People familiar with China's modern history know the Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar, the original text of which was written in Latin, Russian, and Manchu, but not in Chinese.
The Russian negotiator for the Treaty of Nebchu was Golovin.
Previously, Nebuchu was Chinese land, the pasture land of the Mongol princes. With the strength of Tsarist Russia, it gradually penetrated into northeast China, occupied Nebuchu, and built a city. In order to protect Nebuchu, the Yaksa Fortress was also built on Chinese soil as a bridgehead for invading northeast China.
After Kangxi finished cleaning up three times, he began to recover the lost land in the northeast. So, in 1685, the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty sent troops to attack Yaksa and occupied the city. At this time, Tsarist Russia also went to war on the Western Front and fought with Turkey.
At that time, Tsarist Russia was the head of Peter the Great, and sent Gorovine to negotiate with the Chinese. From Peter the Great to Golovin, they all wanted to settle the dispute through negotiations and avoid fighting on the East and West fronts.
The Chinese negotiators were suo ertu, the minister of the leading guards, Tong Guogang, Shang Shu Alani, Zuo Du Yushi Maqi, and Ma La, the commander of the guards, and so on.
This negotiation took a long time. On May 30, 1688, Soetu and others set out from Beijing, and a year later, on September 7, 1689, China and Russia signed the Treaty of Nebuchu, which demarcated the eastern border between China and Russia, and legally established that the vast area of the Heilongjiang and Ussuri River basins, including Sakhalin Island, belonged to China.
The Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar was signed in Manchu, Russian and Latin, with the Latin text being the official text signed by both parties. Looking at the bold characters, many people wonder, why did China and Russia sign the treaty in Latin?
It starts with the missionaries.
At that time, the supreme rulers of both China and Russia wanted to negotiate an end to the conflict on the northeast border. Peter the Great was at war with turkey, and Kangxi wanted to end the conflict as soon as possible so that he could concentrate on cleaning up the Geldan tribe in Mongolia. Therefore, Kangxi believed that a treaty should be made that was extremely binding on the Russians. However, because of the difference in language, Kangxi sent two Western missionaries.
The first missionary was Zhang Cheng, who was French. In 1685, he was sent by King Louis XIV to China as a missionary. The second missionary was Xu Risheng, a Portuguese who came to China in 1673 and became proficient in music, serving as a Qin Tianjian, assisting in the administration of the calendar, and serving as a court music teacher. He also has a study of Chinese music, and every time he hears a Chinese song, he can imitate it.
In the eyes of Kangxi and others, the two missionaries belonged to high-level intellectuals and were proficient in multi-Chinese, so they let them negotiate with Suo Ertu. After the mediation of the two men, China and Russia finally made concessions and reached a unified opinion.
Finally, when it landed on paper, everyone began to think about what language to write. At that time, the Representatives of China and Russia encountered a difficult situation, Chinese did not understand Russian, and the Russians did not understand Chinese. In the end, China and Russia found an intermediate path and decided to write the treaty in Latin, Russian, and Manchu, and the two sides signed the treaty written in Latin.
The reason why the Latin Treaty was signed by the Chinese side is well understood by the Chinese side, and Latin belongs to the common language of the missionaries, and it will certainly not make the treaty look different. The reason why Tsarist Russia agreed was because there were also many missionaries within Tsarist Russia, who were very proficient in Latin, so they could also ensure that treaties written in Latin would not be out of shape.
Thus, China and Russia signed the treaty written in Latin. There is no Chinese, and there is another reason, the Chinese and Russian negotiators, including the missionaries, are not particularly fluent in Chinese!
Later, the Tsarist Russia considered the treaty unfair to the Russians, let the land that was originally unoccupied be allocated to the Qing, and transferred the responsibility to the missionaries. According to the records, after the signing of this treaty, Peter the Great eliminated all the missionaries in Tsarist Russia and closed the churches and clubhouses.