Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674-1743), a Paris Jesuit, never went to China. His Description (French, 1735) compiles letters and journals sent home by Jesuits at the Qing court. This corpus copy is the English translation (London, 1738) in two volumes. Volume 1 covers China and the Manchu conquest; volume 2 has a geographical account of Manchu and Mongol 'Tartary' drawn from the map-makers of 1709 to 1711, and the travel journals of Ferdinand Verbiest and Jean-François Gerbillon, who rode into Mongolia with the Kangxi emperor and the 1688 embassy to the Russians. The English editor adds footnotes.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
Mainly the Manchus ('Eastern Tartars', rulers of China since 1644) and the Mongols ('Western Tartars': Khalkhas, Ordos and others), plus the Oirats (Eluths) and many forest and river peoples of Manchuria. 'Tartar' and 'Chinese' are the two ruling nations of the Qing court.
Why read it
The Jesuit surveyors walked the ground: they describe felt tents from the inside, tent 'cities' round great lamas, and ruined cities in Mongolia and Manchuria, and they argue about who built them.
Watch out
A compilation: always check which missionary is speaking. The 1738 English editor adds footnotes that correct or expand the Jesuits. Religious hostility to lamas colours the tone. Two very long volumes; only the Tartary parts were sampled here.
Ruined cities in Mongolia credited to Kublai's successors
Editorial contextThe map-making Jesuits found ruins of a large city on the Kherlen and of cities 'in above 20 different places'. They argue these were not ancient: the Mongols preferred tents to the most convenient houses, but after Kublai conquered China they began to build cities in Tartary so as not to look inferior to the Chinese, and all were destroyed or abandoned within a century. They compare this to the Manchu emperor Kangxi building towns and summer palaces in their own day.
Rubraquis speaks of Kara koram as a Village; but it is the Genius of that Nation to prefer Tents to the most convenient Houses: However, when they took to the Chinese Customs … they begun to build Cities in Tartary, the Ruins of which are still to be seen in above 20 different Places.
Jesuit map-makers of 1709 to 1711 (Régis, Jartoux, Fridelli and others), compiled by Du Halde (English translation, 1738)
Their dating of the ruins is an argument, not a finding; the English editor's footnotes add material from Abu'l-Ghazi and Gaubil and disagree on details.
Editorial contextThe Khalkha Mongols revered a lama called the Hutuktu, a 'living Fo' (Buddha), brother of one of their khans, who had built a costly temple of yellow glazed bricks on the Tula with workmen from Beijing; the Oirat ruler Galdan destroyed it in 1688. Now the Hutuktu lived in tents, and his camp drew Russian traders, monks from India, Pegu, Tibet and China, and lamas of every rank: 'a large City made of Tents'.
One may call it a large City made of Tents, the Hurry being much greater there than any where else in this Part of Tartary. The Russians of Selinghinskoy, which is not far distant, trade thither; there you meet also with Bonzas from Indostan, Pegu, Tibet, and China
Jesuit map-makers of 1709 to 1711 (Régis, Jartoux, Fridelli and others), compiled by Du Halde (English translation, 1738)
Editorial contextOn his first journey beyond the Great Wall with the Qing embassy to the Russians, the Jesuit Gerbillon went into a Mongol tent 'the better to know how they were built'. He describes a round cage of small sticks about 13 or 14 feet across and 8 or 9 feet high, with a pointed roof, covered with felt ('woollen stuff, not woven, but mill'd'). Inside: a plank bed, a bench, a cupboard and wooden bowls.
It is a sort of Cage, made of pretty small Sticks, round, and about 13 or 14 Foot Diameter. … the Roofing begins at about four Foot from the Ground, and ends in a Point like the Roof of a Round Tower, or Pigeon-house: They are covered with Pieces of Woollen Stuff, not woven, but mill'd.
Jean-François Gerbillon, Jesuit (journal compiled by Du Halde, English translation, 1738)
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
Jesuit map-makers of 1709 to 1711 (Régis, Jartoux, Fridelli and others), compiled by Du Halde (English translation, 1738)