Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), a Flemish Jesuit who ran the imperial astronomical bureau in Beijing, was ordered to ride beside the Kangxi emperor on a three-month progress into 'Eastern Tartary' in 1682, taking latitudes and compass readings along the way. The emperor had just crushed the revolt of the three southern 'kings' and went to honour his ancestors' tombs near Shenyang, then hunted and travelled on to Jilin and Ula. This corpus copy is the English version of Verbiest's letter printed in a learned journal in 1686 (JSTOR Early Journal Content), with his list of daily stages.
How they knew
Eyewitness
Who “Tartar” means here
The Manchus, the ruling 'Tartars' of the Qing dynasty whom Verbiest served (he calls them 'our Tartars'), and 'Eastern Tartary' as their homeland of Liaodong and Manchuria beyond it.
Why read it
A dated eyewitness look at Manchuria in 1682, from ruined Chinese towns in Liaodong to the sacred mountain of the Manchu ancestors, written by a man measuring the route with instruments.
Watch out
This is an English translation of a letter passed on through Europe, not Verbiest's original Latin. The OCR renders the old long s as f throughout.
What it says: 4 passages
CitiesLiaoning1682 (describing damage from the conquest wars)
Towns wiped out by the Manchu war
Editorial contextVerbiest saw almost nothing left of the many towns and villages of Liaodong. He was told why: the 'petty King of the Tartars' who started the war, with only a small army, forced the local people to take up arms and then destroyed their homes so his soldiers had nothing to go back to. It is a clear case of a named cause for ruins, reported sixty years after the event.
There is now not the least footsteps remaining of a great number of Towns and Villages which were here before the Warr. Because the petty King of the Tartars, who began to kindle this Warr having but a very small Army, caused the Inhabitants of those places to take Armes, which places he forthwith destroyed
About Manchus (the 'Tartars' of the Qing founders)
Keep in mind
Verbiest saw the ruins; the explanation of how they came about is what he was told. The 'petty King' is presumably the Manchu founder Nurhaci, whose armies took Liaodong from 1618.
Editorial contextIn place of the old cities, Verbiest saw only broken walls of brick and stone, with a few new houses thrown up on the outskirts. Some were of earth, some built from the rubble of the old buildings, and most were thatched rather than tiled. The capital, which he calls Kin-Yam (Shenyang), was the exception: fairly whole, with the remains of an old palace.
One can see nothing through the whole Country but old ruined Walls with Rubbell, Bricks and Stones. In the out skirts of these Citys there have been of late some few houses built, but without any order. Some of them made of Earth, others of the Rubbish of the old Buildings, the most part of them covered with straw or thatch, and but few with tyles.
Editorial contextThe emperor hunted almost daily. Verbiest describes the Manchu ring hunt: 3,000 guardsmen spread out in a circle at least 3,000 paces across, then walked inward in step until it was only 300 paces wide, trapping everything inside. He watched two or three hundred hares taken in less than a day, and elsewhere over a thousand deer, besides bears, boars and more than sixty tigers.
they Reduced this great Circle to another much less, which had about 300 paces in the Diameter : So that all the Beasts which had been stayed within the first, found themselves taken in this last as in a Net … I saw taken in this manner two or three hundred Hares in less then one day, without counting an Infinite of Wolves and Foxes.
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
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 fine print
How we know
firsthand The author saw the places or people described.
Court missionary / journey participant
Research notes
English translation of a communicated letter; preserve transmission and journal context.
Why it matters
A dated imperial itinerary and descriptions of northeastern lands.