[Excerpted and Recorded Manchu Phrases]. Containing Ch.: Ya shu ming mu ????, Ma.: Jurgan yamun-i gebu [Titles of Government Offices]; Ch.: Gong wen cheng yu ????, Ma.: Siden-i bithe icihiyara de baitalara toktoho gisun [Fixed Expressions for Use When Preparing Official Documents]; Ch.: Guan xian ming mu ????, Ma.: Hafan hergen-i gebu [Titles of Official Ranks]; & Ch.: Zhe zou cheng yu ????, Ma.: Wesimbure bithe icihiyara de baitalara toktoho gisun [Fixed Expressions for Use When Preparing Memorials]

QING YU ZHAI CHAO ????

About this Item

Four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching, orig. title slips on wrappers (some a little torn). Beijing: San huai tang ???, 1889-90. First or early edition of this collection of Manchu-Chinese vocabularies with official terms. Manchu was one of the official languages of the Qing empire, and down to the fall of the Manchu dynasty in 1911, certain kinds of government records were kept either in Manchu or in bilingual Manchu-Chinese form. The government recruited bannermen as clerks, largely selected through examinations in Manchu-Chinese translation, who prepared most of these documents. Our collection targeted these clerks and candidates for the examinations, but also bannermen officials holding other posts who would have to compose documents in Manchu. By the scholar Chunhua s count, Ya shu ming mu contains 416 Manchu-Chinese phrases, including the names of the boards and their subordinate offices, place names in Beijing, the names of palaces, halls, and counties. Gong wen cheng yu contains 1266 phrases used in official prose, whereas Guan xian ming mu contains 780 bilingual titles including reign titles, titles of civil and military officials, and titles of the nobility. Zhe zou cheng yu, finally, contains 573 bilingual phrases useful for writing memorials. Together, the books provide much of the base vocabulary needed by civil servants. Sometimes, the Manchu version of a phrase is more literal than the corresponding Chinese, making these books useful for interpreting occasionally obtuse turns of phrase. For example, qian li ma ???, "a thousand-li horse," is glossed in Manchu as bithe benere niyalma, "a person delivering a document." The books were printed between the 3rd and the 12th month of Guangxu 15 (1889-90). Three Beijing commercial publishers issued the set in that year: Juzhen tang ???, Mingde tang ???, and Sanhuai tang, our publisher. It is well known that woodblocks moved around among the commercial publishers of Beijing, so probably copies with these different imprints are to be considered the same edition. We do not know which of the publishers printed the book first. The title Qing yu zhai chao does not appear in our collection, but the four titles included here were marketed under this title, hence our inference. The box, which is new, has an original title slip with the title Ch.: Ya shu ming mu ????, Ma.: Jurgan yamun-i gebu, which is one of the four works included. Yet this is not the title of the collection as a whole. Fine set, some marginal worming, not touching characters, and some minor dampstaining. Preserved in a hantao. ? Chunhua ??, Qingdai Man-Mengwen cidian yanjiu ?????????, 486-88.

Seller Inventory # 9996

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [Excerpted and Recorded Manchu Phrases]. Containing Ch.: Ya shu ming mu ????, Ma.: Jurgan yamun-i gebu [Titles of Government Offices]; Ch.: Gong wen cheng yu ????, Ma.: Siden-i bithe icihiyara de baitalara toktoho gisun [Fixed Expressions for Use When Preparing Official Documents]; Ch.: Guan xian ming mu ????, Ma.: Hafan hergen-i gebu [Titles of Official Ranks]; & Ch.: Zhe zou cheng yu ????, Ma.: Wesimbure bithe icihiyara de baitalara toktoho gisun [Fixed Expressions for Use When Preparing ...
• Binding: Soft cover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Dictionary
  • China
  • Chinese
  • Manchu
  • Asia (Antiquarian)