Tartar, Manchu, or Hu? Global Discussions of Qing Origins, 1630–1780

In the wake of the Manchu invasion of China in 1644, information networks carried the news of the Ming collapse around the globe. Despite the certainty that China had fallen, these many reports carried different names for the invaders. Some called them “Tartars,” others labeled them “Mongols.” In all cases, the news conjured visions of hordes demolishing civilization. Over the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, the Qing invasion of China inspired a series of studies into the origins of the conquerors. Scholars used Chinese and Manchu languages sources, anthropological observations, and direct interviews to uncover the origins and identity of the invaders. In this paper, I reconstruct the emergence of multiple global histories of Manchu origins. My research shows that scholars used similar source bases and techniques to arrive at divergent histories of the rise of the Manchu state.

See more of: Toward a Trans-imperial Intellectual History of Central Eurasia, 1644–1820
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