[ { "id": 206508, "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-1972", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "50\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nYour servants have studied what he said in his memorial and find that this really has been the situation. In future the superintendent of trade at Tientsin, the imperial commissioner at Shanghai and the provincial authorities should all be instructed regularly to send copies to each other of their memorials and the imperial edicts which they receive on these matters, quite apart from the reports which they submit to the Tsungli Yamen. When an official is relieved of his post he must specially hand over the files to his successor, so that the new appointee can examine them and the situation will not be entirely obscure to him. However, it is right that such affairs be secret. We should continue to instruct the provinces to depute trustworthy men to copy and know these documents but not allow them to pass through the hands of clerks in order to take special precautions to prevent a leakage of information.\n\n5. Your servants request that instructions be sent to Canton and Shanghai each to send two persons who understand written and spoken foreign languages to come to the capital on official service to be ready for consulting. It should be noted that in matters arising out of relations with foreign countries one must first know their natures. At present as we do not understand their spoken and written languages so there is a complete lack of understanding. How can we expect things to be managed properly? Previously as regards the Russian language a school was established for the study of the language; this was of significance. Now, after a long time, it is regarded as a mere formality and no one can understand Russian. It seems that we ought to offer some encouragement in order to stimulate them. We have heard that there are merchants in Canton and Shanghai who have specialized in learning the English, French and American languages. We request that instructions be sent to the governors-general and the governors of those provinces to select two honest and reliable men to be sent from each province, a total of four, to come to the capital bringing with them books of those countries. Let four or five boys of good natural ability under thirteen or fourteen years old be selected from each of the Eight Banners in order to study under them. The men sent [from Canton and Shanghai] should be given an adequate salary following the precedent of the Russian bureau. After two years the hard working should be distinguished from the idle ones.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210899, "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-1986", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "233\n\nquestion.\n\nThe reply was properly evasive and noncommittal.\n\nIn 1881 when Ma Kei-chung, Li's representative to India, passed through Hongkong, he was most anxious to confer with Governor Hennessy. According to local notices, the Governor played hard to get, though it was rumoured that they had discussed the formation of a syndicate which would buy opium in India, bring it to Hongkong and from there distribute it throughout China.\n\nIt is here that Ho A-mei enters the story. According to Eitel's history of Hongkong, Europe in China, A-mei was to arrange for the $20 million proposed as capital for the new syndicate. Just which capitalists would back the project was not stated. Undoubtedly a number of wealthy Chinese in Hongkong were interested.\n\nNot long after Ma's stopover in Hongkong, Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hongkong, made a trip of a “private” nature to Peking. A John Pitman went to Peking at about the same time. He was a financial adventurer who became involved in several big schemes backed by Chinese capital. In one of these, the bid for the Wei Sing gambling monopoly at Macau, Ho A-mei had been associated with Pitman. Pitman was an intimate friend of Sir John Hennessy and it is possible that the Governor was presenting a scheme in Peking in which his friend had an interest.\n\nIn January 1882, a report was circulated that Li Hung-chang had done a turnabout and appealed to the Emperor not to establish an opium syndicate.\n\nFast upon this news came the rumour that the Tsung-li Yamen (the Chinese Foreign Affairs Bureau) was so pleased with Ma Kei-chung's negotiations, after his return from India, with Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister, that it was going to recommend him for the post of superintendent of the syndicate should it be established in Hongkong. The authenticity of the report was put in doubt by the comment that a British Minister had never previously negotiated with anyone under the rank of a Viceroy, a position", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212752, "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-1992", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "46\n\nHis essays on his soldiering days consist of strings of facts and incidents, strong on action but showing little attempt at analysis or motives. He often managed to mingle action scenes with romanticised ones. According to his writings he, at 26, displayed strategic and tactical wisdom which his seniors, experienced Chinese generals greeted with acclaim, or so Mesny would have us believe.\n\nHe lived in exciting times and enjoyed experiences worthy of being recorded for posterity. A case in point is his description of the incidents when twice in a twelve month period he had to call on British gun boats to deliver him from the hands of Chinese captors. The first was the deliverance from the 'Imps' [the Chinese Imperial forces] at the forts below Nanking and the second from the Taiping rebels at Nanking itself. His description of his experiences living with the Taiping rebels, of life in a treaty port and his explanations of, for example, the process of the literary and military degree examinations in China and the organisation of the Tsung-li Yamen [The Chinese Bureau of Foreign Affairs] are fascinating even if some of the material has been copied from other works, and some of the autobiographical episodes seem at times to be exaggerated or 'edited'. An article in The Pilot [July 1946] claimed that Mesny had served under General Gordon during the Taiping rebellion as a lieutenant and, when Gordon returned to England in 1865, Mesny remained on in the Chinese army. This would seem to have been misunderstood folk memory as it is certain that, if such had been the case, Mesny would have described it during his autobiographical essays in the Miscellanies. His love life with Chinese ladies also at times reads like a Mills and Boon novel, but however much we may smile at his amorous memoirs, the military side of his autobiographical essays ring true throughout.\n\nMesny wrote about himself as if he needed the constant repetition to reassure him of his place in society and perhaps history, and was frustrated by the lack of influence he considered his due. In March 1905 Mesny wrote that scarcely a day passed but that he was asked to adjudge of important matters between Chinese and Chinese. He added that he did not always comply though his Chinese rank was sufficient as an excuse to act as a judge. He certainly saw himself as a bridge between Chinese and foreigners, and appeared to have many nodding acquaintances in both societies.\n\nA number of foreign authors describing China as they saw it around the turn of the last century each in turn complimented other writers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212797, "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-1992", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "91\n\nHart, Sir Robert [1835-1911]\n\nKnown as the \"I G” [Inspector-General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs]. His Bureau was the one financial stay and prop, the negotiable asset, the one honestly administered and creditable branch within the Imperial government. He left the British Consular Service in 1861 to join the Customs Service, appointed I G in 1863.\n\nHill, David [1840-1896]\n\nWesleyan missionary stationed in Hankow until 1867. Died of typhus in Hankow. Hill was not only a witness with Griffith John at the re-marriage of William Mesny's brother's widow to E.G. Wilson in October 1884; he was also guardian with William Mesny to John's children.\n\nHung Hsiu-ch'uan ## [1813-1864] a Hakka\n\nLeader of the Taiping Rebellion: believed himself to be entrusted as the brother of Jesus to lead China and destroy the Manchu regime. [There is an inexplicable reference in Mesny's Miscellanies to a daughter 'of Hung?' wishing Mesny to return to Nanking to marry her]\n\nGordon, C G [1833-1885]\n\nAn English officer in the Royal Engineers who commanded the 'Ever-Victorious Army' against the Taiping rebels. He was appreciated by the Ch'ing Imperial government and was the first foreigner to be awarded the prestigious Yellow Riding Jacket. He later helped advise the Chinese during the Ili uprising in the early 1880s. He died in Khartoum during the Mahdi Uprising.\n\nJohn, Griffith [1831-1912]\n\nMissionary, LMS, Hankow 1861-1912. (Hill: q.v.)\n\nPrince Kung: also known as I-hsin [1832-1898]\n\nSixth son of the Tao Kuang emperor and half brother of the Hsien Feng emperor. Probably one of the most important Ch'ing dynasty officials in foreign affairs.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212807, "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-1992", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "101\n\neach harnessed and stripped to the waist, fighting the torrent.\n\nTreaty ports: Ports opened to foreign trade and residence under what the Chinese have always regarded as 'unequal treaties'.\n\nTsung-li Yamen : The Foreign Affairs Bureau of the late Ch'ing dynasty, established after the capture of Peking in 1860 by the Allied forces. It was the channel of communication between foreign Ministers resident in Peking and the throne.\n\nTsung-tu #: the Viceroy or Governor-General of one or more provinces within which he had the general control of all civil and military affairs and was subject only to the throne.\n\nWai-sing Lottery: lit: examination of names, a kind of sweepstake, once a very popular form of gambling amongst the Cantonese, on the result of the public examination for the second degree. The holder of a successful candidate's name being the winner of a greater or lesser sum according to position on the published list.\n\nWei-yuan A: a delegate staff officer, a special delegate or Expectant Appointee on ad hoc duty.\n\nWhite Lily Sect [Pai-lien Chiao] was a more serious rebellion at the end of the eighteenth century. This secret society, originally founded in opposition to Mongol domination several centuries earlier, had been revived in order to get rid of the alien Manchu rule of the Ch'ing dynasty. It broke out in western Hupei in 1796 and for nearly nine years taxed China's resources to the utmost. Although Mesny was not involved his and their paths crossed on occasion.\n\nYamen : The official and private residence of any 'mandarin', officials who held a seal, a government office.\n\nYing #: usually a battalion but not uncommonly, a force of a number of battalions.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215984, "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": 283, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "217\n\n1863 added to this heroic penumbra, one which should be mentioned only after some further evaluations of the \"martyrdom of Ch'ea\" are considered.\n\nFrom all appearances it seems that Ch'ëa's murderers unwittingly added fuel to the image of his heroic martyrdom. But there are some reasons to question the account quoted extensively above. Where did the testimony of Ch'ea's last words come from? The only possible source would be the murderers themselves, but we have no confirmation that Legge had gotten this information from them when he later had correspondence with their more demure and frightened leaders. Information Chalmers had received came from trusted Chinese co-workers such as A-Wai (A-Wye?) and those fleeing the area, but how much could they have known for certain? That Ch'ëa was probably under the threat of losing his life for not returning to worship \"ancestors and idols\" fits with all the previous elements of his own conversion, the scorn he received for his association with foreign Christians, and the local fears tied to spiritual repercussions from such stubborn defiance against the invisible authorities in the spirits of the land and the reverenced ancestors. That he had also lived much of his life in self-conscious reflection on passages of the Chinese New Testament and other Christian literature also should not be denied, but the hagiographic stereotype of his final words before his murderers, even though certainly possible, seem more a product of hopeful Christians than eyewitnesses. This is particularly important in the light of the unreliable data evident in the writings of Legge's daughter on the event.\n\n91\n\nWhat is another puzzling aspect of the whole scene is that nothing was done about it in the higher echelons of either British or Qing bureaucracy. Already by the end of January 1861 the Zǒnglǐ yámén, the Qing empire's first attempt at institutionalizing a Foreign Affairs Bureau, had been given imperial approval. 92 “Religious affairs” (zōngjiào'àn) were part of their responsibilities, and proved to be a set of extremely sensitive and difficult issues to resolve. Cohen has listed a large number of them for the period from 1861 to 1870, but refers to the first Protestant case only in 1867.93 If Cohen's summary is meant to reflect the cases on file in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216002, "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": 301, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "235\n\nEdith Legge, James Legge: Missionary and Scholar, p. 120.\n\n89. Legge's letter to Arthur Tidman, Secretary of the London Missionary Society, dated October 31, 1861, also printed in the EMMC/MM 26 (1862), pp. 18-19.\n\n90. The first and second volumes comprising Legge's translations and commentaries to the Four Books had been completed in February and November that year,\n\n91. The essay, Che'a Kin Kwáng, must be a pastiche prepared by Helen Edith Legge in preparation for her larger book on her father, James Legge: Missionary and Scholar. It is particularly evident in the last few pages, when letters from Chalmers and others are quoted (without notes or details, typical of her style in the book as well). A comparison of the typescript and the chapter in Helen Edith Legge's book on \"Che'a\" (notice the same error in transmitting the name of the martyr, pp.102-121) show that she was using the typescript liberally, the last pages of both documents being exactly the same except in one final addition within the book. That addition is a final, short paragraph, hagiographic to the extreme, summarizing how Ch'ea had received the \"salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ\" so that he \"loved not his life unto the death\". Though its sentiment could be shared by all sympathetic Christians, Helen Legge's writing also had other purposes in mind.\n\nA careful reading of the chapter in her book on Ch'ea reveals numerous factual errors -- wrong timing, mixing up place and person names, confusing original situations -- but also contains some new material from her mother's letters (Hannah Mary) received from her father that provide little cameos of other dimensions of the situation. Unfortunately, she used these sources only selectively, and then apparently destroyed the originals. It is quite significant, therefore, that it is only in the typescript mentioned above and in her chapter in the book that a defence of her father's leaving Poklo in the early morning before the vigilantes attacked the city is presented. (She may, however, be referring to the content of a letter by her father to her mother, or to the later portions of the Reminiscences which I could not check.)\n\n92. See a historical description of the development of this very important institution, one which continued on for forty years as the major bureau for foreign affairs in China, provided by Masataka Banno, China and the West, 1858-1861: The Origins of the Tsungli Yamen (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1964).\n\n93. See his Appendix I, “Incidents Mentioned in Text, 1861-1870\" in Paul A. Cohen, China and Christianity, pp. 275-276. In spite of the title of the table, it seems that the summary is supposed to include all major incidents among the religious affairs documents within the files of the Zongli yámén. Another important gap in the record is the burning of the newly built chapel in Buddha Hill City (Fat-shan, M. Fóshan) in September 1870, a malevolent act perpetrated by crowds who opposed the erection of the building and threatened all those who were there with severe bruisings. Ho Tsun-sheen was one of the Christian officials present at the meeting, escaping through a rear window and finding his way back to Hong Kong independently. The event was so traumatic for him, that within six", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]