Illustrations of Tributaries of the Qing Empire
An imperial album of pictures and short notes on the peoples on and beyond the Qing frontiers.
Full title Illustrations of Tributaries of the Qing Empire, 9 juan (compiled 1751-1761, supplemented to 1790)
皇清職貢圖
Fuheng and the Qianlong commission (illustrations after provincial submissions)
This illustrated work was compiled by Fuheng and a commission from 1751 to 1761 and supplemented until 1790. It pairs pictures of frontier and foreign peoples with short descriptions, built from drawings and reports sent in by provincial and frontier officials and, for some entries, from informants. Peoples shown include Russians, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Torghuts, Tibetans, Koreans and the tribes of Manchuria. The card lists a Siku quanshu manuscript copy with line drawings. The atlas holds stored text of several volumes, but no passages were selected or read for this guide.
- How they knew
- Official record
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The Qing court sorted peoples under its own names, such as Russians, Kazakhs and Torghuts. The card presents the work as a Qing counterpart to European Tartary imagery.
- Why read it
- It shows how a Qing court pictured and classified the peoples around it, a useful counterpart to the European maps and engravings of Tartary.
- Watch out
- The Siku copy reproduces the pictures as line drawings, and the original coloured scrolls and the 1761 woodblock edition differ in detail. The card says the Manchu captions are not confirmed in this copy.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
informant testimony Written down from what informants reported.
official compilation from provincial and frontier officials' drawings and descriptions; some entries from informant testimony (e.g. Russians, Kazakhs, Torghuts)
Research notes
- The Siku manuscript copy reproduces the illustrations as line drawings; the original coloured scrolls (Palace Museum) and the 1761 woodblock edition differ in detail. Manchu captions present in the palace edition are not confirmed in this copy.
Why it matters
Qing court's ethnographic classification of frontier and foreign peoples, including pictures and short descriptions of Russians, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Torghuts and Manchurian tribes: a Qing-side counterpart to European Tartary imagery.
Places named
Qing frontiers: Manchuria; Mongolia; Xinjiang; Tibet; Yunnan; Taiwan; foreign countries including Russia
Peoples named
Russians (Oros); Kazakhs; Kirghiz; Torghuts; Dzungars; Turkic Muslims; Tibetans; Koreans; Solon, Daur, Hezhe and other Manchurian peoples