Editing Manchu language (section)

==History and significance==
[[Image:Manchu chinese.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque at the [[Forbidden City]] in [[Beijing]], in both Chinese (left, {{zh|labels=no|t=乾清門|p=qián qīng mén}}) and Manchu (right, {{lang|mnc-Latn|kiyan cing men}})]]
[[File:Dulimbai gurun.svg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Official designation for China in Manchu, reads vertically to the next word to the right: {{lang|mnc-Latn|"Dulimbai gurun"}} (the Central country = [[China]]).]]

=== Historical linguistics ===
Manchu is southern [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]]. Whilst Northern Tungus languages such as [[Evenki language|Evenki]] retain traditional structure, the Chinese language is a source of major influence upon Manchu, altering its form and vocabulary.<ref name="Ramsey1987">{{cite book|author=S. Robert Ramsey|title=The Languages of China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2E_5nR0SoXoC&pg=PA213|year=1987|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-01468-X|pages=213–}}</ref>

In 1635 [[Hong Taiji]] renamed the [[Jurchen people]] and [[Jurchen language]] as 'Manchu'. The Jurchen are the ancestors of the Manchu and ruled over the later [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)]].

=== Decline of use ===
Manchu began as a primary language of the [[Qing dynasty]] Imperial court, but as Manchu officials became increasingly [[Sinicization|sinicized]], many started losing the language. Trying to preserve the Manchu identity, the imperial government instituted Manchu language classes and examinations for the [[Eight Banners|bannermen]], offering rewards to those who excelled in the language. Chinese classics and fiction were translated into Manchu and a body of [[Manchu literature]] accumulated.{{sfnb|von Möllendorff|1890}} As the [[Yongzheng Emperor]] (reigned 1722–1735) explained, <blockquote>"If some special encouragement ... is not offered, the ancestral language will not be passed on and learned."<ref name="rhoads">Edward J. M. Rhoads, ''Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928.'' University of Washington Press, 2000. Pages 52–54. {{ISBN|0-295-98040-0}}. Partially available [https://books.google.com/books?id=QiM2pF5PDR8C on Google Books]</ref> </blockquote>Still, the use of the language among the bannermen declined throughout the 18th century. Historical records report that as early as 1776, the [[Qianlong Emperor]] was shocked to see a Manchu official, Guo'ermin, not understand what the emperor was telling him in Manchu, despite coming from the Manchu stronghold of Shengjing (now [[Shenyang]]).<ref>Yu Hsiao-jung, [http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/colloque/diaporamas/yu2.pdf Manchu Rule over China and the Attrition of the Manchu Language] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619102136/http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/colloque/diaporamas/yu2.pdf |date=19 June 2013 }}</ref> By the 19th century, even the imperial court had lost fluency in the language. The [[Jiaqing Emperor]] (reigned 1796–1820) complained that his officials were not proficient at understanding or writing Manchu.<ref name="rhoads" />

By the end of the 19th century, the language had declined to such an extent that even at the office of the Shengjing general, the only documents written in Manchu (rather than Chinese) would be the memorials wishing the emperor long life; during the same period, the archives of the [[Hulan District|Hulan]] banner detachment in Heilongjiang show that only 1% of the bannermen could read Manchu and no more than 0.2% could speak it.<ref name="rhoads" /> Nonetheless, as late as 1906–1907, Qing education and military officials insisted that schools teach Manchu language and that the officials testing soldiers' [[marksmanship]] continue to conduct an oral examination in Manchu.<ref>Rhoads (2000), p. 95.</ref>

The use of the language for the official documents declined throughout Qing history as well. In particular, at the beginning of the dynasty, some documents on sensitive political and military issues were submitted in Manchu but not in Chinese.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/world/asia/18manchu_side.html|title=Manchu Language Lives Mostly in Archives|last=Lague|first=David|date=17 March 2007|work=The New York Times|access-date=8 August 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Later on, some Imperial records in Manchu continued to be produced until the last years of the dynasty.<ref name="rhoads" /> In 1912 the Qing was overthrown, most Manchus could not speak their language, and the [[Beijing dialect]] replaced Manchu.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=93onvmXF1r0C&pg=PA209|title=Books in Numbers: Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard-Yenching Library : Conference Papers|date=2007|publisher=Chinese University Press|isbn=978-9629963316|editor-last=Idema|editor-first=Wilt L.|volume=8 of Harvard-Yenching Institute studies|page=209|issue=Issue 8 of Harvard–Yenching Library studies}}</ref>

=== Use of Manchu ===
A large number of Manchu documents remain in the archives, important for the study of Qing-era China. Today, written Manchu can still be seen on architecture inside the [[Forbidden City]], whose historical signs are written in both [[Chinese character|Chinese]] and Manchu. Another limited use of the language was for voice commands in the Qing army, attested as late as 1878.<ref name="rhoads" />

Bilingual Chinese-Manchu inscriptions appeared on many things.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bANasl7nayUC&pg=PA382|title=Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900|last=Naquin|first=Susan|date=2000|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0520923456|page=382}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OXQkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA61|title=Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861-1928|last=Rhoads|first=Edward J. M.|date=2017|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0295997483|page=61}}</ref>

===Manchu studies during the Qing dynasty===
A [[Jiangsu]] Han Chinese named [[Shen Qiliang]] wrote books on Manchu grammar, including ''Guide to Qing Books'' ({{lang-zh|labels=no|t=清書指南}}; ''Manju bithe jy nan'') and ''Great Qing Encyclopedia'' ({{lang-zh|labels=no|t=大清全書}}; ''Daicing gurun-i yooni bithe''). His father was a naval officer for the Qing and his grandfather was an official of the Ming dynasty before rebels murdered him. Shen Qiliang himself fought against the [[Three Feudatories]] as part of the Qing army. He then started learning Manchu and writing books on Manchu grammar from Bordered Yellow Manchu Bannermen in 1677 after moving to Beijing. He translated the [[Hundred Family Names]] and [[Thousand Character Classic]] into Manchu and spent 25 years on the Manchu language. Shen wrote: "I am a Han. But all my life I have made a hobby of Manchu." Shen didn't have to learn Manchu as part of his job because he was never an official, so he seems to have studied it voluntarily. Most Han people were not interested in learning non-Han languages, so it is not known why Shen was doing it, but he did praise Manchu writing, saying that it was simpler and clearer than Chinese.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adolphson |first=Mikael S. |editor-last=Hanan |editor-first=Patrick |date=2003 |title=Treasures of the Yenching: Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard-Yenching Library : Exhibition Catalogue |issue=Issue 1 of Harvard–Yenching Library studies |volume=1 of Harvard-Yenching Library studies: Harvard Yenching Library |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OksPvlsQOZEC&pg=PA84 |publisher=Chinese University Press |page=84 |isbn=9629961024 }}</ref>

A [[Hangzhou]] Han Chinese, [[Chen Mingyuan]], helped edit the book ''Introduction to the Qing language'' ({{lang|zh-hant|清文啟蒙}}; ''Cing wen ki meng bithe''), which was co-written by a Manchu named Uge. Uge gave private Manchu language classes, which were attended by his friend Chen. Chen arranged for its printing.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adolphson |first=Mikael S. |editor-last=Hanan |editor-first=Patrick |date=2003 |title=Treasures of the Yenching: Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard-Yenching Library : Exhibition Catalogue |issue=Issue 1 of Harvard–Yenching Library studies |volume=1 of Harvard-Yenching Library studies: Harvard Yenching Library |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OksPvlsQOZEC&pg=PA85 |publisher=Chinese University Press |page=85 |isbn=9629961024 }}</ref>

==== Hanlin ====
Han Chinese at the [[Hanlin Academy]] studied the Manchu language in the Qing. The Han Chinese Hanlin graduate [[Qi Yunshi]] knew the Manchu language and wrote a book in Chinese on the frontier regions of China by translating and using the Manchu-language sources in the [[Grand Secretariat]]'s archives.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mosca |first=Mathew W. |date=December 2011 |journal=Late Imperial China |volume=32|issue=2|title= The Literati rewriting of China in The QianLong-Jiaqing Transition |url=https://www.academia.edu/6928995 |publisher=the Society for Qing Studies and The Johns Hopkins University Press |pages=106–107 |doi=10.1353/late.2011.0012 |s2cid=144227944 }}</ref> In 1740, Hanlin Academy expelled the Han Chinese [[Yuan Mei]] for not succeeding in his Manchu studies. Injišan, and Ortai, both Manchus, funded his work.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mosca |first=Mathew W.|date=2010 |journal=[[Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies]] |volume=70 |issue=1|title= Empire and the Circulation of Frontier Intelligence Qing Conceptions of the Ottomans |url=https://www.academia.edu/6928985 |publisher=The Harvard-Yenching Institute |page=181 |doi=10.1353/jas.0.0035|s2cid=161403630}}</ref> The Han Chinese [[Yan Changming]] had the ability to read [[Tibetic languages|Tibetan]], [[Oirat language|Oirat]], and Mongolian.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mosca |first=Mathew W.|date=2010 |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=70 |issue=1|title= Empire and the Circulation of Frontier Intelligence Qing Conceptions of the Ottomans |url=https://www.academia.edu/6928985 |publisher=The Harvard-Yenching Institute |page=182 |doi=10.1353/jas.0.0035|s2cid=161403630}}</ref> Han Chinese officials learned languages on the frontier regions and Manchu in order to be able to write and compile their writings on the region.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mosca |first=Mathew W.|date=2010 |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=70 |issue=1|title= Empire and the Circulation of Frontier Intelligence Qing Conceptions of the Otomans |url=https://www.academia.edu/6928985 |publisher=The Harvard-Yenching Institute |page=176 |doi=10.1353/jas.0.0035|s2cid=161403630}}</ref>

A Manchu-language course over three years was required for the highest ranking Han degree holders from Hanlin but not all Han literati were required to study Manchu.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rhoads |first=Edward J. M. |date=2017 |title=Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OXQkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 |publisher=University of Washington Press |page=62 |isbn=978-0295997483 }}</ref> Towards the end of the Qing it was pointed out that a lot of Bannermen themselves did not know Manchu anymore and that, in retrospect, "the founding emperors of the (Qing) dynasty (had been) unable to coerce the country's ministers and people to learn the national writing and national speech (Manchu)".<ref>{{cite book |last=Rhoads |first=Edward J. M. |date=2017 |title=Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OXQkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |publisher=University of Washington Press |page=109 |isbn=978-0295997483 }}</ref>

==== Translation between Chinese and Manchu ====
Chinese fiction books were translated into Manchu.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NkH2zGNRmkAC&pg=PA321|title=Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China|date=2005|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0520927796|volume=27 of Studies on China|page=321}}</ref> Bannermen wrote fiction in the Chinese language.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=93onvmXF1r0C&pg=PA215|title=Books in Numbers: Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard-Yenching Library : Conference Papers|date=2007|publisher=Chinese University Press|isbn=978-9629963316|editor-last=Idema|editor-first=Wilt L.|volume=8 of Harvard-Yenching Institute studies|page=215|issue=Issue 8 of Harvard–Yenching Library studies}}</ref> [[Huang Taiji]] had Chinese books translated into Manchu.<ref>{{cite book |last= Kuo |first=Ping Wen |date=1915 |edition=2|title=The Chinese System of Public Education, Issue 64 |issue=Issue 64 of Contributions to education|volume=64 of Teachers College New York, NY: Contrib. to education |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TcdAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA58 |publisher=Teachers College, Columbia University |page=58 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date=1915 |title=Contributions to Education, Issue 64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nIpCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA58 |publisher=Bureau of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. |page=58 }}</ref> Han Chinese and Manchus helped Jesuits write and translate books into Manchu and Chinese.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jami |first=Catherine|author-link=Cathérine Jami |edition=illustrated |date=2012 |title=The Emperor's New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority During the Kangxi Reign (1662–1722) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9oUDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=167 |isbn=978-0199601400}}</ref> Manchu books were published in [[Beijing]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NkH2zGNRmkAC&pg=PA323|title=Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China|date=2005|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0520927796|volume=27 of Studies on China|page=323}}</ref>

The [[Qianlong Emperor]] commissioned projects such as new Manchu dictionaries, both monolingual and multilingual like the [[Pentaglot Dictionary|Pentaglot]]. Among his directives were to eliminate directly borrowed loanwords from Chinese and replace them with [[calque]] translations which were put into new Manchu dictionaries. This showed in the titles of Manchu translations of Chinese works during his reign which were direct translations contrasted with Manchu books translated during the [[Kangxi Emperor]]'s reign which were Manchu transliterations of the Chinese characters.

The Pentaglot was based on the ''Yuzhi Siti Qing Wenjian'' ({{lang|zh-hant|御製四體清文鑑}}; "Imperially-Published Four-Script Textual Mirror of Qing"), with [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]] added as a fifth language.<ref>{{cite book|title=Chinese Lexicography : A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911|first1=Heming|last1=Yong|first2=Jing|last2=Peng|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYFBtTUZFxEC&pg=PA398|page=398|isbn=978-0191561672|access-date=24 April 2014}}</ref> The four-language version of the dictionary with Tibetan was in turn based on an earlier three-language version with Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese called the "Imperially-Published Manchu Mongol Chinese Three pronunciation explanation mirror of Qing" ({{lang|zh-hant|御製滿珠蒙古漢字三合切音清文鑑}}), which was in turn based on the "Imperially-Published Revised and Enlarged mirror of Qing" ({{lang|zh-hant|御製增訂清文鑑}}) in Manchu and Chinese, which used both Manchu script to transcribe Chinese words and [[Transcription into Chinese characters|Chinese characters to transcribe]] Manchu words with [[fanqie]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Chinese Lexicography : A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911|first1=Heming|last1=Yong|first2=Jing|last2=Peng|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYFBtTUZFxEC&pg=PA397|page=397|isbn=978-0191561672|access-date=24 April 2014}}</ref>

====Studies by outsiders====
A number of European scholars in the 18th century were frustrated by the difficulties in reading Chinese, with its "complicated" [[Hanzi|writing system]] and [[Classical Chinese|classical]] writing style. They considered Manchu translations, or parallel Manchu versions, of many Chinese documents and literary works very helpful for understanding the original Chinese. [[Joseph-Anna-Marie de Moyriac de Mailla|De Moyriac de Mailla]] (1669–1748) benefited from the existence of the parallel Manchu text when translating the historical compendium ''[[Zizhi Tongjian Gangmu|Tongjian Gangmu]]'' (''Tung-chien Kang-mu''; {{lang|zh-hant|资治通鉴纲目}}). [[Jean Joseph Marie Amiot|Jean Joseph Amiot]], a [[Jesuit]] scholar, consulted Manchu translations of Chinese works as well, and wrote that the Manchu language "would open an easy entrance to penetrate ... into the labyrinth of Chinese literature of all ages."<ref name="repo1844">Anonymous, "Considerations on the language of communication between the Chinese and European governments", in ''The Chinese Repository'', vol XIII, June 1844, no. 6, pp. 281–300. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6wEMAAAAYAAJ Available on Google Books]. Modern reprint exists, {{ISBN|1-4021-5630-8}}</ref>

[[File:Kangxi-Lugou-rebuilding-stele-text-fragment-3582.jpg|thumb|The [[Kangxi Emperor]]'s stele near [[Lugou Bridge]], with parallel Chinese and Manchu text]]
Study of the Manchu language by Russian sinologists started in the early 18th century, soon after the founding of the [[Chinese Orthodox Church#Russian Mission|Russian Orthodox Mission]] in Beijing, to which most early Russian sinologists were connected.<ref name=gorelova>Liliya M. Gorelova, "Manchu Grammar." Brill, Leiden, 2002. {{ISBN|90-04-12307-5}}</ref> {{Wikidata fallback link|Q27260651}} <!---Illarion Kalinovich Rossokhin-->(died 1761) translated a number of Manchu works, such as ''The history of Kangxi's conquest of the Khalkha and Oirat nomads of the Great Tartary, in five parts'' ({{lang|ru|История о завоевании китайским ханом Канхием калкаского и элетского народа, кочующего в Великой Татарии, состоящая в пяти частях}}), as well as some legal treatises and a Manchu–Chinese dictionary. In the late 1830s, [[Georgy M. Rozov]] translated from Manchu the ''History of the Jin (Jurchen) Dynasty''.<ref name=larichev>''История золотой империи''. (''The History of the Jin (Jurchen) Dynasty'') Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch. Novosibirsk, 1998. 2 {{ISBN|5-7803-0037-2}}. [http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus11/Zinschi/red.htm Editor's preface] {{in lang|ru}}</ref> A school to train Manchu language translators was started in [[Irkutsk]] in the 18th century, and existed for a fairly long period.<ref name=larichev/>

An anonymous author remarked in 1844 that the transcription of Chinese words in Manchu alphabet, available in the contemporary Chinese–Manchu dictionaries, was more useful for learning the pronunciation of Chinese words than the inconsistent [[Romanization of Chinese|romanizations]] used at the time by the writers transcribing Chinese words in English or French books.<ref name=repo1844/>

In 1930, the German sinologist [[:de:Erich Hauer|Erich Hauer]] argued forcibly that knowing Manchu allows the scholar to render Manchu personal and place names that have been "horribly mutilated" by their Chinese transliterations and to know the meanings of the names. He goes on that the Manchu translations of Chinese classics and fiction were done by experts familiar with their original meaning and with how best to express it in Manchu, such as in the Manchu translation of the ''[[Peiwen yunfu]]''. Because Manchu is not difficult to learn, it "enables the student of Sinology to use the Manchu versions of the classics [...] in order to verify the meaning of the Chinese text".{{sfnb|Hauer|1930|p=162-163}}