152
NOTES AND QUERIES
A CANNON FROM THE END OF THE MING PERIOD
Your Honorary Editor has suggested that I write a short piece about the cannon recently found near the Sino-British frontier about twenty miles from Kowloon. I do so with some hesitation, as I have not seen the piece and it has probably already received some attention, including a translation of the inscription. Nonetheless here is my rendering of the latter:
"Weight: 300 catties.
Constructed on the 26th September 1650 by the following: Wu, Superintendent of Inland Seas, Chief Military Commissioner, installed (?) as Ting-hai General,
Tu, Governor General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, by imperial order.
Fan, Regional Commander of Kwangtung and guardian of the imperial heir (?),
Hsiao Li-jen, Local Commander of military operations, Su, Chief of bureau (?), Chief of military commission.”2
It is of some interest to note that the names of Tu, Fan, and Hsiao Li-jen appear also on the inscription of the cannon dated June/July 1650, found in Kowloon Bay in 1956.3 So far I have not been able to identify any of these individuals, especially since four of the five are listed by their hsing only. Doubtless they would all have owed their appointments to one or other of the Ming princes who were trying to uphold the authority of the tottering dynasty. One of these was Chu I-hai (Prince of Lu), then with headquarters at Chusan, captured by the Manchus on October 15, 1651. Another and more likely one was Chu Yu-lang (Prince of Kuei) who at this date held his court on boats at Wu-chou. Canton, after a siege of eight months, was taken by the Ch'ing forces on November 20, 1650.
These, as may be imagined, were parlous days for the house of Ming. Not alone for the surviving members of the imperial family, but also for the local population and the foreigners in their midst.4 One may surmise that the casting of cannon in the summer and early autumn of 1650 was a singularly difficult and hazardous one. But cannon and their casting were well known to the Chinese in this and earlier times.
152
NOTES AND QUERIES
A CANNON FROM THE END OF THE MING PERIOD
Your Honorary Editor has suggested that I write a short piece about the cannon recently found near the Sino-British frontier about twenty miles from Kowloon. I do so with some hesitation, as I have not seen the piece and it has probably already received some attention, including a translation of the inscription. None- theless here is my rendering of the latter':
"Weight: 300 catties.
Constructed on the 26th September 1650 by the following: Wu, Superintendent of Inland Seas, Chief Military Commis- sioner, installed (?) as Ting-hai General,
Tu, Governor General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, by im- perial order.
Fan, Regional Commander of Kwangtung and guardian of the imperial heir (?),
Hsiao Li-jen, Local Commander of military operations, Su, Chief of bureau (?), Chief of military commission.”2
It is of some interest to note that the names of Tu, Fan, and Hsiao Li-jen appear also on the inscription of the cannon dated June/July 1650, found in Kowloon Bay in 1956.3 So far I have not been able to indentify any of these individuals, especially since four of the five are listed by their hsing only. Doubtless they would all have owed their appointments to one or other of the Ming princes who were trying to uphold the authority of the tottering dynasty. One of these was Chu I-hai (Prince of Lu), then with headquarters at Chusan, captured by the Manchus on October 15, 1651. Another and more likely one was Chu Yu-lang (Prince of Kuei) who at this date held his court on boats at Wu- chou. Canton, after a siege of eight months, was taken by the Ch'ing forces on November 20, 1650.
These, as may be imagined, were parlous days for the house of Ming. Not alone for the surviving members of the imperial family, but also for the local population and the foreigners in their midst.“ One may surmise that the casting of cannon in the summer and early autumn of 1650 was a singularly difficult and hazardous one. But cannon and their casting were well known to the Chinese in this and earlier times.
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