[ { "id": 206979, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "44 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nWhy did they fight? Again we cannot say; but it would seem sensible to suggest that Morès, a true-blue aristocrat, was antagonised by the monarchical pretensions of the bourgeois Mayréna, who had by his bogus elevation, leap-frogged over the Marquis to out-point him as King. \n\nThere is, finally, the further possibility that Mayréna had put the story of a duel about as a form of self-advertisement, designed to clarify the ambiguities of his status, to signal that he was a proper gentleman, for only 'gentlemen', not the commonalty, were permitted to engage in the duel by caste-conscious European society. But I think we should accept Des Voeux' implication, for as Governor he was likely to be well informed about what was really happening in the town. \n\nLast Adventures \n\nOn his return to Europe Mayréna stayed first of all at the Grand Hotel in Paris under the name of the Comte de Drey. He then opened a small legation in the Rue de Grammont. He was seen frequently on the boulevards and in the fashionable cafes and was interviewed by several noted journalists, including the feuilletoniste Alfred Capus.43 He survived by selling decorations and orders at the Café de Paris, at Weber's, and even at the Rat Mort and the Moulin Rouge, where one evening the singer Maurice Mac-Nab44 and the musician Charles de Sivry composed a national anthem for the Sedangs, an anthem that is unique in that its music is reminiscent of the can-can. But the big prize eluded Mayréna in Paris: he could not find a rich backer. In April 1899 he abandoned that city for Brussels. \n\nHere at last he found an appropriate victim. He met a rich Belgian industrialist, besotted by titles, who desperately sought ennoblement. The obliging Mayréna granted his wish. As King of the Sedangs, Mayréna conferred upon the industrialist the Order of Sainte-Marguerite and the title of Baron and gave him a slice of territory, at least on paper, for his new barony. The industrialist declared he would finance the King's return from exile. \n\nOn 15 January 1890 the 600 ton yacht, the Sachsen, moored to the quay at Antwerp, was about to sail for Indo-China. The royal standard of the King of the Sedangs—rows of daisies on a blue background—was raised expectantly. A choir sang the Hymn of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206980, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n45\n\nthe Sedangs, a warrior chant. Mayréna was in full dress uniform, complete with multiform decorations. He was saluted by the other European passengers, who inclined their bodies, and he responded with a military salute. Present were the ennobled and happy industrialist and several rich young men from the Brussels haute-bourgeoisie. The chaplain was a former curé, who had been unfrocked for immorality. And so Mayréna left Europe for the last time.\n\nThe voyage out was mostly uneventful, though Mayréna drank far too much and was often indiscreet enough to talk about his past with his courtiers. Court etiquette was strictly enforced aboard ship --- Buckingham Palace rules at table - except when brief forays were made ashore at Port Said, Aden and Colombo; then the King assumed his incognito as the Comte de Drey. On 18 April 1890 the Sachsen anchored in Singapore harbour.\n\nWhen Mayréna stepped ashore he was at once stopped by a courier from the French Consulate and told that the Consul wished to see him urgently. At the Consulate he was greeted politely but informed that the French Government now claimed rights over the territory of the Sedangs, that he was therefore no longer King, and would be arrested if he set foot in Indo-China. Mayréna, after much argument, returned to Ralph's Hotel, where his officials and courtiers had lodged temporarily, and informed the party that the Sedangs had revolted and that it was impossible to proceed to his kingdom. The group, it appears, were not surprised by the turn of events. They had enjoyed a splendid ocean vacation at the expense of the rich industrialist, Mayréna's backer, but had no desire to seek martyrdom among the savages of the Moï country. At the end of the week the party - court chamberlain, chaplain, other officials and passengers - all returned to Antwerp by the Sachsen. Mayréna stayed on in Singapore. There was little else he could do.\n\nMayréna's sojourn in Singapore is not well documented, though Soulié claims Mayréna met in that city a European he had known formerly at Haiphong, a companion of Miss Dahlberg's brother, who was now domiciled on the island of Tioman and making a living by collecting birds' nests, those of the sea swallow, for the Chinese market. Mayréna decided to accompany this trader back to Tioman, because the island was under the jurisdiction of the Malay State of Pahang, and once settled there he felt he could not be extradited to either France or Indo-China, where he would have had to face trial assuredly for treason.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212294, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "213\n\nand older brothers, discussing the possible future vocation he might take up. Becoming a minister or missionary was considered, but that was \"dependent on my becoming a true Christian, and I knew that I was not then such\". He decided to put off all final decisions and become a teacher (9) \"till my mind should become in a more settled condition on the great subject of religion”. Living with his older brother, George, in London in the interim, James went to hear many preachers, but was particularly impressed by the minister of Weigh House Chapel, a Mr. Thomas Binney. (Two years later, when he entered seminary and studied Chinese at the University of London, he made the extra effort to hear Binney's sermons \"frequently and always to my benefit^^.) Later, he heard a message by a famous Congregational minister, Dr. Me'all, on the vow of Jacob in Genesis 28. This encounter set in motion the determination on James' part to be a \"truer and more consistent servant of Christ'. These events took place in 1835 and 1836. Finally, while teaching mathematics and Latin in a school in Blackburn, James joined the Congregational Church in Blackburn. His comment on this commitment reflects his sense of duty and spiritual fulfillment: \"The doing what is right always brings with it an exhilaration of spirit, and gives concentration to the powers of the mind\". There is no note here of an emotionally ecstatic experience, but there is the overcoming of a deep and pressing burden of spiritual accountability. He completed this autobiographical account with the quotation of Biblical passages (predominantly Philippians 3:13-14) and with the Christian witness' simple statement; now he was following Christ, and Christ, he was assured, would not leave him. See James Legge, \"Notes of My Life\", op. cit., pp. 58-67.\n\nIn his eighteen months at the Blackburn school, James taught the upper class boys, who were only a few years younger than himself, mathematics and passages from a number of classical Latin sources. The young teacher later admitted that two texts he taught during this period left a deep impression upon him: Lactantius' Institutiones Divinae (Antwerp, 1539) and Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae. The latter is particularly important because of the Augustinian commitment to which Boethius was bound: that philosophy could be an aid to and lead one on from the search for human understanding to a humble acceptance of a guiding trust in the living God. In addition, the well-structured poetic strains of Boethius may also have had a continuing impact in Legge's rendering of Chinese poetry, but by his own statement, it appears that George Buchanan's style was more often in mind as a model for translating. See \"Notes Of My Life\", op. cit., pp. 65-66, 72.\n\nT\n\nFor details on Legge's Highbury College experience and first studies in Chinese, see \"Notes Of My Life\", op. cit., pp. 80-87, 102-105.\n\n411\n\nBrian Harrison has written about Legge's attitudes at the Malacca site, arguing that he was a young and inexperienced missionary who stubbornly refused to adopt an older missionary's and other administrators' attitudes toward the College. Other research has challenged this opinion, showing Legge to have been stubbornly opposed to practices which he believed were not only religiously and ethically unacceptable, but also more aligned with both the London office and the original plans of Morrison and Milne. See Brian Harrison, Waiting For China: The Anglo-Chinese College At Malacca, 1818-1843, And Early Nineteenth-Century Missions (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1979) and R. L. O'Sullivan, \"The Departure of the London Missionary Society from Malacca,\" Journal of The Malaysian Historical Society 23 (1980), pp. 75-83.\n\n41\n\nSee The Rambles of the Emperor Ching Tih in Keang Nan, A Chinese Tale. (Vol. 1, 320 pages; Vol. 2, 322 pages) trans. Tsin Shen, ed. James Legge (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman, 1843). The second work was attributed to Legge by Alexander Wylie, who [according to Dr. R. Gary Tiedemann, currently of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London] was also tutored in elementary Chinese by Legge during the latter's first furlough (1846-1847) See A Lexilogus of the English, Malay, And Chinese Languages; comprehending the vernacular idioms of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216125, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 424, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "358\n\n'Finally a heavy rumbling, very high, and we saw a number of Japanese planes, enough to reduce everything to dust as usual in V formation... then over the first houses of the suburbs they reform into a single line and take their time dropping their bombs.\n\n'A terrible to-do. Chinese anti-aircraft crews firing tracer shells, I shooting out of conviction, even though the enemy was at 3,000 metres... instead of filing into the shelter I remained with two reporters from Havas on a high point to be able to see everything.\n\n\"We counted 27 Japanese; the characteristic whine of misdirected fire makes us head for the shelter... we see more Japanese pass above us but without dropping anything .... four Chinese planes engage them in combat but without much enthusiasm. One doesn't find much of the heroism here that we have in bucketfuls in similar circumstances. The Chinese is a terrible individualist and doesn't give a damn for the fatherland.\n\n+\n\nEmerging later, Louis, a Belgian colleague and the French chargé d'affaires, the two journalists and a Chinese, found part of the city ablaze.\n\n'Fire was effectively burning in the area of the barracks of the seamen from a French gunboat; we had to go and see if we could help them,' wrote Louis de San to his friend.\n\nThey walked towards the river, taking two hours through the rambling suburbs of Chungking. He describes the Yangtse as three or four times as wide as the Scheldt at Antwerp, itself a mighty river. “We managed to borrow a sampan from a European ... we embarked two or three km upstream from where we wanted to cross to because of the strength of the current.\"\n\n'When we got to the middle of the river, a great Chinese steamer emerged from the darkness without lights, 20 metres away and steaming upstream. We rowers, instead of giving it our best shot, start to throw ourselves into the water. The big ship hits us with full force and extraordinary violence. I dived to avoid the collision but still got a terrible bang on the head.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]