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| | Chapter 1: China and the Manchus |
 | | The name of this wandering people, whose territory covers such a huge space on the map, has been variously derived from (1) moengel, celestial, (2) mong, brave, and (3) munku, silver, the last mentioned being favoured by some because of its relation to the iron and golden dynasties of the Kitans and Nu-chens respectively. |
 | | The Ouigours, known by that name since the year 629, were once the ruling race in the regions which now form the khanates of Khiva and Bokhara, and had been the first of the tribes of Central Asia to have a script of their own. |
 | | The Manchu written language, therefore, is lineally descended from Syraic; indeed, the family likeness of both Manchu and Mongol to the parent stem is quite obvious, except that these two scripts, evidently influenced by Chinese, are written vertically, though, unlike Chinese, they are read from left to right. |
| www.romanization.com /books/giles/manchus/chap01.html (1873 words) |
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