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	About us Historical Background List of Officers Fragment right: Officer Machang Fragment left: Officer Doubin a.o. Overview Officers on the Photo Literature		Officers on the Right Part of the Painting Machang (1a25) is the hero of the fragment of the right part of the painting Battle of Qurman which is owned by the Ethnological Museum of Hamburg. He is to be found in the lower left corner besides his dead horse as he happened to come behind the enemy lines and was heavily attacked. To this incident also another painting exists called Macang Lays Low the Enemy Ranks which is in one version hanging in the Asian Museum of Berlin (see Schätze der Himmelssöhne, no. 280), in another version hanging in the Palace Museum in Taipei, 瑪 瑺 斫 陣 圖 . How it happened that Machang came behind the enemy lines the Qianlong emperor himself wrote in the glorifying poem (excerpt): … When in this spring the troops quickly advanced for a relief , Fude was the leader of the husky soldiers, And Machang lead the front troops, When the bandits attacked at Qurman. But when they saw the well controlled formation of our troops They fled headlessly, Then Machang hurried forward and pursued the bandits . With his horsewhip he pressed his horse ... He did not pick up his banner, but rather picked up his graven bow, The first arrow met its goal and badly wounded the enemy. Another hastily shot arrow did not meet its goal But the third arrow hit the enemy deadly and he fell from the horse, Undeliberately Machang was behind the enemy lines. Like bees and ants they where around him and pressed on him, And his horse died under him and fell on the grass of the steppe Then he left his horse, fought by foot and countered with his sword He yelled defiantly and his drive was like a rainbow Our soldiers pushed forward and rescued Machang. … In German: … Als in diesem Frühling [1759] die Truppen eilig zum Entsatz vorrückten, war Fude der Heerführer der bärenstarken Soldaten, und Machang kommandierte die Truppen an der Spitze, da griffen die Banditen bei Qurman an. Als sie jedoch angesichts unserer geordneten Schlachtformation kopflos davonrannten, preschte Machang alleine vor und verfolgte die Banditen. Mit der Metallpeitsche trieb er bei hängender Zügel sein Pferd aus Ferghana (Dawan) an, des geschmückte Banner ergriff er nicht, er ergriff nur den geschnitzten Bogen. Der erste Pfeil traf genau und verwundete den Banditen schwer, noch einen Pfeil ließ er folgen, doch in der Hast ging er ins Leere. Der dritte Pfeil schließlich traf tödlich, und der Bandit stürzte vom Pferd, Doch unversehens war Machang dabei tief in die Reihen der Banditen eingedrungen, Wie Bienen und Ameisen wimmelten sie um ihn herum und bedrängten ihn, sein Pferd brach tot unter ihm zusammen und fiel ins Gras der Steppe. Da ließ er sein Roß im Stich, kämpfte zu Fuß weiter und parierte mit dem Kurzschwert, trotzig schrie er mit lauter Stimme, sein Schwung glich einem Regenbogen. Unsere Soldaten aber drängten nach vorne und schlugen Machang heraus, … (For the full glorifying poem in German see Ledderose and Stary under Literature) When the Qianlong emperor ordered to make a smaller version of the painting Battle of Qurman which was sent to Paris changes in the composition were made. Machang, however, is still standing next to his dead horse under the tree with his peacock feather in his hat (see the green circle). An officer portrait of Machang is known, it was sold 2005 in a Sotheby´s auction in New York (altogether 10 officer portraits were sold, see List of Officers). Compare for yourself the different faces of Machang: to the left the face from the original fragment from Hamburg, to the right the officer portrait and below the face from the painting Macang Lays Low the Enemy Ranks, Taipei version:		"He loaded his cannon on camels. People who heard their thunderous roar near and far submitted" China Marches West Peter C. Perdue p. 305