Image

Juewang Shidai
絕望時代
"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Main Page
Articles
Translations


Collection of Portraits of Subordinate Peoples of the Qing Dynasty:
The People of Hungaria from the Great Western Sea (皇清職貢圖:大西洋翁加里亞國人)
November 18, 2022
By: Károly Jakabfy


I'm sure everyone has seen at least once the periodically surfacing Chinese painting of a supposed "Hungarian nobleman", and of course we all had a good laugh at it, how his "asianized" depiction conforms to the (chauvinistic) stereotype of the "un-European Hungarians". But personally I've never seen the short accompanying text translated into English, so since one of my classes required me to read it, I might as well produce an English translation and share it.

From the Huang Qing Zhigong Tu (1751)
Left side: Lady of Hungary
Right Side: Man of Hungary
  Higher resolution available at: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55010274f

The image on the right has a short text in classical Chinese. The left side has what I assume is the same in Machu, but I cannot tell for sure.

https://juewangshidai.neocities.org/images/Qing/Qingtext.jpg

Punctuated the text reads as follows:
大西洋翁加里亞國人翁加里亞國在波羅泥亞國 南。其人彷彿蒙古。衣服甚短,束縛袴襪,有如行縢。極穎悟,尚禮貌。幼習馳馬。短頸,善奔,常帶彎刀,長四尺,每在 馬上舞試。婦人能通文字,刺繡工巧,出門必設紗綾蔽面。物產極豐,牛羊可供,他州之用。金、銀、銅、鐵等物取之不 竭。

What's interesting in the Chinese text is that to render the name of Hungary into Chinese, they went with 翁加 里亞國 Wēngjiālĭyă guó, which is most likely derived from the Russian term for Hungary, which is Венгрия (Vengriya).

Below follows a translation of the text into English:

The People of Hungaria from the Great Western Sea

Hungaria is a country south of Polonia. Its inhabitants are as if they were Mongolians. Their coats are very short, and they tie their pants as if they were wearing feet-wrapping bandages. They are highly intelligent and hold etiquette above all else. They learn to ride horses from an early age. Their necks are short, their galloping is fast and they always carry with them a sabre, which is four chi long, brandishing it whenever they are on horseback. Their womenfolk are skilled in weaving and their faces are always covered with a thin veil whenever they leave the house. Their land is abundant in riches, cattle and sheep can be raised and their rivers are utilized. Gold,  silver, copper and iron are all available in inexhaustible quantities.