Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
ORASHKB and author
60
5
8
The Memoirs of Morrison have already been quoted. They are invaluable for data concerning his own life; they also give the reader a very vivid picture of life in Canton and Macao during the early years of the nineteenth century and of the difficulties in making contacts with the Chinese at that time. Of the works published by Morrison himself there remain only two copies of his Horae Sinicae, one published in London in 1812 and one in 1817. It consists of translations of miscellaneous pieces from the Chinese, "San-Tsi King, The Three Character Classic; on the utility and honour of learning"; "Ta-Hio: The Great Science" usually now known by James Legge's translated title "The Great Learning" "Account of Foe, the Deified Founder of a Chinese Sect"; "Extract from the Ho-Kiang"; "Account of the Sect Tao-szu"; "Dissuasive from Feeding on Beef" and "Specimens of Chinese Epistolary Correspondence". "The Dissuasive from Feeding on Beef" is of no value from the standpoint of Chinese literature, but Morrison remarks how popular was its use for teaching Chinese characters to small children and says, "the influence of this popular production is so great that many Chinese, perhaps one in twenty, some say one in ten, will not eat beef". "It was issued first as a Buddhist tract preaching the virtues of vegetarianism and the characters were arranged to form a picture of the poor ox whose sad story it relates. I have been unable to come across a copy of the Chinese original in Hong Kong but have found just a very few very elderly Chinese gentlemen who recall having seen a copy in their youth.
parallel_drawn
The 1817 edition is bound with Urh-Chih-Tsze-Tëen-Se-Yin-Pe-Keaou: Being a parallel drawn between the two intended Chinese Dictionaries: by the Rev. Robert Morrison and Antonio Montucci. This book is dedicated to Sir George Staunton by Montucci to whom he appeals to be an adjudicator in his criticisms of Morrison's methods in compiling his dictionary. The name of Montucci (1762-1829) as a sinologue has almost been forgotten now and his own projected dictionary was never published.
Unfortunately no copy of Morrison's main work to which he devoted so much of his early life in China, the complete Bible translated into Chinese, exists in the Library; none is mentioned in the printed catalogue. Presumably because it is in Chinese a copy was not included. The University Library is fortunate in possessing a copy presented by the London Missionary Society.
Q
三字經
.大學
三教源流
***
* 太上老君
10 戒食牛肉歌