[ { "id": 204983, "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-1965", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "82\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nand Wei-hai-wei, in sight of a sister ship, the Linan. The Tungchow was turned south for Bias Bay, and a few days later was recognized by another sister ship, the Sinkiang, and flags were dipped. The Sinkiang accounted for the Tungchow's being off her usual route by assuming that she was bound for the Company's dockyard in Hong Kong. This was one of the most successful piracies in the interwar years. The pirates went ashore in Bias Bay with well over £30,000 in specie, $10,000 in cash, and only the last-minute cancellation of a large consignment of silver taels prevented their haul from being much larger.\n\nThe second Tungchow piracy was almost ten years later, when she was carrying several hundreds of thousands of dollar notes from Shanghai to Tientsin. The pirates captured her the day after she left Shanghai and, as before, turned her south for Bias Bay. During the next few days they painted out her name and altered the colour of the funnel. A disquieting feature of this second piracy was the fact that the Tungchow was passed by several ships when under pirate control, including a British warship looking out for her.\n\nThis second Tungchow piracy had its amusing aspects. The passengers included a number of European school children, returning to school in North China after spending their holidays with their parents in Shanghai. The pirates made friends with them, and supplied them with fruit and other delicacies broached from the ship's stores. As before, the Tungchow was taken to Bias Bay, where the pirates went ashore with their loot. Unfortunately for them, however, the dollar notes were unsigned.\n\nThe Nanchang piracy of March 1933 was even further from the normal pattern than either of the Tungchow cases. The most normal feature was that the Nanchang was a China Navigation Company ship. This piracy took place at the mouth of the Newchwang River in Manchuria, well outside the pirates' range of operations. Also, the Nanchang, which was boarded by two junks when she lay at anchor, carried no passengers. There were no casualties in this case, but four British officers were taken prisoner, and only released after five months of tortuous negotiations and the payment of a ransom. This incident took place eighteen months after the Japanese had overrun Manchuria, and had set up the puppet state of Manchukuo; it might possibly be described as banditry—with political undertones.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209713, "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-1982", "page_number": 370, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "348\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nChina. Inevitably, and by intention, such persons were ignorant of the local scene and background, and usually did not speak its dialect.\n\nThe contents of district gazetteers were usually fairly uniform, taking in the principal subjects such as history, geography, the economy and government, and providing extended or contracted accounts of these and other topics according to the interest and degree of industry shown by the compilers. The gazetteer also provided much information about the worthies of the district whether scholars, aged persons, religious figures, chaste widows and other females, or meritorious officials who had served there in past centuries. Interesting works on the district or by its natives were also included. Our Hsinan Gazetteer is a fairly typical product of the scholar-gentry's contribution to the writing of local history, albeit far from being the best example of the kind.\n\nBaker and Ng's work is well-done. The chapters are concise and the notes and complementary material are comprehensive, useful, wide-ranging and enlightening. The material itself is varied and interesting. The book includes useful tables showing the contents of the 1688 and 1819 editions of the gazetteer (pp 5-16 and 128-130), and there are also maps reproduced from the two editions, showing the county, the district city, and coastal defences, all typical of those found in local histories of the Ch'ing period and before. Useful additional features are a reproduction of the Italian missionary Volonteri's bilingual map of 1866 (map 9) and Dr. Baker's production of two special maps (Nos. 7 and 8). The latter show the dynamics of local settlement and population growth, and their geographical variation, and greatly assist the reader in making sense of what would otherwise be a mere listing of administrative divisions and place names.\n\nWhat then is there to be criticised? In general, any omissions are those of the gazetteer itself, being things which were largely taken for granted by the magistrate and local scholar-gentry who produced the 1819 edition. They expected that local villages and market towns would supply their own self-management and did not describe its workings, but owing to the distance in time and the vastly changed circumstances of the last eighty years,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210169, "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-1984", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "119\n\nIn the years before 1841 many fishing vessels from other places made use of the local harbours, especially Stanley and Aberdeen. An official report from the 1840s refers to the situation:\n\n\"I have not inserted under the head of \"Fisheries\" anything with respect to the large quantities of fish caught off the south side of the Island as the fishing ground being off the Lama Island cannot strictly be claimed on behalf of the Colony. Some of the boats employed in the traffic belong to Stanley and Aberdeen, but the greater number and all those of the largest class (called To-Ku) carrying from 30 to 50 tons belong to various places in the districts of Heangshan and Sinan and merely use these Harbours during the fishing season to take in provisions and water. The fish caught is generally sold to smaller vessels who carry it to different places for sale. About 500 tons are annually dried at Stanley.\"45\n\nThe main fishing in the waters off the South China coast was seasonal, with the main fishing fleets moving up and down the coast with the migrating shoals of fish. The larger vessels would travel up and down the coast, landing their catch at the ports next to the areas being fished and then moving on to the next fishing ground and the next port. The smaller vessels fished the water off their home port all year around, but were particularly busy during the migration season. Thus Stanley and Aberdeen would have been extremely busy and crowded with boats during the two short northward and southward migration periods, when huge quantities of fish would have been landed, to be dried, batched, and exported at leisure during the less hectic normal periods, when only the smaller local boats would be in port.\n\nThough the descriptions of the granite and fish trade here quoted all come from a period shortly after the establishment of British Hong Kong, by which time the salt fish trade had become, as Gutzlaff said, \"the most flourishing of all the branches\", I believe they are equally applicable to the period before 1841.\n\nIt is in connection with this seasonal migration of the fishing fleet up and down the coast that the presence of Chiu Chow, or Hoklo, groups in the little ports makes sense: they were essentially", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210932, "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": 282, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "265\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nMORE ABOUT THE KOWLOON WALLED CITY\n\nThe Kowloon Walled City, situated to the north of the present Kai Tak Airport, was the most important military base in the Hong Kong region during the later Ch'ing Dynasty. It was built in the 27th year of Tao Kuang (1847) to strengthen the fortification of Kowloon.1\n\nThe first invasion that it faced was not of British troops but of Chinese bandits. On the 26th day of the Seventh Moon in the 4th year of Hsien Feng (1854), bandits under Lo Ah-tim2 took possession of the Walled City. Seven days later, on the 4th day of the leap Seventh Moon of the same year, imperial forces under Cheung Yu-tang recaptured the Walled City. The fighting lasted for only one day, over thirty bandits were killed, and only two soldiers, Liu Tat-bong and Lam Yu-ping*T, died. Since then, the Walled City remained under the rule of the Ch'ing Government.\n\n3\n\nThen in the 24th year of Kuang Hsu (1898), the New Territories was leased to the British. The following terms were stipulated by treaty: \"The Chinese officials stationed there (i.e. the Kowloon City) shall continue to exercise jurisdiction, except so far as may be inconsistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong. Within the remainder of the newly-leased territory, Great Britain shall have sole jurisdiction. Chinese officials and people shall be allowed as heretofore to use the road from Kowloon to Hsinan. It is further agreed that the existing landing place near Kowloon City shall be reserved for the convenience of Chinese men-of-war, merchant and passenger vessels, which may come and go and lie there at their pleasure; and for the convenience of movement of the officials and people within the city.”\n\nHowever, in the 25th year of Kuang Hsu (1899), when the British encountered strong resistance to the occupation of the New Territories,\" according to Chinese sources, they asked for the help of the Ch'ing Government. Six hundred soldiers were then sent to assist the Brigadier of the Tai Pang Battalion to suppress the upris-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212525, "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-1991", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "Appendix 1\n\n59\n\nChronology of Ruan Yuan's Government Appointments 1789-1838\n\n \n Appointment\n Location\n Rank\n Dates\n \n \n Hanlin Bachelor\n Beijing\n \n 1789/5\n \n \n Proof Reader (Wu Ying Dian)\n Beijing\n \n 1789/5\n \n \n Compiler Second Class\n Beijing\n 7A\n 1790/3\n \n \n Imperial Diarist\n Beijing\n \n 1790/2\n \n \n Supervisor of Instruction\n Beijing\n 4A\n 1791/3\n \n \n Chief Supervisor of Instruction\n Beijing\n 3A\n 1791/11\n \n \n Director of Studies (Shandong)\n Jinan\n 2B\n 1793/6\n \n \n Director of Studies (Zhejiang)\n Hangzhou\n 2B\n 1795-1798\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Rites)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1798-1799\n \n \n Acting Vice President (Board of War)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1799/2\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Revenue)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1799/4\n \n \n Assistant Examiner of Metropolitan Examination\n Beijing\n \n 1799\n \n \n Acting Vice President (Board of Rites)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1799/7\n \n \n Governor of Zhejiang\n Hangzhou\n 2B\n 1799-1805\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Revenue)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1807\n \n \n Vice President (Board of War)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1807\n \n \n Governor of Zhejiang\n Hangzhou\n 2B\n 1807-1809\n \n \n Compiler Second Class (Hanlin Academy)\n Beijing\n 7A\n 1809/10\n \n \n Sub-expositor (Hanlin Academy)\n Beijing\n 4B\n 1810/5\n \n \n Imperial Diarist\n Beijing\n \n 1810/10\n \n \n Revisor (State Historiographer's Office)\n Beijing\n \n 1810/11\n \n \n Supervisor of Instruction\n Beijing\n 4A\n 1811/9\n \n \n Sub-Chancellor of Grand Secretariat\n Beijing\n 2B\n 1812/1\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Rites)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1812/1\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Works)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1812/5\n \n \n Director-General of Grain Transport\n Huaian\n \n 1812-1814\n \n \n Governor of Jiangxi\n Nanchang\n 2B\n 1814-1816\n \n \n Governor of Henan\n Kaifeng\n 2B\n 1816/8\n \n \n Governor-General of Hu Guang\n Wuchang\n 2A\n 1817/10\n \n \n Governor-General of Guangdong & Guangxi\n Canton\n 2A\n 1817-1826\n \n\n38 3 3\n\n \n3833", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215009, "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": 105, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "61\n\nChinese Labour Corps. A native of Pudsey, he died on 16th February 1919. And also the grave of Lt AE Player of the Labour Corps, attached to the Chinese Labour Corps. He died on 10th July 1919.\n\nWe also saw the graves of twenty-three seamen from the SS British Sovereign, amongst which were those of Ah Ling and Doe Gai [no Chinese characters on their gravestones] who died on 7th September 1918. There is also a grave of a member of the Japanese Merchant Marine Service, 1st Class Engineer Yioshto [or Yiosto as it appears on the gravestone], who died on 31st December 1918. His name is not listed nor his grave location shown in the cemetery register which, I believe, is only used for British and Commonwealth personnel. It is listed on the CWGC Foreign National register database. The CWGC has written to the Japanese Embassy, London, to ascertain the correct spelling of his name and await their reply.\n\nIn our wanderings in this cemetery, my wife and I also saw the grave of a young civilian who was buried alongside those who had fought and died in the War. He was Joseph Leng, who drowned at Audricq on 2 October 1917 whilst visiting his father, Sapper J Leng. He was only seven years old and on his gravestone his parents have had carved the epitaph 'Suffer little children to come to me.'\n\nAlso in this cemetery are five graves containing the remains of men of the CLC who were 'shot at dawn'. Their gravestones carried the usual epitaphs and were in every way indistinguishable from other CLC gravestones. Wang Enrong (Wang En Jung in Wade-Giles romanisation) [10299] 29th Company CLC was executed on 26 June 1918, together with Yang Jingshan (Yang Ching Shan in Wade-Giles romanisation) [10272] also of the 29th Company CLC, from Liaocheng county of Shandong province, for murdering a French woman at her estaminet [coffee house] during a robbery. The former's gravestone only carries his number and the inscription ‘Faithful unto Death' whilst that of the latter bears the inscription ‘A Noble Duty Bravely Done.'\n\nSt\n\nZhao Gongyi [Chao Hsing I (Chao Kung-i) in Wade-Giles romanisation] [46090], 161 Company CLC, from Jinan county in Shandong, having murdered a fellow-countryman, possibly as a result of gambling, was executed on 9th August 1918 and Hui Yihe [Hui I He (Hui I-ho) in Wade-Giles romanisation] [42476], 112th Company CLC,\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215026, "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": 122, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "78\n\nStaff Officer for the HQ mess. The Head Ganger was from Tsinan [Jinan] in Shantung, under him were I think four Gangers, and the Labourers were all from Northern China, my father said they were all tall men and physically very strong and hardy. While clearing munitions one of them had been very badly injured when he pulled the pin from a grenade out of curiosity, and to the amazement of the British was able to return to work after a few weeks. My father said that for minor ailments the Chinese practised acupuncture on each other using a needle stuck in a cork.\n\nThe unit my father joined moved backwards and forwards with the last German Offensive of the War, he had great trouble finding them initially, and after the Armistice seemed to work mainly in the area around Amiens remaking roads, clearing munitions, collecting corpses, destroying animal corpses, clearing wells, and digging ditches to restore the drainage to arable land. It was a priority that the local French farmers were able to plant their fields as soon as possible as the population who had been behind the German lines were close to starvation. The condition of some of the French children in these areas made a deep impression on my father and on the Chinese who seemed very fond of children and used to give them their rations.\n\nAlthough the Chinese were willing to work waist deep in water, they often refused to work when it was raining much to everyone's exasperation. One who insisted on working while holding an umbrella in one hand had it broken over his back by a Ganger. Punishment was either by fining or flogging. My father asked the Head Ganger which was better, and the Head Ganger assured him that since they were all there to make money flogging was better. The Labourers, said the Head Ganger, would resent a fine but a flogging would be nothing to them. My father said this was borne out by one of the Officers who refused to flog on principle being chased down a road by a crowd of angry Chinese. A flogging would be administered by a Ganger and would be watched by the other Labourers who stood laughing at the victim's stupidity at being caught. The man who was tied to a post, often had wet tea leaves poured over his head. Wherever the Chinese went there was a bonfire with tea brewing.\n\nOne of the Officers with the unit, a Mr. Ferguson, was robbed and murdered while off-duty by European labourers who had been paid off", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216062, "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": 361, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "295\n\nregular aside about their breasts and occasionally their naked crotch. He also made much of his affairs with Chinese women and at this point, in 1864 had a 'romantic and intimate interlude' with a young Chinese widow. She did not appear to be short of money and, having sought Mesny's company, accompanied him up river from Zhenjiang to Hankou where they remained until she left to join her in-laws in 1865. He had been away for a fortnight to the cotton growing districts and on his return had been handed a very polite letter from the 'fair charmer' thanking him for all his attentions to her and informing him that she was continuing on to her late husband's home in Hunan there to rear her children and end her days in virtuous widowhood. She ended, wishing him joy and happiness, by saying that the Chinese banker would hand Mesny a little keepsake to be retained by him in everlasting remembrance of their unexpected meeting at Zhenjiang, their romantic adventures and intimacy on the voyage up the Great River, and their separation for ever at Hankou.\n\nMesny's visit to Zhenjiang 1874\n\nAfter he had left military service in 1874 Mesny made frequent and repeated egotistical assertions to prominence and repute within Chinese bureaucracy and commercial circles with his endeavours, so he claimed, concentrated on guiding and promoting what he described as the westernisation and modernisation in China. It is far from clear how he made a living after 1874 though later we read in his Miscellanies that he had obtained lucrative business in Guiyang at one stage; that in 1886 he had an insurance agency in Shanghai; and was also the representative for the Lartigue Railway Construction Company. He must have had many other irons in the fire to enable him to travel so widely and so far within China, of which only a few were described in his Miscellanies.\n\nIn late 1874 he travelled down river to Zhenjiang and then overland through Shandong to Beijing, spending the winter in Jinan. From the dates he gives in his autobiographical notes Mesny must have left his bride fairly soon after their marriage as he travelled through Shantung province on his way to Peking from Chen-kiang' [Mesny does not explain why he was there though almost certainly it would have been no more than a port on his journey from Hankou to Shandong]. In Shandong he visited, amongst other places, the home and burial place of Confucius at", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216063, "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": 362, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "296\n\nQufu, and Tai Shan, the Holy Mountain, where he saw thousands of poor pilgrims assembling. Mesny claimed that, as an adviser to the Governor of Shandong province, Ding Baozhen, he persuaded the Governor Ding to establish an arsenal near Jinan and build a railway from the Yellow River to the arsenal. Mesny also claimed to have persuaded him to dredge the Yellow River and to fortify Weihai Wei and Jiaozhou [both places later occupied and governed by Britain and Germany respectively as leased territories]. Mesny also claimed to have persuaded Ding to develop the mineral wealth of Shandong 'which he did though in a small way only'.\n\nRiots and mob violence\n\nZhenjiang suffered its share of mob violence and riots during its treaty port era. One of the major problems confronting westerners within China was the ever-present possibility of petty or even major violence against their persons and property. Often the disturbance to the peace, due to whatever cause, would be exacerbated by either western impetuosity and/or the indifference and inactivity of the local intendants [mandarins] and their staffs. There were also the perils of banditry, of pirates, of rebels or simply of thugs.\n\nOne afternoon in 1865 the astounding news was received in Hankou that three foreigners had been most barbarously hacked to pieces in Zhenjiang, and were not expected to live. One was Francis Pickernell, a friend of Mesny, and another was Charles Lewis of Boston, an American, a former ship and messmate of Mesny's, whilst the third was another friend and fellow Jerseyman, Filleule, all of whom died from their horrible wounds. The outrage caused a profound impression upon all foreigners in the river ports and John, Mesny's younger brother, who had not been at Hankou very long, felt very sad at the loss of three such friends. The outrage was said to be due to mistaken identity. A man named Stone, a master of a lorcha on the Yangzi, appears to have offended some Chinese military officials who had insulted his Chinese wife, and they had attempted to avenge themselves in this horrible manner.\n\nOne fine evening in about 1866, during the time the Nianfei [or Nianzi], the so-called Twisting Bandits, were in the neighbourhood of Hankou, Mesny relates the dreadful tale of four westerners who saw a favourable opportunity to join up with one of the roaming gangs of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216173, "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": 472, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "406\n\nNo. 34699 Ma Hongrui. This identified him with a photograph and two thumbprints and tells us that he was aged 32 on enlistment by the Weihai Wei Labour Bureau. He had a wart on his neck, was certified fit and his previous trade was a coolie. His home village was 25 li east of the fortified town of Lu, in Ling Hsien County some 100 kilometres north of the Shandong Provincial Capital, Jinan. The recent discovery, tucked away at the back of the blue cloth covered booklet, was Ma's copy of his Service Contract dated 10 July 1917, and illustrated in this Note.\n\nIt seems a fair contract, ensuring that Ma's mother (his next-of-kin) and father could collect 10 dollars a month from their local post office, even if his one franc a day pay was gambled away. All his other wants were provided.\n\nSadly, Ma's was one of those medals that were undelivered and thus destroyed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]