Wei Yuan's Record of the Sacred Military Exploits
A mid-Qing history of the campaigns that brought Mongolia, Dzungaria and Xinjiang into the empire, first printed in 1842.
Full title Record of the Sacred Military Exploits (military history of the Qing, 14 juan; first edition 1842, revised 1844, 1846)
聖武記
Wei Yuan (1794-1857)
Wei Yuan (1794 to 1857) wrote this military history of the Qing dynasty, first printed in 1842 and revised in 1844 and 1846. It covers 1583 to the 1830s, taking in Manchuria, Mongolia, Dzungaria, Xinjiang, Tibet, the Russian frontier and the Torghut return of 1771. He worked from official campaign histories and the Grand Secretariat archives. The copy is a Peking University Library print in 12 volumes, edition not stated. The atlas holds only a poor-quality machine reading (OCR) of this scan, and no passages were selected or read for this guide.
- How they knew
- Compiled from others
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The card names the Qing, Dzungars, Khalkha, Torghuts, Kazakhs and Russians by their own names.
- Why read it
- It is the standard mid-Qing account of how the steppe and Xinjiang were brought into the empire, written in the same decades as the last European Tartary maps.
- Watch out
- This is a secondary compilation from official campaign histories, and the three editions differ. The card says Palladius's 1848 Russian extracts represent the first edition.
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
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation from Qing official campaign histories (fanglüe) and shilu, by a private scholar with access to the Grand Secretariat archives
Research notes
- Secondary compilation from official campaign histories; three editions differ. Palladius's 1848 Russian extracts on vostlit represent the first edition.
Why it matters
The standard mid-Qing narrative of how Mongolia, Dzungaria and Xinjiang were incorporated, including the Russian frontier and the Torghut migration; a Chinese synthesis contemporaneous with the last European 'Tartary' maps.
Places named
Manchuria; Mongolia; Dzungaria; Xinjiang; Tibet; Russian frontier (Nerchinsk, Kiakhta); Taiwan; Vietnam
Peoples named
Qing; Dzungars (Galdan, Amursana); Khalkha; Torghuts (return of 1771); Kazakhs; Russia; Gurkhas; Tibet