Mandarin (bureaucrat) - History and Use of The Term

History and Use of The Term

The English term comes from the Portuguese mandarim (early spelling, mandarin). The Portuguese word is amply attested already in one of the earliest Portuguese reports about China: letters from the imprisoned survivors of the Tomé Pires' embassy, which were most likely written in 1524, and in Castanheda's História do descobrimento e conquista da Índia pelos portugueses. Its usage among the Portuguese is also attested by Matteo Ricci, who entered the mainland China from the Portuguese Macau in the late 16th century.

The Portuguese word was thought by many to be related to mandador ("one who commands") and mandar ("to command"), from Latin "mandare". Modern dictionaries, however, agree that it was in fact borrowed by Portuguese from the Malay, which ultimately came from the Sanskrit mantrin (Devanagari: मंत्री) (meaning counselor or minister – etymologically linked to "Mantra"). According to Malaysian Royal Professor Ungku Abdul Aziz, the term had its origin when the Portuguese living in Malacca during the Malacca Sultanate wanted to meet with the higher officials in China, and used the term "menteri", but with an added "n" due to their poor grasp of the language, to refer to higher officials.

In the 16th century, before the term mandarin became widespread in the European languages, the word Loutea (with various spelling variations) was often used in Europeans' travel reports to refer to Chinese scholar-officials. It is frequently used e.g. in Galeote Pereira's account of his experiences in China in 1548–1553, which was published in Europe in 1565, or (as Louthia) in Gaspar da Cruz' Treatise of China (1569). As C.R. Boxer explains, the word comes from the Chinese 老爷 (Mandarin Pinyin: lǎoye; Amoy dialect: ló-tia; Quanzhou dialect: lāu-tia), which was commonly used by people in China to address officials. This is also the main term used to refer to the scholar-officials in Juan González de Mendoza's History of the great and mighty kingdom of China and the situation thereof (1585), which heavily drew (directly or indirectly) on Pereira's report and Gaspar da Cruz' book, and which was the Europeans' standard reference on China in the late 16th century.

In the West, the term mandarin is associated with the concept of the scholar-official, who immersed himself in poetry, literature, and Confucian learning in addition to performing civil service duties.

The term "Mandarin" is also used to refer to the standard northern spoken variety of Chinese because it was the language used among officials during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It can be thought as the translation of the Chinese name Guanhua ("the language of the officials") for this speech standard, which was current already in the Ming Dynasty.