Readers of and on Manchu-Language Books in Qing China

Abstract: While scholarship on reading in late imperial China has primarily focused on monolingual literati readers of Chinese, this article sheds light on a different kind of reader: the ambilingual reader of the Manchu language, the native language of the Qing rulers (1644–1911). By examining both how readers learned to read Manchu and marginalia left by readers on their books, this article contends that readers engaged in a multilingual reading practice in which readers simultaneously read both Manchu and Chinese together. Fostered by the focus on translation in Manchu-language schools and pedagogy, this reading practice left physical marks on Manchu-language books in the form of multilingual glosses, dots, and other reading marks.