Substance Abuse Among Bannermen and Banner Self- perception: An Analysis of Qing Language Primers

Bannermen were a core element of the Qing dynasty and guaranteed their military grip on China. Yet the original image of the hardy warrior in time gave way to that of a drinking and impoverished parasite living off the court a picture that lingers to this day. Despite the publication of groundbreaking work on banner society published in the last few years, many aspects of banner life still need to be examined in greater depth, such as how the bannermen themselves came to terms with the new changing conditions in their lives and how they perceived themselves. The portrayal of substance abuse among bannermen in Qing language primers allows for intruiging conclusions on the life of bannermen, their selfperception above all. A translation and analysis of these hitherto neglected sources reveal that their reputation as mere language textbooks consisting of set phrases is undeserved.

Substance Abuse Among Bannermen and Banner Self-perception: An Analysis of Qing Language Primers

Yves Trachsel
University of Zurich Volume 15, 2018 Special Issue: Manchu in Transregional History Bannermen were a core element of the Qing dynasty and guaranteed their military grip on China.Yet the original image of the hardy warrior in time gave way to that of a drinking and impoverished parasite living off the court -a picture that lingers to this day.Despite the publication of groundbreaking work on banner society published in the last few years, many aspects of banner life still need to be examined in greater depth, such as how the bannermen themselves came to terms with the new changing conditions in their lives and how they perceived themselves.The portrayal of substance abuse among bannermen in Qing language primers allows for intruiging conclusions on the life of bannermen, their self-perception above all.A translation and analysis of these hitherto neglected sources reveal that their reputation as mere language textbooks consisting of set phrases is undeserved.

Introduction
Apart from their penchant for alcohol, their drinking and eating habits are extremely coarse, and they have taken on foolish behaviour.They do not know how to budget their money, they do not attend to their proper duties and shy away from toilsome work assignments.After getting their monthly stipends, they often gather to intoxicate themselves in local shops and they have used up all their money before the end of the day.After being fully inebriated they stumble in the streets and lie there without anyone taking any interest in them.There are numerous wine shops in the provincial capital, which are mostly run by Hui people from Shandong.Half of their [the bannermen's] pay as soldiers is spent this way. 1 This citation from the Heilongjiang zhigao 黑龍江志稿 (Chronicles of Heilongjiang) 2 for the late Qing about the eating and drinking habits of local bannermen ("Yinshi fengsu" 飲食風俗) is one among many sources illustrating the toll substance abuse took on their life and livelihood.The fact that this description made it into the section on eating and drinking habits illustrates that such behavior must have been a normal condition.
Bannermen 3 were members of a socio-military organization referred to as the Eight 1. 嗜酒之外，飲饌極菲。然顓愚成性。不知計算且習於遊惰稍近勞力之役轍避不前。八旗兵丁領得月餉，每三 五成群，甘飲市肆，一日未終，罄諸所有。而後已醉，則隨路倒臥，亦無人過問之.省城酒肆極多，大率山 東回民執此為業。練兵餉項半耗於此矣.2. Zhang Boying 張伯英 and Wan Fulin 萬福麟, Heilongjiang zhigao 黑龍江志稿 (Beiping: Wenhai chubanshe, 1932), 6:664.3. The terms bannermen and Manchu are used somewhat interchangeably in this paper.This is due to the fact that the Eight Banners exerted a profound influence on Qing society throughout the Qing period, and bannerman became one, if not the, most striking marker of identity for a Manchu.This is also clearly discernible in the primers, where being Manchu is Banners (jakūn gūsa).The Jurchen chieftain Nurhaci (r.1616-1626) had founded the Eight Banners on the model of earlier hunting groups referred to as 'arrows' (niru) and arranged the whole Jurchen population in socio-military units that could be easily organized.This was considered the decisive factor in the successful conquest of Ming China and the ensuing foundation of the Qing dynasty.The Banner system was not only the pillar of Qing rule and as such vital to its military grip on the whole of China, but it also came to be the hallmark of Manchu identity in the course of the dynasty.In time, however, the banner system was confronted with serious challenges.Indebtedness and general impoverishment among bannermen became a major issue. 4Apart from the "occupational ban" 5 which is often cited as the main reason for this, some sources, which I will present in this paper, suggest that excessive drinking was also responsible for the financial ruin of many bannermen.
Although the last three decades have seen the publication of several outstanding works about the bannermen and their lives, such as Mark C. Elliott's The Manchu Way  (2001), Pamela Kyle Crossley's Orphan Warriors (1990), and Liu Xiaomeng's 刘小萌 Qingdai Beijing qiren shehui 清代北京旗人社会 (2008), none of these works treated in depth the influence of alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking on banner life.Furthermore, none included a detailed analysis of Manchu primers as historical sources.The goal of the paper is thus to take a tentative step in this direction and establish how alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking are represented in primers and what conclusions can be drawn from this presentation regarding the social life of the bannermen and how they perceived themselves and their lives.I will tackle this task with a thorough translation 6 and analysis of a series of dialogues taken from Qing language primers, a genre that has received no structural text criticism so far and contains numerous dialogues about the aforementioned two topics.
The genre of primers 7 can be divided into relatively formal primers on the one hand, and "word snippets" (hua tiaozi 話條子) on the other.An example for the former is equivalent to being a member of the Eight Banners.See Mark C. Elliott, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001).In the dialogues analysed here, the word age is also used to refer to bannermen.4.This problem is commonly referred to as the "Problem of the Eight Banner Livelihood" (baqi shengji wenti 八旗生計問 題).Elliott, The Manchu Way, 196. 5. Bannermen were forbidden from pursuing other means livelihood other than being soldiers or officials, which made them financially dependent on the court.As a result, the strain on the imperial treasury was immense.This regulation was not lifted until 1863, and its elimination contributed little to improving most bannermen's finances.In the last few decades of the dynasty, bannermen had acquired a bad reputation for merely living off the pensions and grain provided by the court.By that time, the economically deflated but egotistically inflated bannermen had already become a stock character of popular literature.See Pamela Kyle Crossley, Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 176.6.In cases where a too literate translation would have impeded comprehension, I have opted for a freer rendering into English.7.For a more detailed and well-structured introduction into the history of this genre please refer to: Tatjana A. "Word snippets," on the other hand, are ad-hoc collections of dialogues, often compiled by the teachers themselves. 9These dialogues were rendered in a very colloquial and, frequently, highly entertaining style, not lacking the occasional heated argument and ensuing profanity.These works were employed on a daily basis at banner schools in order to familiarize young bannermen with the spoken Manchu language, and as a result contain dialogues based on events in the real life of the bannermen. 10The texts were recited together with the teacher and normally one such work was studied for one school year.There can be no gainsaying that the more formal primers partially served as models for these "word snippets."However, teachers -especially teachers at private schools -also added their own material. 11Given the fact that the episodes in the "word snippets" mirrored the lives of the bannermen, it is to be expected that they contain more insight into the daily life of the young bannermen and banner society in general, insight that can hardly be found in official records issued by the court.
After some information about the corpus, I present essential background information on the history and usage of alcohol and tobacco by the Manchus.I then elaborate on the noteworthy characteristics of each relevant dialogue found in the primers in the two sections on alcohol and tobacco in Manchu culture.The end of each section contains a short summary of the findings in the dialogues.Lastly, I put all the findings in their respective contexts and draw conclusions.

Corpus
The corpus consists of five mostly bilingual Manchu-Chinese manuscripts, which are part of a larger collection of Manchu primers referred to as "Gesprächsbücher" (con-8.Pang, Mandschurische Quellen, 129. 9. Aixin Jueluo Yingsheng 爱新觉罗瀛生, "Tantan Qingdai de Manyu jiaoxue" 谈谈清代的满语教学, Minzu yanjiu 满族  研究 1990.3:45.  10.Aixin Jueluo, "Tantan Qingdai de Manyu jiaoxue," 45. 11.Aixin Jueluo, "Tantan Qingdai de Manyu jiaoxue," 45. versation books) in the catalog, and other manuscripts belonging to the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.These manuscripts are part of the Collection Polevoj 12 consisting of approximately 150 mostly Manchu and Mongolian manuscripts that have been digitized within the framework of an ongoing digitization of the library's collection.Information about dating and authorship is scarce in the primers.One dating in Primer 3 (Hs.or.8440) goes back to 1858 (the 8th year of Xianfeng).Since the other primers I analyzed are to a great degree identical in content and structure, I propose that they were compiled around the same time.The other two datings in Primer 1 (Hs.or.8399), which is a monolingual Manchu copy of the Qingwen zhiyao 清文指要, go back to the years 1847 and 1848 (27th and 28th years of Daoguang) and merely indicate the time when the students were finished reading the manuscript in class. 13The original Qingwen zhiyao was compiled in 1809.There is also no definite way of knowing whether the bannermen in the dialogues were based in Beijing or in one of the garrisons across the country.The mention of some hutongs in other primers, however, suggests that at least some of them lived in the capital.The primers in question have been chosen mainly due to their numerous mentions of alcohol and tobacco consumption.Since they exhibit the typical characteristics of primers, they can undoubtedly be considered representative works of this genre. 14Lastly, I believe that the primers in question, the copy of the Qingwen zhiyao being the only exception, belong to the second, ad-hoc type of primers, the "word snippets."However, I will refer to them as "primers" throughout the paper for the sake of simplicity.

Alcohol in Manchu Culture
Alcohol has been a very popular consumable good in the native region of the Manchus for a long time due to cold winter temperatures and traditional herding lifestyles which shaped consumption patterns. 15Alcohol served various purposes in the lives of the Manchu people, for instance as a sacrificial offering to their gods and ancestors. 16s is well known, Manchus sometimes drank to excess, which in time prompted stern 12.For the complete collection, please refer to Hartmut Walravens, Chinesische und mandjurische Handschriften und seltene Drucke (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009).The digitized manuscripts are available in the online catalogue of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/.13.Doro Eldengge i juwan nadaci aniya omšon biya de hūlame wajiha and Doro Eldengge i juwan jakūci aniya biyai juwan duin de hūlame wajiha.14.I am currently preparing an integral translation and critical edition of all the primers in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, forthcoming in early 2019 (Manchu Foundation Publishing).This project enables me to examine an increased quantity of primers, a task which I was not able to fulfill in the paper at hand given the limited space.15.Norman Smith, Intoxicating Manchuria: Alcohol, Opium, and  reactions from the ruling class.Nurhaci already perceived alcohol as a threat to the discipline and health of his subjects and issued an edict banning its excessive consumption.The drinking problem of bannermen, however, proved to be a constant and vexing problem for the court.An edict by the Yongzheng emperor (r.1722-1735) treated this subject: "Among Eight Banner officers and soldiers are many who drink and drink and get so intoxicated that their appearance [permanently] changes.Taking life as a lark, they lose all their property and behave wildly and disgracefully . . . .I feel sorry and pity these people, and desire that they . . .be given a year or two to reform their ways." 17The emperor obviously bemoaned the self-indulgent behavior of some bannermen, which failed to conform to the manly virtues 18 that the court was propagating.
Drinking was by no means exclusive to bannermen, and the Chinese majority is also known to have indulged in it. 19However, the court was preoccupied with inebriated bannermen because it was responsible for their livelihood and assisted them when they found themselves in financial predicaments. 20As noted above, excessive drinking was often considered to have caused or exacerbated financial difficulties.
Literary works of the time, such as the Emu Tanggū Orin Sakda-i Gisun Sarkiyan (Erzählungen der 120 Alten, hereafter 120 Tales) rendered into German by Giovanny Stary, also treated the subject of drinking.In a passage from 120 Tales, one of the elders tells the story of a company leader who noticed that several hundred families were living a hard life because they spent a considerable amount of their money on alcohol. 21e called on the people in the company to make some drastic changes and, after they paid heed to his advice, their lives improved again. 22There is another mention in the 120 Tales 23 of the destructiveness of alcohol and its negative influence on the livelihood of people: All bad and evil things start with liquor.Only ignorant people say unreasonable things like that they need grain to distill liquor . . . .In the bigger and smaller prefectures, subprefectures, districts, and counties there aren't merely three or four distilleries, but more than ten, more than twenty, even more than thirty or forty!In the subprefecture governed by the subprefect of Köke Qota alone, there are more than three hundred distilleries.In such a shop you need, if business is slow, at least four to five hule 24 a day, and if business is thriving to the highest degree, ten or even more hule of grain to distil liquor.One big hule of grain is sufficient to feed 400 people for a whole day.And this amount of grain is processed to liquor in one instant. 25e pedagogical message of these episodes is all too obvious, but the ideal outcome in these short stories seems to be more fiction than reality.The diary written by the soldier Dzengšeo (1652-1712) illustrates that drinking was also perceived as a problem in the Eight Banners during military campaigns: "On the twentieth, since [people were] enjoying themselves spending money, drinking alcohol, and not wearing swords, Lieutenant-general Hife issued an order to the effect that those caught [in these malfeasances] would be punished." 26astly, it bears mentioning that the practice of excessive drinking was closely related to Qing-dynasty teahouse culture.The local teahouses came to feature among bannermen's favorite places of leisure 27 and they were the place-to-be for bannermen after their morning walks or bird breeding. 28Their main habits were drinking tea in the morning, alcohol during the latter half of the day, and smoking after meals. 29This trend of spending time in teahouses became even more serious in the late Qing when many bannermen were stripped of their posts and found themselves without any occupation.The first dialogue is between a bannerman with a heavy cough and a fellow banner- man who presents him with advice on how to cure it.Already in the very first lines of this dialogue, drinking is portrayed as negative, and excessive alcohol consumption is quickly identified as the reason for the age's bad cough. 30The moral message is not long in coming: The coughing bannermen is advised to cut back on his alcohol intake or stop drinking altogether: "We people should cherish our lives.Liquor isn't worth dying for" (Niyalma seme jalan de banjifi, ergen haji dabala, arki de ergen susaki sere niyalma geli bio?).After this moralistic lecture, however, the dialogue takes a twist and becomes rather entertaining.This is due to the sudden change of attitude in the drinking bannerman.When he is admonished for the first time that he should cut down on alcohol because it will only worsen his cough, he indirectly confesses to drinking by saying that he had not been drinking for a couple of days already.However, when he is admonished for a second time, he becomes irritated and starts denying any connection to liquor whatsoever: "What's that got to do with drinking anyway?How dare you!" (Omire de ai dalji?Ai geli!).This behavior seems rather typical for someone who has run out of arguments and as a result unmasks him as a drunkard.It is likely that the young bannermen studying this dialogue have witnessed such a conversation before, or even participated in one, and thus could relate to this situation.
A: Age, your cough is quite strong!B: Tell me about it.I've been coughing like this since last month, and it hasn't stopped until now.
30.The correlation between coughing and alcohol intake is less well established in the West than in China, where even ordinary people have a basic grasp of traditional Chinese medicine and know that alcohol can increase inner body heat and therefore also cause coughing.The next dialogue contains a key utterance made by one age: "Are there people that don't drink in this day and age?" (Te i forgon i niyalma omirakūngge geli bio?)It was apparently considered odd if someone did not drink.This dialogue also shows the influence of peer pressure, because the age unwilling to drink at first obviously is allergic to alcohol but still ends up drinking.This results in his face turning red, a symptom of alcohol intolerance.This dialogue also suggests that alcohol seems to have played a vital role in bonding and establishing social relationships.Lastly, one bannerman also clearly differentiates between arki "liquor" and nure "rice wine," of which the latter is supposedly weaker as it is undistilled.This rather lengthy dialogue illustrates once more how intense the social pressure concerning drinking must have been between bannermen.It is also informative about how a proper guest had to behave, namely that he should not lift his chopsticks and eat before the host touched his cup of liquor or wine.Also, there is yet again a medical component in this dialogue, and it is safe to assume that the age used to drinking has already developed a solid alcohol addiction, which is illustrated by the following utterance: "But I've always been drinking like this, I'm afraid I can't stop all of a sudden" (Damu bi seibeni omime taciha, emu erinde targame muterakū ojorahū).The other age also advises him to cut back on his alcohol intake but not to stop drinking altogether because this may be unhealthy and possibly cause withdrawal symptoms.He then enquires whether the age feels sick in the morning, which the latter denies.I assume that this is because the first age wants to evaluate whether the other age is already used to greater amounts of alcohol and whether he is in fact addicted.The host also expresses the wish that his servants should not be given alcohol, as they would no longer be able to perform their duties.The next dialogue illustrates the importance of alcohol, specifically wine, 32 in sacrifices to the ancestors.At the same time there are also people sitting under a tree and drinking.Although it is not explicitly stated that they are drinking alcohol, it is reasonable to assume that they were not merely drinking tea or water.
A: There's really been a lot of commotion these days.B: Because it's the Tomb-sweeping Festival, there are countless people leaving the city to go to the graves.Only look at the sedan chairs, the horses and the mules which are up and about on the streets.And there are also people sacrificing food and wine.And then there are also people carrying soil to the graves or burning joss money.There are groups of people hugging the graves and weeping and there are groups of people sitting in the shade of trees drinking.

Drinking 5
Primer 2 (Hs.or.8430), Pages 31-32 The next two dialogues contain more information about how alcohol was considered a social problem in the Qing dynasty.They contain admonitions to stay away from alcohol and not to befriend people who are known to indulge in drinking.In these instances, alcohol is mentioned in the same breath as gambling, another widespread vice the court tried to counteract.The apparent moral message of these dialogues is thus that drinking does not conform to proper conduct, that is, the virtues a bannerman was supposed to uphold.In the first dialogue, the rather submissive tone of the student -despite frequenting the theater on a regular basis and having a penchant for drinking -suggests that he is rather young.
A A: That guy's a mess!You shouldn't befriend him.B: Why is that?A: He drinks and gambles every day.And the friends he hangs around with are all people of the lowest kind.There is not a single one among them who's good for something.He's got poor moral conduct and knows no shame.Should one really be friends with a person like that?B: So that's what kind of person he is, I really had no idea!When it comes right down to it he'll be sober for a day or two but then he'll just keep drinking as usual.

Summary
In the dialogues above, alcohol was portrayed in different settings.In Dialogue 1, alcohol was portrayed as the cause of a health-related issue of one bannerman, who was advised not to drink anymore and presented with some advice on how to handle the symptoms.Despite the rather obvious moral message, the dialogue is also very entertaining due to the obstinate bannerman.In Dialogue 2, we see an example of peer pressure concerning drinking and a probable case of alcohol intolerance.Dialogue 3 shows us another example of peer pressure, but also a case of alcohol addiction.Furthermore, drinking is mentioned within the context of a meal.Dialogue 4 is about the function of alcohol in ancestor worship and its role during outings.In Dialogues 5 and 6, alcohol is portrayed as a social problem and mentioned in the same breath as gambling, another common vice of bannermen at the time.Dialogue 7 provides an example of how drinking hinders a servant in the fulfillment of his duties.
In all the dialogues except 5 and 6, alcohol is presented as something negative that a bannerman needs to guard himself against.Since these dialogues are said to reflect banner life, the frequency with which excessive drinking is mentioned indeed suggests that it was rampant among different strata of society.Despite the negative depiction of drinking, the occasional altercations also exhibit a certain entertainment value, as the bannermen charged with drinking are (deliberately, in my view) portrayed as stereotypical drunkards for comic effect.

Tobacco in Manchu Culture
In addition to suggesting that heavy drinking was common among bannermen, these language primers also suggest that banner people smoked heavily, regardless of gender or social position. 33It is even suggested that Qing bannermen were agents for the wider dispersal of tobacco throughout other areas of China Proper after the conquest.The arrival of banner troops in Jiangnan restimulated the local tobacco industry, and by 1670, tobacco was gradually appropriated by the Chinese upper gentry as well. 34According to the genealogist Fu Yiqiang (dates unknown), tobacco was "indispensable" for Manchu and Mongol bannermen in Sichuan, possibly because they believed it would protect them from malaria. 35A passage from the year 1630 in the Manwen laodang or Manbun rōtō 滿文老檔 (The Old Manchu Archives) -an indispensable source for events during the pre-dynastic and early dynastic period covering the years from 1607 to 1636shows that the Manchus (or their predecessors, the Jurchen) knew of tobacco and most probably also smoked it, at least among the elite.In the following account, tobacco is listed as one of various exchange goods: On the tenth day of the twelfth month, Batun Baksi, which had gone to Lio Uge in the Pi Doo village as a messenger, arrived.The tributary goods for the Emperor were 100 jin of tea, five jin of scents, 5,000 sewing needles, 200 pairs of yak horns, earrings for women, silk threads, 260 boxes of threads, and twenty taels of azurite.Batun Baksi was given thirty taels of silver, four (pieces of ) silk, one raccoon dog fur coat, one bow, and fifty bundles of tobacco. 36e use of tobacco was banned by the Ming court for the first time in 1637 and was banned repeatedly thereafter.In 1639, the Manchu court in Shenyang banned it as well.Two years later, however, Hong Taiji (r.1636-1643) admitted that the ban could not be enforced because Manchu princes continued to smoke in private, but he admonished that archery practice must not be neglected in favor of tobacco. 37Tobacco smoking quickly became common among all strata of society, an object of recreational consumption, so to say, which was not regarded as evil. 38From at least the seventeenth century on, Chinese doctors were well aware of the detrimental health effects of tobacco.However, tobacco was historically regarded as good for health in China, or at least not particularly harmful. 39Tobacco smoking was a ubiquitous phenomenon in Qing society, among both bannermen and the broader Chinese population. 40To what extent the bannermen actually smoked more than the Chinese majority, however, is hard to evaluate.Akin to the first dialogue about drinking, this dialogue portrays smoking as an activity with detrimental effects on health.A bannerman with cracked lips is advised not to smoke for several days and to abstain from eating meat or sitting on a hot kang, 41 as his companion quickly identified these habits as the main reason for his symptoms.This short conversation also comes with do-it-yourself-advice and reads like a case study out of a textbook on Chinese medicine.
Surprisingly, the moral undertone we previously encountered in the dialogues about drinking is entirely lacking.Perhaps this was because excessive smoking was less likely to ruin people's health and livelihood than drinking.
A: Age, do you want a smoke?B: No, I don't, my mouth hurts.How is it that my lips crack this badly?A: I think that may be because of inner heat.It'd be good to give up smoking tobacco.
And don't eat meat for a while and fast.After two or three days of fasting, it'll get better by itself.B: It doesn't seem to be working.I've already avoided tobacco and meat for two or three days now.But there's no sign of improvement at all.A: Don't lie on a heated kang; lie on a cold one instead.Before resting, apply some grease on your lips.The next morning it'll be better.Don't eat snacks, because they'll cause symptoms on your body again.B: Aye, I'll give it a try.The most noteworthy characteristic of this short dialogue is the exaggerated reaction of the bannerman who cannot locate his misplaced tobacco pipe bag.This dialogue, apart from familiarizing the bannermen with the most common words about smoking, was undoubtedly also added for entertainment purposes.
A: Who took the tobacco pipe bag I had put here?If you don't bring it at once, I'll rant and rave!How can it be that something I had just put here has vanished all of a sudden?B: Look for it calmly, what's there to get worked up about?A: I've looked for it everywhere, it's gone!How can I not get worked up?B: There, isn't this your tobacco pipe bag?You haven't even started looking properly and you're already throwing a tantrum!What a muddlehead you are! Smoking 3 Primer 4 (Hs.or.8460), Pages 36-38   This dialogue presents us with some information about how to properly stuff a tobacco pipe.Smoking is portrayed as a leisurely activity which can be very enjoyable if one pays attention to certain points, such as the length of the pipe, the dryness of the tobacco, and how to stuff and clean the pipe.As a result, this dialogue reads like a manual.
A: Age dambagu omime bahanambio?B: Bahanambi.A: Bring milk tea.Pack the pipe and bring it here.

Summary
In Dialogue 1, smoking is portrayed as a pastime with detrimental effects on health.
Dialogue 2 is about the vexation of a bannerman who is unable to locate his tobacco pipe bag.Dialogue 3 is a manual on what to pay attention to when smoking.In Dialogue 4, smoking is portrayed as a mere way to kill time, and in Dialogue 5 smoking is mentioned as a stimulant when drinking tea or eating a meal.The most striking point between the descriptions of drinking and smoking is that the latter lacks any moral undertone.Furthermore, smoking is only portrayed as unhealthy in Dialogue 1, compared to various such examples for drinking.Considering the frequency with which it occurs in the primers, smoking seems to have been fairly widespread among bannermen in different situations.

Conclusion
The frequency of alcohol-related dialogues is an indication that drinking indeed occupied an important position in the lives of the bannermen.This comes as little surprise, considering what relevant secondary sources say on this topic.Judging from some dialogues, this was also true for very young bannermen and servants.Drinking was thus not confined to any particular social stratum or age group.In the dialogues, drinking also played a vital role in social bonding.If a bannerman did not want to drink, he was regarded as odd, and a certain amount of peer pressure was used to make him drink.At the same time, drinking is portrayed as something negative and unhealthy, and people who are known to indulge in excessive drinking are persuaded to do otherwise or shunned.
Why are these dialogues in the primers in such large numbers?Were they added to transmit a moral message?In part, yes.Their target audience undoubtedly consisted of younger bannermen who were studying Manchu with these materials, which, as mentioned, were often compiled by teachers themselves.It it thus reasonable to assume that a teacher adapted the primers to the needs of his students and -if he saw fit to do so -possibly also added some special dialogues, for instance about excessive drinking.Maybe the teacher had caught a student drinking or heard that he was drinking on a regular basis and wanted to exert a positive influence on him.In these instances, the primers functioned as a medium for the prevention of alcoholism and can be said to have conveyed a certain moral message, because in a society where alcohol drinking was ubiquitous, younger bannermen were undoubtedly exposed by friends or family to the many dangers of drinking.
However, there is more to these primers than just the quaint moral message.Primers also presented young bannermen with two extremes of banner life: stern military training on the one hand, and merry drinking sessions on the other hand.This stark contrast between sober archery talk and intoxicated bannermen neglecting their duties is striking.However, I believe that this was daily business for the young banner students.I even suggest that this at times slightly theatrical depiction can be understood as a form of self-parody, a mechanism to cope with what was an all-too-common phenomenon.At a time when a bannerman's identity was no longer shaped by military victories and when drinking was so widespread and public, why not turn something negative in something positive and laugh at oneself?The humorous undertone is mostly conveyed by the lively discussions, the very colloquial style of language, and the stereotypical depiction of the inebriated bannermen.The compilers of these primers also did not shy away from using occasional profanities to spice things up.This renders the primers much more entertaining, and I am convinced that the dialogues also were amusing to the banner students.This undoubtedly also increased their interest in the language at a time when most of them are believed to have grown up with Chinese as a first language and for whom Manchu was a second and probably bookish-seeming language.However, these stereotypical depictions of drunken bannermen are also problematic in that they trivialize alcoholism and portray it as something normal.The fact that these dialogues are entertaining only exacerbates this, just like the overused and trite moral messages.By reading these dialogues repeatedly, some of the banner students undoubtedly became numb to the dangers of drinking and possibly even internalized that drinking was an intrinsic part of banner culture.There is no gainsaying that this effect was completely at odds with the original educative function of the primers.
Instances of tobacco smoking are also frequent in the primers, albeit to a far lesser degree than drinking.Unlike alcohol, smoking is mostly portrayed as a recreational activity, and there is only one instance where a bannerman speaks out against it and ascribes the symptoms his friend is experiencing to excessive tobacco smoking.There is, however, no moral censure of tobacco smoking in the primers, and it is not portrayed as having detrimental effects on society.The court possibly considered tobacco smoking as a lesser evil compared to alcohol drinking and rampant opium smoking.Interestingly, there is no direct mention of opium smoking in any primer I have come across so far.
Da Qing quan shu 大清全書 (The Complete Book of the Daicing Dynasty) consisting of fourteen fascicles in total, completed by the scholar Shen Qiliang 沈啟亮 (fl.1645- 1693)in the 1683.The last fascicle of this work contained an appendix named Qingwen zhinan 清文指南 (Compass of the Manchu Language), split into a discussion of the Manchu alphabet, a collection of sample sentences, a collection of language exercises, and lastly a grammar.This work also contained ten short dialogues about the daily life of the Manchu people, such as banner affiliation, family stories, table stories, etc., and can be considered the first Manchu primer. 8Other works followed in due time, among which the Tanggū Meyen (The Hundred Chapters) and the Dehi Meyen (Forty Chapters) are the most noteworthy examples.
Age, you'd do good in cutting down a bit on liquor.What use is it anyway?We people should cherish our lives.Liquor isn't worth dying for.B: I've already cut down completely on liquor, and I don't touch it anymore.It's been a couple of days now, five or six.A: That's good, cut it down completely.Should you drink again, you can kiss your life goodbye.B: What's that got to do with drinking anyway?How dare you!A: Take a good look at the mirror, you're dead drunk!B: Why should I take a look?There's no reason for that.A: And yet you say, "What's that got to do with liquor?"I'm sure you keep going there.
The standard work on herbology in Chinese medicine, the Bencao gangmu 本草纲目 provides the following information for 米酒 (nure): [气味] 苦、甘、辛、大热、有毒.Li Shizhen 李时珍, Bencao gangmu (Beijing: Renin weisheng chubanshe, 1982), 1558.31.The "there" (casi) is not explained in more detail, however I suggest that a teahouse or any other drinking establishment is being referred to.A: : Eljitu, pour the wine.This cup of wine I will drink it in your honor.You have to drink it up quickly!B: Now what's that, I'm not the only person sitting here.Also drink in honor of the other ages here!A: What's the rush?When it gets to me, I don't stop before I'm drunk anyway.Now, all of you, help yourselves to a few cups!Why are you being so polite and behaving like guests?B: You're the host after all.If you don't eat, how can we even think of drinking?A: Of course I'll eat.You've all come here after all.If you're supposed to eat, then eat your fill!If you're supposed to drink, then drink your fill as well!You're just sitting there modestly and don't even drink if you're offered something.And you don't even lift your chopsticks to eat.I guess my wine isn't strong enough for you and my plates not tasty enough!B: Age, we don't need your urging, we'll all eat and drink.Where's Eljitu?Bring some wine and food to the stable lads!A: Oh my! Don't give wine to the people of my estate!They're not used to drinking.What use will they be to us if they're drunk?B: Don't worry, it'll be alright!A: It's just that I don't let them drink too much.B: Age, you've always been known to be a big drinker.What's with you today?You're not drinking at all.A: You don't know.I actually drank a bit before.Otherwise I wouldn't mind drinking all day long until the sun sets.When it gets to eating, I am no match for you.But when it gets to drinking, you're not able to hold a candle to me! A: That may be true, but if you drink like this, it will get in the way of your eating.As you grow older in years, it will prove harmful to your health.I really mean well with all these admonitions.Believe it or not!B: I know that you only say these things because you're fond of me.If you weren't fond of me, you wouldn't take such pain in convincing me.But I've always been drinking like this, I'm afraid I can't stop all of a sudden.A: Now that's not true.It would already be good if you didn't drink too much.But yes, it would be harmful too if you stopped drinking all at once.Let me ask you.Do you feel sick the morning after drinking wine?B: Not that I know of.A: If that's the case, then that's because of the wine [and your body is used to it]. A : If you want me to forgive you, you have to follow my orders.Then you're forgiven.B: Please forgive me, teacher, no matter what, I'll do everything you say! A: Firstly, don't go listen to [theater] plays anymore.Should you still do that and I happen to get wind of it, I won't let you that easily off the hook anymore!Secondly, if someone wants something from you, just give it to them, don't fool them.Thirdly, you were not able to drink wine before, how come you started drinking like that in the first place?From now on you keep away from that stuff.You aren't allowed to drink anymore.