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.
Mukden, capital of Eastern Tartary, where Chinese count as Tartars
Editorial contextNoël reports a plan to open a mission at Chin-yam (Shenyang, the Manchu Mukden), capital of Liaodong and all Eastern Tartary, where the emperor had set four supreme tribunals for the Tartars' affairs. He adds that Liaodong now counts as part of Tartary and its people are regarded 'not as Chinese, but as true Tartars'. The label followed political allegiance, not ancestry.
Chin-yam, capital of Liaodong and of all Eastern Tartary. This city is considerable, and the Emperor has set up four supreme tribunals there to judge in the last resort all the affairs of the Tartars; for Liaodong now passes for part of Tartary, and its inhabitants are no longer regarded as Chinese, but as true Tartars.
Working translation
Original wording
Chin-yam capitale de Leaoton, & de toute la Tartarie orientale. Cette ville est considérable, & l'Empereur y a établi quatre Tribunaux souverains pour y juger en dernier ressort toutes les affaires des Tartares; car le Leaoton passe aujourd'hui pour être de la Tartarie, & on n'en regarde plus les habitans comme Chinois, mais comme de véritables Tartares.
About Manchus and the people of Liaodong
Continue in this sourceEdifying and curious letters: Jesuit reports from China and Tartary1699 to 1779 · 11 passagesDescended from Kublai Khan? The Manchu origin story
Editorial contextDavis explains that the 'Eastern Tartars' now called their country Manchow, 'the full region'. Earlier, as the Kin or 'golden' race, they had ruled north China before the Mongols drove them out. He then repeats a story that the last Mongol emperors, expelled by the Ming, took refuge among these Eastern Tartars and intermarried, so that the Manchu emperors descend from Kublai Khan.
When the last of the Mongols, descendants of Koblai Khan, were expelled from China by the founder of the Ming, or Chinese race, they sought a refuge among the Eastern Tartars, and from their intermarriages with the natives sprung the Bogdoi Khans, or Manchow princes, who were destined to expel the Ming. It is in this manner that the Emperors of the present dynasty derive their descent from Koblai Khan.
About Manchu Tartars (the Kin or Jin 'golden race')
Keep in mind
This descent from Kublai is a European and dynastic legend, not established history; Davis presents it as fact.
Mukden, the emperor's hunting capital
Editorial contextAn official mentions Mukden (Shenyang), the old Manchu capital in Manchuria, where the emperor goes to hunt; Ellis records its Chinese name. The official feared being summoned to the imperial hunt.
Chang called Moukden, Moulin; but the latter may be the Chinese pronunciation of the name. The Emperor goes there to hunt.
About Manchus (Qing emperor)
Continue in this sourceHenry Ellis's journal of the Amherst embassy to China1816 · 9 passages