Three Imperial Diplomas Gaoming 誥命 from the Collection of the IOM RAS
The Manchu collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts has three Manchu-Chinese diplomas gaoming 誥命 in its possession, dated to March 1, 1904 (В 94mss, В 106mss, and В 107mss). Theseare the latest Manchu-Chinese diplomas among the 18 scrolls from the collection. According to the Chinese text, the first diploma was given to Gong Wencai (in Manchu, Gung Wenjai) and bestows on him the wuxian jiangjun 武顯將軍 title (in Manchu, horonggo gungge jiyanggjun) and on his wife, the fu ren 夫人 title (in Manchu, unenggi hehe). The second diploma was given to his parents, and the third, to his grandparents, awarding them the same titles correspondingly. The Manchu texts of the diplomas contain a mistake of the scribe: in the first diploma, the name of Gung Wenjai’s wife is not mentioned; in the second and the third diplomas, the scribe has changed the names of the recipient and the description of his heroic deeds - instead of Gung Wenjai, he described Wang Fengxiang and his relatives. This textological mistake shows that, on the one hand, much attention was paid to the Chinese text and, on the other hand, the Manchu text was a formality necessary for all official documents issued from the court, and Manchu was not read in the families. The present article publishes a Russian translation of the Manchu and Chinese texts of the three diplomas and shows the work of different scribes. The three diplomas, given to the same recipient and his relatives, illustrate the state’s appreciation of its heroes: it highly valued their merits and bestowed titles not only on the heroes, but on their wives and relatives in two generations. This practice underlines the fact that the recipient of the diploma has shown his filial piety not only to the ruler, but to his ancestors as well.