Tartar women who ride astride
Editorial contextDavis quotes the account of Macartney's embassy passing through Peking. Many women in the crowd were said to be Tartars. Their feet were not bound, their thick-soled broad-toed shoes looked clumsy next to Chinese women's tiny ones, they wore a patch of vermilion on the lower lip, and some rode horseback astride like men.
Among the spectators of the novel sight some women were observed; the greatest number were said to be natives of Tartary or of a Tartar race. Their feet were not cramped like those of the Chinese;… A few of the Tartar ladies were on horseback, and rode astride like men.
About Manchu ('Tartar') women
Keep in mind
A quotation from the 1797 embassy account, not Davis's own observation.
Mare's milk and blood soup at the emperor's feast
Editorial contextDiscussing Chinese drinks, Davis says the Tartars still show their pastoral origins in a liking for a strong spirit distilled from mutton, and that one of the soups served at the imperial banquet for Amherst's embassy at Tianjin was said to be made of mare's milk and blood. Davis was on that embassy, but he reports the soup's recipe as hearsay.
The Tartars are said still to preserve a remnant of their pastoral state, in their predilection for a strong liquor which is distilled from mutton. One of the soups, too, presented at the imperial feast conferred on the last British embassy at Tien-tsin, was said to be composed of mare's milk and blood!
About Manchu Tartar court
Keep in mind
Both claims are introduced with 'said'.
Tartar soldiers paid more than Chinese
Editorial contextDavis explains the dual army. The 'trusty Tartar troops' are ranged under eight standards, yellow, white, red and blue, plain and bordered, said to be 80,000 men; the Chinese serve under the green flag. A Tartar foot soldier gets two taels a month plus rice, a Chinese only 1.6 taels without rice. He also notes that Tartars under the law are punished with the whip instead of the bamboo.
A great difference seems to exist between the pay of Tartars and Chinese. One of the former, being a foot-soldier, is allowed two taels per month, or about five-pence a day, with an allowance of rice; one of the latter, only one tael and six-tenths, without the rice.
About Manchu Tartar bannermen and Chinese Green Standard troops
Keep in mind
Davis says 'seems to exist'; the figures come from report.
Kangxi kills a bear with a half-pike
Editorial contextDavis says the emperors Kangxi and Qianlong kept up 'the hardy and warlike habits of the Manchows' with great ring hunts north of the Wall, led by a small army with falconers. He quotes Gerbillon: Kangxi shot a bear with an arrow from across a valley, then dismounted and finished it with a half-pike 'used by the Manchows against tigers'. Davis contrasts this with the later emperors who kept cancelling the hunt.
The Emperor, upon this, alighting from his horse took a half-pike, used by the Manchows against tigers, and, accompanied by four of the ablest hunters armed in the same way, he approached the bear and killed him outright with a stab of his half-pike.
About Manchu emperors and their hunting army
Keep in mind
A quotation from Gerbillon's journal, not Davis's own observation.
Descended 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.
Du Halde's 'lying miracle' of the earthquake
Editorial contextDavis praises the Jesuit astronomer Adam Schall, who kept his post after the Tartars took the empire, but he mocks Du Halde for padding the story with miracles. He quotes Du Halde's claim that when the regents tried to confirm Schall's death sentence, an earthquake scattered them every time, until a general pardon was granted. Davis calls this one of the 'lying miracles' with which Du Halde 'has not blushed to disfigure his work'.
this sentence was carried to the Princes of the blood and to the regent for confirmation; but, as often as they attempted to read it, a dreadful earth quake dispersed the assembly. The consternation was so great, that they granted a general pardon;
About Manchu regents and the Jesuit Adam Schall
Keep in mind
Davis quotes it only to dismiss it. (A real earthquake did strike Beijing in 1665 during Schall's trial.)