A British diplomat's journal of the failed 1816 Amherst embassy to the Qing court and its long journey back to Canton.
Full title Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China
Henry Ellis
Henry Ellis (1788-1855) was third commissioner of Lord Amherst's embassy to the Jiaqing Emperor in 1816. The embassy was expelled without an audience after refusing the full kowtow, and then travelled by river and Grand Canal from near Beijing to Canton. Ellis's journal, published in London in 1817 (the edition in this corpus), records negotiations with Manchu and Mongol officials and remarks on towns, temples and customs along the way. 'Tartar' here almost always means the Manchu ruling people of Qing China and their institutions.
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)
Editorial contextEllis repeats a remark that China's great national monuments and best works of art all date from the Ming dynasty, and adds his own jibe that the Tartar conquerors brought barbarism without their ancestors' energy. It is an opinion about who built China's monuments, not a survey.
It has been remarked that all the great national monuments were executed in the reign of the Ming dynasty; the best works of art of all kinds belong to the same period, so that the last Tartar conquerors of China would seem to have communicated the barbarism without the energy of their ancestors.
About Manchus (Qing dynasty)
A prejudiced generalisation; the Qing built a great deal, including the palaces and temples at Chengde described by Barrow (W058).
Editorial contextAsking about the 'milk-tea' that was to have been served at the cancelled audience, Ellis learns it is simply milk, served to recall the Manchu dynasty's Tartar origins; likewise the emperor carves meat with a knife rather than chopsticks at state meals. Ellis adds that the conquerors profess to value their ancestors' simple ways but have lost their energy.
This milk-tea, it appears, is simply milk; chaya, or tea, being affixed to the names of many beverages besides that made from the tea plant. The milk is given as a record of the Tartar origin of the reigning family. Another instance of the anxiety to preserve these recollections is, that the Emperor, on state occasions, uses a knife to divide his meat, instead of chop-sticks.
About Manchus (Qing imperial family)
Editorial contextThe embassy's quarrel was over the 'Tartar ceremony' demanded before the emperor. Ellis notes that the English word kowtow is loose: the court rite is properly 'thrice kneeling and nine times bowing the head', a Manchu court protocol.
The Tartar ceremonial has perhaps improperly been rendered by the Chinese word ko-tou, which more strictly signifies three simple genuflexions, a mode of salutation practised even in private life. The court ceremony has a different name, implying thrice kneeling and nine times bowing the head, San-kwei-keu-kou.
About Manchus (Qing court)
Editorial contextFrom the boats Ellis sees soldiers under distinctive flags pointed out as Manchu Tartars. Their weapons look like Chinese troops', but they wear long gowns instead of jackets.
Last evening we observed some troops on the opposite bank with peculiar flags, which were described as Man-tchoo Tartars. There did not seem any difference in their arms or accoutrement, but instead of jackets they wore long dresses.
About Manchu bannermen
Editorial contextEllis notes that the executioners' conical caps kept an ancient shape that the Chinese had been anxious to preserve when the Manchus conquered China, along with the sanctity of their ancestors' tombs. It hints at what the Chinese cared most to keep under their new rulers.
These, I afterwards learnt, were the public executioners, and that the shape of their caps was one of ancient form, which the Chinese, at the Tartar conquest, were most anxious to retain. The sanctity of the tombs of their ancestors was another and more reasonable object of their anxiety.
About Chinese under Manchu rule
Editorial contextTold that the emperor loves hunting and excels with the bow, Ellis adds a footnote: the missionaries praise Tartars as superb horsemen, but judging by the horses he saw, he doubts they could manage fast manoeuvres.
The account of the Missionaries represent the Tartars as excellent horsemen, and that the arts of the manege are various, and much attended to. I had no opportunity of verifying the truth of this description; from the appearance of the horses I should doubt their being equal to rapid manoeuvre.
About Manchus and Mongols
Ellis admits he could not check the missionaries' claim.
Editorial contextThe Mongol official Kwang tells Ellis that Tartars can hold office at eighteen and that there are four races of Tartars in China. Ellis's footnote explains the Manchu, Mongol and 'Tartarized Chinese' eight-banner system, and notes that Mongols have long been Buddhists while Manchus adopted Buddhism only after entering China.
Tartars, Kwang informed us, were eligible to office at eighteen; this is said to arise from the wish of government to bring them early into employment: there are four different races of Tartars in China; he himself is a Mongul, or, as called in China, a Mun-koo.
About Manchus, Mongols and 'Tartarized' Chinese bannermen
Editorial contextAn imperial edict ordered villagers along the route to stay at work and women to keep out of the foreigners' sight. A Chinese general explained why: an earlier party of Tartars from 'barbarous tribes' passing through had assaulted village women, and all foreigners were suspected of the same.
A party of Tartars belonging to some barbarous tribes, passing through the country on a similar occasion to the present, violated the women of the villages on the route; and as all foreigners are alike despised by the Chinese, we, until known, were suspected of equal brutality.
About Unnamed 'barbarous' Tartar tribes
Hearsay from an official; the tribe, date and place are not given.
firsthand The author saw the places or people described.
Embassy participant
A comparison for earlier embassy routes and Qing practices.
Northern China; Qing court