The Foundation of the Manchu Empire in Poem Part 1: introduction, transcription

Abstract

In 1774 the Manchu emperor Qianlong 乾隆 ordered to compile a historical work on the foundation of the Manchu empire. The huge enterprise was finished after 13 years, and it was published in 32 volumes under the title of Daicing gurun i fukjin doro neihe bodogon i bithe. A Chinese version was also published with the title Huangqing kaiguo fanglüe 皇清開國方略. The work begins with a poem summarizing the story of the foundation of the Manchu Empire from the very begining up to 1644, when the Manchus marched to Beijing, which later became the new capital of the empire. The poem has 36 verses with four lines each, and Qianlong composed eight verses from these, the others being written by different other authors. Almost every line has commentaries explaining its meaning. This poem has never been published completely, although is an important source of Manchu imagination of the Manchu past from the era when the Empire reached its peak. The first part of the article, published in this issue, consists of an introduction and the transcription of the poem, while the translation with commentaries can be found in the second part in the next issue.