Visdelou's history of Great Tartary from the Chinese records
A Jesuit's abridged history of the northern peoples from Chinese dynastic histories, written c. 1719 to 1728 and printed in 1779 as a supplement to d'Herbelot's Bibliothèque orientale.
Full title Abridged history of Tartary (History of Great Tartary), with a Dissertation on the title of Khan and Observations on d’Herbelot’s articles, printed as the fourth (supplement) volume of d’Herbelot’s Bibliotheque orientale
Claude de Visdelou, a French Jesuit who lived in China from 1687 to 1709 and later in Pondicherry, translated and abridged what the Chinese dynastic histories say about the peoples north of China: the Xiongnu, Turks (Tou-kiue), Uighurs, Khitan, Jurchen and Mongols. He wrote it partly to correct d'Herbelot's Islamic sources, adding 'Observations' on d'Herbelot's articles. He had no firsthand knowledge of the steppe; his authority is Chinese books. It was printed fifty years later as the fourth, supplementary volume of the Bibliothèque orientale. This corpus copy is the Hague printing (IA dates it 1777; the card gives 1779), DLI scan T0640, with other copies T0638 and T0639.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
Visdelou's 'Tartarie' is the whole northern steppe and forest belt beyond China; 'Tartares' are all its peoples as the Chinese recorded them, and he explains that the Chinese name Tha-tha (Tatar) was itself used in several senses.
Why read it
The best place to see what Chinese records said about the 'Tartars' before the eighteenth century, including their insulting names for them and origin legends of wolves and deer.
Watch out
Abridged translation from Chinese, printed decades after composition from a manuscript, with the editor's and d'Herbelot's material around it; Chinese sources were hostile to the northern peoples.
The Mongol siege of the Jin capital: double walls, siege lines and 'cannon'
Editorial contextTranslating the Chinese history 'word for word', Visdelou describes the Mongol siege of the southern Jin capital (called Nan-kim here, which he stresses is not our Nanking but Kaifeng). The city had a double wall, the outer 120 li round; Subutai battered it with every kind of engine 'and even cannon', and the defenders answered in kind, so he ringed it with siege lines 54,000 paces round. In twelve days of fighting, the dead were counted 'by millions'.
The city was surrounded by a double wall. The outer one was 120 li, or 43,200 geometric paces, round … he had the walls battered with every sort of war machine, and even cannon; but as the besieged resisted with the same weapons, the siege made no progress.
Working translation
Original wording
La Ville étoit ceinte d'une double muraille. L'extérieure avoit 120 Li, ou 43200 pas géometriques de tour … il fit battre les murailles avec toutes sortes de machines de guerre, & même des Canons; mais comme les assiegés resistoient avec les mêmes armes, le siège n'avançoit point.
Türk funerals: slashed faces and a stone for every man killed
Editorial contextFrom the Chinese histories Visdelou describes the Tou-kiue (Göktürks): a gold wolf's head on their standard because they believed they sprang from a she-wolf, tallies notched on wood because they had no writing, and funerals where the body lay in a tent, relatives sacrificed sheep and horses and cut their faces so blood mixed with tears, and stones were piled on the grave, one for each man the dead had killed.
At their funerals the dead man's body was laid under a tent. … Then they slashed their faces with knives, and in this way their blood mingled with their tears … They heaped stones on the burial place and set markers there. They put as many stones there as the dead man had killed men during his life.
Working translation
Original wording
Dans leurs funérailles, on plaçoit le corps du mort sous une tente. … Alors ils se déchiquetoient le visage avec des couteaux, & de cette façon leur sang se mêloit avec leurs larmes … Ils amassoient des pierres sur le lieu de la sépulture & y plaçoient des marques. On y mettoit autant de pierres que le mort avoit tué d'hommes durant sa vie.
Claude de Visdelou, translating the Chinese histories
'The stinking Tartars': what the Chinese called them
Editorial contextIn his 'Observation' on d'Herbelot's article Tatar, Visdelou traces the Chinese names: first Tha-tche, then Tha-tha, commonly Tha-tçe, and in contempt Sao-tha-tçe, 'the stinking Tartars'. He says the Chinese added a character meaning raw hide to show how low they ranked these peoples, and that the Jurchen and Mongols, once they had conquered China, dropped the insulting character. The volume's index adds an older name, Kiuen, 'dog'.
The Chinese first called them Thatche, then Tha-tha, and commonly Tha-tçe; finally, in contempt, Sao-tha-tçe, that is, the stinking Tartars. … So the Jurchen and the Mongols, after conquering China, removed this insulting character
Working translation
Original wording
Les Chinois les ont nommé au commencement Thatche, ensuite Tha-tha, & vulgairement Tha-tçe; enfin par mépris Sao-tha-tçe, c'est-à-dire les puants Tartares. … Aussi les Niou-tchin & les Moumgols, après avoir conquis la Chine, ont retranché cette lettre injurieuse
Genghis Khan descended from a grey deer and a white she-wolf
Editorial contextVisdelou compares the Mongol origin stories. A Chinese abridgement says the Mongols' 'secret memoirs' traced Chinggis's family to the mating of a grey deer and a white she-wolf, whose monstrous child was his twenty-fourth ancestor; on the same page is the story of the widow Alan-kouo conceiving by a golden light through the tent's smoke-hole. Visdelou notes the official Chinese genealogy says none of this and calls the wolf tale 'shameful and impossible'.
the secret memoirs of the Mongols testify that the family of Ki-o-uen came from the coupling of a grey deer and a white she-wolf, and that the monstrous child born of it was the twenty-fourth ancestor of Chinggis Khan … it [the official history] nowhere mentions the last story, which is both shameful and impossible.
Working translation
Original wording
les mémoires secrets des Moumgols témoignent que la famille de Ki-o-uen étoit sortie de l'accouplement d'un cerf gris & d'une louve blanche, & que l'enfant monstrueux qui en nâquit fut le vingt-quatrième Ayeul de Tchim-khis-khan … elle ne parle nulle part de la dernière, qui est également honteuse & impossible.
Claude de Visdelou, citing Yuan Liaofan's Chinese abridgement ('Tuen-leao-fan'), which cites the Mongols' 'secret memoirs'
Visdelou reports the legend at third hand and rejects it.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of earlier sources: Visdelou, resident in China 1687-1709, translated and abridged Chinese dynastic histories of the northern peoples (Xiongnu, Turks, Uighurs, Khitan, Jurchen, Mongols); composed as a corrective to d'Herbelot's Islamic sources
Research notes
Printed fifty years after composition from a manuscript sold with the Herbelot copy; the publishers state the manuscript was in four quarto volumes of about 1200 pages, so the printed text is Visdelou's own abridgement. Google/Michigan and DLI copies differ in imprint (The Hague 1779 vs Maastricht 1780/1783).
The task list called this "Histoire de la Tartarie (suppl. to d'Herbelot 1779)": the printed running title is Histoire de la Grande Tartarie; both forms recorded.
Why it matters
The first sustained European statement, from Chinese sources, of what "la Grande Tartarie" comprised and which peoples successively ruled it; Visdelou's Xiongnu-Hun identification and his correction of Islamic historians made this the base text for Deguignes and the later Sinological view of Tartary.