows and arrows, were thrown into the funeral fire to serve him in the next life, a custom he says they gave up after conquering China.
For it is the custom of the Tartars when any man of quality dyeth, to cast into that fire which consumes the dead Corps, as many Servants, Women, and Horses, with Bows and Arrows, as may be fit to attend and serve them in the next life: Though now since they conquered China, they have left off this barbarous custome,
About Manchu Tartars (Nurhaci's people)
Keep in mind
Reported, not witnessed; Manchu funeral sacrifice (of wives and servants) is attested, but the scale is probably exaggerated.
A palisade of wooden stakes around Liaodong
Editorial contextOn the imperial map survey of Tartary, Pierre Jartoux found the ginseng country walled off from the province of Liaodong by a barrier of wooden stakes (the Willow Palisade), patrolled by guards to keep Chinese from slipping out to dig the precious root. He adds that two or three thousand still sneaked through, risking their freedom.
The places where ginseng grows are entirely separated from the province of 'Canton', called Liaodong on our old maps, by a barrier of wooden stakes that encloses the whole province, around which guards patrol constantly to prevent the Chinese from leaving it and going to look for this root.
Working translation
Original wording
Les endroits où croît le gin-seng, sont tout-à-fait séparés de la province de Canton, appelée Leaotong dans nos anciennes cartes, par une barrière de pieux de bois qui renferme toute cette Province, et aux environs de laquelle des Gardes rôdent continuellement pour empêcher les Chinois d'en sortir, et d'aller chercher cette racine.
About Manchus (Qing state); Chinese ginseng poachers
Keep in mind
'Canton' is an error in this reprint (the province meant is Guandong, i.e. Liaodong, not Canton in the south). The volume is a later Toulouse reprint.
Captives sacrificed before the battle of 1618
Editorial contextSemedo translates a memorial sent to the Wanli emperor by the President of the Council of War in 1618. It reports that the Tartars had massed to 'take this world of China', broke through the walls, seized Chinese prisoners and sacrificed them the day before the battle, acclaiming their own king as king of Beijing. Semedo says he translated it at the time and later found it printed in Europe.
At this time, with great power and multitude, entering the walls, they seized some of our men in order to sacrifice them; and they sacrificed them the day before the battle, with great acclamations of their king, calling him already King of Peking.
Working translation
Original wording
En este tiempo con grã poder i multitud, entrando los muros, prendieron algunos de los nuestros para sacrificarlos; i sacrificaron el dia antes de la batalla con grãdes aclamaciones de su Rey, llamandole ya Rey de PeKim.
About Tartars (Manchus under Nurhaci)
Keep in mind
A Chinese official's war report, written to alarm the emperor; Semedo only translates it.
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
A ring of 3,000 guards closes on the game
Editorial contextThe emperor hunted almost daily. Verbiest describes the Manchu ring hunt: 3,000 guardsmen spread out in a circle at least 3,000 paces across, then walked inward in step until it was only 300 paces wide, trapping everything inside. He watched two or three hundred hares taken in less than a day, and elsewhere over a thousand deer, besides bears, boars and more than sixty tigers.
they Reduced this great Circle to another much less, which had about 300 paces in the Diameter : So that all the Beasts which had been stayed within the first, found themselves taken in this last as in a Net … I saw taken in this manner two or three hundred Hares in less then one day, without counting an Infinite of Wolves and Foxes.
About Manchus (Kangxi's life guard)
Continue in this sourceA Jesuit rides with the Kangxi emperor to Manchuria, 16821682 · 4 passagesManchu 'Tartars' on the emperor's pay
Editorial contextArriving at the harbour of Kin-chow (Jinzhou), about fifteen leagues from Mukden (Shenyang), Gützlaff was told the Manchus of the area were numerous but lived idly, mostly in the direct or indirect employ of the emperor, a description of the hereditary banner garrisons. He adds that there seemed little jealousy between them and the Chinese labourers, and that the Manchus looked little different from the Chinese.
The Mantchou Tartars who live hereabouts are numerous, and lead an idle life, being principally in the employ of the Emperor, either directly or indirectly. There seems to be but little jealousy between them and the labouring class of Chinese.
About Manchus ('Mantchou Tartars')
Keep in mind
This comes from 'the persons with whom I conversed', not from his own observation inland.
Granite houses and beds heated from below
Editorial contextGützlaff found Kin-chow small and plain. Its houses were built of the local granite, with few comforts apart from brick sleeping platforms warmed by a fire lit underneath (the kang). It is a precise, humble picture of domestic building on the edge of 'Tartary'.
Kin-chow itself has very little to attract the attention of visitors ; it is not a large or handsome place. The houses are built of granite ( which abounds here) ; and are without any accommodations, except a peculiar kind of sleeping places, which are formed of brick; and so constructed, that they can be heated, by fires kindled beneath them.
About Chinese and Manchu townspeople of Liaodong
Continue in this sourceGutzlaff's voyage on a Chinese junk to the edge of Manchuria1830 to 1831 · 2 passagesPortuguese cannon against the Tartars, 1621
Editorial contextIn 1621 the city of Macau sent the emperor three large cannon with gunners. One burst at a demonstration in Beijing, killing three or four men, but the guns were still sent to the Tartar frontier. The Tartars, not knowing the new weapon, came too close, were hit by a shower of iron fragments, and fled; afterwards they were more careful.
Nevertheless they were sent to the frontier of the Tartars, who, not knowing of the new weapon and coming nearer than was good for them, tasted a shower of pieces of iron, from which many fell, and all fled. Afterwards they became cautious.
Working translation
Original wording
Todavia embiaronse a la frontera de los Tartaros, que no sabiendo de la nueva arma, i llegandose màs de lo que les convenia, provaron un rocîo de troços de hierro, de que cayeron muchos, i todos fueron huyendo. Despues se acautelaron.
About Tartars (Manchus) on the Chinese frontier
A note on this quote
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized, abbreviation marks (q̃, õ, ẽ) kept as printed.
Storming a city behind a wooden wall
Editorial contextMartini describes how the Tartars, armed only with sabres and bows against Chinese muskets, took 'Leaotung', which he calls the chief city of the province of Liaodong. The front ranks carried thick boards as a moving 'wooden wall' to soak up the musket fire, ladder-men followed, and cavalry came behind. Before the Chinese could reload, the Tartars were over the walls. He credits their speed and nimbleness, 'in which they excel all Nations'.
the scaling ladders being applied, before they could charge again, they were upon the Walls and enterd the City ; for such is the quickness and nimbleness of the Tartars (in which they excel all Nations, and in which also they place their chief art) that in a trice, they either prevail in their Designs, or retire :
About Manchu Tartars under Nurhaci
Keep in mind
An event before Martini reached China, told from report; he runs several Liaodong campaigns together.
Nurhaci pulls down unlucky walls and builds new ones
Editorial contextAfter taking 'Leaotung' and then Guangning, Martini says, the Tartar king returned to Liaodong rich with plunder. His soothsayers told him the old walls were unlucky, so he pulled them down, built new ones, and proclaimed himself emperor of China though he held only its edge. A page earlier Martini explains that Chinese soldiers and citizens fled their houses because the Tartars destroyed any city that resisted but only plundered those that surrendered.
And because his Southsayers had perswaded him that the standing of the old Walls were unfortunate, he beat them down, and compassed them about with new, fortifying them with new Munitions, and there proclamed himself Emperour of China:
About Manchu Tartars under Nurhaci
Keep in mind
Martini's report; historically Nurhaci moved his capital to Liaoyang in 1621 and to Shenyang in 1625.