Page 19 - PIAC
P. 19
ion and Nations in the Qing Empire: a
BoundlessHomeland Terminology of Territorial
Administration
Oliver Corff
Independent Scholar, Germany
During the Conquest of Inner Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Manju
rulers of the Qing Empire brought extensive areas inhabited by numerous
non-Manju, non-Chinese nationalities under their control. The administrative
challenge was two-fold. One task was civil administration which had to be
implemented in the new dominions, for which, together with the attempt to
establish Chinese-style officialdom, Chinese terminology was translated into
languages like Manju, Mongolian and Turki. Another task was the military
administration and the system of ranks which included non-Manju soldiers.
A well-known multi-lingual dictionary of the Qianlong period (the Pentaglot
dictionary, compiled late 18th century) offers a systematic insight into how
these fields of terminology were treated in the languages just mentioned, which
lexical differences can be found between these languages, and which status
was attributed to each nationality. Besides the Pentaglot, the author consults
additional sources for comparison.
BoundlessHomeland Terminology of Territorial
Administration
Oliver Corff
Independent Scholar, Germany
During the Conquest of Inner Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Manju
rulers of the Qing Empire brought extensive areas inhabited by numerous
non-Manju, non-Chinese nationalities under their control. The administrative
challenge was two-fold. One task was civil administration which had to be
implemented in the new dominions, for which, together with the attempt to
establish Chinese-style officialdom, Chinese terminology was translated into
languages like Manju, Mongolian and Turki. Another task was the military
administration and the system of ranks which included non-Manju soldiers.
A well-known multi-lingual dictionary of the Qianlong period (the Pentaglot
dictionary, compiled late 18th century) offers a systematic insight into how
these fields of terminology were treated in the languages just mentioned, which
lexical differences can be found between these languages, and which status
was attributed to each nationality. Besides the Pentaglot, the author consults
additional sources for comparison.
