Tatar boat-haulers flogged by Russian soldiers
Editorial contextGoing up the Tobol river from Tobolsk to Tyumen, the embassy's boats were towed the whole way by Tatars. In Tulishen's own Chinese words, there was no towpath, the men waded through mud until their legs bled, and the Russian soldiers kept whipping them until the envoy, unable to watch, told them to stop. It is one of the few moments where the author shows personal feeling.
All along the way the Ta-ta-la (Tatar) people hauled the towropes. The banks were thick with trees and there was no towpath, so they all walked in mud and water; the skin of their legs and feet was torn and blood ran down, yet the Russian soldiers still flogged them on. I could not bear to watch, and only when I rebuked them did they stop.
Working translation
Original wording
途中皆搭搭拉之人挽縴岸傍林木叢宻無縴路俱行泥水之中兩足肌膚破損血水淋漓俄羅斯兵丁猶加笞楚催促余不忍視呵責方止
About Siberian Tatars under Russian rule
Keep in mind
Staunton's English version of the same scene is on T0019 n156 (p.112).
Kalmyks who pity people tied to one place
Editorial contextAnother footnote quotes Bell on the Dzungar Kalmyks of Tsewang Rabdan (the 'Kontaysha'), who could field 100,000 horsemen. Bell, relying on Russians who had visited, says they lived in tents all year and found it amusing to pity settled people who had to work for a living, which they considered 'the greatest slavery'.
These Tartars live in tents, all the year, removing from place to place, as called by necessity or inclination. This is the most ancient and pleasant manner of life. It is entertaining to hear them commiserate those who are confined to one place of abode, and obliged to support themselves by labour, which they reckon the greatest slavery.
About Dzungar (Oirat) Kalmyks
Keep in mind
Bell's information came from Russian officials who had been sent to the Kontaysha.
The Tartars of Tobolsk, once subjects of Kuchum Khan
Editorial contextAt Tobolsk the envoys asked about a people the Russians called Tartars (Ta-ta-la), who lived from the Irtysh to Kazan. Russians told them these people had once been subjects of Kuchum Khan (Ku-tching Khan), the last khan of Sibir, and had spread out after Tobolsk became Russian. Tulishen noted that those who had not become Orthodox Christians looked like Chinese Muslims (Hui): short hair, small caps, no pork.
the Russians said: "This people was formerly subject to the Ku-tching Khan, otherwise called Ho-tung. … Some among them have conformed to our religion, but others have not." Such of this people as have not conformed to the religion of the Russians, have the appearance of being (Hoei-tse) Mahometans. They wear small caps, and their hair cut short. They eat no pork
About Siberian Tatars
Keep in mind
The origin story is what Russians told the envoys. The last clause of this passage in the Chinese text (T1072, juan 1, 46a: 别供佛像) differs from Staunton's 'offer no sacrifices to their Divinities', so that detail is uncertain.
A Kalmyk khan asks if Manchus and Mongols were once one people
Editorial contextIn his long interview Ayuki Khan asked the envoys a question about origins: Manchus and Mongols look so alike that they must spring from one source, so how did they become separate nations? He asked them to put it to the emperor. The envoys promised to do so. He went on to ask about Manchu writing and why there were 'old' and 'new' Manchus.
"The Mantchoos and the Mongals bear a great resemblance to each other: I imagine therefore that they sprang anciently from the same origin. But how has it happened that they have since formed separate states and nations? The causes of this, are no doubt well known to your Emperor.
About Torghut Kalmyks; Manchus
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
The Kuban Tartars, raiders subject to the Turks
Editorial contextDescribing the Torghut country between the Volga and the Yaik, Tulishen places to the west the Ho-pang, which Staunton identifies as the Cuban Tartars, also called Mang-vu-te (Mangyt, a Nogai clan name). He says they were subjects of the Turkish sultan and constantly raided both Russians and Torghuts. It shows a Chinese writer mapping the Nogai Tatars by their own clan name.
lies the country of the Ho-pang (Cuban Tartars) otherwise called Mang-vu-te, a nation subject to Kung-ke-eur Khan, king of the Tu-li-ye-se-ko, (Turks). This people are constantly in the practice of coming across the boundary, in order to attack and plunder their Russian and Tourgouth neighbours.
About Kuban (Nogai) Tatars
Keep in mind
The identification 'Cuban Tartars' is Staunton's gloss in brackets.
The mammoth: a giant beast that lives under the earth
Editorial contextNear Yeniseisk the envoys heard of a huge animal in the coldest north that burrowed underground and died if exposed to sun and air. Its white, ivory-like bones were dug from river mud and carved by Russians into cups and combs, and its flesh was eaten against fever. The foreign name was Ma-mien-tou-va (mamont), the Chinese called it kee-shoo (the 'hidden rat'). Staunton notes that John Bell heard the same tale and that frozen mammoth flesh had since been found.
In the very coldest parts of this northern country, a species of animal is found which burrows under the earth, and which dies if it is at all exposed at any time to the sun and air. Its bones are very white and shining, like ivory. … The Russians collect the bones of this animal, in order to make cups, saucers, combs
About Russians and Siberian natives (reported to the envoys)
Keep in mind
Hearsay reported by the envoys; the belief that the animal lives underground is a folk explanation for frozen mammoth remains.
A khan who 'received the edict kneeling'
Editorial contextTulishen writes that Ayuki Khan knelt to receive the Chinese emperor's letter and turned north to wish him well. The translator Staunton adds a sharp footnote: it is very unlikely that an independent prince would humble himself so in his own court; the Chinese claim to rule the whole world simply required every letter from the emperor to be described as received on bended knee.
Nothing certainly can be more improbable than that an independent prince, in the midst of his own court, should have voluntarily subjected himself to such a humiliation; … but it seems that the assumed attribute of universal sovereignty, which occasions every communication from the Emperor of China to claim the authority of an Edict, also requires that such an edict should be supposed to have been received
About Torghut Kalmyks
Keep in mind
The translator doubts the author's official version of events.