[ { "id": 204360, "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-1961", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n124\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nNote on a Collection of Chinese Books Presented to The Royal Asiatic Society by Sir George Thomas Staunton in 1824.\n\nAs a boy of twelve G. T. Staunton had accompanied his father, Sir George Leonard Staunton, on the Macartney embassy to China in 1793. During the long outward voyage young Staunton had learned some Chinese from two Chinese Catholic priests who were returning to China after studying at Naples. When Lord Macartney was received in audience by the Emperor Ch'ien-lung at Jehol on 14 September, 1793 young Staunton acted as his page. In 1798 he became a writer in the East India Company's Factory at Canton, in 1804 he was appointed a Supercargo, in 1808 promoted to the post of Interpreter, and in 1816 he became Chief of the Factory. In the same year he accompanied the abortive Amherst embassy to Peking. On the return of the embassy he settled in England and became a Member of Parliament. In 1823 he was active in founding the Asiatic Society.\n\nThe following letter was written by Sir G. T. Staunton to the Secretary of the Asiatic Society in 1823.\n\nSir,\n\nHaving in the course of my residence in China formed a considerable Collection of Chinese printed Books, and also of Manuscript Dictionaries, and other works of Europeans, calculated to assist the Student in the acquisition of a knowledge of the language and literature of the Chinese, I feel confident that I cannot more effectually promote the object I had in view making the Collection, namely, the more general acquaintance in this Country with whatever may be found curious or useful among the productions of the Chinese press, than by a respectful offer of the Collection to the Asiatic Society.\n\nMy wish is, that it should be preserved entire, and placed in such a situation as may admit of its being at all times readily accessible to the British and other Students of Chinese Literature, who may frequent this Metropolis, under such regulations as the Asiatic Society may deem it expedient to prescribe.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204591, "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-1963", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING\n\n61\n\nacquire at Peking a site for Building, or may hire Houses, for the accommodation of Her Majesty's mission, and that the Chinese Government will assist it in so doing\". Then, when the Imperial Government appeared to procrastinate over the ratification of these treaties, another English and French force fought its way to the capital and compelled the Manchu authorities to ratify them by the Convention of Peking. This was signed by the British envoy, Lord Elgin,1 and by Prince Kung,2 the chief Chinese representative, on October 24th, 1860 in the Hall of Ceremonies situated in what was later to be called Legation Street. The second clause of the Convention stated that \"Her Britannic Majesty's Representative will henceforward reside permanently, or occasionally, at Peking, as Her Britannic Majesty shall be pleased to decide”. \n\nLord Elgin proposed that Prince Kung's own residence should be rented to the British, but Prince Kung memorialized the throne as follows: \n\nAs regards the matter of the English residing at the capital in the near future, we have been discussing it with them during the past few days. The chief barbarian official [Lord Elgin] considers that the quarters in Prince I's [Prince Kung] palace are spacious and he insists that it is to be their future residence at the capital. Moreover, he stated that there were still open spaces in the palace and that he wants to build houses there himself. It seems to your ministers that to \n\n1 James Bruce, eighth Earl of Elgin. He served as Governor-General of Canada 1846-1854. In 1857 he was appointed envoy extraordinary to China and signed the Treaty of Tientsin in 1858, returning to England early in 1859. In 1860 he was again sent to China as special envoy, and signed the Convention of Peking. He returned to England in 1861 and was appointed Governor-General of India in the same year. He died in India in 1863. \n\nHis younger brother Frederick William Bruce held the post of Colonial Secretary at Hong Kong from 9 February 1844 until 27 June 1846. In 1857 he accompanied his elder brother to China as principal secretary. He was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China in December 1858, but had to wait until March 1861 before actually taking up residence in Peking. He left China on his appointment as British Minister to Washington in 1865. \n\n2 I-hsin (1833-1898), the first Prince Kung, was the sixth son of Emperor Tao-kuang. When the joint French and British forces approached Peking in September 1860 the Emperor Hsien-feng fled to Jehol leaving his half-brother, Prince Kung, to make peace with the allies. When a prototype Chinese foreign office, the Tsungli Yamen, was set up in 1861, Prince Kung was in charge of it, and he played an important part in Chinese affairs for the next fifteen years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204592, "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-1963", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "62\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nallow them to reside there temporarily is already improper. If by any chance they are allowed to occupy it permanently and build additional houses it would be all the more improper.\n\nWe have repeatedly explained this to him tactfully. According to the barbarians' statement, if they are not to reside at Prince I's palace they must be given Duke Ch'ï's palace in Ch'ang-an Street in the eastern part of the city. He still wants to build additional houses. Furthermore, he states that each year they are willing to pay a rent of one thousand five hundred taels. At present we are still attempting to dissuade him, and not to let them reside in a nobleman's palace. Instead we are looking for another palace for them. Whether they will listen to us or not we will act as occasion demands.\n\nIn a memorial submitted in the second year of the reign of the Emperor Tung-chih (1863) Prince Kung wrote: \"Prince Kung and others further memorialize that ever since England ratified the treaty in the tenth year of the Emperor Hsien-feng (1860) it has been using the palace of Duke I-liang as an official residence.\"\n\nAlso in a subsequent memorial about the French Legation buildings Prince Kung wrote: \"Moreover the English envoy, before withdrawing his troops inside the An-ting gate occupied the Palace of Duke I-liang on his own initiative*\" 自行” (i.e., without authorization from Chinese officials).\"\n\n* Chou-pan i-wu shih-mo ##** Hsien-feng, chüan 68, 2b-3a. Hereafter cited as IWSM.\n\n4 IWSM, T'ung-chih, chüan 20, 36a. I-liang was the fourth son of Mien-ch'ing ✈, [a direct descendant of the Emperor K'ang-hsi]. In the eighteenth year of Tao-kuang's reign he was created a \"general guarding the state\" of the third rank. In the first year of Hsien-feng's reign (1851-2) he succeeded to the title of “duke guarding the state\" # 2. In the eleventh year of T'ung-chih's reign he was granted the title of pei-tzu Я† (a Manchu title bestowed on the sons of imperial princes). He died in the thirteenth year of Kuang-hsü's reign (1887-8), Ch'ing-shih kao ***, Huang-tzu shih-piao 2 *** 'genealogies of the sons of the Emperors, 于世 piao 4, 9b.\n\nIWSM, T'ung-chih, chüan 20, 37a, column 5. The An-ting Men gate of established peace', is the easterly of the two gates in the north wall of the Tartar City, and the starting point of the road to Jehol. It was occupied by the British in 1860 who dragged their guns up the ramp and positioned them on the wall in order to command the city.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204672, "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-1963", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n137\n\nIt is therefore a delight to read such a work as Mr. Cranmer-Byng's An Embassy to China. Produced by an historian, and one moreover who combines integrity with an uncommon knowledge of the East, this book is indispensable to an understanding today of the problems that East and West have inherited in their dealings with one another.\n\nThe main body of the book consists of the Journal kept by Lord Macartney on his embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung in 1793. He describes his journey to Peking, beyond the Great Wall to Jehol, and back by the Grand Canal and by river to Canton. There follow a series of \"observations\", compiled by Macartney from his own shrewd judgment and from data supplied by members of his entourage, on subjects such as the Manners, Religion, Government, Population, Arts and Sciences, Language etc. of China under the Ch'ing Dynasty.\n\nThe first 58 pages of the book contain an Introduction by the editor, in which he comments on early Anglo-Chinese relations, paints a brief biographical picture of Lord Macartney, and discusses the embassy, the manner of its reception, and its results. The final pages of the Introduction lead up to the Journal itself, its style, content and the method used by the diarist in compiling such a detailed account of his mission - an account written by a professional diplomat, skilled at seeing behind the facade, patient in negotiation, lucid in recollection and description.\n\nLooking back today from our vantage point in time nearly two hundred years later, it is easy to see that Macartney was given an impossible task. Remote in her geographical isolation and sublimely ignorant of world affairs, China had sealed herself for centuries in a false cocoon of imagined cultural superiority. The eighteenth century was both too late and too early for any European power to overcome the supreme complacency of the Imperial Court and Government. From the mid-sixteen hundreds onwards, Western nations, notably the Dutch, the Russians and the Portuguese had sent embassies to China, but all had failed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204823, "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-1964", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "106\n\nCRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD\n\nhad the opportunity of travelling to Peking and observing life at the Court. It was realized that even if the main objects of the embassy were not achieved it was a splendid opportunity for obtaining first-hand information about various aspects of China. In fact, the embassy was something of a reconnaissance behind the Manchu curtain of exclusiveness, since Macartney took with him an army officer, Lieutenant Henry William Parish, who was trained to make plans and sketches and to take measurements. As one of his tasks Parish made a detailed survey of a section of the Great Wall which Macartney passed by on his journey from Peking to the Manchu Emperors' summer hunting-palace at Jehol?. Also included in the ambassador's suite was William Alexander, a promising young artist who was given the title of draughtsman,\n\nMacartney arrived at Peking in August 1793, and then proceeded to Jehol where he had an audience with the Emperor on 14 September. After being shown round the parks and pleasure gardens at Jehol he returned to Peking where on 7 October he received the Imperial reply refusing all the requests made in the state letter from King George III to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung. A few days later Macartney set out from Peking on his way to Canton escorted by Chinese officials. After a long journey by inland waterways he reached Canton in December, and finally in January 1794 he moved to Macao where he stayed until all the East Indiamen were ready to sail in convoy with H.M.S. Lion (64 guns), the warship which had brought the ambassador out to China.\n\nWhile waiting for the Indiamen to complete their loading Lord Macartney used his staff for various tasks. Thus Lieutenant Parish was instructed to draw up answers to question on the defences of Macao3, and also in February 1794 he was sent, together with William Alexander, to explore the coast of Lantao island and the small island of Ma Wan (called in his report Cowhee) in case it might be considered necessary to form a settlement somewhere in that area. The idea of obtaining an island was not a new one. It had been put forward unofficially in the past and it received official recognition in the instructions to Lord Macartney dated 8 September, 1792 where it was stated:\n\nᅡ", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206499, "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": 47, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "The Establishment of the Tsungli Yamen: A Translation of the Memorial and Edict of 1861.\n\nJ. L. Cranmer-Byng*.\n\nThe steps which led to the setting up of an office for the general management of the affairs of the various countries (tsung-li ko-kuo shih-wu ya-men) have been studied by Masataka Banno in his scholarly monograph, China and the West, 1851-1861: the Origins of the Tsungli Yamen. However, no complete translation into English of the important memorial and six-point memorandum submitted by Prince Kung, Kuei-liang and Wen-hsiang advocating the establishment of the Tsungli Yamen appears to exist, though a translation of the memorandum by T. F. Wade (later Sir Thomas Wade), made from a version of the text printed in the Peking Gazette, can be found in the Public Record Office, London. Short translated passages from the memorial and memorandum can be found in China's Response to the West, while Banno has supplied a brief analysis of their contents (with a few sentences translated) in chapter seven of his monograph. S. M. Meng, in his study of the Tsungli Yamen, refers to them but without offering any translation. Therefore a complete translation of the memorial and the memorandum, together with footnotes, is here offered in the belief that a detailed study of the whole document is valuable for a proper understanding of the reasons for the establishment of the Tsungli Yamen. The memorial was received at the travelling headquarters (hsing ying) of the Hsien-feng emperor at Jehol on 13 January 1861.\n\nThe memorial is a careful piece of reasoning, written in dignified Chinese, and aimed at persuading the war party at court of the necessity of setting up the Tsungli Yamen in order to have a more permanent method for discussing problems arising with the western-ocean countries now having treaties with China. The line of argument taken by Prince Kung and his co-memorialists is that because of the Taiping and Nien rebels China is now too weak to oppose Russia, Britain, France and America by force of arms.\n\n* Professor Cranmer-Byng, now of the University of Toronto, was formerly on the teaching staff at the University of Hong Kong. He was first Editor of this Journal in 1960, and again in 1962-63.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206511, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TSUNGLI YAMEN\n\n53\n\nmaster a foreign language then memorialize requesting that he be rewarded.\n\nAs regards duties on foreign goods at the ports, it has been agreed that at present twenty per cent of the value of the duties shall be deducted and handed back, and a joint record maintained'. Also there are barbarians who are helping to manage revenue matters20. It should be made absolutely clear how much revenue is to be collected each month, so that it does not result in misappropriation and embezzlement. But in future, after the amount withheld has been cleared, let Prince Kung and others further concentrate on deciding what appropriate regulations ought to be fixed so that after a period of time malpractices do not grow up. As regards any other arrangements to be made let them also carefully deliberate and memorialize from time to time.\n\nFor an examination of the implications of these two important documents the reader is referred to Banno's China and the West, pp. 223-236.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Harvard University Press, 1964.\n\n2 Bruce to Russell, No. 51, May 23, 1861, FO17/352.\n\n3 Teng Ssu-yü and John K. Fairbank, China's Response to the West, Harvard University Press, 1954, 47-48; 73-74.\n\n4 Masataka Banno, China and the West 1858-1861, 220-221.\n\n5 Meng Ssu-ming, The Tsungli Yamen: Its Organization and Functions, Harvard University Press, 1962, 20-21.\n\n6 Translated in collaboration with Mr. Vei-Tsen Yang, formerly of the Department of Chinese Studies, University of Hong Kong, now Special Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto.\n\n7 The Chinese text is in Ch'ou-pan i-wu shih-mo (#MR#&*) Hsieng-feng, 71: 17b-26.\n\n8 During the time of the Three Kingdoms Liu Pei, the founding ruler of the Kingdom of Shu, invaded the Kingdom of Wu in order to avenge the death of Kuan Yü. He suffered a crushing defeat and died soon after. After the accession of his son to the throne in 223 B.C. the chief minister Chu-ko Liang sent Teng Chih as an envoy of good will to Wu, which resulted in a rapprochement between the two states. See San-kuo chih, chuan 35 and 45 for the biographies of Chu-ko Liang and Teng Chih.\n\n9 In fact the emperor was at the summer palace at Jehol. Since the emperor had fled from the enemy the term hsing-ying ('travelling headquarters') was used rather than pi-shu shan chuang ('avoiding the heat hill palace') for reasons of face.\n\n10 At this time the prince-ministers in charge of the travelling headquarters were Tsai-yuan, Prince I, and Tuan-hua, Prince Cheng. Ministers of the imperial presence at this time were: Prince I, Prince Cheng, Su-shun and Ching-shou. Of these Su-shun was the dominant figure and was entrusted with the main responsibility for affairs at the travelling headquarters (also referred to in English as \"the temporary court\"). There were four Grand", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206512, "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": 60, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "54\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nCouncillors at Jehol at this time: Mu-yin; K'uang-yüan; Tu Han; Chiao Yu-ying. Information on all these officials can be found in Hummel, Eminent Chinese, especially in the biography of Su-shun. Their power relationships are discussed in Banno, China and the West, passim, but especially 55-56. The term \"minister of the imperial presence\" (yü-ch'ien ta-ch'en) is rendered by Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization, p. 28, no. 101, as adjutant-general.\n\nII Tengchow is on the northern side of the Shantung promontory. In fact it was not opened to foreign trade which was carried on at Yen-tai near Chefoo. S. Wells Williams, The Chinese Commercial Guide, 211-212. Ch'aochow was the old name for Swatow; Ch'iungchow is in Hainan. Taiwan City and Tamsui were ports on the island of Taiwan which came under the administration of Fukien province.\n\n12 Ch'ung-hou was appointed to this post by an edict of 20 January with the designation superintendent of trade for the Three Ports, with his headquarters at Tientsin. Hsueh Huan, governor of Kiangsu and acting imperial commissioner at Shanghai, was made responsible for the newly opened ports along the Yangtze and the coast to the south of it, by the same edict. As far back as 1844 the imperial commissioner at Canton was currently designated imperial commissioner for the Five Ports. With the addition of new ports it was made a concurrent post of the governor of Kiangsu in 1861, until 1868 when it was made a concurrent post of the governor-general of Liang Kiang residing at Nanking. In 1870 the post of superintendent of trade for the Three Ports was raised to an imperial commissionership and held concurrently by the governor-general of Chihli. It is not clear when the commonly used designations for these two posts viz: superintendent of trade for the southern ports and superintendent of trade for the northern ports were first used. Meng, The Tsungli Yamen, 40-41; Banno, China and the West, 233-5.\n\n13 Article 3 of the Convention of Peking between Britain and China refers. See W. F. Mayers, Treaties Between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers, 8. The phrase to avoid complications arising is a euphemism for 'to avoid peculation'.\n\n14 Tentatively we have translated the Chinese phrase hui-tan as counter-foil. Note 19 also refers.\n\n15 The term is fuyin. See Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization of China, 793.\n\n16 See Frank H. H. King, A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911.\n\n17 Translated in collaboration with Mr. Vei-Tsen Yang. Chinese text in Ch'ow-pan wu shih-mo, Hsien-feng, 72: 2-3. A second edict was issued on the same day, and on the same subject, to the Grand Secretariat. This edict was translated by T. F. Wade along with the six-point memorandum. Note 2 above refers.\n\n18 Not to be confused with the Russian Hostel nor with the language school for the Russians in Peking, both of which were often referred to in Chinese documents as O-lo ssu-kuan, thus making confusion likely with the Russian language school referred to here. See Meng, The Tsungli Yamen, 111, note 48.\n\n19 Lit. 'draw up a joint document'. Glossed by T. F. Wade as a paper signed by both parties showing that the amount deducted is in due proportion to the collection'. Translation of Peking Gazette in F.O. 17/352 p. 42.\n\n20 Presumably referring to Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and the westerners serving under him. On the general subject of foreigners taking part in the administration of China after the middle of the nineteenth century see Fairbank, The Chinese World Order, 273-5; also Fairbank \"Synarchy under the Treaties\" in Fairbank (ed.) Chinese Thought and Institutions, 204-231.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208317, "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-1978", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "MILITARY EDUCATION IN CHINA, 1842-1895\n\n25\n\nbasis for progress reports to the throne.58 In 1890, a specialized program of instruction in railroad engineering was introduced, although no information exists on the total number of students involved.59\n\nPeriodically, students from the Tientsin Military Academy were sent to Port Arthur and Shan-hai-kuan for practical training in infantry, cavalry, and artillery units.60 In addition, cadets at the school occasionally gained actual battle experience, notably in 1891 against rebel forces at Jehol and elsewhere. According to Li Hung-chang, the experiment was quite successful.61 Only one group of Tientsin academy cadets went abroad: In 1889, Li sent Tuan Ch'i-jui, Wu Ting-yüan, Shang Te-ch'üan, Kung Ch'ing-t'ang, and T'eng Yü-tsao to Germany for advanced study. After a year of military academy instruction in Berlin combined with advanced training at the Krupp gunworks in Essen, the students returned to China.62\n\nLike the Tientsin Naval Academy, established by Li in 1880, the Tientsin Military Academy was financed by the shrinking Pei-yang maritime defense account.63 In all, the money was reasonably well-spent, but, as Wang Chia-chien has indicated, the academy suffered from a variety of administrative, financial, and other problems (including difficulties with foreign employees), many of which also plagued the few other military and naval training facilities of the period.64\n\nNonetheless, on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, China appeared to have built a respectable military and naval organization. In fact, when conflict between China and Japan seemed likely, most Westerners gave the strategic edge to China.65 But the illusion of China's superiority on land and sea was quickly shattered by Japan's rapid drive into Korea, Manchuria, and China Proper. Judiciously combining land and sea operations, the Japanese completely overwhelmed the diverse Chinese military forces sent to resist them.66 Throughout the war, reports from British, French, and other foreign observers repeatedly praised the Japanese for their able strategy and tactics, effective training, tight discipline, valor, esprit de corps, and the excellence of their support facilities. No such praise was forthcoming for China.67\n\nThe Sino-Japanese War illustrated with striking clarity the bankruptcy of China's \"self-strengthening\" movement. In almost every respect, Japan's strengths during the conflict were China's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214957, "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-2000", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "8 \n\nposed as to whether the Chinese as a whole were \"anti-commercial\" or whether it was only the government. Greenberg believes that \"trade in the long run mattered little to the Chinese economy.\"2 A further factor contributing to distrust of foreigners and the consequent restriction in contacts and trade was fear of European expansionist policy apparent to the Chinese in Tibet, the East Indies, the Philippines, Burma, and Nepal. \n\nBy the 1830s British demand for tea had become enormous; tea worth twenty million pounds sterling was imported into Britain annually. It was paid for from huge profits made on the sale of smuggled opium. Many foreign firms in Guangzhou, other than British, had engaged in the lucrative trade, with two notable exceptions,13 Britain accounting for more than 80% of the trade. Dissatisfied with the capricious nature of its trade in Guangzhou, Britain made three high-level attempts to form full diplomatic relations with Beijing, sending embassies under Macartney in 1793, Amherst in 1816, and Napier in 1834; all failed. The last two reached no further than Guangzhou before being unceremoniously sent back. But it may be of interest to deal in some length with Macartney's Mission because it seemed to succeed; that it failed was the most significant disaster in relations between the two nations, eventually leading to war. \n\nAfter a long journey, Macartney's Embassy embarked on Chinese boats to proceed up Baihe (Peiho) River on the 9th of August 1793. The following day they reached Tianjin (Tientsin) where they met the Emperor's envoy at a formal ceremony, which, however, lasted a mere 20 minutes. After staying in Beijing for some two weeks, they set out for Chengde (Jehol) where, on the 30th of September, they met Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795). Lord Macartney was graciously permitted to dispense with kowtow; it was agreed that the salutation was to be made on the right knee. According to Macartney, the Emperor was polite, and the conversation, conducted through interpreters, was lively and interesting. Moreover, the various scientific instruments, which were brought as gifts, were examined with obvious interest. The Embassy was told that they should depart on the 7th of October. Three days' grace was promised but immediately withdrawn, ostensibly because the Emperor was concerned that an early onset of cold weather would inconvenience the Ambassador. To reach their ships at Zhoushan (Chusan) Island, the Embassy had to travel across China, partly overland and partly by rivers - a journey that took nearly two months. It has", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215638, "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-2001", "page_number": 415, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "367\n\nTEA AND OPIUM:\n\nSOME FURTHER NOTES ON MACARTNEY'S\n\nROLE1\n\nDAVID AKERS-JONES\n\nMacartney's audience with the Emperor Qianlong recorded in the journal which the former wrote actually took place on 14th September 1793 (not on the 30th) at Jehol (Chengde) which is now about five hours journey by 'bus from Beijing. It took the Embassy six days. Macartney himself travelled in a post chaise which he had taken to China especially to ride about in, 'drawn by four little Tartar ponies.' His cavalcade amounted to seventy people of which forty composed the guard. He says that about two hundred porters were required to carry their baggage.\n\nThe great circular yurt where the audience subsequently took place is described in the journal as follows:\n\nThe Emperor's tented pavilion which is circular I should calculate to be about twenty or twenty-five yards in diameter and is supported by a number of pillars, either gilded or damasked according to their disposition....\n\nMacartney then gives a colourful account of the audience.\n\nHe was seated in an open palanquin carried by sixteen bearers attended by numbers of officers bearing flags, standards and umbrellas, and as he passed we paid him our compliments by kneeling on one knee, whilst all the Chinese made their usual prostrations. As soon as he had ascended his throne I came to the entrance of the tent, and, holding in both my hands a large box enriched with diamonds in which was enclosed the King's letter, I walked deliberately up, and ascending the side-steps of the throne, delivered it into the Emperor's own hands, who, having received it, passed it on to the Minister, by whom it was placed on the cushion. He then gave me as the first present from him to his Majesty the ju-eu-jou or giou-giou (a white jade sceptre) as the symbol of peace and prosperity, and expressed his hopes that my Sovereign", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215639, "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-2001", "page_number": 416, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "368\n\nand he should always live in good correspondence and amity. It is a whitish, agate-looking stone about a foot and a half long, curiously carved and highly prized by the Chinese, but to me it does not appear to be of any great value....\n\nThe Emperor then presented me with a ju-eu-jou of greenish-coloured stone of the same emblematic character; at the same time he very graciously received from me a pair of beautiful enamelled watches set with diamonds, which I had prepared in consequence of the information given me, and which, having looked at, he passed to the Minister.\n\nAfter delivering the King's letter there followed a sumptuous banquet at which the Emperor sent Macartney and Sir George Staunton several dishes from his table and after an interval, he, the Emperor, sent for Macartney and Sir George and gave them each a cup of warm wine to drink in his presence. Members of the party then spent the whole of the week sightseeing in Jehol, visiting the Potala, attending an opera and going to the Emperor's birthday party:\n\nThe Emperor did not show himself, but remained concealed behind a screen, from whence, I presume, he could see and enjoy the ceremonies without inconvenience or interruption. All eyes were turned towards the place where His Majesty was imagined to be enthroned, and seemed to express an impatience to begin the devotions of the day. Slow, solemn music, muffled drums, and deep-toned bells were heard at a distance. On a sudden the sound ceased and all was still; again it was renewed and then intermitted with short pauses, during which several persons passed backwards and forwards, in the proscenium or foreground of the tent, as if engaged in preparing some grand coup de théâtre.\n\nAt length the great band both vocal and instrumental struck up with all their powers of harmony, and instantly the whole Court fell flat upon their faces before this invisible Nebuchadnezzar,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215640, "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-2001", "page_number": 417, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "369\n\nThere was plenty of time apart from these formal occasions to look around Jehol. Macartney is full of admiration for the parks and countryside. He describes the West Park in the following words:\n\nIt is one of the finest forest scenes in the world, wild, woody, mountainous and rocky, abounding with stags and deer of different species, and most of the other beasts of chase not dangerous to man. In many places immense woods, chiefly oaks, pines and chestnuts grow upon perpendicular steeps and force their sturdy roots through every resistance of surface, and of soil, where vegetation would seem almost impossible. These woods often clamber over the loftiest pinnacles of the stony hills, or gathering on the skirts of them, descend with a rapid sweep, and bury themselves in the deepest valleys. There, at proper distances, you find palaces, banqueting houses and monasteries (but without bonzes) adapted to the situation and peculiar circumstances of the place, sometimes with a rivulet on one hand gently stealing through the glade, at others with a cataract rumbling from above, raging with foam, and rebounding with a thousand echoes from below or silently engulfed in a gloomy pool or yawning chasm. The roads by which we approached these romantic scenes are often hewn out of the living rock, and conducted round the hills in a kind of rugged staircase and yet no accident occurred in our progress, not a false step disturbed the regularity of our cavalcade, though the horses are spirited, and all of them unshod.\n\nAlthough Lord Macartney was unable to establish a close rapport with the first Minister who accompanied them, the journal, nevertheless paints a picture of them having an enjoyable and interesting time, in contrast to the usual descriptions of the visit which concentrate on the refusal to perform the kowtow and instead to go down on bended knee, an alternative which, after some discussion, was accepted amicably when it was agreed that it was sufficient to go down on one knee, but not to kiss hands.\n\nFinally the Embassy party left for 'Pekin' on 20th September and arrived on the 26th after an arduous journey, Macartney himself being", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215642, "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-2001", "page_number": 419, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "371\n\ndescriptions of it paint a vivid picture in inland China, of towns, villages, farming and husbandry at the end of the eighteenth century and put life to the many pictures and engravings of that period.\n\nIt was on this inland journey that Macartney was able to collect his tea plants. He says in his own words:\n\nI must not omit that the Viceroy (they had been joined by the Viceroy from Canton) observing our curiosity about everything relative to natural history, allowed us to collect seeds and fossils as we came along, and to take up several tea plants in a growing state with large balls of earth adhering to them, which tea plants I flatter myself I shall be able to transmit to Bengal, where I have no doubt that by the spirit of patriotism of its Government an effective cultivation of this valuable shrub will be undertaken and pursued with success.\n\nNo doubt the hard balls of earth were wrapped in the same casings of matting in which plants arrive from China to this day.\n\nSo far as opium is concerned, rather oddly, I cannot find that it came up in conversation at all although by then the illicit trade was well established and its use had been banned by Imperial edict some sixty years before.\n\nDr. Dinwiddie, who had accompanied the Embassy to Peking, took the plants to India on Jackall, together with tallow and varnish plants as well as some silkworm eggs, all of which were delivered to Dr. Roxburgh, superintendent of the East India Company's botanical gardens in Calcutta. Some years later indigenous tea plants were discovered growing in Assam and it is tea from these which seems more like the tea that we are now accustomed to drink. Whether there was any hybridisation between the two species I cannot say. Certainly Chinese tea retains its distinctive characteristics.\n\nThe journal of the Embassy's adventures in China is a fascinating and extraordinarily detailed account and description of a way of life and scenery which has largely disappeared. Present day Chengde is a shadow of the Jehol described by Macartney with pagodas, temples", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]