The Project Gutenberg EBook of China and the Manchus, by Herbert A. Giles

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Title: China and the Manchus

Author: Herbert A. Giles

Release Date: March 25, 2006 [EBook #2156]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINA AND THE MANCHUS ***

Produced by John Bickers and Dagny

CHINA AND THE MANCHUS

By Herbert A. Giles

Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge, and sometime H.B.M.
Consul at Ningpo.

NOTE

It is impossible to give here a complete key to the pronunciation
of Chinese words. For those who wish to pronounce with approximate
correctness the proper names in this volume, the following may be a
rough guide:--

a as in alms.
e as u in fun.
i as ie in thief.
o as aw in saw.
u as oo in soon.
ue as u in French, or ue in German.
{u} as e in her.
ai as aye (yes).
ao as ow in cow.
ei as ey in prey.
ow as o (not as ow in cow).
ch as ch in church.
chih as chu in church.
hs as sh (hsiu = sheeoo).
j as in French.
ua and uo as wa and wo.

The insertion of a rough breathing ` calls for a strong aspirate.

CHINA AND THE MANCHUS

CHAPTER I--THE NUe-CHENS AND KITANS

The Manchus are descended from a branch of certain wild Tungusic nomads,
who were known in the ninth century as the Nue-chens, a name which has
been said to mean "west of the sea." The cradle of their race lay at the
base of the Ever-White Mountains, due north of Korea, and was fertilised
by the head waters of the Yalu River.

In an illustrated Chinese work of the fourteenth century, of which the
Cambridge University Library possesses the only known copy, we read that
they reached this spot, originally the home of the Su-shen tribe, as
fugitives from Korea; further, that careless of death and prizing valour
only, they carried naked knives about their persons, never parting from
them by day or night, and that they were as "poisonous" as wolves or
tigers.