A Profile of The Manchu Language in Ch'ing History

Abstract

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In defense of Sinicization: A Rebuttal of Evelyn Rawski's “Reenvisioning the Qing”

“…Although Bartlett in an earlier article talked about the quantity and "importance" of the Grand Council archive in Manchu, I judge from the archival category-names listed in her article that they are wide-ranging but probably of rather minor importance as compared to the entire series in Chinese (Bartlett 1985). Similarly, other types of increasingly available Manchu-language sources are not quite of the nature and quality that Rawski would have us believe (Rawski 1996, 835;Crossley and Rawski 1993). The judgment of the late Joseph Fletcher, who formed a Manchu class of seven students at Harvard in the fall of 1981, merits our attention:…”

Late Qing Multilingualism and National Linguistic Practice in the Qing Borderlands

“…Historians such as Beatrice Bartlett found that ‘Manchu did not substantially decline during the nineteenth century’ and even had advantages over Chinese in some aspects, such as frontier affairs, based on the study on Grand Council inventories. In Pamela Kyle Crossley and Evelyn Rawski's study of the history of the Manchu language, they noticed that bannermen, civilian literati, and westerners contributed to maintaining Manchu in the nineteenth century, which remained fundamental to research on the late Qing history…”

“…As Di Cosmo explained, the ritual Manchu language was ‘a tool more of rulership than of daily life’ among bannermen at court and throughout the empire. Edward Rhoads and Crossley further contextualized Manchu distinctiveness in the late Qing reform and revolution. Crossley used a three‐generation biography of a Manchu family to illustrate the ongoing ethnic conflicts in late imperial China Rhoads.…”

“…Edward Rhoads and Crossley further contextualized Manchu distinctiveness in the late Qing reform and revolution. Crossley used a three‐generation biography of a Manchu family to illustrate the ongoing ethnic conflicts in late imperial China Rhoads. explained that the still noticeable Manchu–Han distinctions in the last decade of the Qing dynasty made Manchus remain a privileged and distinct group, which influenced the late Qing constitutional reform…”

“…In Pamela Kyle Crossley and Evelyn Rawski's study of the history of the Manchu language, they noticed that bannermen, civilian literati, and westerners contributed to maintaining Manchu in the nineteenth century, which remained fundamental to research on the late Qing history. 19 Moreover, research on Manchu in other non-political contexts enriched our understanding of the late Qing polyglot reality. Giovanni Stary examined Manchu journalism in the late Qing and early republic periods in the northern borderlands and reviewed the known documentation.…”