| Abstract |
In the Ch’ing Dynasty, official documents were written in multi-languages. Translation work hence became the key link to the performance of governmental operation, especially the translations from Manchu to Chinese and Mongolian. This job was exclusively assigned to the bannermen. To select talented translators, the Ch’ing government would held the recruiting exam and the translation test, which could be termed as the imperial translation examinations. Before entering the examination hall, a bannerman mustfirstly pass the test on archery. Therefore, a potential examinee should have good calibers for both languages and archery. Under the protection of national policies, the bannermen enjoyed various privileges; however, as time went by, some bannermen, ignoring the social reality, indulged themselves in bygone glories, while others tried to look for solution to the predicaments of lives. Joining the imperial translation examinations turned out to be a crucial choice for the improvement of social status among the bannermen. In general, while the bannermen’s abilities in Manchu language and archery had deteriorated since the mid-Ch’ing Dynasty (the mid-eighteenth century), the method to recruit governmental officials through the imperial translation examinations was frequently criticized as a mere formality. However, since the vacancy of the governmental position of professional translator persisted and the translation work still needed, the real problem consisted rather in whether the examination system and the translation job could be an incentive to the bannermen’s career pursuits. For this reason, this paper is designed to utilize the imperial translation examination as an example to illuminate the relationships among Manchu language, efficiency in archery and the bannermen’s career. |
