New towns in eastern Tartary, none in the west
Editorial contextIn a report on the China missions presented in Rome, François Noël says Eastern Tartary (Manchuria) is filling up: the emperor is building towns there and villages are well peopled. Western Tartary has neither towns nor villages except toward the Uzbeks and the Caspian; its peoples, recently subjected to the emperor, own nothing but herds, and move on every three months or so when the grass is eaten.
Eastern Tartary is filling with people every day. The Emperor is having towns built there, and very populous villages can be seen. As for Western Tartary, there are neither towns nor villages except toward the Uzbeks and the Caspian Sea … All the wealth of these peoples consists only of numerous herds, with which they wander here and there.
Working translation
Original wording
La Tartarie orientale se peuple tous les jours. L'Empereur y fait bâtir des villes, & l'on y voit des villages fort peuplés. Pour la Tartarie occidentale, il n'y a ni villes ni villages que du côté des Yousbecks, & de la mer Caspienne … Toutes les richesses de ces Peuples ne consistent qu'en de nombreux troupeaux, avec lesquels ils errent de côté & d'autre.
About Manchus (Eastern Tartary); Mongol and other nomads (Western Tartary)
Keep in mind
A general survey written for Rome, not a travel report; the year on the title is garbled in the OCR.
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.
Ten thousand Tartars sent to hunt ginseng
Editorial contextJartoux writes that the emperor, wanting Tartars rather than Chinese to profit from ginseng, ordered ten thousand Tartars in 1709 to gather it, each owing him two ounces of the best, with the rest bought at its weight in fine silver. His survey party met these herb-hunters in the wilderness; on the same page he describes their troops of a hundred men advancing in a line through the forest. The letter opens with a Tartar villager near the Korean border bringing him four whole plants in a basket.
The Emperor, wishing the Tartars rather than the Chinese to profit from this trade, had ordered ten thousand Tartars that same year, 1709, to go and gather for themselves all the ginseng they could, on condition that each of them would give His Majesty two ounces of the best, and that the rest would be paid for at the weight of fine silver.
Working translation
Original wording
L'Empereur souhaitant que les Tartares profitassent de ce gain, préférablement aux Chinois, avait donné ordre, cette même année 1709, à dix mille Tartares, d'aller ramasser eux-mêmes tout ce qu'ils pourraient de gin-seng, à condition que chacun d'eux en donnerait à Sa Majesté deux onces du meilleur, et que le reste serait payé au poids d'argent fin.
About Manchu bannermen ('Tartares')
Continue in this sourceEdifying and curious letters: Jesuit reports from China and Tartary1699 to 1779 · 11 passages'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.
Not caves but shining tents of waxed silk
Editorial contextThe Chinese, bitter enemies of the Niuche Tartars, mock them as cave-dwellers, but the text calls this false: they live in fine tents used instead of houses, made of silk or cloth coated with clear wax so they shine like mirrors and shed the rain. Great men have several tents joined so they look like one, for wives, servants and kitchen.
The Chinese, who with good reason are very bitter against the Tartars of Niuche, invent and mock them by saying that they live in caves and underground pits; which is false: for they keep themselves in very fine and handsome tents … of silk stuffs or cloths, so neatly and artfully coated with bright, translucent wax that they glitter and shine in the sun like a mirror
Working translation
Original wording
De Sinezen, die met recht op de Tarters van Niuche zeer gebeeten zijn; verdichten en drijven hen tot spot na, datze in holen en onderaartsche kuilen woonen; 't welk valsch is: want zy onthouden zich in zeer schoone en cierlijke Tenten … uit zijde stoffen of lakens, die met helder en doorschijnend wasch zoo aartigh en kunstig bestreeken zijn, datze in de Zon glinsteren en blinken als een spiegel
About Tartars of Niuche (Manchus)
A note on this quote
OCR normalized; the two printed columns, interleaved in the OCR, are read in order.
Stone stairs of a palace no Manchu built
Editorial contextNear Ningguta the Jesuits found ruined cities, one reachable only by a narrow causeway through water, with great stone staircases and palace remains finer than anything in Ningguta itself. They concluded these were the work not of the present Manchus but of the twelfth-century Kin (Jurchen), who ruled north China, built towns and palaces, and were then destroyed by the Mongols and the Chinese.
Here are also found great Stone Stair-cases, with some other Remains of a Palace … So that it is very probable, all the Monuments of Antiquity in Eastern Tartary were not the Work of the present Manchews, but of those of the 12th Century, who, under the Name of Kin chau, were Masters of the North of China
About Jurchen (Kin) of the 12th century, ancestors of the Manchus
Continue in this sourceDu Halde's Description of China and Chinese Tartary1600 to 1733 · 4 passages'Tartars of Kin', lords of the golden mountains, now masters of China
Editorial contextIntroducing the Dutch embassy to Peking, Thévenot explains in a margin note who these new 'Tartars' are. Eastern Tartary is called Kin, 'gold', by the Chinese; its people are known as lords of the golden mountains; the country is bounded by another Tartar kingdom, Niulhan, to the north, by the Korean peninsula to the south and by a great river, the 'Linohang', to the west, and 'these Tartars are the ones who are now masters of China'.
Eastern Tartary is called Kin by the Chinese, that is to say gold; these Tartars are commonly called the lords of the golden mountains, because their countries are very rich in it.
Working translation
Original wording
La Tartarie Orientale est appellée Kin par les Chinois, c'est à dire l'or, on appelle communément ces Tartares les seigneurs des montagnes d'or, parce que leurs païs en sont fort riches.
About Manchus ('Tartares du Kin', Eastern Tartars)
Keep in mind
Editor's gloss built on Martini and other Jesuit writers; 'Kin' is the Jin dynasty name the Manchus first used (Later Jin).
124 cities once, now 'movable cities'
Editorial contextThe Tartars say there were 124 cities in East Tartary under the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty. The author will not vouch for it, since the Tartars in China themselves could not tell him whether they still stand, only that there were many low huts and earthen walls. Their real towns, 'so to speak', move with them and their herds.
The Tartars relate that under the rule of the Yuan dynasty there lay in this East Tartary one hundred and twenty-four cities; but whether they are still to be found today I dare not affirm as true … but [they said] indeed that there were many low huts and earthen walls. They have, so to speak, movable and portable cities
Working translation
Original wording
De Tarters verhalen, dat, onder de regeering van den Stam Ivena, in dit Oosterlijk Tartarye hondert en vier en twintigh steden lagen: dan of de zelve noch tegenwoordigh daar te vinden zijn, zou ik voor de waarheit niet derven na-zeggen … maar wel, dat 'er meenigte van lage hutten, en aerde wallen waren. Zy hebben, zoo te zeggen, beweeghlijke en verplaatzelijke steden
About Tartars of Niuche (Manchus)
Keep in mind
In this compiled part the 'me' may be Martini's voice rather than Nieuhof's.
OCR normalized; the two printed columns, interleaved in the OCR, are read in order. The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
A ruined palace city with a giant stone Buddha
Editorial contextQuoting the diary of Gao Shiqi, who accompanied the Kangxi emperor to Manchuria in 1682, the gazetteer describes Huorong city: a walled site over forty li around with an inner forbidden city, the foundations of three halls strewn with broken green-glazed tiles, and outside it a great stone Buddha about three zhang high on a lotus base, with a leaning stone pagoda. Gao took it for the Jin (Jurchen) upper capital; the gazetteer's editors then use the Jin river name Anchuhu (which they equate with the Alchuka) and Song travellers' distances to argue that the Jin capital lay further west, toward the Sungari.
[Gao Shiqi's diary:] Fifteen li southeast of Shalin is Huorong city, the upper capital Huining prefecture of the Jin. It is more than forty li around; in the middle is a forbidden city about a li across, where the foundations of three halls all survive, with broken green tiles scattered over them like chess pieces. Outside the forbidden city is a great stone Buddha about three zhang high, resting on a lotus, and in front of it a stone pagoda leaning a little to the east.
Working translation
Original wording
沙林東南十五里曰火茸城金之上京㑹寧府也廣四十餘里中間禁城可里餘三殿基址皆在碎碧瓦棊布其上禁城外有大石佛髙可三丈許蓮花承之前有石塔向東小欹
About Builders of an earlier dynasty (identified as Jin; now known as Bohai)
Keep in mind
Gao's identification is doubted in the gazetteer itself. Modern archaeology identifies the ruins near Ningguta, with their stone Buddha and stone lantern, as Shangjing, capital of the Bohai kingdom (8th to 10th centuries).
Three heavenly maidens and a red fruit
Editorial contextThe dynasty's origin legend: three heavenly maidens bathed in Lake Bulhuri below Bukuri mountain, east of the Changbai range. A magic magpie dropped a red fruit on the youngest one's clothes; she put it in her mouth, swallowed it and conceived a boy who could speak at birth. She named him Bukuri Yongshon, of the Aisin Gioro clan, and sent him downriver in a small boat to settle a land at war. The court presents this as sacred history.
East of the Changbai mountains is Bukuri mountain, and below it a lake called Bulhuri. It is handed down that three heavenly maidens bathed in the lake. A divine magpie, holding a red fruit in its beak, placed it on the youngest maiden's clothes. The youngest held it in her mouth; suddenly it went down into her belly and she conceived. Soon she bore a boy who could speak at birth.
Working translation
Original wording
長白山之東有布庫哩山其下有池曰布勒瑚里相傳三天女浴于池有神鵲銜朱果置季女衣季女含口中忽已入腹遂有身尋産一男生而能言
About Manchus (Aisin Gioro clan)
Keep in mind
A dynastic foundation legend, not history; the editors compare it to the miraculous births of the Shang and Zhou founders.
Eastern Tartars and Western Tartars
Editorial contextHuc sets out how he uses the word: following the Tartars and Chinese themselves, he divides 'the Tartar people' into Eastern Tartars (Toung-Ta-Dze), the Manchus, and Western Tartars (Si-Ta-Dze), the Mongols. He dismisses European map labels such as 'Kalmoukia' and 'Great and Little Bukharia' as 'purely imaginary'.
we will divide the Tartar people into Eastern Tartars (Toung-Ta-Dze), or Mantchous, and Western Tartars (Si-Ta-Dze), or Mongols. … Great and Little Boukaria, Kalmoukia, Great and Little Thibet … all these denominations seem to us purely imaginary.
About Manchus and Mongols
Continue in this sourceTwo French priests cross Mongolia on the way to Tibet, 1844 to 18461844 to 1846 · 18 passagesWooden horses and dog carts on the snow
Editorial contextThe gazetteer quotes the Yuan imperial geography: the people of Kaiyuan were strong, warlike and practised archers and hunters, and had 'wooden horses' (skis) tied to both feet that could keep up with a galloping horse on snow and ice, and light boat-shaped wooden 'dog carts' pulled by several dogs. The editors add that in Manchu these are called suntaha and sherhe, in Chinese pali (sledges), and that they are still used throughout Jilin and Heilongjiang.
The people of Kaiyuan are strong, good fighters and practised at archery and hunting. They have the convenience of dog carts and wooden horses, which are light and quick. The wooden horse is shaped like a bow... one on the left and one on the right, tied to the two feet; pushing off, they glide along and on snow and ice can keep pace with a galloping horse. The dog cart is made of wood; it is light and simple, shaped like a boat... and pulled by several dogs.
Working translation
Original wording
開元勁健善戰習射獵有狗車木馬輕㨗之便木馬形如彈弓…一左一右繫於兩足激而行之雪中冰上可及奔馬狗車以木為之其制輕簡形如船…以數狗拽之
About Peoples of the lower Sungari and Amur
Continue in this sourceThe Imperial Gazetteer of Shengjing (Manchuria)1684 · 4 passagesThe Tatar horde revolts, and the Jin are 'Eastern Tartars'
Editorial contextIn the story of young Temüjin, Gaubil writes that 'the horde of the Tatars' rebelled against the Jin emperor, keeping the Tatars as one tribe distinct from the Mongols. His footnote explains that the Jin were 'Eastern Tartars' who ruled the steppe north and north-east of Liaodong and much of northern China, and to whom the petty princes of both Tartaries paid tribute.
The horde of the Tatars revolted against the Emperor of the Kin. … The Emperor of the Kin spoken of here is the Emperor of the Eastern Tartars, who were then masters of the part of Tartary lying north and north-east of Liaodong
Working translation
Original wording
La Horde des Tatars se révolta contre l'Empereur des Kin. … L'Empereur des Kin dont il est ici parlé, est l'Empereur des Tartares orientaux qui étoient alors maîtres de la Tartarie qui est au Nord, & Nord-Est du Leaotong
About the Tatar tribe; the Jin (Jurchen) emperors; Mongols
Continue in this sourceGaubil's history of Genghis Khan from the Chinese annals1160 to 1368 · 4 passagesA 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.
Once a land with no towns at all
Editorial contextPolo begins his history of the Tartars by saying they originally lived on wide plains near 'Chorcha' (Manchuria) with no towns or villages, only rich pastures, and paid tribute to 'Unc Can', whom Europeans called Prester John. Yule's note identifies Chorcha as the Jurchen country and Unc Can as Toghrul, Wang Khan of the Keraits.
Originally the Tartars dwelt in the north on the borders of Chorcha. Their country was one of great plains ; and there were no towns or villages in it, but excellent pasture-lands, with great rivers and many sheets of water ; in fact it was a very fine and extensive region.
About Tartars (early Mongols)
Keep in mind
Polo's early Mongol history is second- or thirdhand and mixed with the Prester John legend.
The White Mountain, old home of 'our Tartars'
Editorial contextAt Jilin on the Sungari, Verbiest describes the mountain the Manchus revered as the cradle of their people. He translates its name, Cham-pe (Changbai), as 'the white mountain', and says that when the Kangxi emperor 'saw it' he got off his horse, knelt by the river and bowed three times to the ground towards it. Verbiest calls the Manchus 'our Tartars', the people he served at court.
This Mountain so famous in the East for having been the Antient Seat of our Tartars, is alwayes covered with Snow, from whence it had its name, because Cham-pe signifyes the white Mountaine. So soon as the Emperour saw it, he alighted from his Horse and fell on his knees on the bank of the River, and bowed himself three times to the ground to Salute it
About Manchus
Keep in mind
Verbiest also says the mountain lay 400 miles away, so the emperor was most likely saluting it from afar, as in the Qing rite of worshipping Changbai at a distance.
The Wuhuan: round yurts facing east, meat and kumiss
Editorial contextThe Chinese histories describe the Wuhuan as skilled mounted archers and hunters who move with their herds, with no permanent home, living in round yurts with the door facing east, eating meat, drinking kumiss and wearing coloured woollen cloth. Bichurin's summary treats them as a branch of the 'house of the Tatar khan', the Donghu.
The Wuhuan are skilled at shooting the bow from horseback; they hunt beasts and birds, move with their livestock from place to place according to the supply of grass and water, and know no permanent dwelling. They live in round yurts whose entrance faces east. They eat meat and drink kumiss, and make their clothing of many-coloured woollen fabrics
Working translation
Original wording
Ухуаньцы искусны въ конной стрѣльбѣ изъ лука; занимаются ловлею звѣрей и птицъ, Переходятъ со скотомъ съ мѣста на мѣсто, смотря по достатку въ травѣ и водѣ; постояннаго прибыванія не знаютъ. Живутъ въ круглыхъ юртахъ, изъ коихъ выходъ обращенъ къ востоку. Питаются мясомъ, пьютъ кумысъ; одежду дѣлаютъ изъ разноцвѣтныхъ шерстяныхъ тканей
About Wuhuan (ancient eastern steppe people)
Keep in mind
Bichurin's link of the Wuhuan to a 'house of the Tatar khan' is his own reconstruction.
How the Mongols split into Mongol and Manchu 'Tartars'
Editorial contextGrosier explains 'Chinese Tartary' with an origin story: all its tribes were once called Mongol Tartars, and when the Mongols were driven out of China in 1368, some fled east toward the Amur and kept Chinese customs, becoming the Manchus or 'Eastern Tartars', while the rest went back west and stayed Mongols. The Manchus did not in fact descend from the Yuan refugees; the story shows how Europeans tried to make one 'Tartar' family out of different peoples.
Those of the east retain their ancient name of Moungal or Mogul Tartars: the rest are known by the name of Mantchew or Eastern Tartars. Chinese Tartary is therefore divided into two parts, the eastern and western.
About Mongol Tartars and Manchu ('Mantchew') Tartars
Keep in mind
The text as printed has 'east' and 'the rest' the wrong way round (it means the western group kept the Mongol name), and the origin story itself is mistaken. The quote swaps the printed long dash for a comma.
A story that the Manchu emperors came from Kublai Khan
Editorial contextThe Tartar princes at court, Staunton says, revered the emperor as a descendant of Kublai Khan: Kublai's heirs, driven out of China in the fourteenth century, fled to the Manchus, intermarried, and produced the 'Bog-doi Khans' who conquered China. It shows how the Qing dynasty was presented to, or understood by, its Mongol allies.
They hold the Emperor in the greater veneration, as considering him descended from Kublai-Khan, the conqueror of China in the thirteenth century. His descendants being in the fourteenth century expelled from the throne of that empire, fled into the country of the Man-choos in Eastern Tartary; and from their intermarriages with the natives, sprung the Bog-doi Khans
About Mongol tributary princes; Manchus
Keep in mind
A genealogical belief reported at second hand; the Qing ruling clan is usually traced to Jurchen (Manchu) chiefs, not to Kublai.
The Bogdoi, 'Eastern Tartars' who took China
Editorial contextAvril's first 'nation' beyond China's frontier is the Bogdoi, whom the Chinese call Eastern Tartars and the Mongols 'Niouchi' (Jurchen). The next page gives his version of their history: an early invasion of China, the Yuan family ruling to 1368, the Ming to 1644, and then the Bogdoi returning to conquer China under Shunzhi, first emperor of the reigning Qing.
The first Nation is that of the Bogdoi, by the Chineses call'd the Eastern Tartars, and whom the Monguls call Niouchi
About Bogdoi (Manchus); also called Niouchi (Jurchen)
Keep in mind
His history is muddled; he credits the 'Tousbecks' (Uzbeks) with putting the Yuan family on the throne, where the Mongols are meant.
'Water Tatars' in Manchuria
Editorial contextBretschneider summarises the Ming imperial geography of 1461 on the Jurchen homeland: after the Mongols overthrew the Jin, the Yuan set up military posts there, and the country was inhabited by Jurchens and 'Water Tatars', who gave their name to an administrative circuit. His footnote compares Carpini's 'Su-Mongal' or Water Mongols, who Carpini said called themselves Tartars after a river.
The country was inhabited by the Nü-chi and the Shui Ta-ta (Water Tatars), and formed the circuits of Ho-lan-fu and Shui Ta-ta.
About Jurchens (Nu-chi) and 'Water Tatars' (Shui Ta-ta)
Keep in mind
A 19th-century summary in English of a Ming source, not the Yutang jiahua itself.
Mongols in tents of coarse felt; a timber stockade around Manchuria
Editorial contextDrawing on Gerbillon's 1688 journey, Davis says the Mongols and Kalkas are devoted to their Lamas, live in tents of coarse felt, eat half-raw meat and value livestock over money; Timkowski adds that brick tea is their currency. Two pages earlier he describes the Manchu homeland of Mukden, where the emperors are buried, fenced not by a wall but by a timber stockade about eight feet high, wrongly drawn on some European maps as part of the Great Wall.
Entirely devoted to their Lamas, whom even the Emperor of China honours, on account of their influence over the various tribes, the Mongols live in tents of coarse felt, eat nothing but flesh half raw, and exchange their sheep and cattle for a few of the necessaries of life, having no value for money.
About Mongol and Kalka Tartars; Manchu homeland
Keep in mind
Second hand, from Jesuit and Russian travellers.
Wooden forts against the Russians on the Amur
Editorial contextIn an edict of 1682 the Kangxi emperor weighs the report that the Russians (Luocha) raiding the Amur could be driven out with three thousand men. War, he says, is not a good thing; instead he orders fifteen hundred troops from Ula and Ningguta, with boats, cannon and muskets, to build wooden forts at Heilongjiang (Aigun) and Humar facing the enemy, and to farm so they can hold out. This is the start of the Albazin war that ended with the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689).
But war is not a good thing; it is fitting to pause the attack for now. Transfer fifteen hundred soldiers from Ula and Ningguta, have boats built, and send red-barrel cannon and muskets with men trained to use them to Heilongjiang and Humar, to build wooden forts in both places, face the enemy's lines and act as opportunity allows.
Working translation
Original wording
第兵非善事宜暫停攻取調烏拉寧古塔兵一千五百名並置造船艦發紅衣礮鳥鎗及演習之人於黑龍江瑚瑪爾二處建立木城與之對壘相機舉行
About Qing (Manchu) troops; Russians (Luocha)
Keep in mind
The edict is dated 1682 (Kangxi 21) in the heading on the preceding page.
Horsemen 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.
'Lama' means a cross, and the Manchus wear crosses
Editorial contextTo support his idea that the peoples of Tartary were once Christian, Avril claims that 'lama' means 'cross' in the Tartar language, and that the Manchus who conquered China in 1644 always wore crosses they called lamas. It is a striking example of a missionary reading his hopes into reports.
he bears the Name of Lama, which in the Tartar Language signifies a Cross: And the Bogdoi who conquer'd China in 1644, and who are subject to the Dalae in all matters of Religion, wear always Crosses about 'em, which they call Lama's also
About Bogdoi (Manchus) and Tibetan Buddhists
Keep in mind
'Lama' is a Tibetan word for a teacher, not a cross; this is Avril's mistaken inference.
Why 'Tungus' may be a Tatar word for pig-keepers
Editorial contextIn a footnote Bichurin says the word Tungus does not exist in Manchu and no ancient Tungusic ruling house used it. He guesses the Russians took it from the Tatars of the Yenisei, since the Chinese histories say the Tungus peoples bred pigs, still used in shamanic sacrifice, and the Tatar word for pig is 'donguz'. It shows how names for Siberian peoples passed through Tatar speech into Russian.
The word Tungus does not exist in the Manchu language, and none of the ancient Tungusic ruling houses was known by this name. Probably the Russians, when they first reached the Yenisei, borrowed this name from the Yenisei Tatars. … and in the Tatar language a pig is called donguz.
Working translation
Original wording
Слова: Тунгусъ, нѣтъ въ маньчжурскомъ языкѣ: да и ни одинъ изъ древнихъ тунгузскихъ владѣтельныхъ Домовъ не былъ извѣстенъ подъ симъ названіемъ. Вѣроятно, что Русскіе, первоначально достигнувъ Енисея, заимствовали сіе названіе отъ енисейскихъ Татаръ. … а свинья на татарскомъ языкѣ называется Донгусъ.
About Tungusic peoples; Yenisei Tatars
Keep in mind
Bichurin's etymology is a guess; linguists still debate the origin of 'Tungus'.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Manchu country: 'none but houses of Earth'
Editorial contextFrom a Russian report, Avril describes the homeland of the Bogdoi, the Manchus who had conquered China. He says the houses there were all of earth, and that the people traded sables, black fox skins and ginseng, had few cattle and small unshod horses.
In all the Province of Bogdoi, you shall meet with none but houses of Earth … which people drive a great Trade in Sables and Black Fox-Skins, as likewise in Ginseng Roots : But they are not rich in Cattel ; their Horses are very small ; nor do their owners ever shooe 'em.
About Bogdoi (Manchus, the 'Eastern Tartars')
Keep in mind
Second-hand, from a relation Avril says came out of the Moscow treasury (archives).
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.
No river called Tatar
Editorial contextMedieval writers such as Vincent of Beauvais said the Tartars took their name from a river Tata or Tatar. Strahlenberg asked the Tungus peoples in Siberia and reports that they had never heard of such a river. He himself thought the Tungus and the Manchus were the 'original Tartars' from whom the name spread to others.
But then his Conjecture as to the Derivation of the Name Tartar, is erroneous, when he supposes they have taken it from a River call'd Tata, which, according to him, runs thro' their Country; … For after all possible Enquiry made among these Nations, I have been able to procure no Intelligence of any such Thing; Their Answer being constantly; that they know of no River call'd either Tata or Tatar.
About Tungus and Manchus ('Eastern Tartars')
Keep in mind
His claim that the Tungus and Manchus were the first Tartars is his own theory.
The envoy himself: a man 'from Ye-ho in Tartary'
Editorial contextTulishen opens by introducing himself as coming originally from Ye-ho in Tartary, meaning the Yehe lands of the Manchu (Jurchen) confederation north-east of China. John Bell, who met him in 1720, called him 'a Mandshu Tartar by birth'. In this book the Chinese court's envoy to the 'Tartar' Kalmyks was himself a 'Tartar', a reminder of how loosely Europeans used the word.
am originally from the country of Ye-ho in Tartary. My ancestor, O-yen … was a man honorably distinguished in the country of Ye-ho by his fidelity and exertions.
About Manchus
Continue in this sourceA Qing envoy's journey to the Torghut khan on the Volga, 1712 to 17151712 to 1715 · 12 passagesFrom Mongol refugees to the kingdom of Niuche
Editorial contextMartini tells how, after the Ming founder drove the Yuan out in 1368, he carried the war into Tartary itself, and the storm fell chiefly on the province of Niuche 'whither the Tartars of China being expelled were retired'. These Tartars then came to Liaodong every year to trade ginseng, furs and horsehair, multiplied into seven 'Hordes', and about 1550 formed the kingdom of Niuche. Like Grosier later, he blends the Yuan Mongols and the Jurchen into one Tartar story.
This Storm of War fell chiefly on the Tartars of the Province of Niuche, whither the Tartars of china being expelled were retired.
About Tartars of Niuche (Jurchen, ancestors of the Manchus)
Keep in mind
The idea that the Yuan refugees became the Jurchen of Niuche is Martini's mistake.
Tatar Khan's realm by the powerful town of Dsurdsut
Editorial contextWhen Oghuz Khan forced his neighbours to accept the true faith, a few refugees fled to Tatar Khan, who lived near 'Dsurdsut'. Abu'l Ghazi calls it a very powerful town ruling several smaller ones, near China's frontier. Dsurdsut is most likely the Jurchen, the people of Manchuria, so here the early Tatars are placed beside a town-dwelling kingdom.
a very few who retir'd into the Dominions of Tatar Chan, who resided in the Neighbourhood of Dsurdsut. The Town of Dsurdsut is very powerful, having several small Towns under its Jurisdiction: 'Tis situate towards the Frontiers of Kitay, being called Zinu in the Indian and Persian Language.
About Tatars under the legendary Tatar Khan; the Jurchen (Dsurdsut)
Keep in mind
Part of the Oghuz Khan legend; identifying Dsurdsut with the Jurchen is a modern reading, not the text's.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
