[
    {
        "id": 204597,
        "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": 78,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING\n\n67\n\nran parallel to the wall of the Legation in which the main gate was situated, and in summer often flooded the road, and at times gave off a horrible stench since many drains ran into it. Meanwhile repairs to the Legation proceeded and Rennie describes, among other things, Colonel Neale doing his accounts, the five hundred Chinese coolies being paid, a temporary strike, and continual trouble over 'squeeze'. The part intended for the members of the Legation to live in was now called 'Legation Court' and Rennie preserved, in translation, an estimate for redecorating the front of these buildings in the Chinese style, the total being one thousand and fifty Mexican dollars.\n\nBy mid-April the weather was growing hot and on April 26th Parkes, Wyndham, Lt. Gow (in charge of the guard) and Rennie made a trip to the Western Hills in search of a temple which could be adopted as a residence during the extreme heat of the summer. The Russians, who had maintained an ecclesiastical mission in Peking since the Treaty of Kiakhta in 1727, had been in the habit of going to the Western Hills in the summer, and probably gave the newly arrived English this tip. Henceforth this was to become the yearly practice of foreign legations in Peking. Meanwhile the first mail from home arrived on April 27th, having been posted in England on February 26th. In this way Rennie's account is full of interesting detail. For instance just near to the entrance to the Legation there was now a line of Peking carts for hire, just as later there was a rickshaw stand, and more recently pedicabs. From this time onwards Rennie described the arrival of various English visitors who were entertained at the Legation.\n\n* Rennie visited it in March, 1861. It was situated in the same street as the newly acquired French Legation, and the members consisted of an Archimandrite together with three ecclesiastical and six lay members. (Rennie, I, 43-4.). This place, known as the Nan-kuan (\"Southern Hostel\"), was originally a hostel for Russian envoys and, since it had a large compound, it was used by Russian merchants who after 1698 received the privilege of sending a trade caravan to Peking at regular intervals. It was situated near the Mongol market. As a result of the Treaty of Kiakhta (1727) two hundred Russian merchants were allowed to come to Peking every third year to trade, and Russia was permitted to build a church in the grounds of the Nan-kuan, and appoint priests. In addition four Russian students and two tutors were allowed to reside there and were subsidized by the Chinese government to study the Chinese, Mongol and Manchu languages. When the first Russian minister to Peking, Colonel Balluzeck, took up residence there in July 1861, the Nan-kuan became the Russian Legation, and the ecclesiastical mission then joined up with another Russian mission at the Pei-kuan (\"Northern Hostel'). See footnote 29 below,\n\n}\n\nI\n\n:\n\nJ",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
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    },
    {
        "id": 204598,
        "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": 79,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "68\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nand shown the sights of Peking. This became an agreeable task for the members of the Legation, and there was a constant stream of visitors to Peking enjoying the hospitality of the old Legation right up until its closure in 1959. One of the earliest of these visitors was Sir Robert Hart, the Acting Inspector-General of the Chinese Customs. Meanwhile the business of engaging Chinese clerks, gate keepers, and language teachers proceeded. At various times Rennie mentions such familiar things as burglaries within the Legation, and the virulence of the mosquitoes. By now the Legation was the haunt of curio dealers, many of the things they had to offer being of real value, since the destruction of part of the old Summer Palace by the British and French forces had occurred as recently as the previous autumn, and a great deal of loot was now in Chinese hands. In fact, what with buying antiques, conducting visitors round the sights of Peking, and going to the Western Hills in the summer the members of the foreign legations had already set a pattern during their first year in Peking which has continued much the same until the present.\n\nThe local craftsmen found nothing beyond their capacities, and one Chinese tailor made a fine new Union Jack with the old one to copy from. Rennie remarks: \"The Peking tailors have already mastered the making of European clothing, and several members of the Legation have had things made by them\". The total number of Europeans in the three legations (English, French and Russian) was twenty-two. The first American minister to reside at Peking did not reach the capital until July, 1862. On 23 August, 1861 Rennie records: \"We have been busy to-day getting ready for Her Majesty's Foreign Office a large bird's-eye view of the Leang-koong-foo, made by a Chinese artist. Figures for reference have been painted on it by Colonel Neale, and a key also made. The drawing is very exact, every building being carefully depicted.\" In October buildings next to the Legation on the south side were bought by the British Government from a brother of Duke I-liang. This new area was leased to a medical missionary, William Lockhart, who wanted to set up a medical mission in Peking. By January 1862 the extensive alterations to the Legation had come to an end, and the Chinese interpreter, who had made a good harvest of 'squeeze' out of it, now resigned and departed for Tientsin where the foreign troops were stationed. The time ran out.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
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    },
    {
        "id": 204608,
        "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": 89,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "78\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nguard was reinforced by marines from the warships in the Gulf of Chihli, and arrived in Peking on May 31st. Seventy-five was the number fixed for the French, British, and Russian contingents. On June 10th, an immediate attack on the Legation area was expected, while at the same time reinforcements were awaited from Tientsin. On June 20th, the German Minister, Baron Ketteler, was murdered by Boxers on his way to the Tsungli Yamen, the Chinese department dealing with Foreign Affairs. As a result, all the women and children in the various Legations, together with the non-combatant men, gathered inside the British Legation, since this was alone regarded as capable of any serious defence. In here, there were eventually over eight hundred people, including the Ministers of eleven different nations and some Chinese Christian converts. At this time, the Legation was only half its final size, being roughly 700 yards long and 200 yards wide, but containing eight different walls, some of them very thick, which made it good for defending.\n\nMeanwhile, the German Minister's interpreter, Cordes, who had been wounded, was brought into the Legation, and a hospital was hurriedly set up, under the charge of Dr. Poole of the British Legation, with Dr. Welde of the German Legation as his assistant. The nurses consisted of one fully trained and certificated nurse (Miss Lambert of the Church of England Mission), who was made Matron, and a number of partly trained missionary women under her, together with Fuller, a naval sick-berth steward, who had been sent up with the marines. One of the partly-trained missionaries was Jessie Ransome, who kept a diary of the siege, giving the story of the hospital work. As she recorded:\n\nThe first thing to be done was to find a building which could be set apart for a hospital, and this, in the crowded state of the British Legation, was not very easy. It was decided to use the Government offices and reading-room, commonly known as the Chancery, and two rooms were hastily cleared and prepared for use, one as an operating theatre, and the other as a ward. Even then, we had not an idea of the task before us, thinking that a few days would certainly bring Admiral Seymour and his column to our relief; and so it was only by degrees, as our patients increased in number, that we cleared out more rooms and even encroached upon",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204618,
        "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": 99,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "86\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nin the north-east quarter of the city, well away from the new diplomatic quarter.2\n\nAll accommodation for foreign embassies was to be concentrated in one area outside the east wall of the city, and about one and a half miles from a newly constructed gate, just near to the old astronomical instruments which can still be seen on top of the east wall. Eventually, after negotiations, the new British Legation was allotted two large houses and two blocks of flats in this new diplomatic quarter. The last christening was performed in the Legation chapel, the books in the small library were taken off their shelves, the flag at the gate was hauled down, and everything was packed.3 Among the more colourful of the closing scenes in the life of the old British Legation should be mentioned the two Commonwealth cricket matches played in the Autumn of 1958 between the Moonrakers, captained by Mr. Duncan Wilson, the British Chargé d'Affaires, and the Woolgatherers captained by the Indian Ambassador, Mr. G. Parthasaratly. The rules governing this diplomatic cricket were many and local but the chief rule of all was that if anyone hit a ball into the grounds of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security next door his whole side was out.\n\nFinally, in September 1959, the staff moved to their new quarters and thus after nearly one hundred years of continuous occupation the existence of the old British Legation in Peking came to an end. From an historical and sentimental point of view its loss was sad. But from a realistic point of view which\n\n20 This was built on a site which had been granted to Russia as far back as the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689). As a result of fighting between Russian settlers on the frontier between Siberia and Manchuria about a hundred Russian prisoners were brought to Peking in the period 1683-5. They were formed into a company, given a place of residence in the northeast corner of Peking, close to the Lama Temple, and intermarried with Chinese and Manchus. They retained their Greek Orthodox faith and were allowed to have their own priests. See Michel N. Pavlovsky, Chinese-Russian Relations (New York, 1949) 145-164. It was to this place, known as the Pei-kuan (\"Northern Hostel\") that the members of the Russian ecclesiastical mission transferred in 1861.\n\n30 Unfortunately the imposing Royal Coat of Arms which dignified the gateway of the old Legation was too large to fit properly into the new Legation buildings. Mr. Michael Stewart, the Chargé d'Affaires at the time of the move, arranged with Sir Robert Black, the Governor of Hong Kong, that the Coat of Arms should be sent to Government House in Hong Kong. It is now fixed onto the wall at the far end of the long ballroom of Government House, which it dominates by the brilliance of its colours,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214552,
        "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-1998",
        "page_number": 410,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "379\n\nmeeting place where candidates from the two provinces could stay while attending imperial examinations. An opera hall was added in 1830 and it became a centre for Beijing opera masters including Mei Lanfang. The hall was restored in 1992 and the site also houses a small opera museum. We watched a very lively performance of excerpts from famous Beijing Operas, the highlight of which was the Monkey King in Journey to the West defeating a rapid succession of opponents through brilliant acrobatics and martial arts.\n\nOn Monday, our final day, we visited the former Legation Quarter, now called Dong Jiao Min Xiang. This quarter had long been the place where tributary visitors, such as Mongols, Tibetans and Vietnamese stayed, and during late Qing times became a virtual \"state within a state\".\n\nDr Ting guided us on a walk which began at St Michael's Church, in Taijichang Street (formerly known as Rue Marco Polo) and built by French Vincentians in 1901. Inside the church is simple and modest with some of its services still conducted in Latin. We went on past the sites of the Russian Embassy and the former British Embassy, as well as the present Beijing Municipal Government offices, the Supreme People's Court and the Beijing Public Security Bureau. There still exists one interesting road sign, Rue Hart, named after the famous founder of the Imperial Maritime Customs, Sir Robert Hart.\n\nOur visit to Beijing ended with a brief look at the antique market Liulichang (Glazed Tile Factory) an area named after a pottery which, in Ming times, produced tiles for the roofs of the Forbidden City. It had been famous for centuries for its old book shops, pictures, rubbings, jewellery, bronzes and porcelain and for some years now it has been revived as an antique market, (but one has to bargain very hard to get a good price).\n\nWe returned to Hong Kong on Easter Monday afternoon having visited a capital undergoing both revival and development, with room for both Matteo Ricci and Nina Ricci, for both the study of history and plans for a future based on past experience; and for both the tranquillity of the Fa Hai Temple and the boisterous artistry of the Monkey King. We look forward to further insights in Qingdao during Easter 1999.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]