MANJU NOBLE AND WEST: PRINCE HOŠOI DELENGGE FAMILY

Abstract

There is limited research on the relationship between the Manju aristocrats in the Ch’ing Empire and the West. As the only family in the Ch’ing Empire that continued to focus on Western academic research, the emergence and existence of the Hošoi Delengge Family and the continued cognition and understanding of the Manju Group and the absorption of Western civilization in the history of the Ch’ing Empire should have special era significance and historical reference value. At a time when the research on the history of the relationship between officials and merchants in the coastal Han people and Westerners in the Ch’ing has attracted much attention, the author of this article argues that it is necessary to select Yihui, the third-generation owner of his family, as the research object, and investigate his life experience and personal learning. It analyzes the specific thoughts and academic achievements embodied in the process of understanding Western civilization, combining family history documents and official documents to draw a relatively complete image of the Manju aristocracy who actively learns and absorbs Western civilization. Investigate the formation and development of a handful of academic families among the Manju aristocrats who are minority of foreign races.