Mailla's General History of China, translated from the Chinese annals

Joseph de Mailla, a French Jesuit in Peking from 1701 to 1748, translated the great Chinese chronicle Tongjian gangmu (from its Manchu version) and continued it through the Ming and early Qing from other Chinese works. The abbés Grosier and Deshauterayes edited it in Paris long after his death, adding notes; some notes on the Qing emperors' journeys into Mongolia draw on Jesuit travel journals. Mailla saw Peking and parts of Tartary, but the history itself is translation and compilation. This corpus has volumes 1, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the 1777 to 1785 Paris edition (Pierres and Clousier).

How they knew

Compiled from others

Who “Tartar” means here

'Tartares' covers every northern people in the Chinese record: the Mongols (Mongous) of the Yuan, the Khitan and Jurchen, the Khalkha and other Mongol princes of Kangxi's day, and above all the Manchus (Mantchéous) who conquered China in 1644.

Why read it

It gives the Chinese court's view of two 'Tartar' conquests of China, and some vivid editor's notes on Qing emperors meeting Mongol princes in the steppe.

Watch out

A translation of a translation, heavily edited and annotated in Paris; the Chinese annals are dynastic and moralising. Editorial notes are not Mailla's and are labelled here.