76
HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE
trove is not certain. In Lion and Dragon in Northern China (1910), R.F. Johnston used the folklore material he himself garnered in Weihaiwei for purposes that are now regarded as dubious. It is clear Johnston was influenced by the theories of the cultural diffusionists, who attempted to trace everything back either to a common source or to a process of borrowing from other cultures; in other words, Johnston went far beyond the evidence available and indulged in highly conjectural reconstructions of what could have happened in the past. But Lockhart published only two papers on folklore and, as far as can be ascertained, did not engage in any comparative or theoretical study of the subject. However, it seems plausible to conclude that he, like Johnston, must have been influenced by the climate of anthropological opinion in his time, for both were active in this field before the functionalist anthropologists became intellectually influential.
Lockhart had a lifelong interest in numismatics and over the years he was able to build up a fine collection of Chinese copper coins. In 1895 the first two volumes of his The Currency of the Farther East, published by Noronha and Co., Hong Kong, was produced in an edition of 250 copies. The third volume appeared in 1898. The collection of coins illustrated in the work — Chinese, Annamese, Japanese and Korean — had been made by G.B. Glover of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, who had supervised the production of the plates printed from blocks. But Glover died before the book went to press and it was Lockhart who supplied the introductions to the three volumes and information about the dates and inscriptions on the coins. In 1915 The Stewart Lockhart Collection of Chinese Copper Coins appeared as a one-volume supplement to the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 'This book,' wrote a reviewer in 1915, 'is the first of its kind, and is calculated to stimulate the interest of those who have wished to collect Chinese cash, but have been hitherto deterred from doing so by the absence of any guide to the subject.'63 In 1967 an authority on coins stated that: this is one of the all-time standard works on collecting Chinese coins, with 2,070 coins illustrated. He has put a great deal of interesting material in the introductory fifteen pages.'64 The publication of the book caused Lockhart many problems, for he and the Chinese engraver he employed worked on the text and illustrations at Port Edward, Weihaiwei, while the book was being set up piecemeal in Shanghai.
76
HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE
trove is not certain. In Lion and Dragon in Northern China (1910), R.F. Johnston used the folklore material he himself garnered in Weihaiwei for purposes that are now regarded as dubious. It is clear Johnston was influenced by the theories of the cultural diffus- ionists, who attempted to trace everything back either to a common source or to a process of borrowing from other cultures; in other words, Johnston went far beyond the evidence available and in- dulged in highly conjectural reconstructions of what could have happened in the past. But Lockhart published only two papers on folklore and, as far as can be ascertained, did not engage in any comparative or theoretical study of the subject. However, it seems plausible to conclude that he, like Johnston, must have been influ- enced by the climate of anthropological opinion in his time, for both were active in this field before the functionalist anthropologists became intellectually influential.
Lockhart had a lifelong interest in numismatics and over the years he was able to build up a fine collection of Chinese copper coins. In 1895 the first two volumes of his The Currency of the Farther East, published by Noronha and Co., Hong Kong, was pro- duced in an edition of 250 copies. The third volume appeared in 1898. The collection of coins illustrated in the work — Chinese, Annamese, Japanese and Korean had been made by G.B. Glover of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, who had supervised the production of the plates printed from blocks. But Glover died before the book went to press and it was Lockhart who supplied the introductions to the three volumes and information about the dates and inscriptions on the coins. In 1915 The Stewart Lockhart Collection of Chinese Copper Coins appeared as a one-volume sup- plement to the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 'This book,' wrote a reviewer in 1915, 'is the first of its kind, and is calculated to stimulate the interest of those who have wished to collect Chinese cash, but have been hitherto deterred from doing so by the absence of any guide to the subject.'63 In 1967 an authority on coins stated that: this is one of the all-time stan- dard works on collecting Chinese coins, with 2,070 coins illustrated. He has put a great deal of interesting material in the introductory fifteen pages.'64 The publication of the book caused Lockhart many problems, for he and the Chinese engraver he employed worked on the text and illustrations at Port Edward, Weihaiwei, while the book was being set up piecemeal in Shanghai.
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