[ { "id": 204439, "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-1962", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "60\n\nHEROLD J. WIENS\n\nof south China that have evolved a significant culture. But precisely because of this and because they occupied irrigable valley lands, the Han Chinese came into conflict with them. Moreover, because of superior culture, technology and number, the Han gradually took over the T'ai states of the Yangtze valley and assimilated their populations. Those among the T'ai leadership who escaped Han political and cultural conquests were the ones who led their following in migration away from the front of contact. The direction of this slow historical flight was southward and southwestward,\n\nBefore the Han Chinese conquest under the Ch'in dynasty (Third century B.C.), south China contained 6-8 large T'ai states. In Szechwan the T'ai state of Shu was centered on the present provincial capital of Ch'eng-tu. The Pa state was centered at Chungking. In the central and lower Yangtze region were the T'ai states of Ch'u and Wu respectively. The T'ai state of Nan-yueh included such areas as the Canton delta and the Red river delta of Tongking. In Fukien were the Pai-yueh, sometimes politically centralized at Foochow. All of these were absorbed into the political body of China during the 400 years of the Han dynasties. Sinicization, however, took many more centuries and reached its greatest flowering in the Canton delta region during the T'ang period. West of this region in the Yunnan-Kweichow plateaus, however, a Sinicized T'ai power lingered on through the T'ang and Sung periods in the state of Nan-chao, at times strong enough to pose threats to the stability of the T'ang empire. The successor to this state, Ta-li, withered under the Mongol onslaught directed by Kublai Khan, and T'ai political genius moved across the southern borders of Yunnan into the Mon-Khmer cultural sphere in the basin of the Chao Phya river where it evolved the present state of Thailand.\n\n7\n\nT'ai autonomy within southwest China continued in smaller units in the lake and river basins of Yunnan near the Burma borders until the Communist conquest of China. The reasons for the extended freedom from close Han Chinese control over the southwest include the rough topography of the region with agriculture restricted to small basins or primitive self-sufficiency\n\nCh'en Pi-sheng, T'ien-pien san-yi (Reflections on the Yunnan borderlands), Chungking, 1941, 21-24.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206077, "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-1970", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "152\n\nS. F. BALFOUR\n\nTheir presence in Tongkin and Annam attracted traders from the South Seas and from India. The later Han history mentions that in A.D. 132 the towns of Jih Nan farthest south in Annam, Chiu Chên and Chiao Chih were focal points of navigators. \"Cattigara\" was mentioned by Ptolemy about this time as the port of the Chinese; it has been identified with Chiao Chih or Hanoi. Traders came to it from India and from Yeh T'iao or Java. During the 3rd or 4th century these foreign traders penetrated as far as Canton.\n\nBut the Chinese did not do more than encourage the foreign traders to come. What coastal trade existed must have been carried on by the aborigines, who were practically unaffected by the Chinese conquest. These aborigines, particularly in the seas between Annam and Canton, turned themselves into pirates and harassed the early western traders to an enormous extent.\n\nAn independent centre of trade remained in Min Yüeh which was practically untouched by the Chinese until the T'ang dynasty. This centre must have been in touch with the civilised region of Wu, at the Yangtze mouth, and no doubt had contacts further with Japan. Little is known about it, but its importance must have been very great and it was lasting. Even in the Middle Ages Marco Polo referred to South China as Manzi or the Land of the Man-Tzů. In one or two ways the modern Fukienese show traces of contact with Japanese culture in their use of wooden utensils for instance. It is quite likely that the porcelain, especially the glazed type, found in our region was imported from the North East.\n\nWhen the Han dynasty broke up in A.D. 220 the empire they had founded from Canton to Indo-China was disrupted. The garrisoned towns were emptied of troops during the civil wars of the Three Kingdoms period, and right up to the T'ang dynasty the Chinese never regained their imperial hold over the South coast. The region was therefore left to the semi-tutored aborigines and to the foreign traders. There is no evidence at all of any settlement of peasants. The Cantonese language is not an archaic form of Chinese, and some of the eldest sub-dialects, for instance that of T'oi Shan district, do not point to a pre-Tang population. We must therefore recognise a break between the Han and Tang dynasties when the aborigines continued their tribal life and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206622, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "164\n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nMeanwhile work had been going on under the Geological Survey of China in Kwangsi, where the Tertiary and Recent deposits were examined, and the earth in the caves, known to yield ‘dragon bones’ in considerable quantities, was searched, with the result that a flaked-tool culture related to the late Hoabinhian culture (Mesolithic) of Tongking was found. It is unrelated to the cultures of the coast. These, however, seem to extend as far north as the neighbourhood of Nanking, for stone artifacts and pottery with geometric decoration have been found near there and around Hangchow, lying on the surface of the earth. No details of these discoveries are yet published. The same is true of investigations carried out round Foochow, where a culture similar to that of Hong Kong is said to have been discovered.\n\nAfter the Oslo congress of prehistorians in 1936, at which Father Finn was present just before his death, Dr. J.G. Andersson went to China, and turned his attention to the problems of South China’s archaeology. In Hong Kong, after visiting several sites, he suggested a trial excavation of a site at Shek Pek on the island of Lant’au, which I had discovered. We accordingly collaborated in this task for some days; after he left I did further excavation there. At this site, for the first time, were found undisturbed burials. Dr. Andersson next visited Foochow, and later went to Szechwan, where he discovered a number of Neolithic sites. After the Japanese began the war he returned to the coast by Canton, and later worked in the islands along the north Tongking coast at the invitation of the École Française of Hanoi, where a number of sites were discovered; some were excavated by Mlle. Colani of that institution.\n\nMeanwhile a Chinese scholar of the National Research Institute had pursued researches at Wup’ing, West Fukien, where he found cultures akin to the earlier Hong Kong cultures and to those of Swabue. He communicated his results to the third Prehistorians’ Congress at Singapore* and in his address he showed that objects belonging to this group of cultures are to be found in several sites in Fukien and Chekiang provinces, but that all finds made so far are surface finds only.\n\nThese investigations, partial and local as they are, have yielded very interesting (and in some respects sensational) results. First,\n\n* These proceedings were published by the Government Printing House, Singapore, 1940.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206623, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "ARCHAEOLOGY IN H.K. AND SOUTH CHINA\n\n165\n\nthey have revealed a new province of culture, which from its leading characteristics as well as its geography can be seen to link the Chinese classical culture with that of the Archipelago and the Pacific Islands, generally referred to as 'Indonesian'. The reciprocal influence of these two cultures has never been adequately studied, for only in a region on their respective boundaries, such as the China Coast, can this be done.\n\nThese characteristics may be summed up as: 1. use of stone adzes, chiefly rectangular and stepped; 2. working stones with circular borer to make rings, and with stone saws to cut stone implements; 3. pottery made on the turn-table, in both coarse and fine qualities built up by the ribbon technique and decorated with cord, mat and geometrical patterns; 4. lance heads of shale or slate; 5. cylindrical stone beads; 6. rings of hard stone used as ornaments; 7. cultivation, probably by growing grain in cleared patches of jungle; 8. fishing and boatbuilding; 9. cloth-making. The later form of this culture has in addition these features: 10. casting of bronze weapons and tools; 11. use of ceremonial objects of jade, especially in burials; 12. hard, high-fired pottery stamped with the f pattern; 13. leadless glaze, green and brown, applied to pottery.\n\nSecond, they demonstrate the flow of Chinese culture to the south and its replacement of the native culture, in which can be seen traces of the ancient Chinese culture of the Shangs.\n\nThird, they show that this native culture formed part of a culture-province which included not only the Chinese coast provinces but Japan, Manchuria, Formosa and Annam, and whose remoter connexions extend landwards into E. India and N. Asia, and seaward as shown by the adze forms into the Archipelago, the Philippines, and the furthest Polynesian islands. For instance, a highly polished adze with a large tang, of very distinctive form, is found in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand and Hervey Islands.\n\nFourth, light is thrown upon the ancient trade routes of S.E. Asia. Painted pottery, which was not, it seems, made on the China Coast, was imported from Tongking, probably along the West River. Bronze and jade of Chinese workmanship was imported from the Yangtse valley, by which of the three possible routes is uncertain. The Swabue people produced quantities of shale lance-heads, harpoons, arrow heads and rings, sometimes very delicately worked,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206981, "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-1974", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "46 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nOn the island Mayréna lived alone in a shack with a French poodle. He did not collect birds' nests, a task he left to his fellow European, but the feathers of birds of paradise. It seems that he took another 'wife—the twelve-year-old daughter of a local village chief. But he soon began to suffer acutely from paranoia, barricading and fortifying his shack and interrogating at the point of a rifle all who approached. He also suffered from delusions; he walked around gesticulating and talking to himself. He was now more than a 'king in exile', he was a 'mad king'. \n\nFor Mayréna's last days we must rely on the testimony of J.F. Owen,46 the Collector of Kuala Rompin on the mainland, who visited Tioman and made friends with Mayréna. In November 1890 Mayréna visited Owen at Kuala Rompin. The morning after he drew up his will, and executed it formally in the presence of Owen, who was a magistrate. Then he called Auguste, his poodle, and set forth for a stroll along a jungle path. Soon he returned in great pain and claimed to have been bitten by a poisonous snake. He died soon afterwards in the presence of Owen. He was buried, Lineham states, at Kampong Jawa on the Rompin and his grave was marked by a plain block of chengal wood.47 There was no inscription. ‘But if you chance to visit Tioman', Sir Hugh Clifford writes, \"the natives of the place will point out to you a number of strange-looking quadrupeds, half-pariah, half-poodle, and with pride will inform you that these are \"ânjing pranchis\" (French dogs); and these uncouth descendants of the well-beloved and redoubtable Auguste are the only traces left upon this little fairy island marking it as the erstwhile refuge of Marie David de Mayréna, Comte de Ray (sic), and King of the Sedangs'.48 \n\nThe Marquis de Morès' nirvana was as strange as Mayréna's. Back in Paris he discovered that he could not go ahead with his scheme to construct a railroad in Tongking because of opposition from Ernest Constans, Minister of the Interior, who had just driven from France another ambitious soldier who, too, had left the French army. This was the sentimental General Boulanger, who was later to commit suicide over his mistress's grave at Brussels. Morès, as a result of what he felt was a personal conspiracy against him, became an implacable enemy not only of Constans but of the regime, the Third Republic, that Constans served. He had also become an anti-semite, principally because of his experiences with the Jews in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207033, "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-1974", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "98\n\nR. G. IRWIN\n\nof investigation which he and two other Jesuit fathers had made to Formosa in 1714.31\n\nHaving carried his record to the close of the K'ang-hsi period, de Mailla ventured no further into contemporary history. Some forty years later the task of recording the subsequent Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung periods (to 1780) was assumed by M. le Roux des Hautesrayes32 of the Collège Royal de France. It should be noted that whereas de Mailla had scrupulously confined himself to Chinese (and in one instance Manchu) sources, the contribution of des Hautesrayes, in Vol. XI, pages 369-610, was based, not on Chinese texts at all, but on the writings of Jesuit missionaries, available in the volumes of Lettres édifiantes edited by Père du Halde and in the collection Mémoires concernant les Chinois,33\n\nVol. XII, containing “a note on the customs, sciences, and arts of the Chinese,” a table of reign titles, a summary of geographical nomenclature, an alphabetical index, etc., is also the work of des Hautesrayes. But the essays on Cochin China and Tongking, said to have been based on Chinese sources, are specifically attributed to P. Gaubil, and taken from Lettres édifiantes, Vol. XXXI.34 By translating the part relating to China in Fischer's Histoire de Sibirie, 1774 (in Russian), Stollenwerck has provided the note concerning the first attempts of the Russians against the Chinese.35\n\nAbbé Grosier, who had been intimately connected with the publication of the earlier volumes, brought out in 1785 a supplement entitled \"Description générale de la Chine ou Tableau de l'État Actuel de cet empire.” Individual copies have circulated independently, but it is commonly considered as Vol. XIII of the series, and its author is justifiably included in a review of those who share in the completed work.\n\nThe present paper, it will be seen, makes no attempt either to evaluate the sources which have been identified, nor the manner in which de Mailla employed them. Its purpose has been simply to correct a popular misconception with regard to the relation between the T'ung-chien kang-mu and de Mailla's Histoire générale.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207795, "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-1976", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "168\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nMeanwhile exploration continued from the south. Between 1866 and 1868 the French under Doudart de Lagrée and Francis Garnier made their famous expedition from Saigon by the Mekong River through Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos to Talifu and Kunming in Yunnan. The Panthay Rebellion was then at its height, and the Chinese authorities refused them permission to proceed further up the Mekong. Garnier, who had succeeded to the leadership after Lagrée's death, had to abandon his plan to explore the sources of the Mekong, and turned east across Yunnan to the Upper Yangtze at Iping. Here boats were obtained to take them on the four weeks journey to Hankow. Garnier saw enough of the Mekong to realise that it could never rival the Irawaddy, let alone the Yangtze, as a trade route to West China, and French interest shifted to the Red River route from Haiphong through Tongking. During an enforced delay on the Siamese border, Garnier made the first thorough survey of the ruins of Angkor, and his expedition is important in that it encouraged French ambitions for an Indo-Chinese Empire.\n\nThere was no clear policy on the part of the various British parties concerned with developing trade with West China, nor over the best way to reach this region of supposed inexhaustible wealth. Lack of accurate information is also a constant theme in the history of British relations with West China. However, penetration and exploitation from the West, that is from India and Burma, attracted greater public and official support in Britain than that from the Yangtze by the China traders, though by 1874, a combination of circumstances led to a co-operative effort being made from both East and West, the aforementioned Dual Mission of 1874-75, which I shall now describe.\n\nThe Panthay Rebellion finally came to an end in May 1873 when the Imperial troops captured Momein, this completing the reconquest of Yunnan after eighteen years of civil war. During the ensuing period of rehabilitation the provincial authorities tried to revive the Burma-Yunnan overland route, and caravans reappeared after nearly twenty years' absence, undeterred by disbanded soldiers and lawless hillmen. By May 1874 the British Political Agent at Bhamo reported that more caravans were passing between Burma and Yunnan than for many years, and that British and Chinese merchants were sending such large consignments of goods", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208928, "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-1980", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "58 \n\nLEWIS M. CHERE \n\nand recognized in later periods? As in so many cases of this sort, closer examination of the events leads to the conclusion that it may have been both. \n\nWhat little evidence is available at this distance points to a popular nationalistic outbreak against the French, encouraged by the activities of the Imperial authorities at Canton. There is also reason to believe that the old anti-foreignism so frequently pointed to among the coastal Chinese also had some role in the affair. Some local Chinese leadership groups, like the Tung Wah, may also have tried to make use of the incident to enhance their own position vis-à-vis the colonial administration. \n\nThe troubles of September and October 1884 were set off by two events in other parts of the China Coast. China and France had been very close to an open break over the suzerainty of Annam and the occupation of Tongking since early in 1883. When the Chinese appeared to have violated a May 1884 agreement between Li Hung-chang and Captain Ernest Fournier of the French Navy, France presented China with a series of ultimatums in June and July demanding compensation for French deaths incurred in the incident. Since the Chinese believed that it was the French who had violated the agreement they naturally were not inclined to sub-mit to the French demands.9 \n\nFrance, determined to enforce what she considered her just demands, issued one last ultimatum in August. When Peking refused to give in, the French Asiatic Squadron under Admiral Courbet, which was anchored at Foochow opposite a Chinese fleet and the shipyard, opened fire on August 22. The Chinese Foochow Fleet was utterly destroyed with much loss of life. The Shipyard was severely damaged, and the forts along the Min River were taken and destroyed as the French went back downstream. \n\nIn the competition among the governors and viceroys of the coastal provinces to demonstrate their patriotism in the furor that followed the Foochow incident, Chang Chih-tung, newly appointed Viceroy of the Two Kwangs; Peng Yü-lin, Imperial Commissioner for the Coastal Defenses of Kwangtung; and Ni Wan-yuh, Governor of Kwangtung, issued a proclamation calling on Chinese in Singapore, Penang and Vietnam (interestingly enough they did not mention Hong Kong) to sink French ships, or sell them tainted provisions. \n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209430, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "# THE STRIKE AND RIOT OF 1884\n\n# A HONG KONG PERSPECTIVE\n\nELIZABETH SINN*\n\nIn the autumn of 1884, Chinese dock workers in Hong Kong staged a strike against French ships. The strike spread, bringing trade to a standstill and creating much animosity. After a few days, a riot broke out in the Central and Western districts. This caused great excitement; the military was called out, the fleet was put on the alert, and the government passed new legislation for preserving the peace. The local press became almost hysterical. It became a diplomatic issue between Peking and London, and questions about it were raised in the House of Commons.\n\nYet, despite the uproar these events created, relatively few historians, including historians of Hong Kong, have paid attention to them. This paper is an attempt to reconstruct this dramatic episode, and to examine its significance.\n\nIn 1884, the war between China and France over Annam dominated the horizon of East and Southeast Asia. The year before, the Chinese had despatched regular troops quietly into Tongking. As negotiations broke off, the Chinese court feared a French attack on China itself, and important officials were sent south to consolidate the front. P'eng Yu-lin,** a president of the Board of War was appointed Commissioner for the Coastal Defence of Kwangtung, and in the following year, 1884, the conspicuously pro-war Chang Chih-tung became Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. Officials and people both of Canton and the surrounding region responded excitedly to every move the French made.\n\nOn 5th August, 1884, French warships bombarded Keelung,\n\n* Miss Sinn is a Ph.D. candidate of the University of Hong Kong, currently working as Resources Officer in the History Department of that University.\n\n** All Chinese names/words will be Romanized according to the Wade-Giles system except where there are other transliterated forms in common usage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209442, "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": 99, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "77\n\nIt is reasonable to believe Chang's claim to the Acting British Consul in Canton that he had no wish for disturbances in Hong Kong, 19\n\nCanton depended on Hong Kong for provisions of arms and ships as well as on loans from banks and contributions from wealthy Chinese there. It is more difficult to believe that he had not desired at least some anti-French activities in Hong Kong. A French invasion of Canton was imminent in the minds of Canton officials, and they believed that non-cooperation of Chinese in Hong Kong could do much to hinder French war efforts.50 It is no surprise that he should appeal to the Chinese in Hong Kong to refuse working for the French.\n\nIn fact, a more pertinent question is why did Hong Kong Chinese of various classes respond to the proclamation? Again, Marsh and the English newspapers were convinced it was fear of retaliation in China, and the Daily Press spoke of agents sent here to make sure that Canton's instructions were followed.51 Perhaps this did apply to parts of the population. But I believe there were other forces at work. One of these was a mixture of strong anti-French and patriotic feelings.\n\nThe war between China and France had been well reported in Hong Kong newspapers, and local Chinese had apparently kept a close eye on its development throughout. In September, 1884 sketches of the siege of Keelung in which the French had been repulsed, were being sold in Hong Kong streets.52\n\nIt was reported by several sources that among local Chinese, there were strong feelings against the French, and the local Chinese newspapers gave vent to similar expressions of public opinion.\n\nIn September 1883, the Hua-tzu jih-pao went so far as to suggest that awards should be offered by the Chinese government for the heads of French officers and soldiers for their evil acts in Tongking and Annam. The Hong Kong newspaper proved more zealous in this respect than the Canton government. The Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, Chang Shu-sheng, became so alarmed at this provocation by the Hong Kong newspaper that he protested to the Acting British Consul in Canton, H. F. Hance. Hance in turn complained to Marsh, who was Acting Governor at that time, and he issued a warning to the paper.54", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210599, "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-1985", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "ANTHONY FARRINGTON\n\n187\n\nA NEW SOURCE FOR CHINESE TRADE TO JAPAN IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY\n\nANTHONY FARRINGTON*\n\nI must confess that the word 'new' in my title is a slight exaggeration; 'neglected' might be more accurate, because the source which forms the basis of this paper has been known from at least the beginning of the twentieth century.1 But my contention is that one of its more interesting features has been overlooked and the general context has been partly misinterpreted.\n\nIndia Office Records: G/12/17 comprises the diary and consultations of the English East India Company's factors in Tongking from 25 June 1672 to 30 November 1697. The volume is a composite one, made up in the nineteenth century from ten separate 'books' representing the sequence of transmissions back to London, and it contains some 500 folios of varying size. Neither a calendar nor a transcript of the text has been published, and I can claim to be one of the few to have read through it.\n\nCromwell's charter of 1657, broadly confirmed by Charles II in 1661, rescued the East India Company from a period of financial confusion and commercial difficulties.2 The 1660s then saw the growth of serious interest in the possibility of reviving trade to Japan. The subject was discussed by the Company's Directors at the end of 1658, a report was compiled for the Deputy-Governor in 1661,3 and in 1664 a plan was put forward. A ship would leave London in September with a cargo of English manufactures, take in pepper and Indian piece goods at Bantam, call at Cambodia for any suitable commodities, sail on to Japan and finally, leaving there in November 1665, return to England via Bantam.4 The plan had to be shelved with the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665, while in any case the Agent at Bantam pointed out that a base in Tongking, not Cambodia, to secure raw and finished silks for the Japanese market, would be\n\n* Mr. Farrington is Curator, India Office Records, London.\n\nI\n\ni", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210600, "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-1985", "page_number": 207, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "188\n\nANTHONY FARRINGTON\n\nan essential preliminary to any such scheme.\"\n\nA reformulated version in 1670 incorporated this suggestion and added Taiwan. Beginning in 1672 three ships a year were to be sent to Japan, one via Tongking and the others via Taiwan. Tongking would supply silk, musk, skins and tutenague for Japan; Taiwan would supply hides and sugar. On the return voyage the three ships would separate: one to Surat, one to Madras, and the third to Taiwan, Tongking and Bantam, to pick up any commodities suitable for Europe.\n\nUnlike the early years before 1623, the East India Company seems to have begun to appreciate that the whole area of South-East and East Asia, from Malaysia to Japan, formed a region-wide commercial unit, criss-crossed by an inter-dependent trade network powered by the monsoons. What the Company was now attempting to do, as the Dutch had already done, was to insert itself into a Chinese dominated system of exchange.\n\nLooking back from the Company's commercial and political strength a century later it is perhaps tempting to see the Japan scheme as a second-best alternative or a prelude to trade with mainland China. However, more than 25 years ago at least one historian argued that the gradual development of trade with China only took place against a background of failure in Japan and difficulties in Tongking, and that it was not until the decade 1674-1684 that interest really shifted from Japan to China. The possibility of direct access to China had agitated Richard Cocks at Hirado in Japan between 1613-1623. But the Company paid little attention to his dreams and the archives covering the new 'East Asian push' of the 1660s and 1670s give China only passing mention. Morse throws Tongking into his confused narrative as a mere extension of China and states that Tongking was the only accessible source for the bulk supply of Chinese silks. The English factory diary, though, makes it quite clear that the silk trade out of the Red River was not a matter of re-export but handled a local product.\n\nIt seems incredible now that the East India Company never considered that they might not be allowed to re-enter Japan", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210601, "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-1985", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "189\n\nafter all, the Dutch had been trading there for sixty years. Following the 1670 plan three ships, the Zant, Experiment and Return were first despatched from London to Bantam. After leaving Bantam the Zant could not get across the bar of the Red River until 25 June 1672, making her turn around too late to sail for Japan. The Experiment and Return reached Taiwan on 16 July 1672 and, after delays in lading cargo, only the Return went on to Japan. The Experiment was captured by the Dutch (the Third Anglo-Dutch War had reached East Asia) on her way south, while after a wait at Nagasaki from 29 June to 28 August 1673 the Return was expelled by the Japanese. The factories established at Tongking and Taiwan immediately lost their whole basis for existence, yet both survived — Taiwan intermittently until 1685 and Tongking for 25 years, until 1697.\n\n8\n\nFor the first few years the Company remained hopeful of overcoming Japanese hostility, blaming the Dutch for what they saw as a temporary setback. But then the Tongking factory, despite all the difficulties of dealing with the local mandarinate,1 emerged as of value in its own right, supplying finished silks for the London market. The first order was placed in 1675; in October 1676 the English contracted for 4630 pieces; and in 1679 they ordered 18,500 pieces plus 40 bales of raw silk. It was only gradually, through the 1680s, that Cantonese wrought silks, satins and damasks proved more popular at the London sales. Apart from a price disadvantage, the Tongking merchants proved unwilling to adapt patterns and textures to suit European tastes, even though specimens were sent out.2 Chinese adaptability and commercial acumen proved irresistible, access to Japan was finally seen to be impossible, and the English withdrew from Tongking in November 1697.\n\nto\n\nSo far this outline of the Tongking venture must be relatively familiar. My novel element lies in the fact that the English factory archive records previously unnoticed details of the trade between Tongking and Japan which had eluded them. The Dutch operated three-cornered voyages between Batavia-Tongking-Nagasaki, bringing in Japanese copper cash2 and armaments and carrying out raw and finished silk, all of which were noted. But more importantly, the factory diary throws some", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210602, "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-1985", "page_number": 209, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "190\n\nANTHONY FARRINGTON\n\nlight on Chinese junk traffic. It fell into two groups. Firstly, voyages between Tongking and Nagasaki by resident Chinese, mainly represented by a ‘Captain Nitthoo'; secondly, voyages by mainland Chinese, originating at Canton and calling at Nagasaki and Batavia.\n\nFor example, on 6 September 1672 Captain Nitthoo departed for Japan with a cargo of 500 peculs of raw silk, “a great quantity of refuge silk” and 43,400 pieces of silk textiles. During his absence the English rented his house at Hien. Back again in March 1673, he left for Japan in July, mainly carrying raw silk, and returned in February 1674. Similarly, in April 1675 the English learnt that a newly arrived Cantonese junk had first taken in a cargo at Batavia, disposed of it at Nagasaki and had now brought into Tongking 16 chests of Japanese silver, 3 million Japanese copper cash and 93 chests of Japanese copper bars.\n\nIt would be tedious to rehearse the pattern all the way through to the 1690s. However, I am sure that a collation of these incidental references would prove a significant addition to our knowledge of Chinese inter-Asiatic wholesaling operations before the period of European dominance. A full transcript of the factory diary, with its endless repetitions of present giving and attendance upon mandarins, would make heavy reading. My intention is, rather, to issue a summary calendar with selected verbatim extracts, which should provide the necessary raw material for economic historians.\n\nNOTES\n\n'Une factorerie Anglaise au Tonkin au XVIIe siècle (1672-1697)', Charles B. Maybon, Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extrême-Orient 10 (Hanoi, 1910) 159-204 gives a summary list of sources for the history of the factory. “Les Anglais au Tonkin (1672-1697)', P. Villars, Revue de Paris Nov/Dec 1903 262-86 gives a brief narrative of life in the factory.\n\n2 The 1630s and 1640s saw attempts to achieve quick profits through a variety of separate ventures (eg, to Persia) organised alongside the longer-term joint stocks. At the same time rival 'interloping' groups (eg, the Courteen Association, formed 1635) became more successful in obtaining royal or Council of State approval for their own trading ventures, culminating in the opening of the eastern trade to private merchants between 1654 and 1657. In the background, of course, were the political upheavals of the Civil War and the Commonwealth.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210603, "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-1985", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "191\n\n3 Written by Quarles Browne, former chief factor in Cambodia, it survives in a 1664 copy in IOR: G/21/4 JJ. 4-8.\n\n*IOR: E/3/86 fl. 184-90 Company to Bantam 29 Feb 1664.\n\n5 IOR: E/3/28 no. 3041 Bantam to Company 31 Dec 1664,\n\n6 \"The trade of the English East India Company in the Far East 1623-84\", D.K. Bassett, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1960 32-47 and 145-57.\n\n7 The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635-1834, Hosea Ballou Morse, 5 vols (Oxford, 1926 & 1929) — I p. 40.\n\n* For an excellent transcript of the documentation see Experiment and Return: documents concerning the Japan Voyage of the English East India Company 1671-3, ed Roger Machin (Kyoto, 1978).\n\n9 Vividly summarised in the diary as \"to be devoured by a company of catterpillers\" — IOR: G/12/17 p. 281.\n\n10 For example, Sep 1677 Tongking ‘peelongs' brought between 29s piece; Oct 1680 Cantonese 'peelongs' coloured 12s 8d 13s 2d, plain 23s 6d. IOR: Court Minutes B/34 and B/36.\n\n37s per 23s\n\nIn May 1677 Bantam forwarded \"two pettecoats made of a sort of silke much worne in England — it's called by the name of gawze.”\n\n12 The Tongking currency consisted of Japanese 'great' cash and locally coined small cash, which passed in the ratio of 6:10. The tael of silver (65 8d sterling) was reckoned at between 1000 and 1400 'great' cash, according to the availability of copper coinage. In September 1672 three Dutch ships from Batavia, bound for Nagasaki, brought in 6 million Japanese cash.\n\n13 'Floss' silk, used for padding winter clothing.\n\n14 Perhaps anticipating modern reactions, the Agent at Bantam wrote in June 1676 \"Wee would have you be larger in your advices though shorter in your letters.\"\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212769, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "63\n\n1881\n\nApril\n\nJune\n\n1882 February March Spring\n\n1882 November 1882/1883\n\n1883 May\n\n1833 Autumn\n\n1883\n\nca 1883/1884\n\nEarly 1884\n\n1884 July\n\nArrived Hami\n\nPassed through Shensi and Kansu to Turkestan he tried to push on through Central Asia to India but was stopped; again, tried to push on to the Russian frontiers via Ili and Tarbagatai but was stopped, visited Hami [HQ Chinese Army]. Residence in Hami where he said he remained until the Treaty of Livadia [2-10-79] was signed and where he learned a number of Turkish words. [Mesny claimed that in 1882 returning from Kashgaria he stayed in Tso Tsung-t’ang's camp. [Tso was recalled from Hami to Peking in late 1880] Departed Hami and retraced his steps leisurely across the Gobi desert to Kansu, on to northern Tibet (visited old fashioned gold diggings) and back to Kan-chou to refit before continuing into Tibet a second time in another direction. He then, travelled through the Kokonor region ending up at Lanchou, February 1881, via Hsi-ning.\n\nDeparted from Northwest China for Peking, via Si-an, Ho-nan Fu, Tai-yuan Fu and Pao-ting Fu.\n\nWhilst in Si-an Mesny visited the Nestorian Cross, later, on his first evening in Taiyuan he lost 640 pages of notes, the journal of his Journey to Hami from Canton\n\nArrived Peking\n\nVisited Tientsin to await the first steamers of the season carrying mails Returned to Tai-yuan in Shansi and Pao-ting Fu, and again visited Si-an.\n\nVisited the famous Shao-lin monastery in the Sung-shan [Mountains] near Ho-nan Fu and invited to settle down for a couple of years with the monks.\n\nDeparted Shansi for Canton; however,\n\nVisited Yunnan province at the invitation of T'ang Chung to assist in the development of natural resources of the province The French authorities in Tongkin insisted that Mesny leave the province Passed through Ch'engtu and Yunnan Fu heading for Canton via Po-se, Nanning Kuangsi [Kuei-hsien, where he spent three to four months whilst the Franco-Chinese war raged in Tongkin), Kueichou and the West River. He travelled much of the way by large house boat. He took careful notes which he offered to the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce but failed to receive any encouragement\n\nArrived Canton, then visited Hong Kong, Macau, Swatow, Amoy and Foochou [Viceroy Chang Chih-tung retained Mesny at Canton for one year and ten months (nfd) He lived in an hotel unable to get an appointment from Chang he eventually withdrew. Mesny met Kung Chao-yuan, the Commissary General at Shanghai for Formosa, at the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai\n\nVisited tomb of Su Hsiao-hsiao near Hangchou. (a celebrated courtesan of the 11th century AD)\n\nDeparted Canton via Hong Kong for Foochou and Shanghai [elsewhere he noted that he had been recommended for the post of Foreign Superintendent of the Arsenal at Foochou during his visit there in 1883)\n\nIn Wu-chang and Han-yang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212795, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "89\n\nChang was the first scholar in the land. Sir Everard Fraser, the Consul-General in Hankow for ten years [1901-1911], was an excellent scholar. He once told Green that he had taken a despatch in Chinese to Viceroy Chang, of Wuchang, who had become a friend of his when he was in Hankow, for his opinion on it. The Viceroy read a few lines, and then taking up his brush-pen began to edit. ‘And then,' said Sir Everard, ‘I had the finest lesson in Chinese that I ever got.' Chang was that rara avis, the official who scorned to enrich himself.\n\nChiang Chao-ling #*# @ Chiang Pa-hsia (1846-1891)\n\nA native of Szechuan, Chiang met Mesny when he, Chiang, was travelling to Yunnan to take up an appointment as County Magistrate of Hsi-o Hsien. He and Mesny were thrown out of the province at the behest of the French in Tongkin. They met again in Canton and Shanghai where Chiang's pursuit of reform was not appreciated by other officials. He died in Peking. Mesny and Chiang were to have started a monthly magazine in Shanghai in 1887 to be called the Yueh Pao ♬ which was to have been the organ of the reform party. Chiang was to have been the chief editor and Mesny the registered owner and business manager. Mesny intended to use his nom-de-plume of Meng-hua # but in the event the magazine appears not to have been published.\n\nCooper T.T.\n\nVisited Hankow and asked Mesny to accompany him on a trek to India. Mesny refused as the fees offered were too low. He later expressed regret at having refused as he 'had missed an opportunity to travel.'\n\nDamström\n\nCaptain Damström was referred to by Mesny three times during his times in Hankow in the mid 1860s. Once as a gunnery officer on one of the first steam boats ever owned by the Chinese, at Ningpo, and later as Captain of the S.S. Pao-hua [nfd]. Mesny took him along together with a Captain Dix to offer their services to General Tso of the Imperial Force in the Northwest of China. Tso offered all three of them positions as instructors but we never hear the outcome as far as Damström and Dix were concerned.\n\nThe second occasion was when Damström went off with the other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 } ]