19th century scroll translated by staff and students
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/scrolldn1.jpg” caption=”With the help of staff and students, archivists at the William Ready Division of Archives have translated a Chinese scroll dating back to the Qing Dynasty.”]On a campus where instant messaging, texting and email are the norm, a 19th-century Chinese scroll seems somewhat out of place.
Still, the 140 year old document fits right in at the William Ready Division of Archives. There, archivists enlisted the help of Pauline Yoo and Sherry Sun of the Library, May Zhai of the Department of International Relations and a number of McMaster students to translate its text and identify dates, biographical details and seals written on what has turned out to be an important Imperial Chinese document.
The scroll's calligraphic text has revealed a rare document from the Qing Dynasty, the last empire to rule China. Written in Chinese and Manchu, the three and a half metre long scroll is a mandate from the Tongzhi Emperor (1856-75) to the parents of Lu Chuan-Lin, an officer of the court who had passed the highest Imperial examinations and was subsequently promoted.
“The importance of the scroll lies in its cultural symbolism as an Imperial document of the last dynasty of China and of its historical significance as being a unique proclamation to a famous official who was instrumental in educational reforms,” said Renu Barrett, archivist at the William Ready Division of Archives. “The impact of this document will be felt internationally.”
The scroll was obtained by Cyril Levitt, professor in the Department of Sociology, from the estate of Lawrence Krader, an American ethnologist who studied the nomadic peoples of Central Asia.
Documents in Manchu were published until the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1912 and official use of the language ended. An artifact of immense historical and cultural significance, the scroll is now part of the McMaster University Library's manuscript collection.
