A Case Study on the Zunghar Missionary’s Experience at Peking in 1747: Based on the Manchu Archives from the Yonghe Lamasery Historical Archives

• In Event: Qing Empire in Inner Asia: Based on Manchu Archives

Abstract

The relation between the Qing and Zunghar was constantly the important concern of the court’s central policies from the reign of Kangxi to Qianlong. Since Kangxi waged war on Galdan to Qianlong eventually repressed Zunghar rebellion, it not only lasted for almost half the time of Kang-Qian Flourishing Age, but also profoundly influenced as well as altered both the border status and political landscape of East Asia and Inner Asia, for what this issue raised great concerns among the scholars.
The Qing-Zunghar relation represented with diverse patterns in the different times of Kang-Qian period. From the perspective of the Qing court, the completed pacification of Zunghar was the essential purpose of its northern border strategy, by the approaches accordingly either mobilizing military force or offering peaceful amnesty. In the recently edited and published the Yonghegong Lama Temple Historical Archives in the Qing dynasty, it includes Emperor Qianlong’s accommodation and treatment details of Zunghar missionary in the year of 1747, during their visiting to Peking. Those archives in Manchu are basically from the Imperial Household Department, Court of Colonial Affairs and other forefront ministers’ official reports and memorials to the throne. Based on the archives, it implicates that Emperor Qianlong at the very moment attempted to appease Zunghar and dealt with the issue in a comparatively flexible way. For that matter, the particular records in the archives provide us another perspective to rethink the relation between the Qing and Zunghar in a specifically historical moment.

Author

• Tong Song, Renmin University of China