[ { "id": 212020, "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-1989", "page_number": 435, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "410\n\nenhances our understanding of Chinese rural society. The Chapter on 'Landlords and Tenants' provides a fresh look at the complex social structure and pattern of power distribution in the villages. The Chapters on 'Inflation' and 'Rural Marketing' contain useful information and provide food for thought. One issue that is central to the study of peasant livelihood in South China is that of overseas remittances. This is mentioned in passing and should be given more attention. The important question is: what purposes did overseas remittances serve and did they increase the peasants' ability to maximize opportunities in trade? On the question of rural indebtedness, Faure refers to a 1930 study conducted by the Shanghai Social Affairs Bureau which revealed that ‘although a substantial proportion of the poor, in this case, the tenants, were in debt, they owed considerably less than the better-off, the owner-cultivators and half-owners', (p. 146). This is not surprising because the poor lacked collaterals and were therefore unable to contract substantial loans. I find it difficult to accept Faure's bold conclusion that ‘the extension of credit was a sign not of impoverishment but of growing opportunities', (p. 148). This statement is definitely too absolute and not sufficiently substantiated.\n\nOn the whole, it is obvious that a lot of research effort has been put into this work. While one should give Faure the credit for amassing a wealth of evidence in support of his case, it does not necessarily follow that one needs to subscribe to his views in an unreserved manner. As mentioned, the 'optimists' will welcome this piece of work for the fresh evidence it presents. The inadequacy of some of the arguments, on the other hand, will provide the 'pessimists' with a chance to fire back and reinforce their stand. All in all, this book will certainly serve to elevate the unending debate on China's rural economy to a higher level of intensity and refinement.\n\nALFRED H.Y. LIN\n\nNOTES\n\nE.H. Carr, What is History? (Pelican Books, Great Britain: Cox & Wyman Ltd., 1964), P. 23.\n\n2 Chen Qihui, Guangdong tudi liyong yu liangshi zhanxiao (Land Use and the Production and Distribution of Food in Guangdong) in Xiao Zheng, Mingguo ershi niandai Zhongguo dalu tudi wenti zilliao (Source Materials on Land Problems in Mainland China in the 1930s) (Taibei, 1977), Vol. 50, pp. 25705-10, 25715-17. Guangdong jingji nianjian bianzhuan weiyuanhui, Guangdong jingji nianjian [Guangdong Economic Yearbook for 1940] (Guangzhou, 1941), 1:(K)42-49.\n\nPage 435\n\nPage 436", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216033, "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": 332, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "266\n\nand on as far as the coast of Africa bringing back treasures which included the first giraffe. These expeditions would have sailed past Zhenjiang and must have been a sight to behold.\n\nToday Zhenjiang is twinned with Tempe, near Phoenix in Arizona. Presumably there is a common factor linking these two places but whatever it might be has escaped me.\n\nHostile incursions up the Yangzi\n\nDown the centuries many raids by Japanese pirates on the eastern Chinese seaboard, some large scale but mostly small, led to the permanent awareness and terror amongst the Chinese along the coastline. The Yangzi estuary was not spared and on a number of occasions they even penetrated up River as far as Zhenjiang. Having been beaten off during the 12th century they reappeared in force during the early 13th century, and in 1419 they were beaten decisively and piracy stopped for a while. The Japanese were again defeated in 1542 by Yu Dayu, however, they reappeared in force in the Yangzi in 1550 capturing Zhenjiang before going on to threaten Nanjing. For three months they plundered the Zhenjiang area before retiring with their booty. For many a year the hills around the city each had beacons ready to fire to warn of impending Japanese attacks. - and by the end of the 14th century their depredations were recurring annually.\n\nA major incursion up the Yangzi was made in 1629 by a naval force despatched by Zheng Zhilong, the father of Zheng Chenggong, better known to foreigners as Koxinga and Taiwan's most famous hero. Koxinga was a child of destiny, a seagoing warlord who opposed and fought the newly-established Manchu Qing dynasty on the mainland from his base in Taiwan. He finally established a new mini-dynasty which ruled Taiwan for some twenty or so years. His father, Zheng Zhilong [1604-1661], had been a notorious Xiamen [Amoy] Chinese pirate chief who had made a fortune through his trading and piracy, raiding the shipping and settlements of south China with his fleet of pirate raiders and trading junks. The Ming authorities, to tame him, allowed themselves to accept his offer of service and were forced into making him an admiral and a marquis in charge of the suppression of piracy - and thus drew his teeth.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216079, "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": 378, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "312\n\n* Li Zee-min (1950) Chinese Potpourri. Hong Kong: Oriental Publishers [He relates a local Hong Kong legend about the arrival of the young emperor escorted by Lu in what is now Kowloon, fleeing ahead of the Mongols. Li claims that the headman of the Hakka walled village of Kowloon was Tan Gong who died during the last battle with the Mongol fleet when Lu, with the emperor in his arms, jumped overboard to their deaths].\n\nCouling, Samuel (1917) Encyclopaedia Sinica. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh\n\n11 Yu Dayu is recorded as being a native of Fujian who died in 1573 having made his name as the victor in the struggle to defeat the Japanese pirates along the coast of China and in particular that of Zhejiang.\n\n12 Yang Xiuqing as one of the leading lights of the Taiping Rebellion, to whose military genius much of the early success of the movement was due. He was known as the Taiping Eastern King [Prince], and professed to be the spokesman of God. After the capture of Nanjing by the Taipings he established his palace in the yamen of the former Viceroy and lived in great state. By 1856 he had begun a campaign of political and religious intrigue to usurp the position of leader and to overthrow Hong Xiuquan, the founder. His plans were uncovered and he, his family and thousands of his supporters were slain by Wei Changhui, the Taiping Northern King.\n\n13 extracted from the Transcription of the letters written from China to Milcote, Stratford on Avon by Thomas Adkins between 1855 and 1879 by courtesy of Theo Christophers of Dorridge, West Midlands : November 1999\n\n14 Hymes, Robert P. (1986) Statesmen and Gentlemen: The Elite of Fu-chou, Kiangsi, in Northern and Southern Sung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press\n\n15 Although the name was known much earlier Mao Shan has always been the centre of a Daoist sect. [see Kita Aziya gakuho, a Japanese Journal, Vol. 2]\n\n16 Doré, Henri S.J. (1914) Recherches sur les Superstitions en China. Shanghai [Zikawei] : La Mission Catholique : Vol. XI\n\n17 Werner, E.T.C (1932) A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]