Qing Emperors Research Articles

Paleolithic divergence and multiple Neolithic expansions of ancestral nomadic emperor-related paternal lineages

The reconstruction of demographic history using ancient and modern genomic resources reveals extensive interactions and admixture between ancient nomadic pastoralists and the social organizations of the Chinese Central Plain. However, the extent to which Y-chromosome genetic legacies from nomadic emperor-related ancestral lineages influence the Chinese paternal gene pool remains unclear. Here, we genotype 2717 ethnolinguistically diverse samples belonging to C2a lineages, perform whole-genome sequencing on 997 representative samples and integrate these data with ancient genomic sequences. We reconstruct the evolutionary histories of Northern Zhou-, Qing emperor-, and pastoralist-related lineages to assess their genetic impact on modern Chinese populations. This reassembled fine-scale Y-chromosome phylogeny identifies deep divergence and five Neolithic expansion events contributing differently to the formation of northern Chinese populations. Phylogeographic modeling indicates that the nomadic empires of the Northern Zhou and Qing dynasties genetically originated from the Mongolian Plateau. Phylogenetic topology and shared haplotype patterns show that three upstream ancestors of Northern Zhou (C2a1a1b1a2a1b-FGC28857), Donghu tribe (C2a1a1b1-F1756), and Qing (C2a1a3a2-F10283) emperor-related lineages expanded during the middle Neolithic, contributing significantly to genetic flow between ancient northeastern Asians and modern East Asians. Notably, this study reveals limited direct contributions of Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou's lineages to modern East Asians.

MUSICAL ACTIVITY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AT THE COURT OF THE QING EMPERORS OF THE 17TH–18TH CENTURIES

The article raises the problem of the significance of European missionaries’ musical activities at the court of the Qing emperors during the Golden Age and attempts to integrate Western art into palace musical life. A critical review of existing Russian-language sources leads the author to the conclusion that there is a lack of information on the topic of the article as well as some freedom in the interpretation of known historical facts in scientific articles. The author sees the possibility of filling gaps in this area of musicology in a detailed study of documents of the era, primarily diaries, letters, reports and other missionaries’ correspondence. Primary scholarly sources include Father Ripa's Diary, Father Du Halde's Description of the Chinese Empire, compiled from the correspondence of French Jesuits, and Father Amiot's work on the history of Chinese music. The author considers these books to be significant; however, they are not, of course, the only documents that help shed light on the scale and depth of the functioning of European music, theory and practice in the space of Chinese musical culture, which is closed, self-sufficient and by its nature not related to Europe. Works on music theory, created by order of and jointly with the Kangxi Emperor, are proof of a considerable interest in the West. In the palaces, the presence of a large number of European instruments, with which a Western-style ensemble could be formed, as well as attention to European clothing and wigs in which the emperor dressed his musicians, is indicative. In conclusion, the author finds that the musical activities of Christian missionaries produced certain results. On the one hand, organic interaction with European music and its deep understanding did not happen at the end of the 18th century. On the other hand, regardless of the subjective attitude of one or another emperor towards the Jesuits, the idea of ​​introducing musical theoretical ideas and practices of European music-making into everyday life gradually became a reality only owing to their persistent, regular and purposeful promotion. At the same time, a reverse process was underway - the missionaries’ research instinct led to the creation of memoirs and books on the history and acoustics of Chinese music, and contributed to its active promotion in European intellectual circles.

Merit, Marriage, and Privilege: The Emperor's Son-in-Law and His Family in the Early Qing Dynasty

The son-in-law of the Qing emperor was given the title of “efu.” Taking Han-Jun bannerman Sun Cheng-yun, the son-in-law of Emperor Kangxi, as the starting point, this paper explores the status of his family in the early Qing dynasty based on archival materials and biographies. Marrying up into the royal family through a princess had a certain impact on Sun's family in terms of his inheritance of a niru, the tenure of family members, and the family's hereditary titles. The examination of this family also provides some insights into the political status of the Han-Jun banner sons-in-law of the early Qing emperors.

What Pak Chiwŏn Missed : Tall Tales of the Panchen Lama at Qing Chengde

Pak Chiwŏn’s brush talks with the Qing literati documented in his celebrated travelogue, Yŏrha Ilgi or Jehol Diary, written after his trip to Qing Chengde in 1780 serves not only as a window on particular episodes that took place during important events, but also a wealth of information on Qing society, culture, and, more important, its people’s ideas, understanding, and perspectives on the overall socio-political issues from ethnic discrimination against the Han Chinese to literary inquisition, a severe censorship on writings. This essay focuses on brush talks concerning Tibetan Buddhism and aims to make sense of the Qing literati’s narratives about the Panchen Lama and what Pak Chiwŏn failed to see. A closer look into the brush talks reveals that the Qing subjects from other parts of the empire outside of the Tibetan region were fixated to their own misunderstanding and imaginations on what Tibetan Buddhism could be which they had forged by squeezing it into the framework of existing discourses in their regions of residence. However, considering the autonomy exercised by the Qing constituents in buying into such narratives about the Tibetan Buddhism and the Lama, it is worth noting that they were making sense of the Qing emperor’s action on their own terms as his constituents. In this essay, I argue that what Pak Chiwŏn missed when he entertained rumor, myth, legend, and tall tale about the Panchen Lama was that the Qing literati had already made a central space for the Qing emperor in their moral universe.

Xiyanglou – “Buildings of the Western Ocean”: Splendor, Poverty and Lessons of the Ruin

The paper gives a complex analysis of the Xiyanglou palace and park complex (“Buildings of the Western Ocean”), located on the current northwestern outskirts of Beijing, designed, and built in 1747–1751 by European masters, led by the Italian Jesuit artist Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining, 1688–1766). Castiglione, best known as a painter, acted in this case as a visionary architect and designer who skillfully integrated the “European part” into the already existing Yuanmingyuan palace complex and received for this his main recognition at the court of the Manchu Emperor Qianlong, who personally oversaw the project. Using the example of the syncretic Sino-European style of the Xiyanglou architectural complex, incorporating European Baroque and Rococo styles and classical Chinese construction principles, the paper demonstrates the European masters’ practical application of the adaptation principles developed by Matteo Ricci, the leader of the Jesuit mission in China when preaching Christianity in China. Separately, the innovative buildings in the Chinese style located in Yuanming Yuan, which incorporated Xiyanglou, are briefly analyzed, the background of the design and creation of Xiyanglou is considered, detailed descriptions of the buildings of the Western Quarter are given, and the fate of the palace and park complex is traced. The author concludes that the Western Quarter, which became a testing ground where were practiced the principles of Occidental art, acted as a focus of mutual influence of European and Chinese artistic trends.

Baron R. F. von Ungern-Sternberg as the God of War: Historical and Religious Grounds

Baron Roman F. von Ungern-Sternberg (1886–1921) was famous White Army warlord of the Russian Civil War. In 1921, he liberated Outer Mongolia from Chinese occupation and restored her independence. In publications he is often called the God of War, the White God of War, etc. Possible reasons for these designations are analyzed in this paper. It seems that sporadic information in memoirs and some memories still existing in Mongolia, which serves as the basis for this, may be corresponded with the data of Mongolian scholar B. Rinchen, which remain little known so far. Comparison of his information with other data speaks in favor of the association with Gesar considering the God of War, because the appearance of Ungern (“the White Hero”), advancing with his troops from the north, liberated Outer Mongolia and, in particular, her capital city, whose patron is Dharmapala Jamsaran, who was associated with Gesar in some Buddhist representations of the Mongols. In addition, the association with Gesar was promoted by the goal repeatedly proclaimed by Ungern, the restoration of the Manchu Emperor, whose patron was considered Gesar. Finally, Ungern could be associated with Gesar also because in Mongolia and in the campaign to Siberia, the Baron was lightly wounded only once or twice, although he participated in many battles. Narrative data are discussed.

曆獄의 飜案과 그 의미

This present article examines the European missionaries’ legal struggle to overturn the verdicts that resulted from the Calendar Case (曆獄 liyu) and recover the legal status of their religion to that of the pre-Calendar Case. Although the case ended and Europeans and their churches were kept relatively safe, this ‘salvation’ was not the result of acquittal from the charges the missionaries had faced during the Case, but of the Manchu emperor’s interference instead. Thus, after the closure of the Calendar Case, Beijing missionaries had to make intense efforts to nullify the three confirmed charges and remove all vestige of the Calendar Case. By doing so, they expected the beginning of a new rosy era, like that of the Shunzhi period. However, the privileges the missionaries enjoyed during the Shunzhi reign were exceptional―ones possible only by imperial favour beyond legal boundaries.

From Reading to Dressing: Portraiture of a Qing Empress in Gender and Cross-Cultural Perspective

This paper argues that the abundance in quantity and innovation of the painted and photographic portraits commissioned by Empress Dowager Cixi between the latter years of the 19th and early years of the 20th centuries, exceeded that of any other late Qing emperor or royal consort, and it is the diversity of gender references presented among them that is particularly distinctive. Through separating such a practice of ritualised “gender performance” into three stages, from 1) the ‘masculinised’ pose of “reading” appearing frequently in works of an earlier period, through 2) the gender-neutral divine imagery of dressing as a bodhisattva, to 3) the late-period feminised image of “dressing in front of the mirror”, the purpose of this paper is to explore how gender is shown in a late Qing empress’ portraiture, which is subject to multifarious changes dependent on different domestic and international political demands. The conclusion is that 1) on the international stage as set in the early years of the 20th century, the image of a late Qing empress dowager participated in the broader shaping of China’s national image as something weak, feminine and disempowered, and 2) the essential incompatibility of Chinese and Western visual cultures was a major factor in the failures of the projection of the image of late Qing China overseas.

Court Disputes over the Deposition of the Queen Dowager and the Evolving Causes for the Palace Coup of 1623 : A Refutation of Professor Oh’s Criticism

By reexamining the nature of the court disputes over the queen dowager, suspected of her involvement in a treason case, and the causes for the Palace Coup of 1623, which dethroned the king who had con fined the queen dowager in her palace, this review article refutes Prof. Oh Soo-chang’s criticism against my monograph Mohu ǔi panyǒk (The treason of the queen dowager). Unlike prof. Oh who argued that the essence of the disputes was the issue of king’s disloyalty to the queen dowager, the key nature of the disputes was whether the king had to punish the queen dowager, his stepmother, who was charged of seeking treason, according to the state law based on the Confucian value of ch’ung or kongǔi (loyalty) or show mercy to her adopting another Confucian value of hyo or saǔn (filial piety). There were many similar cases and debates on the queen dowagers who were involved in treason cases in Chinese history. The majority of Neo-Confucian scholars like Zhu Xi (1130~1200), in particular, placed much more emphasis on ch’ung and even thought that the queen dowager should have been punished.BRIn Chosǒn Korea in the early 1600s the great controversy came to an end by confining the queen dowager in her palace, but the king was dethroned five years later by a palace coup. According to the message promulgated in the name of the Queen Dowager immediately following the coup, the causes for the coup can be classified broadly into two categories: the deposed king’s betrayal of Ming China to the barbaric Manchu (43%) and the confinement of the queen dowager and the murder of her young son (31%). The later sources, however, tended not to cite the betrayal of Ming China, but excessively emphasized the confinement of the queen dowager, a serious royal violation of the Confucian value hyo. The issue of foreign policy, the betrayal of the Ming emperor, was struck off the official causes for the coup.BRDuring the Manchu invasion of Korea (1636~1637), King Injo (r. 1623~1649), who led the coup and ascended the throne, eventually surrendered to the Manchu emperor, with the result that one of the primary causes for the coup was now lost. In order to maintain his legitimacy and offset the lost cause with the other one, Injo and his officials had little option but to lay utmost emphasis on the former king’s unfilial act. Although prof. Oh insists that the coup was a righteous restoration to eliminate royal depravity, the causes for the coup were not singular and morphed as time went on, depending on the political situations in domestic and foreign affairs.

“Commendably Industrious” or “very good friends” of the Devil?: How Attitudes Towards the Jesuits Shaped Understandings of China in Early Modern England

Abstract The transmission of knowledge about China to early modern Europe was dominated by the Jesuits, whose mission to China and privileged position in the court of the Ming and Qing emperors enabled them to become Europe’s foremost early Sinologists. However, the Jesuits were deeply controversial in early modern Europe, especially in Protestant England. This article investigates how hostility towards the Jesuits manifested itself in the English reception of texts and information about China. By examining English translations of Jesuit texts, tracts by English intellectuals, and English literary works on China, this article reveals the variety of responses which English authors and printers used in order to deal with the problematical Jesuit origin of early modern knowledge about China. The consistency with which English authors engaged with the Jesuit origins of this knowledge demonstrates the critical importance of attitudes towards the Jesuits in shaping early modern English understandings of China.

Bor'ba Mongolii za nezavisimost' pri diplomaticheskoj i voennoj podderzhke Rossii i RSFSR

After Northern Mongolia voluntarily recognized itself as a vassal of the Qing Empire in 1691, it became known as the Outer Empire and lost political and economic independence, the Manchu emperor Kangxi declared its lands his property, embassy relations between Russia and the Khalkha principalities were interrupted. if it were not for the Russian state, the Buryat and Tungus peoples in the Baikal territory would become the same province of the Qing Empire, and they could suffer the fate of the population of the Dzungar Khanate destroyed in 1756 by the Manchu-Chinese troops or the Mongol people who were on the verge of extinction at the beginning of the 20th century. After the fall of the Qing Empire, relying on the help and patronage of Russia, the Khalkha princes on December 1, 2011 proclaimed in Urga the Declaration on the Restoration of Mongolia’s Independence from China. The article shows and analyzes the diplomatic and military assistance of Russia during this period, which became the first country to support the independence of the new Mongolian state.

Where Dragon Veins Meet: The Kangxi Emperor and His Estate at Rehe by Stephen H. Whiteman

Reviewed by: Where Dragon Veins Meet: The Kangxi Emperor and His Estate at Rehe by Stephen H. Whiteman Aurelia Campbell Where Dragon Veins Meet: The Kangxi Emperor and His Estate at Rehe by Stephen H. Whiteman. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020. Pp. xix + 271. $70.00 hardcover, $70.00 e-book. Where Dragon Veins Meet: The Kangxi Emperor and His Estate at Rehe, by Stephen Whiteman, focuses on the Mountain Estate to Escape the Heat (Bishu shanzhuang 避暑山莊, hereafter Mountain Estate), the renowned Qing dynasty (1636–1912) summer palace in Rehe (now Chengde), located 180 kilometers northeast of Beijing, beyond the Great Wall. Originally one of a network of traveling palaces at which the Manchu emperor would stop during his annual tours among the court's Inner Mongolian allies, in the first decade of the eighteenth century, the site was transformed by the Kangxi 康熙 emperor (r. 1661–1722) into a lavish complex of gardens and palaces that eventually served as a secondary Qing capital. Most extant scholarship examines the Mountain Estate as it was handed down to us from the reign of the Qianlong 乾隆 emperor (r. 1735–1796), Kangxi's grandson, who made a number of significant additions to the site. Whiteman instead takes up the difficult task of reconstructing the Mountain Estate as it existed, in both actual and represented forms, during Kangxi's reign. Drawing [End Page 193] upon a wide array of primary evidence, including maps, paintings, prints, poems, and essays, Whiteman reveals that the landscape of the Mountain Estate served as a key medium through which Kangxi defined his imperial ideology. In the introduction, Whiteman lays out the book's main arguments and methodologies. He begins by explaining the reasons why he concentrates on the Mountain Estate during the reign of Kangxi instead of Qianlong: "To view the park solely through the lens of Qianlong's vision for it … risks (indeed, enacts) an act of historical erasure, subsuming the intentions of an earlier period under the actions of a later one" (p. 4). Whiteman's goal is instead to "pull apart the collapsed layers" of the Mountain Estate in order to understand how Kangxi shaped the estate to establish Qing political legitimacy within the "rapidly developing networks of the early modern world" (p. 8). Rather than basing his discussion of the Mountain Estate on nineteenth-century records, as scholars have done in the past, Whiteman relies mainly on sources from Kangxi's reign, including the emperor's own writings as well as imperially sponsored paintings and prints of the gardens. Part 1, "Recovering the Kangxi Landscape," begins with a translated excerpt from "Record of Traveling at the Invitation of the Emperor," the high official Zhang Yushu's 張玉書 (1642–1711) brief but detailed personal account of his visit to the Mountain Estate in 1708. This text is followed by chapter 1, "Reconstructing Kangxi," which, in the absence of surviving buildings, relies on textual evidence to reconstruct the estate's early built environment. Whiteman determines that the Kangxi-era park was constructed in three main phases over the course of a decade (1703–1713), and he describes in great detail its early palaces, temples, gardens, and water features. One of Whiteman's most important sources is the Imperial Poems on the Mountain Estate to Escape the Heat (Yuzhi Bishu shanzhuang shi 御制避暑山莊詩, here-after Imperial Poems), a set of poems written by Kangxi about thirty-six favorite scenic spots at the park. In 1713, an album of the poems, accompanied by woodblock-printed illustrations by the court artist Shen Yu 沈喻 (1649–after 1728), was published in many copies, affording a "virtual tour" (p. 6) of the estate to a broader audience. Several of Shen's prints are reproduced in this chapter, along with topographic maps created by the author, aiding present readers in envisioning the early layout of the Mountain Estate. [End Page 194] Part 2, "Allegories of Empire," comprises three sections. It begins with chapter 2, "Mountain Veins," in which Whiteman discusses how Kangxi created a new Manchu imperial landscape at Rehe by touring, hunting, writing, mapmaking, and conducting rituals. Within this new political geography, Whiteman argues, the geomantic significance of the Manchu ancestral homeland in the northeast...

1675-76년 스파파리 사절단의 대중국 방문과 새로운 러청 접촉라인의 형성

The purpose of this paper is to understand the meaning of the new line of contact between Russia and Ch’ing created by the Spathari delegation by examining the its preparation process and the travel route and analyzing it in the change of the Russia-Mongolia relations. The two tasks of the Spathari delegation were first to establish regular diplomatic and trade relations with Q’ing and then to find a more convenient transportation route for diplomatic envoys and trade caravans to and from China. The mission to establish stable diplomatic relations failed due to internal circumstances in the Qing Dynasty. However, Spathari was the first official ambassador of the Russian tsar to have an audience with the Qing emperor. To this end, both sides of Russia and Q’ing made concessions, namely that Q’ing government gave special treatment to the Russian tsar's official documents, and Spathari performed a kowtow instead. In this way, the Russian ambassador could have an audience with the Qing emperor. The fact that ambassador plenipotentiary of the Russian tsar, meets the emperor through official procedures means a direct meeting between the two countries. This marks the formation of the first direct line of contact between Russia and Ching diplomatically. The mission to explore traffic routes to China was successful in that the Spathari delegation created a new travel route between the two countries that did not pass through Mongolia. Previously, when Russia passed through Mongolian territory and went to and from China under the guidance of the Mongols, the Russians had no choice but to recognize China through the Mongols and to move according to Mongols’ intentions. But now, if necessary, the possibility of reaching Beijing directly without the permission of Mongolia has been opened, regardless of the situation in Mongolia. Geographically, it can be evaluated that Russia and China have established a direct line of contact.

The Northern Stronghold Sacrifice and the Political Legitimacy of Ethnic Minority Regimes in the Late Imperial China

Traditional Chinese state sacrificial ritual represented a symbolic system of integrating religious belief, divine authority, and political legitimacy. The Northern Stronghold (Beizhen 北鎮, i.e., Mount Yiwulü 醫巫閭山) was equal in status to the other four strongholds, which, moreover, served as a strategic military fortress and represented the earth virtue in the early state sacrifice system. In the late imperial era of China, and during the Yuan (1279–1368) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties in particular, the Northern Stronghold swiftly achieved prominence and eventually became an instrument used by minority ethnic groups, namely the Mongolians and Manchus, when elaborating upon the legitimacy of their political regimes. During the Yuan dynasty, the mountain spirits of the five strongholds (Wuzhen 五鎮) were formally invested as kings and, as a result, were accorded equivalent sacrifices in comparison to those given to the five sacred peaks (Wuyue 五嶽). Given that the Northern Stronghold was located near the northeast of Beijing, the Yuan government considered it the foundation of the state. Thereafter, the Northern Stronghold was regarded as the most important of the five stronghold mountains. In the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the Northern Stronghold Temple (Beizhenmiao 北鎮廟) was reconstructed as both a military fortress and religious site, while its representation as a significant site for a foreign conquest dynasty diminished and its significance as a bastion of anti-insurgent suppression emerged. By the Qing dynasty, the Northern Stronghold was regarded as an integral component of the geographic origin of the Manchu people and thereby assumed once again a position of substantial political significance. Several Qing emperors visited the Northern Stronghold and left poems and prose written in graceful Chinese to present their high respect and their mastery of Chinese culture. The history of the Northern Stronghold demonstrates how the ethnic minority regimes successfully utilized the traditional Chinese state sacrificial ritual to serve their political purpose.

새로운 결사･집회의 출현과 淸 정부의 대응 — 1908년 「結社集會律」의 제정과 적용을 중심으로 —

This paper analyzes the Qing government"s response to the new non-governmental organizations in the late 19th century and early 20th century, focusing on the “law of Assembly and Association” established in 1908 and its application. Since the emergence of the new organization around the time of the Hundred Day’s Reform in 1898, it had expanded rapidly with the promotion of the New Policy. The initial activities of the organizations focused on public enlightenment and social reform, but a series of political incidents occurred in the early 20th century made their activities expand to the political domain. In addition, as the Qing emperor declared the preparation for establishing constitutional government in 1906, it led to an increase the number of organizations actively advocating political demands. Feeling burdened by this situation, the Qing government decided to adopt the way focusing on follow-up management by law instead of the existing ex ante party ban. As a result, the Law of Assembly and Association(LAA) was enacted in 1908. By the enactment of the LAA, with the exception of secret societies, all of the non-governmental organizations were legalized. However, the LAA stipulated the intervention of the state authorities in the establishment and operation of organizations, with especially focus on political organizations and their activities. In the process of actually applying the LAA, the characteristics of follow-up management become clear. The Ministry of Civil Affairs(MCA), which was the enforcement body of the LAA, relaxed the application of the LAA to organizations with academic and social purposes. But to organizations advocating political activities, the MCA tried to reduce their scope of activities through strict legal application. In short, the LAA allowed freedom of assembly and association in principle, but by distinguishing the application according to the characteristics of the organizations, actually, it aimed at assembly and association under the initiative of the government.

“If no one goes, then who will pass”: the problem of interpretation of the fifth article of the russian-chinese beijing treaty of 1860

Based on materials from the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (Moscow), the article analyzes the events of 1861 associated with the first departure of a Russian trade caravan from Kyakhta to Beijing after a hundred-year break. The named caravan was sent at the initiative of the Kyakhta mayor Despot-Zenovich. The fifth article of the recently concluded Russian-Chinese Beijing Treaty of 1860 served as the legal basis for sending. According to the plan of Despot-Zenovich, the caravan was to follow the route Kyakhta – Urga – Dushikou outpost – Beijing. However, as subsequent events showed, the Chinese side interpreted the fifth article of the treaty in such a way that the open caravan trade in Beijing remained inaccessible to the Russians. Contradictions in the interpretation of the fifth article resulted in a series of negotiations in Beijing between dignitaries from the Zongli Yamen and the head of the XIV Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Archimandrite Gurius (Karpov). At one of these meetings with Gurius, Chinese dignitaries expressed the opinion that in connection with the struggle of court cliques under the Manchu emperor, the Chinese side could not grant direct permission for trade to the Russians and bargaining was possible only unofficially. As a result, a compromise solution was the sending of a Russian caravan from Zhangjiakou to Tianjin. The article cites reports from Archimandrite Gury (Karpov) to the director of the Asiatic Department, Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky. A number of materials are cited for the first time.

Monument to the Qing Emperor in Korea: the Visible Embodiment of Imperial Policy

The paper focuses on The Great Qing Emperor's Merit and Virtue Stele (大清皇帝功德碑) that was erected in Joseon state in 1639 after the 1637 peace agreement and recognition of Qing suzerainty. Stele is examined as a visible embodiment of the imperial policy in order to concretize its features and evaluate the representing component. The main source of the article is the translation from the Manchu text on the Stele first translated by A.M. Pozdneev and then published in 1891. The paper also uses the Chinese text of the inscription. As a result the features of the Qing policy towards Joseon visualized in the monument, perceived and broadcast within of sinocentrism are identified following. Vassalage acceptance is presented as a historically conditioned event: the military attack took place because Joseon had violated the alliance previously concluded with the Manchus. The relations established after 1637 did not imply annexation, influence on the government system. In actual fact, vassalage was a nominal act: the ruler returned to his country, and the people – to a peaceful life. Suzerainty recognition had both actual (social) and sacred legitimation of the van power: he admitted his guilt, and subsequently became a conductor of Heaven within his state. The Stele can be regarded as an official document was created in the “solid book” form (稳书) characteristic of China. This document monumentally embodied Korea's recognition of vassalage on the Qing dynasty and recorded the Joseon’s recognition the Manchu ruler as emperor of Celestial Empire.

Vinaya monasteries in the eyes of early Qing emperors

By the first half of the eighteenth century, lineages of the Buddhist Vinaya school (Lüzong) took hold in several monasteries in Beijing. However, when the Yongzheng emperor designed a grand ordination ceremony to be held in 1734 he opted to summon a Vinaya patriarch from a distant Mt Baohua near Nanjing. This article aims to provide an explanation for such a choice by means of exploring the image of relevant Vinaya monasteries in the eyes of early Qing emperors, relying mainly on the evidence in the gazetteers of these monasteries. Our findings show that Vinaya monasteries in Beijing, such as Tanzhe, Guangji, and Minzhong, enjoyed considerable imperial patronage. At the same time, only Minzhong monastery was perceived as a purely Vinaya site, while the image of its counterparts was rather heterogeneous. The main advantage that could have singled out the abbot of Mt Baohua Fuju (1686–1765) was the first full-fledged school genealogy that he compiled in 1733, while other monasteries in question did not possess an identity of sites with strong and stable Vinaya lineages at that time. Accordingly, Yongzheng might have wished to promote a genealogically organized Vinaya school as a check-andbalance against swelling Chan lineages.

INSTITUTIONS OF PUBLIC POWER AMONG THE MANCHU-MONGOLIAN PEOPLES OF EAST ASIA IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (PART 1: IMPERIAL POLITICAL ORDER)

In his article, the author, relying on the works of Russian researchers of the East Asian region, attempts to characterize the public-power institutions of the Manchurian-Mongolian peoples in the early twentieth century. Remaining in the shadow of China, these peoples have accumulated considerable experience of statehood, which in different historical epochs allowed them to create powerful powers that conquer each other and neighboring countries. However, at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, power relations were exposed to some factors, as a result of which the political landscape of the region changed significantly. Among these, the author, first of all, highlights the Chinese colonization carried out in relation to the ancestral Mongolian lands when it was impossible to resist this on the part of the Qing emperors, who were once guarantors of their inviolability. Chinese administrative-territorial units with central subordination are created on the territories of ancestral principalities, and the vymorochnye possessions are transferred under the direct control of the provincial administration. Manchuria, as an ancient patrimony of the ruling imperial house, also turns out to be divided into three provinces, and the same fate awaits Inner and Outer Mongolia. Traditional military institutions, having proved their ineffectiveness in the fight against the Europeans and the Japanese, are being disbanded, and new formations are being created in the national regions of "Outer China", designed to protect the border from a possible attack, and to keep dependent territories subordinate to the central authorities. Trying to follow the spirit of the times and, at the same time, solving the defense problem, plans are being hatched for grandiose railway construction in the studied space. However , it began in the autumn of 1911 the Xinhai Revolution led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the actual rupture of the personal alliances that held the national regions of the North of the Qing Empire in unity with the metropolis. Thus, the problem of the legitimacy of the central government of republican China in the eyes of the Manchurian-Mongolian peoples was generated, which led the country to the actual disintegration and formation of new national states in the Manchurian-Mongolian historical and cultural space.

A Propos the Historical Study of Reincarnate Lamas in Tibetan Societies: The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China by P. Schwieger

The Tibetan practice of recognising an individual as the conscious rebirth of a Buddhist saint has been a puzzling tradition to the outsider. Trülku literally refers to an earthly emanation body of a Buddha who manifests for the welfare of sentient beings. It is even more remarkable that the custom of recognising trülkus and institutionalising them through monastic estates is an innovation mainly found in the Tibetan cultural sphere. Peter Schwieger's The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015) is a substantial and necessary study, providing the first detailed exploration of the trülkü phenomenon as an institution from the perspective of political history. Focussing on the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and the politics surrounding the institution of reincarnation between the office of the Dalai Lamas, the Chinese Qing emperors, and Mongol chieftains, it employs a vast number of previously underused sources such as legal and administrative documents. Reviewing Schwieger's study, this article discusses some other recent works about the trülku system and briefly reflects on the usage of sources for Tibetan history and the issue of researching the topic of reincarnation as such.