Manchu language

“ This they formed from the Estrangelo Syriac of the Nestorians, who appeared in China in the early part of the seventh century. The Manchu written language, therefore, is lineally descended from Syriac; indeed, the family likeness of both Manchu and Mongol to the parent stem is quite obvious, except that these two scripts, evidently influenced by Chinese, are written vertically, though, unlike Chinese, they are read from left to right. Thirty-three years later various improvements were introduced, leaving the Manchu script precisely as we find it at the present day. ”

“ Doctor A. Wylie translated the Manchu grammar and the Tsing Wen Keung. These are all British writers. Professor I. Zacharoff compiled a Russian-Manchu dictionary and wrote on the Manchus in 1875, and Von Mollendorff composed a Manchu grammar. It is possible that in exile from the throne the Manchus may revive the little literature and language that they possess; or, champion intriguers that they and their race are, Prince Tuan, Prince Su, the Tsai Princes, General Yin Tchang and others may continue to plot from Jehol, Kalgan, Urga, Mukden, Dalny and other places of exile. ”

“ With some ex-ceptions, they are less secluded than their Chinese sisters, and have an air of far greater freedom.
Most of the Manchu customs have disappeared along with the language, which is only spoken in a few remote valleys, and is apparently only artificially preserved because the ruling dynasty is Manchu. It is only those students who are aspir-ants for literary degrees and high office in the viceroyalty who are obliged to learn it.
People of pure Manchu race are chiefly met with in the north. Manchus, as kinsmen of the present Imperial dynasty, enjoy various privileges. ”

“ It is almost paradoxical, though absolutely true, that two Manchu Emperors, sprung from a race which but a few decades before had little thought for anything beyond war and the chase, and which had not even a written language of its own, should have conferred more benefits upon the student of literature than all the rest of China's Emperors put together. The literature in question is, of course, Chinese literature. ”

“ The exodus of the Manchus and their Chinese allies greatly reduced the population of Manchuria. However, in the South, Chinese communities continued to exist. From this foothold a few settlers spread across the central part of Fengtien province. Their number was increased by a continuous infiltration of immigrants from China, who succeeded in evading the exclusion laws or who had profited by their modifications from time to time. Manchus and Chinese became still more amalgamated, and even the Manchu language was virtually replaced by Chinese. ”

“ The Manchus and Mongols are chiefly Buddhist, with letters derived from the ancient Syriac. The Manchus are now said to be gradually falling under the influence of Chinese civilization, and to be losing their old nomadic habits, and even their peculiar language. The predatory habits of the Turkish, Mongolian and Manchu population of northern Asia, and their irruptions into other parts of the continent and into Europe, have produced very remarkable results in the history of the world. ”

“ During Chang's long absence, Tuan Fang, Governor of Hupeh, held the seals and exercised the functions of viceroy. He was a Manchu—one of those specimens, admirable but not rare, who, in acquiring the refinement of Chinese culture, lose nothing of the vigour of their own race. "Of their own race," I say, because in language and habits the Manchus are strongly differentiated from their Chinese subjects. ”

“ In many respects the conquering Tartars have been themselves conquered by the people over whom they set themselves to rule. They have adopted the language, written and colloquial, of China; and they are fully as proud as the purest-blooded Chinese of the vast literature and glorious traditions of those past dynasties of which they have made themselves joint heirs. Manchu, the language of the conquerors, is still kept alive at Peking. By a fiction, it is supposed to be the language of the sovereign ”

“ Manchuria is a province of China; though the latter was a province of the former three hundred and fifty years ago, for then it conquered China, whose present emperor is the descendant of the conquering Manchu monarch. Manchuria has an area of 280,000, and a population of 21,000,000; but not more than one million of the people are Manchus, who wear the costume and speak the language of the Chinese. The rest of the people are emigrants from China or other countries, and are as industrious and prosperous as any other in the vast empire. ”

“ In the middle of the sixteenth century there was no Manchu Empire, and the Manchus themselves were wild, uncultured barbarians without any written language, living in caves which they hollowed in the earth, and engaged in constant warfare with other tribes living like themselves in the northern part of that country which we call Manchuria, the central and southern part being inhabited by the Chinese. In the year 1559 Noorhachu was born, with the prospect of becoming ruler over six little hamlets ”

“ By comparing the Chinese of these dialogues the interesting fact will be noticed that certain peculiarities of Pekingese are Manchuisms foreign to ordinary “Mandarin.”
1 2 3 4 ᡩᠣᠨᠵᡳᠴᡳ ᠰᡳ ᡨᡝ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝ ᡨᠠᠴᡳᠮᠪᡳ ᠰᡝᠮᠪᡳ᠈ ᡠᠮᡝᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ᠈ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᡤᡳᠰᡠᠨ ᠰᡝᡵᡝᠩᡤᡝ᠈ ᠮᡠᠰᡝᡳ ᡠᠵᡠᡳ ᡠᠵᡠ ᠣᠶᠣᠩᡤᠣ ᠪᠠᡳᡨᠠ᠈ ᡠᡨᡥᠠᡳ ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠰᠠᡳ ᠮᡝᠨᡳ ᠮᡝᠨᡳ ᠪᠠ ‍ᡳ ᡤᡳᠰᡠᠨ ‍ᡳ ᠠᡩᠠᠯᡳ᠈ ᠪᠠᡥᠠᠨᠠᡵᠠᡴᡡᠴᡳ ᠣᠮᠪᡳᠣ᠈ Senior. So I hear you are studying Manchu, eh? that’s right. Manchu is with us Manchus the first and foremost of essentials; it is to us, in short, what the language spoken in his own part of the country is to a Chinese ”

“ War and devastation have been the sphere in which their activity has chiefly manifested itself. Some of them have shown for a time no mean capacity in governing and managing their conquests. But they have had no aptitude for helping the advance of civilization, and but little, in general, even for appropriating the knowledge and culture of their subjects or their neighbours. The Manchus have written their language during some centuries past; but they have nothing which deserves the name of a national literature; their books are translations or servile imitations of Chinese works. ”

“ In four centuries of ease and sloth they have lost the wild courage, the spirit of adventure that inspired them to overrun China, and the hardihood and skill at arms that brought success to their venture. But if they have lost the warlike instincts of their savage ancestors, they have retained all their pride, their ignorance, their cruelty, and their superstition. All these qualities a Manchu possesses far in excess of the liberal share that nature has bestowed on the Chinese. ”

“ Executed under the eyes of intelligent princes, they form a reliable expression of the meaning of the Chinese text and have therefore a right to acceptance equal to that enjoyed by commentaries of good writers. Manchu being infinitely easier to learn than Chinese, these translations are a great help towards obtaining a clear insight into Chinese syntax, and scholars like Stanislas Julien, who owed the remarkable precision in his renderings to his knowledge of Manchu, have repeatedly pointed this out. ”

“ The climate of this country is so inhospitable, as to prove a serious obstacle in the way of its settlement and cultivation.
The Manchus have no national literature; all the books written in their language are translations of Chinese works, made under the superintendence of the Academies at Moukden and Peking. Their written characters are derived from the Mongols, but have undergone many changes. ”

“ So large a percentage of Manchus in the highest positions tends to indicate a retrograde administration, as the Manchus are, as a race, very inferior to the Chinese in intelligence and capacity, and their appointment to important positions is viewed with disfavour by the Chinese themselves. The Dowager-Empress has sent special instructions both to Moukden and Kirin to raise the present standard of the Manchu schools in those towns to that existing in the ordinary schools in Peking."- Great Britain, Papers by Command, China, Number 1, 1900, page 129. ”

“ The uniqueness of the story lies [15] in the fact that when the Manchus conquered China they were merely a horde of savages attacking a highly educated people, infinitely their superiors in number and resources. They not only conquered them, but for centuries they imposed their yoke upon them, always hated, yet always obeyed. As the centuries elapsed the Manchus grew weaker in their own country, and never fused with the conquered race. In China proper they still live apart; walled Manchu cities may be found within many walled Chinese cities ”

“ But on that day he, the despised Chinese coolie, had had the whip-hand.
"A Manchu you are!" he had said; and his eyes had glistened triumphantly through meager almond slits. "A Manchu indeed! A Pao-i bannerman, an aristocrat—sloughing your will and your passions as snakes cast their skin, brooking no master but yourself and the black desert thunder! ”

“ All the Altaic languages show this peculiarity, the Turkish dialects the most, the Tungusic and Manchu the least. Within stems this harmony of vowels is of interest only to the philologist, but as most of the affixes in Manchu offer the choice between 2 or even 3 vowels (e.g. ha, ho, he; la, le; hon, hun, hūn) , a few rules are necessary to show which vowels should be used.
Stems terminating in a, e or o, take the same vowel in the affix: sula-ha left behind; mute-re being able to; tokto-ho fixed. Exceptions are given under “Verbs.” ”

“ There was to be a university in Peking, and the temples, which cover the empire in all directions, were to be closed to religious services and opened for educational purposes. The Manchus, indeed, have never shown any signs of a religious temperament. There had not been, under the dynasty in question, any such wave of devotional fervour as was experienced under more than one previous dynasty. Neither the dreams of Buddhism, nor the promises of immortality held out by the Taoist, seem to have influenced in a religious, as opposed to a superstitious sense, the rather Bœotian mind of the Manchu. ”

“ It was henceforth to be lawful for Manchus, even of the Imperial family, to send their sons abroad to be educated,—a step which no Manchu would be likely to take unless forcibly coerced into doing so. Any spirit of enterprise which might have been possessed by the founders of the dynasty had long since evaporated, and all that Manchu nobles asked was to be allowed to batten in peace upon the Chinese people. ”

“ Like all minorities that try to intrench their privileges, the Manchu is much of a “snob”. It is not uncommon to hear this sneer at Peking regarding the Chinese women of the south: “Oh, she’s a woman from the southern provinces; you can’t expect manners from her.” The fact is that the Chinese women of Nanking, Hangchow, Soochow, Canton and other southern cities have more refined manners314 than the rough-riding Manchus, the daughters of raiders. The wearing of the queue and the skull cap is a Manchu custom, imposed in the seventeenth century upon the conquered Chinese. ”

“ I noticed the long flowing robe of the Manchu women, with the Manchu head-dress and a remarkable arrangement of hair on a frame, spreading at the back with a sort of elongated butterfly effect, and held in place by a bright gold hairpin. The bands of hair are brought over in a way to give the impression of long loops, and they are decorated with bright flowers. The Manchu women are taller than the Chinese women, and walk with a statelier tread, as their feet have never been bound, the present Empress many years ago having issued an edict prohibiting that custom. ”

“ The Manchus have never mingled with the Chinese. All the large cities, even to distant Canton and Yunnan, 1,200 and 1,400 miles away from the center of power, have separate walled Manchu cities, or Tartar cities as they are generally called, which were taken from the original Chinese. In an effort to appease the complaints of insurgents, the Regent Prince Chun in 1909 recalled the edict which until that late year prohibited Manchus from marrying Chinese. ”

“ Not one, however, of the numerous secret societies, which from time to time have flourished in China, can compare for a moment either in numbers or organization with the formidable association known as the Heaven and Earth Society, and also as the Triad Society, or Hung League, which dates from the reign of Yung Chêng, and from first to last has had one definite aim,—the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty. ”

“ As a next step in reform, the examination system was to be remodelled, but not in the one sense in which it would have appealed most to the Chinese people. Examinations for Manchus have always been held separately, and the standard attained has always been very far below that reached by Chinese candidates, so that the scholarship of the Manchu became long ago a by-word and a joke. Now, in 1904, it was settled that entry to an official career should be obtainable only through the modern educational colleges ”

“ It is a cumbrous monetary system, but well in keeping with all that is Chinese.
We are in the midst of a moving scene of life. Here the descendant of the Tartar soldiery carrying a cage of performing birds, or a stick with a chaffinch tied to it. It is the thing perhaps that he values most of all his possessions, and you will often see the Manchu kneeling on the grass, collecting grasshoppers on which to feed his favourite. Very cruel to them also they often are, sewing up their eyes so that they cannot see to escape. ”