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ART. XVI.—On an Ancient Inscription in the Neu-chih Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

A. Wylie
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Extract

An indigenous record of the nomade tribes of Tartary, who shook the world with their conquests during the middle ages, would no doubt form an interesting episode in universal history. Although the Mongols made their power to be felt from east to west, comparatively little was known in Europe of their actual condition; but that little is sufficient to stimulate curiosity, and while the names of Genghiz and Tamerlane have gained a world-wide celebrity, very much that pertains to their people, as a nation and as individuals, is left to be filled up by the imagination. Tokens of former grandeur are still to be met with in the northern wilds, suggesting to the mind of the traveller a host of questions, which receive no satisfactory solution from the erratic nomades who inhabit those sterile regions. How many monarchies were overthrown by these children of the desert; how many kingdoms reduced to desolation; how many nations subdued, their power broken, and their inhabitants dispersed ? Questions allied to something higher than the mere inquisitive faculty attach to some of these points; and, while we scan the débris of bye-gone generations, we are impelled by the conviction that all efforts in that direction are auxiliary to the more mature knowledge of the history of the human racé.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 17 , January 1860 , pp. 331 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1860

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References

page 333 note 1 Book 32, p. 18.

page 333 note 2 Book 32, page 22.

page 333 note 3 Book 345.

page 333 note 4 See also Rémusat's Recherches sur les langues Tartares, p. 77, and Translation of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, Introduction, p. xviii.

page 333 note 5 Leaou she, “History of the Leaou Dynasty,” Book 2, p. 1. The same passages are reproduced in the Hung kën lŭ, “Middle Age History,” Book 202, p. 7, and the Suh Wăn hëen t'ung k‘aòu, “Supplement to the Antiquarian Researches,” Book 184, p. 31. These several quotations are translated into French, by Rémusat, in his Recherches eur lea languea Tartares, p. 77.

page 334 note 1 Leaou she, Book 2, p. 5; Hung këen lŭh, Book 202, p. 9; Suh Wăn hën t'ung k'aòu, Book 184, p. 31.

page 334 note 2 Leaou she, Book 46. A sample of these words has teen translated into German, by Klaproth, , in his Asia Polyglotta, pp. 194, 195Google Scholar.

page 334 note 3 Rémusat's Melanges Asiatiques, Tome 2, p. 256.

page 334 note 4 Suh Wăn këen t‘ung kaòu, Book 184, p. 31.

page 334 note 5 Kin she, “History of the Kin Dynasty,” Book 2, p. 14; Hung kën lŭh, Book 214, p. 14.

page 334 note 6 T‘ung këen kang muh Suh pëen, “Supplement to the General History of China, Book 10, p. 42; Suh Wăn hëen t‘ung kaòu, Book 184, p. 31.

page 334 note 7 Kin she, Book 3, p. 20 Hung këen lŭh, Book 215, p. 10.

page 335 note 1 Kin she, Book 3, p. 27; Hung këen lŭh, Book 215, p. 13.

page 336 note 1 These details respecting the Office of Translators are taken from Rémusat's Recherches sur les langues Tartares, pp. 218–20, and Mélanges Asiatiques, Tome 2, pp. 248, 249. He quotes from a work called the Pian-i-tian, which I have not seen, and part of which is extracted from the, Ming hwup tëen, “Statistics of the Ming Dynasty.”

page 339 note 1 The inscription in Chinese, down to the date, is given here.

page 340 note 1 Mélanges Asiatiques, Tome 2, p. 256.

page 342 note 1 Part IX, Division 3, Book 4, p. 1.