The Manchu-Language Tutors of Qing Imperial Princes
The Manchu-Language Tutors of Qing Imperial Princes
MING YE
10/1/20267 分钟阅读
The Manchu-Language Tutors of Qing Imperial Princes
How the Manju Anda Taught Manchu Language, Translation, and Archery in the Imperial School
By MING YE
During the Qing dynasty, the Manchu language was commonly referred to as the “national language” or the “Qing language.” Yet as time passed, Manchu gradually receded from everyday use.
From the Qianlong period onward, the Qing court repeatedly introduced measures intended to prevent Banner officials and ordinary Bannermen from abandoning what the court regarded as the traditional foundations of Manchu identity—above all, the Manchu language and mounted archery.
For members of the imperial family, learning Manchu therefore remained an important part of education.
The specialists responsible for teaching Manchu to imperial princes were known as Manchu anda.
The word anda (谙达) is itself Manchu.
In Manchu, anda could carry several meanings. The Pentaglot Dictionary (Wuti Qingwen Jian, 五体清文鉴) explains it in the sense of a close friend or companion. People who developed a close friendship through regular association could be called anda. The term was also used in other Qing administrative contexts, including for personnel sent by the Imperial Household Department to regions such as Heilongjiang to collect sable pelts or conduct trade.
Within the educational system of the Qing imperial household, however, anda acquired another specialized meaning: an instructor assigned to teach imperial princes such subjects as Manchu, Mongolian, archery, and related skills.
The imperial school known as the Shangshufang (上书房) was established during the Kangxi period as a place of study for imperial princes and grandsons.
Under Qing regulations, imperial princes began their formal studies at around the age of six. Their education included the Confucian classics as well as the Manchu language and archery.
According to the Collected Statutes of the Great Qing (Da Qing Huidian, 大清会典), instructors in Chinese classical learning were selected from members of the Hanlin Academy. The anda, by contrast, were selected from Manchu and Mongol officials, imperial guards, and other qualified personnel to instruct the princes in the Manchu language, Mongolian, archery, and related subjects.
Their institutional status was somewhat lower than that of the classical tutors.
The anda serving in the Shangshufang included chief anda, Manchu anda, Mongolian anda, archery anda, and other categories.
Among them, the Manchu anda specialized in teaching the Manchu language and translation.
Their Manchu title was:
manju bithe be tacibure anda
literally referring to an anda who taught Manchu writing or Manchu-language studies.
The abbreviated form was:
manju anda
They were also sometimes called “translation anda,” rendered in Manchu as:
ubaliyabure anda.
These instructors were required to report for duty every day.
According to Notes from the Bamboo Window (Zhuchuang Biji, 竹窗笔记), written by Yixuan, the seventh son of the Daoguang Emperor, an imperial prince's daily studies proceeded through several subjects. The princes studied the Chinese classics, practiced archery, learned Mongolian, and then received instruction in Manchu and translation from their Manchu anda.
The Manchu anda were generally selected from among the Manchu Eight Banners and Mongol Eight Banners. Three regular positions were established.
When a vacancy arose, the Grand Secretariat notified the relevant ministries and government offices and requested recommendations of officials who were proficient in spoken and written Manchu and were considered trustworthy and well behaved.
Candidates did not normally undergo a separate examination.
Instead, senior officials reviewed the recommended candidates, selected primary and alternate nominees, and presented them before the emperor. The final appointment was made by imperial decision.
The Qing court maintained a system of both rewards and punishments for the anda.
Those who performed well could receive honors and rewards. At the same time, discipline within the Shangshufang was strict, and instructors who neglected their duties could be punished.
The palace eunuchs responsible for the gates recorded the daily arrival and departure of the anda. If an instructor was unable to report for duty, he had to request leave through the chief anda, who would then seek imperial approval.
Manchu anda were expected to devote themselves seriously to the education of the princes. Negligence or indifference could result in immediate punishment, and more serious cases could lead to suspension from office.
The Qing Veritable Records preserve a revealing example.
On the fourth day of the fifth lunar month in the eleventh year of the Daoguang reign (1831), Manchu anda including Feisenbu were accused of being inattentive while on duty.
The Daoguang Emperor ordered that they be demoted by one rank as a warning.
The surviving account does not clearly explain exactly what they had done. The punishment, however, apparently failed to solve the problem.
On the fourteenth day of the following month, the Daoguang Emperor issued another order concerning Feisenbu and the others, directing that they be handed over to the appropriate office and permanently barred from promotion.
Two years later, the emperor showed leniency and once again allowed them to be considered for promotion and reassignment.
The performance of a Manchu anda could also be judged by the Manchu proficiency of the prince he taught.
If a prince became skilled in Manchu, his instructors might be rewarded. If the emperor discovered that a prince's Manchu was poor, the anda responsible for his education could be punished, commonly through the loss of salary.
One particularly revealing incident occurred in 1818.
On the twenty-second day of the sixth lunar month in the twenty-third year of the Jiaqing reign, the emperor's third son, Miankai, then twenty-three years old, entered the palace to pay his respects to the Jiaqing Emperor on his birthday.
The emperor asked him several questions in Manchu.
To the emperor's surprise, Miankai was unable to answer.
Jiaqing was furious.
He concluded that the prince's instructors had failed in their responsibilities and ordered the Manchu anda, including Getuken and Futangtai, to forfeit one year's salary.
The episode is particularly revealing because it shows that Manchu proficiency was not treated simply as an ornamental accomplishment for imperial princes.
At least institutionally, the emperor was expected to be able to speak and understand the language associated with the ruling house.
The establishment of anda in the Shangshufang—and particularly the appointment of Manchu anda—was intended to ensure that imperial princes did not neglect Manchu language and writing while receiving an extensive education in the Chinese classical tradition.
For the Qing state, this also had practical significance.
The Qing ruled a vast multiethnic empire, and Manchu remained important in communication concerning the frontiers, military affairs, Banner administration, and other areas of government. Training future emperors and princes to read and understand Manchu therefore had political as well as cultural value.
Yet the system contained an important weakness.
Manchu anda were selected through recommendation rather than competitive examination. As a result, the actual ability of individual appointees could vary considerably.
This problem became increasingly serious as proficiency in Manchu declined among the Banner population itself.
By the middle and later Qing periods, the court sometimes found it increasingly difficult to identify genuinely qualified Manchu instructors.
An illuminating example occurred in 1814.
Qichang, who had served as a vice minister of the Grand Secretariat, submitted a memorial criticizing the manner in which government offices recommended candidates for positions as Manchu anda.
According to his memorial, some offices failed to select candidates carefully. Men who had entered officialdom through purchased appointments and who were not proficient in translation were nevertheless recommended.
Some candidates knew that their own knowledge was inadequate and that they could not perform the job properly. Yet they were reluctant to refuse nomination because they feared offending their superiors.
As a result, when the grand secretaries came to select candidates, some nominees simply reported themselves ill, making it increasingly difficult to fill the positions.
Qichang proposed that the ministries and other government offices should recommend candidates specifically from among men trained in translation, selecting those of upright character and strong scholarly ability.
The Jiaqing Emperor rejected the proposal, regarding it as unnecessary, and ordered that the established selection procedure should not be changed to require holders of translation examination degrees.
Consequently, recommendation remained the principal method of selecting Manchu anda through the late Qing period.
The problem was obvious: a position created specifically to preserve the Manchu proficiency of imperial princes could not always guarantee that the instructor himself possessed an equally high level of Manchu.
There was another contradiction within the system.
Although we might naturally describe the Manchu anda today as the “Manchu teachers” of the imperial princes, their relationship with the princes was not equivalent to that of the classical tutors who taught Confucian texts.
The classical tutor taught while seated.
The anda taught while standing.
In the hierarchical language of the palace, an anda could refer to himself as a nucai, or “servant,” when addressing an imperial prince.
The Jiaqing Emperor once summarized the distinction very clearly:
“An imperial prince's anda is little more than a companion and cannot be placed on the same level as his tutors.”
This distinction reveals an interesting tension in Qing imperial education.
The Manchu language was officially regarded as an essential element of the dynasty's heritage, and emperors repeatedly emphasized its importance.
Yet the men specifically assigned to teach that language did not necessarily enjoy the same educational prestige as the scholars responsible for teaching the Chinese classics.
As the Qing dynasty declined, the anda system gradually weakened as well.
In 1908, the three-year-old Puyi entered the Shangshufang to begin his education by order of Empress Dowager Cixi.
A Manchu anda named Iktan was appointed to teach him Manchu.
By this point, however, the linguistic environment of the imperial family had changed dramatically. The appointment continued an old institutional tradition, but Manchu no longer occupied the position in everyday imperial life that it had held during the earlier Qing.
With the fall of the Qing dynasty and the eventual death of Iktan, the traditional system of Manchu anda also came to an end.
The history of the Manchu anda therefore tells us more than simply who taught Qing princes a language.
It records a much larger historical transformation.
In the early Qing, Manchu was the living language of the ruling house and an important language of government. Later, special instructors and increasingly elaborate regulations were required to ensure that even imperial princes continued to learn it.
The very existence of the manju anda was intended to preserve Manchu.
But as the language gradually retreated from everyday life, the institution created to teach it also became evidence of that decline.
— MING YE