Vocabulary Notes from the Manchu Archives
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In researching the history of bannermen in the eighteenth century, one frequently encounters complaints regarding "slippage" in the Eight Banners. "Slippage" — the English term is suggested by the Manchu eyembi, which, in its various forms, often appears in this context — refers to the loss of Manchu language skills, a decline in martial ability, and the tendency to lead an extravagant lifestyle of ostentation and dissipation. Members of the court and leaders in the banners tried to combat these pernicious trends in a number of ways, perhaps most notably through the appeal to preserve the "Old Manchu Way" (Manju i fe doro).[1] The preservation of traditional ways (or at least of what were portrayed as traditional ways) was important to many thoughtful Manchus of the early and mid-1700's because those ways were linked to the maintenance of a distinct Manchu identity, and implicitly thereby to the maintenance of the power of the Eight Banners as well as, ultimately, the authority and legitimacy of the Qing dynasty. More than just cultural conservatism, therefore, the preoccupation with the fe doro was at heart also a political concern, and was applied to those in the Mongol, as well as the Manchu, Eight Banners. It is a concern that can be found, for instance, many places in the writings of the Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) and Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) emperors, including both formal edicts and their more informal rescripts, as well as in memorials submitted to the throne by Manchu officials in the civil and military bureaucracies.
While fears over slippage and the degradation of the "Old Manchu Way" come out in many documents from the Qing period, both those written in Manchu and those in Chinese, the focus here is on the vocabulary used in this connection in the Manchu documents, and specifically on the word hulen. Hulen is one of the terms that emerges most commonly in Manchu edicts, rescripts, and memorials in reference to derogate bannermen:
Example 1.
jai Monggosoi muru be tuwaci. Dzungjab i jobobuha dade. ai jergi gisun ihūlimbume selgiyehe babe. aha bi. yargiyalame donjihakū ofi. gelhun akūwesimbuhekū. damu Monggoso neneheci hulen calgari oho gese. ("Also,considering the condition of the Mongols, in addition to what Dzungjab has testified, as I have really not heard the kind of talk [he has] misleadingly spread, I have not dared to memorialize. But it does seem that, more than before, the Mongols have become hulen and disorganized.")[2]
Example 2.
bi gūnici. ing kūwaran eyehe. cooha urse i hulen banuhūn i tacin. aikabadeharangga kadalara hafasa unenggi yargiyan i gūnin i teksileme dasatametacibume urebure oci. udu biyai sidende. uthai halaci ombi. ("On reflection,I think that the garrison has slipped. If the supervising officers responsible really and with true intent put things in order and trained [them], then the hulen, lazy practices of the soldiers would, in the space of a few months, be changed.")[3]
Example 3.
jai gūwa goloi fusembure menggun i dorgide. erei adali fulu tucinjihengge labdu ofi. da beye menggun be afabuki serengge bici. inu wesimbufi afabukini. damu aika da icihiyangge moco hulen. ("Also, there have been many cases of extracting this much surplus from out of the interest-bearing silver of other provinces. If the order came to surrender the seed capital, it would be surrendered. But managing the capital like this [would be] stupid and hulen.")[4]
Hulen is often combined in the documents with another word, sula, as in the following examples:
Example 4.
te inenggi biya goidara jakade. hulen sula ofi. feniyen acafi arki nure omire jiha efiyere be akū seci ojorakū. ("Now that days and months have stretched long, [the soldiers] have become hulen sula, and it cannot be said that they are not meeting in groups to drink and gamble.")[5]
Example 5.
saha. sini hing seme fassaki sere gūnin be bi teksime sambi. giyang ning golo coohai tacin hulen sula nenehe tusan i ambasa umai kadalarakū tuwancihiyarakū goidaha. ("Acknowledged. I am well aware of your intent to dedicate yourself [to your duties]. That the practices of the provincial [garrison] troops in Jiangning [Nanjing] are hulen sula [is because] formerly the officers in that post long failed to supervise them and put things in order.")[6]
Example 6.
ejen afabuha baita de. heni tusa ojoro seme. inenggi dobori ak hing seme ganimbi. ai gelhun aku fafun sajin be hulen sula obume. buya fusihan ulhicun aka urse i gunin de acabume yabumbi. ("In the matters entrusted [to me] by my lord, even concerning a minor improvement, I consider it thoroughly day and night. How should I dare cause the laws and teachings [of the emperor] to become hulen sula, and handle matters according to the desires of petty, dull, and stupid people?")[7]
Example 7.
mini beye elhe. donjici. cooha ureburede sini beye nikenifi tuwara bade sitabumbi. ere ojorakū. si an i cooha hulen sula nofi inenggi goidaha. labdu hūsutulerakū ainame ainame alban kame yabuci. mini akdafi baitalaha be urgedehekai. kice. ("I am fine. I am informed that in their training, you, upon whom the soldiers rely personally for supervision are causing them to fall behind. This will not do. For a long time now the soldiers at Xi'an have been hulen sula people. They do not exert themselves when they perform their public duties. Are you betraying my trust in you? Work hard!")[8]
Example 8.
te geli enduringge ejen i tacibume wasimbuha hese be gingguleme dahafi. hing seme gūnin be tebufi. hafan cooha be hūsutuleme urebume. Ainaha seme hulen sula oburakū. urunakū sain tacin de isibure .... ("Now, reverently obeying another of my sacred lord's instructive edicts, I have earnestly set my purpose to diligently train the officers and men. No matter what, I will not let them become hulen sula, but will definitely [see that they] achieve good practices ....")[9]
Example 9.
gung diyan i hūwa. harangga kadalaha hafasa. giyan i dosire tucire niyalma be kimcire baicaci acambi. hesei fafulaha baita be umai ciralame baicarakū. dahame yabubume goidahakū de uthai hulen sula ofi. turihe irgen be ududu jergi duka be dosimbufi yabubuhangge ambula acahakūbi. ("It would be proper for the officials concerned with managing the courtyards of the palace to check on the people entering and leaving the halls. They do not strictly inspect imperially-ordered matters at all. In so doing, in a short time they have thus become hulen sula: allowing the free passage several times through [palace] gates by hired commoners is highly inappropriate.")[10]
Thus far I have deliberately left untranslated the word hulen and the compound hulen sula. The reason for this is simple: hulen does not appear in any of the standard lexicographical references. Neither Hauer, Norman, or Haneda list the word; it is also absent from Qing-period Manchu-Chinese dictionaries such as the Yuzhi wuti Qingwen jian and the Qingwen zonghui, as well as the newer Jianming Man-Han cidian.[11] Its meaning, therefore, awaits definition. The remainder of this article takes up this problem.
Several possible meanings suggest themselves. Given that hulen usually appeared together with words such as "lazy," "stupid," and "disorganized," we should expect that, as an adjective, hulen also carried negative connotations. The especially frequent pairing of hulen with sula (defined in dictionaries as "loose, idle, free," often with the meaning of "unemployed") makes it clear that the meaning of hulen was hardly complimentary. This is further confirmed by the contexts cited above of gambling, drinking, and, in particular, the failure to perform one's duties in the proper way. Based on an evaluation of the examples gathered above, the tentative definition I propose here for hulen is "careless," "inattentive," or "lax," depending on the context.
Using this definition, a complete translation of Example 2 above reads: "On reflection, I think that the garrison has slipped. If the supervising officers responsible really and with true intent put things in order and trained [them], then the careless, lazy practices of the soldiers would, in the space of a few months, be changed." The compound hulen sula, accordingly, might be translated as "careless and idle," as in Example 4: "Now that days and months have stretched long, [the soldiers] have become careless and idle and it cannot be said that they are not meeting in groups to drink and gamble."
We can further test the suitability of this definition by seeing how well it fits a related word, huledembi (sometimes also written huledumbi, causative huledebumbi), that is almost certainly the verbalized form of hulen. Huledembi is also absent from the manjurist's usual dictionaries, but appears in eighteenth-century Manchu documents.
Some examples of these lexical items:
Example 10.
suwe meni meni afabuha alban be saikan ginggule kice. ume huledere. ("Respect and perform well the various official duties assigned to you. Do not slack off.")[12]
Example 11.
ere durun i aniya goidame morisa be huledehekū belhehe turgun de. neneme utala mudan cooha yabuci umai tookanjahakūngge gemu morin i hūsun de akdafi yabuhabi. ("Because for many years in this way the horses have been prepared and not neglected, if the same number of soldiers as before were riding, they have been able to ride, relying on the strength of each horse, with none having gotten skinny.")[13]
Example 12.
te enduringge ejen i ferguwecuke dasan horon hūturi de. abkai fejergi umesi taifin. tanggū minggan aniya baita akū bicibe. sansi de jecen i ergi be seremseme tebuhe cooha be dahame. coohai belhen be emu inenggi seme huledeci ojorakū. ("Presently, owing to the wonderful rule, majesty, and auspiciousness of my sacred lord, all is tranquil under heaven. [Still,] even if everything were to be uneventful for a million years, as the garrison troops in Shaanxi guard the border, it would be wrong to neglect military preparations [here] for even one day.")[14]
Example 13.
jai ere jergingge baci. uthai jafafi wesimbu. uttu ohode bireme ulhibume selgiye. ambasa aika derencume huledefi minde nambuci harangga kadalaha urse. ambasa be suwaliyame weile gisurebumbi. ("In addition, report to the throne afterward about this sort of thing. In that way, everything will be announced and made clear. If I catch any officials shamelessly slacking off, I will have [that and] the offenses of the responsible supervising people and officials reported together.")[15]
Example 14.
ere dorgi niyalma ojoro bithede sain ningge baci. sini bithesi oron tucici dahabume wesimbuci inu ombi. damu encu jugūn Nikasa i oron be temseci ojorakū. jai de jabsara be tuwame ceni jingkini fassara jugūn be huledembi. ("In cases where among these there are people who can write well, it is fine to put them forward in memorials for positions as your bithesi. But it is not permitted [for them] to compete for openings belonging to Chinese in other routes. Moreover, in looking out for ways to obtain advantages, they neglect their straight and true path of hard work.")[16]
Example 15
cooha urse be huledebume sula obure tacin. labdu holbobuhabi. ba umesi amba. urunakū mini hese be dahame kice. ("The matter of the soldiers being made careless and their skills empty, is very important. The land is large, [so] you must work hard according to my edicts.")[17]
Example 16.
ede dursuki akū urse. aikabade alban boobe huledeme balai garlara tuhebure de isiburengge bici. meni meni gūsai ambasa. baicame tucibufi hafan oci wakalame wesimbufi ujeleme weile arabuki [...] uttu ohode. boo tehe niyalma fafun de geleme. gelhun akū hulederakū bime. boo inu ainaha seme tuhere efujere de isinarakū ombi. ("As for unreliable people, if it gets to the point that they neglect the public housing [given them] by wantonly destroying and ruining it, the different banner officials will investigate, and if [the offenders are] officers, send memorials indicting [them] of serious crimes. [. . .] In that way, people living in the houses will fear the law, they will not dare to be neglectful, and the houses will surely not end up being wrecked and ruined."[18]
From these examples, it would seem that a definition of huledembi meaning "to neglect," "to be lax," "to be careless" would fit well.
Final confirmation that the tentative definitions given above are, in fact, reasonably close to the actual meaning of hulen/huledembi is found in a rare manuscript Russian- Manchu dictionary, compiled in 1890 by V.N. Ladygin, then Russian consul in Kuldja (Ili).[19] There we find hulen listed under the entry bespechnyi, which Russian-English dictionaries define as "light-hearted," "untroubled," "without care," or "carefree." If we are justified in concluding that, semantically, these meanings of bespechnyi stem not from philosophical resignation or irrepressible joie de vivre, but from the absence of worry where worry ought to be present (bes = "without," pecha = "care," "concern"), it is not difficult to connect these meanings and the meanings proposed here for the word hulen. We conclude that hulen was used to describe the behavior of someone who was "carefree," someone who was unburdened by conscience or worries over job performance, a slacker, in modern parlance. By extension, huledembi meant to behave in such a way — irresponsibly, negligently, carelessly. The decline in martial standards within the Eight Banners during the eighteenth century unfortunately meant that these words received a lot of use. It is strange, indeed, that they were not included in contemporary dictionaries.
* * *
Words such as hulen and huledembi are but a couple of examples of the sort of lexicographical novelty — and difficulty — one encounters when reading Manchu archival documents. Especially in the case of items from the first half of the Qing period, when the language was in common daily use and subject to genuine, popular creative forces, one frequently runs into words or word usages that are not explained in dictionaries. Finding a native speaker of Manchu to consult on problem words is usually out of the question. The reader is then forced to decide: Either fall victim to troublesome words by ignoring the phrases or even the documents in which they appear, or rise to the challenge by keeping a record of the appearance of strange words, comparing and evaluating the contexts in which they appears, and arriving at an educated guess as to their meaning. As this brief research note has shown, the latter is the more interesting and, for all interested in Manchu studies, the more profitable choice.
The term fe doro appears first in an early 1736 rescript by the Qianlong emperor.
Memorial of Nian Gengyao, YZ 3.3.24 (Yongzheng Manwen zhupi zouzhe [hereafter cited as YZMaZPZZ, packet 97).
Rescript quoted in memorial of Unaha, QL 1.8.2 (Gongzhong Manwen zajian 5).
Memorial of Ayangga, QL 2.4.28 (QLMaZPZZ 61).
Memorial of Bootai, YZ 1.9.26 (YZMaZPZZ 15).
Memorial of Ilibu, YZ4.10.4 (YZMaZPZZ 434).
Memorial of Yansin, YZ4.5.11 (YZMaZPZZ 110).
Memorial of Yansin YZ4.10.2 (YZMaZPZZ 110).
Memorial of Yansin, YZ4.12.15 (YZMaZPZZ 480).
Rescript quoted in memorial of Samboo, YZ12.6.16 (YZMaZPZZ 235).
Erich Hauer, Handwödrterbuch der Mandschusprache (Wiesbaden, 1952-55); Jerry Norman, A Concise Manchu-English Lexicon (Seattle, 1978); Haneda Tôru, Manwa jiten (Kyoto, 1937); Yuzhi wuti Qingwen jian (Beijing reprint, 1957); Qingwen zonghui (Beijing, 1897); Jianming Man-Han cidian (Zhengzhou, 1987). Hulen also does not appear in either of the two most recent dictionaries, Xin Man-Han da cidian (Urumchi, 1994) and Man-Han da cidian (Shenyang, 1993).
Rescript quoted in memorial of Siju, KX47.8.29 (KXMaZPZZ 469).
Memorial of Siju, KX51.4.6 (KXMaZPZZ 469).
Loc. cit.
Memorial of Yentai, YZ1.5.9 (YZMaZPZZ 2).
Memorial of Nomin, YZ2.R4.9 (YZMaZPZZ 113).
Rescript to memorial of Yansin, YZ4.5.11 (YZMaZPZZ 110).
Memorial of Yarhuda, YZ7.R7.11 (YZMaZPZZ 168).
This bibliographical curiosity is part of the Kotwicz Collection, held in the Section of Mongol Studies, Oriental Institute, Warsaw University. I am grateful to Prof. Jerzy Tulisow for the opportunity of examining this dictionary.