Dapper's record of the Dutch in Qing China, 1662 to 1668
An Amsterdam writer's 1670 compilation of Dutch embassy and fleet journals from Qing China, with a general description of China and 'East Tartary'.
Full title Memorable deeds of the Dutch East India Company on the coast and in the empire of Taising or China (second and third Dutch embassies, 1662-1663 Bort fleet and 1666-1668 Van Hoorn embassy to Kangxi), with a description of all China
Olfert Dapper (1636-1689), an Amsterdam physician and writer who never left the Netherlands, worked up the journals of Dutch East India Company missions to the new Qing ('Tartar') rulers of China: the 1662 embassy of Jan van Kampen and Constantijn Nobel to the Fujian viceroy, Balthasar Bort's fleet that fought beside the Qing against the Zheng (Koxinga) regime in 1662-1664, and Pieter van Hoorn's embassy to the young Kangxi emperor in Peking in 1666-1668. A long general description of China, drawn from Martini, Kircher and others, follows. The corpus copy is the 1670 Amsterdam first edition by Jacob van Meurs; the OCR of its double columns is often scrambled.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
The Manchu Qing dynasty, its army and officials (the 'Tartars' allied with the Dutch against Koxinga), and their homeland Oost-Tartarye (Manchuria); the emperor is 'Tartar Emperor of China and East Tartary'.
Why read it
It shows 'Tartar' used as plain everyday language for the Manchu state in Dutch commercial and military reports, and records the damage the conquest left along the Fujian coast.
Watch out
The embassy journals reach us only through Dapper's rewriting, and the general description is copied from Jesuit books. The English version in Ogilby's Atlas Chinensis (1671) was wrongly credited to Montanus.
A city surrendered by treaty, but its towers pulled down
Editorial contextPassing through Zwanjefoe (Quanzhou), the Dutch envoys learned that the city had never been taken by the sword: its commander handed it over to the Tartars by agreement, keeping his office. Even so, as a sign of victory, the Tartar had all the city's towers torn down except three. A small, precise record of what conquest meant for a Chinese city's skyline.
The city was never conquered by the sword by the Tartars, but was handed over by its military commander … by treaty … As a sign of victory, however, the Tartar had all the towers, except the three mentioned before, torn down and razed to the ground
Working translation
Original wording
Noit is de Stadt door het zwaert, by de Tarters overwonnen, maer wierd, door den Krijgs-overste … met verdrag overgegeven … Ten teken evenwel der overwinning, liet de Tarter al de torens, behalve de voorzeide drie, afbreken en ten gronde slopen
Olfert Dapper, from the journals of the second Dutch embassy (Jan van Kampen and Constantijn Nobel)
Stone houses burned by the Tartars, heads on stakes
Editorial contextGoing ashore with Bort's fleet after the joint Dutch and Qing attack on the island bases of the Zheng (Koxinga) regime, the Dutch found a walled town and its suburb packed with fine stone houses, all wrecked and burned by the Tartars. In a square lay stakes and human heads, which the enemies of the Tartars had displayed six years before, after a great Tartar defeat at sea, and which had now been thrown down and burned 'after the manner of the Tartars'.
Both the suburb and the walled town were very densely built with countless fairly handsome stone houses, all of which were destroyed by the Tartars and laid in ashes by fire. On a certain square one saw some stakes, and beside them several human heads lying
Working translation
Original wording
Zoowel de voor als de bemuurde stad, was zeer dicht met ontelbare redelijke schoone steene huizen betimmert, welke alle door de Tartaren verwoest, en door den brant in d'assche gelegt wierden. Men zag aldaer op zeker plein eenige staken, en daer by verscheide menschen hoofden leggen
Olfert Dapper, from the journals of Balthasar Bort's fleet
Mourning in white: Tartar and Chinese customs compared
Editorial contextThe general description sets Tartar mourning beside Chinese. Tartar mourners wear a long white robe down to the feet, girded with a rope, and their oldest boots, and they leave hair and beard unshaven for the whole mourning period. The next page adds that Tartar women change their usual black clothing to white.
All the Tartars, those of the household as well as blood relations, put on during mourning a long robe of white cloth hanging down to their feet, girded with a rope or twist of the same stuff … The hair of the beard and of the head is not shaved in all that time.
Working translation
Original wording
Al de Tarters, zoo wel die van den huize, als bloed-vrienden trekken in den rou tijd een lange rok van wit laken aen, die hen tot op de voeten hangt, en met een tou of wronge van een selfste stoffe toegegort is … 't Hair van de baert noch hooft word hen in al dien tijd niet geschooren.
Olfert Dapper, compiled general description of China
The Emperor of China is not the Great Khan, only a small Manchu prince
Editorial contextDapper corrects a long European belief: the Tartar ruler in Peking is not the Great Cham of all Tartary but one of the smallest Tartar princes, whose grandfather was raised to kingship by the people of a small province of East Tartary called Muncheu (Manchu). The same page names the present emperor Konchi (Kangxi), a youth of about sixteen, son of the Shunzhi emperor.
It is said that the Tartar prince who today possesses the land of China and resides in the capital Peking is not the Great Cham and lord of all Tartary, as has been believed until now, but one of the smallest princes of the Tartars, whose grandfather was the first king of his line, raised to that dignity by the inhabitants of his land
Working translation
Original wording
Men zeid de Tartersche Vorst, die heden het gewest van Sina bezit, en sijn verblijf in de Hooft-stadt Peking heeft, de groote Cham en Heer van geheel Tartarije niet is, gelijk tot dus lang gelooft is; maer een van de kleinste Vorsten der Tarters: waer van sijn groot-vader d'eerste Koning van zijnen stam was, verheven tot die waerdigheid door d'inwoonders van zijn land
Olfert Dapper, compiled general description of China
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of earlier sources: Dapper never travelled; he worked up VOC journals (Balthasar Bort, Pieter van Hoorn, Olfert Dapper used Constantijn Nobel and others) and Jesuit works (Martini, Kircher)
Research notes
Compilation; embassy journals are transmitted through Dapper, not printed independently. English version in Ogilby, Atlas Chinensis (1671) misattributed to Montanus.
Witsen cites Dapper-derived Niuche material; Ogilby 1671 English translation exists for cross-checking.
Why it matters
Records the Dutch alliance with the Qing ("Tartars") against the Zheng regime and the 1666-68 embassy to Kangxi; its geographic part treats Manchuria as Oost-Tartarye, one of the sources Witsen excerpts. Shows how "Tartar" was used for the Manchu state in Dutch commercial reporting.