[
    {
        "id": 206242,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1971",
        "page_number": 59,
        "title": "RAS-1971",
        "content_text": "LETTERS FROM CHINA 1835-36\n\n53\n\nwhich were imposed upon their movement by the Chinese authorities. Their effect upon a sensitive person are readily apparent from the letters. The literary interests and charitable works of the writer and his relatives are also of interest, and the mentions of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China and the Medical Missionary Society remind us of the starting difficulties that surrounded the first of these ventures.\n\nBoth societies were inaugurated at meetings held among foreign residents at Canton. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China originated at a meeting of residents on 29th November, 1834. The Medical Missionary Society originated at a public meeting held in Canton in 1838 and, according to Samuel Couling, was \"the first society of the kind in existence\" in China. The Society was formed to develop and finance Dr. Peter Parker's ophthalmic hospital in Canton which had started in Singapore in 1834 and been moved to Canton the following year. (See Samuel Couling, The Encyclopaedia Sinica, Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1917, pp. 345, 520 for further details. An account of the inaugural meeting of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China is given in The Chinese Repository, volume 3, page 378).\n\nWith the kind assistance of Mr. H. A. Rydings, Librarian of the University of Hong Kong and Honorary Librarian of this Branch, it has been possible to trace the reference in the letter written from the ship Asia to the Compendium of General History printed at Singapore, being the first work of the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge in China. This is Koò kin wàn kwo kang kéén or Universal History, 244 leaves, Singapore 1838. This appears as No. 34 on page 60 of (Alexander Wylie's) Memorials of the Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese, Shanghae, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1867. Item 17 on page 58 is also relevant. Unfortunately, the mention of the Japanese Encyclopaedia, also in the long letter written on board the Asia, is too vague to allow for any identification.\n\nIt may be of interest to readers that in Volume 4 of this Journal (1964) we printed with Introduction and Useful Notes a recently discovered M.S. Journal of Occurrences at Canton during the Cessation of Trade at Canton 1839 which is considered to have been by W. C. Hunter, a resident of Canton and Macau contemporary with Stewart. Hunter published his reminiscences",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206246,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1971",
        "page_number": 63,
        "title": "RAS-1971",
        "content_text": "LETTERS FROM China 1835-36\n\n57\n\nof subjects that will one day avenge themselves on all of us if neglected. This is almost a more painful sight than the ignorance of the poor Chinese around us; it is being regularly \"blinded by the god of this world\" in spite of the light of day; in the other case, day has not yet dawned on the benighted souls.....\n\nI am more chagrined than I can tell you, at being unable as the time draws nigh, to give Herschel any hopes of meteorological observations here on the 21st Inst. Instruments cannot be borrowed from the Ships at Whampoa, and I cannot leave Canton for two days at this over-busy season to go to the instruments, and I have tried to move one or two Ships' Officers residing there in vain. My old Partner G.I. Gordon (whom you may know by my report of old, for a man of uncommon talents and most cultivated mind, as well as amiable and honorable feelings) is at Macao now, with Herschel's brochure in his hands, endeavoring something: he may be up here in a few days and then I shall know the worst. I look forward to disappointment on this 21st Decr as now fixed. But if I live till 21st March, I shall have better hopes of doing something, however little that something be, because for one thing I shall not be so excessively busy in office at that period as at present. So my regret though great is not altogether despair; and I wish you would give H. [Herschel] my warm love with the assurance of the hearty zeal I take in this matter, and which I shall yet evince I hope more practically than in all this bow-wowing.\n\nI am sending under the care of Lieutenant P. Nicolson by this opportunity, a small parcel to H's [Herschel's] address containing what I daresay will be a great curiosity to you both – genuine Chinese Map of China, and eke of both hemispheres. The latter (the Old World at least) you will make out immediately. But the New World will be new to most Geographers who look at it. I am sorry I have not time to search for some translation of the Chinese characters on it, but perhaps I may supply the want yet. Accompanying this map, is a Prospectus of a most excellent Institution lately set agoing here, for the success of which I feel a deep interest - a Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Society in China! Is not the idea good? Simple elementary Treatises on all useful subjects to be translated by it and diffused as much as possible, over the Empire, and into the Imperial Palace itself if",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206248,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1971",
        "page_number": 65,
        "title": "RAS-1971",
        "content_text": "LETTERS FROM CHINA 1835-36\n\n59\n\nup for three months and a half, reduced to a skeleton and with no strength left to stand the doctors' treatment. Ed.\n\n-\n\nO a sick-room\n\n+\n\nI\n\n+\n\nas\n\nis a dismal doleful prison. Such was mine for weeks at Macao-only two gruff Chinese Servants in the house with me, who skulked continually; and who, if my death had threatened then, would have fled the house, such being their only way of saving their own lives their monstrous Government (incredible as it may seem) would exact at least one of these same lives, if they were found beside a corpse!.... I am sadly grieved at my departure before receiving his [Herschel's] communication on Language and Orthography [for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China mentioned in his letter of 12th December 1835]; the opportunity of applying practically some of the truths and instructions to be expected, seemed a very happy one, and I fear will now be lost. There are numerous languages however in the Indian Archipelago, not one of which has yet a written character, but which from the astonishing zeal already displayed both by English and American missionaries, are likely to be acquired ere long, and in the preparation of Grammar for these, there will be a fine field for applying every orthographical hint that can be given.\n\n[December] 8th The \"Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge in China\" which I wrote you about, and which you have authorized my Subscribing £5 to, finds the work it has proposed to itself too heavy, I fear, for the one or two hands who are all that can engage in it. This is ten thousand pities particularly as its slow, and I may say unsatisfactory, progress, will dishearten many supporters. Its first work A Compendium of General History is now in the Press (at Singapore, for no Chinese printing is allowed, or practicable, in China itself), and will appear presently; at least so it is said. But whether any other work be in preparation or not, I cannot say. The missionaries who have the chief part of the labour to perform, as Chinese Scholars seem unfortunately to differ as to the style or dialect that ought to be used in the works, and also are not much agreed as to the manner in which these works are to convey knowledge. The dialect that is vulgar in one province, is classical (it seems) in another; and vice versa. There are difficulties of",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]