[ { "id": 206208, "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-1971", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO\n\n19\n\nIf the foreigners were surprised at the speed and smooth success of the Taiping operation, they were equally surprised and gratified at the behavior of the revolutionaries as they established themselves in the city. The initial favorable impression created by the Taipings was almost universal, for even those who were most ill-disposed toward the Taiping movement commented charitably at the outset. The principal critic of the Taipings, British Consul Harvey noted initially that the occupying force conducted themselves with \"wonderful moderation.\"4 Harry Parkes, long a detractor of the Taipings, corroborated this evaluation with an account of their entry into the city, noting that:\n\nThe Ningpo rebels have shown the utmost desire to be on friendly terms with foreigners. Outside the south gate, which formed the point of attack, stands the establishment of the Sisters of Charity, which if occupied, would form excellent cover for an assaulting force, as its upper windows command the city walls; yet, although they crouched underneath its enclosure, as they collected for their rush on the gate, they did not trespass for a moment within the premises. Another large Roman Catholic establishment was one of the first buildings they had to pass, as they poured into the city, flushed and excited with their success; but they only stopped to welcome a small knot of foreigners who were standing underneath the porch, and to charge their people to offer them no harm. Roman Catholics and Protestants they hailed indiscriminately as being the same religion and fraternity as themselves....5\n\nParkes also reported that the Taipings invited men of influence in the Chinese community to come forward and serve as magistrates, a policy they had already instituted elsewhere in the province. S. Wells Williams, the historian, also known for his personal animosity toward the Taipings, wrote of the experience of a colleague at Ningpo, a Presbyterian missionary by the name of Rankin, who spoke of \"great interest in the Gospel among some of the villages not far from the city, and (who) says that the rebels have put no hindrance in the way of his work.”\n\nThere seems to have been a great deal of sympathy generated on the part of the foreign community toward the Taipings, at least initially, in response to their positive policies. Taiping", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206211, "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-1971", "page_number": 28, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "22\n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, JR.\n\nIn Ningpo itself, the preparations were underway. British officials persuaded all missionaries of British nationality to withdraw from the city, a step which Consul Harvey indicated would \"simplify considerably our future relations with the Taipings at Ningpo.\"14 British naval Captain Corbett concurred, reasoning that in the event of any difficulty with the Taipings the missionaries would otherwise \"prove a source of great embarrassment to us.\"15 It is a matter of record that many of the missionaries who did comply and therefore lived apart from the Taipings during the duration of their occupation did come to share the negative or hostile attitude toward the insurgents.16\n\nAs the British intervention policy developed, an anti-Taiping propaganda campaign mounted. One of the most interesting and telling samples of this effort was the reporting of Consul Harvey. His dispatch of March 20, 1862, is perhaps the best example.17 Completely in contradiction to the report of the already noted China Overland Trade Report of less than a month earlier, Harvey declared that although three months had elapsed since the Taiping takeover they had still to take a single step in the direction of good government. Curiously, he repeatedly stressed his lack of bias and dispassionate judgment. He even conceded that “personally I have received every mark of courtesy and proper regard from the Tae-ping Chiefs; and further, I have found in official dealings with them a rough and blunt sort of honesty quite unexpected and surprising, after years of public intercourse with the Imperial mandarins.” But despite such lack of bias, repeatedly emphasized, and such acknowledgment of Taiping honesty and courtesy, Harvey went on to say: \"Nevertheless, the Taepings with their frank demeanour and bluff energy have a fume of blood and a look of carnage about them, from which I, for one, recoil with horror.\" Harvey noted that the occupation of the Taipings, termed an \"experiment\", had produced \"exactly what was expected - ruin, desolation, and the annihilation of every vital principle in all that surrounds the presence, or lies under the bane, of the Taepings.\" Still underlining, undoubtedly, his lack of bias, Harvey noted: \"I now, therefore, take the liberty of declaring, once for all (and for ten years I have fairly adhered to and been consistent in this opinion), that the Taeping rebellion is the greatest delusion, as a political or popular movement, and the Taeping doctrines the most gigantic blasphemous imposition...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206215, "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-1971", "page_number": 32, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "26\n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, JR.\n\nabout in the preceding three days, beginning with a request apparently from the Ch'ing tao-t'ai of Ningpo for British and French naval support for his impending attack on the city. Consul Harvey noted that this was \"an extraordinary coincidence,\" and one that \"was far too good an opportunity to be thrown aside and lost.\" The attack was to consist primarily of the vessels of a famous pirate of the region by the name of Apak who had gone over to the Manchus. Some effort was made to conceal the joint nature of the attack at the outset, for Captain Dew wrote for the record that he told his Ch'ing collaborators that since the rebels had refused his demands he had no objection to their fleet passing up river, \"but that they were not to open fire till well clear of our men of war.\"28 The fiction of this position was made clear by subsequent events, and by other evidence. The ultimatum of May 8, stated that had the demands been agreed to, the English and French should have felt bound in honour to prevent an attack on the Taipings from the settlement side by approaching Ch'ing forces \"which in countless numbers and heavily armed ships advance to attack you.\" The ultimatum proclaimed neutrality unless fire came from the battery or walls opposite the settlement on the advancing Ch'ing forces \"(thereby endangering the lives of our men and people in the foreign settlement).\"29\n\nIt is of interest to note how this exchange of correspondence was characterized by Consul Harvey and Captain Dew. Harvey said that \"... the whole tenour of their letters was as bad and sarcastic as it was defiant,” and he assured his respondent “that nothing could have been more friendly, reasonable, and patient than the tone of our letters, as well as of all our demands on the Taipings.\"30 Dew was a bit more candid, for as he reported later: \"I now commenced a lengthy correspondence with the Taiping chiefs, which was met on their side by the most subtle reasoning and arguments soon convincing me that but one argument, viz: that of cannon balls would avail with them....\" The two men substantiated their interpretation of events and attitude in the correspondence with two memoranda written by an interpreter. The first, based upon \"information supplied by certain respectable natives,\" claimed that General Fan had been sent from Nanking “to turn the foreigners out of Ningpo.\"32 The second memorandum purported to be extracts of a speech made by General Huang\n\n31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206216, "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-1971", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO\n\n27\n\nwhich included the alleged declaration: “In the event of an outbreak of hostilities, every man who brings in a foreigner's head, shall receive a reward of 100 dollars, and he who kills ten foreigners, shall be raised to the rank of Ta-kwan....\"33 No explanation, naturally, is given on how this alleged speech was recorded; nor is the identity of the recorder mentioned.\n\nThere is one more piece of evidence that casts serious doubt upon the contention that the British had any intention to remain neutral in the impending conflict. A Chinese by the name of Cheng A-fu who was in the employ of the British, perhaps as a servant or interpreter of Consul Harvey, was commissioned by the British to organize an armed force of three hundred so-called \"green hats\" who could be used in an attack upon Ningpo. This information comes from an account written of the Ningpo episode by a Ch'ing official, Hsü Yao-kuang, who was an administrative officer in Chekiang,34\n\nOn the 9th of May, the Ch'ing fleet captured Chinghae, then advanced up river and laid-to directly in front of the Foreign Settlement where it made preparations for an assault on Ningpo across the river. The foreigners were informed that the attack would take place the following morning.35 Thus the British and French were aware that when the attack did take place the advancing Ch'ing fleet would necessarily draw fire from the city, and this would endanger the English and French vessels and the settlement. Had Captain Dew adhered to his pledge of neutrality on April 27, in which he had said: “you may rest assured that no breach of friendly relations shall emanate from our side,” or if he had wished to remain apart from the contest, he should certainly have withdrawn his ships from the line of fire.\n\nThe events of May 10th are the most interesting of all. On that day Captain Dew was to write to Admiral Hope that he had \"found it necessary to capture the city of Ningpo....\" Dew recorded that it all began at 10 in the morning with fire from the Taipings. Dew's assumption that the fire emanated from the Taipings is unquestioning. But did the Taipings fire the initial shot? We know now for a fact that they did not. For Cheng A-fu, the employee of the British, plotted with the pirate Apak to fire upon the foreign vessels, in order to create the impression that the Taipings had done so. This would \"provoke\" the foreigners", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206218, "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-1971", "page_number": 35, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO\n\n29\n\nNingpo, for a long time had been a difficult city to administer, but the Taiping occupation seems in retrospect to have been an exceptional period. To better appreciate this it is worth considering Ningpo in a somewhat broader perspective. For example, a year and a half before the Taipings took the city, a Jardine Matheson Company agent reported that the Ch'ing officials were unable to control the pirate-infested countryside.41 Three months after the Taipings left Ningpo, the Jardine agent gloomily reported that trade was bad and would remain so until \"a stop was put to the squeezing on the part of the Imperial Authorities.\"42 Six months after the departure of the Taipings, the agent revealed that Ningpo was in the throes of civil chaos. The unpopular tao-t'ai had been forced into hiding following a dispute with men from Frederick Townsend Ward's so-called Ever Victorious Army. The situation was resolved by Captain Dew who actually had to reoccupy the city. Dew and Harvey ignominiously had to search long and hard to find the affrighted Ch'ing official.43 Small wonder then, that the Jardine agent's report of January 1863, speaks of how the country people of Ningpo are now fondly recalling that the Taipings had always paid for what they took.44\n\nJudgment on the victorious expulsion of the Taipings from Ningpo has been varied. Consul Harvey congratulated himself:\n\nFor my part, let me state that it will be a source of great satisfaction and I may add, of pride, in after time to think that I have been placed in a position to use my feeble pen, and to have exercised my humble powers (always within the limits of my official duties) in weakening and undermining, as perseveringly and indefatigably as I have been able, the most gigantic imposture and the most blasphemous structure that ever disgraced ancient or modern pages.45\n\nForeign Secretary Russell, from London, also congratulated Harvey for the \"judgment, courage, and temper, which he displayed on all occasions....\"46 Another influential writer on these events termed Dew's accomplishment \"a brilliant feat of arms.\"47 But the Hong Kong Daily Press, for one, expressed the view of many contemporaries: \"There never was a falser, more unprovoked, or more unjustifiable act than the taking of Ningpo by the allies from the Taipings. It should, in fairness, be recorded to the eternal disgrace of Captain Roderick Dew, of HMS En-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216343, "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-2003", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "51\n\nThere is a good selection in Views of the Pearl River Delta, cited above.\n\n19 In a major exhibition of China Trade paintings brought to Sydney's Maritime Museum in 1998, of the 22 oil and other colour paintings of Canton, no fewer than 19 were by Chinese artists. And of 7 such paintings of Whampoa and the Bocca Tigris, 4 were also by Chinese artists.\n\n20 Morse, International Relations, Period of Conflict, op.cit. p.70.\n\n21 Hayes, James, with Garrett, Richard and Valery (1992-3). The Honam Temple (Haichuang Dzi) Revisited, at pp.137-143 of Hong Kong Library Association Journal, No. 16. Honam became a site for additional trading houses under an Agreement signed on 6 April 1847, after Sir John Davis had sent an expedition up the Pearl River and captured the Forts at Bocca Tigris. \"The territory of Honam\", it was stated, \"is a place for trade, the renting of warehouses or of ground for building houses is therefore fully conceded. This will be managed properly by the Consul and the local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the [1842] Treaty. Hertslet's China Treaties, Third Revised Edition 1908, Vol.1 [of 2] p.17.\n\n22 Preface to Dyer Ball, J.(1911). The Chinese at Home, The Man of Tong and his Land. London, The Religious Tract Society. \"Tong' is the Cantonese romanization of \"Tang'.\n\n23\n\nIn MacNair, Harley Farnsworth (1923). Modern Chinese History, Selected Readings. Shanghai, Commercial Press, at p.145.\n\n24 Fu, Lo-Shu (Compiler etc., 1966). A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western Relations (1644-1820). University of Arizona Press, 2 vols., at Vol. I, p.368.\n\n25 Chinese text at No.37 in Vol. 1 of the three volume set of Hong Kong's Historical Inscriptions published by the Hong Kong Urban Council in 1986.\n\n26 Davis, Sketches of China, op.cit., p.261.\n\n27 Burford's Panorama, Leicester Square (1838) Description of a View of Canton, The River Tigress, and the Surrounding Country, London, pp.11, 15.\n\n28 Views of the Pearl River, op.cit., pp.176-7.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]