Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Mar 2021)
On the Mutual Relations between the Kazakh Khanates and the Qing and Russian Empires. Book Review: Noda J., Onuma T. A Collection of Documents from the Kazakh Sultans to the Qing Dynasty
Abstract
This study, titled A Collection of Documents from the Kazakh Sultans to the Qing Dynasty, deals with 16 documents addressed from Kazakh sultans to the Qing Dynasty (and the Russian Empire/Governor-General of Siberia). These were written in the Oyirad (Mongol) language with Tod script or in the Turkic language with Arabic script from the eighteenth to nineteenth century, and come complete with text, transcription, and translation. In addition, this study includes two essays written by the authors who made use of these documents. The majority of Qing documents are preserved in a collection of the First Historical Archives (第一歴史襠案館) in Beijing. Many of these documents related to the Kazakhs have started to be published as The Collection of the Archival Documents Concerning Sino-Kazakh Relations at the Time of the Qing Dynasty (清代中哈関係襠案彙編) and so on, and to be used for historical research. Of the documents dealt with in this study, 14 are from the Manchu Language Reference Copy of Grand Council Palace Memorial (軍機処満文副奏摺) of the First Historical Archives, one is from Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Respubliki Kazakhstan, and one is from Vneshnyaya politika Rossii XIX i nachala XX veka (Moskva: Izd-vo Nauka, t. 11–12, 1979–1980). However, most of these documents are not included in the published collection mentioned above. Therefore, this study, together with the above-mentioned collection, represents another major step in the study of these documentss. In addition, by utilizing these documents, Takahiro Onuma clarifies that the international world order between the Qing dynasty and Kazakh nomads in Central Asia was not based on the “suzerain-dependency (Ch. zong-fan 宗藩) relationship”, which was heavily influenced by Confucianism, but rather, on the “master-slave (Mon. ejen-albatu) relationship”, which originated in Mongol nomadic society. Jin Noda, who also utilized these documents, states that the title of Kazakh sultans, which has been regarded as a product of the Qing benefit policy, was in fact a result of both the Kazakh sultans and Qing requiring the ‘title-bestowal system’ in the process of the establishment of relations. This system was gradually becoming a mere formality, partly because of the influence of Russia. These findings suggest that the Kazakh khanates were independently developing a “bilateral diplomatic policy” while mediating between the Qing and Russian empires, and they highlight the policy differences of both empires toward the Kazakh khanates. We hope that the findings from this study will further advance the study of the history of the mutual relations between the Kazakh khanates and the Qing and Russian empires.
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